the moon stop

win a copy of 'darling beastlettes' from goodreads!

2012-02-10T17:51:00.000-08:00

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Darling Beastlettes

by Gina Abelkop

Giveaway ends February 14, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

DARLING BEASTLETTES out now!

2012-02-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

darling beastlettes is now out in the world, with legs and arms and half a heart-shaped eyeball. you can purchase it from spd here, and i hope you will. the spd summary:

"A mix of violence and humor offers just a glimpse of Abelkop's poetic vision whereby in poem after poem she explores the gritty and sometimes sinister side of sexuality in mock-romantic and surrealist fashion: "A murder / glided in last night, nested / in your bouffant, stayed / for months." With disturbing wit she takes aim at shattered domesticity, while also exploring the often bizarre and disturbing realm of gender politics. This is an ominous, gothic universe where the jagged terrain of the human body becomes a canvas for uncanny scenes full of perversity and complexity, beauty and brutality. Each poem is a collage made from snapshots, memories, or the fractured mise-en-scène of wives and women—historical, imagined, mythological, fabulist, and cinematic. Grappling with fear, desire, lust, and uncertainty, the frenzied inhabitants of Abelkop's world blur the distinction between prayer and cannibalism."

if you haven't yet, please watch the short film/trailer i made for the book, which features the poem "the glass tree." i think it conjures the world i created for DB quite well:

'Darling Beastlettes' by Gina Abelkop: a book trailer/short film in two distinct universes from Birds of Lace on Vimeo.

apostrophe books published DB, and they have been truly wonderful to work with- do check out their other offerings.

xox

dirt eater no more

2012-02-07T21:06:00.000-08:00

this video/song combo gives me BIG FEELINGS

prayers for children: a gift from a flower to a garden

2012-01-31T11:11:00.000-08:00

The third and final issue of Prayers for Children (an online art zine I co-edit) is now up over here. Our swan song is a love letter to music and how it inspires; this issue features the genius of Jack X. Taylor, Leon Baham, Cleonette Harris, Matthew Gallaway (author of the excellent The Metropolis Case), Mindtroll (a band featuring BoL's own Niina Pollari), Ula Zuhra, Christine Vi-Van Nguyen, Susanna Troxler, Meghan Lamb, B.C. Edwards, Lustcats of the Gutters, Andrew Bell, Rohin Guha, Jef Barbara, Erik Peterson, Samuelroy, Inbred Hybrid Collective, Demian Dine'Yazhi', Thomas Boettner, and Matt Momchilov, plus interviews with SSION's Cody Critchole and Bow Wow Wow's Annabella Lwin.

please spread the good word. xo

awp 2012

2012-01-30T12:12:00.000-08:00

if yr at awp this year i hope you will go to this event- it's gonna be the most fun, ever ever. look at that line up! i can't wait.

xo

journals

2012-01-23T13:40:00.000-08:00

the lovely + brilliant angela simione recently posted some photos of her journals on her blog, which i loved. i love to see what people write in. inspired by that, here are scans of some of my recent journals:

birds of lace call for submissions

2012-01-23T13:21:00.000-08:00

Birds of Lace Press seeks spooky, gorgeous, tainted and taloned texts for chapbook publication. 12-25 pages (give or take a few) in any genre or hybrid creation thereof, including pen and ink drawings. We love that which hurts so good, tips the scales of our guts, makes the sky spit glass and the ground leak fluids. For examples and general aesthetic of work we’ve published, please visit: http://birdsoflace.wordpress.com/chapbooks/

But don’t be deterred if your work isn’t reflected there- we also love surprises. Please email as an RTF attachment to birdsoflace@gmail.com by March 31st, 2012. No bio. required; do take note that Birds of Lace exclusively publishes those who are women and/or queer-identified.

