((( M U S I C F O R B O O K S

Innar Salts // Bandcamp

2011-12-03T14:56:00.000-08:00

I made a new album a while back. It's on bandcamp.

My friend & I are putting a band together. We shall be called The Nuer.

I made this mockup for an album that doesn't exist yet.

Children that can't visualize a word don't understand it.

That means all ideas are pictures.

i made a 13 minute music video for some more songs // some more songs were made by me

2011-04-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

Soon I will make a narcissistic website where I am going to start posting everything I make that I feel like sharing with people, so that this can go back to being a place where I share other people's music for people to read to. I'm trying to get things organized in my mind and in the physical world. I want to start publishing my website again. I want to start caring more. There is so much good writing on the internet. I think themselves will work things out.

This video takes a while to load and while it may seem uneventful at first, I saved the best for last. Most of all of this was filmed by Thomas Edison around the turn of the century. Supposedly he is sneezing around 9:00 but I think he was being clever about the fact that he did cocaine.

i made some music // some music was made

2011-04-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Multiupload

(You can just pick one of those to download it from)

Also I am on Soundcloud, but I only have one song up so far...

ANYWAY THANKS!

kronos quartet w/ ron carter // rain drops full of rain water fall on your head if you go outside so i stay in when they do

2011-03-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Rapidshare

Got this on vinyl and play it all the time.

facebook kind of freaks me out // what kind of pizza do you want? i'll buy an extra large three topping, don't get all shitty with me now time 2 shine

2011-02-25T00:58:00.000-08:00

Get it here via Megaupload

So I got this book called Everything Is on Sale. It's on free right now.

Check it out at Unnecessary Press or Goodreads.

Or download it here or here.

Whatever you want to do really, if you want to.

I think

when I'm old

I'm gonna go around

telling people who I like

I hope they have like

a dozen children

the way old men do

in Polish New Wave movies

and Chinese fairy tales.

steve roach // i don't read nothing but books right now

2010-10-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Megaupload

Steve Roach is like woah chill. There's more to that but you should just listen to it rather than me.

People do things and sometimes other people. Does that mean we do something of what I guess I mean is because sometimes what we do is right or wrong, right -- this is a question (said the way a bad guy would say "This is a stick-up" in a bad movie).

I reviewed two books I read recently.

I Looked Alive on Thought Catalog

The Interrogative Mood on HTMLGIANT

Brett Gallagher wrote something nice on my review of I Looked Alive, which was nice of him, and my review resulted in at least one Gary Lutz book sold, which I consider a personal victory - I even did a sort of fist pump but I became aware of it halfway through and it became more of an invisible bump.

I'm reading at Chelsea Martin's book opening on Sunday, November 14 at Royal NoneSuch Gallery in Oakland. Jimmy Chen is reading too. And Chelsea's friend Elise. I don't know what time. Probably in the evening.

Chelsea used to cut my hair and she was good. Now I go to this Italian barbershop in North Beach. I don't know why but the guy's name is Sario and that seems good I guess. Probably I don't know what good is.

You should know I have a lot of faces. I'm collecting them for the end of days.

bill evans // bryan coffelt

2010-09-22T21:36:00.000-07:00

Get both here via Megaupload

Ludicrously classy solo jazz piano by a lifelong heroin addict from New Jersey (buried in New Orleans). The best of the best. I listen to this all the damn time. And there's no reason not to. It's the best.

I like this thing "Person/People" by Bryan Coffelt that is on Everyday Genius. I feel like it describes all the people I have ever known in one way or another. I'm just kidding. I don't know. It's a lot like people I know or have been though. It's good. I mean, I like it. It qualifies as good, I think, despite my qualifying statements. Just read the damn thing.

toto blanke // gertrude stein

2010-09-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

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This bit of tropical french-prog psychadelia goes hard, in a soft way. It sounds dramatic at first, but no worries, soon everything melts away into the goodness, like a frozen banana-fudge bar or something.

You really need to read Gertrude Stein's essay "Composition as Explanation." It explains a lot.

flowers of hell // christopher higgs

2010-08-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Rapidshare

Really liked Higgs's word object, "Sometimes I Feel Like Punching Someone In The Face Until They Can't Breathe Anymore And That's The End Of It", which serves as the preview of Lamination Colony's swan song. *I also like the new thing that's up now by Joyelle McSweeney. A lot. Both of them, wowzers. I'm going to miss this journal.

mort garson // and that's it

2010-08-15T23:09:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Mediafire

No time to talk.

rainbow generator // josef albers

2010-07-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Rapidshare

c/o Mutant Sounds

In the park today, I read from this while listening to Interaction of Color by Josef Albers.

Good things go well together when they're about the same thing.

For instance, a Long Island Iced Tea defies the laws of physics.

It can be done.

blues control // ofelia hunt

2010-07-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Mediafire

I really like this story in Juked, by Ofelia Hunt, "The Whales And Elephants Were Happier When." The style's pleasant and it leaves so much room open yet it gives me the images I need to feel like I'm unwrapping a candy bar, which I think is what I want to feel like when I read a story, maybe because I don't eat candy bars except for when I'm hungry and can't get anything substantial to eat.

"How Long, How Long!" has been published in Emprise Review. I think it might be the longest thing I've had published. I haven't had time to read the whole thing yet but the issue looks really good. This is the cover I made for a limited edition minibook (limited to one copy, which I gave to my mother, for whom I wrote the story ((the art is The Eunuch by Charles Garabedian, 2003))).

I think this story is part of a longer thing that exists somewhere deep in my mind right now, in some place that is dank and dreary and romantic and ridiculous.

I read this story, "Everything Is On Sale," which will be published by Unnecessary Press pretty soon, at the second East Bay On The Brain reading in Oakland, hosted by Lauren Becker.

thomas mapfumo // philip pinch

2010-06-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

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Damn, I been so busy with real life my cyber life is drying up like the sand in this cover photo.

Thanks to Eric Schaefer for this shizzznit. It is the shizzznit fo shizzzle bizzzle.

Loved this piece, "Dwight and Fan" by Philip Pinch via NOO Weekly.

roy montgomery & grouper // p. edward cunningham

2010-05-03T22:57:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Megaupload

So, again, there is some singing on the Grouper side of this split. But if you've heard Grouper you'll know that the vocals are unlikely to distract you from reading, because I never understand a word she sings anyway.

I like P. Edward Cunningham's piece "Pepsi Commercial (1991)" on New Wave Vomit. Paul and I talk sometimes and we've both published each other's writing and so maybe things can seem, at times, a little cronyistic. But whatever, I read this without knowing it was him and liked it a lot and then I got to the bottom and I was like, Oh you rascal! I like when people put the author at the bottom of the piece. Makes it more interesting to read, I think. I like New Wave Vomit. Anyway, check it out.

