This weekend I...

...got drunk with Madore and pondered the future of Thieves Jargon.

What did you do?

Big week for Mark Baumer

Everyday Yeah hits number 500.

He gets accepted to Brown University. Say what you will about creative writing programs, when a top-10 program pays YOU to go there after you write a personal essay about cocaine even though you don't even drink, yeah.

He gets a book coming out from mud luscious press.

And, he found $200 on the ground.

Hats off to Mark and all the other Thieves Jargon editors.

Free speech

Well, it's cool and all, but it's tricky.

I mean, I just really don't think you can convince me Klansmen should be allowed to have parades or even be allowed to talk to unattended people under the age of fifteen in public.

Right, so that leads to Jews and Nazi Germany.

BUT: TJ publishes things that would offend a lot of people, so I kind of rely on free speech.

Hiding free speech behind art sounds like something those hippies that turned republican would talk about.

So I dunno.

But I'm still going to quash Mather's dissent until he writes us a poem.

Statistical anomaly?

Thieves Jargon is now listed on duotrope as being in the top 25 (of 850) hardest journals to get poetry into.

Statistics never lie and good things don't always last.

Million Writers Award

The 2009 Million Writers Award is now open for nominations. You should check it out here and nominate a story from either Thieves Jargon or some other journal. Anybody can nominate their favorite piece of 2008, and the winner takes home five hundo.

Thieves Jargon has pegged a notable story every year we've entered, but still hasn't scored a top-ten finish. Maybe this will be the year. As an editor, I get to nominate three pieces. I have some in mind, but I'd like to hear some thoughts. Help me decide. A quick spin through the archives has given me the following potentials:

No Eating by Russell Zerbo
The Consciousness of Infestation by Marc Gulezian
James Becomes an Epicurean by Kevin Wilson
Pharmacon by Spencer Dew
Turtle Soup by Woodie Stephenson
Cheney Don't Dance by Peggy Newland
Twelfth by Zach Plague
Duckass II by Mike Boyle
Fly Fishing and Shit Like That by Joel Van Noord

Spring Break

I'm on Spring Break this week. As such, so is Thieves Jargon. New work next week...

You used to be beautiful

Coupla classics

I'd like to do this regularly, but will probably forget.

3 Poems by Josh Olsen

2 Poems by Aaron Anstett

3 Poems by Joseph Goosey

Watchmen

I'm a really big fan of the comic and every time I get a copy of it, I give it away. It sounds like they might not have fucked this movie up too much. I'll be curious to see what people who see the movie without being familiar with the book will think.

Boston Globe on Watchmen.

Is it AIDS?

Is it even AIDS, or maybe something else?

I know a few people on here think AIDS is really fucking cool. What were your thoughts on Spencer Dew's piece this week, Familiar with Disease?