Cult singer/songwriter Dan Bern once wrote the line: "It ain't bragging if it's true." [found in his song "Tiger Woods"]
And, yes it's an accepted way of life in poetry communities when poets want to share the news of the journals that have published them.
But, even if I didn't know the poet who wrote this (too well, unfortuately), I'd feel that I just entered someone's weird, humid universe of self-aggrandizement-and-self-confidence-bolstering:
http://ocvictor.livejournal.com/2011/02/16/
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
My dream about Tina Fey.
I'm looking forward to reading the upcoming Tina Fey article in THE NEW YORKER that discusses her tenure as writer/Head Writer on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (Tina and Steve Martin are soon to do a two-authors-converse gig at LA LIVE's Nokia Theatre).
It caused me to have this dream:
Tina Fey's in producer Lorne Michaels' office.
Lorne tells Tina: "Tina, SNL's now a show for kids. You think a fourteen-year-old boy wants intelligent comedy?"
Tina, again aware of the realities of mainstream show business, sadly leaves Lorne's office.
Meanwhile in the writers' room, the Jimmy Fallon-as-Leatherman sketch (where Fallon wears a leather suit for the edification of guest host Brittany Murphy) is being pitched.
It caused me to have this dream:
Tina Fey's in producer Lorne Michaels' office.
Lorne tells Tina: "Tina, SNL's now a show for kids. You think a fourteen-year-old boy wants intelligent comedy?"
Tina, again aware of the realities of mainstream show business, sadly leaves Lorne's office.
Meanwhile in the writers' room, the Jimmy Fallon-as-Leatherman sketch (where Fallon wears a leather suit for the edification of guest host Brittany Murphy) is being pitched.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Re International Women's Day--men still have a lot to learn about respecting and not harming women.
http://ow.ly/4ahuG
http://abcn.ws/eKc1FS
http://abcn.ws/eKc1FS
Monday, March 7, 2011
Anonymous poster has reactivated my non-fan club.
http://waragainsthumanity.wordpress.com/
Latest post is titled "turdy mccarthy."
For all the stop-the-madness feedback I get in public and private about the SoCal poetry community and its former-members-living-elsewhere being good, mature people (and a fair amount of them are), it's fascinating that at least one member thinks he/she's fighting a moral guerrilla war by maintaining the above blog.
Talk about anger and bitterness......and spraying out fear and loathing akin to a skunk's odor.
Latest post is titled "turdy mccarthy."
For all the stop-the-madness feedback I get in public and private about the SoCal poetry community and its former-members-living-elsewhere being good, mature people (and a fair amount of them are), it's fascinating that at least one member thinks he/she's fighting a moral guerrilla war by maintaining the above blog.
Talk about anger and bitterness......and spraying out fear and loathing akin to a skunk's odor.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Coda: Regarding the poetic world as seen uniformly by Victor Infante, Derrick Brown and others.
For the sake of inclusion, here's a link to Victor Infante's public rifle-butting of me--as included on my Facebook page/wall: http://www.facebook.com/#!/note.php?note_id=10150115147426192
And now, I'll go ahead and mention some inconsistencies/behavioral quirks shared by the good, think-alike people that Victor namechecks:
1. I've been told in the past that it's not good to self-publish. This doesn't stop Rick Lupert from putting out his own books under the Ain't Got No Press moniker (mitigating factor: Rick occasionally does anthologies like the recommended-by-me POETS HAGGADAH).
2. I am not supposed to criticize Amber Tamblyn's poetry books (apparently because she's smart, hip and successful)--but it's okay for, say, G. Murray Thomas to use his review column on Poetix.net to knock Billy Collins' recent BALLISTICS. Yes, Murray thought Collins' work in BALLISTICS was subpar. But it was hard not to smell the jealousy on Murray's part--Oh, why oh why doesn't my print-on-demand volume COWS ON THE FREEWAY get at least one-tenth the attention Billy Collins does?
3. I'm certainly not supposed to criticize anyone who "hasn't done anything" to me. By that logic, if Victor Infante was an HBO executive, he'd be telling Bill Maher to stop being "mean" on REAL TIME.
And, of course, if I say anything about the self-described wonderful people of LA/LBC/OC that is not wonderful, then I'm blessed with accusations of mental illness and--in one ugly case--a false accusation that I might be a wife-beater.
I'm just puzzled that all these self-described wonderful-and-successful poets of LA/LBC/OC are so insecure that they feel the need to take me so deadly-serious that they engage in shut-him-up-no-matter-what-it-takes reactions rather than having some sense of nuanced thought and perspective about their actual place and impact in both the real and literary worlds.
And now, I'll go ahead and mention some inconsistencies/behavioral quirks shared by the good, think-alike people that Victor namechecks:
1. I've been told in the past that it's not good to self-publish. This doesn't stop Rick Lupert from putting out his own books under the Ain't Got No Press moniker (mitigating factor: Rick occasionally does anthologies like the recommended-by-me POETS HAGGADAH).
