Who knew Hyperbole was a ballet dancing transcendentalist?

I did what I always do when I'm a little perplexed--I made a ton of food: summer squash, zucchini, and potato gratin with olive oil, fresh parsley, and garlic scapes (almost all of the ingredients of which came from the farm) and enough chocolate chip cookies for all of my neighbors and some of Bartlett.

I also made about 10 alternative life plans in my head, a course of action I take when I am unsure of what I'm doing in life. Most of these plans included jobs in publishing or freelancing and lots of writing in apartments with nice lighting and a typewriter. These apartments were located everywhere from Paris to New York to Philadelphia to Lancaster. They were very definitely not in Amherst and far, far away from academia.

I think I've been so concerned with figuring out what I'm going to *do* to support the thing that I really want to do in life (ie write), that I haven't been doing what I need to do. That is: poems. Except I did write a poem this week, and it felt good. About dreams and Amelia Earhart and a personified Low Pressure System wearing a cravat.

It is confusing to be good at and praised for something that you enjoy but do not love. It is somewhat worse to be good at and praised for something that you enjoy but do not love in a town that is a postcard for a bourgeois, upper-middle class existence that is mind-numbingly boring. But for the farm, the small press, the Bookmill, the prospect of rowing in the fall, and the insane library access, I might run screaming off into the hills.

My next poem will feature a personified Hyperbole wearing a tutu and reciting Whitman.

Clearly Bad Decision Dinosaur is a powerful, powerful animal

I wish I had read this earlier, ha. Seriously, grad school isn't so bad. (YESSSSS)

Sorry for the random post. Will synthesize new happenings soon.

From the annals of Victorian research

Nothing says "Get out of my country" like an Indian sculpture of an automaton tiger mauling a redcoat. Complete with an organ that emits "man dying" and "tiger growling" sounds. A cheery find for this morning's image search.

(Image via Victoria and Albert Museum online collections.)

Why didn't anyone stop me?

Clearly this was a terrible idea. I'm enjoying reading The Odyssey (again) about 50x more than I am slogging through the first chapter of Ulysses (again). And I'm itching to get back to my stacks...still haven't touched Rivka Galchen's Atmospheric Disturbances or the short story collections from Lauren Groff and Pasha Malla that I've been waiting to read since last semester. Listening to Chris Bachelder read some new stories a few weeks ago also made me want to finally sit down and finish U.S.!, but, alas, I have lent out my copy for the summer. Really what I'm finding is that, one week in, I am already losing heart in my battle to conquer Ulysses once and for all.

When the great Nick Hornby was still writing for The Believer, he scoffed (good naturedly?) at the idea that we should read books because "we're supposed to" or because they're classics or because other people talk about them, and we want to join in the conversation. I believe his opinion was something along the lines of: forcing yourself to read a book when you don't want to just because you think you should be reading it is not only unpleasant, but you don't actually get that much out of it anyway.

I find myself sort of trapped in the middle ground of the two arguments Hornby represented in that piece: need to finish Ulysses for school; don't want to do it because it's summer; will most assuredly not have time in the fall.

I am very, very tempted, à la the Nick Hornby school of reading, to put U down again to get to all the fun stuff I've been stockpiling. I'm just afraid I won't pick it back up...

***

In other news, I'm back from Pennsylvania with new running shoes and fresh laundry. Home is beautiful as always, but getting slightly more depressed as the recession kicks in. Saw both sisters--one is pulling more money as a waitress than I might this whole summer, the other is fresh back from Penland, where she made and sold some fantastic pieces for charity. She's really settling into her own as an artist, I think.

***

As promised, some summer music suggestions:

For running and other frantic activities, including driving:

Passion Pit, Manners
Columbia (2009)

With particular favorite tracks being "Moth's Wings" and "Little Secrets."




Miike Snow, Miike Snow
Downtown (2009)

The single, "Animal," may still be my favorite track off the album, which fizzes in and out of a solid listen.




