City of Legends

Thanks to everyone who shared birthday wishes over the weekend.  Nice to feel so much love in the world.

I’ll be featuring some of the tracks from "blister" here throughout the week, as imbeds from blip.fm, where I have uploaded them.  Wait until you hear what I’ve got up my sleeve tomorrow.

First up is "Vodka and Condoms".  Remarkable mostly for the backing vocals by the lady herself, Huerta, who was the genesis of the poem that became the recording.  yes, that’s her voice.  And, if you listen, you will understand why the line stuck with me.

Aside from trying to squeeze in a viewing of District 9 and making sure I do not miss True Blood Sunday night, and with a tip of the hat to Nancy (the first one, Psyche, the Electric Lady, etc, etc) as two days ago was her birthday, two days from now is mine (we used to have a joint celebration on the 14th to split the difference), I am looking at a brutal weekend.

And loving it.

I have to finish final engineering on blister, the virtual CD I am uploading on my birthday…got my final contributor’s files yesterday.  Gonna be fun.  The cats have gone into hiding.

Still editing the new book.  Anastacia, my old, dear friend, got in touch with me and is feeling a bit down in the dumps and wants to hang out this weekend.  I have no less than three proposal efforts I am working on, aside from some quality program audits in the next week to prep for…

Yeah, it’s going to be crazy.  And I love it.

yep.  working too much on the new CD, my brain is starting to leak on the page.  lyrics, fierce and strange.

tear me apart and it’s all the same
tear me apart and rise above all the shame
tear me apart and I’ll take all of the blame
tear me apart, long as you can remember my name
I don’t mind if the grind is confined I’ve cosigned your legacy
in a hundred years all the tears and the fears won’t even be memory

I just want to know where that came from…oh. There. It’s been a bit crazy and…

I cannot recall the sound of your voice or the choice you made
when I said it was all said and done.  but it was done, and the fun was over.
fields of clover that will remain untraveled, promises unraveled
by fingers, eager and ignorant.  moments spent we can’t repent
enough for those who were never there and wouldn’t care to hear the truth.

There it goes again.  I’d climb in an isolation chamber, but the words are inside my head, even if I have already bled them to the page to rage for future generations.  Long after I am gone.

I have some surprises for you on this virtual CD.  Read the notes when they’re out.  Some contributors may be startling. 

Final recording sessions for blister should be done this weekend.  I am really torn on this one…I can see (hear?) that there is some very good stuff on the "cd"…but that just makes me want all of the tracks to be superhuman.  Dammit.

Whipping on loveaddict.  It is starting to take shape…to take life and flight and all those other good and groovy things.  Is it wrong of me to want this to be the best book so far?

Infinite thanks to Huerta, Liza, Jennifer and everyone else who is keeping me propped up while I pour my soul out into the wind.  It is draining and painful, but I don’t want to just phone it in…

Yep.  Going to release the new CD, blister, on August 16th, as a virtual CD…all tracks will appear on blip.fm that day.

Go wild.

urk.

Having stepped back for about…oh…30-40 seconds, I have reached the almost inescapable conclusion that if I want loveaddict to be the book I want it to be, the August 16th deadline is impossible.  Yes, I know I am the guy who put out three books in 100 days back in 2005, but I was younger then (in some strange ways I am actually younger now, having adjusted my mindset).

So, here’s the current plan B, er, C…well, actually, it is probably into about Zx(q) times 10 to the 16th power, but if I stop to ponder THAT, nothing will get done (see Cantor’s work with the concept of the number Aleph, which is what drove me many years ago to decide to not pursue a career in mathematics) and I’ll just end up being a ward of the state and nothing will get done and nothing will get done and nothing will get done and you are still reading this sentence, why?

Gotcha.

Anyway, the new plan is to shoot for September 16.  That gives me time to second guess myself a few thousand more times, complete the edits and get the blurbs (thanks, Larry) , foreword and acknowledgments written and/ore completed.  The new CD, blister, should be out on time…less cleanup work for it.

