Threatened by Books

I was heartened to hear Sherman Alexie chant the word books 15 or 20 times in a row, the chant of love, of adoration, of kinship. And I do idolize them, but they currently surround me, threaten me, climbing up on the tables and sofas, baring their spines, snapping their pages, ready to leap. Sons & Lovers (the next in my Modern Library pilgrimage having just finished Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, the greatest book ever written); The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage (my friend Rick Newby has just published (via Drumlummon) a re-issue of The Pass by Savage); Tree of Smoke by one of my all-time favorite authors Denis Johnson, and what will perhaps become the definitive Vietnam War novel (and winner of the National Book Award in 2007); The Power of Now (which I'll never finish since the Now is never-ending) by Vancouver spiritual teacher Echardt Tolle; The Dog Who Spoke With Gods by Diane Jessup (can never read enough good dog novels); Shadow Country by Peter Matheissen (the whole Watson trilogy revamped!). I must read furiously to keep them at bay! Or perhaps I'll succumb and read the New Yorker book reviews and find even MORE!

Great lyric of the week - "If words could speak I wonder what they'd say?" Martha and the Muffins

This Modern Life

I wonder if the 45 seconds I spent standing in front of the microwave negated the health benefits of my organic vegan black bean and rice wrap?

Sherman vs. Colbert

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sherman Alexie
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

Sherman Alexie is here in the Ham Wednesday - Friday for our first Whatcom Reads event, where everyone in the County read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Native American). We spoke briefly about his experience on the Colbert Report where Colbert was ambushed. To paraphrase Sherman, he expected a bookish introvert. There are few who've gone toe-to-toe with Colbert like the Sher Man.

It's Good News Week, Really

For those of you who can remember the release of the song "It's Good News Week" by Hedgehoppers Anonymous in 1965, you know there was just a hint of satire, a pinch of irony. But times have changed. Sick of watching your retirement plummet, Rush Limbaugh blather and spew, suicide bombings and global warming? There are several cures. Good News Daily and GoodNews Network are news sites that feature only accounts detailing the more benevolent, altruistic, and spiritually enlightened aspects of homo sapiens, and from the polluted mainstream media streams it seems there are damn few of these around. Well there are more than you might think.
The news on these sites will give many people optimism, and proof that there is more occuring in the "human thaing" than catastrophe. Check them out.

Dog Thinks of Trakl

The dark fir, snow, haunted
evening light reminds Dog

of Georg Trakl’s poetry which master
reads aloud now and then, “blackness,

silence and snow” although

it isn’t exactly silent, the car stereo
across the street battering obnoxiously, still

Dog is filled with inexpressible sorrow
and an inexhaustible appetite for young

wine. Out of the darkness and would-be

silence, the companionship of a forest-hemmed
tavern beckons. The young wine, pats

on the head, maybe even a belly scratching.
But the car leaves, and silence does now descend,

and along with it, the “blue grief of evening.”

No Poem Today

Just crows
in trees
in sun



and in other news, a Canadian study has found that the plastic lining in canned beverages contains Bisphenol A, a chemical which mimics estrogen. So those macho guys sitting in their pickups sipping brew are getting more in touch with their feminine side every sip.

Dog Disputes the Existence of God

Dog, knowing his name spelled backwards
is God, still has doubts. Would a rational, beneficent

God create Pomeranians? Dog doesn’t think so.
Six of them tangle now on the other side of the fence,

a chaotic, irritating Pilobolus of ratdog fury, gone
berserk over the simple fact that Dog is lifting

his leg on the rhododendron in their front yard.
The sound is that of rabid mosquitoes on meth…

not pleasant. But with God, one never knows. Perhaps
they are yet another test, tedious as this gets, being

Job. Perhaps He has His reasons. Dog wanders
away from the glistening rhodi leaves, the nightmarish

noise and looks to the sky, pewter as usual. Why Pomeranians?
Dog asks silently, Why? He realizes this question, although

in other languages, other forms, has been asked
a million times before, and will be asked a million

times again. And that no answer will ever come, no
answer clear as a righteous bark on a moonlit night.