CUTTY SPOT

75.0 :: 'the collected works of noah cicero, vol. 1' by noah cicero

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 02:45:58 -0400

‘the collected works of noah cicero, vol. 1’ by noah cicero // lazy fascist press, 2k13

75.0

what we talk about when we talk about noah cicero

some ‘points’

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I AM ALT LIT (Contributor) Interview :: Josh Spilker

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:04:56 -0400

iamaltlit:

we asked our contributors some questions. they answered the questions. we will ‘post’ them here. the fourth interview is with j spilker. the photo above is from his twitter account.

1. do you read books? i mean like, full-length ones (ebooks or print). if
so, what’s the last 2 good ones that you read? if not, why not?

I stop more books than I finish. The last one I finished to the end
was “Blindness” by Jose Saramago. Another one was “The Late Shift” by Bill Carter, about Leno vs. Letterman in the 90s. One more is “Crapalachia” by Scott McClanahan.
Amazing. Others I started but didn’t finish were “Speedboat” by
Renata Adler and “Donnybrook” by Frank Bill and “The Man With The Golden Arm” by Nelson Algren. My library checkout ended on “Speedboat” and and “The Man with a Golden Arm.” I had them on the iPad, but my wife always uses the iPad and the writing was fantastically fresh in “Donnybrook” but I
just didn’t care where it was going. I’m in the middle of some alt
lit and some Christian books.

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I AM ALT LIT (Contributor) Interview :: Chase Kersey

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:04:27 -0400

iamaltlit:

we asked our contributors some questions. they answered the questions. we will ‘post’ them here. the fourth interview is with chase kersey. the photo above is from his twitter account.

1. do you read books? i mean like, full-length ones (ebooks or print). if so, what’s the last 2 good ones that you read? if not, why not?

i dont read full length books (which i assume you mean novels or novellas by this) very often due to being busy. Also, a part of me doesnt reading something that will take a while to get all the way through if i have no inspiration other than “i should probably read,” which is why i lean more towards reading essays and poetry.

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I AM ALT LIT (Contributor) Interview :: Stephen Michael McDowell

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:04:04 -0400

iamaltlit:

we asked our contributors some questions. they answered the questions. we will ‘post’ them here.

the third interview is with stephen michael mcdowell. the photo above is from his twitter account (unedited).

1. do you read books? i mean like, full-length ones (ebooks or print). if so, what’s the last 2 good ones that you read? if not, why not?

yes. unsure what context ‘good’ is meant to qualify, but enjoyed/encourage ppl to read ’taipei’ by tao lin, ‘action, figure’ by frank hinton. seemed like both authors worked very hard on developing subject/theme/cadence/’style’

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I AM ALT LIT (Contributor) Interview :: Chris Dankland

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:03:41 -0400

iamaltlit:

we asked our contributors some questions. they answered the questions. we will ‘post’ them here.

the fourth interview is with chris dankland. the photo above is from his twitter account.

1. do you read books? i mean like, full-length ones (ebooks or print). if so, what’s the last 2 good ones that you read? if not, why not?

I’m a compulsive reader, it doesn’t really matter to me if something is online or in print. I try to read at least 30 pages a day, which isn’t that much—I usually end up reading three or four print books a month. I would say that I’m a well-read person, but there are always other people who’ve read more. I also read a sh*t ton of online stuff, that takes up a lot of my time. Two recent books I liked:

Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler is giving me weird dreams.

Crapalachia by Scott McClanahan kicked my ass…finished reading that yesterday, it’s definitely one of my favorite books I’ve read this year.

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popserial: Tao Lin Day at Thought Catalog. Tao guest-edited...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 02:21:26 -0400

popserial:

Tao Lin Day at Thought Catalog. Tao guest-edited posts that will run throughout the day.

[JACK SERGE VIDEO INTERVIEW RESPONSE] Jack Serge is a internet...

