The first round of WIP is this Friday, January 27th. Readings begin at 7 pm at Casa Libre on 4th Ave.
Hannah Ensor You’d think for a girl who drinks all night, tans all day, gets into all-out brawls complete with fistacuffs and smashed bottles, there would be no limit to the depravity she’d go to. And you’d be right — sort of. Turns out, HANNAH ENSOR from the Jersey Shore actually has drawn a line for herself not to cross and it starts with taking it all off for Playboy Magazine. When asked if she would ever consider a shoot for Mr. Hefner, HANNAH shook her head no.
Heather Hamilton‘s students think she listens to weird music and “probably wears those recycled shoes.” When she was in fourth grade she journaled about her fondness for state capital building tours, sighting the incessant singing of the boys on the bus as the trip’s one downfall. She stands by this.
Lewis DeJong is from Iowa via Kansas City, has fiction in a few places, and feels bad for that mean thing he said to you, unless you thought it was funny.
I don’t have much to say about these selections. Cicero wrote that literature “faithfully comforts us through the night, in the farthest lands and darkest woods.” Wise words, to be sure, but I have trouble reading in the dark, and in the car, so songs like these have, more than once, served in a pinch and served beautifully. Listening to them, I’ve also learned I’m prone to air banjo and singing full bore into the wall. If that isn’t joy, I don’t know what is.
1. Stephen Stills – Old Times Good Times 2. Arthur Crudup – Rock Me Mama 3. Cat Stevens – If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out 4. Old Crow Medicine Show – Don’t Ride That Horse 5. Jackson Browne – Cocaine 6. Elliott Smith – Miss Misery 7. Dave Rawlings Machine – Monkey and the Engineer 8. Gillian Welch – Red Clay Halo 9. Patty Griffin – Moses 10. Nick Drake – Things Behind the Sun 11. Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town 12. Mumford and Sons – Roll Away Your Stone 13. The Rolling Stones – Factory Girl 14. Simon and Garfunkel – Blues Run the Game 15. Punch Brothers – Next to the Trash 16. John Prine – Christmas in Prison 17. Grateful Dead – New Speedway Boogie 18. Jimi Hendrix – It’s Too Bad 19. Brandi Carlisle – Have You Ever 20. Belle and Sebastian – Like Dylan in the Movies 21. Bob Dylan – Dirt Road Blues 22. Sam Cooke – Bring it on Home to Me
Thanks to everyone who submitted to Flash Friday Caption Contest #7. We had a lot of submissions this week. Below, you will find the winner and runners-up.
Winner:
Justin Bendell
Runners-up:
Chris Fradkin
Nathan Long
Next week’s photo:
Contest Reminders:
1. Take a peek at the biweekly Tucson photo(s).
2. Honor the photo(s) with your best caption.
3. Fiction, nonfiction, prose-poetry, fairy tale, whatever…
4. Keep it short (no more than 99 words; we’re not afraid to count).
5. Send it along to lmlenhart@email.arizona.edu
6. The best captions will be published online on our “Flash Friday” page.
Deadline: Before noon (mountain standard time) on February 3rd. Give it a try!!!
Post-colonial and feminist scholar Dr. Gayatri Spivak will be at Crowder Hall at the University of Arizona on Thursday, January 19 at 5 p.m. Crowder Hall will be crowded so get there early. At 4:30 p.m., maybe, as the doors open?
Dr. Gayatri Spivak as photographed by Kari Jantzen
Dr. Spivak will be introduced, and this introduction will not be brief. She is known for many things, including her most famous publication “Can the Subaltern Speak?” and her translation of Derrida’s On Grammatology, her professorship at Columbia University, and her numerous honorary doctorates from around the world. She will be charming. She will be comical. She will be erudite. That is to say, you will be smiling; you will be laughing; you will be learning.
Her lecture will be titled “A Borderless World?” Don’t worry… she will explain the question mark. She will speak about globalization and the ways in which borders and nationalism interfere with the twenty-first century project of transnational melding. It will sound much less stuffy than that. Again, you will rarely stop smiling.
You will want to ask questions after the lecture. Go ahead. Answers will be given. Only, raise your hand please.
