Primary Colors - Joe Klein (Book Report)

I chose the book Primary Colors originally authored anonymously and later determined to be Joe Klein. I selected this book because it was politically based; however, it had good insight into the Clinton presidency in a strongly impactful way. Like I mentioned during my book report, I found it particularly intriguing to read a book that had so many vast similarities to a particular individual or event but, on the other hand, didn’t specifically depict specific characters or events.

Overall this novel gave me the ability to foreshadow something I was familiar with and relate to a specific instance. Without directly mentioning Clinton or any scandal that took place during his presidency, the reader would find it interesting to be able to relate.

If anyone was interested in politics or a good novel, I would recommend Primary Colors by Joe Klein.

i’d rather you lied

i’d rather you lied
Selected Poems 1980-1998
Billy Childish

Billy Childish is probably the most prolific artists of his generation. Not only is he an accomplished artist and musician, this book of poetry was dran from over thirty volumes including two previously unpublished editions.
His style of poetry is considered raw and seething. He had dropped out of school at 16 years old, and was proud that he had lived on the government dole for 12 years writing and creating woodcarvings and drawings. Ultimately, during this time, music was the dominant style of Childish’s artistic expression. He released more than 100 full length albums he recorded independently with The Poprivets, The Mighty Ceasars, and The Milkshakes. After this period, Childish was diagnosed as dyslexic and his previous troubles in several art schools became clear.
His dyslexia turned out to be a blessing for his poetry as the random, unintentional found language it produced became one of his trademarks. “Wild” Billy Childish writes in what is considered the confessional / amateur style of poetry. He has written openly and explicitly about his love-life, childhood sexual abuse, and troubled relationship with his father.
His poem titled, “my father aged 5” begins;
i ran in there
kicked the door back
n grabbed him
round the throat
i got him over the
sink n then banged
his head aganst the
bottle rack
This is just a small example of the seething honesty he brings to all his art. I have loved Billy Childish’s music for several years and was surprised to find his poetry at Woodland Pattern as I didn’t even know he wrote! Great book, great artist, I highly recommend this to all.

Exercises in style

I was truly amazed at how many different ways there are to manipulate one story over and over again. A few of these methods were obvious, but some were just completely out there. Some of the methods seemed to be a little too similar, however. I understand that there are only so many different ways to manipulate stories, but it felt a little cheap. My favorites were Gossip, Condensed, Comedy, and Cross-Examination. Though I might not use these methods all the time for my writing, it's a good tool to help understand the core of the story and what it important.

Exercises in Style

Queneau’s Exercises in Style was very interesting. I was truly amazed at how many different ways one can write the same story. Granted, Queneau took a very innocuous story to demonstrate these different styles but, as the title suggests, they are exercises and they have a done a wonderful job of teaching me how one can use these styles. I’m rather excited to use one of these on a less boring piece of source material.

Hazel Smith/Exercises In Style pt. 2

Right from the very beginning, I found this Hazel Smith reading to be informative and enlightening to me as a writer. Smith's suggestions on narration were especially helpful because personally, I suck at figuring out how to work with narration and I need a little guidance every once and awhile. I never really realized how in-depth narration can be either, until I read this selection. My mind was completely blown by all of these different types of narrating styles, because in previous English classes we had only gone over very basic narration styles such as first and third person. I also found "the arrow of time" to be a very helpful section because as a writer I have struggled with time and figuring out when to use past, present, and future correctly. The next article was also helpful because even recently with my Auto-Biography, I spent some time trying to fix the order of events that I was using. At first they were all over the place and I had a tendency to jump around a lot, which could definitely cause confusion with any reader. Going from present, to past, back to present, and then the past again was something that I found to be an easier pace to keep up with my own writing.

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I've found all of these exercises to be quite interesting, and very inspiring as well. The way Queneau works with words is amazing, especially with "Rhyming Slang". I found that piece to be the most enjoyable personally of the second half of the book. With a lot of the exercises though, I do feel like random words were just tossed around and I can't really understand the piece at all which just makes me frustrated for the most part. An example of one of the pieces that frustrated me was, "Back Slang". I just did not understand it or it's purpose at all, and I guess that's just a technique that I'm not used to, but still, it just was not connecting with me. The other day I was speaking with a friend, and we were comparing art to creative writing. My friend said she found it hard to appreciate art at all because she felt as if a majority of it was just "thrown together". I agreed somewhat with this statement, because I find it hard to discover meaning in anything where it isn't just thrown at you in someway. I then brought up this class and I discussed some of the activities and readings we have done in class, and how I find it hard to appreciate some of them because I didn't understand them. I think it's easy for people to just thrown something under the bus because they don't understand it completely, which is essentially what I am doing. I am trying to be more open-minded with the readings we are doing, such as Raymond Queneau's and find appreciation in them, but it is definitely hard. I believe comprehending the importance of these writings is critical to help grow as a writer though, so I'm not going to completely give up on understanding this literature. It just has to grow on me a bit more. Overall though, I did enjoy Queneau's exercises and think they did help to inspire me with the play of words, and hopefully I will be able to light this shine through in my future writings.

