Distribution Automatique

Monday, March 5

Thanks to

Jilly Dybka Poetry Hut
and Sandra Torres Gota a Gota (Drop by Drop) for their (recent)
links.

(The *fait accompli* link list will appear on this blog soon).

*********

Elwood P. Dowd (played by James Stewart) in *Harvey*: "Mother always said, in this life you must be either very smart or very pleasant. I tried smart for awhile, but then I switched to pleasant and I never regretted it."

"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
Vaclav Havel

*************

from *Killing Floor* by Ray DiPalma


"FURTHER APOCRYPHA"

"Cries and processions put a public face on things;
this designation is corroborated only by silence

So I’ve been checking around for hints of evidence,
copied formulas, neutral grids blank and ancient,
organizing a memory to document,
as it passes into the listening,
—a surge of impressions
indifferent to fame and death—
that describe an answer but offer none

one dit issue seven Ray DiPalma

*******************

Shampoo 29 is here

******************
Between a Rock and a Hard Look

Went to a podiatrist once who told me things about orthotics- protective shoe inserts for your feet- I never knew. "Where've I been?" I said innocently. "Under a rock" he said, in a surprisingly nasty tone of voice. Well, maybe that's how you get from looking at people's feet all day. Actually he made a damn good pair of orthotics I stil use sometimes.

I, for one, until yesterday never got out from under my rock to take a good look at Big Bridge, or if I did, didn't bother to fully check it out. Here is the latest edition and all the earlier archives. The mag is well worth it, even if only for the many terrific author photos. Check out all the earlier editions at

Big Bridge archives

The current issue is here Big Bridge #12

By the way, I found out just how good Big Bridge is by discovering this terrific piece by Anne Waldman-
War Crime-
in
wood s lot (which is how I uisually try to
get out from under my rock, almost every day, and take a good hard look into the present and the past.)

Sunday, March 4

Friends Indeed- Book Party Photos and Comments

Our belated (been out with a sore throat and a cold this week) yet enthusiastic thanks to


Nada Gordon (ululations)


and

Gary Sullivan (Elsewhere)

for their posts on our Unnameable (Adam's) Books book party on Tuesday, February 27.

and thanks to Adam Tobin for the terrific party celebrating *fait accompli* from Factory School
**
this just in from Adam Tobin

Dear dear friends of Unnameable Books,

You may have noticed some recent news coverage of this store, under a different name. If so, then you've probably been reading the New York Sun, or the Christian Science Monitor, or the Brooklyn Record or New York Magazine's gossip blog, or perhaps some other blogs where there have been high levels of chatter. Remain alert. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. Keen google use will reveal the following:

***
The Sun
The Record
The Monitor
The Intelligencer
The Compton
The King
The Elsewhere
The Tube
The Macondo

In other news: Spring is here (again), and the birds will sing. Soon, soon.


NEXT FRIDAY NIGHT, for example, THE CANARY himself, that caged wonder, containing new poems by Ashbery, Myles, Toufic, Lee etc., will send a representative: Mr. JOSHUA EDWARDS, Ed. He will be reading his own work.

Simultaneously: Mr. FRED SCHMALZ, editor of THE SWERVE, whose new issue arrives anon, will display his own clinamen in the back of the store.

And on the very same night: MATTHEW ROHRER, poet, will read from his new book RISE UP, newly out from Wave Books.

All this is just to say that:

FRIDAY MARCH 16th, at 8 PM,
A reading, a party, a reading party,
here at Unnameable Books. Featuring:
Joshua Edwards of THE CANARY
Fred Schmalz of THE SWERVE
and Matthew Rohrer of RISE UP.
456 Bergen St. (btw. Flatbush & 5th Ave.)

