1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Competed in a national poetry slam, published in the city pages, visited Detroit and San Francisco, got a retail job (or two), sold my writing, performed in a comedy show, saw the Pacific Ocean.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't think I made any this year. I did sort of make a one word resolution at Balls- "voice", and I think I've done whatever that entails.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yup.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
San Francisco and Detroit *seemed* like foreign cities.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A real job. The win of at least one poetry slam.

7. What date(s) from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
My birthday. My friends all chipped in and purchased me a digital SLR. I am humbled by the love these wonderful people show me.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Voted best new spoken word artist in MN.

9. What was your biggest failure?
No job.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Minor colds and random infections, nothing too serious.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
soy nog? a ticket to seattle? a really swank, really cheap winter coat? leopard print galoshes?

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Rubin, Wonder Dave, Cali, Oliver.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Erik.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
C'mon guys, this is me. What DIDN'T I get really, really, really excited about?

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
"Daylight" - Matt & Kim

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier- last year, Canada had just begun dying for real, stranding me in South Dakota, and I was still dealing with the emotional fallout of MCP and being unemployed
ii. thinner or fatter? thinner- I've randomly lost some weight, maybe muscle? I lost some appetite.
iii. richer or poorer? richer, but not much- last year this time, I was panicked and had to borrow money from friends. I'm really just scraping by at the moment, and owing a lot of people a lot of favors and money.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
I did pretty well, but I wished I'd have gotten more of my writing done this past summer.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Panicking.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Who knows! Possibly driving to South Dakota, possibly with my sister (who might get stranded here), possibly without her (if her flight goes through)- possibly stuck here, possibly with my sister (if we both get stranded here), possibly with friends. This is exactly what my whole year has been like, totally rolling with the punches.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Yes.

22. How many nightstands?
I've got kind of a shelving unit next to my bed, but no night stand proper.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
I watched the Glee for a while, I haven't been keeping up- I've seen the House a couple of times, it's kind of addicting.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I'm a lover, not a hater.

25. What was the best book you read?
"White Noise" by Don Dellilo, maybe? Maybe "The New York Trilogy" by Paul Auster? I enjoyed book 4 of the Harry Potter series, but it seems like all the fun is over now...

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Rupa and the April Fishes, or the Books, or Matt & Kim.

27. What did you want and get?
A DSLR. A ticket to San Francisco. Antics. Respect. Adventure. A meal at Millennium. Clementines. Soy nog.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
errrrr.....Moon maybe? It was weird and charming and sad, which are things I like. I enjoyed some of the kids movies I saw, too.... maybe I just didn't see a lot of movies?

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I baked 100 cupcakes, had a party, and turned 30.

30. What is at least one thing that would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Financial or emotional security. Or maybe just having finished that damn chapbook project that still hangs over my head.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies.

32. What kept you sane?
The support of my friends, peers, and Charlie's mom.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
uhhhhh.... none.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
I've been really frustrated with the whole gay marriage issue, as well as the lack of a public health option- I've written to my congress people about both issues, multiple times now.

35. Who did you miss the most this year?
Susan.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Too many! Marc & Charlie rock, San Francisco is full of amazing people, and there are wonderful poets all over the country.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
Your hobbies can be your saving grace, when you are hard up otherwise- be flexible, be willing to make art at the drop of a hat.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
(I hate to say it, but this is the most accurate-) I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down (repeat ad infinitum).

Sponsor a roll of film!
This picture was made by Jenny Rose. These are photographs I sent to her as part of the Sponsor-a-Roll-of-Film etsy project that I was inspired by yerdua to do.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33029061

If you sponsor a roll of film, You'll get an 8x12 print off the roll, or two, if you're lucky like Jenny Rose, and I can't choose between two images. Help me buy groceries and pay bus fare!

Hi folks, I know I keep talking about this and only this, but: unbeknownst to me, there's a people's choice award for each of the categories for the spoken word awards show. I hate doing a stupid, shameless plug for myself, but if you think I've done a good job with my performances and work on the website, please consider voting for me (best new spoken word artist, and special recognition award for minnesotamicrophone.com).

