Dream last night that I seriously mismanaged the classroom. Only dream-detail I can remember to prove this is that I forgot to have students go around and each read their poem at the beginning of class. What did we do instead? I don’t know. I promise it was worse than this post is making it sound. I just don’t know how. In the middle of the dream/class, “Wow, this class is terrible today,” (I say) and one of the students, not recognizable from real life, rolls her eyes and agrees. Class gives a collective shake of the head. Deep shame. Then today in actual class I realize how totally unclear I was in their most recent assignment, and how great this is, that the confusion/my fuckup generated interesting writing and conversation and how the best combination is always that which requires them to interpret a fuzzy/half-defined system or approach. But I don’t know if that itself can be systematized? How to provide enough of a frame for them (me) to drape interpretation over. But not so much of a frame that the same response is required uniformly. In every way I guess I’m looking for the right discomfort to comfort ratio. A little discomfort/anxiety/burr under the saddle but not so much I can’t stand it. I mean I guess in terms of making meaning?

In radio observation, 10 days is long enough for the KMEL playlist to rotate into something more bearable. i.e. along w. “Be Without You” they’re finally playing “Enough Cryin” off Breakthrough. And if you haven’t heard it on the east coast yet, The Pack’s Vans song has the best update on hyphy ever: “My fans go stupid / schizomani” (not sure if I’m spelling that right, it should sound like ’schizomanee’)

March 30, 2006 * 6:06 pm

March 29, 2006 * 10:12 pm

London Bookstores?

March 19, 2006 * 5:41 am

March 15, 2006 * 1:40 pm

March 7, 2006 * 7:15 pm

2004-ish search engine generated poem that didn’t make it into my book

March 1, 2006 * 4:45 pm