Reasons why I'm going to apply for Intersection for the Arts' Jackson and Phelan Awards (and why you should, too):
1) One is limited to writers born in California, the other to writers living in Northern California or Nevada. All of us qualify for at least one of those.
2) They're free to enter, with a $2,000 award.
3) They're limited to young writers (20-35) with previously unpublished work.
4) I suspect that, because of the emphasis on California writers, those of us writing about California have an advantage.
5) They're not confined to any genre (anything from poetry to plays is fair game), so I don't have to decide whether or not my submission counts as poetry.
6) And did I mention that they're free?

I came down with a cold last weekend and I've been tired and sniffling all week. Not the best circumstances under which to create art. But today I did something I've been meaning to do for almost a year, ever since I started planning to launch my journal, There.

On MLK, near the border of Oakland and Berkeley, is a pair of metal words, very public art sculpture: HERE THERE. And today I finally took some photos of them. I'm hoping to use them for my next site design/new issue launch, which should be happening sometime soon, I hope. Lots of inertia this time around; I don't really know why.

Listening to drummer Jimmy Cobb playing a duet with Gregory Hines on, of all things his myspace page. A series of links form local musicians, starting with my bro, took me to a page for Jack Dejohnette and then Jimmy Cobb- both of them actually administered by the musicians themselves. Just thinking, in preparation for the chapbox (more below) I'm finishing proofs of, that absolutely everything about my artistic, spiritual, ethical and intellectual lives is formed around my childhood impressions of jazz musicians., and maybe a few philosophers. It's really hard to articulate, thus the desire to do a set of poems, but there's something so transcendent about the lives, the attitudes, the creativity of those generations, and certainly still a handful of contemporaries, of jazz musicians born before me. People with only positive things to say, or only sincere criticisms and convictions. People who have kept at doing something beautiful while being more acquainted with the ugliness of the world than most. Having met a few of them, like McCoy Tyner, Eddiea Marshall, Jack Dejohnette, Donald Bailey, I become always more convinced instead of less that the sole redeeming feature of U.S. culture may well be jazz music (without intending any slight towards other art forms or artists).

So, with the exception of perhaps wanting to now add new, unwritten poems, proofs are mostly compiled for what I'm calling a chapbox, previously referred to as the chapbook "Debts". The box refers to the fact that I think I'm going to print it on 5"x5" loose leafs, with perhaps a few accordians of connected squares where I don't want page breaks, and stack them in a box. I know this has been done before, and mine's not even as interesting as the random-order looseleaf projects, but the twist is that I'm going to make the boxes in the wood shop that I (almost)finished setting up over the weekend. I'm really excited about that, as there's a few projects, artists and domestic (have to build a bed frame so we can get the futon up off the floor), that I have back-logged and am excited about. I've been spending equal time sketching joint-diagrams for this box as proofing poems, which I guess means that I'm antsy to be crafty again. Looking back over early posts on this blog this morning made me revisit how craft/artisanal work might be a necessary and fruitful connection to my writing practice- I have to "keep my hands in" as Mark Twain once put it.

Also revisiting blog posts, seems like Jenn and Loretta should have chapbooks done by now too. When do we get to trade?

Lots of research. Some writing, some editing. More practicing, no composition. Dance collaboration project moving ahead full speed. Actually looking down the line at entirely too many really exciting projects to even complete, but that's never a bad thing. Have to look into buying web domain/ server space and maybe even employ a designer (my own html skills are really weak, and wouldn't really make a site attractive enough to submit to).

Also, teaching is drowning me, but is itself also a useful creative exercise. In the process of creating individual assignments for 43 students to go out and do something that will spark their own creative life. Very much trying to channel Walter Lew in this- keep everyone on their toes and thinking from diverse perspectives. Lots and lots of thought required.

Cricket Online Review (i.e. JD Mitchell) said they're going to run a text/music piece I did, which is very exciting.

Very excited about use|usage, glad to see you'll be on board with the interweb. Though in a stretch I'd say this blog might count as an online journal started by Dillon, albeit one that he has very little control over the content.

In self-promotional news, a few pieces from Don't Panic were published in Listenlight 06.

The Pythia project is moving in fits and starts. Some things I've learned from Google:

* The Pythia was the priestess at Apollo's oracle in Delphi.
* The name comes from Python, the dragon that was slain by Apollo.
* Pythia is an event generator for a large number of physics processes.
* The Pythia was widely credited with giving prophecies inspired by Apollo.
* Pythia is software for simulation of back propagation neural networks.
* The Delphic oracle's lips may have been loosened by gas vapors.

First, signs of no progress:
Still haven't gotten a submission to Absent together.
No more progress on chapbook besides a title
seem to have completely abandoned the "on my bookshelf project", which is perhaps for the better
piano still isn't tuned
no more work on the "silent opera" concept/piece
no work on solo music album

Signs of progress:
wrote an Oakland poem Friday, one which also allowed me to recombine/reconceptualize an older piece
did some interesting Oakland-related research
got some time in practicing rudiments on a drum pad

Prospects:
Loretta, Sarah Trott and I (as I recall) made a pact to all start our own on-line journals. Loretta, of course, came through fantastically, Sarah may or may not feel indemnified- I have done nothing until now:
use|usage a journal that will consist of technical articles and poetry of the experimental persuasion will go into development forthwith, with its inaugural issue focusing on the green building revolution and all poetry "architectonic". Big debts owed to Karatani (and Walter Lew for introducing his work to me), and Chain. Formal call for submissions will likely be spamming anyone reading this within the month.