A few of my projects you may be interested in. They also happen to be the best ways to get in touch with me:

• The Dredge Cycle (My ongoing book project and frequently updated blog.)
• Gourmet Book Design (My print design & publishing business.)
• An Underground Guide to Alburquerque (I publish it.)

Well, after promises of return, it's obvious now I don't have it in me to continue this journal with meaningful regularity.

LJ asked a few days ago if I was gonna continue paying for my account. Things are tight. I've said yes in the past because I love the look of it, and I figured it'd be an hour's work getting it back if I returned to personal blogging here. But I have a hard enough time keeping up with the DredgeBlog, which has my heart far more than this place.

So I think this is it, LJ. I'm not deleting anything, just stepping back. Pleeeeeeease, don't try to get in touch with me here. I make my preferred means available everywhere. I still read my friends list consistently, and you'll see me on your comments, as you have. But don't expect much, if anything, from the mothership. 1840 posts in 5 years. I think that's enough.


A kiss and I'm out, baby. Good morning and goodnight.

Say what you will. I bought a new (used) iPhone to replace the one that finally gave up the ghost yesterday. It was a lot of money.

I got it home, upgraded it to 3.1, and couldn't get service. I started freaking. I created a second .ipsw (those of you unlockers/jailbreakers know what I'm talking about) and still nothing. I thought, Oh fuck. I thought, I'm gonna have to switch to AT&T, buy a clunker phone, or sell the iMac at the office, the latter of which I consider the family farm. So I've been freaking, utterly, since about 6:00 this evening.

And lo, the solution was right under my nose, and the guy who sold me the phone reminded me of it.

This relaxation in my chest... it's so unfamiliar. Anyone who comes to my door in the next 45 minutes gets tongue-kissed. Provided you're female, or one exceptionally fine-ass man.

Go!

So don't call or text till you hear otherwise. Email's workin' fine.

Thank you kindly!

In which I go on about Bill Hicks, the virtues of marketing, and sound the trumpets for help help help.

Effective October 15, 2009, Destructible Heart Press is shutting down publishing operations. Gourmet Books and Adam's new artist's book imprint, Books for Books, will continue, as will the Treehouse reading series. We're thinking of this as a hibernation, and hope to reappear in ten years, with books that will make ours look lame by comparison.

Books will be available from our Store until then, thereafter you will have to seek them from the poet her/himself. At this time it's unclear whether we'll be relinking all the Buy Now links to point to individuals, or whether the Store will simply be replaced with a message much like this one.

We thank endlessly all of you who've bought books over the years. It's been a great run.

I believe I'm leaving New Mexico in two (2) years. During my time remaining here I will seek to accomplish the following:

– Get freelance career healthy. Transition away from production into strictly providing digital files.
– Determine the future of Destructible Heart Press.
– Ensure An Underground Guide to ABQ will run without me.
– Finish writing Wellwater Dredge, then develop, rehearse and perfect a one-man-show of it.
– Release the book to my wondrous, world-class pianist/composer friend, who's been asking to turn it into an opera for several years now.
– Write a grant to a Mass. historical grant funder.

I believe I will move to Massachusetts at that time, for 4-6 months of on-the-ground research for the 2 remaining sections of the Dredge Cycle, hopefully grant-funded. I hope to live rent-free, or nearly, with my father, and whoever else wants to put me up.

I believe at that time I will either

a) move back to New Mexico for a spell, to recover from Mass. and write intensively, then tour the US/Canada.
b) go out directly on tour.

The tour will last a year or longer.

Then I'll launch a European tour. This will with any luck last 6 months to a year.

And then, my friends, I will move to Spain. With a laptop, a typewriter, and a bag of clothes.

Why Spain? I've wanted to live there for 6 years. Before Al Burque, I thought I was moving to Spain after college. I've wanted to be on tour again for 4 years, and known I'd have to move back to Mass. for research for 2.5 years. I will become C.E.L.T.A.-certified to teach English in Spain, apply for a Visa while on the move (or still in the States) and continue designing while there. I will also finish the Dredge Cycle there.

They told me 27 would be the golden, magic year. I believe them. With the will of the Gods, I will wake up 13 years from now satisfied with my pursuit of my dreams. My path has suddenly revealed itself to me, again.

Who am I not to keep walking?

In case you've been trying to get ahold of me and I've been shaky, the reason is thus: my main computer (laptop) went into the shop on Saturday. I get email on the phone, and about 1/2 of facebook communication (posts & email) but I haven't been checking the blogs till this morning, not felt any strong compulsion to.

But I'm on the office computer today. Just FYI.

to the DredgeBlog

1. The House Book has a real title now.

2. The perhaps soul-shifting events of last weekend, part 1.

3. Is there a perhaps-tour suddenly in planning? Wouldn't you like to know! Everything in the coming month.

4. Quantum physics is far more useful to the layman than previously understood.

Seriously, the only commenter so far is a highfalutin moron claiming he's got a Unified Theory of Everything. Don't leave me hanging.

It's been a long time coming. As of today I will no longer be blogging the progress of the Dredge Cycle here. There are too few comments to prove there's much interest in it, so I'm not gonna force it on your flist.

Instead, it has made a somewhat graceful departure to

http://dredgecycle.blogspot.com

where I hope to grow a marketable readership for it. It's been 3.5 years of observations on process, craft, and the ways this book has changed my spirituality, even the direction of my life. I'm increasingly feeling the need now to give it a more legitimate space, and to formalize my musings about it.

This jump prefigures publication, the next sections, a one-man-show and a website devoted to the House Dredge -- which may have a name by the end of the week. Wanna know? Better bookmark it:

http://dredgecycle.blogspot.com

It's been a fun ride, lj-ers. This journal's getting back to strictly personal, and frankly, I don't know how much bitching I want to do in public, these days. Some, certainly, but how much? Hm. Hm, indeed.

May all my friends, not-yet-friends (and even those whose poetry I think turns NPS into an editor's migraine) find what you need this week in West Palm Beach.

Whether in good friendships rekindled, touched-base-upon, established; in sex and love and partying; in the unexpected emergence of a new identity; in the unexpected moment of true growth on stage; or in the poetry, the poetry, the poetry. The poetry.

Go forth and nurture one another, my community -- and be nurtured. Forget the weather, the competition, the egos and the cyphers. Welcome someone who looks lost and awed, kiss someone you've dreamt of (provided they're good dreams, and s/he wants to kiss you back!), and pay your respects to the institution that's changed so many of our lives.

This week marks 10 years since my first slam at the Cantab Lounge. 10 years. And now, I leave you to your business of the self... myself at a loss for words.