Fri, 31 May 2013 07:00:38 -0400

[JACK SERGE VIDEO INTERVIEW RESPONSE]

Jack Serge is a internet presence / writer who has brought a lot of attention upon himself recently

he seems to have manifested out of nothing

articles have been written about him - interviews have been conducted with him

people are frustrated by him, mainly bc of his grandiose proclamations & lack of ‘work’ for us to read - aka he claims he is such a force but we have only see ~1 poem so far

he’s undoubtedly idiosyncratic & intriguing

his mantra seems to be to ‘Be Your Be, and Do Your Do’

however, a lot of people have ‘issues’ with his presumptuousness it seems

we hear he’s writing a novel

i thought it’d be cool to get an interview response from him, hoping it’d reveal more to us

judge that for yourself, i suppose

the video has an element of darkness to it, primarily bc of the lowered, ‘screwed up’ pitch of his voice

he stitches together clips from Kanye West performances, David Foster Wallace interviews, Mario Kart races

he says how much he loves Moby Dick

100.0 :: 'taipei' by tao lin

Wed, 29 May 2013 16:12:23 -0400

iamaltlit:

‘taipei’ by tao lin, vintage contemporaries 2k13

100.0

review by chris dankland

***ed note: more ‘i am alt lit’ contributors will read this book, will probably concentrate on different elements, etc. read review #1 by josh s, and review #2 by austin islam. thankks.***

//

if I had to pick one thing to try and get my non-reading friends interested in Tao Lin’s new novel, it would be this clip of Tao Lin and Megan Boyle wild’n out (some of these ‘scenes’ are written about in the novel)

if I had to pick one thing to get my literary friends interested, it would be this paragraph from page 13 of the uncorrected proof:

In his tiredness and inattention these intuitions manifested in Paul as an uncomplicated feeling of bleakness—that he was in the center of something bad, whose confines were expanding, as he remained in the same place. Faintly he recognized in this a kind of humor, but mostly he was aware of the rain, continuous and everywhere as an incognizable information, as he crossed the magnified street, gleaming and blacker from wetness, to return to the party.

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I AM ALT LIT (Contributor) Interview :: Hannah V.A.

Mon, 27 May 2013 21:01:41 -0400

iamaltlit:

we asked our contributors some questions. they answered the questions. we will ‘post’ them here.

the second interview is with hannah v.a.. the photo above is from her twitter account.

1. do you read books? i mean like, full-length ones (ebooks or print). if so, what’s the last 2 good ones that you read? if not, why not?

i do read books. i enjoy reading books. right now i’m reading “stiff” by mary roach, i want to put that as one of the two even though i’m not done. the other one is “the fall” by camus. i like camus a lot.

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[KEEGAN CRAWFORD VIDEO INTERVIEW RESPONSE] Keegan wrote the...

Sun, 26 May 2013 07:00:52 -0400

[KEEGAN CRAWFORD VIDEO INTERVIEW RESPONSE]

Keegan wrote the ebook Stealing Things in 2012 & i really enjoy it

on this video he claims to have written Stealing Things in a span of ~2 hrs

i have to say i’m tremendously impressed - esp since he also mentions how he only kept less than half for the ebook of what he produced within those 2 hrs

he plays death metal between each answer, except when he plays MF Doom after saying that MF Doom was one of his favorite rappers

he is wearing a At the Drive-In tee shirt

he also runs Blank Space Press

MY FAVORITE MOMENTS:

‘I can’t put my emotions into concrete sentences verbally. I’m a lot better at doing it while writing. I don’t know why - it’s just a lot easier to see my thoughts out in words that I can read back to myself […] I have everything in my head but I don’t know how to say it. I only know how to write it.’

‘Like if you haven’t noticed yet, I’m really bad at talking […] It’s really hard for me to talk, I guess’

‘I wanted to write something that didn’t make people feel anything, like a completely emotionless story’

(talking about his press) ‘I want more weird stuff that people wouldn’t read anyway’

‘Humor & sincerity - I think they’re kind of the same thing. I think they’re different ways of portraying an emotion or something. Humor is a little more complex - it’s more clever. Humor is sincere, but it just looks different & sounds different.’

‘The first album I ever bought was a compilation of jazz musicians that I bought at a used bookstore. I was probably like 6 years old…I don’t even know why I bought a jazz CD at all - I just thought it was kind of cool because my grandpa listened to jazz’

‘The internet is the closest thing we have to any kind of metaphysical reality. It exists but it’s its own thing that can never touch…we can talk about it & we can interact with it in our own way but we can never be one with the internet. It’s its own dimension…The physical boundaries are gonna break down.’