Kaythxbye.

by Peter Sutherland

woo // kool aid man in second life

2010-05-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Mutant Sounds

There's like two songs with vocals on this album (the third is fairly clear) but since it was recorded pretty lo-fi and comes from a tape you can't hear the other one so well, so it probably won't distract you from reading while listening to this incredible thing. The same is mostly true for their A La Luna, which also has one or maybe two vocal tracks. You could always delete them.

I have nothing interesting to say.

sun ra // mike young

2010-04-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Mediafire

After the recent shitstorm about perceived sexism in online literature (or something) on HTMLGIANT, particularly in reference to the new issue of We Are Champion, which I was in. Perhaps, as a result, I involved myself in the shitstorm to an unhealthy extent. Anyway, a lot of stuff I wish I'd said, along with a lot of stuff I never would have considered, was in the blog post, "There's A Fi(r)st For Every Flugelhorn" by Mike Young at his blog. Do it.

I think I agree with both Blake and Mike's positions. Although Blake hasn't written nearly as extensively about it. ~~I sort of hope he does, I guess. Actually, I don't know if I want him to.~~ He can do whatever the fuck he wants.

My story, "1550: How Nostradamus Got His Groove Back And Learned To Stop Verbally Abusing His Wife For No Good Reason" is now live at Crispin Best's For Every Year.

Dennis Cooper recently blogged about For Every Year. There are upcoming stories by people I like a lot. So be excited, and follow that shit to the bitter end.

Some new videos of bands playing music on instruments have been added to my pieces at Blood Drank Magazine. So check out "Woodsman" and "Weekend" again if that sounds like something you'd be into.

The stories are about fictionalized versions of the bands in question playing the music on instruments. I was at the show where the one for Weekend was recorded. They were playing in a kitchen. It was a good'un.

cluster // eugene marten (again)

2010-04-20T01:17:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Mediafire

Just so you know, there are two versions of "Rote Riki" on here. I recommend deleting one before listening to this if you want to avoid the minor annoyance. This album rules, by the way.

There is another excerpt from Eugene Marten's FIREWORK that I hadn't read before on The Brooklyn Rail. That man is a goddamn firecracker. Can't wait to read the book.

Have a new piece, "My Other Car is a Burrito" on We Are Champion. That makes me one of the champion. Very happy to be there, above an interview with the great Ben Marcus.

Ben Marcus is one of those guys that, whenever I see that he's written the forward to a book, I will probably buy it. He is a tastemaker and a wordsmith I greatly admire. If you haven't read his books, you totally should get to doing that.

via fmtownsmarty

freescha // jon papas

2010-04-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Mediafire

Read this thing, "The Organ of Corti (Tetrahedral Spiral)" by Jon Papas via We Are Champion, the next issue of which will include something by myself.

So, sort of random, but The New York Times reports that we can now shoot down mosquitoes with lasers made from random shit found on ebay.

Who knew living in the future would be so boring.

What's funny is people have been making fun of this idea for years.

Blowing shit up is the future.

The future is blowing shit up.

Shit is the future blowing up.

jim o'rourke // mara vaharatian

2010-04-05T23:29:00.001-07:00

Get it here via Megaupload

Dude. Read Mara Vaharatian's pieces in Alice Blue Review. Dude.

Unfortunately this Bill Evans album isn't too great for reading to, because it has some vocal tracks, but it is just as cool as the cover photo leads one to believe. In four parts, it's a total pain in the ass to download. However, it will be worth it if you are the sort of person that likes ridiculously classy music.

Get it here via Hotfile

Today I read that Paul Verhoeven, who is a total badass in ways I think most people fail to comprehend, has written a book about the historical Jesus of Nazareth. The description goes like this, ahem:

Who was the historical Jesus? Here veteran movie director Paul Verhoeven’s lifelong fascination with the facts and fictions surrounding the life of Jesus of Nazareth culminates in a work of brazen scholarship. Combining his passion for the subject with an in-depth knowledge of the history gained through rigorous study, Verhoeven paints a portrait of Jesus the man and Jesus the radical prophet. Verhoeven constructs a new vision of Jesus as a child born from the rape of Mary by a Roman soldier, as a spiritualist who performed exorcisms by screaming and spitting in the mouths of the possessed to drive out demons, and as a militant revolutionary who urged his followers to arm themselves.

Apparently, Verhoeven wants to make a film called Jesus: The Man. Oh man.

AND WHY NOT?

geinoh yamashirogumi // steven trull

2010-04-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Megaupload

Stephen Trull and Zack Sternwalker prove that two wrongs do make a right in "You're Dust." So, while your mom and 2nd grade teacher were wrong, that doesn't mean they were right.

Two right angles make a goal post, almost. Wreck your car, take the bus - you'll thank me in the morning. Noo Journal 11 is way cool. I have a print version that Mike gave me and you can't have it. Sorry.

I have two stories up at this new online zine thing my buds are doing. It's like, fictional stories about real bands. It's called Blood Drank Magazine, peep yr eyes on "Weekend" and "Woodsman." Apparently there will also be a quarterly print/DVD version. Sweet.

I am trying to learn how to move words with my mind. I'll let you know if/when I figure it out.

hauschka // guy pettit

2010-03-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

Get it here via Rapidshare

Guy Pettit "Archive Your Mistakes" in the brand new Noo Weekly.

Gag me with a spoon.

philip glass // mark leidner

2010-03-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

Get it here via Megaupload

Enjoyed this piece of literature by Mark Leidner.

Check out my new ebook, MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE via Pangur Ban Party.

Art by Ryan Snook

Was gonna put up a new issue of hahaclever but ~~hanging with Mike Young & his gf tonight~~ and thus unable to do so because I was doing stuff earlier today and so I'm sorry or something. It's been a long time. I don't know why. Busy, I guess. Girlfriend. Anyway.

I've decided to stop talking so much and just blog more music for book-reading-time more often.

Here goes something.

via Hamburger Eyes

karl jenkins & mike ratledge // adriano celectano & luigi serafini

2010-02-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

Get it here via Mediafire

This is a pretty strange/awesome synth-noodling album by two guys who played with Soft Machine. It's quite obscure and took me a while to find online. It's pretty low-key most of the time and I think you'll find it enjoyable for reading rainbow time, or really, anytime.

The song "Prisencolinensinainciusol" was a big hit in Italy. The composer - Italian singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, film director and TV host Adriano Celentano - said the song is about "incommunicability," the lack of communication in the modern world. I present it to you now as a piece of literature, which is what I think it is, experimental pop literature.

A remix got really popular a couple years ago. You can get that here (right click to download).

