from The Pope's Easter message

"Now that postmodernism’s been (with a wink) flushed, can we, for a moment, glance back wistfully to that cinema of more naïve possibilities, before the insular film school homilies of 'queer cinema' swamped us, when post-new wave sex & politics anarchically mixed in ignorance of our contemporary Sundance straightjackets of liberal visibility politics, body image conventionalism, festival entertainment, & jury-prize prostitution? Such films were made not by technofetishistically schooled 'filmmakers' but by renaissance theater artists like Terayama & Arrabal, who would deride with a magnanimous grin all foisted philistine pigeonholes. But prepare for disillusionment, too, for these artists were blissfully ignorant of more than just the watery liberalism we now cringingly sip like gelid, day-old, decaf."

wednesday newstrip

Elongated Muskrat’s SpaceX Starship explodes, debris streaks through Florida skies · Ukraine war briefing: US-Ukraine talks to take place in Saudi Arabia in the next week, Zelenskyy says · Muskrat can’t fire employees, T.®ump reportedly tells cabinet secretaries · "Small & weak countries will get burnt first, & the international order & rules will be under severe shock," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said. "Major countries should undertake their international obligations … & not seek to profit from & bully the weak" · rattled markets, negative polls: some say T.®ump’s honeymoon is over · 'shadowy, unelected figures': analyst says DOGE is the very thing 'it claims to fear most' · a century-old shipwreck has resurfaced on the east coast of Australia, unearthed by Cyclone Alfred's wild weather over 130 years after it was first swallowed by the sea in another cyclone in the 1800s.

Some recent books

Mark Young
The Hit List
52 pages
b&w free downloadable pdf
Scud Editions
url: https://scudlit.blogspot.com/p/editions.html

A collection of around 55 recent poems.

*

harry k stammer, Mark Cunningham, & Mark Young
Gravel
66 pages
poetry & visuals
full color
paperback ($US15.00)& Kindle($US5.00)
Sandy Press
url: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DY56DHV7

Gravel. Might have been called that because it was like walking over it in bare feet to get three grumpy old men to agree on how this book should be put together — identifiers or anonymous; interspersed small offerings or a three-tiered cake; with or without an intro?

Or? Call it that because it's a word with other, quite divergent, words built in & easily accessed — rave, ave, grave, Ravel — & that's before discarding the original order.

Or? Each of the pieces, as denoted by the poet's name, being inserted into the document in a random way, like gravel on a path. The point here is to cross each author's approach in a way that does or doesn’t affect the how of how the pieces relate to each other. Does this matter in terms of how a reader understands each alone & at the same time how a reader may understand the whole & the poetry within the total work?

Or? What is there to introduce? The Pisan Cantos and Zukofsky's A made do without introductions, if I recall. Maybe when you’re famous—or post-famous, so that people need to be told how important you are. Were. Is that “you” plural? Or, as with Aram Saroyan’s Complete Minimal Poems, you can have a blurb with more words in it than most of the books included. Then you can get somebody to write an introduction to tell us who the blurb writer, Vito Acconci, is. Was. Who will introduce the introducer?

Or? The only true blurb would be along the lines of: "If you read this book and get irritated as hell & say to yourself, 'Anybody could do that,' then you're got the real spirit of the book."

Take all of the above, & it's no wonder they invited me in to compose the introduction. All suggestions will be welcomed. Keep watching this space.

— Kasimir Malevich, February 1915 2025, Red Square

*

Mark Young
Some Unrecorded Voyages of Vasco da Gama
88 pages
poetry & visuals
full color
paperback ($US24.75)
Otoliths
url: https://www.lulu.com/shop/mark-young/some-unrecorded-voyages-of-vasco-da-gama/paperback/product-e748z2j.html?page=1&pageSize=4

My first poem in the geographies series appeared on my gamma ways blog at the beginning of 2009. I feel that the best description of my intent comes from Sam Lohmann who published some in an issue of the journal Peaches & Bats that he was editing at the time: "These pieces by Mark Young have a disturbing and comic speed, and seem, as a group, to get at some essential weirdness of the 'global' info-capitalist culture we're all trying to survive and live in."

I began the visual geographies just under a couple of years later. At first they tended to be poems on a background, but gradually transformed into digital manipulations of images from places I looked up on the web. As time went on, I refined those locations to Australia & New Zealand, sometimes with a word or two added; but the intent was the same for the visuals as for the poems — the world is something different to what it's claimed to be.

There have been five standalone collections of geographies over the years, mainly in chapbook or pdf format, plus a significant tranche in the wide-ranging 600-page collection, The Codicils, that came out from Otoliths in 2013. This new collection, Some Unrecorded Voyages of Vasco da Gama, contains a number of visuals &, probably, the final geographies poems.

— Mark Young

*

Mark Young
Closed Environment
24 pages
b&w free & downloadable
Neo-Mimeo Editions, from Nualláin House
url: https://nuallainhousepublishers.com/2025/03/03/closed-environment/

"Neo-Mimeo endeavors to return to the fast and cheap no frills esthetic of mimeo in a non-scrolling digital slideshow left to right reading format. The texts are replicated in the limited typewriter font styles then available, generally Courier or Prestige, but in a larger point size (16 vs.12) to accommodate readability on the small screen. The bold text presentation alludes to the often over inked stencils in mimeo production. Each Neo-Mimeo poetry selection, like many original mimeo books, is limited to approximately 20 pages. A pdf file of Neo-Mimeo titles is available for those who wish to produce their own hard copy; staples not included."

— Pat Nolan

*

Mark Young
The Complete Post Person Poems
138 pages
b&w (paperback), full color (Kindle)
(paperback) $US12.50 (Kindle) $US6.25
Sandy Press
url: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZHXYYH7

One never knows what's going to turn up in Mark's mail. I've even turned up — all 6'7" of me — in the postbag. Every page holds a surprise. Mark delivers! —Tom Beckett

In The Complete Post Person Poems, Mark Young delivers “the can” or rather, cans "of worms/ I’d always/ wanted to open.” Master builder/decorator of “a room to put/ the elephant in,” Young helps us achieve some measure of “Gunk Control” through an ironic, fiercely punny wit that is replete with cogent historical and current allusions and accounts of wild misprisions. His “melodious thunks” provide superb rejoinders to the “polemic/ pandemic” that assails the globe. —Thomas Fink

In The Complete Post Person Poems intellectual Tom-Foolery via the official postal system has at it at full speed! — Cathy M. Bennett

All writers have a fraught relationship with the postal service. Mark Young’s remedy is The Complete Post Person Poems, a uniquely multifaceted otherworldly disco ball showering kaleidoscopic colors down onto poetry’s dance floor. Shake that thang. —Pat Nolan

The Complete Post Person Poems does nothing less than bring the world to you. How lucky we are to receive Mark Young's mail. —Brad Liening

After reading this book, I will never think of aubergines in the same way again. Now I must realize: I don't even know what an aubergine is. And the author makes me feel funny about my subscription to the Conspiracy Theory Quarterly. I think he did this on purpose. He is dangerous and no one should read this book. —Mark Cunningham

Mark Young picks a thread in a ball of golden wool and gives it a pull and it never ends. Magic everywhere. —John Geraets

Chance and its output, notably infinite shades of humor, when examined and relished, teach even beyond experience, offering as a bonus “a room to put the elephant in.” —Sheila E. Murphy

Mark Young has given the meaning of a postman's "meaning" in meaning a delivery god. Send and ye shall receive. — harry k stammer

Mark Young IS the Complete Post Person, delivering to us all the news we need to read, to reread, to remember. For these poems we will remember. Here he's given us back so much of our world – the terrible and the terrific – and for that we need to say: thank you, Mark. —Michael Gottlieb