For more information about Birds of Lace visit birdsoflace.wordpress.com

re-post/blog/facebook etc!

xox

no more (what it feels like for a girl, refrain)

2012-01-16T22:04:00.001-08:00

what it feels like for a girl

2012-01-11T12:21:00.000-08:00

nearly two years ago- is that true?- kate zambreno emailed me her book green girl. i read it while visiting my parents, stretched out under the southern california sun while recuperating from a really heavy depressive period wherein i tried to kick anti-depressents (didn't work).

maybe you grew up, like me, reading a million different narratives about what it felt like to be angry and young and male (and usually white.) maybe, like me, you also read nancy drew and sweet valley high and anne of green gables, young women with nerve and pluck but also mostly young women whose problems were solved at the end of each book. and then as i got older, it was sylvia plath and carson mccullers and jean rhys and maya angelou, and and. i've never stopped being hungry for narratives where there is no neat package at the end. i want to imagine, at the end of these lives, that things keep being complicated and you keep working on them and you get smarter, and stronger, but probably there is always going to be a heaviness to contend with. sometimes that heaviness is tied inextricably to gender, sometimes not. but green girl entered the world as a novel who offers those things. is funny and strange and about the shopgirl trap (i, let it be known, have been a shopgirl for far too many years.) it's about empty fucking and crippling depression and fighting your way out of those things, or not, because all you can do is stare at your blank bedroom wall for three weeks. this is not exactly a review (please read kari larsen's review of green girl here) but it is me imploring you to read this book. and also vote for it over here, which will also count as a vote in the universe for all of us who are trying, and sometimes failing, but sometimes managing just fine.

DARLING BEASTLETTES

2012-01-10T12:25:00.001-08:00

'Darling Beastlettes' by Gina Abelkop: a book trailer/short film in two distinct universes from Birds of Lace on Vimeo.

a short film/book trailer i made for darling beastlettes, featuring a calla lily massacre, doomcave piano ballads and a poem called "the glass tree." please re-post etc. xox

she's coming

2012-01-07T20:48:00.001-08:00

my debut book of poems, darling beastlettes, is now available for pre-order from apostrophe books. if you pre-order, you not only save $2 but also get a silk-screened poster!

early next week i will unveil the book trailer/short film i made to accompany the release of the book.

xo

you're so good at spanish

2012-01-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

depressing and gross

2012-01-05T18:57:00.000-08:00

don't we all spend at least some time thinking we are? when in fact we are so inspiring to the multitude of depressing + gross others who are a kind of sweet family.

feeling it all after several hours spent listening to "caught a lite sneeze" and doomsday piano played by a friend while editing the book trailer for darling beastlettes; a stringed-percussion instrument will really take you there.

lightning

2012-01-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

how i got over my big bad feelings is a zine i made yesterday and today. it contains a short essay i wrote about the title subject (one paragraph of which appears here), as well as polaroid photographs, drawings, and collages. all in 100% sparkling full-color!

$5 (includes shipping) for usa + canada

$7 (includes shipping) for elsewhere

xox

white walls

2011-12-29T19:52:00.001-08:00

polaroids by carrie gabella, pictures of friends/my dog/joshua tree

screen print poster by rhanimals, tori amos 'boys for pele' poster, lttr "practice more failure" poster, darling beastlettes poster from trailer shoot

emily dickinson postcard, photo by naomi robbins, postcard for 'they really want you,' act up postcard, polaroid of i am shelley duvall painting by momchilov, emily d. bookmark, photo print by susanna troxler, painting by llane, painting of joanna newsom (as a pony) by sleepybowie on etsy, postcard of sweater by jason fritz

3 women poster, fold-out poster for bow wow wow's 'teenage queen' 7", "you are my sister and i love you" linocut print poster by me, torn out picture from a flutterby book, jane eyre poster, 1920s art print poster

pen + ink "slattern" drawing by dame darcy from etsy, photo by brother bramm, photo from emily dickinson's herbarium by annie liebovitz ripped out from an issue of vogue

two old paintings, mood board for dora sharlock (photos/drawings of emily d., bodie, yuba river, meek's cutoff, 1800s ladies, antique fabric from fallen apart 1930s cotton dress)

collage by jody jock, kate bush 'never for ever' poster, prints by mai-thu perret, vicious red relic, love poster by anna joy springer, drawing by rhanimals, kate bush "army dreamers" 7" cover, suddenly, last summer poster, collage by me, glitter-encased photo by brother bramm

vanessa julia lutz

2011-12-25T22:07:00.000-08:00

don't look back

2011-12-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

"When I fall in love with music, I fall hard and obsessively; for better or worse, the romance of me and the music runs its course as I watch the artist and she simply creates without looking back to see if I'm watching."

niina, i love this quote so much, you are the smartest. readers, let me point you here.

last night i went to see tori amos for the first time in six years. it was my 11th tori show, and i will never let this many years get between me and a tori show again. if you too grew up worshiping at the insane and gorgeous and light-refracting altar of tori, then you know what i mean when i say that my throat and eyes were fat with tears for nearly the whole show, and that those tears were only the minutia of what were some feelings so big they couldn't possibly fit anywhere inside my meager body. when i speak of the generosity of people who makes things and put them out into the world, it is tori who first showed me the vastness and complexity of what that can mean.

