A post of updates
A week ago I was married. It was possibly the greatest day of my life, and I had a blast seeing all the smiling faces of these people who love us (or just like us, that’s cool too). Here’s a small taste of the proceedings, from the first dance:
Believe it or not, search for Lawless Duel on the Googlemeister and that video is the no. 1 hit! Thanks to everybody who made it, and special thanks to everybody who posted their pictures on Facebook. It’s been a blast re-living those memories with you.
I never thought I could love Nicole more than I already did, but one week into the marriage and I’m glad to say I was wrong.
Also, today I submitted my business license for Penciled In Designs! I’m now legitimate business!
I’m now running the Windows 7 Release Candidate on my main machine and I’m seriously impressed.
The artist and the canvas
After dark, there’s an unveiling;
a curtain dropping from your shoulders.
And then the ballet, the paint brushing canvas,
the pen inking notes like flags through our lines.
We trapeze over the hushed crowd
and limbo under a flaming sunset.
Afterward, on your back I draw plans
for skyscrapers and airports,
wineries and dog parks.
In studying the blueprints of your shoulders
I find the best floor for a fire escape.
I’m scribbling a poem
in front of a twentieth story bay window
overlooking this new country we have built.
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That is the April 22nd poem in my month-long effort to write a poem a day. It’s coming along great! Way past the halfway mark, and I’m considering just keeping it up into May and beyond.
Penciled In Poetry – Episode One
Welcome to Penciled In Poetry, a twice weekly podcast about my poetry. This episode I read and discuss “As she begged me to slow down,” published in my book There Is Nothing Poetic About Fish.
As she begged me to slow down
The car flipped, we exchanged ground for sky,
and in that second, you and I
found the truth more solid than ever before.
My right hand gripped yours,
the left white-knuckled the steering wheel,
and the autumn sun tiptoed through the windshield like
a disco-ball slow dance on fire.
Baby, the truth is,
sometimes we’re a forty car pileup
and nothing will ever fix that.
The new PenciledIn.com
Welcome to the new site.
I needed to change things around to more accurately portray how I help people. This “new business” smell is awfully alluring!
The tax break
Paul sits down across from me and the tower
of paper I call the last year of my life.
He’s probably 22, but looks 12,
and the cocky sonofabitch straightens his glasses
his tie his comfy H&R Block job
and checks his notes before saying
There’s a new stimulus package handed down from on high.
You may qualify if you promise to
lay down your pen and never write another poem.
It’s quite simple actually:
we’ll deduct every poem not written,
every moonbeam undreamt,
every gull sailing from the edge of the sea
to your lover’s arms…
He’s shaking now. This job is getting to him.
I’m not the first poet he’s seen today,
and he’s become intoxicated by the imagination he’s helped destroy.
He’s a giant hose siphoning the gas from my car,
and he’s babbling now, his arms spread wide
but I’ve stopped listening. I’m too busy spending my money,
my new mansion plucked straight from a Pottery Barn catalogue,
gold orthodontics, a trophy wife serving me diet lemonade
in glasses made from the sun, and all smiles.
Finally, I’ll be free.
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For National Poetry Writing Month, I’ve been actually writing a poem a day. This one was from the 7th.
I like poems about completely giving up poetry. I’m trapped in their irony.
It sounds bad, but its actually alright
Well, unfortunately on Friday I was laid off from BIG Images and Add Interactivity. It’s a little scary, but it’s given me the kick in the pants to actually get my business license and do my own thing full time.
I also left on very good terms. In fact, it’s kinda like I haven’t left at all given I still get to keep my desk and iMac for all my projects.
So, I’m planning on doing some major changes to this website soon. Things are actually very bright. I’m very involved with a couple of pretty large projects already.
Just thought I’d let you know.
de Blob
One of the most surprising video games I’ve played in the last year is THQ’s de Blob for the Wii. Click the link for it’s description on Wikipedia.
One of the most innovative portions of the game is it’s soundtrack, which is a funky, upbeat jazz odyssey, and is completely governed by the way you play. As you paint buildings, you build the soundtrack. If you use red, a sassy saxophone will flare up and green is a blues guitar. Eventually, as you paint more and more, the tracks crescendo and you’re grooving, literally.
Well, after a couple of weeks of looking for the soundtrack, I found it at Amazon MP3. You can get it here. Below is one of it’s tracks, a little selection called “Euphoric” in the game. Get the entire soundtrack if you like it. I guarantee you won’t regret it.
My featured poetry reading
Sunday’s reading went marvelously. In fact, I felt like it was the best reading I’ve ever done.
For those who are interested, here’s one of the new poems I debuted that night:
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Johnson Elementary School’s 12th Annual Spelling Bee
Men do stupid things for women,
and in sixth grade I learned this
when Kennessa Marshall bet fellow classmate Brigham Toskin
twenty-five whole bucks
that I’d take first place in the spelling bee.
So, two weeks later I stood on the stage,
a snap-on dangling from my collar
and the microphone growling at my nose.
Without proper study habits
I neglected to study any words
more challenging than “vice president.”
The first word for me was “undaunted.”
My mouth became an aquarium
with algae sliming my cheeks over a fake coral reef
and “undaunted” lay sideways on the surface,
dead and stinky.
I had to stall, so I asked my questions,
and the judge made the facts solid for me,
that my rotting fish of a word
is synonymous with “courage,”
or the latin coraticum,
cor meaning heart –
and he never finished
because right then the windows
on all sides of the auditorium shattered.
Seats rumbled and doorways splintered.
The earthquake crawled through the aisles
and split the stage open like a pomegranate.
The rest of the contestants, still in their chairs,
fell through what was left of the stage
straight to the molten core of our planet.
There were no survivors.
And that’s how I won my sixth grade spelling bee.
Robocop vs. Fried Chicken
In other news, totally looking forward to rocking the poetry on Sunday. If anybody’s interested in joining: 5pm dinner at McClintock’s on Higuera. 7pm reading with Sherman Pearl at Linnaea’s on Garden street.
The New Linkin Park Video
Love the video (could stand to do without the music), but seriously? The lead singer of your band decides that he’s tired of being lonely, and he’s going to just drive the spacecraft (possibly humanity’s last hope) into a star. The rest of the crew, after freaking out about solar flares and OMG we’re going to die, gives up and watches the star crash into them.
Let’s forget about the fact that they’ve been zooming around in space for uncountable years, and that they’ve spent 300 bajillion taxpayer dollars on their mission. No, let’s just kill everything and everyone because our lead singer is emo. What a waste.