Comments on: What’s In & What’s Out -2008 (Part I)

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:54:48 +0000

Major–
Out: Eugene, Oregon; In: the Old Sincerity
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By: Sam Amadon

Sam Amadon — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:45:51 +0000

I’m pretty sure the only way the Pats are in anything is with an Asterisk.
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By: Simon DeDeo

Simon DeDeo — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:06:42 +0000

Hey Major –
I’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.
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By: Jennifer Bartlett

Jennifer Bartlett — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:36:12 +0000

Hey Major,
You 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!
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By: Major

Major — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:58:29 +0000

Simon,
I 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/
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By: D.L.

D.L. — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 05:01:40 +0000

In Out
Cleveland 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
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By: Seth Abramson

Seth Abramson — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 02:22:19 +0000

Major,
Sorry, 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!
S.
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By: Aaron Fagan

Aaron Fagan — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:23:34 +0000

Poets as beacons of failure is completely in right now!
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By: Aaron Fagan

Aaron Fagan — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:01:35 +0000

One could say that these plaids will lay to rest the Burberry plaid.
Lest we forget Spaceball One–able to break the speed of light and go into plaid, a completely different dimension of light travel.
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By: Jeannine Hall Gailey

Jeannine Hall Gailey — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:43:39 +0000

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.
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By: Simon DeDeo

Simon DeDeo — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:32:49 +0000

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.
Instead 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.
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By: Major

Major — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:00:25 +0000

Aaron,
You got it! Every rusticsexual should have some Washington State plaid in his closet and eau de cologne that smells like cow manure.
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By: Major

Major — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:56:45 +0000

Rich “South Boogie” Villar,
Newark is definitely rolling through, has been for awhile now, if we consider their importance to American Poetry. I hear ya!
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By: Major

Major — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:55:06 +0000

Seth,
Fifty-Cent?
Irish Poetry: Long live Michael Longley
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By: Major

Major — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:54:15 +0000

Alicia,
I love my contradictions. Viva La Neo-Athenians!
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By: Alicia (AE)

Alicia (AE) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:42:20 +0000

If ghazals are in, and Annie Finch is in, and Gjertrud Schnackenberg is in, can New Formalism be far behind? Watch out, New Athenians!
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By: poetryman69

poetryman69 — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 09:16:28 +0000

wigs for dogs.
hmmm.
*******************************************************
Written on the Wind
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By: Seth Abramson

Seth Abramson — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:34:39 +0000

Hi Major,
Thanks 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.
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By: Rich Villar

Rich Villar — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:29:12 +0000

I agree with Fagan:
OUT: 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!
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By: Shannon Reilly

Shannon Reilly — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:02:17 +0000

Is Zizek really just “in” now? Hasn’t he been kind of timeless? I mean at least since his time:)
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By: Major

Major — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 18:56:35 +0000

Ange,
You’re vindicated; NYTIMES headline reads:
Amy Winehouse Draws 6 Grammy Nominations
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/arts/music/06cnd-grammy.html?hp
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By: Major

Major — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:29:17 +0000

Pipaluk,
I’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.
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By: Major

Major — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:24:46 +0000

Ange,
Winehouse 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.
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By: Aaron Fagan

Aaron Fagan — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:53:38 +0000

I imagine Absinthe will be a topic of some discussion in the coming years:
http://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!
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By: Aaron Fagan

Aaron Fagan — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:37:29 +0000

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.
As 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.
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By: J. Gennari

J. Gennari — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:09:04 +0000

You poets have too much time on your hands, too many words on your minds.
Robert De Niro out? Never!
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By: Aseem Kaul

Aseem Kaul — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:23:18 +0000

Robert Di Nero? I can see it now – the ultimate sociopath – the man snarling at his audience while Rome burns.
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By: behrlle

behrlle — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:39:34 +0000

Look, ma! I’m OUT!!
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By: lillian

lillian — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:31:17 +0000

major–
slouchy 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….
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By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:09:34 +0000

I refuse to believe that either Gertrude Stein as a whole or Bubble Tea Desserts in general will ever go out of style.
On 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.
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