"i fear my fear is greater than my strength/but i walk the missionary way"

in love

2011-12-14T21:33:00.000-08:00

i received my copies of trollops in love from dancing girl press today! in celebration someone can have one for free. 1st person to comment w/their email gets it. xo

tumble

2011-12-13T15:24:00.001-08:00

because i am addicted to tumblr, and because darling beastlettes will be out quite soon, i've made a tumblr for the book here. kate zambreno recently did this for her (amazing) book green girl, so thank you kate, for the idea.

beastlette

2011-12-13T00:56:00.000-08:00

beast

2011-12-10T17:31:00.000-08:00

shooting the book trailer for darling beastlettes next week! the following will be utilized:

happy birthday sweet emily

2011-12-09T23:36:00.000-08:00

good intentions

2011-12-07T14:42:00.000-08:00

last night a one minute clip from joanna newsom's "good intentions paving company" video was released, and it made me so happy. i've been sad, for various reasons. sometimes it only takes a little thing to give a tiny spark to your brain.

if you read this blog then you know that i am an ardent joanna newsom fan. i've never written about why- what her music means to me. i've tried, and it is hard. it is so hard to write about what i love, because i always, always feel at a loss. the thing itself seems like the only way to do justice to itself. joanna's music- and i should add, her lyrics, because they are just as important- latch onto my heart so easily and with such precision. i feel so much less lonely, and so hopeful, when i hear her songs. i know this is true for many people, which is why i love the joanna newsom-related tumblrs so much. to do this kind of work with you your creations, to be able to comfort and hold so many people through your art, is astounding. it is so important. it is life-saving. how lucky are we, to have access to it all? i feel so grateful to be alive while she is making music. to get to hear these songs, and see her perform them.

there are many artists who i feel this strongly about, and they make wildly varying kinds of art. i feel passionately thankful for them all. i feel lucky to be alive, with the capacity to love, despite sadness, despite the terribleness in this world.

princess parade

2011-12-05T19:43:00.000-08:00

a photo i love from one of my favorite events of 2011 (kate durbin's bad princess poetry walk). here kate, as bad cinderella, paints me (as bad ariel) while i rep emily d. and text.

encylopedia special

2011-12-05T16:59:00.000-08:00

the wonderful folks who created encyclopedia are having an amazing special this week: you can purchase volume F-K for only $6! this book is so beautiful, a heavy, fancy tome filled with excellence. (you can donate more than $6 if you'd like/can- and if you can, please do, because it's such a rad & multi-faceted literary project.) the author of my favorite book of 2011, anna joy springer, has several pieces in here, as well as 193 other fabulous contributors. if you were thinking of buying a book for that special reader in your life for the holidays, this is the perfect one.

marry the night

2011-12-03T18:18:00.001-08:00

my favorite part is when gaga is in the tub, with her soft singing in the background, dyeing her hair. the urge to make some kind of physical transformation when grieving is one that is so familiar, a real ritual that lives on the surface while also speaking to everything molting beneath. today i re-painted my nails (OPI mermaid's tears on fingers, OPI ate berries in the canaries on toes) & bought hair dye named "electric banana" that will apparently glow under blacklights.

list #2

2011-12-02T18:33:00.000-08:00

favorite films of 2011, in no particular order:

jane eyre
meek's cutoff (the list is truly in no particular order, but this is by far my #1 favorite of the year)
the tree of life
bridesmaids
melancholia
my week with marilyn (for m. williams' performance only, the film itself was unremarkable)

and i greatly anticipate young adult, sleeping beauty, and dark horse.

mono lake

2011-12-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

a video from a visit to bodie last year; i drove down to mono lake where some seagulls were talking up a storm.

list #1

2011-12-01T00:56:00.000-08:00

2011 records of the year, as chosen by me & in no particular order

st. vincent- strange mercy
pj harvey- let england shake
deep teens- tba (busy recording right now so it totally counts)
the antlers- burst apart
beyonce- 4
horses & high heels- marianne faithfull
lady gaga- born this way
kate bush- 50 words for snow
fleet foxes- helplessness blues
joanna newsom- what we have known

now you tell me yours.