Cream City: Queer Edition

The book I chose to do my report on was the Cream City Review – Queer Writers Edition. An old roommate of mine recommended it to me, and lent it to me for the report. It is a collection of poems, fiction, creative nonfiction, book reviews, and art. It was published in the fall of 2005. I really enjoyed most of the works in the book. I really enjoyed the short stories and the poetry sections the best. The common theme among all of the pieces is homosexuality. There are some positive and happy pieces, and there are also sad and depressing pieces. This book collects the broad range of emotions all people experience in their lives.

Second Half of Exercises in Style and Hazel Smith

      The second half of Exercises in Style was just as entertaining as the first. It is thus far my favorite work that the class has read. I particularly enjoyed Antiphrasis and also found it creative how on page 124 the entry is in music notes.

Hazel Smith's discussion presents the potential of narration in a similar way as Exercises in Style. Smith additionally conveys different approaches that can be used to tell a story. However, Hazel Smith does tend to concentrate more on the technical and grammatical approach to narration as opposed to the creative sense like Queneau. Furthermore, as Queneau and Smith both proved, through different styles of narration, the writer can relate to different target audiences and convey different messages.

Exercises in Style Cont'd/ Hazel Smith Ch. 5

Exercises in Style Contd
Raymond really came up with a lot of different ways to write. This book was a good read. Even though I got tired of reading the same story I was able to understand each method seeing as though I knew the original story. I was able to understand what things were added, taken out or even completely changed to make the story fit the method of that section. Even thought the story changed a little. I enjoyed more then one method in the second half of this book. My favorite if I had to choose one would have to be Ode.

Hazel Smith
In this reading Hazel focused on the discorse of narratology. Just as Raymond does Hazel is showing us many different methods to write a piece. Hazel shows us the transformed writing and then goes into detail about how this way of writing has an affect on the reader. The one thing that I think that Hazel focuses more on than Raymond is the narrator. Hazel is giving ways to write in order to change how the narrator is involved in the text. I found Raymond's styles of writing to be a lot more interesting then Hazels.

I enjoyed reading the rest of Exercises in Style. This was probably my favorite reading assigment when had in this class. I found it very interesting that the same story could be told in so many different ways. I also had fun writing our own excercises and trying to come up with a new and interesting way to rewrite my original story. Also, reading Hazel Smith was very insightful. Again, I never realized there could be so many ways to tell a story. Narration is obviously an essential aspect to consider when reading and writing any story.

Excercise in style

The second half of Exercise in Style was as entertaining as the first half. It's amazing that the amount of styles can be so vast, yet so different - but all are amazing. The section I enjoy the most in the second half of the book was Permutations. It is simple and follows a pattern but each is entertaining. Hazel Smith offers insight on how to accomplish some of these variations in writing, however it is not as creative in the sense that Queneau was. Hazel Smith is more concerned with proper grammar and speech rather than a multitude of writing styles and voices.

Exercises in Style

I thought these readings were very animated which is the main reason that I enjoyed reading them. The text seemed in most areas to almost jump out at you and call for your attention. The words and adjectives used to describe things throughout the reading were very colorful and definitely helped to add a lot to it. Some areas of the reading I didn't really fully understand such as 'Precision' on page 37 and all of the numbers kind of drew me away from really grasping the text. I also thought that the little animations highlighting each section really added to the readings as well because it made you intrigued to what you were about it read. Overall, I enjoyed the readings and would like to analyze them a little deeper in the future.

Raymond Queneau

I really enjoyed reading these variations so far. It's a little bit repetitive, but I like the different uses of style. A couple that stood out to me: p.43, just because I like this style... I think I write like this; I also like the imagery it evokes. p.48 is very descriptive, which was nice to read. Some books can get bogged down with details, but I think it works well for this passage. I also liked how it kind of trailed off in its own mind. Noble and comedy were the other two that really stood out.

POEMS BY SUSAN FIRER 21OCT BOOK REPORT

I chose the a book titled THE UNDERGROUND COMMUNION RAIL BY SUSAN FIRER, to do my book report presentation on 21OCT. This book has poems and it says many of them were written while she lived in Wisconsin and was close by Lake Michigan and she also teaches at UWM. The instructor said to try to be creative, so I tried to do something out the norm, since the things we write about and read about are out of what I would call the norm. I presented mines like a short movie with animation and tried to tie into the scenes two of her poems, but it could have used a little more editing to get it shorter than what it was. But that was my way of trying to be creative with this project whether it was a flop or not, I did what I thought was creative. Because anything and everything can be a creative new way of doing something is what I learned in this course.

