In a nutshell, we are America.
In a nutshell, we are not America.
In a nutshell, America is I.
In a nutshell, America is not I.
In a nutshell, America is a word.
In a nutshell, America is silence.
In a nutshell, America is an idea.
In a nutshell, America is a figment.

~ ~ ~

UPCOMING READING  ::  The only event on the horizon is a Word Pie Par Tea on Sunday, August 11 at the East Bay Media Center in downtown Berkeley. It’s a celebration of Steve Arntson’s new book The Nearest Place Distant, which he insists on hosting and even threatens to do a skit, because Steve Arntson. I’ll be reading along with this fab crew: Tureeda Mikell, Deborah Fruchey, Dale Jensen, Judy Wells, Maw Shein Win, Jan Steckel, James Cagney, and Glenn Ingersoll. It’s run from 1 till 4:30 and there will be pizza. Further deets of course on the Events page.

PODCAST NEWS  ::  I’ve been producing a weekly podcast, as some of you know, every Saturday since June 1 called My 12-Month Video Fast. Can you guess what it’s about? Everything, actually, though it was spurred by me getting mad at my 40-inch and putting it in the Time Out Corner for a year. Holy crap, can I do it? I guess we’ll see! There’ll be ten episodes up by Saturday, August 3 (which is prett’ darn near!), each with a different theme and journey to take you on. I promise! But the NEWS is that the poddy got a sweet review last week by Tom Greenwood in a monthly newsletter from Wholegrain Digital, a sustainable web company in UK, at which you can check out right cheer. Yay! And thanks for the kind words, Tom! Also note that starting in August I’ll be posting on ODD SATURDAYS ONLY (that’s the first, third, and fifth if there is one), mostly so I have a little more time for other projects, including finding work, and also to make sure the podcast remains at as high a quality as possible. So check it out if you haven’t so far – you might even be surprised. You can listen in by clicking here or on the podcast title above, and also – anytime – on the Podcast tab of this very website. 

~ ~ ~

In a nutshell is used to explain something briefly. And why would we need to explain something briefly? Sometimes there is not enough time for a full explanation, or because not all of the details are needed. But sometimes it is used because the listener, the receiver of the information, has a limited capacity to ingest data. To some in fact the acquirement of knowledge seems unnecessary, unnatural, or oppressive. You do what you do and that’s that. Which begs the question: might learning in fact be an unnatural process, an artificial task of dubious merit that some impose on others in order to exert control over them? And if that’s the case, should someone in that chain of activity be punished, and if so, who?

~ ~ ~

NEW PUBLICATION  ::  I don’t know how it’s possible that the Maintenant journal gets radder every year. Yeah I said radder, as is radial, radius, radiant and screaming from the heart. It’s pretty much a palace of radical thought, with each piece an I-beam. Yeah I said eye-beam. This year’s issue, or I should say issuance, takes on the madness of Late (we wish) Capitalism with the strident theme of Plutocrazy, and it is true to its coinage. Peter Carlaftes and Kat Georges, the overseers and forepersons of the alchemical piledrivers from Three Rooms Press who shape and found this astructure of breath and meaning, put it this way: “Creativity is the currency here and the amount has no limit. In nearly 250 pages of full color art and incisive writing, MAINTENANT 18 separates Merch and State by forging a non-monetary vision which exposes strategies to achieve socio-political and economic equality and serves against the military-industrialist complex linking warfare with capitalism, shining a light through every crack for ‘we the people.’”

And they ain’t messin’ around in no sandbox here. Blow up the back cover image above and you see 246 global writers and artists who live and conspire in these pages. I am beyond proud that I’ve got a piece included in these pages, a kind of broadside of an older and particularly p’ed-off poem called “O Corporation, You Are Not Immortal” (and I mean it), which I’ve turned into a face tattoo for good ol’ David Koch. And that’s just one page out of 250 full of fireworks and ghee. So please consider picking up a copy, which you can find by clicking on any “Maintenant” in this blurb (including that one). Hell, it’s more than worth picking up the whole damned collection!

~ ~ ~

In a nutshell, you are bound by flesh.
In a nutshell, you are unbound.
In a nutshell, you are ripening fruit.
In a nutshell, you are a nut.
In a nutshell, a nut is a seed.
In a nutshell, a nut is a fruit.
In a nutshell, a fruit becomes further.
In a nutshell, a seed becomes you.

Sincerely,
Richard

.

.