The Best Music Blog You've Never Heard of...

This is my brother Nick's wall of cds. When I visit San Francisco, I sleep on his couch at his place on 20th of Valencia. He has a music blog called monosyllabic. He doesn't post often, but every post is worth your time, especially if yer feeling pitchfork weary.

Sink Review Reviews

A thing I wrote about Tao Lin's book, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy got posted on The Sink Review. You can read it here. I also wrote critical reviews of Matthew Rorher's chapbook and Mary Rufle's book of short prose pieces, The Most of It (here and here).

I stopped writing criticism after I wrote these reviews. I haven't felt like being critical about anything for six or seven months. Reviews like this one, made me want to reevaluate my critical approach and try to write criticism that is more balanced and objective. I think reviewers need to be like Zen Monks when they write about someone else's poems. I did not accomplish this is these reviews, but if I ever write another one, I am going to try really hard.

Here Are Some Things that are Pretty Rad...

1.) But Untitled by Alina Gregorian

2.) Yayoi (thanks Elisa)

3.) The Five by xTx

4.) Molly Gaudry's Blog

5.) This.

6.) Zak Smith's Twitter Feed.

7.) This song (not this video)


8.) Grilled cheese sandwiches with kimchee butter from Momofuku Milk Bar.

9.) A JAR OF BALLOONS or THE UNCOOKED RICE by Matthew Yeager

10.) Flaming Telepaths by Lauren Levin (from H_NGM_N #8)

ok,
Ben

"Article"

THIS is funny. So is Brandon's book. The only time I ever met Brandon, we drove to Boston in a rented Prius. It was weird and pretty fun. He and Tao Lin read at the Brookline Booksmith. They had me read like two sentences from The Brandon Book Crisis and I fucked up. We got stuck in traffic on the way back to NYC, but it was still a good time.

WARNING: Numbered Items

1.) Health Care reform is confusing.

2.) I shaved my head. I was going to shave it to an inch, but I used the wrong attachment by mistake so now it's 3/8 of an inch.




3.) I am reading A Thing Among Things, a book by John Yau on Jasper Johns. This is my favorite nonpoetry thing I've read recently. Here is a good section:

"Formally speaking, Johns distinguishes himself with the modern ocular tradition- the manifestation of formalism dating back to Cubism, which in its earliest stages was a vehicle for speculation upon the existence of the fourth dimension. He focuses on what it means to live in time, rather than on the possibility of transcending our material state."

$.) I finished a second manuscript of poetry and titled it Ben Mirov. I was like "What the fuck, really? Who names their manuscript their own name?" But that is what it's called. Ben Mirov.

17.) I am also reading China Mieville's new book, The City & The City. So far it is not so great, but I like China's writing. He wrote two great steampunkish novels before this one, which is a detective novel.

f.) This is a recipe for a drink I drink everyday:

1/2 apple
1/2 medium cucumber
1 large handful spinach
juice of 1/2 lemon
ginger (to taste)
honey (to taste)
ice
blue berries (Optional. Makes the drink look brown and gnarly)
apple cider vinegar (Optional. Makes the drink taste gross, but is supposed to be good for you.)

Blend all ingredients until well-blended. Drink quickly while standing over sink.

Twitter.) I've been Twittering about once a day. It's pretty fun.

1,037.) People need money. I am a person.

9.) This is still a rad song: Lowest Part is Free

10.) I'm starting a new publishing project with my friends Alina and Kate. It is called ex machina. It's being born. We are going to publish audio files and "issues". We have no platform bias and are going to use free apps like Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter to disseminate our "publications" instantly across the universe. I can't say any more. I've said too much already.

11.) I'm probably going to get a burrito in like ten minutes.

ok,
Ben