Featured in the new issue of Poets & Writers! A bit bizarre to see my name in a nationally distributed magazine, but flattering all the same.

Officially heading to Honduras in January

“When I see how the press lies about national issues, I start to doubt what I hear about international news. For examples, there’s a program on the television called “Today’s News”. When I’m somewhere where there’s a television, I listen to the international news. And all I hear is “Oooh, oooh, look what’s happening in Nicaragua. Oooh, oooh, look what’s happening in Cuba. Oooh, ooh, look what’s happening in communist China. Communism this, communism that.” Everyone’s watching this old geezer with the microphone talking about all these horrible countries. And everyone’s scared to death. But has he ever been those countries? Does he really know what he’s talking about? Who knows?

When I was younger, I used to believe everything I heard. I believed everything the educated people said, I believed everything the politicians said, I believed everything the press said. But now I take everything with a grain of salt, especially when I hear the news. Because I might now know about other countries, but I do know about Honduras. And when I hear the lies this old geezer tells about my own country, I start wondering if what he’s saying about the rest of the world is true.

So I’ve learned that if you want to know what’s going on in the world, you should study as much as you can. You should read or listen to the news as much as you can. You should take it all in, but digest it in your own way, and judge for yourself what you think the truth is.” – Elvira Alvarado

“On the rare occasions when I peer into the future for more than a few days I can foresee myself returning here [to Arches] for season after season, year after year, indefinitely. And why not? What better sinecure could a man with small needs, infinite desires, and philosophic pretensions ask for? The better part of each year in the wilderness and the winters in some complementary, equally agreeable environment – Hoboken perhaps, or Tijuana, Norales, Juarez… one of the border towns. Maybe Tonopah, a good tough Nevada mining town with legal prostitution, or possible Oakland or even New Orleans – some place grimy, cheap (since I’d be living on unemployment insurance), decayed, hopelessly corrupt. I idle away hours dreaming of the wonderful winter to come, of the chocolate-covered mistress I’ll have to rub my back, the journal spread open between two tall candles in massive silver candlesticks, the scrambled eggs with green chile, the crock of homebrew fermenting quietly in the corner, etc., the nights of desperate laughter with brave young comrades, burning billboards, and defacing pubic institutions…. Romantic dreams, romantic dreams.” – Edward Abbey

NEW YORK TOUR

June 1 – Book Thug Nation, Brooklyn – 7:00-9:00

June 2 – Vaudeville Nation, Brooklyn – 7:00-9:00

June 3 – KGB Bar, East  Village – 7:00-9:00

I think I will forever relate to 16-year-old girls.

“You know it makes one feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch…. It’s sort of what we have instead of God.”  - Ernest Hemingway from The Sun Also Rises