Chapbook
I Live Here Now by Jackie Clark
The latest offering from Lame House Press (which "irregularly publishes chapbooks from emerging poets"), Jackie Clark's I Live Here Now, reads like the description of an object that is just out of view, or the description of a feeling about an event, always at one remove. The only commitment to titling pieces is the recurring ( ) which introduces each poem. Maybe there's too much invitation to speculate, and maybe the reader begins to think, "now that's a handsome SWAT team guy" (ahem, awkward), or maybe there is just enough and each of the 15 poems may expand in the brain pan like a Shrinky Dink and take on that encoded form. An incomplete list of obsessions (go on, obsess) found herein: repetition, "counting the moments like counting the moments," lists, "prolongs the anti-effacing, / prolongs the darkness," reversal of the word onto the word, "even without the pay off, / which is the pay off," "all this while someone may or may not be looking over my shoulder," and a romance with the end-stop comma, which may or may not be self-evident. Available for $5 (+$1 shipping) from Lame House Press in a limited edition of 100. Jackie Clark can be found at nohelpforthat.com. Did I mention I'm a fan? –– AH

Site
Ironing Board Collective
The thinking person's fashion blog. From fashion in Rwanda to: Cranston, cobblers, the mementos of generations past, and Joan Didion, the bloggers at IBC keep reminding us of what is relevant and fascinating about fashion. Eschewing (because all writing about fashion must contain the word "eschew") crap writing in favor of the insightful, topical, and downright divine (also obligatory usage) commentary on the relationship between the human imperative to adorn oneself and the tools we create to carry out said imperative. Co-founded by (my writer crush forever) Michelle Tea, Leo Plass, Michael von Braithwaite and Thomas Page McBee, co-edited by Michael and Thomas, and contributing-edited by Carrie Leilam Love, the Collective (not quite like the Borg, I gather) initiates in a multifaceted discussion about clothing (and society, and gender roles, and culture, and fandom) while soliciting new voices to join them (submissions are here). I resist the urge to copy their manifesto here, because that would be cheating. Let it be known, however, that it contends that our relationship with our second skins is relevant, complex, and worthy of being written about intelligently and with a degree of reverence. Which is exactly what they do.––AH

Music
Barreracudas: Nocturnal Missions
The first LP from the Barreracudas from Douchemaster Records goes down like a turkey rubbed in butter (too soon?): without tenderness but with undeniable appeal. There is no downside to being this cool, and these guys have been cool (singly, together, & Hiss) for a while now (not as long as Murtaugh, though). It's catchy sans saccharine. U won't catch urself wishing u could be the girl in any of their songs, but u'll dance & sing along (and forgive the spelling). The only thing better than the vinyl (with requisite mp3 download) is seeing the 'cudas play live in a parking lot & dancing like a jerk. If we've learned anything from Justin Bieber, it's that being a screaming fangirl is gross (though most likely pretty profitable) and the fall of our idols requires the rise of new anti-idols, maybe just some dudes, and possibly ones that make it okay to have fun without pretending to be something that u are not. -AH