To be honest, it kinda bums me out! Tour this year was an absolutely amazing experience; riding for 1500 miles with one of my best friends, Mark Paich...riding for roughly half that distance with someone who I just met back in January, the Astronaut Writer. For someone who just started out on her poetic journey 7 months ago, she's turning into one of the most exciting and vibrant young poets I know. I can't possibly say enough good things about her; suffice it to say that I'm honored as hell to have shared stages/floors/van space with her, and I'm looking forward to the myriad opportunities to collaborate with her. The chapbook "God & Country" is out now and available through the WhatIs174 storefront - I highly suggest you check that shit out. Some great things are in this chica's future, and you're gonna want to be able to say you were with her from the start.
I was profoundly fail-tastic in updating some of our stories from the road, and I'm a firm believer in not trying to recapture the magic of past moments once they're gone. Nevertheless, I can tell you these things:
- People from Massachusetts are given a worse rep than they deserve
- Providence, RI is now my second-favorite city in the US (second only to Chicago)
- three legged dogs are some of the most triumphant creatures ever
- just when you think your cynicism and distaste for humanity is at its worst, the hospitality and kindness of strangers will blow you right the fuck away and remind you that people are still pretty good overall.
A few weeks ago I had the good fortune to share the stage with Prayers For Atheists. They're a punk band signed to Sage Francis' Strange Famous label. They also happen to be fronted by one of my favorite poets (I know, I have so many of those) Jared Paul. I really feel like a parent playing a game of 'favorite kid' here, but at the risk of sounding like I don't appreciate all the other shows I've been blessed with this year, this one has to have been my favorite. The venue - a post-apocalyptic themed basement-of-a-bowling-alley that looks exactly like an underground bunker, and is called "the Fallout Shelter" - is just amazing. Randy and Co. take care of the bands (and poets) that come through as though they were the biggest rock stars on the planet. The kids, though small in number, are huge in heart, and really throw down for all the performers like nobody's business. I had the privilege of sharing the bill with a Pittsburgh-based band called grab your gun who were playing their very first show ever that night, and they set the bar crazy high. If you've never had the chance to watch a band play their first show ever, it's really a special experience. It's never the tight, polished, professional show you'd expect from a band that has their set down to a science; instead, you get an unleashed bundle of raw, nervous energy, enthusiasm, and this sense of sheer joy that comes from doing your thing for a roomful of people and realizing "hey, we're really doing this!" You only get this experience in the underground. Most venues are in the business to turn a profit, so it's rare that anyone is willing to take a chance on untested new acts. So really folks, do yourself a favor, and support whatever local scene you're lucky enough to have. Find out where the basement shows are happening and check it out!
But enough reflection. Time doesn't stop, and neither do we.
I have a couple of projects lined up that I'm really excited about.
First off, I've started the process of putting together my next book. I've got no timeline for this, although I'm looking at an early 2011 release date. I'm pulling out all the stops on this one; it's gonna be as close to a full-length manuscript as a chapbook gets, with a slew of brand new poems PLUS some prose pieces/short stories I've written over the years, a reprint of an essay I did for Broken Teeth earlier this year, and some journal-esque musings. My good friend Mark Paich is working on an artistic concept to compliment the title, and the overall theme of the work. It's the first time I've ever gone beyond the limited scope of my own abilities and asked somebody to step in for me on the artwork, and I couldn't be happier to have one of my closest friends taking that step. I haven't seen anything yet, but he tells me he's got the basic concept figured out. I've settled on "Fixed Wing Prayers for Crashing Jets" as the forthcoming title. Hopefully soon, Mark will give me something concrete to post regarding artwork, but for now that shall remain a mystery.
The other project coming up through 174 Publishing is just as exciting, because it's collaborative!
While on tour, I picked up a book of poetry called "Newspaper Blackout" by Austin Kleon. The general concept of his book is that he created poems by blacking out all but select words from newspaper articles. It's pretty cool stuff, with a pretty long and amazing history. About the same time that I started reading that, Joelle showed me a couple of new poems she had written. I don't know what exactly inspired me to do so, but I printed one of them out, took out my trusty Sharpie, and did my own blackout of her poem. It turned out better than I had expected, so I fired up Photoshop and came up with a graphical representation.
When I showed it to Joelle, she observed it would only be fair if she gave the same treatment to one of my poems. The wheels began to turn in my head, I called up Mark on the phone, and came up with the idea to do a book where the three of us - having become such good poetfriends on tour - did a blackout collection. We're untitled as of yet, but the premise of the book is simple: Three poets. Two poems each. Blackouts of each other's work. We create entirely new poems by deconstructing the work of two good friends. It's gonna be interesting to see how this shapes up, but I think it'll be pretty cool. I have a lot of other crazy ideas with this, but as of right now they're too unstructured to share publicly. Just rest assured that if things play out the way I think they are capable of, it'll be one of the most fun and challenging ventures the three of us will have been a part of.
It's been a busy summer! National Poetry Slam is three weeks away. So much to do, so much already done.
Goddamn, it's good to be alive!
W.James
1982-XXXX
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