Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 203
January 14, 2011
Williams. Graham. And Main Street Ragness.
As excited as we may be about My Father's House coming out from Main Street Rag later this year, and quite excited we are, we are equally excited about two other joints coming out as well, Nothing or Next to Nothing by long-time TBWCYL, Inc. favorite and This Podcast Will Change Your Life podcastee Barry Graham and The Mimic's Own Voice by new BFF Tom Williams. We think you could be excited too, we also think that you could take this excitement, channel it, and maybe, just maybe pre-order your copies now as we have done. We can tell you that it will feel quite good. We can also tell you that it just might change your life.
January 13, 2011
January 12, 2011
"Quick, punchy, and relateable (admit it) enough to be scary." Cool, Not Removed gets Caleb J. Ross'd. And likes it. A lot.
Big thanks to TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Caleb J. Ross for his kind words on "Cool, Not Removed" at the Goodreads. Drinks on us for sure when next we meet."The narrator, removed, keeps the tension throughout this story. He's talking about his friend, but it's really he who feels trapped between doors. Quick, punchy, and relateable (admit it) enough to be scary."
January 11, 2011
Mixtape Showdown.
Quite digging the Mixtape Showdown. And we think you will too. Who knows, it might even change your life. Might. 
January 10, 2011
Holy Freight'd Bosworth.
There will be more Bosworth. It will be Freight. It will come from Folded Word. And we will rejoice. But until then we will enjoy an excerpt titled "I Found" that Vol. 1 Brooklyn ran as part of their Sunday Stories Series, that is in turn excerpted itself below for those of you who just can't wait. And yes we know who we are.
"I found her in a white tee shirt that was too big for her. The collar was all stretched out. Her neck was thin and pale. Her hair was short and blonde. She was sitting on a dirty carpet. She had ashes on her cheeks—thumb-smudged, a game. She was drunk, young, and laughing. She was surrounded by summertime friends."
January 9, 2011
This Book Will Change Your Life - Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres by Spencer Dew.
Travel. Read. Repeat. Endlessly. And we have been travel and we have read and today we are Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres by Spencer Dew and we should say right upfront that Spencer Dew is not only a long-time TBWCLY, Inc. favorite, This Zine Will Change Your Life contributor and This Podcast Will Change Your Life podcastee, but he is also one of our favorite Chicago writers and live readers, regardless of where he may be living these days, and a big part of that is his voice, both the literary and literal, the twang and precision, the paranoia and anxiety, the sex and interaction, the focus on relationships, and the endless precision of it all. And its all present in Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres in some form or another, but there is something else as well, the presence of death, or more accurately dieing, and more specifically the dieing of a parent, and what that looks like at the end as it moves along incrementally and painfully, slowly and sadly, and yes, this book is beautifully designed, and big props to Another New Calligraphy for that, and yes, there are the connections to Henry Adams and gothic architecture, and this all good, but ultimately what makes us happiest, is that this feels like the work of someone stretching their voice in new directions and grappling with new themes and this is to be applauded, especially when they write like Spencer Dew and especially when there will be more to come.
January 8, 2011
99 Problems Imago advert awesomeness.
The collective minds at CCLaP Publishing will soon be launching a "hipster" photography magazine titled Imago and as part of the debut issue are including a full page ad for 99 Problems which is full of lovely comments from an array of sources that doesn't even include our mothers, wives or sisters. We are, as always, thrilled and embarrassed about this kind of thing, but not so embarrassed that we won't mention it here, or encourage you to hit the CCLaP link if you prefer to see it in all its "full-sized" awesomeness.
January 7, 2011
The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live, quite Berriozabal, and all full of prayers, birds and tongues. Or something like that.
The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live and all full of prayers, birds and tongues. Or something like that. We have a new poem A Prayer for My Tongue from old friend Luis Cuauhtemoc, which we are way excited about, and, (almost) as always, photo action from Adam Lawrence, music curation from Jason Behrends and Daley Chief of Staff prose love from Pete Anderson. We hope you enjoy this edition and we appreciate all shout-outs and links. Finally, please note, we are hoping more of you will submit comix, and music, and art, and video, yes, video, and combinations there of. And most finally, Happy New Year to you and yours.
January 6, 2011
These (chap) Books Will Change Your Life - What I'm On by Luis Humberto Valadez and Redneck Poems by Rusty Barnes.
Travel. Read. Repeat. Done. When we were running through the handful of books we hadn't quite gotten to at the end of 2010, we were clearly in novel mode and completely neglected the chapbooks staring us right in the face. We are happy to rectify that now however, as we have had the chance to consume both What I'm On by Luis Humberto Valadez and Redneck Poems by Rusty Barnes, two collections of poems that on the one hand are so completely about place, Chicago and Appalachia respectively, and the language and people who comprise that place, and yet are still intertwined around the themes of violence and women and religion and identity, though with identity, they also find themselves going their separate ways, as Valadez is endlessly searching for how it is one finds their identity, by peeling, always peeling away the layers and muck that gets in the way as it becomes encrusted on a life and Barnes exploration of identity is one of celebration, and recognition, for an identity under appreciated and under represented across the indie and literary world, that of rural, even redneck lives. 
January 5, 2011
Anderson. Ostdick. Literary offerings.
We are travel, again, it is a new year, and there are things to do, it is also time though to read, and catch-up, and we are reading and catching-up, now, here, and are happy to have read and caught-up with pieces by long time TBWCYL, Inc. favorites and BFFs Pete Anderson and Nick Ostdick, the former with a new joint "Tangled in Wishes" at the microliterature and the latter with new story "Moons" in the Sheepshead Review. You may be wondering if reading these pieces will change your life, and to that we say, what do you think, yes of course they will, at least briefly, so, go now, read, nice. 
