trenchant } trenchart

trenchart: maneuvers, is the fifth annual trenchart series, "with aesthetics written by participating series writers and visual artists. maneuvers explores the possibilities of re-ordered time and content framed with the understanding that one cannot separate content from time, and that to shift the form or the order is to shift the subjectivies of a text." flim poets harold abramowitz and matthew timmons, along with paul hoover, lily hoang, and vincent dachy are this year's participants in the series.

trenchart : material caught my eye way back--a damn fine set of books----

and remember, when you hear the theremin outside y'r window, the invasion has begun: "watch the skies, everywhere! keep looking. keep watching the skies!"

In the library:
Something
Of note





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Belongs in a box.









(laura sims stranger)

Arabic } Alps

brandon shimoda writes:

"i wanted to send you... an arabic translation of the third section (the food section) of the "trinity/neutrality/the draft" poem from THE ALPS, translated by lebanese poet sabah zwein. my girlfriend and i read in beirut and damascus a few weeks ago, and i read this poem on both occasions--the first time to a small crowd of devoted listeners (including the governor of south lebanon), following a 30 course meal, and preceding a dance party at a tiny, unnamed communist bar, with bowls of half-frozen fruit and a loaded rifle behind the counter, and the second to a packed, smoke-filled hotel basement dive bar in the new, dirty-glittery section of damascus. i only brought two copies of the book with me, but i gave them both to poets in beirut--sabah zwein being one of them, and iskandar habache, a poet and writer for the as-safir political daily, the other. but, flim now exists in lebanon, among the mattresses of cheese, silver earth rising off the mediterranean, and mid-day calls to prayer, with sandwiches."

abell } 2218

this galaxy cluster bends and magnifies light in a process called gravitational lensing. as a result, astronomers have been able to increase the power of earth and space telescopes enough to see redshift-10 galaxies, galaxies that formed shortly after the dark ages of the universe, galaxies that "may have kicked off the subsequent phase of reionization, in which ultraviolet starlight stripped electrons from hydrogen gas," causing galaxies to grow larger than the earliest galaxies (because reionized hydrogen "would have been too hot to clump together").

"secret caves" } beget } "pech de l'azé"

secret caves sez:

(0,0)
The Ghost of Khorasan

mausoleum
(in a moraine)
deposit

pech de l'azé sez:

12.
open uh ancient coffin
find.

uh shovel inside.


torpedo volume six "our first almost entirely graphic issue features comics, fake ads and other miscellany from the likes of jeffrey brown, paul o'connell, oslo davis, tim molloy, stanley donwood, ghost patrol, mandy ord, adam golaski, eric dando, laurie clancy and many more. comes with mini colour supplement and cover by the mysterious kingdom of ludd"

whut up, whut up: the golaski "miscellany" is excerpts from "pech de l'azé," a blog comments response to matthew klane's poem "secret caves."

postage is cah-razy fo non-australian buyers*, but torpedo is always gorgeous. get the complete set, get the postage over w/, + get joy.

the following is an except from an interview between adam golaski + torpedo editor chris flynn:

golaski: is it true, that on every shelf in every readings location is a nest full of the world's deadliest spiders?

flynn: we do have some scary creatures here, their bites create a gangrenous sore that never heals and eats slowly away at the flesh and yes, there have been three shark attacks in the past two weeks, but in only one case was the guy devoured. But we don't have guns!

[note from editor: flynn's response was edited heavily w/out permission. he may also not be real. this conversation may never have happened. flim forum is of the opinion that the ocean is mostly a bag of very salty potato chips.]

*an addendum from the torpedo offices: "good news! I just went to the post office and it turns out this issue sneaks under the weight limit as it's a bit slimmer than normal, so postage to the UK and US is half the usual exorbitant rate. it's $6.50 instead of $12.50, which is $5 US and about 3 quid in the UK. that might make it easier for your legions of fans to buy it. hope this helps."

seriously, dudes, you paid five to have amazon ship that dvd of "fluff house apocalypse: director's cut," + that was being shipped from, like, the blockbuster down the street from you, so, like, torpedo up, friends of flim.

drunken boat } myth-fueled slander pants

sat., aug. 15th, 7pm, new london, organized by hygienic art + drunken boat, held in the aardvark, a "a multi-media bash" an "anniversary celebration" for/of drunken boat, "a decade-old online literary journal."

the what what from hygienic's site:

"Headlining Mat Bevel, from the Surrealistic Pop Science Theatre in Tucson, AZ and the maestero of 'a gizmotronic fanfare of spunk, funk and kinetic junk,' and featuring rare video footage of Charles Olson, father of the Maximus Poems and the Black Mountain School, Harlem native and vocal deconstructor Latasha Natasha Diggs, Guggenheim Fellow and stereoscopic projectionist Zoe Beloff and New London's own native son, novelist and frequent contributor the New York Times, Richard Rand Cooper, among others. Share drinks and a memorable evening of literary alchemy and intermedia performance."

a slightly different but equally dubious what what from the new haven advocate:

"Mat Bevel from Tucson's Surrealistic Pop Science; a rare film of the late modernist poet Charles Olson; vocalist/dialectician Latasha Natasha Diggs; eclectic myth-fueled author/translator Adam Golaski; music-savvy poet Larissa Shmailo; new media artist Steve Ersinghaus, mainstream-friendly writer Rand Richards Cooper, plus a short film by stereoscopic projectionist Zoe Beloff."