28OCT READING QUENEAU AND SMITH

As I continued reading pages 99 to197 of the Quneau reading for 28Oct, I begin to understand the exercises more, and what he is doing, the story is changing and his examples of the new story is indicated by each exercise. Therefore, my favorite is the Ode on page 125, because that example is like song lyrics. I wouldn’t mind doing something with song lyrics, because then it makes it more interesting. Before I wasn’t sure of what to do.

Hazel Smith’s reading for 28Oct is similar to what Queneau is doing, she has her set of exercises and she is referring to the narrator inside or a narrator outside and changing the story in that format. So both are referring to just changing the story and using other words to tell the same thing.

Exercises in Style

I had fun reading Excersises in Style by Raymond Queneau. I found it very interesting that one story could be told in so many different ways. Simply changing punctuation within the story puts a whole new twist on the original story. For example, in Surprises, every sentence was ended with an exclamation point. This creates an entirely different tone for the story, and although the same storyline is being followed, it is like reading a different one. I also liked reading Double Entry. It was surprising to me to that you could tell the same story in so many styles.

Exercises in Style

Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau proposes the use many different methods or styles, ninety-nine to be exact, to explain the same event. Queneau focuses on the use of how a language sounds as opposed to how a language is read; furthermore, the different styles convey dialects of all sorts from noble to informal, accusatory to explanatory, etc. Additionally, even translated from French to English, Exercises in Style pushes the limits of language and creates new possibilities for expression.

I particularly enjoyed "Double Entry" on page 21 because of the detail and description of the entry. I also found great interest in "Metaphorically" due the production great imagery as well as emotion, especially through the final line, "In a bleak, urban desert, I saw it again that self-same day, drinking the cup of humiliation offered by a lowly button."Additionally, I found "Apheresis" on page 78 interesting. Although the words are incomplete with missing letters, due to reading several entries about the same event prior to this one, I was able to complete the words while reading them and still understand the story.

The Trouble With Poetry

The Trouble With Poetry is a collection of short poems written by Billy Collins. This book was published by Random House in 2007 and written in 2005. All of the poems in the book were extremely easy to understand. They are all pretty straightforward and simple. Collins does not try to hide anything from the reader, instead he sort of opens up his life in a way and puts it all in his poems. He writes about writing poems, what he's doing as he's trying to write a poem, and about other simple things. Some of the poems are very thought provoking however, as Collins goes in to extreme detail when considering certain simple objects. The book contains subtle, witty, and clever humor. The back of the book says that with accessible language, Collins, opens the door to poetry to those for whom it might otherwise stay closed. I find this very true, as I am not one who really enjoys or understands poetry. I like simple readings, and this was just that. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the poems in this book, and I actually might even read other Billy Collins poetry books.

Queneau, Madden, Significant Objects

I can understand telling the same story but in a different way each time, like Queneau’s reading indicates, but I didn’t quite catch on to the exercises in his reading. With Significant objects I can understand the use of objects, not sure why the penny by them, but it made for good reading. Matt Maddens Reading was far more interesting and I liked the cartoon drawings. I liked how he had a play on words with the cartoon Exorcise In Style, instead of exercise he used exorcise and had the scary approach. The Guest Artists that I enjoyed were Leela Corman’s cartoon, and Jazmin Velasco’s cartoon, 3 of the drawings but at in she writes on the drawing, “What was I looking for anyway?” The guy in the drawing is looking in the refrigerator each time.

Exercises in Style

Exercise in Style was extremely meaningful. The thing that I liked the most was how Raymond kept the same story line and applied it to each method. This really helped me see the change in the writing style and I was better able to understand what it was that he was doing. With the style titled Retrograde it was easy to see that Raymond told the story backwards. Another one of my favorite method was Litotes it was short and sweet. This method told the same story as the others only leaving out details and just giving the main point of the story. Double entry was the most enjoyable to read to me. The ideal of saying the same thing twice to me gave humor to the story. This actually made me laugh. Two hours after and a-hundred-and-twenty minutes later lol. I would like to use this method and write a piece of my own.

Matt Madden 99 Ways to Tell a Story is very similar to Raymond's writing. As Raymond did this just shows all the different ways to do the same thing.

The SignificantOdjects web site was very interesting as well. It relates to the readings in a way in which the buyer has to decide what the use of the object will be. I just didn't find an interest in any of the objects on the site.

