Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Ready? GO!

I'm all packed and I've got the arrangements for my panel, my hotel, and my flight. I'll be getting into the city at around 5:00PM. Hopefully I won't have any troubles getting to the Hilton from JFK, but . . . 5:00PM in NYC is really busy. I want to see the Cave Canem Fellows read on Wednesday, but that might not be possible. At any rate, I feel like I'll be running around as soon as I land on the tarmac.

Since I'll be away, keep the blog tidy for me, k? I'll bring back pictures if you're good.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Oliver's CRAZY AWP Schedule

Wednesday, 1/30

Arrival JFK: 4:57PM

7:00PM--CC reading? I know dinner with Joseph Legaspi, Sarah Gambito, et al. for sure

Thursday, 1/31

10:30-11:45AM: Panel Presentation--Celebration Song, Circle Song: Kundiman Looks Back at its First Five Years. Conference Room K. Sheraton, Lower Level, Executive Conference Center. New York, NY.

2:00PM: Meeting with Tax Accountant (yes, I have a NY Tax Accountant who is AWESOME).

6:00PM-8:00PM: National Literary Organizations of NYC Welcome Reception

Friday, 2/1

2:30-3:30PM: Kundiman Table #220

6:00-9:00PM: Celebrating New Asian American Poetry. New York University. The Great Room, Room 101. 19 University Place. New York, NY.


Saturday, 2/2

8:00AM: Kundiman Staff/Board Meeting

3:00-4:15PM: Panel Presentation--Broadening the Circle: How Cave Canem and Kundiman Became Family. Conference Room D. Sheraton, Lower Level, Executive Conference Center. New York, NY.

6:00-8:00PM: Creative Writing Programs of the Pacific Northwest and the Rocky Mountain West Cocktail Party


Sunday, 2/3


3:00PM: Depart from JFK to Seattle

10:47PM: Arrival


*****

If you want to see me, how about breakfast? :D

*****

What should I buy? My budget's limited this year . . .

Monday, January 21, 2008

Things I'm doing. Things to do.

This past Saturday, I served BBQ. I'm using the term correctly.

Meredith corrects me when I use BBQ in other circumstances. BBQ is very specific to her. To me, I use the word to refer to grilling or a type of sauce used to cover grilled meats. To her, it's pulled pork.

So anyway, we had a Southern-style New Year's meal, complete with black-eyed peas, collards, cornbread, BBQ, and mac n' cheese. So good . . . and so bad for you. I swear, I was using meat in everything.

Time for my colonic.


***

Running into the issue of conducting a workshop for a collaborative piece. How do you do it?

For one thing, the level of investment in a collaborative poem might not be as high as the investment a writer has in a solo piece. There's also the whole juggling of egos that's magnified when there's collaboration (See Project Runway whenever there's a group project). My temporary solution is to conduct workshops solely with the collaborators. So, in a class with four groups, you meet with each group individually instead of the whole class.

Is that solution working? We'll see. Our first meeting will be on Wednesday.

***

Bored with my gym music so I bought a bunch of hip-hop albums. (Yes, E. When I ran into you and C. at Everyday Music, I was going to put some albums back, but I wound up buying 'em all). .

Spoils include the following:

Kid Koala--your mom's favorite dj
Lifesavas--Gutterfly
RZA--Afro Samurai: The Soundtrack
Lupe Fiasco--The Cool
Common--Finding Forever
Pete Rock--Hip Hop Underground Soul Classics

My gym selections are very different from my normal musical tastes. For example, during the same album shopping spree, I had the new Low album, Drums and Guns. I also eyed the new Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album. I'm also awaiting the new album from Cat Power.

Here's the thing, though . . . you don't want to be running on a treadmill or bench pressing while Low shuffles into your iPod. It happened to me once, and I almost dumped 170 lbs on my chest.

Anyway, I'm loving RZA and Kid Koala right now. RZA's remade himself from a seminal member of the Wu-Tang Clan to a damn good soundtrack editor. See his Ghostdog soundtrack. You'll understand. And Kid Koala's not exactly the type of stuff to get your heart rate up, but it's an interesting listen. Tight samples of dialogue with music and beats here and there to form a narrative.

I've yet to give the other albums a close listen, but I will when I go to the gym today.

***

Got a couple of poem acceptances and some journal solicitations. Very good season so far. I just need to keep working which is tough when you're me. Writing has not been on my brain lately. But if you want to talk about painting and scraping popcorn ceilings, I'm your man.

***

Baby shower . . . egad.

My well-intentioned mother sent out the invitations in her illegible script. So babiesrus.com looks like babiezon.com There's also the problem of Meredith's name. While she can and has gone by my last name, she doesn't professionally and that's cause for some concern, since the invitations were sent using my last name and I'm not sure many of her relatives actually know what my last name is.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

So here's the deal . . . (or why Oliver's so busy).

I've been remodeling a lot of rooms in our house, which should've been your first clue.

One particular room, which I haven't photographed yet, has aqua furniture, a rocking horse, and lots and lots of children's books with a changing table in the closet.

Yes, Oliver's going to be a dad some time in March. Meredith bought a whole bunch of diapers a few weeks ago which intensified my worry. It's all good, though. I'm excited.

I haven't been posting much about it because it's a personal thing for me. I suppose I've been coming to terms with the idea of fatherhood and I haven't had anything profound to say. In the presence of profound moments, there's really nothing else that I can say that'll magnify the moment's profundity. Our lives are going to change. Change is good.

I also haven't been writing, which is okay. But I've been thinking about writing and the way I've been thinking about it has changed quite drastically. I'm not able to articulate that quality of my thinking just yet, but I can feel it.

We're taking a class and we're bored out of our minds. I suppose that's because both of us have a parent who's a physician. I'm pretty pragmatic. Meredith's got a whole bunch of books. We pretty much know the material presented to us in class already, so it makes for an excruciating two hours.

Things are humming in our house. Preparations are being made, etc.. So that's why I've been sporadic with my blog postings.

Enough about me, though. How are you?

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Congratulations, Neil!

Neil Aitken, editor of Boxcar Poetry Review, has just won CSU's Philip Levine Book Prize. Go congratulate him!.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. So happy for you, Neil.

Friday, January 04, 2008

More Stuff

Like this poem of mine on VQR Online. Beautiful beautiful journal.

Also . . . weird to have this sudden explosion of poems on the web.

***

I'm almost over the cold. Pho is the most delightful stuff for colds.

***

School starts next week. I've been working on syllabi. Two fun classes: 1) Forms of Verse, 2) Collaborative Poetry.

I'm still finalizing which forms to use. The usual suspects like sonnets, villanelles, and sestinas will be there, but I want a few surprises.

For the Collaborative Poetry class, I'll be using Saints of Hysteria. Should be quite fun. Lord knows how I'll run a workshop, though.

***

I want to see Juno.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

O on PD

Here I am!

***

Hope you're all having a pleasant new year thus far. Me? I'm fighting a cold before I have to go back to the office. Lousy lousy colds . . .