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Links Ahoy!
Aug. 16th, 2007 02:41 pmI have so much wonderful stuff to share with you!
1) According to figures released by the New York City Department of Health and reported on this week in New York Magazine, New Yorkers live longer than most other Americans. The only exception to this rule is a little borough known as the Bronx, which didn't surprise me at all. Anyone who has ever visited my neighborhood knows there is nowhere to buy healthy or organic food. If you want to eat in the Bronx you have to eat greasy fast food or fatty microwavable meals. No wonder we're the fattest borough.
2) This little piece from the Village Voice explains why I never did, and never would, consider becoming a New York Teaching Fellow.
3) I giggled like a wee little girl when I found the Campus Squirrel Listings, a site that rates colleges based on the size and happiness of their squirrel population. Both of the schools I am most closely affiliated with are on it, but one edges out the other for all around squirrel supremacy. Guess which one :-D
4) I found this piece from McSweeney's almost as entertaining as the squirrel listings: A Letter to Optimus Prime from His Geico Auto Insurence Agent."
5) In the fine traditions of Latawnya, the Naughty Horse Learns to Say "No" to Drugs, I give you this nameless and supremely whacked out children's book for your reading pleasure.
Beside consuming plenty of media via the internet, I've also been thinking a lot about poetry this week. When writing my own I have a really hard time figuring out how much is too much or how little is too little. You see, I've only had two poetry teachers in my life, Beth Ann Fennelly and Monica Berlin, both of whom gave me extremely different instruction. Beth Ann always wanted more - more description, more imagery, more pages. Beth Ann herself tends to write very long descriptive poetry so that wasn't very surprising. Most of the poems I wrote in her workshop were two pages long and errupting with concrete imagery. Monica, on the other hand, always wanted less. Every poem I took into her workshop was eventually whittled down to about ten lines of opaque description. So now, when I write and revise, I'm never sure which is the best course of action. Should I stretch a one page poem into two? Or should I hack away at it until only the most essential ideas remain? I don't know. I never know. It's probably just a matter of personal aesthetics, but I don't know which I prefer, or if I perfer either. I know I can write good poetry with either strategy, I just can't tell which strategy renders each individual poem more successful.
1) According to figures released by the New York City Department of Health and reported on this week in New York Magazine, New Yorkers live longer than most other Americans. The only exception to this rule is a little borough known as the Bronx, which didn't surprise me at all. Anyone who has ever visited my neighborhood knows there is nowhere to buy healthy or organic food. If you want to eat in the Bronx you have to eat greasy fast food or fatty microwavable meals. No wonder we're the fattest borough.
2) This little piece from the Village Voice explains why I never did, and never would, consider becoming a New York Teaching Fellow.
3) I giggled like a wee little girl when I found the Campus Squirrel Listings, a site that rates colleges based on the size and happiness of their squirrel population. Both of the schools I am most closely affiliated with are on it, but one edges out the other for all around squirrel supremacy. Guess which one :-D
4) I found this piece from McSweeney's almost as entertaining as the squirrel listings: A Letter to Optimus Prime from His Geico Auto Insurence Agent."
5) In the fine traditions of Latawnya, the Naughty Horse Learns to Say "No" to Drugs, I give you this nameless and supremely whacked out children's book for your reading pleasure.
Beside consuming plenty of media via the internet, I've also been thinking a lot about poetry this week. When writing my own I have a really hard time figuring out how much is too much or how little is too little. You see, I've only had two poetry teachers in my life, Beth Ann Fennelly and Monica Berlin, both of whom gave me extremely different instruction. Beth Ann always wanted more - more description, more imagery, more pages. Beth Ann herself tends to write very long descriptive poetry so that wasn't very surprising. Most of the poems I wrote in her workshop were two pages long and errupting with concrete imagery. Monica, on the other hand, always wanted less. Every poem I took into her workshop was eventually whittled down to about ten lines of opaque description. So now, when I write and revise, I'm never sure which is the best course of action. Should I stretch a one page poem into two? Or should I hack away at it until only the most essential ideas remain? I don't know. I never know. It's probably just a matter of personal aesthetics, but I don't know which I prefer, or if I perfer either. I know I can write good poetry with either strategy, I just can't tell which strategy renders each individual poem more successful.
