Wednesday, December 21, 2011
New Story - Word Riot
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Shop Local for the Holiday (update: with Freaker coupon code)


Coupon code good through the holidays: http://freaker.refr.cc/NDPJLW
2. Allison Weeks Thomas: Illustrator. I cannot say enough kind words about Allie and her work. I am lucky to have known her for around 10 years now. Over the past few years she begun to create anything from jewelry to prints to ornaments and tote bags. All of these items are illustrated with her own designs. Please visit her website or her Etsy shop. Be on the look out for her designs and products at galleries and boutiques in Wilmington.
3. Old Books of Front Street: Old books are the best books. They have the feel, the smell. The pages are already worn. Old Books have been in operation in Wilmington since 1982. They have a huge selection of books, as well as a cafe inside. Old Books also host numerous weekly events such as readings. Please visit their website or facebook page.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
New Publication - Oxford American 13th Annual Southern Music Issue
My poem, "Last Call at Walnut Street Blues Bar," is featured in this issue, which is very excited since the issue focuses of Mississippi. Please pick up a copy today. You also receive a free cd with your purchase.
Taken from the Oxford American website:
13th Annual Music Issue
Nov. 2011 - Issue: 75
Monday, November 14, 2011
New Publication - The Cream City Review (Spring/Summer 2011)
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
"Speed Dating" Peer Review and Text Message Alerts for Class
Another thing that I also incorporated today was class text alerts. I want to use this next semester, so today was a trial. The website Remind101 is a text messaging service for instructors. You create an account. Sign up each class of yours (very simple). Each class will have a phone number and code they will text to. That is it. Then, you can get on the computer and send out text alerts to one class or all classes. This works great since students are glued to their phones. As a test I sent them a text while in class. That was a great example of how many people have their phones out. I can see this working great not only as a reminder, but also if the class location changes.
Please share your thoughts.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Paper Rater and Student Self "Peer" Reviews
(I wish to give a giant disclaimer: I do not think this is a good resource for grading. I do not use it as such. I would never use it as such.)
Now that we all have gotten over the shock that a computer can grade, maybe take a step back and try to figure out how this excellent program can be used in a positive way.
I have yet to try it in class, but for the next essay, I plan to incorporate this with my peer review day. It is a free service so I had to try it out. I have digital files of my students' essays. The site is simple enough. Simply cut and paste the essay into the box provided. Then it asks more questions, such as type of writing and grade level. You can even submit your Works Cited. After you submit your writing, it produces some very intriguing comments ranging from spelling and basic grammar to use of vocabulary, transitional words, etc. It even counts the number of pronouns, which I find useful since students can easily bog down a paper with pronouns.
In the end, it gives a "grade" with a disclaimer that in no way this means the essay should get this specific grade. I tried it with a few of my essays and the grade was "in the ballpark."
Again, I do not think an instructor should use this to grade. Repeat, do not use this to grade, but I think students could find this site extremely helpful. Another set of eyes (even though it is a robot) is beneficial for writing. So give it a try and let me know what you think.
Friday, October 21, 2011
WTF? Music Videos of Geneva Jacuzzi
Sunday, October 16, 2011
New Recipe: Vegan-in.com - Maple Cornbread Muffins
My wife posted a new recipe for Maple Cornbread Muffins on her site, Vegan-in.com. She woke me up with these this morning. They were great for breakfast. Please check them out and other great recipes on her website.
You can also follow her recipes on Twitter and Facebook.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Recent Movies Based on Literature
Here is the just released trailer:
Also, released recently on DVD is Everything Must Go based on the short story, "Why Don't You Dance," by Raymond Carver. The movie stars Will Ferrell.
Woodberry Poetry Room - Poetry Recordings on the Net
I have posted before about the great audio recording of poets on Pennsound. I found an new place today: Woodberry Poetry Room. Please check out their The Listening Room for audio/visual recordings.
Also to note, check out The Poetry Project. They have uploaded videos from Public Access Poetry. Pennsound is hosting the files.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
WTF? - Music Videos
TISM - I'm on the Drugs that Killed River Phoenix
Ariel Pink - Gray Sunset
Tune-Yards - Real Life Flesh
Die Antwoord - Enter the Ninja
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Zeke Roland - Singer/Songwriter
I apologize for the lack of posts lately, but I hope today makes up for it. I have a real treat. I few weeks ago I was able to record Wilmington, NC native, Zeke Roland playing a new original, titled "Burn Down," and the Josh Ritter cover, "Wolves."
I have a small stage set up in the back on my new house. I hope in the future that I can have other musicians over and record them playing. If interested, please let me know.
Zeke gigs regularly in Wilmington. I will post some future show dates soon.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Forthcoming Publication: Oxford American
The Walnut Street Blues Bar is a landmark in Delta Blues. It is located on Walnut Street in Greenville, MS directly across from the levee. As I was growing up, the location was a bait and tackle shop before turning into a blues bar.
This is a picture I took there. I know it is nothing fancy, but it is a wall of great musicians that have played there, such as Willie Foster, Johnny Horton, and Lil' Bill Wallace. Fro growing up and playing music in Greenville, MS, Many of the musicians here on this wall I have had the honor of jamming with them.
I will keep everyone posted on the release of the Magazine.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Sorry for the Missed Posts
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
New Publication - Digital Americana Magazine
The new "Freedom" Issue of Digital Americana Magazine has been released. It features five poems based on my past experiences in the military. Issues can be purchased for $0.99 from the appstore for your smartphones and tablet devices.
Taken from website:
---
Digital Americana Magazine (DAM) launched in April of 2010 as the world's first literary magazine made exclusively for interactive touch-screen devices, after having been accepted into the first-round of iPad App Store apps. In April of 2011 we re-launched with a completely redesigned app through the Pixel Mags digital publishing platform. With this app (now available) we offer interactive features such as slideshows, video, maps, and music that is carefully streamlined into our editorial layout.
Currently Digital Americana is available for download on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and in print through HP Mag Cloud. (We are also working on bringing DAM to compatible Android tablets and the web soon)
---
This issue is currently included-free with the 99¢ purchase of the the Digital Americana App
Monday, July 18, 2011
Music Mondays (7/18/2011): Kevin Young and Guns N' Roses
Eulogy by Kevin Young | ||
To allow silence
To admit it in us
always moving
Just past
senses, the darkness
What swallows us
and we live amongst
What lives amongst us
*
These grim anchors
That brief sanctity
the sea
Cast quite far
when you seek
—in your hats black
and kerchiefs—
to bury me
*
Do not weep
but once, and a long
time then
Thereafter eat till
your stomach spills over
No more! you'll cry
too full for your eyes
to leak
*
The words will wait
*
Place me in a plain
pine box I have been
for years building
It is splinters
not silver
It is filled of hair
*
Even the tongues
of bells shall still
*
You who will bear
my body along
Spirit me into the six
Do not startle
at its lack of weight
How light
*** November Rain by Guns N' Roses
|
Monday, July 11, 2011
Music Mondays (7/11/2011): William Wordsworth and Pink Floyd
There was a Boy
By William Wordsworth
There was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs
And islands of Winander! many a time,
At evening, when the earliest stars began
To move along the edges of the hills,
Rising or setting, would he stand alone,
Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake;
And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands
Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth
Uplifted, he, as through an instrument,
Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls
That they might answer him.—And they would shout
Across the watery vale, and shout again,
Responsive to his call,—with quivering peals,
And long halloos, and screams, and echoes loud
Redoubled and redoubled; concourse wild
Of jocund din! And, when there came a pause
Of silence such as baffled his best skill:
Then, sometimes, in that silence, while he hung
Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise
Has carried far into his heart the voice
Of mountain-torrents; or the visible scene
Would enter unawares into his mind
With all its solemn imagery, its rocks,
Its woods, and that uncertain heaven received
Into the bosom of the steady lake.
This boy was taken from his mates, and died
In childhood, ere he was full twelve years old.
Pre-eminent in beauty is the vale
Where he was born and bred: the churchyard hangs
Upon a slope above the village-school;
And through that churchyard when my way has led
On summer-evenings, I believe that there
A long half-hour together I have stood
Mute—looking at the grave in which he lies!
***
Learning to Fly
By Pink Floyd
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
In-Between