Afterwards, you will want to hug her. Get permission first. You will want to pay somebody on your way out, but really, it’s free. If you insist, I’ll be wearing a salt-and-pepper looking sweater somewhere near the front.
Over winter break my brother from Missouri ended up in my Mom’s car in California. She has no CD player, no iPod connection. The radio in her Suburu doesn’t even work, but my brother dug around a bit and found something called “Tim’s Holiday Mix” stuck in the glove compartment underneath the owner’s manual. I used to make these cassettes, back in the proverbial day. I’d give them out at Holiday time to friends and family. I remember that I used to talk a lot, introducing each track with anecdote and philosophy. My brother told me there was a Rolling Stone song at the end of the 1993 tape. I didn’t listen to it. I suppose I am embarrassed by my displays of creativity from previous decades.
***
I am sitting in Shot In The Dark Cafe, the last Monday before second semester starts. It annoys me when some stranger sits on the couch after I’ve already placed myself and my stuff there. This is my couch today, bitch. I don’t care how cool your red camouflage pants are. I don’t care how many hip folks you’re skyping with. Your soft little giggle offends me. If I had headphones, I’d put on music that helped me escape, that made me feel like I was alone today. I don’t wish to be alone today. I wish I were sitting in public on a couch of my own, headphones over my ears and Annie John in my lap. I wish I could get into Annie John. I don’t know what it is about me and other people’s coming of age stories.
***
It’s less important to me than it used to be. I am speaking of music collection, discovery of life-changing bands and songs. It’s less important to me than it used to be. I am going to wean myself from reality television in 2012. I am going to stop being impressed by British accents. I am fully committing to serrano over jalapeno. If someone wants to play Cure songs while I’m hanging in the coffee shop, I am not going to complain. I’m trying not to talk so much about every daily epiphany. I’m trying not to worry about what other people think of my taste, my style. It’s less important to me than it used to be. I’d like to think that’s true anyway.
1) American Music Club — The Dead Part of You 2) Stevie Wonder — Living For the City 3) The Byrds — Pretty Boy Floyd 4) Bon Iver — Re: Stacks 5) My Morning Jacket — Librarian 6) Fleetwood Mac — Rhiannon 7) The Minuteman — History Lesson, Pt. II 8) Mary. J. Blige — MJB MVP 9) Dusty Springfield — The Windmills of Your Mind 10) Randy Newman — Rednecks 11) Gaby Pahinui — Waimanalo Blues 12) Doc Watson — Snake River Blues 13) Richie Havens — Just Like A Woman 14) The Bad Plus — Film 15) The Feelies — It’s Only Life 16) Lady Gaga — Hair 17) Usher — Confessions Part II 18) A Tribe Called Quest — Excursions 19) Mississippi John Hurt — Make Me a Pallet on the Floor 20) Miles Davis — So What 21) Chet Baker — My Funny Valentine 22) My Bloody Valentine — “Soon 23) Belle and Sebastian — Stars of Track and Field 24) The Cure — Love Song 25) Bob Dylan — Buckets of Rain
Timothy Dyke is a teacher and writer from Honolulu, HI. He presently lives in Tucson, AZ, where he is working on his MFA in fiction writing. He is currently working on a memoir titled, “Behind the Half-Caff: My Life as a Hollywood Barrista.”
WIP coordinators Daisy and Justin have just released the WIP lineup for the new semester. For those of you who don’t know, the WIP reading series is typically hosted by Casa Libre on 4th St., but occasionally by Daisy Pitkin and her handsome backyard. At these readings, MFA candidates in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry read their Works in Progress (hence, the WIP).