Don’t
call me
biased for concluding

the Hay(na)ku created
its best
poem

because its postman
delivered with
sensitivity
—Eileen R. Tabios

*

& a note for those of you who have a Kindle Unlimited membership. The Magritte Poems, which was released late last year, is now available for no charge as part of that membership.

wenesday newstrip

More than 100 Russian officials, lawmakers, & law enforcement officers accused of corruption & serious crimes have avoided prison sentences by joining the war in Ukraine, according to a new investigation by the BBC Russian Service · a restaurant owner in Japan did not take kindly to being given a bad review by two diners — putting a bounty on their heads · DoNuts T.®ump has proposed what he seemed to consider a new idea: a program to let wealthy foreigners pay $5 million for citizenship. "We're gonna be selling a gold card," he said. "You have a green card, this is a gold card" · influencer brothers Andrew & Tristan Tate, who are charged with human trafficking in Romania, have left for the US after authorities lifted travel restrictions imposed as part of the case, an official says · almost one in five trans & non-binary New Zealanders were threatened with physical violence because of their gender identity in the past four years · The White House says it will now decide which media organizations will participate in the press pool that covers Prissygent DoNuts T.®ump.

wednesday newstrip

An April 2023 train derailment in rural Maine that spilt hundreds of gallons of fuel & left three workers in hospital was caused by beavers, state officials said · humpback whale swallows & then spits out kayaker off Chile coast · goat bitten by red-bellied black snake given $3k worth of antivenom · US sends Israel 2,000-pound bombs that can 'pancake' buildings · despite DOGE budget cut crusade, T.®ump has already spent $10.7 million of taxpayer money on golf trips · 'good luck with that': CNN made FOIA request about DOGE only to learn FOIA staff was fired · Chinese warships sail within 150 nautical miles of Sydney, issue a live fire drill warning & forcing commercial flights to be diverted in the Tasman Sea without informing the Australian military · contempt for this national disinformation campaign notwithstanding, if the polls are correct – &, as usual, reporters have their doubts – then enough voters are buying it & Australia may well end up with Opposition Leader Putrid Dustbinn as its next prime minister.

Annie Lennox singing Joni Mitchell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2NfgLlJ6zQ"

What more

is there

to say?

wednesday newstrip

Israeli police have raided a Palestinian-owned bookstore in East Jerusalem, detaining its owners & confiscating books about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict · fans were left outraged amid "poor communication" after a sold-out Bryan Adams concert in Perth was canceled hours after it was scheduled to start due to a build up of fat, grease, & rags in the sewerage system, known as a fatberg · T.®ump orders DOJ to pause prosecutions of Americans who bribe foreign officials: report · Georgia Republican Rep. introduces bill to rename Greenland Red White & Blue Land · 'An act of betrayal': Japan to maximise nuclear power 14 years after Fukushima disaster · Sydney nurses stood down after claiming they would kill Israeli patients in social media video · DoNuts T.®ump trade adviser says Australia 'killing aluminium market' in blow to tariff exemption hopes.

More unsavory news noise from the T.®ump pits

AI-generated T.®ump and Muskrat video dupes MAGA faithful into buying fake Golden Eagles coins · T.®ump is the second most unpopular new president in decades. Who was the most unpopular? Why T.®ump of course, in 2017 · 'Delay, whine, lie, blather, wince, repeat': T.®ump question time stuns onlookers · DoNuts T.®ump & Been Jammin' Notjustanyahoo held a joint press conference during the Israeli Prime Minister’s visit to the White House. By working together, Notjustanyahoo said, the two leaders could "strengthen security, broaden the circle of peace, achieve a remarkable era of peace through strength, & let the U.S. take over the Gaza Strip & get rid of the Palestinians to somewhere else" · T.®ump's administration is preparing an executive order to begin dismantling the Education Department – while acknowledging the president lacks the authority to kill the agency entirely. T.®ump vowed during the election campaign to end what he called 'wokeness' & 'indoctrination' at the agency · in late night Truth Social rant, DoNuts T.®ump has accused Senate Democrats of deliberately delaying the confirmation of his nominees to top cabinet positions, angrily insisting, without evidence, that his political rivals are intentionally sabotaging his new administration & laughing about doing so behind the scenes · some of the 8,000 migrants arrested under the T.®ump administration's deportation crackdown have already been released back into the U.S., according to a report.

A poem from the Bureau of Meteorology

Significant rainfall may develop over 
the weekend about the Herbert & 
Lower Burdekin & the Cassowary Coast, 
with a monsoon trough in place, rich 

tropical moisture & onshore flow ex-
pected to strengthen. Enhanced rainfall 
due to widespread showers & isolated 
embedded thunderstorms is possible 

from tonight & throughout the week-
end, with extremely wet soils & river 
catchments leading to a higher than 
normal vulnerability to flash flooding.

Source:

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST

Severe Weather Warning
for HEAVY RAINFALL
6.05 p.m., 2/7/2025

recently, at Series Magritte

Le Regard Mental


Look at 
the build-
                 ing. Think. How do I
                 reach the roof? & which 
                                                         roof should
                                                         I aim for? & 
                  if I do 
                  reach a
               roof, will the entire 
               structure remain up-
               right or will it tumble 
                                                      over
                                                      once 
                                my weight threatens 
                                to send it off balance? 
                                Houses upon houses
                                in this one spot. How 
     is the rest of the street likely to look?

wednesday newstrip

T.®ump moves to stop Bush-era AIDS relief program that saved millions of lives · Britons are being put off buying Tesla cars because of Elongated Muskrat’s behavior, new research has revealed · social media influencer manufactured symptoms that caused one-year-old to need brain surgery, Brisbane court hears. The woman, 34, is accused of torturing an infant & posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following & solicit donations · Grace Tame, former Australian of the Year, makes statement at PM’s Australian of the Year function with 'Fuck Murdoch' T-shirt · T.®ump offers public servants seven months pay to resign · Caroline Kennedy warns senators that her cousin RFK Jr is a 'predator' · Google Maps will rename Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America in US · China's chatbot juggernaut DeepSeek could mark the end of US supremacy in AI.

wednesday newstrip

Taranaki Maunga, a mountain in New Zealand, will now have the rights of a human being under legislation to be passed by parliament · DoNuts T.®ump ends security deal for Anthony Fauci, says he'd feel no responsibility if harm befell him · Australian eSafety organization 'saddened' to learn UK teen who killed three girls at dance class searched for an Australian stabbing video it unsuccessfully fought Elongated Muskrat to remove from X · T.®ump describes North Korea leader Kim Jong Un as a "smart guy" in an interview on Fox News · Bonnie Blue sex event erupts as Mum pulls son out of queue: ‘put your clothes on’ · Potent Hogsbreath, the former Fox News personality & rightwing commentator who has said women should not serve in combat roles, recommended the military purge generals, & faced allegations of sexual assault & alcoholism, has been confirmed as secretary of defense in the Senate by a tie-breaking vote from Vice-insistent JD Vance · Sky News presenter calls for Opposition leader Putrid Dustbin to ‘Make Australia Great Again’ · woman in Sydney intensive care with suspected botulism linked to unregulated anti-wrinkle injection.