For all-around good pop sensibility:

Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca
Domino (2009)

Amazing.





Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz!
Interscope (2009)

Still one of my favorite bands. A departure from the (for whatever personal reason/disposition) earth-shattering Show Your Bones, but still solid.



For best new Beirut/Arcade Fire hybrid and/or lost-at-birth sibling:

Fanfarlo, Reservoir
self-released (2009)

Category says it all. Still enjoyable.





For writing endeavors:

Elvis Perkins, Ash Wednesday
XL (2007)

Dear god, please skip "May Day," if you know what's good for you.




Jeff Hanson, Madam Owl
Kill Rock Stars (2008)

Poor Jeff Hanson. Hopefully in Dead Rock Stars heaven.

Let's go find summer.

Yes, Heidi Swanson, yes let's.

So far, summer has been alternately lazy and hectic. Roller coasters and concerts jostle with libraries and placement tests. My CSA share is yielding all the lettuce I could ever dream of. And delicious strawberries almost better than the occasional ice cream cone. I tore right through Jedediah Berry's The Manual of Detection last weekend and am excited to start working at Small Beer Press with Jed and Gavin and Kelly (and fellow interns!).


So far, I've seen Thao Nguyen rock The Iron Horse and Ted Leo & The Pharmacists blow up the Easthampton High School gym (an interesting change in venue, for sure). Missed what was probably an amazing TMSR show in Boston, but am looking forward to their new album, due out July 14. Bowerbirds are playing Northampton in a few weeks, and though I don't think anything can top when they played an opening set for Bon Iver last summer in Philadelphia, I'm planning on heading over. Slightly weirded out by the death of Michael Jackson, but John Richards's amazing kickoff to The Morning Show yesterday celebrated the spirit of a pop genius in exactly the right way. The whole first hour of that show was top-notch, and if you feel like you need a summertime pick-me-up, you can stream the show over at KEXP.org.

Headed to the home region for the 4th of July weekend. Starting Ulysses as of July 1. These are probably bad concurrent moves to make. If I fall behind, I suppose there's always the new (and beautifully drawn) Ulysses SEEN project by Throwaway Horse to keep me motivated.

Tonight: final reading of the Juniper Summer Institute: Chris Bachelder, Arisa White, and Matthew Zapruder (oh my).

To come: playlists!

"Daylight" on a rainy day

Between the gloomy weather and struggling through research for work today (a book-length scholarly study on the cultural importance of tea in Victorian England), I was in need of motivation from the new-ish Matt and Kim single, "Daylight." Their new album Grand is poppy as ever, but I enjoy their new stuff much more than tracks like "Yea Yeah," which seems less complex and flat in comparison to their latest efforts. I must admit, though, that I enjoyed the continued theme of food fights in this video, though Matt and Kim seem to have downgraded, trading a cardboard cut-out kitchen for a garbage dumpster...



Is anyone else not surprised that Matt threw out his back and had to cancel tour dates this spring?

Vermont Summer Round-Up

Vermont was cold. Beautiful, but cold. This might have something to do with being on top of Mount Mansfield, where the temperature dropped about 10 degrees just going up the mountain.

To remind myself of the season, here are a couple of sweet links (sweet=summer? warmth? something.):

• The fledgling issue of Jellyfish Magazine premiers
  
• The Morning News hosts "Infinite Summer," a three-month challenge to read DFW's tome Infinite Jest in its entirety.
  
• A new story by Lauren Groff is now online at Open Letters
• Hobart gives Brady Udall (an F&M alum!) and Pasha Malla the thumbs up
• Cool factor: a Rubik's Cube font generator

In other (personal) news, I started my new job as a proofreader of an academic manuscript today. Between that, spending some time on the farm, and my own reading/writing, this summer should be busy--a good thing, since I need a schedule to keep me from devolving into a full fledged couch potato/insomniac caffeine addict.