Esther Press

Gabcast! Esther Press #7



Reading three new poems from the ongoing manuscript.

Cut and pasted:

A note from Eliot Weinberger

As you may have heard, Will Alexander is quite ill with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. He's spent his life largely off the poetry grid, taking on odd jobs, and has no financial support or, needless to say, health insurance.

The San Francisco organization Poets in Need is coordinating efforts to raise money for him. You can make a (tax-deductible) contribution to them, earmarked for Will, and send it to:

Poets in Need
PO Box 5411
Berkeley CA 94705

For those around New York, there will be a benefit reading for Will at the Bowery Poetry Club, Thursday November 1, 6-8 pm (readers to be announced).

Many thanks –

Eliot

It's taken me probably three years (not fulltime, of course), but I believe the thinking-out part of the elusive novel is over. Some kind of imagination breakthrough arrived over the weekend. As if I finally figured out how to write it, or as if the artistic blocks fell away, and I could see it. Very strange experience. My wife always says to "Just write," but I always like to have the framing in place, and go from there. If I would have taken her advice on this one, perhaps the book would have been written by now, because I wrote myself into the frame.

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Amazon.com lists Work Book for purchase.

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Artist-collaborator on Work Book, Edgar Arceneaux

A couple of pictures of the books at the Nothing Moments opening in Los Angeles. Work Book can be seen on the bottom of the first picture.

The Nothing Moments project opens in Los Angeles tomorrow. My book of short stories, Work Book, is part of the collection. You can see the cover of the book if you click and move the cursor to the right side of the screen.

The Nothing Moments project is a travelling exhibit, which will be in San Francisco next month. I will be there. The schedule of dates in other cities is here.

Court Rejects Alleged CIA Kidnap Victim

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday terminated a lawsuit from a man who claims he was abducted and tortured by the CIA, effectively endorsing Bush administration arguments that state secrets would be revealed if the case were allowed to proceed....(continued)

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The "state secrets" are not exactly secretive, as we know the gang of murderous thugs running the government are, in fact, murderous thugs.

As the U.S. is always quick to lead the world by its stellar example, and to assume the burden of all peoples everywhere, here are three U.S. Constitution amendments, seemingly and conveniently forgotten, or which just don't pertain if you're an Arab:

Amendment IV


The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.


Amendment VI


In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.


Amendment XI

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state.

Peaches, "Fuck the Pain Away"



Peaches, "Slippery Dick"



Peaches, "Set It Off"

Reading Octave Mirbeau's The Torture Garden. Mirbeau's unerring eye for hypocrisy is extremely refreshing. Though originally published in 1899, its diligent, macabre outpouring couldn't be better suited for the Bush era. Schoolchildren should receive a copy for Christmas. My copy is the RE/Search publication of 1989.

Received recently:

Vaast Bin, Michael Peters, Calamari Press, New York, 2007.

Infamous Landscapes, Prageeta Sharma, Fence Books, Albany, 2007.

Flet, Joyelle McSweeney, Fence Books, Albany, 2007.

Encouragement for a Man Falling to His Death, Christopher Kennedy, BOA Editions, Rochester, 2007.

“Today, a megayacht is indispensable,” said Olivier Milliex, head of yacht finance at the Dutch bank ING. “It’s not like 15 years ago, when a yacht was a luxury item.”

--from this article in the The New York Times

Gabcast! Esther Press #5



Reading further into current manuscript.