Wait until you see the acknowledgements…I name names.  Many names.  Many, many names.  I had to, the inspiration pool behind the poems in this volume is huge.  Some of these names I have never dared to speak outside of a dark room with an audience of one.  I may not play connect the dots, but I will run the tape.  I will be flying in the face of at least three threats of legal action and two dear friends who asked I leave them out of my memoirs…but, you know, I think I’ve finally bottomed out on the whole covering of other people’s asses at my own expense.

Let’s do this backwards, he said.  A look of shock crossed her face…

No, no…but I am updating you on the CD, blister, first.  Final recording sessions next week.  We will be out sometime in August.

Now, for loveaddict.  Still on track for mid-August.  Still no panthers or goldenhearts.  I have decided to keep the poems in it to PG-rated works.  I get tired of, for the presence of a single poem, having people pass over certain of my books (one organization that was going to buy a bulk-shipment of The Morgantown Suite Poems decided not to over the poem "if your husband comes home").  Bummer.  Well, not completely, they bought a bulk shipment of another title, on which I get the royalties…

But I wanted to make the book, while unflagging romantic, more accessible.

Next month, when loveaddict hits the streets, expect some other changes.

After repeated threats on my part to this effect, I am taking out of print the entirety of my books with iUniverse.

This means:

• from an unexpected quarter
  
• love gods of a forgotten religion
  
• 101 Great Love Poems

will all cease to be available as new.

I am cannibalizing the first two to provide a few works for loveaddict (and because the covers now offend me), but have never really been happy with either one.  The third is mostly a bastard child of The Panther Cycles and as such is out of place in my catalog.

I have also been very unhappy with the course that iUniverse has taken over the years, since I was grandfathered into their organization when they acquired Writers Club Press.  It is a tough decision, as 101 Great Love Poems has been one of my best sellers and is the only book of mine currently available in hardback, but I feel it is time.

Later this week I will be presenting you with a preliminary list of what poems will be rescued as these books go dead.

The new CD, blister, continues to take shape. 

Thank you to everyone who took part in yesterday’s Guerrilla Poetry Day…do not think I am ungrateful.  I am personally disappointed in my failure to hit all of my marks, but next time…next time.

I will be posting by midweek, some news regarding the new book, loveaddict.  I think you will find it interesting.

blister, the new CD, is going well.  We’re actually a bit ahead of schedule on that, but we’ve been down for a few days since the cats got hold of my headphones and ate them.  I have witnesses.  This is their idea of revenge for all the time I’ve been playing Joan Osborne’s "Let’s Just Get Naked" at full volume.

Just wanted to tie up neatly a few rumours and such regarding my current projects (no, not the euphemism referred to my love life…although that’s funny…)

Here’s the topics and the breakdown:

loveaddict:  Still on track for August 16th, 2009.  You;ve seent he cover and read more of the poems that will be in it than you realize, most likely.  I am having fun making this the crispest, strongest book I’ve done since…no, skip that.  Done, period.  I want this book to be "Holy Shit" good.

blister:  The CD progresses in fits and spurts and sparks.  Glad to have my voice back after last year.  I think you will find several major surprises on this disc.

Guerrilla Poetry Day:  I don’t care if one or one million poets take a few minutes that day to engage in a little guerrilla poetry.  I would like to hear stories about it and see photos and video, and will give them a place of honor.  As for me, I still am doing a multi-state series on July 5th, which will include a reading of one or more protest works, including "elegy for Neda" in Washington, DC.

Just thought I would check in…I have been so amazingly busy that I have not been very regular posting of late.

As responses come in on "into the grey" I am extremely gratified by the almost universal positive response, not just from the usual suspects, but from people I’ve never heard of in strange corners of the world.

My thanks to the band, my readers, listeners and blip.fm, which was instrumental in getting this out to so wide and audience in so short a time.

It tells me the CD is on the right track.