Joshua Edwards co-edits The Canary with Nick Twemlow and Anthony Robinson. His poems appear/are forthcoming in Vanitas, Practice, Court Green, Slate, Skanky Possum, 26, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Fred Schmalz is a poet and publisher of the literature and art journal swerve. His poems have appeared in The Bedazzler, jubilat, Conduit, Divide, Forklift Ohio, H_NGM_N and other magazines. Schmalz's chapbook Ticket was published by Fuori Editions in 2002. He lives in Brooklyn.

Matthew Rohrer is the author of A Green Light (Verse Press, 2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also the author of Satellite (Verse Press, 2001), and Nice Hat. Thanks. (with Joshua Beckman) (Verse Press, 2002) and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty (also with Joshua Beckman, 2003). He has appeared on NPR's "All
Things Considered" and "The Next Big Thing." His first book, A Hummock in the Malookas was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Oliver in 1994. He, too, lives in Brooklyn.


***
Unnameable Books
[formerly "Adam's"]
456 Bergen St.
Brooklyn, NY 11217
unnameablebooks@earthlink.net
(718) 789-1534
www.unnameablebooks.net

***

Amazon, schmamazon -- order your books from the Unnameable!
We'll give you 20% off, and can ship directly to you or your giftee.
We can order any book in print, and ship anywhere in the U.S.
Just send us an email with the word "Order" in the subject line...
***

Tuesday, February 27

Contradicta



Anyone can easily appear supremely sophisticated and all-knowing by understating or witholding their reactions. LIke death, another masterful leveler, silence obliterates all distinction by remaining cool and unimpressed.


***************************


Irony, the shield and sword of literary politics, ends its days living alone on one side of the moon, while its polar opposite, sentimentality, assumes its solo residence on the other.
Book Party Today

Please come celebrate the publication of *fait accompli* (with an afterword by Gary Sullivan) from Factory School's Heretical Texts
Heretical Texts' *fait accompli*

TUESDAY, February 27
at 8pm.
at UNNAMEABLE BOOKS
456 Bergen Street
Brooklyn NY 11217
(off Flatbush Avenue)
(718) 789 1534


Easy* to get to. Take the 2 or 3 train to Bergen street stop (not to be confused with the other Bergen stop on the F line). Unnameable Books is just 1/2 block from the subway. Pinchik paint is on the corner.* Bergen is one stop past the Atlantic AND Pacific St transfer point with the D,M,N,R and B,Q,2,3,4,5 lines

Sunday, February 25

Mark Young announces new books from
Otoliths

I am pleased to announce the first of what will be a quarterly round of new books from Otoliths ; & I'm extremely pleased that the four books in this initial launch are wonderful offerings by four exceptional poets.



Rather than drool with unadulterated joy any further, I'll just point you to the Otoliths shopfront — Lulu Shopfront — where you can also find other books & chapbooks plus print versions of the magazine, & would suggest to U.S. residents that, rather than use couriers, they select the USPS Media Mail default as the means of delivery since it's economical &, from our experience, efficient.



The individual webpages for each of the books is given below.



Nico Vassilakis: DIPTYCHS

60 pages, full colour

$15.00

webpage:
Lulu ordering page






"The individual pieces in this book are tiny visual poems that examine the materiality of visible language and find beauty by looking at that language from unexpected vantage points. Nico has created each of these poems through a sequence of steps that included capturing video of text, editing and modifying that video (which included changing the color), capturing screenshots of the video, and cutting and putting these final pieces together in little diptychs consisting of one rectangle of prepared text atop another. To some degree, the results are the children of Nico's important videopoetic work, Concrete: Movies, released in 2005."

—from the introduction by Geof Huth





Jordan Stempleman: What's the Matter

112 pages

$10.00

webpage: Lulu ordering page





"Maximizing the tension of line breaks, making the most of each word's nuances, Jordan Stempleman creates a stunning landscape of precision and delicacy. There are gorgeous moments here, and they always "begin with the actual condition"—this book constitutes a commitment to the beauty of the world, and a new instance of it."

