If only I had a place with a creek in it
a place to cool my toes
a place to wash
a place to watch the flow
If only I had a set of rocks to hop on
Not the hard rocks
rocks washed soft
nature-made not placed there
instruments for the path of least resistance
not obstacles
If only I could drink there
and merely be
thirsty then quenched
all in one moment
If only I had a place that rolls
down from the mountain
and on toward the river
and doesn’t fall
but it takes thirty minutes to park there
the banks are paved over
and every person side-walks
I’m alone in my bare feet
used to be, there was nothing better to do
and now, well why would you
its dirty
and squish of sewage between the toes
sewage, unknown how old
used to be, it glittered like glass
and now it is glass
I only wish I had a place to rest my feet
Archive for August, 2006
A Place with a Creek
The Most Dangerous Woman Alive
Last weekend, during a trip to Washington DC, I thrilled to the sight of a sideshow attraction: Charon Henning, The Most Dangerous Woman Alive. She’s able to walk on glass, barely flinching, before stair-stepping on a ladder of swords. Her partner, Professor Otto Knowbetter, chews razorblades live before your very eyes. And the best part, the second act: sword swallowing!
There’s a small bar in DC called The Palace of Wonders. The local press, including The Washington Post not once but twice, and Baltimore’s Atomic Books have recommended the place, and now, so have I, for what its worth — but get there early to snag one of the choice seats beside the stage or in the balcony. I went to the show with an ulterior motive, of course. I’m writing about this sort of thing. I wanted to see some real sideshow barking, which is what I came for, but I stayed for the heckling, and a good time was had indeed.
Punk Planet: The Revenge of Print 2
The new issue of Punk Planet magazine is out now, reminding me that, yeah, I guess I did subscribe to their email newsletter, once. I’m glad I did that, because I was interested in the new issue, which promises to deliver some juicy details about the current state of “underground” print. Good old fashioned zines and stuff. And here’s the pitch…
FOR ANYBODY WHO’S EVER SAID “PRINT IS DEAD”. . .
Punk Planet #75 celebrates print media in all its forms with a follow-up to our first, best-selling Revenge of Print issue PP60. The legendary HARVEY PEKAR talks 30 years in comics and shares his original storyboards, CINDY OVENRACK—creator of the beloved Doris zine—discusses independent publishing, and up-and-comer TOM K. contributes an original comics feature. There are interviews with cutting-edge writers MICHELLE TEA and T COOPER, a conversation with Weird War’s IAN SVENONIUS about moving from music to writing, and fascinating peeks into the invaluable PRELINGER ARCHIVES, the world of TRANSGENDER ZINES, and the last decade of BITCH MAGAZINE. We’re also proud to announce exciting new columns by JOHNNY TEMPLE (Girls v. Boys, Akashic Books) and JOSH HOOTEN (Herbivore magazine). Plus, way more!
The Gold Teeth of Death
Last night I played the game of Exquisite Corpse with a friend. These are the results.
ITS NOT ADMIRE IT, ADORE
RHYTHM
Does not expire
and though it does keep to itself
it will always be unseen
AS THE UNSEEN 14 POINTS OF
THE CROSS
-eyed-crook-legged-bowled-over
by the force of experience,
and what a force!
HICK-UP STICK-UP BLASTIN SODA
BEATS OFF THE BUBBLY SUICIDE
and the final
sound
was water.
USA Voice Plagiarizes CNN!
USA Voice, a fledgling online news service, copied its front page news from CNN.com today.
See for yourself. Here is the lede and a few paragraphs from CNN’s recent article entitled, Three face terror charges after 1,000 cell phones seized
(CNN) — Three men authorities said were found with about 1,000 untraceable cell phones were arraigned Saturday on terror-related charges, and were believed to have been targeting a
Michigan bridge, a prosecutor said.“The targeted issue in this case was the
Mackinac Bridge . That is what we have information on,”Tuscola County prosecutor Mark Reene said.The bridge is 5 miles long and connects
Michigan ‘s upper and lower peninsulas.Police in
Caro ,Michigan , said the men were arrested early Friday and were being held on charges of “providing material support for terrorism and obtaining information of a vulnerable target for the purposes of terrorism.”
