wednesday newstrip

Essential poll: fewer than 50% of over-50s Australians willing to get Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines · climate change has now invisibly shifted Earth's axis, new data reveal · Russia has started making its own AMD B450 motherboards · countries are racing to send medical supplies, vaccine components to India as COVID-19 'storm' cripples nation · global supply issues & shipping delays hit the New Zealand family cat's dinner plate · Australian Prom Minister Scat notSorryi'mtheSonofgod warns that identity politics is an "evil thing" & social media can be "used by the evil one" · Brutish Pram Minister Bore us nowyourJohnny'sgone accused of saying he’d rather see 'bodies pile high in their thousands' than order 3rd lockdown.

Today the post-
woman brought
me an audio re-

cording of the
love that dare not
speak its name.

wednesday newstrip

Australian Federal Government’s 'confusing' new education campaign uses tacos & milkshakes to explain consent · Amazon cancels Lord of the Rings MMO, in latest blow to gaming division · tarantula’s pervasiveness traced back to the cretaceous period · we finally have a complete view of the resonance dust ring of Venus · US police: FedEx shooter legally bought guns used in shooting · Byron Bay goes to war with Netflix over 'hot Instagrammer' reality series · high-profile Norwegian conspiracy theorist who said COVID-19 was a hoax dies from the virus after hosting illegal house parties.

Recently, from Luna Bisonte Prods

Mark Young
The Toast
Luna Bisonte Prods
ISBN: 9781938521751
$US12.00
100 pages
Can be bought from Lulu here

 

Maybe it’s because “A railroad line runs im-/mediately behind the/parietal lobe.” Or maybe it’s because “Phallic ritual is a/literary genre that blends/aspects of natural rubber/& cognitive therapy…” I don’t know, but Mark Young’s poetry opens out into a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk, a total art work, limning our present moment. His work is at once intellectually engaging and truly entertaining. No small feat. I’m a fan. — Tom Beckett

geographies: Payard's Lagoon

 

Today the post-
woman brought
me a birthday 
card from the 
Marquis de 
Sade. Not for 
me, I told her, 
two houses up 
the road. I ran 
to retrieve it 
the minute she 
was out of sight.

wednesday newstrip

Graphene-like boron is stabilized by hydrogen, paving the way for practical applications · Putrid Dustbin becomes SittingonDefence Minister in Australian Federal Cabinet reshuffle · Army intel analyst tried to lure teen with chicken & condoms · pro-T.®ump women’s group says Matt Gaetz will speak at rally evem though there are child sex-trafficking allegations against him · Derek Chauvin murder trial hears George Floyd allegedly said 'I ain't do no drugs' in arrest rather than 'I ate too many drugs' · 5200 Tons of extraterrestrial dust rain down on Earth every single year · World COVID-19 vaccine rankings shows Australia languishing at back of the queue.

          Today the post-
                       woman brought
              me a pterodactyl.
                    I'd actually asked
               for some pommes 
                    de terre au gratin;
            but these days
                 you take what 
            you can get, & 
                  are grateful for it.

GarGoogle's idea of entertainment?

 

TEN TITLES from THE TOAST

 

now out from Sandy Press

 

List price = $US14.95
Available through Amazon.

& a blurb:

Mark Young’s Sorties

A sortie is a military manouevre, ‘an attack made by troops coming out from a position of defence.’ In Mark Young’s prose, the citadel is the home, or else the inside of his head; while the sorties are mounted against the land and city scapes of Rockhampton in Queensland, where Young lived in the earlier years of the 21st century. Or against the past. It wouldn’t be right to say he takes no prisoners. Birds are his constant companions, however; and the past, while certainly over, is sometimes close behind. These are intelligent, humorous, precise and well-informed observations, largely autobiographical, but delivered without any attempt at the construction of a narrative or of a unitary self. Mark Young, who gave up playing the double bass because he couldn’t fit the instrument into a taxi before or after a gig, now makes use of the keyboard, with its black and white registers, colored all over, to entertain, to perplex and to delight.

— Martin Edmond, author of Luca Antara, Isinglass, and many other books.

A PDF preview of sorties is available on the sandy press website.

wednesday newstrip

OpTic Chicago bounce back with win over Seattle Surge in 2021 Call of Duty League Stage 2 group play · scientists finally know how an ancient reptile lived with such an absurdly long neck · Myanmar's military junta killed 43 children in past two months, Save the Children says · Australian Pram Minister Scat SorrySon's efforts to engage with women are more 'me' than mea culpa · string theorist Michio Kaku: 'Reaching out to aliens is a terrible idea' · Amazon apologizes for denying US employees sometimes need to pee in bottles · 533 million Facebook users' phone numbers & personal data have been leaked online.

The Night Owl