v fucked up: an interview with omar de col

me: Omar, why are u doing videos of you smoking? who do u think u are a role model for children

omar: tbh i don't even believe in smoking

me: 2pac said he;s not a role model bc "a role is something you play and a model is something you make, and i'm not fake."

as u can see, that rhymes

omar: if children speak english they won't understand french, so that can be interesting if u are able to understand portugese

or something

me: this is going well

i feel like u just said something deep and i didnt get it

what the fuck are u on about omar

omar: wel if u look at the history of the thing

then it's true

me: lol

omar: just look at the facts

me: when i examine the record, it becomes clear

omar: no no

me: lol

omar: the record is for playing music

i am talking about historical documents

u feel me

me: yea...i "feel u," omar

omar: lie

between

good and evil

is 'and'

u feel me?

me: trying to think of an abusive nonsequitur

omar: ok

exactly

so if u flip it

then it becomes a completely different things

for example

yesterday i was walking on the road

to talk to the locals

and u know what they always say?

they talk about jobs dissapearing

and frankly

i can understand their point

me: Do you care about like "literary culture" or would you rather just look at cute girls' facebooks/twitters?

this is a dumb and obvious q i just realized

omar: for me

it can be an interesting debate

for example

is there a culture

what is a cute girl

these are questions that are also debatable

so it can take a v long time

for example

do u believe in culture stephen

me: no

Hey Omar

what's your favorite Blink song

omar: ok that is very interesting to some people

maybe not me

me: this is a great performance so far bravo

whats your favorite blink song

omar: blink 182?

me: yea

omar: oh ok

me: was just thinking: this interview will just make all the girls like u more

nothing else will be accomplished

ur so selfish

omar: the one where they talk about the small things

me: shitty choice

omar: well ok

that is your opinion

me: lol

omar: and i will defend to the death your right to have it

me: who cut your hair

recently

didja self-cut

omar: thank you

me: lol

omar: i wanted to talk about this 

me: lol

omar: u mentioned it in the pre-interview

i went to this barber

who is chinese

and she calls me 'handsome boy'

which is something i like

because

very interesting sidebar

she is very good

at making me feel comfortable

me: ever listen to handsome boy modeling school

are they...are they somehow the same band...

omar: because she doesn't speak english

me: as...we are scientists...

somehow...

omar: i'm not sure what you're talking about

me: english makes u nervous?

omar: but i'm glad u are listening to different kinds of music

me: what should a girl do if she has u over

or a boy

omar: to answer your first question

english doesn't make me nervous

to answer your second question

i would need you to go into more detail

me: how have u met girls

didja ever meet a girl at camp

on a bus

in a garage

in a field

in a meadow

ata pub

omar: mostly the girls meet me

i think

me: rest stop

is that so

omar: yes

it depends where i am

in that situation

me: wherever u are, there they meet u

omar: no no

now u are twisting my word

frankly

when a girl meets me

or i meet a girl, as u put it

it is by chance

for example

i once knew a girl

because she hung around with my flat mate

and i stayed in my room

while they drank in the common area

to seem mysterious

and also

because i was shy

at some point

i went to sit with them

and we made eye contact

then as she was leaving i asked for her email

and spoke to her on msn

me: you DO seem mysterious

omar: messenger

well

idk about that

as you can see

i have a twitter, tumblr and used to have facebook

and am available on gchat

https://twitter.com/holiecrap

http://avantgardebagpipesolos.tumblr.com/

kellyhuckabyyy@gmail.com

can u see those

me: what would it take for u to go back on facebook for good

as it were

omar: well

to be honest

since u asked the question

i am going to answer it

me: exciting

omar: i have secretly been activating fb

mostly to view pix of girls

however

someone said to me yesterday

after i mentioned that i deactivated fb

that i will be back on it within a week

so i feel if i turn it on again

'for good'

i will seem like a lil bitch

and i care what ppl think

it is one of my flaws

what can i say though, i am human

we all have our flaws

u feel me?

me: i wonder sometimes...if u think abt the feelings of others..

i do wonder that...

omar: well

that is an interesting point

v metaphysical

have u read the philosophy?

me: no i havent read it

have u seen "a dangerous method"

omar: no

me: me neither

cool

omar: i would rather stay on topic

me: it looked good tho

omar: hold on

lets finish what u started

me: can one tho remain on topic

omar: u haven't deactivated fb

am i right in saying that?

me: you have said so

omar: ok

so i will assume that is true

since u wont give me a straight answer

do u consider the feelings of ppl who want u to deactivate fb?

