"If the Radiance of a Thousand Suns": Songs of the American Hiroshima

Synnika on YouTube

2009-01-23T22:00:00.002-05:00

Good friend, fellow poet, and producer of my forthcoming audiobook Chants from the Seven Cities, here is Synnika Lofton performing one of his most brilliant poems to date, "To Die for the Throne":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DxsQ7DyKkE&feature=channel_page

_Chants from the Seven Cities_ audiobook update

2009-01-23T19:11:00.006-05:00

I just got off the phone with good friend and fellow poet Synnika Lofton, who is currently producing my audiobook release Chants from the Seven Cities. From the look of things, the CD should be available for distribution by the end of February. Pricing and more details TBA, so please check back for more information. Featured below is a copy of the cover art from the critically acclaimed Jason Beam.

Some final thoughts on Dubya

2009-01-10T14:16:00.003-05:00

"'I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.' --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2008." (Excerpted from "Bushisms: Adventures in George W. Bushspeak" located at http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm.

Typical MS BS

2009-01-09T18:46:00.005-05:00

How did they not see this coming? " The volume has been phenomenal." No kidding? Frustrated Vista users by the truckload were bound to swamp the Windows 7 download server, particularly as word on the street is that the new OS is head and shoulders more stable than its abortive lineage. What a bunch of donkeys at MS, I swear to . . . well, you know. It's as if to say, "Hey, everyone--hurry up and wait for the Beta download. I know we promised availability on January 9, but . . . ." Idiots.

Message from Windows 7 server:

"Thanks for your interest in the Windows 7 Beta. The volume has been phenomenal—we're in the process of adding more servers to handle the demand. We're sorry for the delay and we'll re-post the Beta as soon as we can ensure a quality download experience."

Information posted on Ward Churchill's site

2009-01-09T18:01:00.003-05:00

See the following link to Ward Churchill's site (below) for information on scholarship included in my guest-edited Spec. Issue of David Downing's Works and Days Academic Freedom and Intellectual Activism in the Post-9/11 University.

See subsection “Many scholarly studies discussing this case include:”

Ward Churchill.net

Our galleys went off to the publisher on 24 Dec. 2008 and we are expecting page proofs in the next couple of weeks. A major academic freedom symposium is planned at IUP with Churchill and AAUP President Cary Nelson as keynote speakers. More information forthcoming.

For more information on this volume and the roster of nationally (and internationally) acclaimed contributors, visit the Works and Days site here.

http://www.english.iup.edu/publications/works&days/

Finally . . . Someone got it right

2009-01-08T03:20:00.005-05:00

I just read (with great anticipation) about the Beta Release of Windows 7--can't come soon enough as I personally find Vista to be the most God-awful and abortive operating system since Windows ME--and in the process came across the following on the preorder sales of the new Sony VAIO P. This thing looks utterly spectacular. Check out the weight, the wireless broadband (which I currently have loaded internally on my XPS M1330 and highly recommend--Verizon, of course), the 2GB of system memory, 128GB SSD (just unbelievably sick!), and overall style on this little number. Personally, the ultracompact market has intrigued me but nothing's ever really fully fit the bill. I'd be curious to see the responsiveness of the keyboard as that tends to be the make or break for this kind of product.

With any luck the local Staples will have a display model soon at which time I'll be sure to post another update. Too bad Windows 7 won't be out in full consumer release for about another year (but fortunate, also, as I can't afford any more toys at the moment. With the purchase of the latest HP CM2320MFP fxi, that just about broke the bank).

If anyone has the chance to get their hands on a demo before I do, please e-mail me with your impressions.

Mike Amado has passed away

2009-01-03T14:51:00.003-05:00

Just stunning--I had no idea. Mike was a poet friend of mine from Boston/Cambridge whose death was just recently announced on the Stone Soup poetry listserv. I recently blurbed Mike's book "Stunted Inner Child Shot the TV" last year--a fine chapbook of edgy, Gen-X-styled angst. Mike was a good friend, a stalwart supporter of other poets/artists/musicians and an all-around talented fellow. He will truly be missed. I really wish I was back in Boston to attend the memorial events scheduled on Jan. 5.

More below from Stone Soup:

"Mike Amado Passes Away
Posted by: "stonesouppoetry" stonesouppoetry@yahoo.com stonesouppoetry
Fri Jan 2, 2009 5:22 pm (PST)
Mike Amado, poet, author, venue host, and friend to many in New
England's poetry scene, passed away earlier today at the age of 34
after long battling kidney disease.

This Monday (January 5th), Stone Soup will be dedicating its open mike
segment to Amado, inviting friends to speak on his passing and read
poems by or to him.

Eulogies will be published on the Stone Soup websites, and poems
written in Amado's memory will be considered for an upcoming issue of
Spoonful.