yuba love

2011-11-28T00:05:00.000-08:00

i lied. i have not updated everyday to tell you about what i've loved this year, though there is so very much that i have loved. but here's one for you, and it's a big one: the yuba river. i fantasize about it every single day. i look at real estate porn, a house i could buy to put me as close to the river as possible. i think it must be one of the most perfect spots on earth, and i ache to have spring return so i can swim in it and lay warmly on the rocks. it is a perfect, beautiful, magical spot on our earth. it entered my life this year and i see that the yuba and i will have a life-long relationship. i shot this video in august when i went to the yuba with amber and keith and ava.

i post these videos in hope that you will be able to feel just a bit of that yuba magic- the lushness surrounded by big rocks perfect for layin on, the mermaid lagoon, the quietness (save for our tape player selections), the big sky and sun, trees for miles, total bliss. i want to be there every day. a place that makes you feel that way is true love indeed. when you're there, you feel that it is the place you were made to be in.

the actual very best

2011-11-18T23:13:00.000-08:00

"...[emily dickinson] twisting an imaginary key in her door and saying, 'it's just a turn- and freedom, Matty'-"

- from my wars are laid away in books: the life of emily dickinson by alfred habegger

i think i read this book last year but thinking of this moment in history is a feeling that's been present & important all this year.

5 songs from 2011 that blew my mind, in no particular order

2011-11-18T00:07:00.000-08:00

every one of these songs makes me swell with a pretty thrilled love, and while those thrills may differ in the plain they live on, they do not differ in intensity.

1. super bass- nicki minaj

2. chloe in the afternoon- st. vincent

3. the glorious land- pj harvey

4. marry the night- lady gaga

5. party- beyonce

francesca woodman at sf moma

2011-11-16T23:08:00.000-08:00

last week i went to see the francesca woodman retrospective currently up at sf moma. i have long been a fan of her work- poured over a big coffee table book of her photos, having heart palpitations. i don't know how the sf moma got this show first but it is very exciting!

i have always loved her photos for their content- for the way she moves her body between and around the objects around her, becoming part of houses or boxes or light, but seeing the photos in person impressed upon me the skill with which they were taken as well. the contrasts and compositions seem so meticulous, so perfect- a language of their own. a few of her artist books were on display as well, and i loved to see her handwriting there, as well as on some of the photos. i love all these things which are so much made with the hands, that you know have fingerprints all over them.

one of my favorite things in the show is a series of short films they have on display. i did not know she made any films! but i always find it spectacular to watch someone move who you have only, or most often, seen in still photographs. it is like an absolute proof that they once moved in this world, the one you inhabit too. sometimes it is easy to forget, because the still images exist as a world of their own.

i believe this show goes to the guggenheim in new york next, but if you're near the bay area please go see this show, as it is up til early february. i will certainly go again; i'd like to just sit and let the photos radiate their weird energy all over me. it is staggering to think of all the work she did in so short a time, at such a young age, and drives deep the knife of knowing what a loss her death was and still is.

promise

2011-11-16T00:04:00.000-08:00

painting: "hello, i'm shelley duvall" by matt momchilov

i have neglected to write here about the very great many things (movies, books, records, dresses) i have loved this year, though i did manage to at least post pictures of many of them, to remind myself later. i hope that before the end of this year i will have written about most of them. starting tomorrow, once-a-day posts about one of those many things in particular & how it blew my mind.

supermachine

2011-11-13T18:17:00.000-08:00

i have a poem in the new issue of supermachine, which is available for purchase here.

xo

lyrics & dirges

2011-11-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

trollops in love

2011-11-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

i am very excited to say that my chapbook trollops in love is now available for purchase from the wonderful dancing girl press. there are poems about a multitude of things including jennifer's body, dream dates w/emily d., willa cather, misogynist comic book movies, and ever so much more.

freedom

2011-11-09T18:39:00.001-08:00

vicious

2011-10-31T19:57:00.000-07:00

my review of anna joy springer's devastating, life-altering book the vicious red relic, love is here. i hope that you will buy & read this book; there is nothing that i could want for you more.