Celentano is using a made-up language (which sounds like English most of the time, but also German sometimes) to communicate something that would otherwise be sort of trite. He's showing, not telling. And that's what good literature is all about, folks. Whether it's in film or comics or books or whatever. I wish I could tell you that the rest of his music is just as good as this, but I can't because it's not . . . at all, at least not what I've heard.

If you're like me, many of you probably read about The Codex Seraphinianus in Justin Taylor's famously awesome Believer article, but another Italian, an architect named Luigi Serafini, used a made-up language to communicate something that is also incommunicable - an encyclopedia from a nonexistent world. Copies run anywhere from $900 to $500. Although there have been rumors of an affordable reprint for a while, none have happened yet. Until then, you can have it all on pdf below. (Shh... ; )

Get it here via Rapidshare

Strangely enough, Adriano Celectano's most lauded role as an actor was in titular role of the film Serafino. This from IMDB:

Serafino a young and innocent shepherd inherits a huge fortune. He immediately spends the entire sum in presents for his friends. For this reason he is believed mad, and his uncle decides to legally forbid him to take any decision about his fortune. Serafino liaison with his cousin drive him few steps to marry. Tired of this entire situation Serafino finally decides to come back to the mountains by his sheep.

It's cute when Italians muddle English.

I read a very good essay on nonsense recently by another Italian (I think) Ross Simonini (gotta be Italian) called "Carl Sandburg Stops Making Sense." It's all about how nonsense has so often been misunderstood as something for children. I've never read Carl Sandburg but I can't wait to do so. It's on my HUGE list of things to read in the next year or so. Damn, it is a big list. Need more bookshelves badly.

Oh, I have a couple of things forthcoming: An excerpt from my novella-in-progress, SoMeTHiNG oR oTHeR, will appear in the second issue of Radioactive Moat. And I will have an ebook on Pangur Ban Party in the near future.

I've been writing a lot on this program, WriteRoom. Hadn't been writing much but something about the program actually makes me want to write. It's weird. Anyway, excitement. Now if I could just make some money so I don't starve to death . . .

hash jar tempo // saša stanišić

2010-01-28T19:49:00.001-08:00

Get it here via Rapidshare

Hash Jar Tempo was Roy Montgomery, who's from New Zealand, and the American band Bardo Pond. This album is called Well Oiled.

It's a great sort of droney-improv-stoner-rock-everything-is-awesome-and-dramatic kind of thing. The band name is a play on Ash Ra Tempel, a group of late-great Krautrockers (they're not dead, it just sounds nice) two of whom were in Tangerine Dream. This whole thing was recorded in a jam session, which gives it special-brownie points.

Really liked this piece, "The Man With Two Heads" by Saša Stanišić over at Gigantic Online.

He is the Writer-in-Residence at M.I.T. I didn't even know they did that sort of thing at M.I.T. Good for him.

I did a reading in San Francisco the other day. Here's the video.

charlemagne palestine // georges bataille

2010-01-21T21:15:00.000-08:00

Get it here via Rapidshare

I read to this at least once or twice a week. It's just one track. I love it a whole lot.

Charlemagne Palestine is a genius. He usually performs surrounded by stuffed animals because when he was a child he thought they protected him from evil or something.

I've been working on an essay that involves him. I hope it makes it into The Believer someday and then you will all understand how great he is and how important children's toys are to how we comprehend the world. Well, all of you that still read The Believer anyway.

I don't have much else to add.

Everyone should read "The Solar Anus" by Georges Bataille. It's a short surrealist piece (some call it an essay ((but who gives a shit what it is))) from 1927. This piece is really significant, for more reasons than one.

Deleuze & Guattari reference it in Anti-Oedipus. There are a lot of things named after it, including Blake Butler, Jamie Iredell, and Amy McDonald's reading series in Atlanta. And really, it's one of those things that I already knew before I read it (like "The Picture of Dorian Gray" or "The Allegory of the Cave") but it gave me a much clearer understanding of my own ideas from reading it.

Watch BB & Co. perform one of Sam Pink's plays from his new book, which is out now, and which I will get a copy of as soon as I can put some money on my janky-ass card. And as soon as Sam and the people at Six Gallery Press fix that shit.

READING IN SF TOMORROW
(MONDAY, JAN 25TH)

I'm stoked about reading tomorrow in San Francisco. It's a series called Quiet Lightning. There are like, a bunch of other people reading. ~~I think I'm reading second to last. Or second. I don't know.~~ It's alphabetical, almost.

This is the list of readers:

Sona Avakian
Rajshree Chauhan
Sharon Coleman
Paul Corman-Roberts
Andrew O. Dugas
Robb Gardner
Melissa Hansen
Evan Karp
Mira Martin-Parker
MG Martin
Tess Patalano
Nicole Portaro
Skye Price
Reynard Seifert (that's me!)
Ian Tuttle

Starting 7pm @ Gestalt Haus. It's a bike bar. Not that kind of bike. Like, bicycles. You know, those things people ride everywhere in the Bay Area. It only costs $1 so you really have no excuse if you live around here.

I will be reading an unpublished piece called "I Remember The Day I Realized That I Was Not A Part Of You." Some people would call it a poem but I don't really make those kind of distinctions myself.

REALLY AWESOME NEWS
ABOUT MY RADIO SHOW!

My online radio show, California Select, will now broadcast live every Wednesday at 3pm on the one and only Viva Radio. In bedrooms and American Apparel stores all over the world it will follow the most excellent Art Decade show. So basically, it's a really big deal and I'm going to be take the damn thing to new levels of radness. Pulling out all the stops. Dropping gears. Flooring it. I don't even have a speedometer because I traded that shit for some NOS, man.

And now, to celebrate, I'd like to introduce you to a guy named John Cale.

atom™ // janey smith

2010-01-19T19:54:00.000-08:00

Get it here via Mediafire

This album from German electronic artist Uwe Schmidt reminds me a little of Stockhausen, if Stockhausen had been around to hear the proliferation of auto-tuners and like, glitchy cellphone interference on a set of headphones.

I was rereading Jarry's Supermale to this the other day and it was quite enjoyable. I guess it could be distracting if you speak German but you probably don't.

Apparently, Schmidt is the father of electrolatino, electrogospel, and aciton (acid-reggaeton) music. This is how far behind the United States really is on contemporary (or ex-temporary) music. He is freakishly prolific and records under many sobriquets, just check out his discography.

I recommend reading Janey Smith's pieces in the new issue of PANK. The whole issue is solid as hell, as usual. Janey is a badass. Female writers are going to save us all.

On Monday, January 25th I'll be reading at Gestalt in San Francisco as part of the Quiet Lightning reading series. I'll be reading an unpublished piece. Come if you can. It's only $1 and there are a lot of other writers.

