Assuming Size Reading

                                                        Charmant.




On November  27th, Jordan Castro, Ryan J., Richard Wehrenberg Jr. and I held a reading at Kafe Kerouac for the official release of our joint poetry chapbook, Assuming Size.

You can listen to the reading above by clicking through the tracks on the player. The tracks are out of order and run 1. Introduction 2. James Payne 3. Jordan Castro and Mallory Whitten 4. Question and Answer 5. Richard Wehrenberg Jr. 6. Ryan J.

Or download: Introduction, Ryan J., Richard Wehrenberg Jr., James Payne, Jordan Castro and Mallory Whitten, Question and Answer session.

Assuming Size was reviewed by multifariously creative person Dan Tarnowski at On Lives.

Assuming Size is on the Well Read Wife.

Also, Ryan and Richard's poetry reading in Oberlin, Ohio, was reviewed favorably by Alice Beecher at Fearless and Loathing.

In other news, as should be expected, Weedsteeler.com is on the frontline of government censorship.

See pictures Mallory Whitten took during the reading after 'the jump.'

Interviewed at Some Moths

Jordan Castro, Richard Wehrenberg Jr. and I were interviewed at Some Moths by Jordan Gillespie concerning Assuming Size.

Things That Have Happened

Richard Wehrenberg made a poster in promotion of our November 27th reading at Kafe Kerouac in Columbus, Ohio.

New Wave Vomit recently published a smattering of my poems and Pop Serial mentioned that.

The Short North Gazette published my poem "It Doesn't Make Any Sense Because You Are Smiling" in their November 2010 issue.

Jordan Castro was interviewed by Mallory Whitten about our poetry chapbook, Assuming Size.

You can buy Assuming Size from Jordan Castro using Paypal.

Monster House inmate Matt Schuermann's band, American War, is on Daytrotter.

Assuming Size Poetry Chapbook Is Out

Assuming Size; cover drawing by Maryn Jones.

Monster House Press, an ad-hoc organization of people who make alcoholic cider on the second floor, has just released a four-way poetry chapbook entitled Assuming Size. The authorial quartet in question is comprised of Jordan Castro, Ryan J., Richard Wehrenberg Jr., and myself. Maryn Jones drew the cover image and Wehrenberg provided the editorial direction and design scheme. The covers were then screenprinted by Shout Out Loud Prints. It looks and feels very nice. It has hand sewn binding even.

Four poems of mine are printed in Assuming Size: "How I Smelled On I-90," "Arthur Danto," "Nature Morte," and "One-Of-Everything." Jordan's 2 poems are very good. Ryan's 3 poems are very good. Richard's 2 poems are very good. As Ryan said on Friends and Wieners, this is probs a coattails. I am fine with that.

You may purchase Assuming Size for $2.00. There are eleven poems in it. This is less than twenty cents per poem. To place an order, email richardwehrenbergjr@gmail.com. 

A reading in support of Assuming Size takes place at Kafe Kerouac in Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 27th at 8 p.m. There will also be a reading in Oberlin, Ohio on Nov. 10th and a reading in Kent, Ohio at a date to be determined later.

If you are interested in reviewing Assuming Size or doing an interview in support of it for your blog, web site, or newspaper, send an email to monsterhousepress@gmail.com.

Assuming Size has a Goodreads page.

Pop Serial reblogged this news. 

BTW: James Payne Bedroom Concert Series is very much back in action.

THE STAGE

The Stage: Hollow (Solid) Relations
by Richard Wehrenberg

How can the poor be made to work once their illusions have been shattered, and once force has been defeated?
- Guy Debord, Preface to The Society of the Spectacle (1995)

What do we mean by the word stage?  What are we to make of it, how are we to understand how we understand it and how it may understand us?  In the most evident way, the word signifies a distinguishing between 'real' and 'false' things, and in a more devious way, a différance ( = constructed difference that defers meaning) of relationship, of levels of power between participants, and of symbols in and of the stage.  The stage for our purposes will refer to any illusion, any thing that may 'falsify' relation; however, let us be heedful: when declaring some ways of being and existence false and others legitimate, one must differentiate, one must expound, one must delineate to the fullest extent why these ways of being are erroneous and pernicious, why they are undesirable.  It is not the facticity of their existence that needs to be addressed, but the how and why of it, particularly how and why staged relation continues to linger, disseminate, and latch onto our relations so unwaveringly.  It may be too difficult, arduous, or futile a task to assess and/or list all institutions, objects, persons, etc. that are part and parcel of the stage (that rely on some form of staged relation to exist), and to call them out and initiate yet another polemic in a text this condensed; however, let it be our task to look at a few forms of the stage, its phantoms and ancestors, its genealogy and various apparatuses, to better understand how the stage, as a way of organizing socially, politically, economically, et al., hinders our 'growth' ( = a growth we may not know the concrete of, whose goal might not be so easily stated, assessed, or reduced, but a growth which also is, at least, not in the terms of capitalistic ideology) and our relations (which as staged become solid and hollow, seemingly permanent and without depth nor compassion).

Do It Together Fest 2010

Each year since 2007 my Monster House roommates Richard Wehrenberg and Matt Scheuermann have organized a DIY punk festival called "Do It Together Fest" in Kent, Ohio. This year's iteration takes place over September 10th & 11th at The Vineyard and at Professor's Pub.

Wehrenberg, a renowned poet as well as an accomplished DIY promoter, said, "It's going to be pretty cool, I guess."

Scheuermann, of Punknews.org's band/record of the year, The Sidekicks, said, "It's your typical fest."

But would your typical fest have Tao Lin, author of Shoplifting From American Apparel and the forthcoming Richard Yates, fly in to read, slapping himself or his publisher with "mad" fees, and staying with Jordan Castro + Jordan Castro's parent(s) for four days in Solon, Ohio? Would your typical fest do that?

No. It's the most internet-literature-DIY-punk fest in the world. Or, at least, more so than Berea Fest.

Also out of the norm: rumored "awesome" after show will feature the debut of underground hip-hop sensation, Monstrosity. The first in the wave of 3rd floor hip-hop acts that call The Pocket home. Soon we will have something to rival St. Catherine's incipient "Spy Girl" scene.

Full DIT Fest schedule after "The Jump."

America and 3 Other Poems

Newsies.

Candygram 2 / First Poetry Reading

On April 8th Cenaclehouse Publishing held a release party for the second issue of Candygram at Skylab. My poem "Oh' O'Hare" was included in the issue. I read three other poems before the first band, Chine-collé, played. It was a noise band that seemed accessible. The guy who works at the Canzani center is in it. They are playing Skylab again on May 6th. Another band followed that sprinkled change on the ground and used the act of sawing wood sonically. My roommates Pat, Steve, Cassie and Richard were present. Richard told me a story about Kroger.

John Malta, Eric Sweazy, Faith Gehring, Caitlin Sherwood and many others also have items in this issue of Candygram. The editor of Candygram is Shannon Byers.

MP3 of me reading " All Girl Metal Band," "Besides The Biz Markie Interpolation," and "Fleetwood Mac Sample."

MP3 of half of Chine-collé's set.

MP3 of Richard telling me a story.