Don't Spill Black Tea on Your iPod Mini Press

No really, you should be careful not to. I am trying. And I have a case of the spills and the dropsies, to boot.

I keep drinking black tea with milk for breakfast. I may have to investigate something more hardy to eat at 9am. Something that can not spill on me, or be dropped. Like a marzipan carousel. A giant halo ringing the skyscrapered city. An old fashioned deep sea diving suit.

The breakfast that cannot spill

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Well, Brad Renfro died today (age 25). Most guys probably do not know who he is, or anyone for that matter who was over 12 yrs old in 1994, but I think some girls who watched The Client (in 1994, then The Cure, Sleepers, and much later, Ghost World) will be sad to learn that Brad died. Most likely drugs. When I was younger I really didn't understand how girls had crushes on TV actors. It didn't make sense to swoon over someone you didn't know because they looked a certain way on film/television. I had friends who had posters and magazine cut outs of all kinds of boy actors on their wall and I was always slightly embarrassed for them but then also felt awkward because I just couldn't relate to their enthusiasm and was left out. They sent away for signed autographs. They had boy-crush posters and I had Apple ads from 1993-5 on my wall (that's 5-7th grade). I liked those Apple ads, ok? They were "inspiring."

Anyways, Brad Renfro was one of the few kid actors I thought was cute when I was a kid:


From the LA Times:
Renfo's body was found in his Los Angeles apartment, in the 1000 block of South Ogden Drive, by his girlfriend, authorities said. Renfro was declared dead by paramedics at 9 a.m., according to coroner's spokesman Ed Winter.

"There is no suspicion of foul play," LAPD Lt. David Evans said.

Renfro's former attorney, Blair Berk said Tuesday: "Brad was a really gifted young man. It is a tragedy all the way around."

Renfro, a native of Tennessee, began acting in skits for the anti-drug group DARE at his school. He got his big break when producers of "The Client" -- the film adaptation of the John Grisham novel -- conducted a national search to find a fresh face to play the role of a boy who encounters danger after he overhears a conversation about a murder. Renfro appeared opposite Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones in that 1994 movie.

Despite the promising start to his acting career, Renfro was known for his legal troubles. In the late 1990s, he was arrested for trying to steal a yacht in Florida. In December 2005, he was picked up by LAPD officers during an undercover drug sweep of downtown's skid row.

Renfro told a detective who arrested him that he was using heroin and methadone. He ultimately went into a drug rehabilitation program and pleaded guilty to the attempted possession of heroin. Renfro was sentenced to three years' probation.

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Um, in other news, Mitt Romney won the Michigan primary Tuesday night, beating John McCain by a substantial margin. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON. Well, I guess this is what's going on: Lots of democrats voted for Mitt to keep him in the running and weaken McCain's campain, thus weakening his chance at beating Clinton/Obama. Sneaky democrats, let's hope it works. But still, Mitt Romney and Huckabee are making me nervous/queezy.


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There are a lot of things going on this weekend right here in nyc, unrelated to the primaries or drug overdoses by former pre-pubescent heart-throbs:

1) I think I've been suckered into seeing Cloverfield on Friday. Sigh/exclamation point.

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2) Saturday, afternoon:
SEGUE READING SERIES @ BOWERY POETRY CLUB
4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. 308 BOWERY, just north of Houston

JANUARY 19 RACHEL BLAU DUPLESSIS and ANNA MOSCHOVAKIS
Rachel Blau DuPlessis’s two most recent books are Torques: Drafts 58-76 (Salt Publishing, 2007) and Blue Studios: Poetry and Its Cultural Work (University of Alabama Press, 2006). She lives in Philadelphia and teaches at Temple University. Anna Moschovakis is the author of a book of poems, I Have Not Been Able to Get Through to Everyone, and two chapbooks. She volunteers as an editor and designer at Ugly Duckling Presse, for which she recently co-edited The Drug of Art, the selected works of Czech poet Ivan Blatny (in English translation).

I love both of their poetry. It's interesting to pair them together in a reading. I don't think I will make it to this, but who knows. I'd love to.