autumnal

2011-10-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

breeder sonnet- rebecca wolff
hold me- fleetwood mac
brain drain- marianne faithfull
lily (my one and only)- smashing pumpkins
kassem miro- said el kurdi
new song (live)- bat for lashes
seagulls screaming kiss her kiss her- xtc
tenant- siouxsie & the banshees
autumn- joanna newsom
do me in once and i'll be sad, do me in twice & i'll know better- the GTOS
widow's walk- van dyke parks
the sequel- st. vincent

download here

black lacquered horse hair whip

2011-10-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

since strange mercy came out i've been listening almost exclusively to st. vincent- oh god, oh god! so perfect. this first song, "chloe in the afternoon," makes my heart explode. it has been some time since i've been so obsessed with new music- i love the immediacy of it, how there are new performances and songs and tours happening right as you fall in love with the sounds and words, all this access, all this excitement just for you.

meet you in the ladies' room

2011-10-25T23:58:00.001-07:00

is there anything better than being in a room full of women putting on fake eyelashes, explaining their origin stories, teasing their wigs, picking out underwear, painting their faces garishly, sharing lipsticks and craning their necks for space in front of the bathroom mirror?

more videos from the bad princess poetry walk, a kate durbin project, here

a finely neutered fruit

2011-10-19T18:19:00.001-07:00

i have taken myself to the mountains to write and lay by the river before it gets too cold to do so anymore. i drove up listening to st. vincent's strange mercy, which is the only thing i want to listen to lately. it makes me feel full of goodwill towards the planet, and also vast amazement at the quality of a song which can make you feel like it is as necessary as anything. i am finishing a review of a book i love very, very much, the vicious red relic, love, and have been surprised by how difficult it's been to put into some sort of cohesive statement how much i adore this book. i feel that, once read, it is now living inside me, and i want it to live inside everyone, because we all deserve to know such an act of generosity, the generosity that this book is.

on sunday at 3am i decided i had to go see st. vincent. on sunday at 3pm i was seeing st. vincent, and being moved to a throat thick with tears and love so great it wrecked me. last week i saw a medium for the first time. there is no end to the small and important moments of everyday that bowl me over with their surprising lushness; i respond to it all with my ghost hand to my heart, like a bad actress or celine dion singing, but i am sincere and absolutely awed.

girls girls girls

2011-10-17T20:23:00.001-07:00

the healer

2011-10-12T17:27:00.001-07:00

best finest surgeon

2011-10-11T12:39:00.001-07:00

red red red

2011-10-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

from wikipedia:

"Red hair is also fairly common amongst the Ashkenazi Jewish populations, possibly because of the influx of European DNA over a period of centuries, or in the original founding of their communities in Europe,[14] although both Esau and David are described in the Bible as red-haired. In European culture, prior to the 20th century, red hair was often seen as a stereotypically Jewish trait: during the Spanish Inquisition, all those with red hair were identified as Jewish.[15] In Italy, red hair was associated with Italian Jews, and Judas was traditionally depicted as red-haired in Italian and Spanish art.[16] Writers from Shakespeare to Dickens would identify Jewish characters by giving them red hair.[17] The stereotype that red hair is Jewish remains in parts of Eastern Europe and Russia.[18]

Two studies have demonstrated that people with red hair have different sensitivity to pain compared to people with other hair colors. One study found that people with red hair are more sensitive to thermal pain (associated with naturally occurring low vitamin K levels),[36] while another study concluded that redheads are less sensitive to pain from multiple modalities, including noxious stimuli such as electrically induced pain.

A common belief about redheads is that they have fiery tempers and sharp tongues. In Anne of Green Gables, a character says of Anne Shirley, the redheaded heroine, that "her temper matches her hair", while in The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield remarks that "People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily, but Allie [his dead brother] never did, and he had very red hair."

