Seasons change. (I do, too.)
I’ve spent a lot of quality time among a lot of trees, but hiking with the gf and our new dog Sam is the best. Here they are at William O’Brien State Park. I’ve been hard at work on several writing projects, including a character monologue, some poems and a play. I’ve been recording some music, too. More about all that later, when it’s ready to be known about.
Out and about.
Here I am leading a funny (but factually questionable) third floor tour at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts back in April of this year. That seemed like a good idea to somebody. At the time, anyway.
Here I am at Hell’s Kitchen in July, helping the audience at Vita.mn‘s “Summer Stories” reading imagine me as an 11-year-old boy — in other words, shorter, fatter and with less grey in my beard.
Recent and upcoming sightings.
It was recently brought to my attention by absolutely nobody that I’d not updated my site since mid-January. I have my reason: I’ve been busy. Writing, performing, podcasting, etc.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a pic of me teeing up an old story I performed at the Just Vote No Show at the BLB a while back. This charity gig had to happen because cowardly statehouse haunters are asking Minnesotans to vote to amend the state constitution to discriminate against gays. Which is ridiculous.
Happy, loving couples of every orientation deserve insufferable in-laws.
The above photo’s by Emma Freeman Photography, a talent with a taste for photographing gay weddings. Hint, hint, Minnesota.
The January, February and March editions of You Are Hear, the monthly literary podcast I host for mnartists.org, are available for download at the links above and on something the kids call iTunes. (Extraordinary poets Paula Cisweski and Todd Boss will be featured in April.)
Upcoming gigs include comedy at the MIA (for Third Thursday, April 19) and a new story at the Soap Factory (for a Talking Image Connection reading, May 12). Then I prep for the 2012 MN Fringe. So see you around.
elimae and me.
I have a new poem in the latest edition of the online lit mag elimae. I’ve had a fair number of poems in elimae over the years. [Scroll through archives dating back to 1996 for daring writing by an incredible array of poets and flash fictioneers you've never heard of. I'm in there, too.]
Current editor Cooper Renner and founding editor Deron Bauman have always been very kind to my writing. They’ve been there for me whether my poems were funny, moody, ridiculous or elliptical.
Readers of Gordon Lish‘s legendary Quarterly might remember Cooper better as Cooper Esteban, the mad poet whose work was often the highlight of that mag’s back pages. Like the best of us without Knopf deals, he’s gone the ebook route with his fiction.
Founding and editing elimae’s first couple of years [and publishing a handful of beautiful handmade books that now go for big $$$ on Amazon and eBay] weren’t enough for Deron. [His video and still camera work are also worth searching out.] Deron also created Clusterflock, possibly the last authentic community blog doing what blogs did before the Web began to feel like a mall.
The ‘flockers don’t bother with cute recaps of SNL or pre-election debates. They’re too busy explicating spam email messages.
Smart, talented folks — good folks by any measure — are wherever you look. But you’re still responsible for opening your eyes. That’s what this new poem, called “Truckness,” is all about.
[Truck drawing by Cooper Renner]
Home is where the heart attacks.
I’m a simple, small-town Indiana boy born and bred. But I still lit out for brighter horizons as soon as humanly possible, which meant after college, because the state paid for that shit. I moved over to Ohio for grad school. Then back to Indiana for a couple of months, while I looked for a job after school. Then I spent a few years in Chicago, which I later learned was in Illinois. From there I headed down to Missouri. And now I live in Minnesota, which feels like home half the time. That’s not bad after a dozen years, right? It doesn’t matter. Sometimes nothing looks familiar for miles in any direction and I remember that when I was a kid, Indiana’s state motto was “Wander Indiana.” Which I thought meant that Hoosiers were free to travel wherever they wished within state lines, but we weren’t allowed to leave.
The hound and other news.
I’ve not posted lately because Hurley, aka “the hound,” has been struggling with gut and ass issues that appear, at long last, to be on the mend.
I’ve also been busy planning and putting together music for next year’s “You Are Hear” podcast for mnartists.org.
But suppose you’re among the single digits of people who can’t wait until 2012 to hear from me.
Well, consider yourself notified that Saturday, November 19th, I’ll be among the “celebrity” judges of The Incredible Drinkin’ Spelling Bee at the 331 Club.
Words. Booze. Me being funny into a microphone, saying things I’d regret later if maybe I remembered them.
What’s not to love? Hurley wants to know.
