Kudos to the culprit. July 31, 2007: I I don't know when this video was filmed, although it looks to be about 10 years ago. What I do know: this is Marc Smith, inventor of the poetry slam, devil or angel, miracle worker or madman, love 'im or hate 'im. This is what he does that made me do what I do. I'm positively weepy watching this. Enjoy. by Patricia Smith

dead poets. July 31, 2007: I try not to think about dying much. Whenever I do, naive as it may be, I dismiss it as something that happens to other people, usually in very spectacular ways. A longago plague sweeps through eastern Europe. A car bomb explodes in a crowded bazaar. A distraught lover climbs over a rail and leaps into the drink. Splashy demises always seem so far [...] by Patricia Smith

RIP July 30, 2007: Ingmar Bergman directed Smiles of a Summer Night and Fanny and Alexander, among other films. (“You must see The Virgin Spring!” a friend pleads.) But so purely do these two films vouch for the magical influence of art, dreams and dressing rooms: without which no eros, no childhood, and no intuition of justice. by Ange Mlinko

Poets’ Interviews: Who Would Win?? July 29, 2007: John Wieners's A Book of Prophecies is brand new from Bootstrap Press, and only exists for general consumption because the young poet Michael Carr found this unpublished journal in the Wieners archives online, requested a photocopy, sought permission from the literary executor, and published it out of pocket. [Update: see comments box] This is [...] by Ange Mlinko

The Xenotext Experiment: An Interview with Christian Bök July 28, 2007: Christian Bök: Postmodern life has utterly recoded the avant-garde demand for radical newness. Innovation in art no longer differs from the kind of manufactured obsolescence that has come to justify advertisements for "improved" products; nevertheless, we have to find a new way to contribute by generating a "surprise" (a term that almost [...] by Kenneth Goldsmith

The Masculinist Avant-Garde: July 27, 2007: Immanence is so much cooler than mortality. by Ange Mlinko

To Be (Un)Real July 26, 2007: I recently gave a lecture recently to a group of poetry MFAs on uncreative writing, appropriation, information management and unoriginality. During the Q&A, a student declaimed, "C'mon, man, be real. Drop all that stuff and be real, you know, artist to artist." To which I responded, "If you can give me a definition of what real is then I can be [...] by Kenneth Goldsmith

The Still Point July 26, 2007: Lately, so many lives I know have been strained by what have become ordinary tragedies—fatal accidents, sudden deaths, collapsing marriages, unexpected illness, prison, unemployment, crippling depression and it goes on and on. Nothing much, I know has changed in the world. I imagine that for a pastor, a doctor, a therapist, a lawyer, a nurse, [...] by Kwame Dawes

I miss the Temptations. July 25, 2007: Recently reflecting rather gleefully on the second half of my first century, I felt exactly one twinge of regret. The Motown era is over. Of course, it's been over for some time. Diana Ross is now officially deranged. Smokey Robinson seems to have gone the Vegas route, and the Miracles are no more. The Four Tops are no longer four, or on top. [...] by Patricia Smith

Seriousness July 25, 2007: Remember: he was a sonarsman on a destroyer!* It's hard not to get on my high horse about the "frivolous," a pejorative some poets throw at others from the shelter of their glass gazebos. Conservative poets use it to shore up their position that poetry should be a high art, thus "serious;" political poets use it to shore up their position that [...] by Ange Mlinko