Australia Invasion Day

Always was, always will be

Aboriginal land

wednesday newstrip

The UN says Australia violated human rights law, but it’s unlikely to change the way refugees are treated · 2024 is declared Earth’s hottest on record · Meta ends diversity & inclusion programs, Suckerbug blasts Biden · Kiwi couple were duped after the Australian hotel booking they made through Agoda led them to a shopping center devoid of accomodation · drug-eating rats raid police evidence room in Houston filled with mushrooms, cocaine, & marijuana · DoNuts T.®ump has appointed Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, Jon Voight as special Hollywood ambassadors · the midair explosion of SpaceX’s Starship rocket took over social media with space watchers ridiculing the Elongated Muskrat-owned company’s rebranding of the incident as "a rapid unscheduled disassembly" · Jaffa Bejesus' Blue Origin successfully launches New Glenn rocket for the first time · China vowed on Tuesday to continue participating in two cornerstone multinational arrangements — the World Health Organisation & Paris climate accord — after newly sworn-in US President DoNuts T.®ump ordered withdrawals from them.

Otoliths at an exorbitant price

which I have nothing to do with.

https://bookswholesale.myshopify.com/products/otoliths-issue-sixty-six-part-two?srsltid=AfmBOoqZVIiL-X1HzEv7hZBbX07i7sq6VE-Nkc9QYoHhWcexpdPHruix

The T.®ump pits: newstrip 15 1 25

President-elect Elongated Muskrat seeks to install himself as global dictator – & 'so far it's working': expert · T.®ump says he's going to rename Gulf of Mexico to 'Gulf of America': Mexico's president tells T.®ump it's the U.S. that should be renamed · DoNuts T.®ump was reportedly planning to dodge a televised town hall hosted by Fox News last year, until an insider at the network fed him questions ahead of time · Justin Trudeau shuts down T.®ump 's idea of Canada joining the U.S. · the progressive advocacy group Public Citizen on Tuesday launched a new project aimed at tracking the incoming T.®ump / Muskrat administration's approach to corporate crime, an effort the watchdog said is particularly urgent given that many of the companies currently under federal investigation have connections to the presidents-elect · DoNuts T.®ump jnr goes window-shopping for his dad in Greenland · Danish king changes coat of arms amid row with T.®ump over Greenland.

wednesday newstrip

President-elect Elongated Muskrat has changed his name to "Kekius Maximus" on X, the social media platform he owns, signaling support for a type of cryptocurrency · Kremlin supporters tout T.®ump takeover threats on Canada, Greenland, & the Panama Canal as aiding Putin’s expansionist goals · without providing evidence, DoNuts T.®ump linked the truck driven into a New Orleans New Year crowd fatal attack to illegal immigration. The FBI, however, said the suspect was an American citizen from Texas · Tesla Cybertruck fire outside T.®ump hotel in Las Vegas leaves one dead, others injured · FBI says it has made 'largest seizure of explosives' in its history after raid on US farm · two men who went hunting for Bigfoot found dead in forest.

Today the post-
woman brought
me some ephemera—

at least that's
what the customs
declaration on the

now empty box
said was sup-
posed to be in it.

wednesday newstrip

Man accused of attacking TV reporter & yelling ‘This is Trump’s America now’ · festival-goer overdoses on first day of Victorian pill-testing trial · T.®ump sides with Elongated Muskrat in MAGA immigration feud over H-1B visas. Muskrat had vowed to go to "war" on the issue & told one critic on X to go "fuck yourself in the face" · scientists are hoping to grow plants on the moon to feed astronauts · Professor Geoffrey Hinton, the 'Godfather of AI,' shortens odds new tech will wipe out human race · Putain apologizes for Azerbaijani plane crash, but won't say if it was shot down · Aussie construction giant collapses leaving 1,300 apartments worth an eye-watering $1.5billion unfinished · hui, protests, kotahitanga, and a new Kuini — a historic year for Māoridom.

from the archives

Diogenes reborn 

I did not always live in
a barrel, said the famous 
philosopher, adjusting his 
position just a little though 
enough to show his better 
side. I used to live in a 
trailer park. Then someone
told me about reality tv
& webcams & the internet
& how there was this
vast audience out there
fascinated by the trivial 
things of life. Thought
about it for a while; finally 
decided what the fuck! 
Needed a gimmick so 
came up with this. I reach
more people this way. & 
besides, with the artificial
lighting I’ve set up, I no 
longer have to worry 
about someone getting 
between me & the sun.

     11/16/2004

wednesday newstrip

T.®ump-backed lawmaker roasted after apparently mistaking Star Wars prop for captured drone · Madison school shooter pictured on her father’s Facebook page with shotgun at firing range just months before her deadly rampage · 'army of MAGA enforcers' prepares to 'strong-arm' Republicans who resist T.®ump’s agenda · taking acetaminophen, a.k.a. paracetamol, one of the most globally recognized, widely-used painkillers, for a prolonged period, increases the risk of serious complications in older folks, according to a new study · Elongated Muskrat asks ex-T.®ump aides to snitch on federal staff who should be 'blacklisted' · urgent warning issued as new Covid wave hits Western Australia · Chief of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, & Biological Defence forces killed in Moscow by bomb in electric scooter · Impossible Foods has issued a recall on approximately 552,643 pounds of its plant-based ground sausage products nationwide, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced. The recall involves concerns over potential contamination with metal fragments.

Clickbait / should be / — at least — bearlievable

 

wednesday newstrip

Hundreds more jobs are poised to go at Health New Zealand under proposals to be laid out to staff on Friday. The two units facing the latest cuts are the 1000-strong procurement supply unit & 500-strong planning, funding & outcomes unit · Meta outage for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, & WhatsApp impacting users worldwide · 'USA is a threat': Canadians slam 'bully' T.®ump’s 'arrogant' mockery of 'Governor Trudeau' · a Netherlands-flagged cargo ship has been temporarily banned from entering Australian ports due to safety fears over its storage of ammonium nitrate · in recent months, Israel has bombed Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, the southern suburbs of Beirut, central Beirut, & now Syria · energy experts have warned that the cost of building nuclear power plants in Australia could be more than double the figure the CSIRO has suggested, based on international experience · cow suffered for months after New Zealand woman tried DIY cancer removal.

yet another variant

 

wednesday newstrip

'It must stop now: ' Amnesty accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza · Bitcoin soars past $100K as T.®ump nominates pro-crypto Atkin as next SEC chair · South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol now 'a dead man walking' after martial law fiasco · over the next fortnight, two planetary-scale atmospheric waves will run into each other to the north of Australia, increasing the likelihood of heavy rain, thunderstorms, & tropical cyclone activity · Canadian man leaps onto polar bear to defend wife during attack · Australian Federal Government’s support for UN resolution calling for end to Israel’s occupation of Gaza to blame for Melbourne synagogue fire, says BeenJammin' NotJustAnyYahoo · too young for TikTok, old enough for jail — how a meaner Australia treats its kids · uterus transplant recipient's son was bitten by a funnel-web spider in their northern NSW home but survived after anti-venom treatment.

another variant

 

wednesday newstrip

Australian police officer convicted of manslaughter in Taser death of a 95-year-old woman with dementia & a walking frame · woman accidentally threw out hard drive containing ex's access to £618 million Bitcoin fortune · Sydney risks blackouts as heat soars & coal power plants falter · a convicted murderer who stabbed a mother-of-three to death over $50 has been granted release from a Victorian prison to undergo IVF treatment · cryptocurrency entrepreneur who bought banana art for $9.5 million eats the fruit publically in Hong Kong · Carolina Prime Pet, Inc, announced on Friday it is recalling 400 bags of 16-ounce Hollywood Feed Carolina Made Chicken Chips dog food that may contain salmonella · recall for cucumbers as dozens fall sick with salmonella in 26 states · JD Vance depicts himself as 'Trump’s wife' in Thanksgiving post.

A variant to Doom

 

Now out from Otoliths — "peut-être le Messie" by Márton Koppány

Now out from Otoliths.

