Negative Recovery Project

I started a new project, just for fun. I've been buying old photo negatives on ebay. I figure ebay is probably the last stop before trashville for negatives, and I'm drawn to the idea of "saving" them.  In my own life there have been several major upheavals, and in each rupture things were lost, photos included. Perhaps that's part of why I'm drawn to collecting/saving negatives. Also, as I get older I find myself getting more nostalgic, so I'm drawn to the earlier eras captured in the negatives. I got my first batch today. There is something haunting about a negative and how it comes alive in the light.

My plan is to scan them and post some here, or on a dedicated tumblr page. I have other plans for them, but they haven't come into focus quite yet.

Who knows, maybe some of the negatives will even find their way back to the people who lost them.

I love how for black and white negatives, light and dark trade places:

Alive and Kicking: Diode 4.3

EDITORS’ PREFACE

It’s deep summer in Doha, 118 degrees today and humid, though not as humid as it will be in a few weeks. By then, Doha will be a ghost of itself, most everyone somewhere other than here. I suppose I am something of an oddity in my love of Doha in the summer. Gone is the tangled, honking traffic and overstuffed, chaotic malls. This warp speed city fast forwarding from desert to mirage slows down a bit. Yes, there is the heat, and make no mistake, the raw power of it is humbling, frightening even, yet so much perseveres: the bulbuls and mourning doves pecking the seed I sprinkled on the sill, lizards darting from the aloe when I water the garden, the feral cats stalking shade and hauling their kittens behind them. It’s too hot to do much of anything, and there’s a certain luxury of filling the time with quieter pursuits. This issue of diode, I think, is a quieter pursuit, perfect for a long, summer read. Patty Paine I once had a colleague, since retired, who said that for him there were three reasons to teach—June, July, and August.  And summers are nice here in Richmond: hot by day, warm by night, generally humid, sometimes rainy, sometimes dry.  Maples and live oaks provide plenty of comforting shade.  Children are (mostly) out of school, so normally quiet neighborhoods fill with the sounds of their play.  And I still get to teach—my reasons are not the same as my former colleague’s, I guess.  This summer, it’s an introductory creative writing class, fiction, two nights a week for eight weeks in what may be the most comfortable room on VCU’s campus—cool and carpeted, windows overlooking the Anderson Gallery (currently showing “Knock, Knock!, From the Collection of Paul and Sara Monroe”).  I have fourteen students, some who will become writers, some who will not but who will always be readers.  The pace is leisurely, the teaching fun, educational, and rewarding.  And it leaves plenty of time to focus on reading diode closely now, not as a collection of work by several different poets and writers, but as the single piece it becomes when it’s finally all together. Jeff Lodge Wherever you are, we hope you enjoy this issue of diode.  4.3: CONTENTS Editors’ Preface Jeff Alessandrelli Traci Brimhall Ethan Saul Bull Joseph Cooper Susan Elbe Thomas Fink Ray Gonzalez Matthew Guenette Julie Hanson Tom C. Hunley David Dodd Lee Deena Linett  Sandy Longhorn David McAleavey Kyle McCord John McKernan Keith Montesano Alison Pelegrin Emilia Phillips Kevin Powers Margot Schilpp Matt Schumacher Nate Slawson  Special Features   Kyle McCord     Review | Pigafetta is My Wife, Joe Hall   Didi Menendez     Editing Is Like Polishing Your Dad’s Shoes   Maureen Seaton and Kristine Snodgrass     Riot   Zoe Virginia     Selected Works  Diode

Bert is weird.

Every time I put a new bag in the trash can next to my desk....

I'd write more, but I'm very busy. Those Top Chef: Canada episodes aren't going to watch themselves, eh? Top Chef: Canada is exactly like Top Chef, except Dan Akroyd shows up to judge, and pimp his Crystal Head vodka.

It worked. I don't care about the vodka, but I totally want that bottle.

I know we're still in the honeymoon phase, but summer I think you might be the one.

Finally, a chance to put in some serious time on an ms I'm working on. I don't want to say too much about it, I'm superstitious that way, but this is the first poem in the ms (at least for now):

Lowering

Leaving hour, how quick

it came. The train echoed

across the valley, over Tickfaw Creek,

trembled the ryegrass at the edge

of town, then further

still, beyond Black Mountain

clear to strange weather.