News of funeral arrangements as well as future tributes and events for
Amado will be sent to Stone Soup Yahoo! group memebers [sic] as soon as it
becomes available."

News from IUP's site

2009-01-03T14:17:00.001-05:00

Not the most current, but it'll have to do.

http://www.iup.edu/newsItem.aspx?id=52271

Interview forthcoming in _Quay_

2008-12-30T20:37:00.001-05:00

30 Dec. 2008--Interview with Ed at QuayJournal.org.

Watch for Mitch James's interview with me appearing exclusively in Quay (online in Jan. 2009 and in print Feb. 2009)

PDF of pages 1-2 of James-Carvalho interview available here.

Separation of Church and State

2008-10-17T02:57:00.003-05:00

Related to the title of this post, Sarah Palin's inability to do so--e.g. separate church from state--is utterly frightening to me: "God has so richly blessed this land, not just with the oil and the gas, but with wind and the hydro, the geothermal and the biomass, [. . .] We'll tap into those" ("Palin Says" n. pag.). Oh, rest assured, that's not all she's planning on tapping into . . . with the past eight years of Repulican trends leaning toward further erosion of civil liberties (such as the passage of NSPD-51 and the HR 5122 "John Warner Security Act," I say to my fellow Americans, strap yourselves in should the McCain/Palin ticket "bless this nation" with their governance.

It's difficult for me not to editorialize further here on the zealous lunacy and divisiveness of a leading candidate (or any public official, for that matter) using religion to prop up political ideology. We saw the kind of damage this did after Bush, in order to smokescreen the outcry from the Vatican, awarded Pope John Paul II with our nation's "highest civilian award," the Medal of Freedom ("Bush Awards n. pag.). When so many were already descrying the War on Terror as "crusade," was this really the most intelligent tactical move to suppress such anxiety? Nothing says "you're either with us or against us" quite so effectively as sectarianism and marginalization of "other" faiths. Returning to the current vice presidential nominee--the one who repeatedly exhibits that she has yet to master controlling her inner-monologues--statements such as "Bush’s failed policy in Iraq was 'God’s plan'" ("Gov. Palin’s Worldview" n. pag.) only add the proverbial fuel to conflagration.

Suffice it to say, I will never support any politician who cannot keep their religious views from the public sphere, or who uses them to advance a platform of indoctrination and inculcation. Just as often tell my students, the world is on fire today (and has been for thousands of years prior) due to this comingling of religion and state policy. The fact that public officials continue to invoke this kind of hate speech, for lack of a better term, is just unacceptable. Let citizens choose for themselves to keep God (or not) in their own private way. Here I think of one of America's great philosophers, Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, "God enters by a private door into every individual" (emphasis added), and perhaps more importantly in his Divinity School Address, "Let me admonish you, first of all, to go alone; to refuse the good models, even those which are sacred in the imagination of men, and dare to love God without mediator or veil."

I'll therefore add a third thing to my growing list of things that make me climb the walls: (1) cell phones; (2) graffiti; and (3) politicians who confuse the personal and spiritual with the secular.

Works Cited

"Bush Meets with Pope at Vatican." New York Times Online. 4 June 2004. 17 Oct. 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/04/international/europe/04WIRE-POPE.html?ex=1224388800&en=8ca01d7670d2d060&ei=5070>.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Divinity School Address." American Transcendentalism Web. 17 Oct. 2008 <http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/dsa.html>.

"Gov. Palin’s Worldview (Editorial)." New York Times Online. 12 Sep. 2008. 17 Oct. 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/opinion/13sat1.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=palin%20wa%20in%20iraq%20god's%20plan&st=cse&oref=slogin>.

"Palin Says America Was Blessed by God With Gas and Oil." FOX News.com. 16 Oct. 2008. FOX News Network, LLC. 17 Oct. 2008 .

Interesting metacommentary on McCain-Palin

2008-10-13T13:04:00.002-05:00

I wonder (rhetorically, of course) how much the following story will parallel McCain-Palin's support of educational initiatives in our country?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6019811&page=1

Intriguing remix of Bush political speeches

2008-10-10T09:22:00.001-05:00

Click here to launch YouTube clip in new window.

May come sooner than later

2008-10-03T12:51:00.002-05:00

Nuclear "Doomsday" Transcript Released

Link to story here.

Talk of Al-Qaeda "October Surprise"

2008-09-22T13:12:00.001-05:00

See the following news article from The Sun, "Spies Warn That Al Qaeda Aims for October Surprise" for more information.

Forthcoming Films

2008-09-21T08:50:00.002-05:00

Some exciting new films on the horizon:

Frost / Nixon--26 Dec. 2008 (Chronicles famous exchange between David Frost and Richard Nixon).

The Road--26 Dec. 2008 release (based on the post-apocalyptic book from Cormac McCarthy. Check out the stills on IMDb. No trailer as yet).

