Most Outrageous by Bob Levin

Most Outrageous by Bob Levin is reviewed HERE.

Everything Was Fine Until Whatever by Chelsea Martin

Future Tense has another release: Everything Was Fine Until Whatever by Chelsea Martin. You can read more and buy the book HERE.

John Fante on Marriage Proposals (from Ask the Dust)

I got an idea. I walked quickly, two blocks, to the telegraph office. I sat down before the telegraph blank, my heart pounding. The words writhed across the page. I love you Camilla I want to marry you Arturo Bandini. When I paid for it the clerk looked at the address and said it would be delivered in ten minutes. I hurried back to Spring Street and stood in the shadowed doorway waiting for the telegraph boy to appear.

The moment I saw him coming around the corner I knew the telegram was a blunder. I ran into the street and stopped him. I told him I wrote the telegram and didn’t want it delivered. “A mistake,” I said. He wouldn’t listen. He was tall with a pimply face. I offered him ten dollars. He shook his head and smiled emphatically. Twenty dollars, thirty.

“Not for a million,” he said.

I walked back to the shadows and watched him deliver the telegram. She was amazed to get it. I saw her finger point at herself, her face dubious. Even after she signed for it she stood holding it in her hand, watching the telegraph boy disappear. As she tore it open I locked my eyes shut. When I opened them she was reading the telegram and laughing. She walked to the bar and handed the wire to the sallow-faced bartender, the one we had driven home the night before. He read it without expression. Then he handed it to the other bartender. He, too, was unimpressed. I felt a deep gratitude for them. When Camilla read it again, I was grateful for that, too, but when she took it to a table where a group of men sat drinking my mouth opened slowly and I was sick. The laughter of the men floated across the street. I shuddered and walked away quickly.

[posted by Daniel Scott Buck]

Tangent Presents: Alli Warren, Brandon Brown, and Tom Fisher

Tangent presents:
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28 at 7 PM
ALLI WARREN, BRANDON BROWN & TOM FISHER
Clinton Corner Cafe, 2633 SE 21st Avenue (@ Clinton) Portland, OR

ALLI WARREN was born in the 1980s and remains extant. Recent publications include No Can Do (Duration Press), and a collaboration with Michael Nicoloff entitled Bruised Dick. Alli co-curates The (New) Reading Series at 21 Grand, and lives in San Francisco’s Mission District.

BRANDON BROWN is from Kansas City, Missouri. His friends have published his poetry in chapbook form including Memoirs Of My Nervous Illness (Cy Press), 908 1078 (Transmission Press), Kidnapped (Duration Press), Camels! (TAXT), and the forthcoming Wondrous Things I Have Seen (Mitzvah Chaps). He co-curates The (New) Reading Series at 21 Grand in Oakland and lives in San Francisco.

TOM FISHER is working on two manuscripts: one on not writing and modernism; one on songs, selves and sorceries. He lives in Portland, OR and teaches at Portland State University.

[posted by Daniel Scott Buck]

Crappy Indie Music- The Blog

Crappy Indie Music is a Portland-centric music blog. I’ve recently started writing for them, as a sort of critical philosophy douchebag-in-residence. It’s a cool blog, with a homey feel and local live music focus. According to the blog editor we’re getting tons of readers and quite popular, to the tune of adding on an international music focus to handle reviewing the swag from overseas labels and such.

I know a bunch of us in the PLO are in bands- I am, Mykle and Steve for sure- so if you or your friends have upcoming shows or events, make sure to let me know. It’d make me feel good to pimp it out, and also add a bit of variety to my postings.

[posted by jess gulbranson]