me: lol

me: When are u coming to amerika

omar: awp '13

me: cool

u heard it here first

omar: oh

ha ha

me: u can meet elaine

thank god

omar: are we breaking the 4th wall now

me: it's broke

omar: ok

me: can u take some sexie fotos to accompany this interview

seeing as i cant peruse ur fbook pix

cause ur a selfish prick

omar: do you remember when i made my point about u not deactivating fb?

me: just go in photobooth for a while

what else should i deactivate

omar: i don't have photobooth

i'll take a pic i guess

me: thank you

omar: lol

are we still in the interview

me: yes

omar: ok

is there anything else u would like me to talk about?

me: idk like

probably my initial thots are dispensable now

something abt literature

omar: ok

well lately i have been reading lydia davis

well

i read the first story

me: whaddya think of her

omar: then i fell asleep in the sun

me: perfect

omar: but i liked the first one

me: u ever read salinger

omar: no

i don't have time for him

me: "just before the war with the eskimos"

he doesnt have time for u

omar: yes

he's dead

me: no hes not

omar: yes he is

me: n-o

omar: it was in the news

me: anyway what else u up to

his body's decomposed yea

omar: i am in the process of completing some stories

me: cool

omar: and writing some peoms

for a ebook or chapbook or something else

me: cool

omar: called 'idk, idc'

me: will u finally appear in a lit mag

not that it matters

or will u release in collections exclusively

omar: i don't have any interest really in being in a lit mag

apart from pop serial

me: atta boy

omar: LOL

me: i feel u

at last

i feel u

omar: lol

fuck

me: i dont even use linked in

why do ppl keep trying to add me

what are they gonna get a job or something

whens the last time u had a gf

omar: i always worry i am missing opportunities on that

by not accepting friend req

me: lets get down to what can only be described as brass tacks

omar: last time i had a gf

me: who was ur last gf

omar: was

in 2008 maybe

me: who was she

howd u meet

omar: very interesting question

me: yes

omar: we met in my flat

at uni

me: what was the occasion

omar: i think she was just hanging out with my flat mates

and i would stay in my room

me: to be mysterious

omar: yes

by mysterious though

i mean

mysterious to me

me: antisocial

omar: well

not really

asocial maybe

me: so ur trying to bedevil yourself with ur own mysterious ways

omar: no

i just dont understand myself

me: o

yes yea

omar: u feel me

me: yea

omar: v fucked up

me: its alright omar

so howd u meet then

girlfriend

she came into ur room

or did u emerge

omar: i emerged at some point

me: yes

omar: to cook bacon

our kitchen and common room were attached

like

one big room

and then because they were there

me: full of bacon bitches

omar: and i had finished cooking the bacon

i felt peer pressured

into sitting with them

so i did that

me: did u offer her a slice

omar: no

it was in a sandwich

me: o i see

omar: i made eye contact with her at some point

didn't talk to her

maybe said a few things during the conversation to be involved

me: describe the eye contact

omar: like

me: was it furtive or...lingering

omar: i had the sandwich in my mouth

biting down

and like

me: lol

omar: looking around

and our eyes met

then i looked away

because i felt scared

me: =)

omar: later when she was leaving

i think i said i'd walk her back to her flat

me: just off the eye contact

omar: and then i asked her for her email at her door when saying good night

me: nice

her email

haha

sounds nice

is there anything else u'd like to add, omar

omar: no

Cobbled-together Blog Post (End of the Week)

Hello everyone.

The print version of Pop Serial #3 is taking forever to come out. Omar De Col has taken over layout duties.

Omar started a video series recently.
                                             
You can see him smoking cigarettes and such.

Things my boss has said at work today:

"im bent man..im bent...wouldnt have it any other way"

  "my wife says im psychotic""the art has to come from a weird place... i prefer being a little odd, eccentric..if you dont have a little diversity in your life...how the fuck are ya gonna play the blues"

Feel like this was a boring-ass week. Nothing much happened online. I want to eradicate boredom on- and offline, I said in a gchat to Omar. I want to produce more things. I want people I like to produce more things. Books. Also essays. Web projects. Ebooks that maybe you would devote more than 5 minutes to or something. I don't know.

Any ideas, people?

If I ever start another thing after Pop Serial, or alongside Pop Serial, I want to call it Death Jam. That's the name I came up with, Death Jam.

Here is a paragraph I wrote today at work:

"The Barclays have Central Air, satellite television (with all the soccer games and Mystery Science Theater 3000 reruns), leather furniture, and a big house with a servant staircase next to the grand wooden carpeted one. Owing to they live across the street from me and I'm always welcome (Mrs. Barclay says this whenever I stay for dinner), I visit all the time. Well and also, Will Barclay is my friend."

I read, and some say I pondered, this essay: "The Future of Memory."

Socrates Adams and Chris Killen will be in Pop Serial #4. They are nice gents and above-average lawn bowlers.

