Cosmopoetica - Blog

I’ve Moved! Go to passiontask.com

chris — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:04:08 +0000

I’ve moved most– if not all– of my bloggy writing to Passion Task. I hope to see you there!

Links, Links, Links (weekly)

chris — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 16:28:43 +0000

David Foster Wallace on iPhone 4′s FaceTime

Nice catch by Kottke. I remembered the video phone discussion, but didn’t think about it in relation to the new iPhone.

tags: cosmolinks, technology, dfw, david foster wallace

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

RIP: David Markson (1927-2010)

chris — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:18:28 +0000

[CC licensed photo by adm]

David Markson passed away last Friday. I have recently had reason to think about Markson’s work, in particular Wittgenstein’s Mistress, which—like many—I came to thanks to David Foster Wallace’s high praise. At the time I found Markson’s experimental novel mostly confusing… I could never get my mind around the work as a whole, though it was clearly composed of many brilliant pieces.

Over the last six months or so, as I’ve started to think more seriously about art through accretion—collage, assemblage, bricolage, etc—and pondering, among other things, the creative blog as an aspect of genre and work like David Shields’s Reality Hunger– Wittgentein’s Mistress has started assuming more importance.

It’s sad to learn of Markson’s passing… but I am exhilarated at the prospect that there is much more of his work to discover than I realized.

UPDATED: New York Times obituary for David Markson

on the Persistence of Poetry (Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin)

chris — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:16:05 +0000

“There is a relation between language and truth that is very subtle and is always changing. For the reader or listener who can appreciate the constant shifting, each new poem one finds is a fresh statement of that relation. Because in poetry there is a focus on language, the relation can be seen very clearly; also because in poetry one never has to say more than one means. We live our lives to a great extent through language, and so it must be forever fascinating to watch it, like watching the waves.”

[via James Finnegan]

“June”

chris — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:29:34 +0000

[CC licensed image by Ko An]

“June”

It’s hard to imagine that
in just a few months it
will be 45 degrees below zero
and my breath will freeze
and fall to the ground with
the sound of distant surf.
Now, a hidden bird sings
a sighing, dog-like whine
from the trees and the bees,
who will live only a few days,
move from flower to flower
touching them like thoughts.
If they could, they would each ask
me how I’ve survived so long and
and what it’s like to expect so much.

Links, Links, Links (weekly)

chris — Sun, 30 May 2010 16:29:22 +0000

DOUBLE MOON: CONSTRUCTIONS & CONVERSATIONS by Margo Klass and Frank Soos » RATTLE: Poetry for the 21st Century

DOUBLE MOON: CONSTRUCTIONS & CONVERSATIONS
by Margo Klass and Frank Soos

tags: poetry, art, reviews, cosmolinks
Quote of the Day

Not the “only” art, but certainly the one to which this happens most often.

tags: cosmolinks, poetry, criticism
Sarah Palin Misinterprets Robert Frost – Culture – The Atlantic

It’s not as if Palin is the only one who misuses this particular quotation, of course… but most of us aren’t angling to become President of the United States.

tags: cosmolinks, politics, poetry, sarah palin, robert frost
AVANTGARDE+POLITICAL=PAYPAL

“Piss-Avant Post-Ahole Langpo Cambridge avanti” and “avantgarblers” make this post worth the (free) cost of admission.

tags: cosmolinks, poetics, politics, poetry
Super Punch: New Neal Stephenson project

“The Mongoliad is a sort of serialized story, created by Neal Stephenson, and written by Neal, Greg Bear, Nicole Galland, Mark Teppo, and a number of other great authors. It will be told via custom apps on iPad, iPhone, Kindle, and Android, and will be something of an experiment in post-book publishing and storytelling.”

tags: cosmolinks, publishing, neal stephenson
48 Hour Magazine

Here’s how it works: Issue Zero begins May 7th. We’ll unveil a theme and you’ll have 24 hours to produce and submit your work. We’ll take the next 24 to snip, mash and gild it. The end results will be a shiny website and a beautiful glossy paper magazine, delivered right to your old-fashioned mailbox. We promise it will be insane.

tags: cosmolinks, publishing, magazines
Martin Gardner, 1914-2010 | HiLobrow

A brief interview with Martin Gardner (RIP)

tags: rumilinks, cosmolinks, obit, martin gardner, interviews, writers
The Elements of Living Lightly | Zen Habits

More good advice… my judgmental nature is killing me

tags: cosmolinks, life, psyche
kindfully + mindfully | Zen Habits

tags: cosmolinks, life, psyche
The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People | Zen Habits

Solitude… yes, you need it. No, you probably don’t get enough of it.

tags: cosmolinks, rumilinks, creativity, solitude
Translating Sex | Online Only | Granta Magazine

on translting Roberto Bolaño’s work…

tags: cosmolinks, translation, Roberto Bolaño
How to Save the News (James Fallows, Atlantic)

“Everyone knows that Google is killing the news business. Few people know how hard Google is trying to bring it back to life, or why the company now considers journalism’s survival crucial to its own prospects…”

tags: rumilinks, cosmolinks, journalism, google

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

“12 Years Old”

chris — Sun, 30 May 2010 01:28:44 +0000

[resurrecting some old poems for historical purposes]

[CC licensed photo by davebluedevil]

“12 Years Old”

…and in a few minutes we’ll be crushed
together in the tool shed’s crawlspace,
oily gray floorboards above us and
your perfect peach hair pressed against
the petroleum smelling dirt below,
awkwardly fondling one another’s
newly protruded nubs like huge toddlers
just discovering their own faces.
But for now there is the single sound
of your voice from the electric chair
and the neon buzz of desire I’ve
just that moment learned to recognize.
I smear your name on the corrugated wall
with the bleeding head of a dandelion.
The milky-white wine drops of my efforts
seep from stem to hand which I touch to
your greedy lips, letting you taste them
with the undisguised need of the human.

Links, Links, Links (weekly)

chris — Sun, 23 May 2010 16:29:41 +0000

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links, Links, Links (weekly)

chris — Sun, 16 May 2010 16:30:09 +0000

OldFonts.com | Authentic Old Penmanship Fonts & Old Text Fonts

great looking old-school typefaces…

tags: cosmolinks, typography, fonts
Kon + Amir Present: The 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Samples Of All Time

“…before it was all-808-everything, hip-hop used a secret (and sometimes not-so-secret) selection of classic soul, funk rock, and jazz records from the ’60s and ’70s to create their sound. From tiny, obscure snippets to instantly-recognizable loops, the sample-based producers of the late ’80s and early ’90s uncovered some truly classic musical gems that are still sought after and used today.”

tags: cosmolinks, music, audio
Fever // photography

Photography sites D’Arcy Norman reads…

tags: cosmolinks, rumilinks, photography

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links, Links, Links (weekly)

chris — Sun, 09 May 2010 16:24:24 +0000

n+1: The Intellectual Situation

On the web, publishing, etc: “At this point the best thing the web and the book could do for one another would be to admit their essential difference. This would allow the web to develop as it wishes, with a clear conscience, and for literature to do what it’s always done in periods of crisis: keep its eyes and ears open; take notes; and bide its time.”

tags: cosmolinks, publishing, books, technology, ebooks
Oscar Wilde Would Have Twittered

Poets on Twitter and their craft. And sometimes how one influences the other.

tags: cosmolinks, poetry, poetics, writing, twitter

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.