This semester, in addition to announcing the bios of the WIP readers, Sonora Review Online is going to preview each event with an audio byte, just a tiny literary morsel from one or more of the readers for the upcoming event. More on that later…
Without further ado, the lineup:
January 27th, 7pm, Casa Libre: Hannah Ensor, Heather Hamilton, Lewis DeJong
February 3rd, 7pm, Casa Libre: Benjamin Rutherford, Megan Kimble, Jessica Langan-Peck
February 17th, 7pm, Casa Libre: Craig Reinbold, Anne Doten, Lawrence Lenhart
March 23rd, 7pm, Casa Libre: Justin Yampolsky, Noam Dorr, Sarah Minor, Nadia Moskop
April 13th, 7pm, Casa Libre: Sarah Schoenbrun, Jeevan Narney, Louise Till
April 27th, 7pm, Daisy’s house: Emelia Reuterfors, Dave Mondy, Melissa Gutierrez, Lisa Levine
After a sudden first-round defeat for the Steelers this past Sunday, I felt the need to get out of the house. I didn’t want to stick around to read all the finger-pointing Facebook statuses and amateur advice on clock management or exasperation over referee misjudgment. When you’ve moved 2,500 miles away from the city that you’ve always called home, it’s easy to rely on professional sports teams to become the tethers that connect you to your sense of home. As I walked toward campus, I imagined the Steeler Nation diaspora thinking the same collective thought about how the tether connecting us to Pittsburgh disintegrated too soon, how we’ll return to the illusion of homelessness again until next season.
When I got to campus, a crowd of thousands of people gathered on the mall at the University of Arizona. Volunteers distributed glowsticks and directed us toward the stage assembled outside of Old Main. There was a platform with newsroom cameras tri-podded, swiveling, panning across the stage, an ensemble of Arizonans and Tucsonans: a chorus, a symphony, politicians, and citizens preparing for an event.
I gripped my glowstick, unsure if I had the patience to wait and see what it was all about. Remember: the Steelers 2011-2012 playoff journey had just come to a premature halt. People joke about bleeding black and gold, but autobiographically speaking, the first tears I can remember crying were on January 28, 1996 as a result a Steelers defeat in Super Bowl XXX to the Dallas Cowboys, which happened only 90 minutes north of Tucson in Tempe, AZ. I was in the suburbs of Pittsburgh at the time, not quite seven years old, and even then, I had the notion to run out to my front porch when the Steelers lost. I clutched the railing while my father, also heartbroken (though not reduced to tears), promised that there would be a next season. Even so, I couldn’t help but feel as if the city itself was similarly vulnerable, able to be defeated. I digress.
At some point, I realized that the event on the mall was to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the January 8th shooting in Tucson, in which nineteen were shot and six died. Among the surviving victims, as you might recall, was U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who has since become a national hero as the media has tracked her recovery and rehabilitation. The event was filled with speeches from Tucson’s mayor Jonathan Rothschild, UA President Eugene Sander, a lead surgeon from UMC, and others, but the highlight was when a red-scarved Giffords led the Pledge of Allegiance. Everyone turned giddy to see her lead again, and the mall erupted in spontaneous chanting: “Gabby! Gabby!” as the glowsticks were held above-head.
I remember the events unfolding last year when I was in Pittsburgh. It happened during a Steelers bye week, a month before I could have predicted that I would be calling Tucson my new home. I can remember grainy photos of Jared Loughner and updates on his biography. I remember Democrats sitting next to Republicans at the State of Union Address as a gesture of unity for their hospitalized colleague. I remember teary Tucsonans letting the rest of the country know how injured they were, how defeated they felt.
Now, a year later, the day-long memorial commenced with bells tolling throughout Tucson. Ceremonies were performed by the Apache and Tohono O’odham Nation. Clergymen led their churches in prayer. It was a community-wide event. And this was the finale, a candlelight vigil under the desert sky upon a stage flanked by lit-for-TV palm trees. Despite the rhetoric of moving on, though, which every speaker offered to the crowd, something still seemed to be missing. One by one by one, nineteen candles were eventually lit, and the unique exhaustion that results from a day—a year, really—of healing settled in, and it felt for a few moments like Tucson had come to a standstill.
Then, Tucson natives Calexico were on stage, playing the intro to one of Gabby’s favorite songs, “Crystal Frontier.” Even though it was toned down and acoustic, the rhythm of their music—part-mariachi part-country part-Tejano—suggested a change in the program. It suggested momentum. Suddenly, it wasn’t toned down anymore. Suddenly, there was amplification. the lead singer solicited crowd participation, and horns from the symphony were integrated. Before, he entered into the next verse, Joey Burns yelled out: “We love you, Gabby!” It was a full-fledged rock concert, a nervous couple of seconds, really, the crowd unsure if the performance was apropos for the occasion. It was a question of tastefulness. Then, there was a moment: the big screen revealed Gabby Giffords sitting next to her husband, enjoying the song so much that she was leaning into him, playfully accompanying. Thousands watched as she literally mouthed boop boop boop to the horns. If Tucsonans hearts were a little heavy that year, slow to beat, Calexico managed to recalibrate them with its ¾ Southwestern waltz.
