I haven’t been posting lately, sorry.
I just finished my teaching semester last week and this week I started teaching summer school, so I had about, umm, three days off in between. They call that a weekend.
On top of that i’ve got a cold, that feels to me like bronchitis, and I even lost my [...]

Posted in books, fiction, questions that plague me, shopping, television 1 Comment »

*What should the future President read?
The New York Times Book Review asked a handful of writers to recommend books for the presidential candidates. (JFK photo from Conelrad.com)

I love love love Junot Diaz’ words and John Irving and Francine Prose are pretty wonderful, too.  And then there’s Gore Vidal…
Here are some of the higlights:
LORRIE MOORE
For Obama: [...]

Posted in books No Comments »

The gym has been great not only for my health and soon-to-be ripped-ness, but I’ve been catching up on NewYorkers left and right.
I finally read the wonderful piece on Frank O’Hara’s writing by Dan Chiasson from April 7. (photo from TheNewyorker.com)
I’ve been a fan of Frank O’Hara for some years now, ever since the [...]

Posted in books, poetry 1 Comment »

That’s the title of a memoir written by the incomparable Marge Piercy. Piercy spoke Friday night at the Literary Arts Festival at one of the colleges where I teach. She was great: cranky, funny, obnoxious, generous– and such an amazing poet. When asked by a student what advice she had for new writers she exclaimed: [...]

Posted in books, cats, poetry, ted 2 Comments »

Write now (ha ha, I made a literary joke!) i’m totally into my New Yorkers.
Especially at the gym, which i’ve mentioned before. The elliptical… you know what I mean.
This last week I read the article A Dip in the Cold, by Lynne Cox, about her latest long distance swim through the Northwest Passage near Greenland. [...]

Posted in Uncategorized, books No Comments »

Amen to that. (did you know Jeff Goldblum was in this movie?)
It’s been such a long week; i’m so glad it’s Friday.
Last night was another function for the Literary Arts Festival that i’m a part of at the college where I teach. The readers were all local/San Diego writers and included:
Jim Miller read [...]

Posted in books, fiction No Comments »

Like most folks, I get behind in my NewYorkers.
But since I started back up at the gym i’ve been taking them to read while on the cycle-thingy and the walky-army thingy (the bike? the elliptical? stairmaster?)– you can see how much time i’ve spent in a gym in my life.
Anyway, recently I read the story [...]

Posted in books, poetry No Comments »

I’m so digging on The Believer Magazine’s 2008 Film Issue.
This is the first time i’ve ever bought a copy. I’ve read it at friends’ houses, i’ve been to the website– i’ve long been a fan of Heidi Julavitz (In grad-school I studied for a couple of semester’s under her hubby Ben Marcus). But for [...]

Posted in Movies, books, cary elwes, fiction No Comments »

I’m a bit swamped this week, what with working on my book/chapters
and grading and preparing for this Literary Arts Festival at one of the colleges where I teach Creative Writing (i’m giving a talk for their “Writer as Activist” Festival Theme–but more on that another time).
In the meantime, here is one of my latest finds/purchases [...]

Posted in books, cary elwes, fiction, shopping, vintage books 1 Comment »

ok ok, another quick movie review…
last night Ted and I watched Margot at the Wedding.
Ooof. I loved Noah Baumbach’s last movie, The Squid and the Whale, and this one is pretty genius as well but SO SO SO twisted. I may be twisted myself, though, because I like how Baumbach puts it all out [...]

Posted in Movies, books, fiction 1 Comment »