Well, many of you know, my wife and I are leaving Lake Charles. I found a job teaching Dev. English at Cape Fear Community College back in Wilmington, NC. We are very excited about the move. We found a house at Carolina Beach, so amps the excitement level up tremendously. The house is about 4 blocks from the beach and 1 block from the library. Many of our friends still live in Wilmington, which was the largest factor in heading back tot the East Coast. Missy will leave before me in the middle of the month and then I will head that was at the end of the month. Half of our house is packed and the other half is having to wait till right before the move. It is strange, out dogs and cats all can tell something is up. The boxes makes one of the dogs mope around, while the other is going crazy, bouncing off the boxes.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Music Mondays (7/4/2011): Komunyakaa and Cary Ann Hearst & Michael Trent

drives in another herd.
The volleyball's a punching bag:
Clem's already lost a tooth
& Johnny's left eye is swollen shut.
Frozen airlifted steaks burn
on a wire grill, & miles away
machine guns can be heard.
Pretending we're somewhere else,
we play harder.
Lee Otis, the point man,
high on Buddha grass,
buries himself up to his neck
in sand. "Can you see me now?
In this spot they gonna build
a Hilton. Invest in Paradise.
Bang, bozos! You're dead."
Frenchie's cassette player
unravels Hendrix's "Purple Haze."
Snake, 17, from Daytona,
sits at the water's edge,
the ash on his cigarette
pointing to the ground
like a crooked finger. CJ,
who in three days will trip
a fragmentation mine,
runs after the ball
into the whitecaps,
laughing
***
Gasoline
Cary Ann Hurst and Michael Trent
Monday, June 27, 2011
Music Mondays (6/27/2011): Berryman and Widespread Panic
só heavy, if he had a hundred years
& more, & weeping, sleepless, in all them time
Henry could not make good.
Starts again always in Henry’s ears
the little cough somewhere, an odour, a chime.
And there is another thing he has in mind
like a grave Sienese face a thousand years
would fail to blur the still profiled reproach of. Ghastly,
with open eyes, he attends, blind.
All the bells say: too late. This is not for tears;
thinking.
But never did Henry, as he thought he did,
end anyone and hacks her body up
and hide the pieces, where they may be found.
He knows: he went over everyone, & nobody’s missing.
Often he reckons, in the dawn, them up.
Nobody is ever missing.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Wife's Blog: More Pictures, More Exciting, and More Info on Life
Flood 2011: Update (again)