I walked away then, listening to closing words from Gabby’s rabbi about the fate of the city, but her message was already made apparent by the camaraderie in the crowd. In any city full of people who care about each other, healing is inevitable.
When I got home, I called my parents in Pittsburgh. My dad and I mulled over a few plays from the game—an untimely interception and poor pass protection—but we eventually arrived at the age-old conclusion: there’s next season. It was the case for the Steelers in ’96 and Tucson in 2011.
I admit I may have been hesitant, as hesitancy can produce sweaty palms, a pounding heart, which, if it races fast enough, can simulate impending death. I wouldn’t call it a crisis, but I have done some spazzing over the past five days.
Suppose I died while driving my ATV through a thunderstorm in the Nicoya Peninsula. Suppose the pro-female wrestler adopted me during that visit to Northern Italy. Suppose I married one of those British blokes. Suppose I had been a certain bayou alligator’s dinner. Suppose I drank one too many Manhattans.
Twenty-something was for close calls, for shedding salty tears and reaching toward an impossible ideal as it replayed in bright colors, to a contagious melody, over and over, on the television in my mind. Somehow I survived.
Now, as a worldly woman, I know what I like. That is to say, I greet myself with open arms. I let the wind in my hair. As in old Hollywood films, I wear thick lipstick—in this case, red.
To be in my thirties, in the midst of American womanhood is to live knowing life. Listening to an ultrasound of a friend’s baby’s heartbeat is better than Costa Rica and the blokes. It’s the sound of a legitimate new beginning.
That said, I mixed this tape as homage to the wild, erratic love I felt on the way to knowing myself. Some of these lyrics evoke risk and loss and infatuation—up-tempo—at the pace of my memory. Some are dedicated to change. They all stand for slivers of the last decade I am taking with me.
1. K.Flay – No Duh 2. Dom – Living In America 3. Lake Street Dive – Sometimes When I’m Drunk And You’re Wearing My Favorite Shirt* 4. Little Ann – Deep Shadows 5. Vampire Weekend – Campus 6. Yelle – Ce Jeu 7. Passion Pit – The Reeling 8. Kreayshawn – Gucci Gucci 9. Res – I’ve Known The Garden 10. Dirty Projectors – Knotty Pine (with David Byrne) 11. Discovery – Swing Tree 12. Sufjan Stevens – Chicago 13. Does It Offend You, Yeah? – Epic Last Song 14. Alberta Cross – Ghost Of City Life 15. Devendra Banhart – Korean Dogwood 16. Oren Lavie – Her Morning Elegance 17. Friendly Fires – Paris 18. The Naked And Famous – All Of This 19. Glasser – Home 20. Clare Bowditch & The New Slang – Modern Day Addiction 21. John Butler Trio – I’d Do Anything 22. Chromatics – Running Up That Hill 23. Sally Seltmann – Dream About Changing 24. LCD Soundsystem – I Can Change 25. Ra Ra Riot – Oh, La 26. The Kooks – Junk Of The Heart (Happy) 27. DeVotchKa – Along the Way 28. The Magnetic Fields – I Think I Need A New Heart 29. Lykke Li – This Trumpet In My Head 30. Eddie Vedder – Rise
1. Take a peek at the biweekly Tucson photo(s).
2. Honor the photo(s) with your best caption.
3. Fiction, nonfiction, prose-poetry, fairy tale, whatever…
4. Keep it short (no more than 99 words; we’re not afraid to count).
5. Send it along to lmlenhart@email.arizona.edu
6. The best captions will be published online on our “Flash Friday” page.
Deadline: Before noon (MST) on January 20th. Give it a try!!!
This is just a reminder that Sonora Review’s sixth Flash Friday Caption Contest is coming up. Don’t forget to submit by Friday, December 23rd at noon. For submission guidelines, visite here: Flash #6