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/118841/urbangriotsawardsvoting

You only get one vote per IP address, so, you know- you don't have to do it more than once.

*8. NEW SPOKEN WORD ARTIST OF THE YEAR (MN) (The strongest new Spoken Word artist in the community. They cannot have been a part of the Spoken Word for more than 1 year.)
** 17. SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD (MN) (An award to recognize artists and contributions that don’t easily fit into any category.)

I know, I know. You're all "Gunn, you've already got too many journals." I've added inkypoet to be an RSS feed for Inktea.com, so you can see the posts I make over there on my official "spoken word artist" site. I've posted a couple of videos, a couple of poems, some process entries, some really bad haiku for the sake of humor, and that's what can be expected over there.

This spoken word thing has gotten kind of important to me, and it would really mean a lot to me if you folks considered coming out to the Urban Griots Spoken Word Awards Ceremony this friday. It's only $3, there'll be one of my favorite new bands playing, lots of talented people, and I'm up for a couple of awards. It's at the Varsity Theater and stuff starts around 8pm, so you can still get out and do the rest of your night afterwards. I've got more info up at MN Mic.

Monday:
1pm interview with Mill City Scene
7pm Monday Night Comedy Show
sometime record two poems
Tuesday:
Lunch with Adrienne
Evening poetry reading with Dave
Wednesday
3am leave for Detroit
Thursday
Women of the World Poetry Slam prelims
Friday
Women of the World Poetry Slam prelims
Saturday
Women of the World Poetry Slam finals
Sunday
return to mpls
maybe puzzle quest
maybe guante's show
maybe just go to bed.

I finished the MinnPost interview today, and just woke middle-of-night to discover a Macalester student had facebook emailed me to ask if she could interview me sometime this week for her literary journalism paper. I may be passing her off to another poet if I can.

Dreamt something happened in downtown Minneapolis- some kind of a dam broke, and the city was flooding. I grabbed my mother's hand and we went up into a skyscraper that had an third floor exit into a nearby park- somewhere along the way I lost my shoes. I eventually got my mother into taxi cab, to take her to safety. Then I went back (maybe for my shoes?) and saw a building swinging back and forth like it was in an earthquake. I was worried for the people in the building, but it seems they had special technology and the now ridiculously strong earthquake wasn't even messing up the things on some executive's desk. I ran into my boss, as I was walking across steel beams and I asked what we needed to do, to take care of the business in the wake of the flood- he told me to go home and write a song. He was very earnest about it, so I headed back out of the now Venice-like downtown Minneapolis.

Wait! Is that me on the lineup over on the right hand side, too?

You're coming out to see us, right?

Dear Friends,

So, Star5 did a Thing-a-Day last February, and reminded us of it this year. I thought, hey, I could be in on that. So today, for my first thing, I made myself a blank book. I designed the cover, and gave it 28 pages. Guess what I'm going to use it for?





There is the likely possibility that I will want to make more blank books, as they are fairly easy, and I have most of the materials on hand. If you are interested in having me make you one, you should let me know 1) yes you want one and 2) what sort of inspiration I should take for the design. I'm not the best drawer, nor the most designy, so give me some leeway so I can play. I'm not *promising* you a blank book- I may just take a few of the ideas that I'm most struck by and go with them. I just figure, this is a neat thing, and I already have wayyyyyyy too many blank books, so maybe I'll share the love.

Love,
Gunn

From rphaedrus



http://exceptindreams.livejournal.com/105358.html

http://drawn.ca/2009/01/29/an-interview-with-shaun-tan/

Palestinian doctor has house shelled on Israeli news.

If you cannot see the subtitles do the following:
1. Play the video
2. Click the triangle button at the bottom-right corner of the video
3. Click the Turn on captions button that looks like the letters CC.



Israeli TV broadcast a father's heartbreak Friday night when a Palestinian doctor living in Gaza made a frantic phone call to a newscaster saying an Israeli tank had shelled his home, killing three of his daughters and injuring other family members.

