Quick Return

Back from Portland, where Kevin and I read in the fabulous drag bar, Embers.  Here's a pic of Siren lip-synching to a Kylie Minogue song.  That's Publication Studio's Matthew Stadler approaching the stage to give her a tip.  Siren opened the evening with a song, then I read, then Siren did another Kylie song, then Kevin read, then Siren closed the evening.  She was singing for tips, so audience members would hand her dollar bills or (preferably) stick them in her cleavage.  Of course it was hilarious seeing the poets do this, and adorable when Meredith and Peter Quartermain, who were visiting from Vancouver, did it.  One poet said she never imagined she'd do something like stick a dollar bill in Siren's cleavage, and when she did it she felt surprisingly sexual.  It was a great evening.  Thanks to Donal Mosher and Matthew for arranging it.  We stayed at Matthew's house and hung out with him, went to a couple of dinners, and Kevin took some photographs for his vast Raymond Pettibon genitals project, where he photographs men in various states of dress and undress, holding an ink drawing of a lurid pink lifesize set of cock and balls Raymond did, over their own genitals.

When we got back to SF, we dropped off our luggage and headed over to CCA for an exhibition at the Wattis Institute centering on the letter K.  "An exhibition curated by Kadist Curatorial Resident Juan A. Gaitán, featuring works by Johanna Calle, Liam Everett, Ceal Floyer, Claire Fontaine, Ken Lum, Ciprian Muresan, Pedro Reyes, Chen Shaoxiong, Gabriel Sierra, and Carey Young."  A smart, playful show.  Here's Kevin, aka "KK," paying homage to his letter.

At the reading in Portland, Publication Studio gave me my contributor's copy of their new anthology edited by Lisa Robertson and Matthew Stadler, Revolution: A Reader.  I have two pieces in the book, both reprinted from my book Academonia.  When Lisa and Matthew asked me if they could include the pieces, nobody could have acted less interested than I.  I sent them a "yeah, whatever," email.  Imagine my surprise when I get the book and it's jaw-dropping awesome.  I can't believe I'm in the same book as this stellar lineup:

Kathy Acker • Etel Adnan • Giorgio Agamben • Arakawa + Gins • Hannah Arendt • Dodie Bellamy • Hakim Bey • David Brazil • Edmund Burke • Thomas Carlyle • Bernal Diaz del Castillo • Mahmoud Darwish • Guy Davenport • Angela Davis • Gilles Deleuze • Stacy Doris • Hal Draper • Frantz Fanon • Shulamith Firestone • M.F.K. Fisher • Michel Foucault • Charles Fourier • Mavis Gallant • Jean Genet • George Grosz • Ian Hamilton Finlay • Alan Halsey • Donna Haraway • Harry Hay • William Hazlitt • Christopher Hill • Langston Hughes • Ivan Illich • The Invisible Committee • Calvin Johnson • J. Krishnamurti • Thomas Kuhn • Violette Leduc • Mina Loy • Lucretius • Asmaa Mahfouz • Agnes Martin • Marshall McLuhan • Louise Michel • Eileen Myles • Elena Poniatowska • Miguel Leòn-Portilla • Michel Ragon • Jacques Rancière • Kristin Ross • Edward Said • Saskia Sassen • Percy Bysshe Shelley • Situationist International • Valerie Solanas • Rebecca Spang • Gertrude Stein • Jalal Toufic • Edward John Trelawney • Flora Tristan • Oscar Tuazon • Vivienne Westwood • Oscar Wilde • Raymond Williams • Mary Wollstonecraft • George Woodcock.

I love the format, where Lisa and Matthew include marginal annotations—annotations isn't the right word for most of them—Lisa and Matthew carry on a conversation in the margins of each piece.  Their witty, quirky, brilliant dialogue alone is worth the cover price.  The book is arranged by lifestages, "from 'beginning,' to 'childhood,' 'education,' 'adulthood,' and 'death.' The hope is to bring the embodied fact of revolution into the lived present by engaging readers with language that takes them there, no matter where they are to begin with."  I believe that if a person were to read this amazing book from cover to cover, it would change their life.