+ last, from the drunken boat site, announcing the addition of another performer:

"Sabina Murray is the author of the novels Forgery (Grove, 2007), A Carnivore’s Inquiry, and Slow Burn. Her short story collection The Caprices was the winner of the 2002 PEN/Faulkner award. ...Associate Professor of English, Creative Writing, at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst."

we at flim forum press have come to doubt the veracity of all this infromation.

you look cute } for you

living italian renaissance poet elisa gabbert's the french exit.

wordless post.

it's quite possible that she is k. lorraine graham's mother.

hot knees turns skirt red hot.

"i want to thank you for putting me back in my snail shell."

mud luscious press } a field of colors

400 copies of "a field of colors" by charles lennox were sent out in june by mud luscious press--if you've got a copy in your cupboard of tiny chapbooks but've yet to read it, bust it out now.

then, you'll wanna check out mlp here + here + you'll wanna study charles lennox too, who apparently suffers from dog-chewed fan wiring. time to get new dogs.

if y'r cupboard is bare, fear not: "a field of colors," was reprinted at keyhole: thas crazy goot nudes f'r yous.

chompity chompity chomp.

singing and omitting } words are A-OK.

we already knew this.

however this is a review from the future!

(since jennifer karmin's reading is/was awesome, go on august 9th to myopic books, 1564 n. milwaukee, at 7pm. but be careful! don't let your future self see you there--unless you want to ruin the universe.)

new genre } no. 6: it sings----

new genre no. 6 is 4 new stories--horror + science fiction--by stephen graham jones, eric schaller, michael filimowicz, + matthew pendleton, plus the essay "a sing economy" by adam golaski. the essay title is no coincidence, as golaski (me) is "the lazy half" of flim forum press, while he's also new genre: editor, publisher, etc. the essay takes up the the idea of a poet economy--as a number of us flim poets discussed (in part via poems--check out "a sing economy symposium")--+ pairs that with "the current state" of short fiction. golaski writes:

Every article I've read about the current state of the short story sets its focus not on the short story as a literary form but on the short story as a product nobody wants to buy.... Blame publishers, then blame editors, then blame writers, and not the other way around. Reader complacency may be impossible to overcome, but it will never be overcome if the only fiction on offer is pablum (and to bring it back to publishers, of the only fiction promoted is pablum).

I make this bold statement confident that the fiction in new genre no. 6 is very good, worthy of promotion and of your attention. of especial interest to poets will be the two science fiction stories, which emphasize language over sense (tho both make a wild + fantastic kind of sense).

the cover--see the front/back spread up top--was designed by jeremy withers, who also designed oh one arrow. as a result of jeremy's work, new genre no. 6 is a beautiful object.

"In speaking to the need for new forums and a greater seriousness, New Genre is extremely welcome. I support the journal whole-heartedly." ----Peter Straub

"...I think this magazine has the potential to really stick its thumb in the eye of literary snobbery." ----Jennifer Gomoll

art space } aug 8 } hartford

the libertine collective's upcoming "bestia phasmatis: animal spirits both benign and malevolent" ain't easy to suss--it's an art bacchanal inspired by bob barker and it's painted naked supermodels toting boxes of fluffy kittens. there's music by kate callahan and the kelvins, a duo marishka dance musical, there's ravi shankar, there's "interactive poetry & a writer's wall" (this will feature poets' drafts and etc.), and there's flim editor adam golaski, who'll read from "outland," a long poem dedicated to jessica smith. when interviewed, golaski said, "one day I'll finish 'outland'." brilliant.

when puppies and arthur schnitzler? August 8th 2009, 6:30 - 10:30. where? hartford artspace, 555 asylum ave., Hartford, CT. wherefore art thou? suggested donation of $5.00. fuzzy wuzzy? free brine and weir.

open letters monthly } poetry +

flim forum poet john cotter is the poetry editor at open letters, an online "arts and literature review." besides reviews, there's poetry--an easy-dose poem-a-month.

begin here + check f'r flim favorites such as kate schapira, kaethe schwehn, maureen thorson, elisa gabbert & kathleen rooney, shafer hall, + sampson starkweather. + if you missed it in theaters, there's che, ah, "being."

+

whiles y'r there, don't miss the OL blog----

harp & alter } the alps + the inland sea

jared white's review of the alps + the inland sea (published by tarpaulin sky).

white writes, "What animates both these books of Shimoda’s is the unknowability of the self even as it offers more and more angles, more ideas, more perceptions and experiences" + suggests that "It may be helpful to see the two books not as distinct projects, but rather as complementary angles on the same subject, the same interior/exterior geography with its troubles and anxieties."

let's encourage that reading: from Aug. 2nd - Sept. 2nd, if you can demonstrate that you ordered the inland sea (email us your receipt), you can purchase the alps for $10 ($4 off the cover price). this offer is only good for orders placed directly to flim forum press (i.e., checks only to the flim forum office).

march, 2009 } b-lo spf } a tale f'r children

here, fairy godmother jessica smith and magically transformed alix bamford assemble the flim forum table. look! it was beautiful!



then, this bird bought a copy of oh one arrow.



then, this bird bought a copy of a sing economy.



when christopher fritton said the fair was over and it was time to go home, matthew klane bellowed, "we never close!" his words were so mighty, they became neon.



but christopher really needed us out of there, so after he bought a copy of brandon shimoda's the alps, he sent a bear and a giant tire to trash our stuff and eat us.



eaten but not defeated, matthew and adam flew the bear into an ice cave at the bottom of niagra falls where we began work on jennifer karmin's aaaaaaaaaaalice.



greatly moved, the giant tire converted from radial to catholicism.



the end.