E. Mullany

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:59:00 -0400

E. Mullany

by Edward Mullany

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:58:27 -0400

by Edward Mullany

I AM ALT LIT (Contributor) Interview :: Matthew Sherling

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:16:56 -0400

iamaltlit:

we asked our contributors some questions. they answered the questions. we will ‘post’ them here.

the first interview is with matthew sherling. the photo above is from his twitter account.

1. do you read books? i mean like, full-length ones (ebooks or print). if so, what’s the last 2 good ones that you read? if not, why not?

i do read books, often obsessively. the last 2 full-length books i read & enjoyed were ‘visions of cody’ by jack kerouac & ‘the autobiography of alice b. toklas’ by gertrude stein.

2. should writers call themselves writers anymore or is there a better term?

hm. sometimes it’s hard for me to say ‘i’m a writer’ or, more specifically, ‘i’m a poet’ (that always feels inherently pretentious for some reason). in the online writing world most ‘writers’ seem to do a lot more than just write. or their ‘writing’ at least seems to go beyond just their ‘books’. the boundary that once held writers’ ‘work’ & ‘life’ seemingly apart is now dissolving via the internet, so it’s (potentially) more about their character as a whole (some may say ‘internet presence’, ‘brand’, ‘persona’). anyways, i don’t know how (or don’t feel justified) to answer this question directly.

3. are image macros poetry? why or why not?

my definition of poetry seems somewhat amorphous, although i tend to sympathize more w/ the idea that poetry can transcend its conventional definitions / forms. so yes i think image macros can absolutely be poetry. in fact, if done affectively, i think image macros can be a more engaging form of poetry (esp to young ppl today) than only-text poetry.

4. what’s the most exciting literary/art/creative/writer/designer thing you’ve gotten into recently?

one thing I love abt ‘alt lit’ (& this is also potentially problematic of course) is that, like noah cicero said once, you can wake up & get on the internet & have several things to engage with / read that have been posted that very day. steve roggenbuck says we’re creating things / art / a culture that we can use as (among other things) a substitute for television. there’s undoubtedly an entertainment / warding off boredom element to all of it. so ‘recently’ seems so fleeting in the internet world. right now i like the video/poems ppl have been sending sarah alexander for ‘everyday genius.’

5. as whatever this alt lit community is, what should we be doing more of?

more ambition & less bickering.

6. what creative projects are you working on now?

i am kind of always working on my manuscript of poems, currently titled ‘BRING ME MY ABSOLUTE SURRENDER’, although it’s essentially finished. nathan springer & i are also working on a multi-media ebook that will include text, video, image, music, etc. & of course CUTTY SPOT.

7. what do you do to make money? or how are you getting money i.e. ‘surviving’ ?

i make money by teaching & tutoring at a tutoring center in san francisco. also, as far as my internet output, fanzine (is the only place that) sends me $$$ for my interviews, etc. MUCH <3 TO FANZINE.

8. do you submit to places or do you just post your own stuff up on yr web site? should ‘new’ writers be submitting to places or just ‘author-creating’ their own stuff?

mm. good question. there are two words I am very weary of: ‘pure’ & ‘should.’ i’m not sure what new writers ‘should’ do or not necessarily, except write something he or she would be excited to read. so often I think writers write things that they feel like they ‘should’ be writing, according to other people’s expectations. i’m pretty sure we’re all guilty of that sometimes. but i think we shd write things that excite us. anyways, i’m a huge fan of DIY, however I submit my stuff to a lot of places – whether my manuscript to book contests etc or individual poems to magazines. i guess i feel more ‘legit’ if someone accepts my work vs if i just publish it on my own, but this feels insecure. do what makes sense to you!

sarahjeanalex: popserial: Lee Costello interviewed me about...

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:42:36 -0400

sarahjeanalex:

popserial:

Lee Costello interviewed me about stuff

Ste answered eleven questions about writing and chicken tikka masala and ambitious motherfuckers but the last question is the most important imho

Alt Lit Press: Interview w/ Noah Cicero, the "Godfather" of Alt Lit, re his "Collected Works" volume, a Korean bartender, religion,...