— Cole Swensen



"In this impressive, replete collection, Jordan Stempleman takes us repeatedly to this place of contemplation, where only a few rare words are necessary. We are invited to a course of thinking that locates intensity without demanding it—for therein lies the fabled difference between an exploratory and settled poetics, to open out and out again upon present history. This is, quite simply, a wonderful book."

— Paul Hoover





harry k stammer: tents

60 pages, including colour

$15.00

webpage: Lulu ordering page



"Make no mistake about it: harry k. stammer is one of the boldest pioneers in contemporary experimental poetry—and one of the most successful. His new work tents is edgy but accessible; challenging but rewarding. stammer mixes a sort of poetic cubism with wordplay, startling typography, and a wide array of other adventurous techniques with creative intensity rarely witnessed. In this singular text, the reader is confronted by a dizzying maelstrom of meaning and image. Kaleidoscopic and impressionistic, this interpretation of our postindustrial, postmodern society is a must for any serious reader of today's poetry."

–Philip Primeau , PERSISTENCIA* PRESS





Vernon Frazer: BODIED TONE

132 pages

$10.00

webpage: Lulu ordering page





" BODIED TONE is terrific—the rhythmic vitality is just that, full of life, but it is seductive too; one gets caught up in the percussive musicality of the phrasing . It's a driving musicality—more bebop than balladry, for sure." — Lyn Hejinian



So why not splurge a little & be swept up by pleasure.



Cheers

Mark Young

Editor, Otoliths

Saturday, February 24

Guilermo Parra has posted a

review of Heriberto Yepez's new Heretical Texts book on his blog

Venepoetics

Friday, February 23

Thanks Across the East River and Across the Atlantic

to
Anny Ballardini
and Thom Donovan for their generous responses to *fait accompli* from Heretical Texts; Anny presents some random selections, and an invitation to our upcoming book party at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn and Thom Donovan presents a dedicated poem and a collage from *Free Fall* "Chris Dangerous." Much appreciated, guys!

*****

Laura Moriarty reviews Heriberto Yepez's *Wars. Threesomes. Drafts. & Mothers* from Heretical Texts in
A Tonalist Notes
via Orbit Now (Troy Worman)
Heriberto Yepez also posted it on his blog Hecho en Hache

Thursday, February 22

Contradicta




Measure your generosity by your response to selfishness.




***********************



Perplexity arouses; satisfaction stuns.

Tuesday, February 20

Contradicta




Great success and great compassion are not that compatible: this is why compassionate people find their own failures and that of others worth thinking about.




*****************************



For contemplatives motivation is like the tides- when they go out, time for a sunbath.

Sunday, February 18

Another fait accompli

Bill Marsh, editor of the Heretical Texts series- that now includes the book version of *fait accompli*- reviewed this blog in June of 2003. We tried to convince Bill to use this review as a preface to the book, but since Gary Sullivan had already kindly supplied an afterword it was clear this was far too much packaging for an Heretical Texts book. Below is a link to Bill Marsh's review on his blog San Diego Poetry Guild.

Bill and his wife Octavia Davis and their two children have now moved to Jackson Heights, Queens, although they then resided in Southern California. Bill, and soon Octavia, teach at St John's. He is working on a book about plagiarism. The Factory School design team that includes Joel Kuszai and Octavia Davis did a presentation at the Poetry Project last Monday.


Field Report #1 by Bill Marsh


**

Thanks to Ernesto Priego (Never Neutral) for the generous response to *fait accompli*

Saturday, February 17

Holland Cotter featured Mimi Gross' painting
-which we saw and greatly admired at the Ceres opening
last night- (Ceres Gallery:547 West 27th Street)
in the Friday, February 16 NY Times Art section

Agents of Change: Women, Art and Intellect

that included a link to the

The Meaning Forum

which features a painting by Toni Simon!

**
Contradicta recently Translated Into Icelandic!

Thanks to

Tiubusund tregawott for the link.

PS Shanna Compton featured on the same site.

