tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7670366217396414710.post8376771350598188024..comments2023-06-06T03:21:47.228-07:00Comments on In Order of Importance: Andrei Codrescu Is Up to Something...Josh Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00525329381764185393noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7670366217396414710.post-80538941966464199512011-08-24T10:52:54.401-07:002011-08-24T10:52:54.401-07:00Mr. Cook,
The title of Codrescu's talk is &quo...Mr. Cook,<br />The title of Codrescu's talk is "Teaching Olson in Baton Rouge" but my guess is he'll talk about more than that. If I get the chance I'll deliver your regards. Based on the note on his website I'm all but certain he'll remember you.<br /><br />Thank you for the Rios recommendation. I'll check out the review. As for Joyce's Ulysses it is likely for me the last and most lasting *formative* literary influence. (I reread, at least several chapters, yearly.)<br /><br />How is Noah's book? I knew him when he lived in the area and had the pleasure to hear him read several times. *The Frequencies* is the book of his that I've read though I read his work whenever I come across it in journals. Of the other poets you mention I'm only familiar with Kevin Young. I'll track down work by the others. Most recently I've read *The Flood & the Garden* by Dale Smith and David Rich's chapbook "Arshile Gorky". <br /><br />The mag's online presence such as it is can be found at this address polismag.wordpress.com. The site there is maintained by co-editor Zachary Martin in San Francisco. Soon I'll be writing a biweekly column there. The mag itself comes only in a printed form. When it arrives from SF I could send along a copy (you could email me your address at jcgloucester@hotmail.com) or I could hand deliver on one of my trips "up the line," as we say in Gloucester.<br /><br />slán,<br />JamesMr. J. Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12223242383524096802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7670366217396414710.post-15307481169452635912011-08-22T08:07:50.192-07:002011-08-22T08:07:50.192-07:00Mr. Cook,
I guess we'll let the Internet live...Mr. Cook,<br /><br />I guess we'll let the Internet live for now. (A pitcher that helps the Sox to the post-season while keeping Beckett and Lester fresh is a good move, and they got Bedard at a reasonable price.) <br /><br />Is Codrescu speaking about Whatever Gets You Through the Night or something more general? I work at Porter Square Books and actually did an interview with him for the store's blog. He's one of the most interesting people thinking at the moment. I wish I could make it, but I work in the evening and Gloucester is a bit of a hike without a car. Don't know if he'll remember the interview, but, if in the course of introducing you get a chance to chat with him, give him my regards.<br /><br />I haven't read Larva, but I have read The House of Ulysses, which is a quality read, especially if you enjoyed Joyce's Ulysses. (I reviewed it on TheMillions.com) and I'll definitely check out The Three Trapped Tigers. Good chance it's right up my alley.<br /><br />Intellectual connection phase 2: it's funny you bring up contemporary poetry, because I actually review poetry for Bookslut.com. I'm reading Noah Eli Gordon's The Source right now (which reminds me of Baurdrillard's Cool Memories series) and am a huge fan of Paul Guest, Brian Turner, Karyna McGlynn, Kevin Young...<br /><br />Send me a link to your lit mag. Is it print or online only? Regardless, I'd love to take a look at it.<br /><br />You write what's in your head and send it out in the world and hope. Thanks for connecting with me. Hope to hear more from you soon.<br /><br />JoshJosh Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00525329381764185393noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7670366217396414710.post-17980735709155362062011-08-21T19:25:45.323-07:002011-08-21T19:25:45.323-07:00This is all more than just a little strange.
Afte...This is all more than just a little strange.<br /><br />After reading to my kids and tucking them in to sleep I came downstairs to begin writing an introduction for a reading Andrei Codrescu will give at 10 Middle St in Gloucester (a few blocks away from me) on Thursday night 25Aug11. I made some notes on themes and anecdotes; then I set about making sure to get a few facts straight. At Andrei's website I found a link to your blog.<br /><br />I'm sure your aware that he quite likes your post.<br /><br />I smirked at the coincidence that two Cooks were thinking about and writing about Codrescu this summer. So the coincidences began with our shared surname.<br /><br />Then after I arrived at your site I made note of our common interests...and the more I read the more the common ground grew. <br /><br />I read your posts on Tek's art & the trade deadline (What do you think about Bedard?) hours after listening to the Sox on WEEI while working on curriculum for September. <br /><br />I read your post involving Under the Volcano a day after getting word that Polis, the litmag I co-edit, is on its way from the printer . The subtitle of this issue is "Este Jardin" (taken, of course, from UtV). <br /><br />I read your post on "What went wrong in American Food?" a few days after discussing The Omnivore's Dilemma with students at Gloucester High School in a summer seminar. (I've also been working my way through the "slow food" canon this summer.) <br /><br />Though I tend to read more contemporary poetry than prose my taste in prose tends toward the experimental. (I wrote down several names of people I haven't read mixed in with writers I have. Aside: Have you read Tres Tristes Tigres by Guillermo Cabrera Infante (the English trans. is Three Trapped Tigers) or Larva by Julian Rios (in trans.)?)<br /><br />& politically there's plenty that jibes too.<br /><br />(Finally, geographically speaking, judging from references to Porter & Davis Squares, you're not far from Cambridge Rindge and Latin where I did my student teaching & Tufts where I got my Masters & Highland Ave off of which my brother lives...etc.)<br /><br />All of this pushed me out of my lurking anonymity into making contact. Thank you for the stimulating reading, especially on contemporary fiction. <br /><br />all the best,<br />James CookMr. J. Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01556579115026049608noreply@blogger.com