The Terrible Twos

The Terrible Twos by Ishmael Reed is a social critique that assaults those who are empowered by greed and immediate gratification, quite frankly, Americans. Within the novel, Santa Claus, an actor hired by the North Pole Development Corporation, is kidnapped and replaced by a fake Santa that leads a country rebellion against the United States government and economy out of protest against selfishness. The fake Santa speaks to the people, “Two years old, that’s what we are, emotionally-America, always wanting someone to hand us some ice cream, always complaining, Santa didn’t bring me this and why didn’t Santa bring me that. Nobody can reason with us. Nobody can tell us anything. Millions of people are staggering about and passing out in the snow and we say that’s tough.” Meanwhile, St. Nicholas and a rasta dwarf named Black Peter work together with the President, a private detective, Nance Saturday, and a journalist, Jamaica Queens, to restore peace, order, and holiday cheer to the country. I did enjoy reading this novel and hope to read the sequel The Terrible Threes; in addition, Reed does do an excellent job in making unexpected comparisons and exposing societal errors. However, I do feel as though much of the humor and social comparisons surpassed my comprehension. I do look forward to reading The Terrible Twos again. 

Breakfast (Better late than never)

The morning light shows

through the blue curtains,

shining on

my face.

I squint as I open

my eyes.

I check my phone.

No messages-

he was supposed to call me last night.

Bastard.

I check

the clock.

9:25

I beat the alarm.

I'm glad.

I hate the sound of that damn thing.

Check

my roommates bed.

Empty.

Looks like she never came back

last night.

I text her, "Are you

alive?" I crawl out

of my blankets, the

cocoon of warmth 

resides.

I shiver

and reach for an apple.

That's breakfast and

ha lf the food for the day.

Cut the apple.

Indulge.

Put on some music to greet the day.

First song- "Everyone's

Free

to Wear Sunscreen."

I'm supposed to listen to it to

help me get

better.

FACE (my book presentation)

The book that I presented to the class was FACE written by Benjamin Zephaniah. This book is mainly about a boy named Martin who made the wrong decisions and ended up getting in a car crash that ruined his face for the rest of his life. His face and his whole body got burnt badly from the crash. People had a difficult time looking at Martin in the eye because of how he looked, even his friends couldn't make eye contact with him. After the crash, Martin's friends acted like they didn't even know him, even when Martin was still the same but just with a burnt ugly face. In the end of the story, Martin changes from being a classclown to being somoneone everyone likes. He realizes who his true friends were and didn't care what people thought about his burns. He wanted to live life and have fun.

Don't Break a Leg

theater art phrases luck

anti-oxymoron bullshit

say one thing another meaning

I really hope you do

literal flowers thrown on stage

a champagne jam screaming

backstage pre-show shakedown

spotlights frowning faces at

all the comedy stab stab slash

no credits roll the house

lights rave reviews

The talk of the town.

You have to be the best.

Talk with your hands, I say!

The cat is out of the box... and in the wall.

Please don't steal my yogurt even though I hate

Hello Milwaukee, I am a dragon.

Don't skip class, but start fights.

Didn't you hear? The bitch memo was sent out.

What the fuck! Don't claw at my leg.

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there.

I've still got it! Let my pride be!

Weeee needdd vicessss.

You're worth 3 1/2 stars, but we'll give you 5!

This movie is garbage

Why the fuck would I waste $10

I can't believe this

Do onto other as you would have others do onto you

DODO onto others as you would have others DODO onto you.
Clowns pooping on their boyfriends face. Be sure to use a wet-nap.
Who knows what they’re fucking them on the road. A guy picks up
a hitchhiker and rubs her knee, I’m no queer. Grandpa died when his
body shut done again by organ grinders with monkeys who with hats
and fangs. Why aren’t monkeys venomous platypuses are but things
on their feet spurs. Why is venom always in a sac? Are boll sacks
filled with venom? Some girls must think so. Babies having babies.
I said that in front of a pregnant mother and didn’t even realize I said it.
Small headaches take an Ibuprofen 500mg of numbness.

Numbness, a good version of numbness would be knocking a guy out.
Shotgun, hit by a car, it all works. Cars of big mass with no bumper, that
Way it will grind the headache out of your face. Dismantled of course, no
Face left, who cares, the face ache is gone right? Try smoking a cigarette,
Those are supposed to be good at getting rid of face aches. Your face aches
No more, bang your arm against a cow or chimpanzee, this will give you
that arm ache you’ve been waiting for, however you will forget about your
face ache from being hit by a car with no bumper. And that is a bumper less car
going through a field in the middle of nowhere. You fall to the ground and
stare up at the whirling sky, little birdies whirl around your head.

splat

What seems random but actually a fractaline pattern. A mathematical certainty.
Uncertain about it's final form.
The clocks of the world unfold leaving all in yesterday's know but holding
To their vest the events of next.
Putressence, gangreen. Sounds like they
Could be flowers inviting pollenators
From every Shires ende
The tendre croppes.
A science-fiction nightmare with greenies from other dimensions and
Shapeshifting into frienemies.
Due South, dress warm, make sure
Your ears are covered for fear of pink skin
Fading to white and then
To black.

