I love year-ending “What’s In & What’s Out” lists for the upcoming year. They are authoritative, self-generating, biased, and goofy. I thought I’d get a head-start on the pundits. The list kept going, so I’ll post over a few days. I hope you enjoy. With consultation from some friends, here is the start of a provocative list, sure to test the province of good taste, augury, and judgment.
If this is not entertaining, check out the Luther Vandross Estate Auction.
Major Jackson’s
What’s In and What’s Out
For 2008
|
OUT Dog sweaters Tell Me You Love Me American Gangsta Slouchy Boots Down-sizing Mary J. Blige Terrence Howard Amy Winehouse Chem-lab cuisine Hi-Wattage Hateration The Grinch Bubble Tea Dessert Trent Lott Pentagon Called to Duty Robert De Niro Bob Hairstyle Lounge bars EPC at SUNY-Buffalo Omnivores Wicca Knicks Disney Balvenie Bunny Grahams Metrosexuals Messy Ziggy Stardust Manhattan Fake intimacy Celebrity misdemeanors/felonies Baby doll dresses Hot tubs Frank Gehry New Formalists Staking Claims Lawrence Summers Robots Procedural Art Cate Blanchett Infidelity Thongs Ron Silliman’s Blog Cynicism Vodka Gimlets Cesaria Evora Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Car-racing The Gypsy Kings Dating Tips Rosie Jetson Malls Ottava Rima Jim Behrle cartoons Speed-dating Ideology Light up reindeer Diddy Skin Crème Reese Witherspoon Cockiness Modest Mouse PDAs Rolex Bachelor Party Ordinary Shares Cyber-bullying Regret Organ Theft Martin Luther Billy Graham Brooklyn Villanelles Having your fingers on the pulse of a dead man Snowshoeing Bi-polar George W. Bush Philosophy for Dummies SMS M300 cellphone watch Mindlessness Texting “Love after Love” Cruelty Fundamentalism Nooses Camden, NJ Subjectivity Hank Aaron Diversity Gertrude Stein Ice skating Miami Forgetfulness Connecting mega-churches Alaska Kobe Bryant “Hedwig & The Angry Inch” Selected Poems Reginald Shepherd’s Blog Miami Dolphins Genocide |
IN Wigs for Dogs The Wire The Great Debaters Flat boots Upgrade You Alicia Keys Terrance Hayes Corinne Bailey Rae Fresh pasta, fruit, fish & vegetables Eco-bulbs Hateration Annie Finch Honey-dew Dessert Barack Obama Peace Centers Bringing troops home Robert Hass Pob Hairstyle Neighborhood bars PennSound at Univ. of Pennsylvania Smart Diners Wikimedia Nikons Knicks Pixar Laphroaig Jorie Graham Rusticsexuals Decorous Slavoj Zizek Brooklyn Closeness Long-term celebrity causes/charities Diane von Furstenberg wrap-around dresses Space Pools Frank Bidart New Athenians Innuendo Drew Gilpin Faust Humans Communal Art Cate Marvin Monogamy Boy briefs Reginald Shepherd’s Blog Sentimentality Chocolate Martinis Virginia Rodrigues Mahmoud Darwish Robot-racing Pink Martini Confidantes Twendy-One Boutiques Rime royal Linh Dinh mini-movies match.com Freedom Inflatable Santa Kanye Skin Caviar Spencer Reese Charm The National Leather-bound Calendar/Planner Audemars Piguet Wedding Day Don Share Deep, Molten Kisses Embracing Imperfections Organ Watch Martin Buber T.D. Jakes Philadelphia Ghazals Mind-spooning Snowrunning Borderline personality disorder Democratic Presidential candidates The Simpsons and Philosophy Hyundai W-100 Watch Phone Mindfulness Drop-bys “you who never arrived” Kindness Spirituality Love Duluth, MN Identity Barry Bonds Inclusion Gjertrud Schnackenberg Ice kiting Fire Island Remembrance Being totally unrelatable personal shrines Greenland Lebron James “Shortbus” Collected Poems Tayari Jones’s Blog New England Patriots Tolerance |
Major, how can Laphroaig be in but WInehouse be out? Surely Keys is the Balvenie here.
Posted By: Ange on December 5, 2007 at 7:12 pmGood list. Though Major, as a Vermont resident surely you have witnessed junk-food-deprived youngsters SWARM over Bunny Grahams. Face it, both Jorie and those tasty “cookies” are in.
Posted By: Pipaluk Pearl on December 5, 2007 at 8:04 pmI refuse to believe that either Gertrude Stein as a whole or Bubble Tea Desserts in general will ever go out of style.
