Chapel Hill continues to dominate Brave Little Poem. Today, it’s Inch poetry editor Jeremy Griffin (who should be returning to Inch for issue #5). Stop by and give his poem a gander. That makes four of the last five BLP poets Chapel Hillians.

After a brief visit to the library today, I have ended up with several new books, and none are non-fiction. Ladybug and I are driving to DC for a wedding next weekend, so I’ll be reading a fair bit on the road. I’m almost wishing that I were done with the book I’m reading, so I could dive headfirst into the Ander Monson book I picked up. Ander Monson is one of the best authors you’re not reading, so get on the stick, people.

The Regulator will soon be the latest bookstore to carry Bull City Press books. They should have them in stock next week. Stop by and support your independent bookstore. If you don’t use them, you lose them.

I need suggestions on great dance songs that people aged 16-66 would comfortable getting down with. Please please please, leave them in the comments.

Another way it could pay off and I’d be happy: I could be a little more like Carl Phillips. I spent a wee bit of time thumbing through The Rest of Love tonight, and I’m consistently awed by that man.

We interrupt the tedious chore of writing a technical manual while listening to children in the lake to bring you these messages:

• Just had a poem accepted by The Pedestal, to appear in their June issue. (My crude deductive powers indicate that it’ll be up around June 22.)
• Poems up by former students Matt Poindexter and Zena Cardman at Brave Little Poem. (Cardman’s link will change after June 14, 2007. Which means, I think, that she’ll be out of the country the entire time she’s featured.)

This isn’t such a bad deal, if you’re into that sort of thing: iTunes Plus, which is the DRM-free, 256kbps version of iTunes, usually runs you a buck-twenty-nine a song. But if you hit the iTunes plus section of the site, then find one of the albums that’s also in the “Biggest iTunes Albums of All Time for $7.99″ promotion, you’ll end up with DRM-free albums for $7.99.

This assumes you actually want one of the most popular albums from iTunes. But I did… and picked up Lily Allen’s album. Hot cha.

Finished Blink, and was well-pleased of it. It makes a convincing case for further study of poetry and its elements (though poetry is never mentioned).

If you try to call me for the next couple days, you likely won’t get me. I’m in Sophia, NC at a Baptist mountain camp that DPI sometimes uses for teacher retreats. I don’t get good signal up here, and if today is any indication, I may not be online all that much either. The Internet was down for about three hours this afternoon.

It’s also raining so hard that I may float away. And there’s hail. So yeah, this is a storm.

Continuing with my somewhat obsessive non-poem readings of late, I began Malcom Gladwell’s Blink last night, and expect to finish it tonight before I go to sleep. I also brought with me a copy of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, which I do not plan to finish quite so quickly. One might think that all this non-fiction would have an effect on my thinking about fiction, but if it is, I’m not noticing.

Also, I’m writing a technical manual right now. Zzzz. But that has to be done before the 17th so I can’t drag it out.

Ah, dear blog, since I wrote in you last, I have devoted almost every waking minute to leisure. While making dinner last night, El Bandito dropped by and we drank beer and played Mexican Train Dominos. Then we went to Linda’s to meet up with CeCe, Team Goetschius, and Jennings. Then headed home, watched Sleeper Cell, and slept heavy. Woke up, ate a quick lunch, and headed to kickball at Carrboro Park. Following that, Team Goetschius joined us at the homestead and we walked up to the pool and swam for a couple hours.

Devoting so much time to leisure is bad for my body, though, as I already ache some and am certain to ache more later. This is the price I pay for indulging in no real literary work for 24 hours.

I just finally managed to untangle myself from Daniel Wallace’s The Watermelon King, which I was long overdue in reading. Long, long overdue. But I wanted to read it before I picked up Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician.

Bill Ferris, co-editor of Inch, is a father. Elliott Ferris was born earlier this evening at the healthy weight of 9 pounds.

(When you’re looking for poem lines about babies, look no further than Thomas Lux.)

Ladybug and I have returned from Dillard’s BBQ, which I am now ready to label the best barbq in Durham. We’ve lived about a mile and a quarter from Dillard’s for six years and only just figured out where it is. Is that ridiculous? Yes. I’m going to tell myself that during that time, they must have suffered some odd decline in quality and the fates just kept us away from there so that when they recovered, the winds would usher us that way. The carrot souffle was the best dessert I have ever tasted. There’s no hyperbole here; I am known for not liking desserts. But this one is amazing.

Of course, now I am at home, bulbous in front of the keyboard, aching with food, though not at all regretful. It’s just that a meal like that keeps you from doing much else for the rest of the night, and I’d hoped to accomplish something more than “not much else.”

I have found someone who is willing to swap an extra copy of Ivy Alvarez’s tinyside for some Bull City Press swag.

Come to me, my precious.

Just finished printing the new Inch, but man, it’s gonna take some time to get them folded, cut, and stapled. Bill’s expecting a baby any minute now, so I will probably be flying solo on getting the issue out.

Ladybug is in the other room poking through WWC worksheets. So far, we agree on some of the poems that rocked it out.