Victor D. Infante's Blog, page 179

Catching Up

Happy Patriot's Day! If you don't live in Massachusetts, this is the we celebrate the battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the Revolutionary War. Because no matter what our Republican brothers and sisters try to insinuate, Massachusetts is indeed the birthplace of American liberty. That it's "the bluest of the Blue States" is hardly a coincidence. It ain't perfect, and part of me will always miss California, but I rather like living here. I've even warmed up to the Celtics ...

I have the day off work, and am mostly poking at Radius admin stuff and my own writing. And if you haven't read them, yet, there's great pieces by Laura E.J. Moran, Paulus Kapteyn and Sam Cha up right now. Of course, we're always looking for more.

Note to prospective contributors: We're taking our own sweet time reading submissions, reading things a few times and trying to make sure we're not making snap decisions on poems that need a little living-with. It slows things down, but on the whole, I think it's better. First impressions really aren't the best way to judge a poem. Indeed, some of the best poems need some time to settle with the reader. All that being said, anything submitted that's not a political poem will probably go up faster, because we get a lot of those. Personally, I'd rather see some elegies for poets, some critical theory or personal reactions to poems, some invented forms or even some translations. IJS.

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I've got a busy week:

Wednesday at noon EST, I'm on KUCI's Writer's On Writing program, hosted by the remarkable Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. This was originally scheduled earlier, but the date had to be moved, as happens in radio. In any case, it'll be good to chat with Barbara again about Radius, City of Insomnia and National Poetry Month, which she knows I kind of abhor.

Thursday at 8 p.m. is the official release party for Knocking at the Door: Poems For Approaching the Other at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City! The event will be hosted by editors Lea Deschenes & Lisa Sisler, and scheduled performers include myself, Corina Bain, Ann Cefola, Sam Cha, Jenith Charpentier, MaryLisa DeDomenicis, Jess Del Balzo-Cording, Dawn Gabriel, PD Goodwin, Nicole Homer, Daniel WK Lee, Heather Macpherson, Ivy Page and Dorinda Wegener! It's an eclectic combination of poets, from one of the most diverse anthologies I've seen. Come down and join the party! (And if you can't make it, watch it live on the Web!)

Knocking at the Door grand release party
Thursday, April 21, 8-9:30 PM
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
(Between Houston and Bleecker)
F train to 2nd Ave, 6 to Bleecker

Saturday is the season premiere of Doctor Who, and like a good geek, I'll be holed up and staring intently at the television set.

Monday I'm featuring for the Dirty Gerund Poetry Series here at 9 p.m. at Ralph's Chadwick Square Diner here in Worcester, with special musical guest, The Sneaky Mister!  I'm still working out my sets, but right now it looks like the entire first set will be dedicated to my Toxic Waltz series, which is all reflections on my youth in and around SoCal punk rock, the reasons why that was attractive and its emotional fallout; and the second set will probably be the live debut of my prose poem/short story, Unwinding the Crash, which hasn't been read in public, yet, and is a meditation on journalism, authority and perception. There may be a few greatest hits, to fill things out, but basically, this show will be largely stuff I've only read in public occasionally, at best. Because I can't do a same-old set in Worcester. That would be criminal.

Victor D. Infante w/The Sneaky Mister
The Dirty Gerund Poetry Series
Monday, April 25, 9 p.m.
Ralph's Chadwick Square Diner
148 Grove St., Worcester

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Going to be delving into the "Heroes in 21st Century Literature" essays again, soon, after a long hiatus to concentrate on Radius. Have a couple strands in mind for the second run, including thoughts on Fringe, The Hunger Games, The Unwritten, Thursday Next, The Matrix and the Invisibles. Some people have suggested I read the Artemis Fowl books, but I know very little about them. Thoughts?

I Needed That

"Forgiveness is the release of all hope for a better past." -- Buddy Wakefield

Lovely night at Ralph's tonight, listening to Buddy Wakefield, Tony Brown, Sarah Sapienza and Melissa Worster. Good to just grab a beer, see people and listen. Good to hear Tony pull out classics such as "Mission Statement," "Punk" and "D.I.Y." Good to chat with Greg McKillop, even if I couldn't stay for his set. (I'm turning into an old man, Greg. Forgive me. You know I love your music.) Good to spend a lot of time laughing.