And here is identical text from the USA Voice cover story entitled, “Terror Attack Thwartedâ€
Three men authorities said were found with about 1,000 untraceable cell phones were arraigned Saturday on terror-related charges, and were believed to have been targeting a
Michigan bridge, a prosecutor said.“The targeted issue in this case was the
Mackinac Bridge . That is what we have information on,” Tuscola County prosecutor Mark Reene said.The bridge is 5 miles long and connects Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas.Police in Caro, Michigan, said the men were arrested early Friday and were being held on charges of “providing material support for terrorism and obtaining information of a vulnerable target for the purposes of terrorism.”
The only differences between these passages are the location of paragraph breaks.
This is not the first time USA Voice has run afoul of its journalistic integrity. The Saint Petersburg Times recently reported suspicions that USA Voice is engaged in identy fraud activity, mentioning that all 1200 job ads for USA Voice have been removed from Yahoo’s job postings lists. I was also able to determine that At least one report has been filed against USA Voice with The Federal Trade Commission about these allegations.
An Interview with USAVoice
update:
A job with USA Voice would not be unlike a telemarketing job. It wouldn’t be much like a journalism job, either. I’ve completed the application process for this apparently fraudulant publication (all the way up to, but not including, the contract, which I never signed).
The “interview” was a teleconference, and the “teleconference” was more like a powerpoint lecture. Feedback on the line was so awful that the question and answer portion of the teleconference was promptly cut short. I was able to ascertain quite a lot about the company and the job, so I thought I would share that knowledge for the benefit of anyone else considering this.
More information is also collected in a mediabistro conversation entitled Who is usavoice.org?
Here’s how you get paid if you work for USAVoice
You get a share of some google ad revenue if you write for them. That’s the deal.
Reporters at USAVoice will receive 40% of income generated by advertising on USAVoice. Each reporter will earn a percentage of that revenue equivalent to the percentage of total “page views†generated by his/her stories appearing on USAVoice.
They take the total # of page hits, and the total $ of revenue for a pay period, and calculate the value of one page hit. 40% of that is divided among the reportes, who are paid for each page hit generated by any of their articles. (Obviously, this means that page hits including ad hits are more valuable, whereas page hits without ad hits lessen the value of the revenue. How often do you follow internet ad links?)
You’re not paid by the hour, or paid by the word, or compensated for any of your expenses, or your time, and your “press pass” is understandably worthless — so what’s the incentive?! I suppose I could just get a google ad account and put ads on my blog. That way, at least, I’d get the entire profits.
Here’s the work you would do for USAVoice
To help generate readership, you’re required to, in their words “Create Mailing List of people you know to build traffic to your stories” essentially spamming your friends. (Kinda makes you wonder what else is going on with that mailing list…. )
The other way you’re employed to generate readership, and thus the chances of revenue, is to post your “articles” or links to them on any/all of a huge list of forums that the company has collected. (So, you spam the forums basically.)
If anyone out there reading this is involved in this application process, and would like to ask questions, the address is questions@usavoice.org
Gun
“Hey baby,” she said, “put your gun away. I’m so sick and tired of “sick and tired”. I’m so frustrated with your questions. When you say “family” I guess you mean us. But, if family, then there’d be no war between us. And what peace, if you keep aiming that thing at me?”
“Hey baby, put your gun away.”
She feels cheated. Her breath and his, the only sound.
“Hey baby, go put that gun away, in a box, underground… Like money under the mattress: there if you need it, but too hard to get.
Just like him.
Published: Impressions Magazine
The Moleskine problem
John, at Joshuaink has a problem with his crisp, new Moleskine notebook. It is too nice to mark on! I’ve experreienced a similar problem with mine. I think the best way to get over it is to do something awful on the last page, and get it over with. That way, everything else will feel “worthy” of such a nice notebook.
Dreaming of Babylon
I’m one chapter into reading Dreaming of Babylon by Richard Brautigan, and I like what I have read so far. Here’s a description from Amazon:
Dreaming of Babylon is a hilarious and delightful spoof of a hard-boiled detective novel. Brautigan’s anti-hero, C. Card, is a poor, not-too-intelligent private eye working in San Francisco in 1942. Early in the book we learn that he is too poor to even afford bullets for his gun, and is hounded for rent by his landlady. His escape from this harried existence is an anachronistic fantasy life in ancient Babylon. This is a really fun book that effectively satirizes various popular entertainment genres. And despite being a lowlife, Card is a curiously appealing narrator.