The Acidity Disguised As Ambience

Big dogs, large dalmations,
Summer pukes on the back of the driver's head
Whirling, sweating, falling, flailing
crawling,
Loving, like, strangers with dirt, like, all under their nails.
Body odor wafting through the cement and steel cage.
There's sawdust, mesothelioma candy,
Neon sticks, lollipop binkies,
All in an effort to reach...
Expereinces and memories of never
floating endlessly in the base of the spine.

I Remember

I remember Rice a Roni tan shag carpeting in
The sunken livingroom with a see through fireplace
My mom's orage and red pantsuit.

I remember ice cube trays made for
Making home-made popcicles with oragen juice.

I remember seeing a horse with
A hardon that looked like a barber pole
At Georgia O'Keefe's birthplace.

I remember needing pants to cover my whole shoe
Zips tennis shoes with the commercial
The one where the kid jumps over tables, streets and trees.

I remember my Incredible Hulk belt
And lunchbox and thermos
And Rage-Cage.

I remember my dad's Pontiac J
2000
It smelled like farts.

Quaint

Forest on fire
Walking the path I look up
A silent autumn

Blue skies moving
Backtracking the long cold night
Rain falling fast

Filling pothole hole dent divot
Drowning the butts and wrappers
until they float yellowed

Asthmatic Couch

The couch was for sale outside near the weeds. Wow it looks windy outside. I could really enjoy a good swim right now, wait the water must be freezing. Either way I was talking to a friend up north and she was saying the snow didn't stick because the ground wasn't frozen. Frozen? Apparently 32 degrees isn't cold enough these days. If I see another person putting up Christmas lights I may go insane. speaking of Christmas lights, I'm really getting sick of meople cutting me off, and not even on the streen, but on the pavement in the parking lot. Whew.

The old people shouldn't be allowed to drive anymore. Who would let the crypt keeper get behind the wheel of a car? Just because they are moments from death doesn't mean I should have to go down iwth them. They just back up without looking! Their beady little eyes hide behind coke bottle glasses that haven't been updated since 1972. Their sick, leathery, yellowed hands can barely grasp the wheel due to their arthritis. I can smell the death from here. And why do they all drive such behemouth cars? So short they can barely see over the wheel yet they drive whales through the WalMart parking lot.

Parking lot is always crowded, crowded with cars, like a no holds barred never seeing any stars, from a far, I look so bizarre never mind that isn't all afar. Far far away I went astray.

INFESATION

Around I
Begin looked shelf
Behind bag
On tub almost Philadelphia plain cream cheese
As I
Toaster
INFESTATION current apple bleach mixture
Smell nauseating
But bugs death
As toaster
One hobble around helplessly
And I decided unappetizing enough I it

Break/Fast

Rubbing eyes

Spinning cogs.

Clothes FIRST

Then conSUMPtion.

Pull out Pissarro

Set the TIME.

BEV / BEV / BEV

and Cream CHEESE.

Orange wire the CIRcles.

CRISPED to the feel

CRUNCHY to the tongue.

Thank BEES and COWS in the mix.

HOMAGE to INDIA, I take QUIET sips.

Scoring Prose into Poetry

I know what I want
food
but I'll soon want something specific
Muffins!
There were leftover
apple cinnamon muffins from
last night
that and
I'm pressed for time
The bus
arrives at 8:01
I pull two from the plastic bag
Checking to make sure the bottoms weren't burned
I grab
the orange juice from the cool refrigerator
and pour myself a glass.

~Kent

Mohammed Degentesh McGee Sullivan

Mohammed must have a thing for the words spook and spooky. This fascination is too much. His style of creativeness is bone chilling. He has a bizarre way of telling a story or in this case writing prose. But he is not boring. Degentesh was more of what I am used to reading, and I enjoyed reading, I Don’t Tire Quickly and Someone Has Been trying To Poison Me. Simple writings but some of it is as though she is writing about a paranoid person. Michael McGee said one method he used was to Google Angie Dickenson to see what comes up. I like the Google method it is fun and interesting, you never know what will show up with that method. But I wouldn’t put in Angie Dickenson, it would have to be Michael Jackson because some very interesting writings might show up if his name is Googled. Sullivan seems to have different ways of writing prose and I like page 21 the Letter Poem, but I didn’t know what to make of pages 22-23.