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3) I am trying to save my energy for this: Saturday, Melville House opening, early evening:
at 145 plymouth street (F train to york street, first stop in brooklyn)

12 p.m. store opens
6 p.m. event for elizabeth little

from melville house press release:
Come see what may be the most beautiful bookstore in New York City on Saturday, January 19, 2008, as Melville House opens its new, glass-walled space with a stunning installation from artist Jeri Coppola. Meanwhile, it wouldn't kill you to buy a book while you're there ... or a Sholom Aleichem bobble-head .... And, after the bookstore closes at 6:00 pm (you can watch the bookcases revolve back into the wall) stick around for our first-ever event: a reading by MHP author Elizabeth Little from her hot new book, Biting the Wax Tadpole: Confessions of a Language Fanatic, followed by a soon-to-be-classic beer reception.

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4) Later on Saturday:
Host: Shafer Hall's first collection of poetry, Never Cry Woof, is available now from No Tell Books. "Hall has an unmistakable twang, a sort of sensitive gruffness. If you've never heard him read in person, imagine Sam Elliott in his part as the Stranger in The Big Lebowski, or as Virgil Earp in Tombstone." - Dan Brady, Growler Poetry Review

Gabe The Rothschild 9pm
Gabe The Rothschild rose to prominence as Warren Moon's neighbor in suburban Houston. Gabe's songs are rooted in folk, but Gabe's specific sound spans into many more categories and genres. His music is true. Words, children's pianos, mandolins, guitars, banjos, bottles & cans, ukuleles, and many o their instruments/found objects create the full sound that can only be comparable to the feeling of joy one gets when you look into the eye of a little fluffy bunny and for that one moment, you just know, that you truly understand each other.

Andy Friedman & The Other Failures 10pm
He moonlights as a cartoonist for, most notably, The New Yorker, but the songs written by "hard-scrabble singer-songwriter" (TIME OUT NEW YORK) and "erudite redneck" (BOSTON GLOBE) Andy Friedman aren't written for laughs. The title track of his first studio album, "Taken Man," appeared on the New York Post's 207 Best Songs of 2007 at #30. "Singer-songwriter Andy Friedman has a mastery of wordy self-loathing that many white dudes with guitars would kill for," says NASHVILLE SCENE.
Alex Battles 11pm

Alex Battles is a country singer and songwriter, and the leader of The Whiskey Rebellion, a country band based in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from Chesterland, OH, Battles writes country songs by turns funny and bittersweet on his grandfather's tenor banjo. His influences are John Prine, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits and Tom T. Hall. Battles has written a respectable 113 songs. "Brandishing a legal pad full of just-finished lyrics, and a drawling, lazy voice, Battles can wrap audiences around his knotty fingers. - Village Voice

If you manage to do all of that, you are drinking a lot of coffee and/or Red Bull. Um, or Sparks. Or jaguars. Or dragoons.

My friend JPH is coming to town so I'm hoping to make it to Melvill House and also Shafer's reading at Pete's Candy Store.

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Ok, go order the new Saltgrass issue. Scroll down to the last post for a link. Go.

I know I'm forgetting things. Oh, I'm going to spend Monday afternoon dorking out, re-ordering my manuscript. I have it in the wrong order. I've finally come around to the idea that maybe it does need sections. I can only tell by arranging it and checking it out this way: The Manuscript Manipulation Experiment. Also, I needa cut the weaker poems. Tidy things up, "clean house."

If I don't get into this on Thursday, then Monday will also be spent reading Theory of Colours by Goethe. I'm hoping to get immersed in Chapter 1 on Thursday (this means making it passed the intro, which I've been stuck on). The book has been on the back burner but it shouldn't be. I'm both intimidated by Goethe but also completely excited to get into his weirdo-head. But if that doesn't happen, then the reading will carry over to Monday. I feel like if I say it to more than myself, I will be more committed. I want to be propelled into the text.

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also, I WOULD REALLY LIKE IT IF MY ROOMMATE DID NOT LEAVE CRUMBS ON THE COUNTERTOP.