I needed a night like tonight to shake off some of the recent drudgery. To everyone involved, thank you.

Continuing the Week of Low-Intensity Misery ...

For fear of this blog revolving into a Woody Allen-style catalog of neuroses:

*Driver's License Renewal check
*Inspection Sticker For Car check
*Taxes Done and Mailed check
*Periodontist appointment check

All worked out about as well as could be reasonably hoped for, but throw in a cold and a poetry rejection, and I've had about enough of the real world for a while.

Coming to Grips With #RealLifeFail

In addition to my complete inability to remember to do things such as renew my driver's license and get my car inspected, I have a near-existential dread of doing my taxes. I have no idea why. All things told, I've been doing our taxes myself for years, and I'm actually pretty good at them, and they're rarely as bad as I build them up to be in my mind. Indeed, this year they only took about an hour. (And that's with the ferret helping. Ahem. I mean "helping.")

Oh, but the days and weeks leading up to them are filled with a wholly unreasonable terror. The stack of papers sits on my desk and mocks me as I find one flimsy excuse after another for avoidance, one more reason to procrastinate. Horror scenarios play out in my mind, even though after more than 20 years of looking at tax forms, I always have a vague idea of how much we've made and how much we're due back/owe. But no, in my mind is a nightmare where I've gotten it all terribly, terribly wrong and I've somehow doomed myself and my wife to financial ruin, owing thousands upon thousands of dollars in taxes that my modest income could never generate. Seriously, it's ridiculous. Even the bad years haven't been that bad. And this was a pretty straightforward year. But even knowing that doesn't help. I cower in the face of the paperwork and whimper in fear. Until I sit down and do it, check my work, and realize it's over and was no big deal.

I do this every year. Sigh.

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In things I'm much better at dealing with, the Radius signature feature brings poetry by Roger Bonair-Agard, Jeanann Verlee and Adam Falkner; and Lisa Sisler (happy birthday!) offers an essay on The Other: Origins, Examples & the Divine.

Poetry: Much better than taxes.

Thursdays ... err, Fridays ... Are For Pimping

It's a good thing I'm a halfway decent writer and editor, because really, I'm not cut out for much else. There are many normal things that people deal with every day that I almost inevitably neglect until they're a crisis. Like renewing my driver's license of getting the inspection sticker for the car. What sort of idiot completely spaces on that sort of thing?!?! And why is it that the same idiot can juggle and track a ridiculous number of live elements in a newspaper section at a time without losing any of them? Sigh. In any case, neither dealing with my license nor my inspection sticker were much of a chore at all. Both took only a few minutes, and were relatively inexpensive. But the emotional gymnastics I put myself through to get these things done? Fantastically stupid. #RealLifeFail.

Seriously, though. I'm completely aware I do this to myself. I just don't understand why I do it to myself.

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The amazing Jeffrey Foucault, quite frankly my favorite contemporary songwriter, is playing the Vanilla Bean on Sunday, and is in my What You're Listening To column this week! In less-impressive songwriting news, Crag reviews the new Britney Spears album. For TWSN recs, we have John Sebastian, J. Michelle, Speaker for the Dead, Buddy Wakefield and more ...

Over in Radius, we have poems by Laura Lee Washburn and Wetdryvac.

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My old friend Ellyn Maybe is trying to get herself and her band to Scotland to perform at the Glastonbury Festival. It's an expensive prospect, so visit her Kickstarter project and help her out.

It's Been A While Since I've Been a Complete Meme Sheep ...

You were born during a Third Quarter moon

This phase occurs in the middle of the moon's waning phases, after the full moon and before the new moon.





- what it says about you -


You like to make up your own mind. You may find it hard to relate to mainstream opinions on issues, and you definitely don't always like what's popular. You can work out solutions and give birth to big ideas when left to yourself, and other people will be impressed with your conclusions even if they're not sure how you arrived at them.

What phase was the moon at on your birthday? Find out at Spacefem.com

Just a note

My appearance on KUCI's "Writer's On Writing" radio program has been rescheduled to April 20th.

Such is life. Tune in then!

Is This Thing On?