2. I am not supposed to criticize Amber Tamblyn's poetry books (apparently because she's smart, hip and successful)--but it's okay for, say, G. Murray Thomas to use his review column on Poetix.net to knock Billy Collins' recent BALLISTICS. Yes, Murray thought Collins' work in BALLISTICS was subpar. But it was hard not to smell the jealousy on Murray's part--Oh, why oh why doesn't my print-on-demand volume COWS ON THE FREEWAY get at least one-tenth the attention Billy Collins does?
3. I'm certainly not supposed to criticize anyone who "hasn't done anything" to me. By that logic, if Victor Infante was an HBO executive, he'd be telling Bill Maher to stop being "mean" on REAL TIME.
And, of course, if I say anything about the self-described wonderful people of LA/LBC/OC that is not wonderful, then I'm blessed with accusations of mental illness and--in one ugly case--a false accusation that I might be a wife-beater.
I'm just puzzled that all these self-described wonderful-and-successful poets of LA/LBC/OC are so insecure that they feel the need to take me so deadly-serious that they engage in shut-him-up-no-matter-what-it-takes reactions rather than having some sense of nuanced thought and perspective about their actual place and impact in both the real and literary worlds.
Some fallout from the previous post re Derrick Brown and FORBES.
I'm not printing it here, but Victor Infante ex-of-OC and-current-New England-poetry dynamo, gave me a roasting for forwarding the link to my last post to his blog.
It didn't help that I expressed a contrarian opinion of Derrick Brown and referred to Victor (who has benefited professionally from his association with Derrick's Write Bloody mini-empire) as an "enabler."
The essence of the criricism was that I'm an awful person who criticizes successful people, brings failure upon myself--and suffers from mental difficulties as well.
Specifically responding to Victor's allegation that I criticize successful people (who, in his mindset, have done nothing to me):
I have no problem with people who are winners. I do have problems with people who win ugly.
And it seems to me that Victor, Derrick and most of the people in their circle fit into the latter category.
It didn't help that I expressed a contrarian opinion of Derrick Brown and referred to Victor (who has benefited professionally from his association with Derrick's Write Bloody mini-empire) as an "enabler."
The essence of the criricism was that I'm an awful person who criticizes successful people, brings failure upon myself--and suffers from mental difficulties as well.
Specifically responding to Victor's allegation that I criticize successful people (who, in his mindset, have done nothing to me):
I have no problem with people who are winners. I do have problems with people who win ugly.
And it seems to me that Victor, Derrick and most of the people in their circle fit into the latter category.
Friday, March 4, 2011
What do poet/publisher Derrick Brown and U2's Bono have in common?
Just noticed this on a Beyond Baroque e-flyer, taken from a future reading that Derrick Brown of the LBC is taking part in (highlighting by me):
DERRICK BROWN, former paratrooper for the 82nd Airborne, gondolier, magician, and fired weatherman dedicated to bringing American poetry into rock and roll status. He is president of Write Bloody Publishing, the first indie press to be reviewed with favor by Forbes Magazine.
I'm not sure the above is that much of an honor.
It's not household knowledge, but do some digging (Rock critic Dave Marsh's ROCK N RAP CONFIDENTIAL newsletter/website at http://rockrap.com/ is an excellent place to start) and you'll find out how semi-idealist plutocrat Bono of U2 came to be an integral part of Forbes Magazine.
In any event, the old phrase about "rendering unto Caesar" comes to mind--to say the least.
UPDATE: I sent the above post to Derrick Brown and this is a portion of his response:
"you bitter friendless witless talentless turd"
Safe to say that Bono, even faced with criticism, would have handled this somewhat better.
UPDATE #2: Here's a link to the Forbes article, which mainly looks favorably on Brown's money-generation as a road-warrior performance poet: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0622/lifestyle-poetry-slams-derrick-brown-poetic-license.html
DERRICK BROWN, former paratrooper for the 82nd Airborne, gondolier, magician, and fired weatherman dedicated to bringing American poetry into rock and roll status. He is president of Write Bloody Publishing, the first indie press to be reviewed with favor by Forbes Magazine.
I'm not sure the above is that much of an honor.
It's not household knowledge, but do some digging (Rock critic Dave Marsh's ROCK N RAP CONFIDENTIAL newsletter/website at http://rockrap.com/ is an excellent place to start) and you'll find out how semi-idealist plutocrat Bono of U2 came to be an integral part of Forbes Magazine.
In any event, the old phrase about "rendering unto Caesar" comes to mind--to say the least.
UPDATE: I sent the above post to Derrick Brown and this is a portion of his response:
"you bitter friendless witless talentless turd"
Safe to say that Bono, even faced with criticism, would have handled this somewhat better.
UPDATE #2: Here's a link to the Forbes article, which mainly looks favorably on Brown's money-generation as a road-warrior performance poet: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0622/lifestyle-poetry-slams-derrick-brown-poetic-license.html
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