Anyway, I'd love to wax a little more but I'm pretty busy these days. Between a girlfriend, two jobs (that pay), several jobs (that don't), and a huge/ever-growing stack of books to read, including Anti-Oedipus, which I've been consuming at a rate of ~ 5 pgs/hr, I'm totally spent.

Plus, I'm about to watch Martin Scorsese play Vincent Van Gogh in Kurosawa's Dreams. So.

white rainbow // trinie dalton

2010-01-08T09:59:00.001-08:00

Get it here via Megaupload

This album is totally incredible. Best reading album of 2009. Just kidding. I don't know. Who cares. It's very good though. White Rainbow is a newish band from Portland. They have other albums, but I've only heard this one, several times. I love it.

I first listened to the album on my flight back to Oakland while reading Sweet Tomb by Trinie Dalton, this awesome little book that I bought for my girlfriend at Domy Books in Austin, one of my favorite bookstores ever. The book is rully good and rully cheap ($8 at the store, $7 online). Really, it's more like a long short story than a novel or novella. But I think that's a good length for people in today's wacky world.

Side note: Buying books for people is the best because you can buy a book you think you will like, read it, see if you like it, and then give it to someone you also think you like; although, if you were to read the person, you might not like them either - people are like that, as are books. It's a win/win/lose/lose/win/lose/win/lose/lose/win/win/lose/win/lose/lose/win situation.

Sweet Tomb is like, a post-postmodern fairy tale (my words, whatever they mean). And not to be a total jackass, but it's sort of like my ebook zzzombiezzz in that, you know, it doesn't care if you take it seriously or not, because it is doing it's damn thing and you cannot stop it - you can only stop reading it, if you dare . . . Do the damn thing.

So I know I promised everyone pictures of my deer hunt, but unfortunately I didn't see a damn thing. Obviously the deer must be reading my blog. Probably it wasn't the best idea to alert them that I wanted to stalk them and kill and eat them and stuff. So I was completely unsuccessful and all I did was read William T. Vollmann in a freezing cold deer blind.

However, I did scarf on some delicious bacon-wrapped dove and fried venison backstrap. I highly recommend you try those things sometime. Of course, they're so much better when you've plucked them from the loins of mother nature yourself, but it was pretty close because my dad did and he looks a lot like me. Anyway, sorry to disappoint all my vegan/veggie fwends.

To my deer readers: there will be no warning next time. I'm done talking about what I'm going to do. Every time I do that I don't do the thing I said I was going to do. Like the top ten films of the decade list I was going to post and explain on this blog - I don't want to do it anymore for reasons I'm not going to explain - or the double review of Shoplifting for American Apparel & Scorch Atlas - why can't I seem to write that? So, I'm done with warnings. From now on, I'm flying off the cuff like a handle.

HAHACLEVER DOT COM

If you've noticed, I haven't updated hahaclever in like three weeks. I just took a break for the holidays, etc, and needed to get caught up on some things. I have plenty of stuff to put up but could always use more. Anyway, we'll get back to it next week. Working on some big plans for the future, like a new ebook and some other things. Maybe will actually do that dual review I just mentioned that I can't seem to do for whatever reason.

CALL FOR 'TENDER BUTTONS' SUBMISSIONS

As you may know, I co-edit Titular. We're taking submissions for a collaborative piece based on Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein. I think, whether people realize it or not, that work is hugely influential on contemporary writing. Self-published in 1914, it was Stein's attempt to bring cubism to writing. After 95 years, it is almost more relevant today than every before, even though cubism is not.

Of course, we don't want to imitate Stein's work. That's not what we do. But we do want to pay tribute to it, lightly satirize it perhaps, and subvert its purpose. Anyway, you should think about submitting 200-300 words for it. Check our submissions guidelines for more details.

There have been four Titular Collaboratives:

The Passion of Mel Gibson

Seinfeld

Nine Stories

Ulysses

Collect them all!

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS
(this is more for me than for you)

1. Adapt three pieces of writing into Super 8 short films

2. Finish writing just one of the many novellas I've started

3. Get a passport and leave North America for vacation

4. Read and make notes on at least 100 books

5. Watch and make notes on at least 100 films

6. Go to more art shows / buy more art

7. Only buy books that cannot be found at the library

8. Stop announcing plans

9. Go on more picture adventures

10. Kick ass, disregard most names

I just realized that resolutions are the same thing as announcements. Oh well.

by Peter Blegvad

christmas music that doesn't totally suck // best of the best of the best lists of 2009

2009-12-20T19:15:00.000-08:00

Since I hate Christmas music (generally), I decided to make a mix of that which I do like.
I excluded a lot of 'classics' on this, like punk novelties and Bing, etc. Because I don't like them.

Get it via Megaupload here
Or up there if you're nasty

✾

Blake Butler's 25 Important Books of the 00s
Believe the hype.

Brian Foley's 25 Important Books of Poetry of the 00s
That's a mouthful.

Shane Jones's Top Fives of 2009
Will probably be deleted soon.

Christopher Higgs's Top Twenty Albums of 2009
Hella tight.

Dennis Cooper's Favorite Fiction, Albums, Movies, Sites of 2009
Stay gold, pony boy.

Pitchfork and the Wire's Top Ten of 2009
Different strokes for different folks.

20 Jazz Funk Greats's Continuing Best of 2009
Euro-thrash intellectuals make me hawt & bothered.

Dusted Senior Writer Rob Hatch-Miller's Top Ten Albums and Reissues
Dude's been around the block. Clearly. Dusted is a small good thing.

Roger Ebert's Best Films of 2009 (Commercial & Independent)
I haven't seen very many of these so I'm in the dark here.
I liked both You, The Living and Sin Nombre a lot.

I. Fontana's Top Ten Films of the 00s
from this HTMLGIANT Post
I read HTMLGIANT too much.

Dog Days (Hundstage)
Import/Export
L’Enfant
Unknown Pleasures
Antares
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance
Lust, Caution
Lie to Me (sans audio)
Last Life in the Universe The Son

BOOOOOOOM's 64 Photos by 64 Photographers of 2009
Nice picks.

And now for something completely different:

via Jesse Jarnow's Top Ten of 2009
on the WFMU Blog

This list of lists is subject to additions. Still waiting on some. Deal with it.

✾

Finally going hunting tomorrow evening I think.

Have the urge to paint my face blue
but then I think the deer will see me.

✾

This month I had writing published in the following places:

LIES/ISLE
PANK
Slingshot
Word Riot
Everyday Genius

I felt like I was going to annoy anyone who might be interested in my writing.
But it's like, oh well. There's nothing I can do about it. Weird not having anything forthcoming though.

