When Iris Sleeps Over


1. Saw a dragonfly this morning. I was pleased to have this encounter as I'd suspected them extinct for some time now. I'm also convinced that the pacific tree frog I so loved in my youth is extinct. And the wooly bear caterpillar. Also, any single, sane women who have romantic interest potential. All extinct.

2. I have, since approx. 1 month ago, lost four pounds. Makes me want to celebrate with a stick of butter or two. Fresh creamery butter. Mmm..

3. Good news in Canary land: Josh Edwards, our founder, is a finalist for the Verse prize. Good goin' Josh. Stay away from painter-ladies.

4. "Iris" by the Breeders is a great song. So is the Stones' "Paint it Black." Led Zeppelin still sucks, Michael Schiavo!

5. I read Ezra Pound sometimes. Jimmy Behrle doesn't. Tony Tost does. I like the early, pre-imagist poems, the Cathay stuff, and ABC of Reading and How to Read. Not much into post-Mauberly stuff (i.e. Cantos). Pound's ideas about *poetry* (not politics) mean much more to me than most of his poetry. And they're still relevant, especially for the new writer. Go in fear of abstraction. (At first, then abstract the hell out of everything later, a la Wally Stevens.) If your name is John Ashbery, you may begin abstracting immediately. No, but seriously, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Read him or don't. But quit filling up Tost's comment boxes.

6. Am I the only person in my demographic who doesn't think Jeff Tweedy is the greatest thing since sliced bologna? Wilco is a good band, not a great one. I still can't listen to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot all the way through. Some great songs, but not a great album. Same goes for everything they've ever recorded, though if forced to pick one as a "best," I'd take Summerteeth any day. Uncle Tupelo, on the other hand, recorded a handful of really really good albums (I didn't say great) that hold up to repeated listenings. And Jay Farrar put out two really stellar Son Volt records. His post-Tupelo-post-Volt solo stuff is uneven, about like Tweedy's Wilco work. Outkast is better than Wilco, too.

7. Reb says I look like Amy Gerstler. I think I look like Paul Muldoon.

8. Some of this stuff is lies. I lie sometimes. I make stuff up. That's what I do. The stuff about Tweedy isn't lies though. And I really did lose four pounds.

9. I'm looking forward to the Aubergine anthology being prepared by Mssr. Corey.

10. I'd like to see Swayze and Scott Baio in a buddy film. That would be keen.