Izz el-Deen Aboul Aish, who speaks Hebrew, worked as a gynecologist in an Israeli hospital. Even as the crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel had largely been closed in recent months, he had traveled frequently from one place to the other. But he had remained in Gaza since the Israeli offensive began 21 days ago. He gave frequent interviews to the Israeli media on living conditions in the seaside enclave. He spoke of having tanks around his house and of passing through checkpoints; he told Israelis what it was like to be Palestinian.

Minutes away from a scheduled phone interview on Israeli TV 10 with newscaster Shlomi Eldar, Aboul Aish called Eldar's cellphone, screaming and weeping in Arabic and Hebrew. The doctor's home had been struck by a shell:

"Oh God, oh my God, my daughters have been killed. They've killed my children. . . . Could somebody please come to us?"

Sitting at his news desk for one of Israel's main evening news broadcasts, Eldar held his phone up. For three minutes and 26 seconds, Aboul Aish's wailing was broadcast across the country.

Eldar welled up. He put his head down. He looked at the camera. He looked at his phone. He made pleas for helpfor the family, but the doctor kept crying, his voice scratchy, like sand on paper, until Eldar took out his earpiece and walked off the set to try to arrange for help. The newscaster's bewildered face seemed to capture a bit of pause in a nation that has largely supported its military campaign and prefers not to question its course.

News reports said there had been shooting in the area of the doctor's house before the shelling. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Israeli officials permitted ambulances carrying members of the doctor's family to cross the border to a hospital.

Aboul Aish was a single father. His wife had died of cancer. He made his daughters sleep close to the walls of their home in hopes that would keep them safe if airstrikes or artillery collapsed the ceiling.

"I don't know how this man will stand on his feet again after this tragedy," Dr. Liat Lerner-Geya, an Israeli who worked with Aboul Aish, told the Hebrew-language news website Ynet. "He would come to Israel and sleep at friends' houses for three nights. Even though he had all the necessary permits, they always gave him trouble at the crossings. But he believed there should be coexistence and practiced this in his work."

After the newscast, Eldar met with reporters. He said the doctor told him that evening "that since his wife's passing, the girls had been his entire life. He said his eldest daughter wanted to study at Haifa University. Just today another one of his daughters had told him she had gotten her period. 'In the middle of a war you get your period. You are a woman now.' "

She and her sisters are dead. The news spread across Israel's websites; the video of the doctor’s broadcast quickly made it to YouTube.

Eldar said of Aboul Aish: "It is simply surreal. He is part of this place yet not of it, belonging and not belonging."

Even so, across Israel the doctor's anguished voice kept playing over and over.

jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com Sobelman works in The Times' Jerusalem Bureau.

http://minnesotamicrophone.wordpress.com/

Word Ninjas open mic night! Ch-ch-ch-check it out!

Today's spoken word blog documents the amazing slam at the AQ on Monday. It includes unreal pictures like this one of Homeless Ryan K being neon:



and this one of Katherine Glover being moonlit:




and videos of all of the WOWps bout poems.

Extra still footage can be found at my flickr page, where you can find images like this lewd one of Wonder Dave.





Check out my spoken word blog, and pass the word along to your friends, enemies, and others who might be interested in it.
http://minnesotamicrophone.wordpress.com/

We've got most basic liquors, basic mixers, bring wine or beer products if you want them. Food products are welcome, we need ice. Adam?

How rockstar. Came home to a glass teapot and flowering tea from my sis, a book about mitochondria from Lyght, and a handmade bag from Rhe.

I'm headed into the frozen wastes of no-internet-land, so Happy Holidays, I'm posting Minnesota Microphone a day early!

http://minnesotamicrophone.wordpress.com

In other news, my car died just before I left for South Dakota, so I'm not exactly sure when or how I'm getting back to Minnesota. No worries, though, I will be back for NYE.

So, it's Thursday, which for me means another big blog post. For you, it means clicking on the link, and then passing it on to some friends you think might be interested in this sorta thing.

Today is an entirely different flavor! Loft Literary Center flavored!
http://minnesotamicrophone.wordpress.com/