Now, six days from land

the compass has gone out of me.

These cursed waves thrash

like thieves, and what a mockery

of song the wind is making. Dearest,

the sea is another tongue

for loss, for misery, for coffin.

For grief: the rusty hinge of it,

the knife stab sudden of it.

(Thanks to Anti- for publishing this poem here: http://anti-poetry.com/anti/painepa/ )


I'm also putting the final touches on Diode 4.3  It's a good'un.

http://diodepoetry.com/

Summer break, I know we just met, but I think I love you.

This is the first Sunday in a very long time that I didn't have to wrench myself out of bed at 5:30 am to get in some writing before heading off to work at 9:00. To celebrate, I slept in until 7:00. I worked out. I read Diode subs. I napped!

Summer, I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship.

I even had time to look at copyright free images, just for fun. This one is my favorite of the day:

Potential tattoos? Something to go with this perhaps:

The Tide Has Been Gathered

Three days ago, I got the proof for Gathering the Tide: An Anthology of Contemporary Gulf Poetry. A poet blogger who was reading submissions for a journal wrote on his blog awhile ago that when he saw editing an anthology on a cover letter it didn't register for him as a notable accomplishment. He didn't think it should be included on a cover letter at all. Ah, such ignorance. Khaled Mattawa gave me a great analogy for what it's like to edit an anthology. He said that when you set out you think it'll be like inviting a bunch of interesting people over for a pleasant dinner, but in reality it's like managing a large, incredibly busy restaurant, 24 hours a day. Khaled was right. Gathering the Tide weighs in at 400 pages, it took almost 3 years to complete, and it consumed just about everything in its path: time, relationships, my own writing. There are 45 poets in the anthology, almost as many translators, and 70% of the work in the anthology is original, and will appear in English for the first time. The project was difficult from the first moment to the last. One of the biggest hurdles was finding and contacting poets. Poets in the Gulf generally don't have Facebook accounts, and most of them don't work in universities. In Gathering, maybe 6 of the poets teach in a university, the rest are journalists, film makers, physicians, government ministers, business owners, and in one case, the Emir of Dubai. Translating, and editing translated work is slow, painstaking work. Translating from Arabic to English is particularly difficult. But now it's time to look forward not back, though as you can tell, that poet blogger's comment stuck in my craw, a bit. I'm proof-reading the anthology for the millionth, but last time, and that's a really, really good thing.

Think Small

Rather than talk about all the big things going on: trying to manage a behemoth of a grant project, conferences that are looming, the usual end-of-the-semester stress-fest, I'd rather focus on something smaller, and something that is linked to one of my favorite stress relieving activities: photography.

Recently, I got "The Pick" Digicam made by Fuuvi, for $65.00 from the amazing Four Corners Store:

http://www.fourcornerstore.com/

"The Pick" is a 2.0 megapixel digicam with both still and video capability, it has a USB integrated in the camera, takes 1280x1023 pixel images, has an f2.8 lens, 100 asa, and a Micro slot built in.

And as you can see, it's adorable:

You can't beat it for portability and ease of use. It's small, about the size of a USB drive. From the photos I saw of it before I bought it, I thought it had a rubberized surface, like the Superheadz Ultra Wide and Slim, but it doesn't. It's all plastic goodness, which makes it a bit slick. I dropped it about 2 minutes after getting it out of its package, but it proved to be a tough little camera and it works fine, despite it's tumble. Insert a Micro memory card in the slot on the side opposite the USB; slide the on/off button to on; and you're ready to shoot. Since there's no view finder, it'll take a bit of practice to learn how to shoot with "The Pick." I have noticed, that like with a Holga, you'll want to be a bit further back than you think you need to be to get the shot you want. The take a step back rule works well with this camera.

Uploading photos from "The Pick" to your computer is as easy as removing the end-cap and inserting the camera into a USB port, like a jump drive.

