all calm. no storm.

tomorrow's moving day here in Kassel. Lily and I have been hard at work putting things in boxes.



As it stands at 5:45 p.m. on Saturday, we're in good shape to roll it all over to Kirschditmold in the morning.

The ladies have been busy guarding the family jewels.




Bird's falling down on the job. Apparently it wasn't in her contract.

After Catcher at the Stadtfest

The first warm day / The first warm night

Love to E and J, in from Giessen and England, post-premieres, pre-tours.







Love to the guests, post-show, pre-scatter.















Love to the percussionist...







And the süsse nüsse at the Stadtfest....





And the man who brought us all to Kassel in the first place.

dancing on the roof

tuesday the sun was shining in düsseldorf.
i had a little time on my hands while the dj slept. so i jumped out the window and made this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMmLj_l_l1Q

#waterstopfail

(see airborne plastic cup...)

Sunday I ran the marathon here in Kassel. Story and pix over at the running blog.

Düsseldorf with the DJs

Postscript: Tearing Down the House

"We have a YARD?".

I couldn't help but rudely interrupt when I overheard the real estate agent showing our apartment a few weeks ago say to the couple, "Ok, good. Now I'm going to show you the yard." Yard? After three years I find out we have a yard?

The answer is yes. The location is just around this corner.

That driveway going down on the right side of the picture? That leads to the Bike Cellar. Before we moved in three years ago, I locked my bike to the railing there, at the advice of V, who used to live in this apartment. Don't worry, she said, I'll take it into my storage space once I clear it out. A few weeks later I'm on Martha's Vineyard dancing and I get an email: "Sorry...Lily..." Bike was gone. Stolen. A few months later when I moved in I ran into the housemeister, asked some question about storage in my broken German, and he started rambling on about the Fahrrad Keller. I didn't understand much at the time, but enough to follow him down that driveway, where inside the garage he showed me this:

The next time I talked to V, she was like WHAT? I had a FAHRRAD KELLER?

It was that kind of day. The kind of day when shit just turns up where you least expect it. Like new jeans...

from AK.

Giant wheels....

at eye level.

Green....

Boxes...

and...yeah, so I went to Ikea today for some stuff for the new place. The one and only AK kept me in good spirits after a day full of wehaveayard situations. One: I find out that the Renter's Assistance Association that I'd visited back in December to fight an unfair bill from my landlords was charging me for an entire year's membership after I'd cancelled mine. They failed to see the irony in the situation. "I'm sorry ma'am, but we have a 12 month cancellation poilcy. Didn't you read the application form?" When I told her she was taking advantage of foreigners she actually said - and I quote - Well, you're in Germany now. Umm, thanks. I'd almost forgotten.

But cool, whatever. I shook it off, paid the bill. Ate some soup. Was just about over it when I get an email from the accountant saying that unfortunately we will owe 1200 Euro this year, so sorry but there's nothing more she could do. Turns out Fred's boss neglected to tell him that taxes weren't being taken out of his salary. What? I still have to pay TAXES?

AHHH! Let's go to Ikea and eat some meatballs!

New and forthcoming

Lots of new poetry magazines lighting up my mailbox this spring. A quick rundown:

I've been translated for the first time, appearing alongside nine poets I recommend highly (Beckman, Bervin, Mathys, Hawkey, Hart, Zuba, Stonecipher, Moschovakis, Svalina), in a bilingual Spanish-English anthology of new American poets from Cosmopoética (Córdoba, Spain), entitled La familia americana.



Those not in Europe who are interested in picking up a copy can email me or leave a comment and I will put you in touch with the editor.

"Guided tours" opens the second issue of Handsome, a magazine published by Black Ocean out of Boston.



Other highlights include six poems by Paula Cisewski (from her new book "Ghost Fargo") and "Concession Speech" by Jordan Davis.


Projective Industries and DoubleCross Press have teamed up to publish a really beautiful hand-sewn magazine with a great title: We Are So Happy to Know Something (WASHTKS). My poems "A short film about radiance" and "A slash of blue" appear there, alongside a bunch of people you may have heard of.






Another poem about Germany, or about not being able to speak German, is in the latest issue of Spinning Jenny. Spinning Jenny (along with jubilat) is one of the most cohesive poetry magazines I've ever read. Really a joy to read. Worth buying for William Winfield Wright's "32 Fucking Poems about Chess" alone.




My long poem "The Center of all Europe" (many short parts, much taken from repeated visits to Documenta, first noted on the blog here) in the new issue (#4) of Zoland Poetry, which has landed with some folks stateside, but which I haven't yet seen (and which oddly enough, isn't available from their website, although you can buy it at Powell's or Random House).




"We meet no stranger but our self" appears online in issue X of H_NGM_N. Lots of great stuff throughout this site, including interviews, essays, etc.


And forthcoming:

A handful of poems will be online soon in the fifth issue of Absent. Not sure the drop date on this yet.

Just got proofs for two poems (including one for Doogie) which will appear in issue nine of 1111 this summer. Sarah Fox is also in this issue (yeah!).

The next issue (#22) of Forklift, Ohio will have two poems ("Landing on water" and "Here and only here").

Another fun project I did recently which will see the light of day in the weeks to come is an interview with modern dance choreographer David Neumann, which comes out in Issue 21 of Conduit.

Whew.

Tearing down the house

They're tearing down an old building in Königsplatz, bit by bit.

I've been taking pictures when I walk by, watching the progress.

Which seems like a funny thing to call something like this.

Progress, as in progression.

One home following another.