***************

SPD has sold out the first shipment of *fait accompli* from Heretical Texts.
Until some have been shipped you can order from this page:

Factory School

Tuesday, February 13

This Side of Paradise

"Q- Do you want a lot of money?
A- No. I am merely afraid of being poor.
Q- Very afraid?
A- Just passively afraid.
Q- Where are you drifting?
A- Don't ask *me*!
Q- Don't you care?
A- Rather. I don't want to commit moral suicide.
Q- Have you no interests left?
A- None, I have no more virtue to lose. Just as a cooling pot gives off no more heat, so all through youth and adolescence we give off calories of virtue. That's what's called ingenuousness.
Q- An interesting idea.
A- That's why a good man going wrong attracts people.They stand around literally *warm themselves* at the calories of virtue he gives off. Sarah makes an unsophisticated remark and the faces simper in delight-'How *innocent* the poor child is!' They're warming themselves at her virtue. But Sarah sees the simper and never makes the remark again. Only she feels a little colder after that."

-F.Scott Fitzgerald

*This Side of Paradise* was Fitzgerald's first book, begun when he was still a Princeton undergraduate and published when he was 23.

Sunday, February 11

Today is fait accompli's 4th birthday.

Come celebrate the publication of *fait accompli* the book-
from Factory School's Heretical Texts
at Unnameable Books
456 Bergen Street
(off Flatbush Avenue)
Tuesday, February 27
at 8pm.
The book begins with our first post
on this date in 2003.

**

^Gary Sullivan, The Great Enabler*

Stan Apps posted a personal and passionate essay about Gary Sullivan's poetics-
"Gary’s poetics consists of decisively rejecting mysterious theatricality, and thereby creating an aesthetic of material accountability. The words in Flarf poems are materials that have been put there precisely so that a mysterious theatrical tone of all-knowingness from the beyond cannot develop. Instead, evidence of human foolishness and goofiness is there instead. The tone of Flarf poems is not really (or not only) a tone of willed outrageousness or silliness, as it may seem to be; the tone is a rejection of mysteriousness, and therefore an acceptance of words and phrases that can be accounted for as merely human..."

read the entire post right now on

refried ORACLE phone

**


Digitalized Thought from Peter Ciccariello
[via the
Buffalo Poetics List]

Saturday, February 10

Thursday, February 8

Lou-Andreas Salome meets Kenny Goldsmith
(an article in the Valve by Ray Davis) (Nov, 2005)


Salome What She Watched



**
updated factory schooll link to ::fait accompli:: the book:

fait accompli from Heretical Texts

Wednesday, February 7

Contradicta



It is a fine thing to take pleasure in it but, as with so many other things, we can think too little or too much. Too little produces a mental mannikin, too much a chattering puppet.


****************


We never know what we are thinking until we think about it.

Tuesday, February 6

Thanks to

incli(NATION)
for the link to our Walter Benjamin and Blogging post from Dec 12, 2003, and to Mark Woods and Theresa Duncan for their recent links.

Sunday, February 4

Subject: Book Party for ::fait accompli:: from Heretical Texts
Place: Adam's Books/ aka Unnameable Books
456 Bergen Street, off Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn
tel: (718) 789-1534
Date:Tuesday, February 27
Time: 8 PM

Please come!
::fait accompli::
from Heretical Texts



**
Thanks to

The Wit of The Staircase for the link to ::fait accompli:: on Walter Benjamin and Blogging (2003). Nice bit of time travel! (via wood s lot])


[Benjamin on Blogging was posted to
fait accompli Dec 12, 2003
]

Friday, February 2

Thanks to

Nico Vassilakis, Tom Murphy [click here]
and wood s lot [click here]
for the kind words about ::fait acccompli:: from Heretical Texts!

**


SPD *fait accompli* listing

Thursday, February 1

Tom Beckett {Soluble Census) [click here] has some kind words to say about *fait accompli* from Heretical Texts.

Thanks, Tom!