I haven't had a lot of time to take photos with it yet, but here are a few shots:

I like the lo-fi look of the photos, and it does nicely with bold colors. It has a glass lens, but I almost wish it had a plastic lens to get even more extreme lomo'ish photos. For lo-fi digis "The Pick" pales in comparison to the Zumi Triple+++ which offers tons of options, and creates random effects that more closely approximate the lomo experience. However, "The Pick" is much less expensive than the Zumi, and is also much smaller and easier to use. In the time it takes to pry the Micro card out of a Zumi, you can upload all your pix from "The Pick."

All in all, "The Pick" scores high for cuteness, mobility, ease of use and affordability. It has great spy cam potential, and I like the photos it takes, though I hope that through more use I can discover how to get more out of the camera. Also, it comes in many colors, which makes me want to collect them all.

Monster Plant as Metaphor....

....for AWP: Impossibly large, spectacular, and also a little bit freakish.

Much good can be said about this year's AWP--it was wonderful to meet Diode readers and contributors, and the Diode/Blackbird reading was stunning. The flight over was one of the easiest I've ever had. Direct flight: Doha to DC, 14 hours going, 12 hours back. If I could, I would turn my life over to Qatar Air. From the time you arrive at the business class lounge until you are set gently down at your destination, Qatar Air pampers you with satin bags plump with comfy pajamas, lovely toiletry bags stuffed with lotions and perfumes, hot towels, and more food, drink and chocolate than one would ever consume in a normal 12/14 hour time period. Word of warning: if you want any chocolate chip cookies however, don't travel with Lauren Maas because she will eat them all, leaving you stale, crumbly shortbread. But back to AWP. Though I loved AWP for the readers and contributors and the off-site reading, and I loved seeing so many friends I hadn't seen in a long time, some since last AWP, some for almost a decade, it wasn't my favorite AWP. I spent most of my time at the book fair, and the room Diode was in was insanely loud. It was so loud that it was almost impossible to have a conversation. I didn't like the lay out of the book fair in general, it was too maze-like and sprawling. I also didn't like that, once again, there was no wifi in the book fair leaving online journals at a distinct disadvantage. I think most people thought that Diode is a company that makes pins and stickers.

The freakish part? Where to start.... Overheard: "The odor of poet angst and ambition in this place is like, WOW, you know?" Experienced: The man who lurched up to the Diode table at 10:00 am with a mini-bar sized bottle of Jack in his hand and asked if Diode accepts poems telepathically. I said "Yes, but if accepted, they will be published telepathically." No reaction. The man then picked up a Diode pin and asked "Diode? What the hell is Diode?"


Monster Plant as Metaphor....

....for this semester: See all those buds? Clusters and clusters of them? They represent all the stuff I have to do, most of which was due yesterday. I love my job--truly, madly, deeply, love my job--but every semester gets exponentially busier. Check out VCUQ's home page. See all those events? At least 3 a week, with a couple major ones thrown in just for fun, like the week long design conference next month. Well, behind all those events is usually an exhausted committee that somehow, and usually at the last minute, made it all come together. Throw in teaching, a serious research push, and mix with even more committees, mostly of the search variety, and it makes for monster plant as metaphor. Would I have it any other way? No. But man alive, did you see all the buds on that thing?

We're Baaaaaack!

Today was the start of Spring semester 2011. 17 weeks until summer!

You may remember this freakish plant from last semester:

I was hoping that I didn't miss it doing something spectacular over break. I didn't. It just got taller. A lot taller. And it put out a bunch more branches with what looks like buds on the end:

It was a fairly uneventful day. I finished my syllabus, and tidied up the office. The big excitement was that this went by my window every 5 minutes. I think it's the new Education City shuttle. Why it looks like a train ride at Chuck E Cheese I have no idea.

Diode/Blackbird AWP Off-Site Reading

diode/Blackbird AWP Off-Site Reading

Washington, D.C. AWP 2011

Thursday, February 3rd at 8 p.m.

The Avalon Threatre, 5612 Connecticut Ave., NW

diode  and Blackbird are pleased to announce an off-site reading by

• Dilruba Ahmed
• Rae Armantrout
• Victoria Chang
• Erica Dawson
• Oliver de la Paz
• R.H.W. Dillard
• Matt Donovan
• Claudia Emerson
• Beckian Fritz-Goldberg
• Bob Hicok
• T.R. Hummer
• Christine Klocek-Lim
• Brian Teare
• G.C. Waldrep

For more information, check out...

diode on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001892451632


Blackbird on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/blackbird.journal

--

http://www.diodepoetry.com/
http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/

http://www.theavalon.org/

http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/

Happy Holidays!