✾

Oh, and submit to TITULAR.
It will be fun. I promise. Fun things happening.

sack & blumm // gus visco

2009-12-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

Get it via Rapidshare here

I snagged this album via Chris Higgs's ridiculously awesome blog Bright Stupid Confetti, which, if you haven't seen it before, do yourself a massive favor and stop not seeing it, start following it, or better still, maybe you should do me a massive favor and begin stalking Chris Higgs, try to figure out where he finds all this awesome stuff, and then let me know all his secrets. That would be sweet. Otherwise you can just wait until Chris updates his blog every Wednesday.

This Sack & Blumm album, brand new this year, is really something else. It's like the perfect blend of avant-garde, jazz, pop, and folk. Some really great tuba and bass, etc. I read the new DFW story in the New Yorker to this and it was a pleasant time. I think you will find it pleasant as well.

Unfortunately the tracks are doubled up on this file so you'll probably have to delete some, but like, big whoop. Can't wait to hear more from this incredible German duo.

After having it for like a year I finally read the 2008 Vice Fiction Issue. I'm told the 2009 issue is out now. Look, I don't care what you think of Vice normally, but do not ignore their Fiction Issue or you will be missing out.

Out of all the solid writers in the 2008 issue (including Will Self and Wells Tower) I was most impressed with Gus Visco. I can't find anything about Gus Visco online. Apparently he's writing a novel. He had three stories appear in Vice Magazine, "The Complexities of the Human Sitcom," "Distance to Galactic Center," and "The Satanic Model of Psychosexual Development."

Gus's writing is the closest thing I've seen to anyone bringing Science Fiction into the 21st century. This shit could be huge. You should definitely check it out because you don't want to miss something that could be huge, do you? Of course not. So don't be stupid and ignore what I am telling you because I am telling you, Huge!

✾

Crispin Best gave me public props on my chapbook. That guy makes me think of eating Lamb Chop's feet for some reason.

I guess I can go ahead and tell you guys that I'm going to take over TITULAR pretty soon. No, I'm not invading, Jimmy Chen asked me to take over and I humbly accepted. I will be co-editing with Krammer Abrahams, who apparently may or may not be a real person, depending on how much faith you put in a twitter bio. TITULAR is cooler than cool. I am pumped as hell.

Flying to Texas on Wednesday, pictures of deer hunting adventure soon to follow. I hope I gross you out a lot.

I think that's all I have for you today. Stay out of trouble. & be careful with those M-80s.

morton feldman // eugene marten

2009-11-27T02:34:00.000-08:00

Get it here via Megaupload

Morton Feldman's "Piano and String Quartet" is a famously haunting piece of music. Written just two years before his death in 1987, its use of repetition and pattern has (perhaps appropriately) been analyzed to death.

However, regardless of its place in modern music, it's just a nice piece to hear when you need some brooding room. The Kronos Quartet, accompanied by Aki Takahashi, unsurprisingly kick some major ass and take some minor names, here in their late-80s prime.

I'm really into Eugene Marten's excerpt from FIREWORK, which is itself an excerpt from Salt Hill #23, which I can't wait to read, mostly because the cover and interior art is totally rad, and it's incredibly rare that I feel that way about a lit journal. So, check that out.

✾

There's a John Galt book project on Facebook. Great. Real great.

Re-watched The Corporation recently. If you've never seen that, please do. I think it's one of the most important documentaries to watch, given that corporations make up so much of the world today.

Whether we like it or not, how we live, how we think, and how we buy, are all informed by the structures of capitalism. And the main vehicle in driving capitalism is corporations, which makes them a huge part of our lives. Yet most people know very little of what corporations really are, how they operate, or what affects they have on our society.

And obviously people still have such a minuscule idea of the severe moral implications in allowing global capitalism to continue with its amoral and psychopathic ways, that Adam Smith can continue to be misinterpretated, and Ayn Rand can continue to be considered the champion of some free-thinking blah blah blah, and then of course Glenn Beck, etc. Well I say, FUCK JOHN GALT.

✾

In response (loosely) to Jonathan Safran Foer's new book, as well as the plethora of outspokenly vegan writers in the indie lit community, I've decided to blog about the whole process of shooting and eating a deer. When I return to Texas for two weeks around Christmas, I'm going deer hunting with my dad and grandpa. And hopefully, I will shoot something and eat it.

Of course, you don't have to look. I'll make a big disclaimer or something. Actually, I agree with Foer: people should have more respect for their food and where it comes from; but I think I do respect that process - I think about it a lot. And yeah, maybe things would be better if we had a vegetarian society, if humans were herbivores. But you know what, we're not.

I love meat. I love its texture and flavor (when it's good). And there's no way I'm giving it up. But I do think the industries - the ones that produce the overwhelming majority of meat that people consume - are disgusting. So I think the act of slaughtering, butchering, and preparing your own meat, is in fact a fairly noble cause.

Actually, I have every intention of farming when I get tired of teaching or whatever else I do until I get sick of people. As they say, from whence it came. (I grew up in the country, surrounded by farms.) So this is something I've been thinking about a lot and will tell you all about when I write my photo-essay (probably in early January).

Happy Thanksgiving And Stuff And Now David Byrne Will Tell You Some Things About The Future

jodorowsky // joshua marie

2009-11-18T19:30:00.000-08:00

Get it via Rapidshare here

If you haven't seen El Topo, I dunno what the hell you're waiting for. When I first saw it all I could find was a Japanese dub (from the Spanish) translated into English, on VHS. Now you can Netflix that shit. So stop fooling around with yourself. I see you!

What I'm saying is, this soundtrack is incredible. Alejandro Jodorowsky composed all the music by himself because that's what badasses do - they make their own damn music for their own damn films (I'm yappin bout Charlie Chaplin, Hal Hartley - you know, badasses).

Another badass is the guy who made this video, a Poem for Dorothea Lasky, Joshua Marie Wilkinkson. He's a badass for making this video, because he also wrote the poem, which he read over the video. That's why it's good, see. See what I did there.

✾

Since we're on the subject of badasses, Evan Karp reviewed Zzzombiezzz for the Examiner. I really like the way he talked about things in a real way. It's like, he's not jaded by reviewing things yet and so he makes all these awesome connections that I think people are often afraid to write in reviews usually because they don't have any cojones, also known as cajones in Louisiana.

I'm gonna have a story on Everyday Genius next month (I think) sometime, in the near future, courtesy of the awesome Sasha Fletcher. Felt 'weird' when I found out Sasha was the editor next month because I recently hyped his writing on Gigantic. Felt like that could be perceived as 'kiss-ass' or something. Oh well.