Breakfast

Its 7am in the morning
The alarm is on
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ
I turn of the irritating alarm ready to make my head explode
Out of bed and freezing in my room
Then I realize its Monday morning which means CINNAMON ROLLS
Warm and crispy
Straight out of the oven
Hot icing sliding down the top like a slow motion reply
I take the first bite and chew slowly to experience the long lasting flavor
So delicious it felt like a party in my mouth
then on its way to clog my arteries

BREAKFAST

BREAKFAST, BREAKFAST, SH…..T., I’ve been up all night
I went to work Sunday night at 10pm and got off work
Monday at 6am when my SHIFT ENDED….
I still didn’t go home still didn’t go to sleep. Still didn’t eat BREAKFAST.
WHY NOT?
Because I had a weeks worth of dirty laundry in the car,
Washing machine not working had to do my laundry, got in car left work
went to laundry mat and washed and dried clothes got there
around 645am,only person in there doing laundry, people next door sitting in George Webs had BREAKFAST. No not me.
Got a call about 715am to run pick up someone left my clothes in dryer at laundry
It was 730am
HUNGRY SLEEPY!
Got back to laundry at 9am, began folding my clothes.
BREAKFAST!
But too sleepy to eat
But got home by 10am and started doing homework that is due on 14th October.
No SLEEP
Then opened fridge saw a bowl with CHICKEN SALAD in it. Got 4 pieces of oat bran bread and made a CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICH
UM, UM CHICKEN SALAD
FINALLY GOT TO EAT CHICKEN SALAD
Fresh CHICKEN SALAD consists of small cut up pieces of the chicken breast cut made with sandwich spread, and small cuts of a red apple, and small pieces of cut onion, served with or without lettuce, two of the pieces of bread were toasted brown and the chicken salad spread in between the two pieces of toasted bread, then the other sandwich was made without toasting the bread. Not my usual BREAKFAST, but it was delicious all the same. I sat at the table and gobbled it down and then drank a bottle of kiwi strawberry flavored water. Then I drank a cup of coffee, with lots of sugar in it and milk. I call it café con leche. By then it was after 11am, I sat at the table with the computer doing my homework, trying to finish. By 1230pm took myself a shower, changed clothes and combed my hair. Then it was 113pm, decided to take a nap so I wouldn’t be so sleepy trying to drive myself to school to make it there by the start of my 330pm class. Still HUNGRY so I spotted a bag of caramel cream candy and ate as I was driving, Don’t know what will happen in two weeks when my two mini term classes start at 930am and 1230pm on Monday and Wednesday because BREAKFAST SH…T, I might not get chance to have, but I guess I am thinking too far ahead. I also had a bottle of Sobe Green Tea and drank it in class, because tonight I start this routine again at 10pm, got only an hour of sleep so far. Still HUNGRY, still SLEEPY, but hopefully I will have time tomorrow to make myself a better BREAKFAST than CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICH.

*When I Woke Up*

When I got out of BED, I took a SHOWER.
After I took a SHOWER, I brushed my TEETH and got DRESSED.
After I got DRESSED, I packed my MATH book and NOTEBOOK, my GEOSCIENCE, and my METEROLOGY notebook in my BACKPACK.
I saw my STARBURSTS in my drawer, so I PACKED those too.
My KEYS went in my bag, my I.D. went in my back POCKET.
I CLOSED the room DOOR, as well as the SUITE door.
I HEADED for the elevator, PUSHED the down arrow and waited.
The elevator came, I got INSIDE. Went STRAIGHT down to the 1st floor.
I got out, and STARTED to walk towards Bolton.

HoCho

I went to the cabinet
and traced my
fingers
against all the pots
and pans
until I reached my second
smallest
silver body
black handle
copper bottom pot
I pulled it out from under
the white
plastic
noddle strainer
I filled the
silver body
black handle
copper bottom pot
with water.
I boiled the water
and poured it into my yellow
Tinker Bell
over sized mug.
I mixed the hot coco mix with a small
silver
spoon.
I blew on the liquid to cool it
I took a sip
and
enjoyed.

Breakfast

In a disoriented blindness
I pressed the snoooz button
with my middle finger
As if to say "F*** YOU"
to time, to obligation
I covered my face with the three tattered and flimsy green blankets
SMASH the snooze one last time
With my eyes peering slightly through there lids
I fumbled to find the lavatory
In the process,
Accidentally stumbling over the the loud mouth cat in his pursuit to beg for breakfast
You and me both, BUDDY
Auto pilot is on now.
Turn on the faucet
Stare at my reflection in disbelief while
I wait for the icy water to make its way to a tolerable warmth.
No time though
Throw cold water over my pillow creased face
Scrub
Scrub
Scrub
Wake up
Wake Up
Wake UP
No time for breakfast today.