Dean Young

A letter from Tony Hoagland:

Dear Friends,

If you are reading this, you are probably a friend of Dean Young and/or a friend of poetry. And you may have heard that our friend is in a precarious position. Dean needs a heart transplant now. He also needs your assistance now.

Over the past 10 or 15 years, Dean has lived with a degenerative heart condition--congestive heart failure due to idiopathic hypotropic cardiomyopathy. After periods of more-or-less remission, in which his heart was stabilized and improved with the help of medications, the function of his heart has worsened. Now, radically.

For the last two years he has had periods in which he cannot walk a block without resting. Medications which once worked have lost their efficacy. He is in and out of the hospital, unable to breathe without discomfort, etc. Currently, Dean's heart is pumping at an estimated 8% of normal volume.

In the past, doctors have been impressed with his ability to function in this condition. But now things are getting quickly worse. Dean has been placed on the transplant list at Seton Medical Center Austin, and has just been upgraded to a very critical category. He's got to get a heart soon, or go to intermediate drastic measures like a mechanical external pump.

Whatever the scenario, the financial expenses, both direct and collateral, will be massive. Yes, he has sound health insurance, but even so, he will have enormous bills not covered by insurance--which is where you can help, with your financial support.

If you know Dean, you know that his non-anatomical heart, though hardly normal, is not malfunctioning, but great in scope, affectionate and loyal. And you know that his poetry is what the Elizabethans would have called "one of the ornaments of our era"--hilarious, heartbreaking, courageous, brilliant and already a part of the American canon.

His 10-plus books, his long career of passionate and brilliant teaching, most recently as William Livingston Chair of Poetry at the University of Texas at Austin; his instruction and mentorship of hundreds of younger poets; his many friendships; his high, reckless and uncompromised vision of what art is: all these are reasons for us to gather together now in his defense and support.

Joe Di Prisco, one of Dean's oldest friends, is chairing a fundraising campaign conducted through the National Foundation for Transplants (NFT). NFT is a nonprofit organization that has been assisting transplant patients with advocacy and fundraising support since 1983.

On behalf of Dean, myself, and the principle of all our friendships in art, I ask you to give all you can. Thanks, my friends.

Yours,

Tony Hoagland

http://www.transplants.org/donate/deanyoung

Bahrain, How Well You Know Me.

I don't know if this is a Bon Jovi tribute band, or a tribute to the tribute band Bon Giovi, but does it really matter? If only I didn't have to go to a conference in Beirut at the same time.

Beneath the Radar

I spend a lot of time at school, and it can be stressful, particularly at this point in the semester, so I like to go outside a few times a day and walk around. I try to notice something that might otherwise be easy to miss. Sometimes I take a camera, sometimes not.

Here are a few things I noticed last week that many might not know exists right under our collective VCUQ noses.

This plant has sent up this ginormous stalk, probably 6 feet fall, that in turn is sending out smaller shoots that look like they are going to flower. It looks like a giant flower is going to emerge from the very top. I don't imagine this happens very often. I've been checking on it every day. I hope it's not one of those plants that creates spectacular flowers for like 10 minutes, or just on weekends.

In the desert one craves color, and I found this wonderfully colorful plant (this shot is straight from the camera, no photoshopping) near the smoking area. 

Also behind VCUQ, near pallets, sheds and giant trash bins is the "Cat Cafe" where some of Education City's cats come to eat. The cats that can be caught are taken to the vet, neutered, and then brought back to Ed City. This keeps the cat population way down, but every now and then we get kittens. There are 3 in this litter, two orange tabbies and this grey and orange tabby.  This is the boldest of the 3 and allows me to pet it so long as there is food involved.

It's back to work tomorrow. Who knows what I'll find.

I'll think about that tomorrow.....

This represents my next big project. It involves 5 faculty, from two Uni's, across 4 disciplines, and 9 students from 3 majors. The proposal to get funding for it was submitted on Wednesday, so fingers crossed.

But, tonight I'm headed here....