Another belief is that redheads are highly sexed; for example, Jonathan Swift satirizes redhead stereotypes in part four of Gulliver's Travels, "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms," when he writes that: "It is observed that the red-haired of both sexes are more libidinous and mischievous than the rest, whom yet they much exceed in strength and activity." Swift goes on to write that: "...neither was the hair of this brute [a Yahoo] of a red color (which might have been some excuse for an appetite a little irregular) but black as a sloe..."[48] In the novel and film Red-Headed Woman, the titular protagonist is a sexually aggressive home-wrecker who frequently throws violent temper tantrums."

more on redheads

i don't wanna be a dirt eater

2011-10-07T21:43:00.001-07:00

bad bad

2011-10-05T23:15:00.000-07:00

more photos from the bad princess poetry walk here.

bad princess poetry walk

2011-09-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

i will be a part of kate durbin's bad princess poetry walk in los angeles this coming sunday, oct. 2nd, at 2:15pm as part of the west hollywood book fair. the event is co-hosted by the excellent les figues press. for more information go here and here.

good word

2011-09-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

i scanned some poems of emily dickinson's to send to a friend who has never read her before. number 102 is one of my favorite poems ever written, if not THE favorite. from the tremendous book open me carefully: emily dickinson's intimate letters to susan huntington dickinson, edited by ellen louise hart and martha nell smith.

pig

2011-09-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

photo of ava by brother bramm

return to yuba

2011-09-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

all photos by the illustrious brother bramm

go west

2011-09-01T23:25:00.000-07:00

yuba river day

2011-08-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

raul's studio

2011-08-24T15:02:00.001-07:00

boys boys boys

2011-08-23T23:25:00.000-07:00

lemonaids

2011-08-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

paintings & sculptures & shirts by jason fritz and matt momchilov, from their show currently up at live with animals in brooklyn, ny. from the live with animals website:

"For queers, and many others, the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic created a fear of ones own body as the promise of a future was thrown into jeopardy. As AA Bronson has pointed out, this historical moment was “the continuous interweaving of care-taking, funerals, memorials, anniversaries, and more deaths.“
Using the vast media culture of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which conflated queerness with illness, artists Jason Fritz Michael and Matt Momchilov consider a variety of media tactics from this time and provide a counter-reading of these images from our current moment. The work questions the limitations and failures of self-help, fashion, art, and other media as a stand in for real advocacy, activism and transformation. If we can change our bodies and futures into something not tethered to the chains of death- is this how we do it?"

the show is up until 8/28 and i can't recommend it enough- beautiful, odd, intense, colorful, heart breaking, heart making. visit the live with animals website for more information.

butthole

2011-08-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

the homestead & the evergreens

2011-08-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

new york new york

2011-08-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

belle of amherst

2011-08-10T17:03:00.000-07:00

flood

2011-07-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

more blood

2011-07-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

limp

2011-07-25T03:35:00.001-07:00

R.I.P.

2011-07-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

i LOVE back to black. it made a huge impact on my life. goodbye sweet amy.
xo

hang onto yourself

2011-07-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

miss lola ta da

2011-07-08T00:50:00.000-07:00

gilded palace

2011-07-01T00:11:00.000-07:00

twenties

2011-06-29T17:01:00.000-07:00

my mix for becca klaver's songs for girls in their 20s blog

resort 2011

2011-06-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

resort is generally my least favorite season for fashion collections. resort is also not a season, but so it goes. a few looks that i do love:

yves saint laurent

viktor & rolf

vionnet

valentino

sonia rykiel

anna sui

alexander mcqueen

kaboom

2011-06-27T00:37:00.000-07:00

larimar ring/larimar nail polish

2011-06-24T22:08:00.001-07:00

pairs

2011-06-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

the tree of life

2011-06-22T21:55:00.001-07:00

velvet goldmine

2011-06-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

pms

2011-06-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

get home
rip off 2 sets of fake lashes
get in tub
eat sandwich in tub
drop crumbs in bath

the tenant

2011-06-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

currently obsessed with the brontes. sisters! women hidden on the moors in leaky old castles, while here in 2011 i lock myself out of my house on a sunny day.

leon baham was kind enough to answer some questions regarding ponyboy, sigh over at the birds of lace website. read the interview
here; you can also download a mix of songs that leon named as ones which might serve as a soundtrack to the chapbook.

here are some lists of some queer people's favorite queer books. some of these choices are pretty on point. here is my (partial) list, in which i know i am forgetting some books that i love very much:

another country by james baldwin
walking through clear water in a pool painted black by cookie mueller
the ballad of the sad cafe by carson mccullers
the terrible girls by rebecca brown
the autobiography of red by anne carson
the heart is a lonely hunter by carson mccullers
sister outsider by audre lorde
applesauce by june arnold
lover by bertha harris
confessions of cherubino by bertha harris
cool for you by eileen myles
the vicious red relic, love by anna joy springer (yeah so what if i haven't read it yet, i know it'll be a favorite, duh)
close to the knives by david wojnarowicz

now you tell me yours. and by the by, you can purchase a slew- 5, to be exact- queer titles from birds of lace for only $20 this month. all the money goes to AIDS Walk SF, plus you get words from anna joy springer, rohin guha, leon baham, jackie wang and adam strauss that will scramble your brain and serve it up hot. and then you can add their books to your list.