Márton Koppány
"peut-être le Messie"
full color
56 pages
ISBN: 978-0-6455483-4-1
$US26.75
URL: https://www.lulu.com/shop/m%C3%A1rton-kopp%C3%A1ny/peut-%C3%AAtre-le-messie/paperback/product-rmvdnmm.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Lulu have a 30% Black Friday – Cyber Monday discount running until midnight on Monday. Discount code is HOLIDAY30.

*

Márton Koppány notes in his introduction: "Lately I've been playing with putting together pieces from distant periods. Some recurring topics are: question marks, clouds, ellipses. They overlap, but ellipses outnumber everything else. Any triad can be considered an ellipsis, and occasionally different (or seemingly different) numbers like 1, 2 and 4 serve the same idea even better, because they are elliptical only elliptically."

His ellipses take many forms — buttons, stones, letters, fish, et al — though I profess my favorite among his ellipses is actually invisible.

I am writing this in a room which used to be a verandah until, before our time here, a cyclone blew the wooden louvers & their surrounds in — out? — & that once open space has since been replaced by windows & fiberboard — three windows, three pieces of fiberboard. Perched at the intersection of the dado rail that runs along two of the walls of the room, there is a signed postcard-sized print of a singular piece of vispo, a lounge chair with only one leg but still remaining perfectly upright.

It is called Ellipsis No. 5, & is, coincidentally, the first piece in "peut-être le Messie." "Perhaps the Messiah" is a wide-ranging title, an ellipsis incorporating the millennia between the canonical gospel of St. Luke & the work of Isidore Isou, a Romanian-born French poet, founder of Lettrisme, author of L'Agrégation d'un nom et d'un messie.

Márton Koppány's book is also wide-ranging — perhaps not temporally, but rather attitudinally. I have previously remarked on the ". . . humor, minimalism, satire, genius, art, politics, its multi-faceted et ceteras" of Koppány's work. This selection of his ellipses evidences every one of those individual characteristics as well as the incredible gestalt when they are combined.

   —   Mark Young

wednesday newstrip

SpaceX's Starship will fly Lunar Outpost's rover to the moon · after DoNuts T.®ump’s Project 2025 denials, he is tapping its authors & influencers for key roles · clinical tests confirm DermaAngel as the top choice for pimple patches with Australia set to take on the T-Beauty trend · Fox hosts, cable news regulars, & entertainment pros: T.®ump is casting a made-for-TV Cabinet · more than 150 people have been arrested in Newcastle for allegedly defying directions by New South Wales Police during an anti-fossil fuel protest at the world's largest coal port · President-elect T.®ump is encouraging a Florida legislator who celebrated the killing of an American citizen by the Israeli military to run for Congress · Kiwi workers lose jobs as billion-dollar firm quietly shifts production to USA. Celebrity-backed supplement AG1 is marketed online as ‘made in New Zealand’, but a podcast investigation reveals it’s mostly made at a super-factory in Utah.

Recently sold at Christies for $US121 million

René Magritte's L’empire des lumières.

Noisy birds silence 
the trees. Someone 
is reading as they 
sleep. Against the blue 
the house has braced 
for night. Entrance is 
gained through a door 
in the roof. The pond 
is full of stars. A street- 
lamp echoes. The sky 
is empty. Only clouds.

Instead / of the / usual wednesday newstrip

a theory, that

DoNuts Tr(I)umphant has no intention of following through on his MAGA claim. Instead, it would appear as if, incensed by the fact that he didn't win re-election in 2020, he's embarked on an opposite campaign, to turn the country into a dystopian wilderness.

Take a look at his proposed cabinet picks. Start with the best-known names, Elongated Muskrat & RooFracK. The Muskrat will co-chair a new newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an entity DoNuts Tramp has indicated will operate outside the confines of government. His co-chair, Vivisection Ravasmarmy, has made it known that the dismantling of the Department of Education will be the initial priority. RooFracK has accepted an appointment to be secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services, a perfect fit for one of the nation’s most prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists, who has frequently spread false conspiracy theories about the safety & efficacy of vaccines.

Amongst other nominees: Tulsi Gabbard who "has a consistent habit of trusting 'foreign propaganda' over the very people she would lead as America's spymaster, making her wholly unqualified to be director of national intelligence" as Josh Rogin, foreign policy columnist for The Washington Post wrote; Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who, purportedly, had sex with an underage girl, but was never charged, for attorney general; & the day after DoNuts Tromp selected Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, who does not have senior military or national security experience, to oversee the Pentagon & the U.S. military command, it was revealed that Hegseth was investigated for sexual assault in California in 2017.

The litany goes on. To quote ex-RNC chair Michael Steele: "DoNuts T.®ump is leveling up a menagerie of misfits, people that he knows are not competent, capable, or intelligent enough to do the jobs that he is giving them."

As someone recently noted, DoNuts T.®ump might finally achieve his lifelong dream of actually being the smartest person in the room.

God Bless Save America.

wednesday newstrip

Forty-three monkeys escape from research facility in South Carolina · "tar balls" found recently on Sydney beaches show traces of human faeces, methamphetamine, & PFAS: new analysis · tears, joy, & fear on the streets of DC after T.®amp's victory · lost emperor penguin lands in Australian town thousands of miles away from icy Antarctica home, the farthest north the bird has ever been found · Texas campus in uproar after protesters hold signs declaring ‘women are property’ on quad after T.®emp victory · experts urge people to stay indoors & hydrated as heatwave rolls across much of Australia · Zach Bryan’s ex, Brianna "Chickenfry" LaPaglia, claims the singer offered her $18 million to stay silent on break-up · men charged in foiled Iranian plot to assassinate T.®imp.

Is the world about to plunge to its

?

Scheherazade at the speed of light

The two plays
one novel
&

five
chapters of
autobiography that I

wrote overnight wouldn't
fit in
this

space
so I'm
leaving it empty.

wednesday newstrip

Climate crisis: October saw record floods & rains across the globe · "She's a radical war hawk," said DoNits T.®amp of Liz Cheney. "Let's put her with a rifle standing there, with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let's see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face" · Ms Cheney's riposte: "This is how dictators destroy free nations," she wrote on X. "They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country & our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant" · Queensland's Truth-Telling & Healing inquiry to pause its work plan as new right-wing State Premier David Crisafuilli stands by plan to stop process · on the eve of New Zealand’s Māori language celebration week, the country’s right-wing political leaders ordered public agencies to stop affirmative action policies for Māori people, who are disadvantaged on almost every metric · Cassius, the world's largest crocodile in captivity, dies in Far North Queensland.

wednesday newstrip

Western Australia man diagnosed with scurvy · at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers now inside Russia on the way to Ukraine, US says · DoNuts T.®ump prefers the "dictator approach" to running a country, & openly wished he had "Hitler's generals" when he was US president, his former White House chief of staff says · Türkiye's interior minister says five people have been killed & 22 others injured in what he describes as a "terrorist attack" in central Türkiye · Iran recruiting Israeli citizens to spy against their government, with social media the key to luring them in · gas industry in damage control as landmark study finds LNG 'worse than coal' for the climate · New Zealand still complicit in global shark fin trade.

wednesday newstrip

Republican nominee DoNuts T.®ump has requested a military plane to use during the final weeks of the campaign, citing concerns that Iran is trying to kill him · a 65-year-old female sergeant is under investigation by Victoria Police, following allegations she performed a Nazi salute in front of police recruits · British woman who killed her parents & lived with their bodies for four years is sentenced to life · Sydney’s Coogee beach closed after mysterious black 'tar balls' wash ashore · Northern Territory's new conservative government passes legislation to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10, in first week of parliament · Police say babies in Indonesia are being sold for as little as $AU1,450 · man falls into sewage tank in rural Ōtaki: 20 minutes later, Vivian St in Wellington flooded.

wednesday newstrip

Australian Opposition leader Putrid Dustbin attacks Prime Minister for including calls for ceasefire & de-escalation in motion reflecting on 7 October · Bunnings Australia shoppers go wild over $15 item for transforming dirty grout: 'Holy grail' · T.®ump spoke with Putain at least seven times since leaving White House, Bob Woodward reports · McDonald's Australia brings back beloved $2.50 menu item after three years · Evangelicals for Harris claim Franklin Graham is threatening to sue them · classic Aussie phrase — 'mate' — offending people in 2024 · Notjustanyahoo says Israel has killed late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's successors · T.®ump stuns social media as he dances along to YMCA at the end of speech about October 7 attacks.

