WIP this Friday, January 27th

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.

Mixtape Monday: Garrett Faulkner

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

Listen to Garrett’s playlist here: Songs to Listen to in the Dark

Garrett Faulkner is an MFA candidate in fiction at the University of Arizona.

Flash Friday Caption Contest #8

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!!!

People We Love: Dr. Gayatri Spivak

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.

—Lawrence

Mixtape Monday: Timothy Dyke

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

Click here for Timothy’s playlist.

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.”