darling beastlettes

2011-06-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

i am ever so proud & excited to announce that my first book, darling beastlettes, will be published by the wonderful apostrophe books. read more about it here.

zelda

2011-06-14T21:53:00.001-07:00

rabbit hole

2011-06-12T23:52:00.001-07:00

frontier

2011-06-11T21:57:00.000-07:00

that hasn't happened

2011-06-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

cosmic dancer

2011-06-09T07:22:00.001-07:00

ponyboy, sigh

2011-06-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

good god i love this chapbook. ponyboy, sigh: a word problem by leon baham, which when read for the first time gave me ravenous chills up and down my spine with the knowledge that it was changing my life as i read it. i don't know how else to tell you how much you need to read it, and how it is part of the important and ever-evolving work being done today that redefines and expoundes upon queerness as we know it. that complicated beast of a thing, which should never be assimilated into a textbook definition of some vacuous desire.

if you pre-order it you get a beautiful limited edition linocut poster, as shown above. i made these with my hands, and sew the red scars of ponyboy slowly while watching 30 rock. go here to order & read an excerpt.

also, from now til july 17th (the day of AIDS Walk) 100% of birds of lace sales will go to my AIDS Walk fund. so if you've been thinking about subscribing, or have been wanting desperately to read The Birdwisher, or, or....now is the time. i will even throw in a copy of we stopped our lives (see a few posts earlier) with your order for good measure.

gossip

2011-06-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

the other day a co-worker and i were talking about someone- someone i am quite fond of, but do not know very well- and my co-worker said, "between you and me..." and then had to go help a customer for a minute. i assumed that when he returned to our conversation he'd have some shit to talk, because of the "between you and me" comment. but instead he finished that sentence by saying, "between you and me, [that person] was a huge influence and mentor for me." and it made me really happy, to hear those kind, sweet, earnest words. i want to vocalize the things i love about the people i love more often.

the very best (this week edition)

2011-06-05T22:48:00.000-07:00

-hearing/seeing anna joy springer read twice in one weekend
-the person in front of me at the toll booth paying my toll yesterday
-chocolate peanut butter ice cream for lunch
-a new, madly wonderful bat for lashes song
-emmy lou harris's the ballad of sally rose
-a letter from sweet lindsey
-new, free & perfect cowgirl boots
-the never-ending grossness and wonderfulness of wuthering heights, which i am savoring

platinum blonde

2011-05-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

today i held close to me a dress once worn & owned by the late great jean harlow, one of my golden-era hollywood idols.

heathcliff, it's me cathy

2011-05-29T21:11:00.000-07:00

cake
cake
cake
cashews
cowgirl boots
quinoa salad
pizza
poems
gabardine jackets
dog park
gram parsons
cherries
bad/sad moods
inspired moods
tiny pigs
"bloody mary"

baby birch

2011-05-28T22:18:00.001-07:00

Birch

by Cynthia Zarin

Bone-spur, stirrup of veins—white colt
a tree, sapling bone again, worn to a splinter,
a steeple, the birch aground

in its ravine of leaves. Abide with me, arrive
at its skinned branches, its arms pulled
from the sapling, your wrist taut,

each ganglion a gash in the tree's rent
trunk, a child's hackwork, love plus love,
my palms in your fist, that

trio a trident splitting the birch, its bark
papyrus, its scars calligraphy,
a ghost story written on

winding sheets, the trunk bowing, dead is
my father, the birch reading the news
of the day aloud as if we hadn't

heard it, the root moss lit gas,
like the veins on your ink-stained hand—
the birch all elbows, taking us in.

we stopped our lives

2011-05-25T16:40:00.000-07:00

mk cluff & his hearts

as a final project for the class i've been taking this semester, aids in america, i interviewed my old friend & hairdresser mk cluff about his experiences during the height of the hiv/aids epidemic. i made a zine of the interview titled we stopped our lives. if you'd like a copy you can click the button below; it's $3.