Posted By: Steve on December 5, 2007 at 8:09 pmOn the other hand, I love reading lists like this and hate making them myself, so maybe I should just quiet down and enjoy the binary sort.
major–
Posted By: lillian on December 5, 2007 at 8:31 pmslouchy boots are out?!? shit, and i havent even gotten a pair!
if manhattan and brookyln are out, does this mean queens and bronx get in?
if you mean shortbus the movie, then ok, thats in. but hedwig has to be out? le sigh.
and wrap around dresses-yes yes yes!
but what the hell is a rusticsexual?
i’m waiting anxiously for your prediction on designer t’s….
Look, ma! I’m OUT!!
Posted By: behrlle on December 6, 2007 at 1:39 amRobert Di Nero? I can see it now - the ultimate sociopath - the man snarling at his audience while Rome burns.
Posted By: Aseem Kaul on December 6, 2007 at 7:23 amYou poets have too much time on your hands, too many words on your minds.
Posted By: J. Gennari on December 6, 2007 at 11:09 amRobert De Niro out? Never!
Astoria in Queens is over with. Brooklyn, particularly Williamsburg, has been over with for awhile. Reporting from the Bronx… real estate people have begun to call the boogie down such things as SoBro since Harlem has been, and continues to be, largely erased. I live in Woodlawn, categorically uncool, which might be considered NoBro or WoBro or SoYo being that we are just south of Yonkers.
Posted By: Aaron Fagan on December 6, 2007 at 11:37 amAs for rusticsexuals … I imagine might be a deeper extension of John Deere tomfoolery. Adirondack or Buffalo plaid being the new black or safety orange or whatever is faux current.
I imagine Absinthe will be a topic of some discussion in the coming years:
Posted By: Aaron Fagan on December 6, 2007 at 11:53 amhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/dining/05absi.html?ex=1197522000&en=da17104e230116ac&ei=5070&emc=eta1
It ripped Europe to it knees, why should they get to have all the historical fun!
Ange,
Posted By: Major on December 6, 2007 at 12:24 pmWinehouse is debatable. Laphroaig is not.
Keys is debatable, as is most of the list. Laphroaig is not. (smiles)
I adore that troubled angst-filled petulant souful Brit., but find her surface a little fabricated, familiar and mildly disquieting. No doubt, the girl can sing. For real.
Pipaluk,
Posted By: Major on December 6, 2007 at 12:29 pmI’ve also seen the EROSION of their teeth, up here in the North Country, and THE ERRANCY of their vegetarian parents. You’re right! Those Bunny Grahams are so IN.
or said in another way Snow: Bunny:: Graham: Jorie.
Ange,
Posted By: Major on December 6, 2007 at 2:56 pmYou’re vindicated; NYTIMES headline reads:
Amy Winehouse Draws 6 Grammy Nominations
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/arts/music/06cnd-grammy.html?hp
Is Zizek really just “in” now? Hasn’t he been kind of timeless? I mean at least since his time:)
Posted By: Shannon Reilly on December 6, 2007 at 4:02 pmI agree with Fagan:
Posted By: Rich Villar on December 6, 2007 at 4:29 pmOUT: Dumbo and Williamsburg, Brooklyn
IN: Mott Haven, South Boogie (SoBro? Not while I draw breath.)
And my slight prediction…
OUT: Brooklyn Heights
IN: Newark! (Dig that PATH train, y’all.)
Mr. Jackson, I was with you at the Great Debaters, but I’m officially mad at you for rhyming Finch and Grinch.
But I needed the laugh. To the end of the semester, onward!
Hi Major,
Posted By: Seth Abramson on December 6, 2007 at 4:34 pmThanks for this. It was fun! On my blog I added– IN: DIY & small presses; The Bronx. OUT: Irish Poetry (though I’m sure it’ll come back ’round again), and Fifty Cent.
S.
wigs for dogs.
Posted By: poetryman69 on December 7, 2007 at 5:16 amhmmm.
*******************************************************
Written on the Wind
If ghazals are in, and Annie Finch is in, and Gjertrud Schnackenberg is in, can New Formalism be far behind? Watch out, New Athenians!
Posted By: Alicia (AE) on December 7, 2007 at 11:42 amAlicia,
Posted By: Major on December 7, 2007 at 11:54 amI love my contradictions. Viva La Neo-Athenians!
Seth,
Posted By: Major on December 7, 2007 at 11:55 amFifty-Cent?
Irish Poetry: Long live Michael Longley
Rich “South Boogie” Villar,
Posted By: Major on December 7, 2007 at 11:56 amNewark is definitely rolling through, has been for awhile now, if we consider their importance to American Poetry. I hear ya!
Aaron,
Posted By: Major on December 7, 2007 at 12:00 pmYou got it! Every rusticsexual should have some Washington State plaid in his closet and eau de cologne that smells like cow manure.