It has been awhile since I last posted pictures of the 2011 flood. The water has left our house, but it is completely destroyed. My folks said they took lots of pictures, so as soon as I can get a hold of those I will post.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Music Mondays (6/20/2011): Charles Baudelaire and The Dutchess and the Duke
The Ghost
by Charles Baudelaire
Like angels that have monster eyes,
Over your bedside I shall rise,
Gliding towards you silently
Across night's black immensity.
O darksome beauty, you shall swoon
At kisses colder than the moon
And fondlings like a snake's who coils
Sinuous round the grave he soils.
When livid morning breaks apace,
You shall find but an empty place,
Cold until night, and bleak, and drear:
As others do by tenderness,
So would I rule your youthfulness
By harsh immensities of fear.
— Trans. Jacques LeClercq, Flowers of Evil (Mt Vernon, NY: Peter Pauper Press, 1958)
***
"Mary"
by The Dutchess and the Duke
Monday, June 13, 2011
Music Mondays (6/13/2011): Patricia Fargnoli and Rev. Gary Davis
Monday, June 6, 2011
Music Mondays (6/6/2011): Frank O'Hara and Pavement
Personal Poem
by Frank O'Hara
Now when I walk around at lunchtime
I have only two charms in my pocket
an old Roman coin Mike Kanemitsu gave me
and a bolt-head that broke off a packing case
when I was in Madrid the others never
brought me too much luck though they did
help keep me in New York against coercion
but now I'm happy for a time and interested
I walk through the luminous humidity
passing the House of Seagram with its wet
and its loungers and the construction to
the left that closed the sidewalk if
I ever get to be a construction worker
I'd like to have a silver hat please
and get to Moriarty's where I wait for
LeRoi and hear who wants to be a mover and
shaker the last five years my batting average
is .016 that's that, and LeRoi comes in
and tells me Miles Davis was clubbed 12
times last night outside BIRDLAND by a cop
a lady asks us for a nickel for a terrible
disease but we don't give her one we
don't like terrible diseases, then
we go eat some fish and some ale it's
cool but crowded we don't like Lionel Trilling
we decide, we like Don Allen we don't like
Henry James so much we like Herman Melville
we don't want to be in the poets' walk in
San Francisco even we just want to be rich
and walk on girders in our silver hats
I wonder if one person out of the 8,000,000 is
thinking of me as I shake hands with LeRoi
and buy a strap for my wristwatch and go
back to work happy at the thought possibly so
--from Lunch Poems
***
"Spit on a Stranger"
Pavement
--from Terror Twilight
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Music Mondays (5/30/2011): Jim Carroll and Silver Jews
Monday, May 23, 2011
Music Mondays (5/23/2011): Dylan Thomas and The Builders and the Butchers
Friday, May 20, 2011
**Update - New Flood Pics as of 5/19/2011** River Crested - Greenville
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Tim Fite-Maniac with a guitar
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
River Crested 64.5 Greenville
Monday, May 16, 2011
Music Mondays (5/16/2011): Catullus and Living Colour
Sunday, May 15, 2011
New Publication: Word Riot 10th Anniversary Anthology
Friday, May 13, 2011
New Flood Pics of Our House (May 10, 2011)









Thursday, May 12, 2011
Poetry Digital Center Archive

About This Collection
Poetry Center Digital Archive makes available significant portions of early audio recordings from the Poetry Center's American Poetry Archives collection, supplemented by select archival texts and images. New files will be added incrementally as recordings are prepared and as we proceed through the collection from the 1950s onward.
The Poetry Center, founded at San Francisco State College (now SFSU) in 1954 by English professor Ruth Witt-Diamant, has been recording and archiving tapes of its public events for nearly six decades. We have compiled and maintained one of the most significant public collections in the USA of original recorded performances by poets and related writers reading their work. In 1974, poet Kathleen Fraser, serving as director, created within the Poetry Center, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Poetry Archives. This collection, together with the Poetry Center housed within the SFSU College of Humanities (Department of Creative Writing), today holds over 4,000 hours of unique original audio and video master-recordings, 1954–present – an inestimable cultural asset.Wednesday, May 11, 2011
An Evening of Poetry at the White House (update with Video Links)
