Take notice

Meg Hamill's first book, Death Notices, has been released as part of Factory School's Heretical Texts series.

These poems take the form of obituaries mourning lives that have been lost in the current War in Iraq. Attempting to exclude no group from this public display of grief, alongside obituaries for Iraqi civilians and Iraqi Police, there are obituaries for American soldiers, suicide bombers, and contractors for Halliburton. The poems in DEATH NOTICES repeatedly strive to rise above blame and judgement, until the project becomes simply an effort to sustain our gaze long enough in order to feel all of these losses fully.

Influenced by Judith Butler's essay on "Violence, Mourning, Politics," (in which Butler argued: "There are no obituaries for the war casualties that the United States inflicts, and there cannot be.") Meg began writing obituaries for those who had died in Iraq, and in the process, she began exploring how the media covers their deaths.

I can't wait to get a copy.

Last of the New York School

John Ashbery says he isn't poet laureate material:

To be poet laureate you have to have a program for spreading the word of poetry. I’m just willing to let it spread by itself.

New Yipes reading series

Sean Manzano and Melissa Benham will read at the next New Yipes, this Sunday in Oakland.

A show not to be missed.

Transcribe this, bitch!

From a review of that new reality show that unrealistically follows interns at Rolling Stone.

Meanwhile, the authentic experience of interning at a glossy magazine goes unexplored by the popular arts—by necessity, perhaps, as it would alienate a popular audience, only shaping up as a nightmarish hybrid of Beckett, Sade, and The Office. (It would be an epic documentary about cassette-tape transcription.)

Yes. Just, yes.

Product placement

I feel I have to rave about my newest skincare product: the Olay Regenerist Thermal Skin Polish. It's a facial scrub that reacts with water by heating up, which is supposed to relax pores and feels kind of weird. The product claims to provide 'professional mini-peel results in 10 days,' and it's been a little over a week and I am definitely noticing a difference. My face is softer, and problem areas, like my chin, have been smoothed out. It is amazing.

Adam tried it, and he likes it, too.