011: House in Blue, Minotaur in Red

First, COMPILATION.
Finally getting around to reading House of Leaves and I'm about 55 pages in and I basically hate one half of it and love one half. It wavers between being thoroughly engrossing and a whole lot of Who Gives a Shit. As someone who is themselves way into postmodern storytelling, I'm getting really tired of postmodern storytelling.

Got my first-ever flu shot today. Because you know what? Getting the flu sucks and can kill you, and if I did it for covid I may as well with this.

Facebook down for most of the day and yet I still don't come back to Twitter. Can I even call myself Terminally Online anymore?

Do you think Ferrari would give me a car if they saw how many of them I own in Gran Turismo?

WHAT'S UP YOUTUBE IT'S YA BOY RAGWEED POLLEN BACK TO JAM UP YOUR SINUSES WITH SNOT *airhorn*

The Fiero has earned its name. Put a new battery in it and the horn came on basically full blast. Popped the fuse for that out, but all the other stuff that's electrical basically went nuts of its own accord. Wipers, four-ways, bunch of other stuff. Basically, like a certain smol white robot that was popular in the '80s: R2-D2.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, or: An Overwhelming Surplus of Plot

Second, PERSEPHONE RETURNS.
Persephone spends six months in the land of the dead and six months in the world of the living. Which does she "return" to? She marries into the underworld, but was born into the overworld.

I have spent most of the last month in some sort of travel. Chicago, Lexington, Chicago, Minneapolis, the farm, Fargo, the farm. Soon back to Minneapolis and then Chicago again. A lot of people thrive on it, and supposedly we Sagittarius...es are flighty travelers, always looking for the new. Honestly, though? Tiring as hell. It breaks up what little routine and structure that I actually need. It really grates against my hatred of liminal spaces. It definitely makes me wonder what home is, sometimes. Most of the time. All the time. This is definitely not related to House of Leaves and the poem I wrote about a dream that was remarkably similar to it years before I ever read it. Which is always a great feeling, discovering that your brain is broken the same as other people's... but they already made money on it. I'll just slink back into the lake of the dead, thanks.

Third, CONSUMPTION.
- Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood in conversation about the artwork created for Radiohead's albums Kid A and Amnesiac.
- Friend of the program Vanessa Ramstack has two poems in Anti-Heroin Chic.
- While I was in Lexington, Metallica played a tiny surprise show in Chicago. I could have seen this. The weekend I flew back to Chicago, they played in Louisville. Always never in the right time.
- I bought this painting from Kat in San Diego. She's good people with an incredible eye for movement and color. I'm kind of obsessed with her work, but I also I don't have $infinity, so I get what I can when I can.
- Picked up this extremely rad David Bowie-inspired tarot deck, created by the artist who helped with the Outside, Earthling, and others.

Fourth, PROMOTION.
My book, A Void and Cloudless Sky, can be ordered from the publisher, Amazon, and BN.com, as well as possibly your local bookstore! I finally got my own copy recently, and I absolutely love the finish of it. Do you want a FREE Advanced Reader Copy? All I ask is that you review it on either/both of those sites and/or Goodreads. Let me know!

And as usual, if you'd like to support this whole endeavor more directly, you can check out my Patreon, where I post poetry, notes to poems, the occasional essay, and whatnot. At upper tiers I even write poems FOR YOU!

If you like what I do here and don't have the scratch or the inclination to do the above, please share this newsletter with you friends. I like making words wiggle people's brainjuices.

Finally, THE OUTRO.
If you were unfortunate enough to read this trainwreck, just know that it is my official opinion that Dawn Dorland is a horrible person, and I'm pretty sure she knows it.