Kickstarter

FAQ

• Why "shift"?

  First I liked the way it looked. Then I liked the way it sounded. Then I thought why not I am shifting from one primary medium to another. So there it is. Poetry works like this sometimes but not always.

  Last updated: Tuesday Aug 16, 4:12pm EDT
• Why "poetry"?

  At times I am not sure whether I am writing poetry but it does seem to me that at least some of the time I get close to something that might be considered poetry in a more or less commonly understood sense. Other times I just write because there is nothing else I can do to make it stop. Either way. I tried to be an academic writer and that worked for a little while. I might do it again sometime. But right now I am doing this. Whatever "this" is.

  Last updated: Tuesday Aug 16, 4:15pm EDT
• Why "video"?

  Video is the Super-8 of the twenty first century. If you do not know what "Super-8" is, go ask your mom or dad. Call them up. Surprise them. It's easy to do--video, that is; you are on your own with whether to call your mother. 

  I will admit, finally and for the record, that it was not entirely coincidental that I saw Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg shortly before I put together the first of the videos that were really videos and not just me reading into my computer's camera. I was considering doing something interesting with my readings at the time I saw the film so what it did mostly was hit me upside the head with a Yes you can make poetry into moving pictures. And I said "a-ha."

  Last updated: Wednesday Aug 17, 4:13pm EDT
• What's this 'One Last Ditch'?

  One Last Ditch is a volume of my poetry and poetic short prose pieces that was published last year by Atelos Press, under the aegis of the kind and brilliant Lyn Hejinian. I already have my degree, so I mean that what I say about kindness and brilliance. I showed her the manuscript and she said let me publish it and I said ok. And now it exists as an entity that might sit on a shelf in a library or a study.

  So far I have not yet seen a review of One Last Ditch except that Rae Armantrout emailed Lyn to say it was "very good." It is still a little early in the poetry and academic publishing cycle for there to be lots of reviews but mostly I am afraid to look. This is my first ever Real Book.

  Last updated: Tuesday Aug 16, 8:03pm EDT
• What's the point of the Kickstarter project?

  I have "consumer grade" gear and it shows. Depending on how generous you all are, I will procure things like a real video camera or the equivalent, real editing software or its equivalent, real high-speed storage space or its equivalent, and possibly a couple of train rides to the Mojave Desert--or its equivalent--to shoot footage in one of my most favorite of places. When I am done there I might head for Olympic National Park but I am trying to think modestly here at first.

  The overall grand design is to finish videographing the book much as I have been, only better, at a rate of one to two pieces per video. I hope to be able to finish this in about a year and then what I might do with those videos is open-ended but I am enjoying making them so much that I have wanted to run up and down the street in my underwear crying watch my videos! but I would never do that because Body Issues. However I am at least considering applying to have one or more of them screened at an independent film festival or two. For that I simply must graduate from iMovie.

  Last updated: Wednesday Aug 17, 4:17pm EDT
• Who are you again?

  That is hard to answer but here are a few things that might be pertinent. I studied Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley and while there caught a fever from reading Gertrude Stein and recalling my admiration for what was called in the 1980s "Language Poetry." 

  I cannot tell you where I learned to shoot pictures except everywhere I have been, mainly. I like to take photos of parts of things. This may be related to one of my diagnoses but for now I am not going to go on at great length about those. I have some. That will do.

  I lived presenting as female for the first thirty five years of my life. As a young adult I identified as a dyke as though it were its own gender and perhaps it is or was. Now I look male and am much happier in my skin but I have no good name for my gender except that it involved transitioning and as far as I can tell I am still in transit to a degree. It might seem obvious, but hormonal and surgical "reassignments" have given me lots to write about.

  I taught for a little while. I do not teach anymore. I have what are known as "invisible disabilities" but I think they are plain as day.

  Last updated: Tuesday Aug 16, 8:01pm EDT
• May I ask you another question?

  Please do! Explaining myself is something I have necessarily become very good at. Prepositions are fine at the end of sentences. There is a link up at the top of the page that reads "send message" so there you go it is all you need.

  Last updated: Tuesday Aug 16, 5:15pm EDT