Unthinkable--2009. (Very much modeled after the al-Qaeda American Hiroshima plot, except there are three war heads in three cities as opposed to seven).

W.--17 Oct. 2008 (Biopic from Oliver Stone on George W. Bush).

Publishing news

2008-09-18T13:56:00.005-05:00

My interview with Pulitzer finalist, Martín Espada, “A branch on the tree of Whitman: Martín Espada on the 150th Anniversary of Leaves of Grass” now appears in the Summer 2008 print edition of Ed Folsom’s (U of Iowa) Walt Whitman Quarterly Review.

My poem, “The Day After Canticles” is currently featured in Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s print literary journal New Growth Arts Review no. 28.

The following poems have also recently been accepted for print publication:

“In the grain of an oak, a horse”
“The lost chance for epiphany at a gas station in Connecticut”
will appear in Billy Finnegan’s _ . . . like this_

“A bachelor takes his pound of pasta seriously”
“(Finding an Internet Video of) The 1971 ‘Crying Indian’ PSA Commercial”
“Roach interlude in Leonard Hall (Indiana University of Pennsylvania English Department)”
will appear in Viviparous Blenny (Jan. 2009)

Thanks to each of the editors for their gracious consideration of my work.

Ed

Possible death of Adam Gadahn reported by _London Telegraph_

2008-09-07T08:55:00.005-05:00

Gadahn--a native of California "also known as Azzam al-Ameriki" (Meo par. 5), has been widely regarded by intelligence services as an instrumental part of al-Qaeda's more polished media transformation in recent years. The London Telegraph reports on the speculation that in light of the recent reduction in intelligence chatter associated with Gadahn in the past several months, that either jealous colleagues murdered him, or, more plausibly, the CIA targeted him with a Predator drone.

Click here to read the full article.

__________

Work Cited

Meo, Nick. "Al-Qa'eda's American-born propaganda chief may have died in predator attack." London Telegraph Online. 7 Sep. 2008. Telegraph Media Group Limited. 7 Sep. 2008 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/2695294/Al-Qaedas-American-born-propaganda-chief-may-have-died-in-predator-attack.html>.

Keep New Orleans in your thoughts

2008-08-31T08:57:00.002-05:00

It appears as though Gustav will be another direct hit to people in the NOLA area: very unfortunate, indeed.

http://www.weather.com/maps/news/atlstorm7/atl7projectedpath_large.html?from=newslinker3

Ethics investigation into McCain's VP Pick, Sarah Palin

2008-08-30T09:54:00.002-05:00

Interesting wrinkle for the McCain-Palin ticket:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/08/mccains_vp_pick_palin_facing_e.html

Panel Presentation on Creative Writing Publishing

2008-08-29T15:45:00.002-05:00

I am pleased to announce that I will be participating on a Creative Writing Publishing panel with colleagues Drs. Chauna Craig and Kenneth Sherwood on Sep. 11, 2008, 2 p.m. in the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Enlgish Department.

More details forthcoming.

Wireless Electricity

2008-08-23T06:39:00.002-05:00

Utterly fascinating, the prospects of which would certainly change things for travelers desperately seeking plugs for laptops and cell phones while stuck at the nation's airports. Sign me up!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26349363/

Who are the Feds kidding with this?

2008-08-14T15:24:00.001-05:00

"At this point we don't have any nexus to terrorism," . . .

See story on cyanide find in Colorado.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,403982,00.html

Leading Palestinian Poet Dead at 67

2008-08-11T10:41:00.001-05:00

Link to New York Times article on the death of Mahmoud Darwish.

New poems published from forthcoming ms.

2008-07-13T16:11:00.003-05:00

Thanks to New Bedford Poet Laureate and good friend, John Landry, for choosing two of my new poems from "If the radiance of a thousand suns": Songs of the American Hiroshima to appear in Billy Finnegan's forthcoming . . . Like This journal. Contributors include Jack Hirschman, Sharon Doubiago, and Sarah Menefee, among others.

Hope to have more publication information in the coming weeks. First section of the galleys are currently being typeset.

Ed

Heading to VA Beach to record a poetry audiobook

2008-07-08T16:03:00.002-05:00

All of a sudden, things have started to really cook. Not only have I just sent the first portion of the American Hiroshima ms. to the editors, but a friend of mine from Goddard has arranged for me to record a poetry audiobook at a VA Beach studio the end of July. We plan to lay down around 10-15 tracks with selections from solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short and American Hiroshima (more details on specific track selections to follow).

I have to work up a title and cover art before then (or shortly thereafter) and will post more information (including price and availability) as the project takes shape.

In the next few months, Mitch James is interviewing me on American Hiroshima, which will run in a forthcoming edition of Quay. (see quayjournal.org in the coming weeks for more information).