....so I'll think about all those menacing stickies when I get back next week.

I'll be in St. Gallens, Switzerland for The Conference on the Book. I am definitely going here:

Here:

And here:

Not necessarily in that order.

Happy? Dream. Lomo? Hellya

Oh, this is going to be fun!

I love the translations on these notebooks:

"Dream
Function: noun
1 .a: aeries of thoughts, langurs, or agnations
                                     occurring during sleep
2. An experience of waking lide having the characteristics
of a dream : as a : a visionary creation fo the imagination
     b:a stem of mind marked by abstraction of roicese
                                                                   from really

Happy?
Function: adjective
1. tarvored by luck or torture fortunate
2. nothing thing, attractive or well adapted felicitous
                                                        to happy checkup
3.evjoying of characterized by well-being
                                        and  contentment

A Day.

My day:

6:21. Tried to sneak into kitchen so Ernie didn't hear me and start his brain piercing meowing. (Bert & Ernie are on lock-down at night in a room off the kitchen because if they are given night-time freedom they will completely dismantle the house while we sleep.)

6:22: Failed at sneaking into kitchen.

6:22--8:30: Coffee.              Dog, fish, cat, cat, patio cat feeding. Made the web rounds. Spent 45 minutes working on a short story.

9:00-4:30, or the VCUQ portion of my day.

Met with honors student about dossier essay, taught two sections of ENGL200, students worked diligently on discovery draft (<3 my ENGL200 classes) wandered around the building for awhile whining to whoever had the misfortune of being in their office about various, inconsequential complaints, worked on faculty research grant proposal, had a wonderful visit with a student who graduated last year, then ran into another student who graduated last year  (is it obvious that I wrote "who graduated last year" twice because I have no idea if it's alumna or alumni or alumnae or aluminum?) answered exactly a gajillion emails, remembered we now have a coffee shop in the building and was made happy, drank a froofy coffee drink and then talked fast for about half an hour.

5:00 to present, or the non-VCUQ portion of my day.

Picked up film on way home. Decided I'm super in love with film.

Did work I should have done while at VCUQ. Why do work at home I could have done at VCUQ? Well let me pose a question in response: Is Project Runway season 1 playing in the background at VCUQ? I rest my case.

Wondered what to do with the pile of photos on my desk.

Decided Project Runway season 1 needs my full attention.

This is the episode where the designers had to design wedding dresses for the models. Two best quotes from the episode (both from Jay, of course)

"She bangs into the room and is baaahaaaaaa baaaahaaaaaaaa."

"And Morganza want me to make a see though tank dress for the beach with flip-flops and dirty hair."

French Fry Floss

I went to Carrefour this morning. I love shopping in Doha. You never know what you might find. The above wins the truth in packaging award.

This is the cutest thing I found while shopping today. It IS very mifty!

Um, yea, french fries do count as a vegetable.

This is a shirt for a child. It reads: "My elegarico (?) Amusing life/I love all these all/Forever/Forever/Best stage." I have no idea what's up with the hands.    

I like this graphic, but for a three year old? Hmmmmm.

Best, Hope, Happy! SKULL! Fine Day, Star, Rocket, DEAD SMILEY FACE!

And, oh! My printer is now working!!  I've begun nesting.

It is glorious and sweet to die for one's printer

This is my 6th year at VCUQ, and though I would really like to reflect on my time here, there is a much more important issue I need to focus on: my printer. My printer, and why no one will come to hook up my printer so I can actually use my printer to print things that need printing. A major influx of new people and the expansion has created equipment shortages and it's getting kind of Lord of the Flies'ish up in here. Printers have become a major commodity. I know I should be grateful that I at least have a printer even though I can't use the printer making my printer a sort Schrödinger's cat, both dead and alive, but paranoia is setting in. I've heard rumblings that another department is manuevering to claim printers, to TAKE printers from those who have printers and who need printers just as much as the people who want to take the printers away. I have decided to take a stand. I will not let anyone take my printer. I am moving into my office, which will henceforth be known as bunker 162a. I will remain in bunker 162a every day, around the clock, to protect my printer, which when it was hooked up last year was a wonderful printer, and which will one day be hooked up again and go back to being a wonderful printer that prints things that need printing.