goth monday

2011-05-23T22:01:00.000-07:00

emily dickinson doll by madame alexander

aphrodite

2011-05-22T00:36:00.000-07:00

tonight kylie saved my life; i didn't even know it needed saving! thank god for pop. two hour non-stop dance party, and that big toothy sincere smile throughout. my feet are happy and bleeding.

footnotes to a history of the victorian novel

2011-05-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

tonight birds of lace releases kristina marie darling's exquisite footnotes to a history of the victorian novel, an eerie broadside/chapbook that feeds you the minute details and lets you guess the rest. each one takes me about an hour to make- sewing the vintage wallpaper onto the pink, typing out each one by hand on my IBM selectric II. a labor of love, truly. and it acts as a poster too- hang all that wordy fanciness on yr wall for extended pleasure. you can order it here.

1958 christian dior earrings

2011-05-16T20:27:00.000-07:00

bells of ireland & irises, bow wow wow & trail mix, okra & ucb

2011-05-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

forties florals

2011-05-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

1940s floral prints are my very favorite things when it comes to fashion. here is my small collection- most of these are dresses.

this one is actually a blouse, but i often wish i had reams of this fabric to make frocks because it is so perfect:

the color is a bit off in this photo, but this is one of my very favorites, which has sadly ripped at the armpits like many of my vintage dresses. rich brown with baby blue flowers:

an ebay find:

a new acquisition from work. full length acetate gown:

this dress has the perfect cut- i wish i could reproduce it in 1,000 fabrics. i found it in frock you, a wonderful vintage shop in san diego:

the color is off in this one too- it's a beautiful dusty rose:

another full length gown, found at mary's consignment in sf:

i've had this dress since i was about 19. at the time that i got it it was much too big, but now it fits perfectly:

bought for me in london last november by my aunt, this dress is in perfect condition and fits like a dream. the owner of the shop told me i had a "very 1930s english body":

another frock you find- they have big sales once a month, i believe, and this dress was only $10:

this used to be a wonderful dress, and then i threw up all over its skirt. now it is a shrug. another ebay find:

more from ebay! a dress i wear often, with lace trim at the collar:

these ones are not floral, but excellent prints nonetheless:

bought for me in london by my aunt- we actually left it behind, and then i came home from my short trip to paris and found it laid out on my air matress. so sweet!

another new acquisition from work. a perfect long-sleeved 1930s day dress:

from ebay in delightful lavender:

t.g.i.f. (even though mondays are actually my friday)

2011-05-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

date night: meek's cutoff

2011-05-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

today i took myself on a date to see meek's cutoff, which i've been anticipating ever since the project was announced (2 or 3 years ago?).

it is a quiet film, with sounds of spooky cellos and squeaking wagon wheels being most prominent. i love michelle williams & zoe kazan & shirley henderson, and all three of them were unsurprisingly excellent, these women treking across the dry, dusty land, so tired and scared and strong in their calico. michelle williams has a fierceness in her eyes in this film that sticks behind your eyeballs.

in the film the group of westward settlers capture a native american man and decide to use him to try and lead them to water. williams's character is clearly connected to him- bringing him food, mending his moccasins (she says so that he will "owe her something"), defending his life. but she is also scared of him. and i need to think more about what parallel's kelly reichardt, the director, meant to draw between this tough-ass poineer white woman and a captured native american man, one whose land is soon to be stolen from him, his people killed (that's not in the film, but we know where american history leads. the film takes place in 1845.) have you seen it? what do you think?

i'm going to look up interviews with reichardt now (ooo, here's a good one). i want to see this movie over and over and let it soak into my pores 'til i'm dusty too.

joy

2011-05-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

this week i have been so, so tired when i get home from work, perhaps because i am in the pms zone. 5 minutes after walking through the door it's bedtime (or so it feels like) and it's all i can do stay awake through an episode of 30 rock. but tonight i got it together and went out to go see my friend jason's art show, which is wonderful and inspiring and available for you to go see til the end of this month, if you live in the bay area. so do it. if you do you'll see a painting that rises off the wall with gravestones and shadows and flowers and a curiously set mouth, amongst other wonders. i accidentally wore home a 1950s schiaparelli necklace from work but i'm glad i got to wear it out tonight, to glitter.