A couple of new books

Mark Young
The Magritte Poems
Sandy Press
ISBN: 979-8-9898666-3-2
Amazon URL: https://a.co/d/65ZzzPr
648 pages
Paperback: $US24.99
Kindle: $US12.00

This is a book 21 years in the making. The first Series Magritte poem — three words, three lines — was composed on the front step of a motel room at Yarra Glen, about 50 kilometers from Melbourne. It appeared on the As/Is blog in — I think — November 2003, was followed by another twenty or so at the same blog, & then, in March 2004, the following post appeared at my then main blog, Pelican Dreaming:

I have decided to start a blog for my Series Magritte poems. The URL is https://seriesmagritte.blogspot.com.

As I write this, there are 547 poems up at Series Magritte. I have included all of them in this book. Interspersed among them are a number of other poems — the Florence Foucault centos, composed of extracts from Michel Foucault's book on Magritte, This Is Not a Pipe, & the 1860 The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette, by Florence Hartley, some of which actually appeared under the pseudonym of Florence Foucault, & also included are other of my poems that reference Magritte, including one that dates back to 1974. My admiration for René Magritte goes back a long way!

This is a collected, not a selected, so it may be uneven in quality. I would also have liked to include some of the Magritte paintings that inspired the poems, but that would undoubtedly have raised copyright issues as well as ending up as a seriously expensive tome. I have no intention of stopping writing Magritte poems, but I've decided to bring a dotted line to the venture so that I can see what it looks & feels like in book form. For those that don’t like the heft of such things, there is also a Kindle edition which Amazon warns may take a while to download.

I want to thank Javant Biarujia for his introduction, which is up at Sandy Press, & Sheila E. Murphy for her blurb which can be found on the Amazon page. Their words are more than I deserve.

I also want to thank Bill Allegrezza & Jukka-Pekka Kervinen for publishing earlier selections of my Magritte poems. I want to thank harry k stammer for publishing this collection & for doing the covers of some of the aforementioned smaller books. Lastly, I'd like to pay tribute to René Magritte for making the invisible visible.

There's also a recently published collection of my non-Magritte poems.

Alkaline Pageantry
Serious Publications
Lulu URL: https://www.lulu.com/shop/mark-young/alkaline-pageantry/paperback/product-rmenkpq.html?page=1&pageSize=4
76 pages
$US4.82

Alkaline Pageantry is the latest collection of poems by Mark Young that reflect — like much of his previous work — the insanity & inanity of the modern world. 'Give me a seagull with a / positronic brain & I'll / give you the next leader / of the modern world.' The poems come from the last six years, before, during, & after Covid; touch on the duplicity of world leaders; use search engines as a creative tool; deploy humor as a weapon to lay waste to civilization as it’s currently presented. 'Sorry, / nothing / matched your / search terms. Please / try / again with / a different fish.'

wednesday newstrip

DoNuts T.®ump encourages Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear sites · the NSW Education Standards Authority has announced that teaching of the Aboriginal past prior to European arrival will be excluded from the Year 7–10 syllabus as of 2027 · A-list star ‘horrified’ as alleged Diddy sex tape gets pushed to media outlets: ‘he feels like he was victimized years ago’ · Sydney woman allegedly killed & dismembered husband in ‘bizarre’ murder case, police say · a scorned Canadian wife has opened up about how she ate her dead husband’s ashes after finding out about his string of affairs · a year into the Israel-Gaza war, the Middle East is on the verge of chaos. How does it end?

wednesday newstrip

T.®ump praises Russia's military record in argument to stop funding Ukraine's fight · Murk Suckerbug says Meta AI has nearly 500 million users · fatal stabbing of Japanese schoolboy in China sparks debate on the country's patriotic education · Israeli politicians across spectrum praise assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah · Just Stop Oil protestors arrested after Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers splashed with soup · Australian Broadcasting Corporation crew becomes subject of Russian criminal investigation for crossing border from Ukraine · thousands attended Auckland's Eden Park in an attempt to reclaim the Guinness World Record for the largest haka. The attempt was successful, decisively beating the previous official record of 4028, inexplicably held by France since 2014.

wednesday newstrip

Tupperware files for bankruptcy as its colorful containers lose relevance · ex-porn star tells cops in 2018 he’s Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ alleged sex slave in resurfaced video · sugar prices surge as Brazil's drought & fires tighten global supply · man arrested in Italy nearly 50 years after two Melbourne women found dead in their home · Israel struck a building in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, killing Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil & at least 30 other people, & wounding 66 · a US Secret Service probe found communication gaps & complacency before the July assassination attempt on DoNuts T.®ump · can mouth-taping lead to a better night's sleep? · former Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed a 'monster,' victims' lawyers say · US public schools banned 10,000 books in most recent academic year.

wednesday newstrip

Leader of the Australian Federal Opposition, Putrid Dustbin, to take axe to green groups, turbocharge mining, if his coalition wins the next election · thousands of protesters disrupt Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition, an industry-only trade expo for the defense sector, in Melbourne's CBD · the arrest of Apollo Quiboloy of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church changes the political landscape of the Philippines · Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters says he has become father of baby girl born ‘outside my marriage’ · Australian breaker Raygun is currently ranked number one in the world · an estimated 67 million viewers across 17 networks watched the Trump-Harris debate according to Nielsen data · Bungie says Destiny 2's future lies in "unusual formats," like "roguelikes or survival shooters."

wednesday newstrip

During his visit to Indonesia, the Pope may have subtly hinted how sin can enter 'through the pocket' · investor who risked it all on Black Myth: Wukong now minting millions · Putain, with a wry smile, says Russia backs Kamala Harris in US election · Hollywood legend Michael Keaton is going back to using his real name, Michael Keaton Douglas · China to build first-ever thorium molten salt nuclear power station in Gobi Desert · Aotearoa New Zealand's next Māori monarch named as Kiingi Tuheitia is buried, placed beside generations of family · Japan may join US marines in northern Australia, strengthening military ties · thousands of Australians are being asked to pay membership fees to general practitioner (GP) clinics to access bulk-billed medical care.

wednesday newstrip

“The growth of Parkinson’s across the world has been called a pandemic — it’s the world’s fastest-growing neurodegenerative disease,” a visiting neurologist tells a crowd of potato farmers. “Many people are under the misunderstanding that it’s a genetic condition. But for the most part, it appears to be mostly environmental.” · Australia's 3G network is shutting down · Surcharges — which cost Australians about $960 million a year, according to a March analysis of Reserve Bank of Australia data by the ABC — are becoming increasingly common across Australia. Some retailers add them to cover the cost of processing a transaction. Surcharges are banned in the United States, Canada, Europe, & Britain · neighbor of nudist resort couple arrested after duo's disappearance · The Pacific Islands Forum has removed references to Taiwan from a communiqué issued on Friday after the region’s annual leaders meeting, after complaints by China’s envoy · Army confirms T.®ump staff 'pushed' Arlington cemetery worker · New Zealand's Māori King Tuheitia dies at 69 after heart surgery.