I was being a little bitch on HTMLGIANT, as usual - you know, minding my own business - when Jimmy Chen roasted the fuck out of me. That guy is really good. Hate him tender.

What else can I say about myself - Oh, I had to take the stupid GRE in order to apply to a stupid MFA program offering a stupid amount of money to all their candidates. You know, __.

The funny thing is, they don't seem to care what your score is, furthering the absurdity of their being the only MFA program I know of that requires a GRE score in order to apply. OUTRAGEOUS. But, oh well. I did OK. FML, WTFWJD, etc. Definitely dug a new canal in the essay though.

While studying, I found this quote, in the 2009 Kaplan GRE Comprehensive Program:

Too many people think of standardized tests as cruel exercises in futility, as the oppressive instruments of a faceless societal machine. People who think this way usually don't do very well on these tests.

Wonder what Kafka would've thought of the GRE.

TOTALLY RANDOM YET LOOSELY CONNECTED ASIDE

Did you guys know the Lion of Nimrud is missing? This 'priceless work of Assyrian art' disappeared somehow when we invaded Iraq. Supposedly, soldiers watched as museums were looted by jerkfaces with huge, idiotic kkkajones, perhaps even escorting many of them. Some of the treasures of Nimrud were retrieved from a vault in 2007, but the lion is still missing!

Apparently, there were a bunch of shady helicopters cruising around during that time, and people were looting the city, so - you know, these things happen. They say you have to take a broad, general view of things. Le sigh. I'm sure it will turn up in a museum in a U.N. Nation someday - where it belongs, right!

pandit pran nath // ariana reines

2009-11-08T13:28:00.001-08:00

Look at this man, this is a man:

Get the "Ragas of Morning & Night" via UbuWeb here

If you're familiar with La Monte Young, Pandit Pran Nath was his guru in the 70s. Nath studied for 20 years with the legendary Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan after leaving his family to pursue a life of music. Under the tutelage of Khan, he developed his highly unusual singing style.

American minimalism owes a whole lot to the music of Northern India in general and this guy in particular, as his teachings trickled down through Young to Terry Riley and Henry Flynt, etc. His singing intonation is sometimes likened to that of God's, if God would just talk to us, or if He existed as a sentient being with a penis, as people are wont to believe.

Nath taught at Mills College in Oakland for many years and died in Berkeley in 1996.

His Raga cycles are the stuff of legend. Rarely recorded, they are said to be his crowning achievement. These were recorded in 1986. This is a master doing his thing.

✾

I love this excerpt by Ariana Reines, from Mercury in Coconut 13. Last week Ariana's stuff was featured on HTMLGIANT and I developed a crush on her . . . poetry.

Her poetry is so light-handed and real, and yet, somehow much more complex than some sort of surface whatever. (Confession: I don't know anything about poetry.) Anyway, I like it lots. It feels good to read it. Like, it makes me feel smart and soulful and alive and like I maybe could understand women someday. (Confession: I don't know anything about women.)

✾

So, let's talk about me now.

Paul Cunningham wrote some super-sweet things about me. What a sweetie, that guy.

Dennis Cooper included my chapbook in his list of "Four Books I Read Recently and Loved". Dennis was nice enough to include me amongst some fine company, especially the radical Matthew Simmons and his novel A Jello Horse, which I can't wait to read as soon as I have access to a damn credit card.

BIG ViDEO GIVEAWAY

I've been giving away copies of my chapbook to non-writers who agree to video themselves reading one of the stories. Hopefully I will be able to put the videos up on my website in like a month so that you could, in theory, watch other people read the whole thing. I've got like two left to give away. Trying to give them to people I don't actually know in any way. So if I don't know you and you're not a writer, and you want to do this, just email me your address for a free copy.

music for the gods // sasha fletcher

2009-11-07T12:33:00.000-08:00

Get it via Rapidshare here

You have got to hear this compilation of Indonesian recordings made by the Fahnestocks in 1941, when they traveled to the Indonesian archipelago as spies for President Roosevelt, who was searching for information about his great uncle’s adventures out there.

I really love serialism. If you've heard the new Animal Collective album, you've heard its influence. But it's not a new thing, nor was it a new thing in the 1950s when rich people in the avant-garde coined the term to describe the music of people like Arvo Pärt and John Cage, later Steve Reich and company. On the contrary, I think serialism is an ancient way of playing music. And moreover, a primitive but profound weltanschauung which seems to have existed all over the earth prior to the spread of Christianity.

In other words, this shit is rad. Check it out. Good for reading, etc.

✾

Also, totally love this short piece, "One Day All Your Teeth Will Be Mine" by Sasha Fletcher, from Gigantic Magazine. Really excited to read his novella someday. The prose makes me feel like death won't be so bad really.

✾

I'm doing a little project with my roommate, Jonny Negron, who does drawings and stuff for hahaclever dot com. In order for us to work together in a way that is really meaningful to both of us and requires an equitable amount of time / creative energy, in order that we might make an equation like this:

T/Cx - T/Cy = 0 ,

wherein 0 = O = output = many pages of text & paintings

I write a page (or so ((we'll figure it out somehow))) and he paints a canvas. And we won't talk about what we're doing exactly until we're done, acting on our first impulse, in reaction to the other's thing. I'm going to post all of them on Fictionaut as we go along.

So I started things off with this piece: PG. ONE. Jonny painted something, which I will post as soon as we have a suitable picture from a suitable camera. Yesterday I wrote this piece: PG. TWO. I'll start posting them on the sidebar with my other online reading stuff.

My chapbook, How To Skin The Moon is up for review with John Madera's The Chapbook Review. Sort of nervous. But pumped to get a critical view of my work that I feel I can respect, regardless of what it says about it.

Crispin Best had some good things to say about zzzombiezzz, after 'calling me out' on htmlgiant. Unfortunately, I think Crispin might be retarded. But then I hear autistic people do amazing things all the time, like draw a detailed 18 foot sketch of the New York City skyline from memory or know pi or kill their mother because of aluminum (alright that one's not so amazing but you get the idea). What I'm saying is, I think Crispin Best might be an idiot savant.

east bay on the brain

2009-10-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

A Businessman & Roland Goity

On Sunday I did a reading in Berkeley with a bunch of other people. All the other videos and readers can be found in this Examiner article written by Evan Karp, whom I really hope continues doing his thing, documenting literature in the Bay Area.

Evan seems like the kind of guy who would help you change your tire and then ask if he could videotape you tightening all the bolts with a tire iron as if you had done it yourself, which would be weird, and then he would get your address so that he could send you the tape after he edited it so that you could show your girlfriend's dad that you're a man (or a woman). I like him a lot.

Since you weren't there (probably, although there were quite a few people there - I mean, the room was full, but well, there are a lot of people in the world - you know), you can see the videos of my pieces (in the order I maybe should have read them in) right now.

