Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 112

New joint. Race Matters. At The Rumpus.

We are new joint, race, and kid. We are also very thankful to The Rumpus and Gina Frangello for making it so. So please do Rumpus and we promise that the next round of drinks will be on us. Totally. Excerpt? Cool.

"The office has a run. It’s a fundraiser. There is a 5k and a 10k and a walk. There are mascots, the Berenstain Bears and Benny the Bull. And family activities, involving things like water balloons and bean bags.

There is also a kids’ dash.

But he won’t dash, and I cannot let it go, and so every year the conversation goes something like this.

“Yo, this is the year you are going to run the dash,” I say, “right, yes, sweet, you are.”

“No, never, not this year, not ever, you know that,” he says.

“It’s not going to be windy,” I say, “I totally checked that already.”

He doesn’t like the wind. Not that I actually checked whether it will be windy, the race is weeks away, and who’s to say what the weather will bring.

And yes, please note I have just lied to my older son. Parents do that a lot. I could defend it as a necessary means for getting though the day. I could also acknowledge that it is very poor modeling. Then again, if we’re going to get into modeling, and poor examples thereof, we will be here forever.

So, yes I lied. I had to. And again, we were talking wind."
 

Abyss Thomas Kraken Word.

Much word. And more, so much more, here, or here, and definitely here.

The Kickstarter Letters. Katzman. CCLaP Publishing. Now. Yes. Thank you.

So please do it hit that. Those? Something. Feels good, right? Like it just might change your life or something? Yes. We know. Enjoy.

"I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization." Roger Ebert (1942-2013)

We are Daddy Cool Title Page.

Best. Ostdick. Vol. 1 Brooklyn. Pac-Man. Poetry Month. Yo.

Truth that. It is Poetry Month. And the Nick Ostdick is talking poetry with the BJ Best at the Vol. 1 Brooklyn. So let's hit that shall we? Indeed. Excerpt? Cool.

A dear poet friend of mine often speaks of the idea of obsession in regards to poets and the subjects of their work—that is, one idea or theme or object they keep coming back to for further exploration. Is it fitting to say that video games function as one of your obsessions?
 
I’m not sure what divides the line between “obsession” and “intense interest,” but I think video games are the latter for me.  Or, if they’re an obsession, they’re one of several. But I did find video games fascinating to write about.  One reason is simply that they are so overlooked, and written off as brain-rotting ephemera. But more importantly, video games—and in particular classic video games—are flat-out weird, and it’s easy to forget that.  What is a Pac-Man, and why is he haunted by ghosts? The fauna of The Legend of Zelda is equally nonsensical. And the cool thing is that any of these details can be a trigger to develop a poem.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Sixty-One - Bad to Worse, starring the Kathryn Born.

Happening it is. We are podcast with the Kathryn Born, author of The Blue Kind. We are also Argo Tea, for what it's worth, and you, you are listen, or you can be, now, thank you. It just might change your life.

A Mendicant Books Love and Death in the Moose League by Ryan W. Bradley Opening Day release at the Smashwords.

For real. Here. Totally. Enjoy. A lot. Nice.

Sattin Sparks Tyler Keating and Cobalt Issue 7 Spring 2013 Oh My!

Really. They're all there. And so much more. So do hit it. It just might change your life.

"The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men." Loving v. Virginia.