An introduction; though when finished will be an afterword.

During my trawling through past posts & pages for 100 Titles From Tom Beckett, I rediscovered a January 2013 entry on Tom’s l’amour fou blog. He posted:

Anyway, in a section of Appearances that I'm working on now I list titles of imaginary songs that appear on an imaginary jukebox in an imaginary bar called the Cave, a very special club house for the legendary performance art group Vaudeville without Organs.

A jukebox is a treasure trove of information about the sort of establishment it exists within. Herewith a list, alphabetically sorted, of a few of the song titles in the Cave’s jukebox,

followed by a list of a list of sixteen titles, & a closing message:

Mark, you're welcome to any of these titles if you're looking for some.

I can’t claim not to have seen this post since, in the comments box, is the following:

(from) mark young January 2, 2013 at 2:52 AM
You been a peepin at my wurlitzer again!

Jukeboxes are a shared pleasure. On my side, I’ve lost track of how many times — posts & poems — I’ve referred to those songs that rise unbidden to the surface of what I call my juxebox of the mind. In what is admittedly a very belated response, I’ve begun pushing the buttons on this refound Wurlitzer to see what wonders we can wring from it.

Starting tomorrow, the first poem in the series. The remainder will follow at irregular intervals.

wednesday newstrip

Dying Light: The Beast has way more guns than we expected · Olympic breakdancing controversy ignores sport's cultural roots · ISIL claims responsibility for stabbing attack in Germany’s Solingen · Transgender woman's exclusion from female-only app was unlawful, Australian Federal judge finds · Lily Allen branded an 'awful person' by fans after returning rescue dog · NASA unveils plan to return stranded Boeing Starliner crew to Earth · almost 70,000 Japanese people will die alone this year & with the populaiton rapidly aging it could become much worse · Jackson Hole gathering reveals fresh concern for central bankers · first prisoner swap since Ukraine incursion into Russia sees 115 prisoners released on each side.

wednesday newstrip

A charity in New Zealand has mistakenly distributed pineapple sweets laced with a potentially lethal dose of methamphetamine · Israeli leaders condemn settler attacks in West Bank in rare rebuke of violence · Google just released the newest version of its AI image generator · Tasmanian paramedic sacked after callout to woman with ping pong ball stuck in body · Chinese experts have called on Beijing to begin preparations to take over Taiwan "as soon as possible" in the face of a potential DoNuts T.®ump presidency · first case of polio confirmed in a 10-month-old child in Gaza, Palestinian health officials say · brawl erupts in Turkish parliament during debate — leaves at least two lawmakers injured · woman posed as three different people in brazen plot to extort millions from Elvis Presley's family & auction off Graceland.

geographies : Manangatang

She left the train at a station whose name now escapes her ;

wednesday newstrip

Israel's far-right finance minister suggests that the starvation of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians "might be just & moral" · New Zealand unlikely to have megaquake, but dangers exist — seismologist · around 100 Palestinians killed in Israeli air strike on school in Gaza, local authorities say · DoNuts T.®ump's campaign says some of its internal communications were hacked, blaming the Iranian government without providing direct evidence · pro-Israeli lobby group United Democracy Project spent more than $14 million on TV advertising targeting the primary of one Democrat Israel critic in Congress & $8 million on another Congress member's primary & succeeded in having them replaced as candidates in the next election · Winda Woppa locals stunned by 'devastating' coastal erosion at Jimmy's Beach.

The Camembert of Time (an early draft from 20 years ago)

To demonstrate the persistence of memory Dali took an ice cube out of the freezer & closed his fingers over it. When he opened them there was a small pool of water in his palm. He said: you remember the piece of ice. I feel its retained coldness & recall some frames from a movie I made with Buñuel. A man’s hand. A hole in it. Ants.

Time is plastic, just like these watches. Why we remember some things & not others is because they come closer to us. The cliffs of Catalonia are static but the ants will eat away at them & eventually they’ll decay. I lie here, unable to remember what I looked like. The painting is about the impermanence of memory, & yet most people who’ve seen it always seem to remember what it looked like.

wednesday newstrip

Iran vows 'severe' revenge after announcing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed by short-range projectile · Windows 11 24H2 WDDM 3.2 ships with big upgrades for GPU, NPU as Microsoft bets on Copilot · US deploying F-22s to Middle East as Iran seeks revenge on Israel · T.®ump pulls out of debate with K.Harrismatic, wants them to face off on Fox News instead · most chatbots inherently 'left-leaning,' but have capacity to 'learn' bias, study finds · beyond the elation, Putain's prisoner swap has ominous implications · AI is already straining electricity systems – & we’re just at the beginning.

wednesday newstrip

DoNuts T.®ump tells Christians they ‘won’t have to’ vote again after election · French UFC star claims 'Christianity was humiliated' in Olympic opening ceremony · two children killed & nine injured in stabbing attack at Southport, in England's north-west · Intelligence service says Kim Jong Un preparing daughter Kim Ju Ae to lead North Korea · Victorian mother jailed for forcing daughter to marry man who murdered her six weeks later · Apple TV+ reportedly has spent $30 billion on original films & shows, but gets fewer views in one month than Netflix gets in a day · the Australian Olympic Committee has issued a statement in response to frustration & controversy over its "vegan" focus at the athletes' village · can Kamala’s knitting-obsessed, topless-modeling stepdaughter help her to the presidency?

geographies : Garvoc

 

wednesday newstrip

Penis cancer cases are surging around the world · Chinese authorities say they are investigating contaminated cooking oil issues after local media reports found a major state-owned food company used the same trucks to ship fuel, chemical liquids, & food products to cut costs · T.®ump vows to end Ukraine war in call with Zelenskyy · [2.23.22: T.®ump calls Putain 'genius' & 'savvy' for Ukraine invasion] · the United Nations has released its most recent analysis of world population, which now estimates there will be 700 million fewer people in 2100, 6 per cent less than anticipated a decade ago · RNC booth hosts AR-15 giveaway, days after T.®ump assassination attempt · scammers will pounce on global outage caused by CrowdStrike bug, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil warns · International Court of Justice rules Israel's presence in occupied Palestinian territories in Gaza, the West Bank, & East Jerusalem is illegal & should end.

wednesday newstrip

Intense winter storm to bring heavy rain, gales, bitter cold, & snow to eastern Australia · report reveals 100,000 Melbourne homes were vacant in 2023 in the midst of a "housing crisis" · JoeKing BidenMyTime reassures supporters 'I'm OK' as Democrats remain split over US election prospects & JKBMT continues on with gaffe after gaffe · DoNuts T.®ump has brutally mocked JKBMT after the President’s gaffe-ridden day at the NATO Summit in Washington · Alec Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter case dismissed in middle of trial & cannot be filed again · T.®ump's critics point out that many psychiatrists believe schadenfreude is a mental illness · Rudely Jeweliani’s bankruptcy case dismissed by NYC judge, clearing way for debt collection & lawsuits · meanwhile, Rudely claims that DoNuts T.®ump owes him about $2 million in unpaid legal fees for helping try to overturn the 2020 election · registered Republican identified as DoNuts T.®ump's potential assassin.

wednesday newstrip

He’s derided as dull but Care (not to) Stammer becomes UK prime minister with a sensational victory · Canberra couple awarded damages after wife awoken by a real estate agent in her bedroom conducting an inspection · 100 feral cats caught in Queenstown Lakes' Rees Valley; group steps up trapping efforts · One Million Checkboxes, a simple online game that invites visitors to click or unclick check boxes, has become an unintentional case study in human behavior · steamy 'Overwatch cabaret club' where you can pay to have women fall asleep on voice chat with you gets obliterated, is immediately replaced by even steamier Apex version · Machete actor Danny Trejo in nasty July 4th brawl after being hit by water balloon.

