Monday, December 29, 2003

Celeste is back!

Celeste is back from Connecticut for winter break, and she'll be here until January 18. She and I had dinner over the weekend and it was so cool to catch up with her. We talked about Joan of Arc, and Liturgical Drama vs. Mystery Play, specs of medieval bells, Robert & Jaron's album (which she can apparently compel the Wesleyan library to buy, and I hope she does), Ellen Fullman and her fabulous new album, a piling up of Planet Organics boxes, and much else. We went to Starbuck's in San Bruno (thereby compromising her principles) so Paul could say hi to her too. Paul was there geeking away on his laptop and my laptop, too. We all talked about the Orange Alert and the closed bathrooms on BART, and how much warmer it is here than in Connecticut. Xena the brown dog, it was revealed, is spending winter break in West Virginia chasing squirrels.

In other news, it looks like Will Grant and I will collaborate in a live performance on January 16 at the SFSU Fine Arts Gallery.

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

My friend Sean

Sean is a poet, and I really admire his work. Here's his bio. Go check out his stuff!

Sean Mclain Brown enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm as a jet engine mechanic on AV8B Harriers. Much of his writing is influenced by his experiences in the military and living abroad. He was formerly the Poetry Editor and Managing Editor for Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review. He is two-time winner of the Mark Linenthal Poetry Award and a Finalist in the Ann Fields Poetry Prize. Currently, he is a member of Maxine Hong Kingston's Veterans Writing Workshop. Read Vietnam Veteran and Writing Workshop member John Mulligan's testament. "Art," says Maxine Hong Kingston, "is the transformation of feelings and experience into meaning. Writing is a tool for accessing events and memories and giving them meaning ...we have lived with war experiences in our hearts. Now we can put them through the process of art. Now is the time for the healing and the coming home." His poetry and fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in EM, First Intensity, Fourteen Hills, Indiana Review, LUNA, Mobius, Potpourri, Sentence, Small Town and Transfer magazines. His first book, Manufacturer's Specifications and Guidelines is forthcoming from Blue Barnhouse press. You can read his work and current projects at www.seanmclainbrown.org