My friend James Tadd Adcox has a book out. He is going on a Midwestern book tour soon I think.

The wonderful Richard Chiem has a book coming out soon from Scrambler Books. It has received what can only be described as blurbs from Dennis Cooper, Blake Butler, and Kate Zambreno. I have read most of it and my blurb would be: "Richard Chiem is an inimitable stylist...like a Wong Kar-Wai of prose."

Heiko Julien is a swell-ass guy. I met him. He enjoys hugging things. I liked his first ebook/novel, am i cool. He recently sent me his second ebook/novel. It is called I Am Ready to Die a Violent Death. Look for it, on the interwebs..

Brief Reviews of Movies I Recently-ish Saw


Damsels in Distress
Very enjoyable. I laughed a lot.


Moonrise Kingdom
Very good. Probably my favorite Wes movie, or top 2/top 3.

Magic Mike
Entertaining. Male nudity.

To Rome with Love
Enjoyable.

Looking forward to seeing Ruby Sparks.

Previous movie blogging: Kim Ki-duk blog post

That's it for now.

Blog Post with Erratically Shifting Tone (For Adam Robinson)

Adam Robinson said, in a June interview, that he misses writers regularly blogging at length, because it allowed him to get a sense of their personalities and connect with them one to one. I relate to his perspective despite not being around for the halcyon days of blogging, circa 2008 or so. (The tone's not gonna be consistent OK it's a blog. Alright.)


I relate because I value people, the artists, more than the work they produce. I want to make friends--I know some people only care about the work ("good writing is all that matters dude I am an adjunct professor..") but I want to meet likeminded people. And it became apparent to me early on, when I first checked out HTMLGIANT in late 2009 (?), that there was a social scene going on alongside the writing scene, and I liked that. 

The internet has allowed me to make some of the best friends I've ever had. Like, in all my lifetimes. Many I met through commenting on HTMLGIANT and starting my own magazine, Pop Serial. Gchat has been big too, especially when I've been sad and lonely and...effing adrift in this zany world in which we live, my bbs.... 

Steve Roggenbuck, who has become an influential, popular figure in the 2012 online lit community, and who has greatly inspired the "alt lit" community which some see as antithetical to the '08 style of community, became my friend because I saw his blog via him reviewing I think Tao Lin, the first and biggest writer I've encountered online. I solicited Steve for Pop Serial, coincidentally he was to be moving to Chicago shortly, and we became friends in real life. I've said to many people he's the best friend I've made since childhood, friends I've had since elementary school or earlier.


I think the world of micro-blogging, as Adam puts it, which does seem to be the dominant mode, via Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr, does allow people to connect, to check out and appreciate each other's work, to get some sense of personality, maybe add the other on gchat or participate in Tinychats or Ustreams, but I could understand someone perceiving the new wave of writers on the scene as flashing a badge (via posting macros, post-flarfing on Facebook, via writing a certain kind of poetry, via having a sad persona on Twitter, tweeting about drugs, binge-eating, and various other tropes in many cases associated with Tao Lin/Muumuu House or Steve Roggenbuck) in order to join a club. And maybe that is alienating to people who are used to the idea of individual writers trying to carve out a unique aesthetic and showing their distinct personalities via blogging.


Some of this I think is a misperception. Of course there are only individuals in this new wave/new scene. Still everyone is different. No one is the same, even if they say "seems" a lot, or imitate Steve's misspellings, or say "boost" a lot, whatever else. 


I relate to the desire for striking, distinct individuals within a scene and Daniel Bailey's stated desire for writers to try harder and to work on having their own styles. I don't agree with his overall assessment of the new scene.


I also agree with many of Steve's points in his lovely essay posted yesterday. I don't think a literary scene needs to be a bunch of super-ambitious writers each striving to be as big or great or whatever as possible. I think it is a cynical, narrow-minded perspective to look at "alt lit," specifically the new community of poets inspired by Steve, and see them as remoras attaching to a shark, along for the ride. There will always be leaders in any community or movement. 

Circa 2008, Tao Lin and Blake Butler and others were leaders and many other writers then and now were inspired by them and probably did and continue to emulate them--this has led to lots of writing people value. 


Those two figures are instructive in that, in my opinion, Butler's direct influence has been strongest on other writers with significant ambitions (perhaps due to his style and difficulty, which may appeal more to other writers who aspire to be seen as "great" in their own right), whereas Tao has influenced a lot of writers and former non-writers who perhaps connect personally to Tao's writing, internet presence, and worldview as opposed to being inspired as ambitious writers themselves. 