wednesday newstrip

Israel's bombs flatten parts of South Lebanon village amid fears of wider war · driver hit with $387 fine after mobile camera snaps her holding — a piece of banana bread · US Supreme Court ruling allows cities to ban homeless people from sleeping outdoors · tests show Paris' Seine River still has unsafe E. coli levels with Olympics less than a month away · BidenMyTime crashes, T.®ump lies: a campaign-defining presidential debate · Australia's weather heading off the rails — cold, snowy change followed by possible record 'blocking high' · Internet shocked to hear Paris Hilton’s real voice · & no, (sigh) BidenMy Time didn't fall asleep during debate · was DoNuts T.®ump a king during his presidency? The US Supreme Court thinks so.

wednesday newstrip

MAGA granny admits to grooming teen grandson to believe Democrats worship Satan · nuclear plan put forward by Australian Opposition leader, Putrid Dustbin, could cost as much as $600bn & supply just 3.7% of Australia’s energy by 2050, experts say · Israeli forces tie wounded Palestinian man to a military jeep in an incident a UN expert said amounted to using him as a human shield · a man who terrorised South Australia in a 10-year bank robbing spree has been sentenced to 35 years jail, but will instead take his own life under voluntary assisted dying laws · Philippines says it won't start a war, but won't yield 'to any foreign power' after clash in South China Sea · lost continent 'unlike anything found today' discovered off the coast of Australia · the Museum of Old & New Art (MONA) in Tasmania was found to have discriminated against a man who was refused entry to its women-only ‘Ladies Lounge’ in April 2023, despite paying the museum entry fee · Israel's Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the state must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary into the military, a decree with the potential to divide Prime Minister Beenjammin' NotJustAnyYahoo's governing coalition.

wednesday newstrip

China-Australia relations 'back on track', says Chinese Premier Li Qiang · a remarkable group of Aussies stationed in Antarctica will celebrate the Winter Solstice in a very bold way, by swimming in freezing waters between -5 & -25 degrees celsius · Internet could be worsening our fear of small holes, psychologists say · ‘I need your help saving koalas’: Australians band together to build wildlife corridors · new Australian market research suggests the so-called 'bank of mum & dad' could be closing for business … despite its best intentions · old fools caught raiding Groper Creek for mud crabs.

wednesday thursday newstrip

Australian Opposition leader, Putrid Dustbin, is to pull Australia out of the Paris Agreement, & bring in nuclear power if his right-wing coalition wins the next election · Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has suffered a light whiplash injury after she was assaulted by a man in central Copenhagen, her office has said · grim scenes at Aldi as snow gear overflows "Special Buys" shelves bedcause it appears there's little snow this year · security experts have raised alarm over the vulnerability of older iPhone models, warning users with "outdated" tech are now more vulnerable to cyberattacks · survey reveals Australians distrust China & are losing faith in United States · don't know much about the clitoris? The International Cliteratti will help.

Now out from Otoliths

Otoliths has just released 100 Titles From Tom Beckett — Poems by Mark Young, Paintings by Thomas Fink, & with an Afterword by Tom Beckett.

Mark Young & Thomas Fink
100 Titles From Tom Beckett
full color
152 pages
ISBN: 978-0-6455483-3-4
$US37.75
Direct URL: https://www.lulu.com/shop/mark-young-and-thomas-fink/100-titles-from-tom-beckett/paperback/product-nvwzp98.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Tom Beckett's list was challenging. Sure there were some straightforward titles; but when you're confronted by 'Some of America’s Finest Malapropisms Stagger into a Bar' or 'He hadn’t Always Wanted to be Somebody’s Girl' or 'The Nine Stages of the Decomposition of a Corpse.' it's definitely time to kick into overdrive.

Add to that a common comment on my poetry is many of my titles have little relevance to the poems that accompany them. That is something I could not allow to happen here. Instead, the poems had to pay their respect, homage even, to the title that gave them birth.

I think I have done that successfully. &, helped along by the paintings from Thomas Fink, given me a collection of which I am most proud.
— Mark Young


Mark Young’s insightful, laser-sharp new poems in 100 Titles From Tom Beckett invite paradox and chance to dance with the sparks and echoes of Tom Beckett’s hilarious, downtempo titles and Tom Fink’s paintings of spreading fractals and swirling ropes of color. Young’s humor and pathos sprinkled with inkblots of bathos illuminate this book. His magnetic fields tease the push/pull levers of constraint and release. “I seem to be attracted / to things that do not exist, no / beginning, no end. Non-end - // ities, if you like, until negated / which then creates them.” Young’s poems often playfully reflect upon their own development and diversion as they proceed, exposing an openness to process at each turn of phrase. It is a pure delight to see Young, Beckett, and Fink – three master poets in their own right – join hands in the creative adventure of this marvelously generous work.
— Charles Borkhuis, author of *Rearview Mirror*


Reading 100 Titles From Tom Beckett makes me recall something I’ve sometimes thought about Mark Young’s poems: if all words created a block, the poet made poems by chiseling some of them out to fall randomly on the floor; the poet then assembled the words into lines and poems surface through a music created by breath and syllablic rhythm. These poems then are unique in that Mark volunteers that he actually tried to make his poems relate to the titles given by Tom Beckett. And yet the leap between title and text is not (always) linear, might be considered opaque in some cases, so that the reader's freedom of response is not diminished. What’s relevant to me is seeing how Beckett’s titles are such strong muses for Young’s poems. These poems present the play of brotherhood, as affirmed by Thomas Fink’s paintings where colors and shapes effect a harmony that couldn’t have been anticipated by each individual element before the painter joined them. Poems can be created through a multitude of ways and these results indicate the generative effect of affectionate brotherhood, while affirming that poetry succeeds by creating relationships and connections.
— Eileen R. Tabios


[Lulu has a 15% discount — promo code BOOKGOALS15 — running this week until Friday night. Promo codes for future weeks can be found each Monday at the Lulu Press Facebook page.https://www.facebook.com/Luludotcom/]

wedneday newstrip

Speaking outside the court after being convicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records, DoNuts T.®ump said he had been subject to a "rigged trial" by a "corrupt" judge, without providing any evidence to back up those claims · idiotic man fined for trying to 'body slam' orca off New Zealand coast · breast implant removals on the rise in Australia as researchers study health issues · Hellblade II tips for mastering the game’s visceral combat · accusations that DoNuts T.®ump has taken advantage of taxpayers by overcharging for lodging & travel for his Secret Service detail are once again being raised · ABBA receive Swedish knighthood for pop career that started at Eurovision · the ANC party that freed South Africa from apartheid loses its 30-year majority in landmark election.

The Wizard of Idiosyncrasy

 

wednesday newstrip

Kid Rock pulls gun out, praises his "bestie" DoNuts T.®ump, & uses ‘racial slurs’ in trainwreck interview wuth a Rolling Stone journalist · Singapore Airlines flight hits severe turbulence with multiple injuries & a death reported. Turbulence, which has already increased by 55% in the past 40 years because of the impact of climate change, is projected to increase even further in the future · Norway, Ireland, & Spain say they are recognizing Palestine as a state · Google has updated its search engine with an AI tool — but the new feature has reportedly told users to eat rocks, add glue to their pizzas, & clean their washing machines with chlorine gas · a 16-year-old who overdosed after receiving three prescriptions for addictive drugs in the days before his death had received 64 prescriptions from 31 doctors in the preceeding months · an Australian mother of five is facing the death penalty after she was accused of smuggling 7kg of drugs into Taiwan.

wednesday newstrip

Chinese zoo's 'panda' display found to feature dogs dyed black & white · swarms of noisy bugs are now starting to cover parts of the United States · Rudy Julie's Aunty claims he was booted from radio station because of 'trailer trash little creep' Joe BidenMyTime · a softly-spoken former bank clerk has become Putain's new mouthpiece, three years after she was released from a Virginia jail for drug smuggling · conscription is back on the cards for millions of teenagers in Germany · video portal allowing people from New York City & Dublin to interact in real-time goes horribly wrong · 'Hinky septic tank' of 'skeezeballs': devastating NY Times attack skewers T.®ump hangers-on.

