September Gurls

* I've got three poems in the new issue of Sink Review. These are from the manuscript I've been working on since putting The French Exit to bed. The manuscript now has a working title: The Self Unstable. (Is the working title working? Not sure, but it feels legitimizing to have one. Also, it means I can stop giving the individual prose blocks titles.) There's lots more awesome poetry (Ariana "It was then that I entered a period of despair" Reines, Dan "They want to play doctor but I just want a real doctor" Hoy, Matt "I’m fortunate enough" Henriksen, etc.) to read while you're there.

* Along with Sommer Browning and Evan Fleischer, I'm putting together "A Night of Poetry and Comedy," as I like to conceive of it, i.e., a mix(er) of poets and stand-up, what's the difference anyway. This will be in Brooklyn (@ Pete's Candy Store) on Sept. 25. Save the date! More details TK.

* I'm reading Chandler Burr's other perfume book, The Perfect Scent. Really sucks in comparison to The Emperor of Scent, I'm sad to say. Chandler pretty much phoned this one in. I keep finding myself shocked at how bad and lazy the writing is:

Creating perfume is exceedingly complicated. It is an art form that is, for example, infinitely more complex than, say, making clothing. Cutting silk crepe into a dress means a piece of silk crepe cut and stitched--expertly, we can stipulate--into the form of a dress.

WTF? Is it me, or is that an entirely meaningless tautology. I mean, it's true and all: All you have to do to make a dress is make a dress. Point taken. I mean, what? Depressing.

* There's a cool exhibit of Richard Avedon's fashion photography at the MFA right now. One of his muses was a model/actress named Suzy Parker, whom I'd never heard of before. She's from Texas!



Isn't she pretty? She's so '50s, but also kind of '80s. She'd fit right into a White Snake video.

* SOTD: Hanae Mori Haute Couture.