What I Ate For Breakfast

I ate colorful captain crunch cereal with fat free milk for breakfast/
While I was tasting the sweetness of the cereal/ And crunching on piece by piece of the yummy goodness/
All my worries went away./
The deliciousness of the sugary cereal tingled by taste buds/
Wanting me having more.

-Audrey :)

Breakfast

I SHUFFLED in the kitchenand opened the cupboard,
grabbed one of the LARGE plates,
and put it down on the OPPOSITE counter.
THEN I opened the refridgerator and pulled out EGG bagels
and CREAM CHEESE from the next shelf up.
I decided against the EGG bagels and REPLACED them with an ONION bagel.
I opened the "APPLIANCE garage" and pulled out the toaster.
I used a BUTTER knife to cut the bagel in half
and dropped EACH HALF into the toaster.
I set the toaster for "BAGEL"
Then I EMPTIED the crumbs from CUTTING it into the sink.
I STARED at the toaster for roughly TWO minutes until it POPPED.

In Class Writing 10/12/09

This morning
I ATE bacon
Pulled each piece out
PIECE by PIECE
With Tongs
I retrieved the pan from the CUPBOARD
Turned the stove to HIGH
Laid PIECE by PIECE in the pan
Snap
Crackle
Pop
The bacon was getting crispy
FLIPPING each piece as it DARKENED
Grease SPLATTERED me on the hand
PIECE by PIECE was removed from the HOT oil
PIECE by PIECE was additionally placed
PLACED into the pan
Until I ran out
Putting the pan in the sink
Rinsed the grease off
DRIED the pan
ATE the bacon
DELICIOUS

My Life and Letters to Unfinished J

I enjoyed reading both of these. Both were different from what we have been reading in class so far. I wasn't confused reading them, and I was able to stay focused and pay attention to what I was reading as opposed to other readings in this class! I did find My Life more interesting and fun to read than Letters to Unfinished J. Although Letters had normal sentence structure that was easy to follow, the concepts to me weren't as easy to understand. It jumped around alot and didn't form a cohesive story that I could follow or even piece together. My Life on the otherhand was alot easier for me to follow and to understand. There were times when the storry would go on for a few sentences and then get interrupted by another thought of the writer. It wasn't too jumbled up for me to enjoy!

Gudding and Olson

Gudding reading was more like a diary of what occurred on different dates and times.So it was like I was reading this persons diary that accounts for daily or monthly activity or that he was jotting down notes so he could remember them. As with Olson reading the first reading excerpt I understand that he was defining poetry as energy, and instructed the reader as to how to go about writings poems. On page two of the first Olson reading, he writes, "A poem is energy transferred from where the poet got it." In the second reading we get to see his poems. So the first reading was more like instructing how to right poetry with the second Olson reading showing the results of the art of writing with energy.

Unfinished j

Murphy's writing is much different than most of what we've read this semester. We discussed in depth what it means to "make sense"; for the most part, Murphy brings her writing a lot closer to our preconceived, traditional, notions of what makes sense. I cannot say that all of it is comprehensible, but at least some of it is, which contrasts greatly with the works of Stein and the majority of other writers that we've read about thus far. At least the theings she writes are in full sentences with a subject and verb along with colorful and eloquent language that makes it more interesting. It is a good change from most of what we've read where we would be lucky to find even a simple structured sentence within a jumble of words.

Letters to Unfinished J and My Life

Reading the rest of Letters to Unfinished J, I get a better sense of what Murphy was trying to accomplish - however I'm not a huge fan. I preferred My Life because it felt more congruent in that, though it is made up of random memories similar to I remember, it was much easier to visualize and create imagery than Letters to Unfinished J. I agree that My Life seems to be like a stream of consciousness, but I feel that it works here.

10/6

I really enjoyed reading Lyn Hejinian's "My Life." Her color and imagery usage really hit a note with me. The flow seemed a little off at times, but I think that's just because she started phrases abstractly before stating her point or continuing the "story line." I think I would add this to a list of things to read in the future.

As for the rest of Unfinished J, I liked it about the same. The internal sort of monologue is an interesting angle. I think it might be a cool thing to experiment with.