I feel like it would have been better for me to read this one first, I guess. But that's not what I did. Instead it was the pallet cleanser leading into Lauren Becker's reading. Lauren is the former editor of Dogzplot and an all-around badass. She encouraged me to continue working on the other piece I read "A Businessman &" after reading an early draft.

Lauren organized the event, which was called East Bay On The Brain and apparently this won't be a one-time thing but the first in a new reading series. This one was at Beckett's Pub. They have a huge portrait of Sam Beckett in the front, as seen above. Huge.

People seemed more into this one, I think. Apparently a guy who is going to be in a new Almodovar film was there and told someone else that he liked my reading (I think I have this correct). I'm really glad some older people liked it because I've always been worried that they wouldn't since my parents are always like, What is this about? We don't get it. And I sold some chapbooks, which was sick because I had already spent all my cash on drinks and needed some more to grub down and get home (only half-joking about this).

Anyway, it was good times all around. And I'm glad you get to see it now, thanks to Evan, who might just help you change your tire someday. I feel that it is likely.

luciano cilio // zack sternwalker

2009-10-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

Get it via Mediafire here

Found this album, "Dell'Universo Assente" by Luciano Cilio via BUTT GUTTS. It's an extremely badass combination of beautiful acoustic guitar, piano, & 70s avant-garde sounds (a la La Monte Young, etc). Really, really enjoy this and hope you do too.

One of my favorite writers, Zack Sternwalker, has a story/drawing called "Real Nurse Sleeves" on Radioactive Moat. I guess really the story is named that and the drawing is not, but whatever.

Zack has a strange and beautiful mind. His books are underground treasures and he really deserves a genius grant or something.

Can you believe it's been a month since I last blogged? Seems really strange. Probably a good thing though. I dunno.

I dunno how much I care about blogging anymore (not that I ever really did). I have a twitter and tumblr, and as a result I feel like my world is simpler (less complex) while also being more complicated/constantly engaged somehow.

I dunno what I'm talking about anymore. This is why I don't blog very much.

So, I printed a chapbook of short stories called How To Skin The Moon. It's going to be for sale at a number of bookstores in the Bay Area and hopefully nationwide (in small book/zine shops) pretty soon.

You can buy one for $5. I will have them at my reading on Sunday, Oct. 25th at Beckett's Pub in Berkeley.

You can also buy one at the hahaclever dot store.

Two of the stories - "The waR in Dm" and "A Businessman &" - were published on Pindeldyboz and Hobart, respectively. The rest are previously unpublished. Essentially the chapbook is a 64 page surrealist short story cycle about contemporary American capitalism.

If you're interested in writing a review/interview (even for yr blog ((maybe))), please contact me and I will hook you up real phat (prolly).

eliane radigue // william walsh

2009-09-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

Get it via Megaupload here

French electronic sorceress Eliane Radigue is a total drone queen.

This album is a gem of the New York avant-garde drone scene. Excellent backdrop for reading.

She even shared a studio with the great Morton Subotnick! Nerd alert, I've got a boner! ^___^

Since the early 70s Radigue has recorded almost exclusively on one instrument, the ARP 2500 modular system and tape. And you can probably see why below. It's a beautiful little flower.

Look at it. Don't drool on it!

Oh, and read this William Walsh story "Master" on PANK. For the love of dog, just do it.

✾

And now for self-promotion hour, a little wrap-up of select hahaclever related things dispersed about on the divers interwebz:

Chelsea Martin called us the new pets.com.

J.A. Tyler called my ebook, Zzzombiezzz, "massively good."

Mike Young said we seem "on the ball, in that sort of lying-on-your-belly-on-a-giant-exercise-ball-and-rocking-whimsically-back-and-forth way, which is a good way." But of course, we published him, so maybe that means we just look awkward on an exercise ball, which seems 'normal.'

Natalie Hanes, a 'normal' person who found the ebook via a twitter post, said it was "the best thing I've seen in a long time, very amusing."

There's a new story (by xTx), a comic (by Jesse Balmer), and a mixtape (by Jonny Negron), available now at hahaclever dot com.

Oh, and I have a new story up at Writers' Bloc. I like Writers' Bloc. They are like a Blue Angels pilot who has just dropped a double shot of espresso inside a coffee, chugging it down like he's late for work, making those 90 degree roll-things in quick intervals; people on the ground going, Yeah!

And, finally, I'm going to be reading at Dogzplot event in Berkeley on Sunday, October 25th at Beckett's on Shattuck Ave. Come if you can.

django reinhardt // charles jensen

2009-09-12T15:12:00.000-07:00

Get it via Megaupload here

Django Reinhardt was the man. There's even a Woody Allen movie about him. Sean Penn makes a fool of himself in it, as always. I'm just kidding, he's okay. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, it doesn't matter, just get this music for reading to; that's the point of this here blog, you know.

Check out Charles Jensen's poem(s), "from NANOPEDIA: THE SMALLEST AMERICAN REFERENCE" in the Collagist. All of the short pieces are totally amazing. Highly recommended.

I hope you enjoyed my ebook Zzzombiezzz. If you haven't read it yet, please consider taking a gander. 46 pages is somewhat deceiving, as they are pretty small pages and there's art and stuff. But it's a short, engrossing read ; ) And please share it if you feel like doing so.

Hoping people take to sharing on facebook, etc. Been some moderate success with that thus far. Really don't know why I'm writing this at 4 in the morning, but there you go.

I'm planning to keep up with writing stuff like this, which I approach as pulp fiction for "hipsters." I know that word has some sort of connotations to it. But really, it's not like I'm saying other people can't read and enjoy it on some level. Again, I only use the h-word for lack of a better way to say, "People who are willing to engage in like, being young right now?" So, you know, it may be trash, this pulp stuff I want to do; but it's fun trash, I think. Anyway, who cares?

Here are a few things which will probably appear in my next thing of this sort:

a drug dealer roommate

a people-hunting landlord

bike jousting

a rainbow-colored face tattoo

a black metal band

a hip clothing store (to be burnt down)

the living pharaoh of ashbury

a giant baby in a business suit

an interdimensional sasquatch

sleep // steven mcdermott

2009-09-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

Get it via Megaupload here

Sleep were like the Ramones of doom metal; they did everything right. I know that doesn't sound like something you might want to hear when you're reading, but trust me on this one: chilled-out drone, tribal drums, and primal chants make the perfect sound for kicking back to crack open that new novel. Oh, and this album is just one track for over an hour. I know, right?

Matt Pike (~~the singer~~) is a living legend. Strangely enough, he's a bartender at a bar near my apartment in Oakland. Really weird seeing a dude who some people think is a modern day Iggy Pop serving up cocktails to aging punk rockers. So it goes.

