Thinly veiled marketing; movies with dick jokes; White Male Heterosexual Poetics

I.

I've never lived on the coasts or went to a liberal arts college and I've never lived in a "college town" until now, and I have picked a hell of a place. Stillwater is okay, but I don't travel around it much. People outrage over two Wal-Marts and Chili's and that stuff and that all sucks, but I don't know, the weather bothers me most. 82 during the day and then 40ish at night. There's no middle ground. It overcasted yesterday and stuck around the high-60s, which was nice, and Nebraska-OSU meant the town was easy to navigate. I don't like using the word "happy"--who knows what that means, but I do like driving around on Saturday/Sunday afternoons in the fall. South and East KC provided that opportunity pretty regularly. Stillwater doesn't: the town is small and everybody is out, so it's kind of miserable trying to get downtown or on Perkins--the big strip of Wal-Marts and Chili's. Everybody's out and having a good time and I hate it.

Best thing about football games, though: the town dies. I drove to a coffee shop and met with Haesong and Andrew Terhune and we talked about the first year exam and conducted a "team-building exercise" by watching Jackass 3D. Sometimes, people take movies too seriously but not seriously enough. Jackass 3D was pretty good--I look forward to True Grit and Tron Legacy.

II.

I think white male heterosexual American poets should stop writing about jazz, one thing, and another thing: we should not try to write about our vacations to third world countries; we confuse sympathy and empathy for the locals. I think the one thing a white male heterosexual American poet can take on in a political sense, and not sound like a retard or a colonial, is in the context of class. That's the one grief a white male heterosexual American poet can experience first-hand that doesn't involve relationship heartbreak.

III.

I am reading with Justin Runge on November 5th as part of An Actual Kansas.

This all I have right now.

MARKET SYNERGY

PANK Magazine asked me some questions.

Jellyfish 3.0 is up with two prose poems.

My friend suggested I try anacoluthon. I always thought my work is inherently messy/strange. I don't know if I can get away with that.