Victor D. Infante's Blog, page 196

Hey, Baby ... It's the Fourth of July ...

Busy Independence Day weekend. Lots of work and running around to do. Friday night, we stood on the porch and watched the Worcester fireworks display over the treetops in the distance. Not a half-bad view. Yesterday, I made it over to the Kitchen Sessions to see Matthew John Conley and Krista Mosca do an excellent feature. More hectic to follow, I'm sure.

But it is Independence Day, which is a name I much prefer to the more prosaic "Fourth of July." "Fourth of July" could be anything, really. ...

Dispatch from a Stupidly Busy Office ...

Work to do, projects to finish, e-mail to return ... in the meantime, here's some odds and ends from around the Web:

My friend Ed, whom I don't see nearly enough, reminded me of the perfect song for both the holiday and my mood today:



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I think I can let The Guardian's liveblog sum up my feelings about the Ghana v. Uruguay match yesterday:

Final thoughts: The Ghanaians are gutted, predictably. Gyan, who missed that penalty in extra-time, is distrought. I quite wanted Uruguay to win, to be hon...

Station Identification

Every now and then, I do a periodic update on my Web presence, which social networking sites I'm favoring and Internet-based odds and ends. Looks like it's that time again ...

VictorInfante.com remains the primary portal between my real life and various people seeking information about that. It also serves to confuse people looking for information on notorious international arms dealer Victor "The Jackal" Infante, who is not, to my knowledge, a relative. Same holds true for that unfortun...

Worcester Walking

Walked home from work today, as I try to do a couple times a summer every year. First time to the new apartment, and I have to say, it's not a bad jaunt. Straight down Main St. for most of it, then a detour to get around Summer Nationals, where I got to see the Batmobile. Signed by Julie Newmar! All told, about a half-hour, which is slightly shorter than my old walk home, when I lived in Vernon Hill, and most of it is flat and straight.

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Was clutching my copy of Warren Ellis' Do Anything...

Doesn't Winter Seem More Like Listing Season?

It's a little known fact outside of the industry: Summer is a news doldrum. Schools are mostly out, people are on vacation or otherwise hard to get ahold of, and basically, everything slows down. Even inside news periodicals, it's a little slow, what with people taking their own vacations. So ... if you're a self-respecting arts editor or reporter with a news hole to fill, where do you turn? You turn to that age-old standby, the list.

Now, as is obvious to regular readers of this blog, I love...

Odds and Ends ...

I've been inordinately tired lately, waking up hard and fairly exhausted by the end of the day. One suspects the weather is to blame -- pollen and humidity, two great tastes I'd banish to hell if I could.

Thus, once more in lieu of actual blogging, I offer silliness, gossip and conjecture. Or, as it's called in many cultures, "blogging."

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Do you hate BP? Sure you do. Everyone hates BP. There's only one thing it's more fashionable to hate, and that's the vuvuzela. Which makes this bit...

Odds and Ends ...

Newsflash ... it's too fucking hot for this shit. So once more, in lieu of actual blogging, I instead offer things of interest around the Internet.

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I have to listen to a lot of music by musicians playing local venues. Much of it is bad, more of it is forgettable. But every now and again something cuts through the static and catches my attention. Kate Tucker, who is playing next week at the Lucky Dog, is one such artist. Totally digging on her:



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The most-admirable Daniel Nester has led me t...

Rave along with "Doctor Who" ...

Poetry Stuff

Got a few things to watch out for ... busy, busy, bust ...

Forthcoming Publications :My poem "Blessing of Snow and Sky" will be appearing in Word Riot .My poem "My Life as Rosencrantz or Guildenstern" will be appearing in the anthology "Knocking at the Door: Approaching the Other" from Buddhapuss.My poem "To The Girl I Never Knew" will be appearing in the anthology "Don't Blame the Ugly Mug: Ten Years of Two Idiots Peddling Poetry." from Tebot Bach.More details when I know 'em.

Readings:

Victor...

16 Essential Contemporary American Poets (As Determined by Some Guy's Blog)

And here we are, the grand-finale of a madcap, week-long process, where readers of this blog (along with my Facebook and Twitter accounts) sounded off on which contemporary poets were absolutely essential reading. In the end, we ended up with 57 candidates, ranging from Robert Bly to KRS-One, from Mike McGee to Eleni Sikelianos, slammers and hip-hoppers, academics and Beats ... it was a tremendous mix. While the original intention was to cut it down to 10, that proved impossible. We ended up ...