65,000 years of history at the Venice Biennale

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-12/archie-moore-venice-biennale-up-close/103789292

recently, at Series Magritte

Les Pierreries

So much alike as 
we peer from the
box we could 
pass as brothers. 

But what’s in a 
box is often more 
than just contain-
ment, what reso-

nates can be more 
than beauty is. Gems 
we might some-
times be referred 

to as; but what 
other facets will
be displayed when  
the lid is lifted?

wednesday newstrip

Hellblade II is very nearly upon us, & the system requirements have just been rereleased. You'll need, as per the table of specs, at least an Intel i5-8400/AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or equivalent CPU coupled with a NVIDIA GTX 1070/AMD RX 5700/Intel Arc A580 with 6GB VRAM to play the game on its “Low” preset at 1080p as a minimum experience, while pushing the game to its limits on “High” settings at a full 4K will require in the ballpark of an Intel i5-12600K/AMD Ryzen 7 5700X & NVIDIA RTX 4080/AMD RX 7900 XTX · new SARS-CoV-2 KP.2 variant defies vaccines with higher spread, study warns · a Queensland mother has shared her shock after finding a note about her newborn baby in her letter box that “left her in tears”.

a couple of recently released free downloadable pdfs,

one old work, one new.

eNumerations

I have just completed the preliminary draft for a forthcoming book, 100 Titles From Tom Beckett, & preparing the introduction led me to 'A List for Tom Beckett,' a poem I had written in 2006, & which had first appeared on this blog.

The surrounding text indicated that I had decided to include this list poem in a then-current project, Enumerations or eNumerations — it seems like I hadn't yet decided on a final title. So I sought out what else I could find from this project, & this pdf is a result of that search.

Only a fraction of it seems to have since seen the light of day. 'A List for Tom Beckett' later appeared in Word For/Word; five of the poems were included as 'New Poems' in my 2008 selected Pelican Dreaming: Poems 1959 – 2008; & I'm fairly certain that something may have appeared in one of Jukka-Pekka Kervinen's zines. Apart from that . . .

It's a bit of a mishmash. Visuals that seemed aligned to what I was trying to do, found spam, straight poems, code, output from the late Leevi Lehto's poem generator. But I find what I was trying to do at the time, & how that has since been refined, informative.

So, with thanks to harry k stammer for hosting it at Sandy Press, I present what I hope will be an interesting piece of past.

https://www.sandy-press.com/blog/enumerations-mark-young/


to your scattered bodies go

A collection of 50 poems from the past 12 or so months.

Because I've got two "big" books coming out later this year — the aforementioned 100 Titles From Tom Beckett, & the 600+ page The Magritte Poems — I decided to do a free downloadable pdf instead of my usual annual collection of recent poems. It's published by Scud Editions, who are also home to the companion Scud, one of my favorite journals to publish in, but not as well-known as it should be.

https://scudlit.blogspot.com/p/editions.html

wednesday newstrip

Sumatran orangutan becomes first wild animal seen using medicinal plant to treat wound · a neighborhood fish’n’chip shop in a small Manawatū town in New Zealand, trading as Popeye’s for at least 20 years, has bowed to the legal threats of US fried chicken giant Popeye’s, forsaking its name · Mexican authorities say three bodies have been found in an area where two Australian brothers & their American travel companion are missing · ex-DoNuts T.®ump aide Hope Hicks tells court the former US prissygent asked her to deny affair with Stormy Daniels · undercover police lured businessman to New Zealand before $1.5b cocaine bust · Bruce Willis 'is doing OK' amid dementia battle.

Today the post-
woman brought
me a serious
dose of para-
noia. I thought
long & hard 
about leaving it
at room temper-

ature, but finally
decided to keep 
it chilled until I
could celebrate
people stopping
talking about me.

wednesday newstrip

Plastic surgeons warn 'Ozempic face' has taken over Hollywood · scientists have finally discovered whether the chicken or the egg came first · Sky News host Liz Storer has praised DoNuts T.®ump for being a "jolly good" president & a "walking, talking comic" · Nancy Pelosi calls for NotJustAnyahoo to resign as she slams his "terrible" actions in Gaza · more than 150 pilot whales have been saved from stranding on a beach in Western Australia's southwest, but 31 have died · Putain ditches victory parades over fears soldiers will be hit by kamikaze drone · Monicker Lewinsky trolls Bill Clintoris with a Taylor Swift reference · Karen the adored ostrich dies after swallowing zoo staff member’s keys.

wednesday false news trip

BidenMyTime said he would leave office if he can't pass cognitive test · a deadly contagion known as Disease X is emerging · the number of voters registering without a photo ID is skyrocketing in 3 key swing states: Arizona, Texas, & Pennsylvania, evidence that migrants who entered the country illegally are registering to vote · Israel said that the deaths of seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen in the Gaza Strip were caused by a roadside bomb planted by Hamas · Washington state passed a bill that will incentivize people to report hate speech & bias on a 24/7 hotline with a cash reward · a Fargo, North Dakota, man was arrested for clearing snow with a flamethrower · former US president DoNuts T.®ump faces criminal charges for taking out a loan & paying it back.

wednesday newstrip

Marjorie Taylor Greene claims New York City's recent earthquake was God telling America to 'repent' · Fox host vexed by BidenMyTime’s good job numbers finds a solution – give the credit to T.®ump · McDonald's to buy back 225 franchised outlets in Israel after it was criticized for giving away thousands of free meals to Israeli soldiers · Robert F. Kennedy Jr. retracts false statement that no J6 rioters carried weapons · Italian island giving away its goats after numbers overwhelm human population · army of ladybugs deployed in Darwin to combat exotic papaya mealybug infestation · former president DoNuts T.®ump has privately said he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine by pressuring Ukraine to give up some territory.

wednesday newstrip

DoNuts T.®ump believed Nepal was part of India — & he thought it was pronounced 'nipple' · US firm AT&T says data of 73 million customers leaked on ‘dark web’ · India bans Australian Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts on Sikh separatist killing · ex-T.®ump adviser says former president 'hasn’t got the brains' for dictatorship · 2022 video shows California police fatally shooting teenager who was reported kidnapped · Truth Social shares go into freefall after investors learn how much money it really makes · Botswana offers to send 20,000 elephants to Germany · Helldivers 2 players finally liberate Malevelon Creek, aka 'Robot Vietnam'.

wednesday newstrip

At least 12 Palestinians drown trying to retrieve 'useless' aid parcels dropped into sea · family group charged with stealing $16,000 worth of groceries from an Auckland supermarket, walking out with six trolleys full of goods · a viral video is claiming to show the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse from a large explosion; the video actually shows an explosion on Kerch bridge between Crimea & Russia in 2022 · also in New Zealand, Gisborne's rainbow crossing has been restored after a protest group linked with Destiny Church covered it over in white paint in protest of a drag event · Moscow has vowed to build two entire new armies before the end of the year amid fears President Putain is planning an eventual strike against Europe · Prince Harry named in $30m sex abuse lawsuit against Sean 'Diddy' Combs.

Today the post-
woman brought
me the macaw
I'd ordered

off the internet.
Caveat emptor —
I got sent a
Scottish crow.