Can we not think of a better way to amuse ourselves than laughing at the joke of treating “high culture” as low? Up next, Morton Feldman and Brittany Spears! I mean, perhaps a hundred years ago this kind of thing would be considered condescending, and the fact that it no longer seems that way is a testament to how we’ve allowed our notion of the artist to be completely levelled.
Posted By: Simon DeDeo on December 7, 2007 at 12:32 pmInstead of thinking of the artist as somehow beyond the “culture” of Blackberries and high-end “early adopters” — we see her as just another functionary. While Spears is CocaCola, Jorie Graham is seen as that shapely Pomegranite juice marketed towards 20-something PR women.
The joke here is not that we think poets and poetry should be better than this, but that we ever thought that. Instead of laughing at consumer culture, we are laughing at, mocking poets for being so marginal to it.
It is kind of sad — poetry with “tired/wired” lists — it sort of feels like a beacon of our failure.
Au contraire, Major! Robots will always be in! See: Astro-Boy live-action re-make, Robo-Boy poems by Matthea Harvey, and new Futurama episodes with Bender, the loveable robot! Also: solar-powered robots, helper robots, Toyota robots, robot vacuum cleaners.
Posted By: Jeannine Hall Gailey on December 7, 2007 at 12:43 pmOne could say that these plaids will lay to rest the Burberry plaid.
Posted By: Aaron Fagan on December 7, 2007 at 1:01 pmLest we forget Spaceball One–able to break the speed of light and go into plaid, a completely different dimension of light travel.
Poets as beacons of failure is completely in right now!
Posted By: Aaron Fagan on December 7, 2007 at 2:23 pmMajor,
S.
Posted By: Seth Abramson on December 7, 2007 at 10:22 pmSorry, typo, I meant “50 Cent”–the rapper. Who, last we heard from him, was bragging about how his tunes were more amenable to being sold as ring-tones in Europe than other rappers!
Now *that’s* street cred!
In Out
Posted By: D.L. on December 8, 2007 at 1:01 amCleveland Manhattan
Detroit Brooklyn
Pittsburg Queens
Austin Bronx
Bayonne, NJ Staten Island
texts poetry
books blogs
UBU WEB Poetry Foundation
Rachel Blau DuPlessis Jorie Graham
post-quietude flarf
rack of lamb tapas
jamón serrano prosciutto
Gertrude Stein’s hat Ezra Pound’s beard
flat-coated retrievers American Staffordshire Terriers
effing press Ugly Duckling Presse
Eric Dolphy Arcade Fire
Matthew Ship Bad Plus
Canada France
anarchism Socialism
blueberry smoothies vitamin water
commas periods
bookshelves celebrities
Fanny Howe Gjertrud Schnackenberg
Kevin Davies Robert Hass
touch-and-feel board books iPods
Atelos Norton
Lisa Robertson Anne Carson
Buck Owens Merle Haggard
avant-agrarian New York School
napping poetry readings
free jazz musicals
repetition rhyme
neo-fragmentation New Sentence
Simon,
Posted By: Major on December 10, 2007 at 9:58 amI get your point, but, um . . . this is so tongue-in-cheek. And if Showtime’s L-word show can appropriate Anne Carson’s Eros the Bittersweet to firm up its sophistication factor, as do many a Hollywood screenwriter over the course of cinematic history, then a little reversal of intentions seems okay. Don’t you think? It’s about tickling the whole funny bone, especially if we have one. Why not?
http://www.slate.com/id/2095317/
Hey Major,
Posted By: Jennifer Bartlett on December 10, 2007 at 12:36 pmYou should come hear Andrea Baker and I read to Robin’s tonight. We’re both kind-of in.
I thought Jorie Graham was out? Where is Duluth, NM? I vote for Las Cruces!
Hey Major –
Posted By: Simon DeDeo on December 10, 2007 at 1:06 pmI’m quite aware — I say this in the opening line of my comment — that you’re presenting this as humor.
What really struck me about the piece is how it shows our notion of the poet has changed — how she’s been absorbed into a unit of commercial culture. As I said, back fifty or a hundred years ago, the joke would have been a condescending one — now it seems nastier and self-directed.
Simon
PS: I totally love the L-word. It’s interesting how Anne Carson was used there — in a very “old school” fashion, with Marina playing a kind of tormentor-muse to Jenny, the poet is given a kind of elite and etherial status. The way it’s played is that the poet is an interruption and not, as in a tired/wired list, a continuation of consumption by other means.
I’m pretty sure the only way the Pats are in anything is with an Asterisk.
Posted By: Sam Amadon on December 13, 2007 at 9:45 amMajor–
Posted By: Tony on December 14, 2007 at 8:54 pmOut: Eugene, Oregon; In: the Old Sincerity