Interdisciplinary Mayhem

HOLY CRAP, I GRADUATED!

Graduation! "Seeding Easter Island!" Got my MFA! Woo!

Details follow. Blog-style details: too many of them, not thought through properly, etc. Good luck sloggin' through it...

NYMPHE and SELLING OUT

So why haven't I been posting here? Well, I'm sitting around frozen in terror that I'm about to start my G5 and kick in on my thesis/portfolio!

Not really. I've been very busy with artstuff. I have a number of projects in the works which deal directly with the issue of being a childless woman in a family-focused society.

My musings about being alternately happily childfree and miserably childless can be found on the NYMPHE blog.

If you are interested in my various selling out discussions, you might want to buy (heh, that's right, *buy*) a copy of a chapbook we at Plazm wrote and created for our recent event at the back room. I believe it even comes with your own little button that says "WHORE." The book is called "The Wife, the Mistress, & the Prostitute" and is available at Plazm Books (click on the very last, dark-covered book).

We could be heroes... just for one day.

okay this is the coolest thing ever. i was doing a vanity search on myself (which sounds a little less kinky than the act of Self-Googling), and i showed up in a new spot: on someone's MySpace list of who their "heroes" are!!! now come on, that just rocks out. me, a couple other portland lit peeps i heart, and stephen colbert.

i don't know why this makes my day, far more than, i don't know, some other sort of compliment. and of course i know the hero-poster, it is a very heroic writer and educator of lit-rah-chure, Mr. Trevor Dodge himself. Trevor, dollface, you made my day.

PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE: A COMPENDIUM OF MINIATURES

A Compendium of Miniatures
by Tiffany Lee Brown
(Tiger Food Press * 2GQ Press)

Miniature narratives and rhythmic metaphors redefine the words that tell life's big stories. Limited edition of 50 signed, numbered books hand-bound in silk; case-bound. Hand-set in Deepdene and letterpress printed in two colors on 100% post-consumer recyled paper using soy-based inks by Clare Carpenter.

Books begin shipping September 23, 2007. Pre-orders accepted; reserve a copy today via:

Purchase online with credit card at plazm.com ($55 plus shipping & handling). US, Canada, international.

Purchase via mail order: $58 includes shipping & handling. Make checks out to "2GQ" and send to PO Box 2863, Portland OR 97208. Includes a splendid mailing box you will want to crawl inside. Price includes all applicable taxes, shipping, etc. USA and Canada only.

Email the authors at 2007@2GQ.org with inquiries or to be notified about our September installation and performance at Cathedral Park Place in Portland.

DOING NOTHING

i've been assigned a task: to do nothing.

i'm cheating right now. writing on this blog.

but doing nothing is difficult.

can you do it?

i think it's easier to run around, perform actions, make art, work for money, write, do stuff for other people, and generally attempt to excuse my existence on the planet in a variety of ways.

what if i don't need an excuse for my existence on the planet?

THE END OF WAR

I started working on a new project a couple months ago called "The End of War." The results of its first phase will be published in PLAZM magazine's issue #29, as artists and writers participate in an interpretation of that phrase. It looks like participants will include Rebeca Mendez, Lidia Yuknavitch, Devora Neumark, Kristen Tsiatsios, Sue Coe, Magdalen Powers, Jamie McMurry, David Tartakover, Reza Abedini, and Alex Lily.

The phrase "The End of War" inspired me because it is open and beguiling. It could engender utopian visions, angry political statements, and everything in between.

"BELLY" and WomenNoise in the Netherlands

Nineh Pixie sez that a radio programme in the Netherlands called "Not the Normal Shit" has picked up Women Take Back the Noise, a compilation featuring the track "Belly" by yours truly (under my music name, Passiflora). Listen to the podcast here. Always nice to hear one's work is being appreciated someplace far away...

A DIFFERENT VIEW of MONEY...

An online friend, Ruth, writes of her very-young son: "When we were visiting his grandfather not long ago, someone asked if he'd like to have a dollar and he said No, since he already had one."

That's adorable, sure, but might it not also be a splendid way for grownups to think about money?

"Would you like a dollar?"

"No thank you. I already have one."

There are people who do not.

At what point does our grasping for more than one dollar become harmful to ourselves or others? Can we ever have enough???

I GOT NAMECHECKED...

... in Nashville Scene's review of the Literary Cash anthology, for my story 'Reno.' Thanks to the marvellous & magnificent Allison D. for letting me know about this review! I'm quite sure writers are supposed to be above such things, but hearing a little freakin' feedback -- 'specially positive feedback -- makes my day.

If you wanna read the story, I posted a couple links here for buying it.

WAVE the SAILS

...er, Save the Whales.

My friend Dave Walsh sails the seven seas with Greenpeace, and sends back fascinating reports. Recently: "It's been a weird expedition -- we came to the Southern Ocean ready to stop the whaling ships from killing whales. Instead, we ended up offering rescue services to the very ship we planned to protest against."

He also takes gorgeous photos of animals and geographical areas such as Antarctica.
Weblog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/oceandefenders
Dave's photographs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deadlyphoto/

EMERGENCY

in case of emergency,
break this window
and pluck out the red
beating heart you will
find within.

THE SOFT WEATHER: Home from Residency

"it smells like *flowers,*" emily said,
and she was right.
yes, in the airport overhang
it smelled like flowers
and the air was wet.

we could breathe.

(more about my thrilling return home from Vermont follows...)