LJ's been down most of the day, it seems. Rumors on Facebook point to a DoS attack. Icky. Best to get in and out before something else goes wrong.

Got my print copy of the issue of Theaker's Quarterly Fiction containing my short story, A Fable of Worcester. I had actually downloaded it to my Kindle -- OK, Lea downloaded it to the Kindle -- but hadn't brought myself to read it in that fashion, yet. For all my general support of electronic media, I have to admit, I still don't favor it. I like a book in my hands.

And I have to say, this one didn't disappoint. I had posted Howard Watts' lovely cover the other day, but it's even better in real life. As Lulu print jobs go? This one's easily the best I've seen. Have only thumbed through the journal itself, but it looks great. And do you know how I knew this was a journal where I'd feel instantly at home? The back is filled with reviews of Doctor Who ephemera. What's not to like?

Between being published in another British fantasy/sci-fi journal (I've found my audience!) and a chat on FB with a friend about France, I find myself longing heavily for Europe again. I've been away for nearly 20 years. That's astounding, and terrible. Of course first, I need to pay automotive and doctor expenses. Sigh. One of these days, I need to work on being one of those writers who actually makes money.

Over in Radius, I waded into the Oprah Winfrey poetry discussion, and found the whole thing eerily familiar. Playing catch up today, so no new postings, but lots of great stuff on the way. (Roger Bonair-Agard? Jeanann Verlee? Laura Moran? Maybe ....)

Partying, Partying, Woo!

If I could be anywhere on Earth in the next couple weeks, I would be in Southern California to celebrate the release of Don't Blame the Ugly Mug: 10 Years of 2 Idiots Peddling Poetry :



The release reading will be Wednesday, April 13 at the Ugly Mug, 261 North Glassell Ave, Orange, CA.

Hosts Ben Trigg and Steve Ramirez have created something powerful and important there in Southern California. Readings that last that long are rare, and readings that last that long and have hosted such a wide range of new and established poetic work are even more rare. Even after all of these years, "Two Idiots" remains my favorite reading in the country, not least because Steve and Ben are two of my favorite people. They care deeply about poetry, and about community, and realize the two aren't mutually exclusive. This reading has been the heart of Southern California poetry for years, and here's wishing them many more years of doing great work.

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In Radius: Jane Cassady reveals the mysteries of the Horoscope Poem, and our signature feature presents Jeffrey McDaniel, Anis Mojgani, Dave McAlinden.

April Fools' Last Glimmer

There have been some -- ahem -- erroneous bits of information circulating today, primarily on Facebook. Time to set the record straight:

*First off, let's start with the plausible lie: Tony Brown does NOT have his first-ever published work of fiction appearing in The New Yorker next week. I thought the fact that Tony steadfastly doesn't write fiction would be enough to lend this one an air of falseness to this one, never mind that it's the New Yorker, and almost no one gets published there from an unsolicited submission, but I was evidently mistaken. I actually felt the need to confess to this one early, as people were buying it way too quickly. Mitigating Circumstances: I actually do have a short story at The New Yorker. It's been there for nearly a year. Part of me was praying it would get accepted today, so I could announce it and no one would believe me. Obviously, this didn't happen. Nor do I expect it to ...

*The Pixies did not play a hush-hush reunion show at the underground Distant Castle concert series here in Worcester. I got a couple people on this one, but really, I can't blame people for hoping. This is the best kind of April Fools' joke: As the concert series is widely known to exist, but is underground and thus, not publicly broadcasting its gigs, it was difficult to check if you weren't already in the loop. Mitigating Circumstances: I'd totally go to that show if it happened. For real.

*While it is indeed true that WoMag has had a strange fixation with public health stories lately, including actual cover stories on the proliferation of heroin, the silent epidemic of head trauma, and the ever-sexy topic of Lyme disease, they are not, indeed, changing their name to The Worcester Journal of Public Health. Mitigating Circumstances: Jeremy Shulkin's upcoming expose on rickets and gout is going to ROCK!

*Bill Macmillan's assertion that I am going to be the new editor-in-chief of The InCity Times is a bald-faced lie. Mitigating Circumstances: The real new editor is Shaun Sutner.

Happy April Fools' Day, everyone! Hope you had some fune!