Also, I recommend "Big Dumb Animal" by Steven J. McDermott, published by > kill author. Nice. Really nice.

Little discussion about writing music over at HTMLGIANT. Some really good and really horrible recommendations going on there. The talk of Sunn and OM made me think of this track/album. The giant has been quite a busy place, lately. I feel like I get a lot of intellectual stimulation out of it. Even though I usually just talk a bunch of shit, I'm pretty glad it exists.

So I'm thinking about applying for an MFA program, or maybe a couple. Right now I'm considering the low-residency programs at UC-Riverside and Antioch. Both seem pretty good.

Antioch gets a lot of recognition, but I don't know about spending that much on an MFA. For me, the point is to be able to teach and make some decent money, not to owe a shit ton of cash to a private school that claims it will teach me to pursue "social justice." If I want to pursue such things, I will; and if I don't, I won't. That's how I feel about it.

UC-Riverside seems like it might be the better choice for me. I really don't want to move anywhere, nor do I want to pay a lot for school. They seem to have some good professors. If anyone has any advice, please let me know.

I'm going to be reading sometime in October, in Berkeley, as part of a Dogzplot reading. Pretty excited about it. I've never read before - I mean, in public, something I wrote. Thinking about doing something really gimmicky but "cool." But I'll probably just get drunk and fuck up. Only time will tell.

Oh, I got a story accepted to PANK. Will be doing an mp3 recording of it so that you all can hear my sexy radio voice. Also there will be an interview, I think. So you will learn more about me than you probably want to know, like what I would do to PANK if we met in a bar, etc.

Think I'm going to make a Hot Pocket and watch Twin Peaks. It's like high school all over again.

henry flynt // mary hamilton

2009-08-27T02:51:00.001-07:00

Get it via Megaupload here

Basically, Henry Flynt is the coolest electronic hillbilly violin player there ever was. 'Nuff said.

Check out "You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You, But Me And Theodore Built A Time Machine" by Mary Hamilton, published in NOÖ [ten]. It goes beautifully with the music. I recommend experiencing them simultaneously.

The Guardian's blog is attempting to brand the twenty-something online writing community Generation Zzz, which, I have to admit, I sort of like. If only because I already wrote an ebook called Zzzombiezzz, and it's sort of about that situation, I guess. (If you're interested in reading it, you can email me to check it out in advance of the website launch, which we're working on.)

So I usually don't write about personal writing issues (because everyone has them, what's the point?) but I have this chapbook of stories and now I don't know what to do with the stories. I've been trying to place them somewhere, but it's really time-consuming because I don't know which ones to send to whom, or if I should just try to get the whole thing published on its own, but then I wouldn't be able to place the stories anymore. So frustrating, having too much writing.

What I like about getting stories published is that someone else agreed they're good enough to be read. But the problem is, I don't really like all that many journals that would publish my stuff, and I feel like it won't mean anything to get accepted by ones I don't care about. Maybe I should just become a whore and stop whining. Such a conundrum, this.

carol novack // scriabin

2009-08-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

Get disk 1 via Rapidshare here

Get disk 2 via Megaupload here

Alexander Scriabin, who was a synesthete (check out his keyboard!), once composed an unfinished piece of music called Mysterium. The piece was meant to be played in the Himalayas in order to bring about the apocalypse (sweet!). But his preludes sound like Chopin knockoffs. Anyway, they're really good.

I also like Necessary Fiction's "Four Variations" by Carol Novack, who publishes the Mad Hatter's Review. Some elements are similar to some things I've written. And I like that because I'm a narcissist.

Not to digress, but Amazon, Microsoft, and Yahoo are fighting whatever Google's trying to do to give everyone access to free books online - ultimately the entirety of published literature thus far. While this is cool in theory, the way Google is going about it could mean authors will forgo royalties, etc. Not new authors so much, but old geezers who remember when using a typewriter seemed really fun and easy.

*UPDATE: There's a thing getting started called the Open Book Alliance. Check it out. Basically trying to combat the monopoly that's totally happening.

At first I thought, isn't this the same thing as a library? Can't they just do it that way (i.e. pay a fee or something)? But the thing is, I suppose, at a library you're looking at a physical copy of the book, which was purchased or donated for $X, whereas an ebook requires next to no money in terms of storage.

Of course, they could sell ads to pay for it, but would you want ads at the library? Frankly, if I had to watch a Viagra commercial every time I opened War and Peace (because I only open that book at the library), I'd wanna murder me some greedy-ass librarians.

What do you think? Does anyone care about this?

roxane gay // noujoum taarab el mauritanie

2009-08-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

Get it via Awesome Tapes From Africa

Unless you happen to speak Moroccan, this album will be great to read to. I don't know if you get distracted by lyrics, but I do. And they're usually really bad, which makes me sad. So, especially when reading, I prefer things without lyrics, or at least lyrics in a language I don't understand - don't you?

Actually, pretty much anything from Awesome Tapes will be good to read to, unless you are from the continent. Which is unlikely, since they only make up 3.4% of the world's Internet usage. The guitar and singing on this gem are fucking heavenly.

I really love this story, "Between Things" by Roxane Gay, associate editor of PANK. Published in the July issue of Pindeldyboz. So good.

There's been a board covering a missing part of the sidewalk near my apartment in Oakland. It's been there for the past four months. Over the top of the board is written, SIDEWALK, in white spray-paint. But it isn't sidewalk; it's just plywood. Sometimes I wonder if it will become sidewalk, given ample time and water.

john cage // shane jones

2009-08-12T13:25:00.001-07:00

Get it via Megaupload here

John Cage was the man. But he didn't just play all that crazy shit, he did a lot of really nice Erik Satie-esque piano music, too.

Oh, I'm going to start pairing these with stories or poems or whatever. I don't necessarily mean, like, this story goes with this music. I just mean... I dunno, something.

Check out "Avocado Scratch-And-Sniff Poem" by Shane Jones via Darby Larson's journal, ABJECTIVE.

brian eno

2009-08-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

Get it via Megaupload here

You've probably already heard this album, but it's one of my all-time favorites and I think I've listened to it more than any other piece of music. Plus, this blog is named after it, so I figured I'd start here.

Brian Eno is typically known for pop-production, but this album is great for pretty much any activity where you want to relax and think. And (for me) it never gets old. But it's especially good for reading. So enjoy!

Side note: This being the maiden post and all, I'd like to announce that I will post to this blog sporadically. But it will always contain full-album downloads of music, for the purposes of reading books to, or writing to, or studying to, or working to, or for whatever task you may need music that won't distract you and will therefore make you (a little bit) happier.