effing blog

CPF

Dig the pics and commentary of Gabe Gudding from the Carrboro Poetry Festival which happened last weekend in North Carolina.  Looks like it was a lot of fun.  I hope to be there next year.

speaking of chapbooks...

Mr. John Latta at the ever interesting Hotel Point reviews the hard consonants and bluring insect sounds of Joe Massey's Eureka Slough.

let me "hand sell" you an argument

Catherine Daly's attitude toward chapbooks doesn't waver and it's not just that she doesn't like the format, it is clear now that she doesn't trust the publisher of the chapbook.  Uh, why?  Shouldn't that be on a case by case basis? 

Let's take it to other realms of art and life:

Maybe painting should only be done at a certain canvas size and maybe painters should not sell their own paintings, rather that can only be done legitimately by an agent and/or curator.

Maybe music recording should only be arranged by large corporate labels.  And there again, musicians should not be allowed to control the sale of their cd's.   That should only be done by authorized corporate account managers.  And the printing of the sleeves should be done four color by large printing firms in Canada.

Maybe poetry should only be written and published by those with phD's.

Maybe clothes should only be made in large factories.

Food prepared and packaged in bulk and bought at chain grocery stores.

?

What little chapbook publisher in the past hurt your feelings Catherine? 

What in fact makes a chapbook "easier" to write than a bookbook?  What IS a book I want to know and what IS poetry and why would it not count or be just as credible/wonderful/awful in a chapbook as a bookBOOK produced by a commercial printer and paid for by a publisher?

Here's the validation:  it doesn't count unless someone else takes a financial risk.  That's the only difference.  Money.  It is credible if it is packaged professionally by a press that has street cred.  Or not street cred, but shelf cred.  It is not earned or respected if it is self-published or published by a micropress. 

It's back asswards, no? 

chapbooks ARE books

Catherine Daly, regarding chapbooks (and in aside of sorts responding to Gary Sullivan's latest musings on chapbooks and distribution) wrote on her blog last week, amongst other things, "...publish them [chapbooks] to give them away, sell them at readings. Don't claim they're books -- they're NOT -- and don't expect to sell them at bookshops, except zine stores & specialty places, don't expect them to be assigned to classes, etc. -- i.e. to be treated as long, serious works of art, because they're not, because bookshops don't stock them, and people buy them mostly at readings, etc.

A chapbook is mostly a vanity or learning excerise, like producing most printed ephemera. The large exception is fine letterpress, but note that no one is buying this stuff at your average bookstore, either."

that just rubs me absolutely wrong.  I don;t know Catherine Daly but I've heard this sentiment and this argument that chapbooks are not books before.  It's defeatist and snobbish and ignores a rich and important history (and present culture) of literature and packaging of literature.  I left a comment of course.  I hope others do too.  I don't know why I let it bother me but hers is a typical attitude and I just don't buy it.  Not one bit.  I of course invite anyone to give me some real evidence that chapbooks are not books.  Evidence that relies on something other than the mere fact that average bookstores don't stock them.

If bookstores don't want to sell chapbooks, fuck em.  If people cannot track down what they want to read without the help of a warehouse in California, well fuck em.  Fuck em if they prefer a spine with a title printed on it.  And fuck em if they think a chapbook is a little token of sentimentality, good for a pat on the head, but not for a serious read.

Do this one time:

A perfect bound book is a stack of paper with a cover glued to one edge.

A chapbook is a stack of paper folded with a cover and bound at the fold with thread or stitch.

Both contain words written by people.  The use and arrangement of these words can be considered art.  If poetry of course is art.  And it is. 

The perfect bound book is printed and usually bound by a machine.

The chapbook is printed and usually bound by hand.

The perfect bound book can be as many as thousands of pages.

The chapbook can be as many as thousands of pages as well though it is often under 60.

Poetry can happen at any number of pages you can imagine.

What is the difference between the formats?  Only a few minor things.  Why do we not see more chapbooks around?  I do not know and I don't care.  If you like to read and you like printed books and you like poetry - then you'll take it how it comes to you.  And if it comes to you handbound on a few precious leaves of paper, you'd cherish it even more?  Of course.  Because you like poetry and you like to read and you are constantly reminded that some people care about the words as much as you do...

Well that's the idea anyway.

NOTES NO ANSWER by Dale Smith

Do check out this beautiful new chapbook produced by David Hadbawnik's Habenicht Press in San Francisco.   

Published 2005 by Habenicht Press, $8
Letter-press cover, saddle-stitched
49pp
ISBN 0-9729213-3-8

You can find ordering info at the Habenicht Press website.

--

Very happy that David H will be moving to the Austin area this summer, bringing with him his kick ass press and love for books and poetry. 

futbol update: RSL 0 / CC 2

"But the Crew held firm over the last minutes, as Busch was rarely threatened. His only tense moment came deep into stoppage time when Pierce hit a powerful rising drive on the run from the right that beat Busch, but skimmed off the top of the crossbar."

"It remains to be seen if steely, dry examples of poetry will have any dynamic capacity"

At the latest installment of Sonaweb, Brenda Iijima talks about her Portable Press at Yo Yo Labs.  Fascinating.

I love the chapbooks Brenda makes.  They are well designed and the poetry is almost always a bit different and strange in the ways that I like.  Definitely exciting stuff.  I reccomend Tim Peterson's Cumulus, Allison Cobb's Cell, and Bob Harrison's Mola.  I still haven't gotten my hands on the perfect bound Jonas Mekas Daybooks, but I plan on it.  If the book's anything like his films I'll be in heaven.  I suspect it is.

A link to ordering info is at the bottom of the article...

from the terrible mind of Justin Ulmer

self-portraits by Justin Ulmer.  I'm interested in a poetry that correlates with such images.  What that would taste like.

futbol update

(G.N. Lowrance/WireImage.com)

Real Salt Lake earned their second win of the season this weekend vs. LA Galaxy.  A real feat considering how strong LA is this year and just how many shots on goal they had.  Kudos to RSL goal keeper Jay Nolly whose first career start was just about as good as it gets.

horse less review #2

here