& more New York photos

David Noriega has some coffee.

The view from Alex's window (thanks for the bed).

Meeting Barbara.

At the MoMA, people are sassy on their way to the restrooms. See Minnesota State Capitol for their restroom use policy.

Immersive video installation that suggests taking off your shoes and suggests an eyeball, at least from above.

From DC to NYC

I left DC yesterday evening, spoiling myself a little with an Amtrak ticket instead of taking the bus. Good decision, especially since I got to spend a little time in Union Station.


When we passed through Baltimore, I looked for Omar and Snoop on the dark streets full of vacants. No dice.

I got to Mathias & Jules's place by 10:15 or so without making a single wrong turn all the way from Penn Station.


I know I'm home here when there's a mammoth in the window. I guess the plants were really huge in the time of mammoths, too.

Two Acts, Overheard

Act I

1. Pancake
2. We don't have pancakes
1. He said "pancakes"
2. No pancakes
1. I swear, "pancakes"
2. Pound cake
1. Pound cake!
2. It sounds like pancake!
1. Oh, pound cake!
2. Pancake, pound cake, pancake, pound cake
1. Pancake, pound cake, pancake, pound cake
2. Pancake, pound cake
1. Ok, I need some pound cake

Act II

Mommy, but did you know that bunnies don't speak?

New York Mathias Reading

Mathias Svalina, NoCoastFilm's most pimped poet, will be reading in Brooklyn tonight.

You really do owe it to yourself to be there. He likes wolves, and writes poems about them with Jules Cohen.

Kitchen Press & Cannibal Books
invite you to eat from the chopping block
w/

Erin Elizabeth Burke Run Down the Emphasis (Kitchen)
Thibault Raoult I'll Say I'm Only Visiting (Cannibal)
Mathias Svalina Why I Am White (Kitchen)

Friday, November 2nd, 8 PM
Unnameable Books
456 Bergen Street
btwn. 5th & Flatbush

Refreshments served, but you may also BYOB.
Kitchen Press and Cannibal Books products will be available for consumption.
Unnameable Books carries an excellent selection of poetry from independent presses.
This event is free for all.

This is how M. and I will look if you don't go.

David Byrne Biking in New York

I love the perspective on this, particularly in the ending. Just magic, somehow. That, and David Byrne is just the coolest person, amiright?

No Vampires

Mathias Svalina's poembook Why I Am White is now out from Kitchen Press. Get it. Mathias will be doing the book release reading in Brooklyn on November 2nd. I think poets need roadies, so I'm attempting to develop the Poet-Roadie persona between now and then.

Last night, Ande, Mathias and I made an excellent array of tapas. Mushrooms in sherry, mixed olive tapenade, pan y tomate, gazpacho, mahon, and plenty of bread, accompanied by sherry and wine. I consider it a distinct measure of success when 3 of 4 prepared dishes contain raw garlic.

Tomorrow is the Heatstroke 100 ride. Felice and I have received our uniforms, and shall be ready to go at 6:30 in the AM.

Cycling in Brooklyn

Spent the afternoon/evening biking around Brooklyn with my dudes John and Alex. They had an extra '70s Schwinn roadie, lady-frame, for someone about 6 inches shorter than me. We posted it all the way up, and I rode very upright in my dress. Took a few blocks to get the feel for riding against traffic, through traffic, blowing lights, and then a long hill at which I found out the brakes on this bike are not as good as mine led to a near-miss with getting totally run over. After several legs of rides, I'm hooked like an unlucky fish.

We had nice Saturday afternoon reading and beer drinking on a secluded little dock where the Gowanus Canal Canoeing Club is headquartered, close enough to an outdoor concert to hear but not have to pay. Picked up some Cuban food (chile poblano with calamari and shrimp for me) in Carroll Gardens and returned to the dock, where we met a nice dog named Roxy. Then watched the last of the bands from a bridge across the canal.

I could live here. It's been wonderful to be in New York for about 24 hours without having entered Manhattan.

From Pride to Predator

This morning, walking in to work, I saw a woman step nonchalantly a foot out of her way to crush a roach, then pause a half-step back, posing in satisfaction.

Yesterday, Ben told me all about cheeseburgers. He could not eat them; his tongue felt like he imagined it would be like if he had a cat's tongue.

When I had to do the Gallup StrengthsFinder for work, I found out that I think a lot and that I'm kind of a demanding asshole because of it.

I'm better at admiring romance from afar and in works of fiction than appreciating it in reality. See also: I finished watching Pride and Prejudice with Mathias on Tuesday night. We talked about playing the Pride and Prejudice video game, wherein you are Miss Elizabeth Bennet and you have to keep as far away as possible from Mr. Darcy in any given room. The A and B buttons, when pressed, make you say "vexing" and "insufferable," respectively. We also discussed the remake, Pride and Predator
, wherein Mr. Darcy is CGI-replaced by the Predator, or wherein there is a full shot-for-shot remake with Mr. Darcy played by the Predator.

The live soundtrack that Man's Last Great Invention did for Predator was simply fantastic. This will be the start of an ongoing live soundtrack series at Lincoln's new State Theater. Couches, beers, and movies. Excellent.

I'm heading to New York 2 weeks from today.

My bike, according to FedEx tracking, is in Lincoln.