Category Archives: Uncategorized

The VP debate is done and my initial prediction (cue the scene from your childhood playground where you witness an older sibling grabbing a younger sibling’s hands and makes them hit themselves in the face, all the while taunting “Stop smacking yourself!”) doesn’t seem to have come to pass. Palin seems to have held her own and showed up as prepared as can be (cue a very Matrix-like scene where Palin gets strapped to a chair, a socket injected into her skull, and all Vice-Presidential knowledge is uploaded directly to her brain).

As for the “nucular” pronunciation, I’ma side with Tony Brown on this one and just call that a pass.

Bringin’ it back to poetics for a sec, looking back at Palin’s conversation with Charles Gibson and asking “Woman, what were you thinkin’?!” I will offer the possibility that Palin was filtering her response with the aesthetics of flarf and her answer was an exploration of “the inappropriate” in all of its guises and that she tried to mine the Internet with odd search terms then distill the results into often hilarious and sometimes disturbing (inter)nationally syndicated public displays of political k(no)w-how. As an example, here is a retextualized Palin response.

A Matter of Doctrine

I know that John McCain
will do that and
                    I
, as his vice president,
families              we are blessed
with that vote
of the American       people
and are                 elected
          to serve
and are sworn      in
on January 20
, that will be
                    our top priority
is to defend
the (American) people.

Then again, she could just be a bad grammarian who has no idea what sentence structure is, at least according to this hysterical word nerd breakdown from Slate: The sentences of Sarah Palin, diagrammed.

Department of Ethnic Studies & University Press Books invite you to join Craig Santos Perez in a reading from his new book of poetry: from Unincorporated Territory

TUESDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2008, 5:30 – 7:00 PM

In the preface to his first book, a lyrical epic on the violent convergences of colonialisms on Guam (Japanese and American), history, family, and language (Chamorro and English), Perez writes: “On some maps, Guam doesn’t exist; I point to an empty space in the Pacific and say, ‘I’m from here.’ On some maps, Guam is a small, unnamed island; I say, ‘I’m from this unnamed place.’ On some maps, Guam is named ‘Guam, U.S.A.’ I say, ‘I’m from a territory of the United States.” On some maps, Guam is named, simply, ‘Guam’; I say, ‘I am from Guam.’” Written in the spirit of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée and Barbara Jane Reyes’s Poeta en San Francisco, Perez’s book promises to add significantly to a growing canon of Pacific poetries.

Craig Santos Perez, a native Chamoru from the Pacific Island of Guahan (Guam), has lived in California since 1995. He received his MFA in Poetry from the University of San Francisco and is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. He is co-founder of Achiote Press and author of several chapbooks.

UNIVERSITY PRESS BOOKS
2430 BANCROFT WAY (between Telegraph & Dana), BERKELEY
www.universitypressbooks.com

I’m normally not one to celebrate these made up “months” or “weeks” but this one sounds pretty good and in response I will finally (after five years of informal poetry study) read all of Leaves of Grass. Which I’ve been planning to do for a while but if I make it public here, then I may actually go through with it.

On the recommendation tip, I would suggest that folks pick up and read themselves some Always Running by Luis J Rodriguez.

On the local tip, the African American Museum and Library of Oakland has an exhibit on banned books going on which sounds like good fun and a chance to support a local institution.

Shout out to Author Scoop for the heads up on the Oakland event!

I have seen a ray of light in the election and it is the proposed bailout which is just the logical end to eight years of oversea wars and that translates into eight years of building infrastructure and jobs out of country. Case in point: Whenever I hear that there is a “US security firm” somewhere, I am always wondering out loud, ” You know where there should be a US Security Firm? How about West Oakland, or the Mission, of Bedstuy, maybe Hunt’s Point?” But that’s just me, wondering out loud in the street without a bluetooth headset.

Meanwhile, back in the economy, I am thinking that if Bush is pushing hella hard for this bailout, it can only be a good thing for the ultra-rich club. If that’s the case, then maybe the ultra-rich–and by extension, the Republican Party–is feeling they may actually lose the election and are planning one last daylight holdup of the Federal Reserve. But that’s just me, pontificating on my blog.

To try to bring it back to poetry, please check out Representative Marcy Kaptur’s well delivered slam poem complete with group piece possibilities with the House Speaker adding an intro and outro. While Kaptur’s over use of hand movement is a little disruptive, it does add to the chaos factor of the current fiscal crisis. Her voice is a little high pitch but her breath is under control. Good diction. Nice lists. Speaks for the “American People.” Rehashes yesterday’s paper. Creative and lofty solutions. And a damn fine closing line. On a normal day I might give it a slam score of 7.5, but I’m feeling generous and would probably go with an 8.7.

It’s great to see my good friend, Jai Charkabarti, get some great press as he is set to be a featured poet for this year’s Jackson Heights Poetry Festival. The rest of the lineup for the festival looks awesome as well. Good to see the outer boroughs getting amazing poetry events. (Check out the lineup and great pics from the recent Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival to see what I mean.)

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Other poems by Jai Chakrabarti:
• Great Uncle at louderARTS
• Squeamish at Spindle
• Night of Two Goddesses at Wednesday Night Poetry Series