This is a simplification to make a point, that different writers have different values and goals and will inspire community of different sorts. Accessibility and broader appeal (beyond other "serious" writers) is the result of style but also of promotion, and Tao and now Steve and nearly everyone in the "alt lit"/Muumuu/Pop Serial community self-promotes to a more significant degree than was once common. 


The exceptions to my characterizations of Butler and Tao are notable: Steve was inspired by Tao and now he is an ambitious writer and leader in his own right, with a unique style. I am big into Joyce and Beckett, the kind of writers people who like Blake tend to like, yet was drawn to Tao. I aspire to be like Tao not necessarily in style but rather in impact, in philosophy, in his spirit, which is very exciting and moving to me. 


****


There is nothing to worry about. Everything is going very well.


****

Also of interest, maybe, to anyone who misses 2008 days, or to anyone who is into longer texts, or loves the rare book that isn't boring, that is like an old new friend:

There's lots of sweet-ass writers emerging now! Many who have emerged in the last couple of years. The ones I especially like I have published in Pop Serial.

Richard Chiem exists. He is a sweet dude. His book is coming out. Dennis Cooper has praised his writing, a wonderful endorsement.

Ana Carrete exists. She is awesome. She has a lit mag, New Wave Vomit, she was first to ever publish me. I love her. She has a book coming out. It is depressing and Ana-like and beautiful.

Frank Hinton, that mysterious Frank, who foisted Alt Lit Gossip back on us, has a book coming out. Frank writes about death and shit, I like it.

Ben Brooks exists. He's from the olden days, even though he's young as fuck! He's dedicated and productive and cool and talented. I envy his life and wish to swap with him and I like him a lot.

Crispin Best is awesome guy. He's an OG. Very clever. Everyone loves Crispin.

Marshall Mallicoat exists. I like his poetry a lot. He is very interesting online and in real life. Is he joking? Is he not joking? Is he kind of not also joking? I love it.

Shaun Gannon loves to tell you he exists. He writes big bangers, like the one with his name in it.

DJ Berndt is a wonderful nice guy, he takes writing seriously, he is a friend to everyone.

Cassandra Troyan exists. She has a book coming out, it looks good. She is a force as they say. She is a performer.

Madison Langston exists. I like her writing, I hope she keeps doing it.

Jackson Nieuwland exists. Fuck you if you don't like that he "like"s. Jackson is a force. He is beautiful.

Omar De Col is funny and cute and has been studying the writing he likes. He recently quit Twitter and Facebook to focus on writing. It was terrible for me and I hope he never does it again. Literature is not that important. Omar is wonderful I am biggest fan.

Maggie Lee has a great voice, she is using it on Twitter and in poems. It's cool, I really dig it.

Mira Gonzalez exists. I like her a lot, her personality is great. She's working on poetry, I think she's working on a book!

Spencer Madsen is not always sad you fucks! He is working hard on his writing. He is very funny, he is a nice guy. He has plans and ambitions.

Cassandra Nguyen exists. She's really cool and nice. I like her poems. She is one of the best people at making friends I've ever encountered.

I'm not sure if Elaine Sun wants to be a poet but she could be if she wants to lol!

Andrew James Weatherhead is a wonderful poet. I like his poems a lot. I think he has ambitions.

Michael Inscoe exists, he is beautiful! I hope he writes and makes many more things.

Timothy Willis Sanders is fucking cool as hell and nice and good-looking and gainfully employed and also a good writer (as Adam well knows!) Lol! He's got a novel coming, fuck you!

I'm excited, coffee!!

Fuck you, I write shit, I don't know. "I've only just begun." Check my sidebar. I feel very encouraged 'cause Dennis Cooper liked my one story. I'll do 10 more of those and a novel. Let's go!

Many more names!

Zachary Whalen, he's hilarious and good, he probably hates you and me both, I'm not sure.

Heiko Julien only has 1 e-book so far, but I thought it was real good! He's cool and makes music. Maybe he'll write more (I hope so.)

Guillaume Morissette is a funny writer, I like him. I interviewed him recently about his new book.

David Fishkind. He's talented I think.

Jordan Castro. He's got books coming. He was in the Wall Street Journal and some Spanish newspaper. You mad?

(Confused about the tone of this post, gonna keep going lol...)

Megan Boyle and Zachary German wrote sweet books. I hope there will be more.

Noah Cicero exists. He is a fuckin veteran in the game and continues to inspire and help newer writers.

Sam Pink is alive, from 2008 to now! Sam Pink is sweet as fuck, fuck your granddaddy! I wish I could write something as good as "Training" or Person or something else he wrote. One of my favorite writers.

Tao Lin is alive. My favorite living writer. His inspiration never wanes for me.


Alright that's it for now. Hey Adam Robinson, I can try and blog more man. Here's a start.