Response to Murphy and Hejinian

After continuing to read Letters in Unfinished J, I saw much of what I read earlier: random memories and random ways of writing about it. I did still enjoy this reading because many of the lines carried out the author's thought process. I could understand most of the time what she was thinking, although the style she wrote was still different each line. I felt that this writing tended to be more descriptive than the first section of pages read. But that could seem that way to me because I hadn't read the first section since last week.
Lyn Hejinian's "My Life" was pretty good. I liked the use of color in the begining and the many references to her childhood and remember moments with her father. I think her piece was a little easier to read compared to Letters in Unfinished J. I felt the stream of thought was more consistent and understandable in "My life."

Murphy and Heijinian

Sheila Murphy’s reading seemed to ramble on about different thoughts, one after another rather just stay for awhile on one subject matter, especially on page 34, where she writes about bungee jumping then goes on to write about work and what to wear to sleep. I wasn’t sure what to make of her writings other than random sentences no connection between one with the other. On the other hand Lyn Heijinian’s reading was more thorough and she wrote about her father and childhood and she was very descriptive and I could comprehend that this is about her memories of her life and what she recalled as a young child. She was more detailed and didn’t just ramble on randomly.

Response to My Life and Letters to Unfinished J.

     In My Life, Lyn Heijinian describes memory after memory in a stream of consciousness as one image or occurrence leads to another. To the reader, the direction of the excerpt may appear difficult to follow or lacking connection; however, when Heijinian reflects on this work, I am sure she takes pride in seeing where it ends. Therefore, I see this style as being extremely personal with unpredictable outcomes; it allows the writer to discover suppressed or long forgotten memories.

         Though written in a similar fashion, I have a difficult time determining the method Sheila Murphy used in Letters to Unfinished J. Her transition from sentence to sentence appears unclear; however, as stated above, to Murphy, her shifts may make complete sense. In poem 66, I do recognize the connection between the line talking about a lie versus the following the talks about truth, but still, much is unclear.

I remember

Reading I Remember actually reminds me of a notebook I kept in high school. I called it my list notebook. Every page or every few pages contained a new list. One of my lists included all of my favorite memories for each year I was alive - so, about 17 lists at that point. After reading Brainard, I dug out that old notebook and had quite a trip reading all my old entries.

And as for reading the other article, clicking on the link downloaded the Brainard excerpt. So I don't really have much to say except I didn't read it.

10/4

I love the Joe Brainard excerpt, simple as that. Even though I'm fast to admit that I don't like people very much, I love learning little things about them. Especially his accounts of his sexual experiences, that sort of clandestine knowledge really interests me. I'm also pretty nostalgic as a person, so that also appealed to me with all the "I remember's."

Sheila Murphy's pieces were interesting to read. It made me think of the little phrases I write and edit inside my head. Maybe if I wrote a lot of them down and just put them all together they would look like this. I like the vocabulary she uses in her passages.

I Remember

Joe Brainard’s “I Remember” was, to say the least, interesting. What struck me most was the feeling that it was more a confession than a poem about his fragmented memories. It seemed as though he was focusing almost primarily on his memories as a young boy that had something to do with his sexual orientation and his becoming aware of his homosexuality. It was a finally nice to read something that actually was readable – beginning to end. My impression of this piece was like walking through a dark room that is some one’s life and intermittently taking flash pictures – capturing only instances that remain imprinted in your eye for a few moments after the flash. I really enjoyed it.

Sheila Murphy’s “Letters to Unfinished J.” was a hard read. There had to be some kind of message or method used but I just could not decipher it. My best guess as to what she was trying to accomplish was to work with word sounds and rhythms – I’m pretty sure, although sometimes there seemed to be some meaning from one sentence to the next, there wasn't much of an attempt to create a meaningful monologue. “City afternoon’s reason for being.” (?) I’m not sure if I’m right or wrong and it’s frustrating to try to close read poetry and not be able to come up with anything…it is what it is I guess.

Murphy and Brainard

I enjoyed Sheila Murphy’s Letters to Unfinished J. Though many of these poems or letters didn't always add up to me, I did actually like reading these compared to some of our recent reading assignments. I find that sometimes she writes very fluently and then sometime adding abrupt lines. However, in many of her poems I felt that the lines she used could be a poem in themselves without knowledge of previous or future content. From time to time I did find myself looking up the definition to some of her vocabulary. But overall, it was easy to read. One of my favorite lines comes from letter 10, page 21."We held our eyelids open toward the coming of unnamed birds lingering with stranded melody."

Joe Brainard’s I Remember was a very entertaining read. He uses a really simple and repetitious way to structure his poem. I too found it a bit long at times. Some of the content shocked me or maybe just threw me off. Reading about an author's recollection of painting with his penis was..... unusual. Nevertheless, I thought it was a really creative and amusing way to compile random memories from childhood to adulthood, to smells and sounds, to feelings and emotions.