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:40:53 -0400

Alt Lit Press: Interview w/ Noah Cicero, the "Godfather" of Alt Lit, re his "Collected Works" volume, a Korean bartender, religion,...:

altlitpress:

1. First things first—let’s get this out of the way—you have a book that just came out, “The Collected Works of Noah Cicero.” I imagine this volume would be a good pick-up for anyone who wants to check your stuff out, get acquainted. Say something else about it. Also, aren’t…

[TOM MELTON VIDEO INTERVIEW RESPONSE] * Tom Melton seems to...

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:00:00 -0400

[TOM MELTON VIDEO INTERVIEW RESPONSE]

Tom Melton seems to always be saying smart things

I remember first coming across him on various spreecasts in summer 2012

I specifically remember him debating with Daniel Alexander about what constitutes a snack & how Tom is a huge Takis fan

Tom filmed this video in both Maryland & New Jersey

he has recorded each answer in different locations & has, in text over the video, told us the specifics of each location – a pit beef joint, a prairie, parking lot/interstate, gas station, etc.

as he responds about his relationship to the internet, the video stays on his halfsleeping, heavybreathing cute dog

if you haven’t realized how knowledgeable tom is about rap music, watch this to find out

here are my favorite moments:

‘I see myself as more of a curator when I’m writing than a generator of independent thought’

‘not enough writers have fun when they’re doing their shit, I would say’

‘there’s no degree of whimsy that can replace an understanding of how to manipulate language artfully, but also there’s no degree of artful manipulation of language that can replace a sense of whimsy’

‘using the internet to facilitate connecting with other people as much as possible’

‘I think it’s pretty well-documented at this point that the internet brings out the best & the worst in people’

‘The world is a shitty enough place as it is; not trying to make it better would be taking the piss’

THE NEATO MOSQUITO ALT LIT FIREWORKS SHOW: [WAKING LIFE IS A LUCID DREAM]

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:49:29 -0400

THE NEATO MOSQUITO ALT LIT FIREWORKS SHOW: [WAKING LIFE IS A LUCID DREAM]:

[WAKING LIFE IS A LUCID DREAM]

when I see complete strangers crying
I want to hug them

these days are not relivable

I’ve cut my hair myself
for the last year

& each time
it feels like I’m creating art

like a dog is barking
in my brain

I want to be a nobody
I want to be famous

there is a difference
between
asking good questions
& being good
at asking them

there is a game
& no one knows
what it means
to win

which is to say
I want to build a snowwoman
next time I’m in the snow

I want to drink tea
from a beaker

in my own personal wilderness
_
Matthew Sherling
http://www.metazen.ca/?p=12162

81.7 :: 'earth: missed connection' by kersey chase (chase kersey???), habitat 2k13

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:31:12 -0400

iamaltlit:

‘earth: missed connection’ by kersey chase (chase kersey???) // mammal habitat 2k13

81.7

(ed. note: some1 named ‘chase kersey’ occasionally contributes to this site; i’m not sure if kersey chase does. ‘chase kersey’ may or may not have anything to do w/ this review).

i think i got in some ‘argument’
last wk or the wk before last
on the ‘infamous’ ALG spread
w/ someone arguing that ‘image macros’ weren’t poetry

i haven’t gone all EBSCOhost on the problem yet
to find the ‘critical research’

but let’s think for a sec abt magazines & what they’ve been doing for
‘20 million+ years’
they include pics to help ‘enhance’ the article, ‘bring it to life’ etc
why this cant work for poetry idk
b/c even if the opposite is true, the image says ‘something different’ than the words,
that gets all up into ‘authorial intent’ vs. ‘reader response’

i’m not here to make any bold ‘proclamations’ on that argument 2day
just that kersey chase’s book (CHASE, NO KERSEY, WHAT IS YR NAME???)

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sadcore dadwave: jesus was a zen buddhist by stephen tully dierks

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:24:28 -0400

sadcore dadwave: jesus was a zen buddhist by stephen tully dierks :

sadcoredadwave:

I just said “god fucking dammit” to the moth who cannot hear me, fluttering across the ceiling, saying it I didn’t feel anything.
Andy Warhol holding a skull by his head is my favorite book cover.
When I was a twelve-year-old shithead I read the New York Times while my sisters carved…

liefplus: poem by keegan crawford in everyday genius

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:01:07 -0400

liefplus:

poem by keegan crawford in everyday genius