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Drinking Buddies.

August 29, 2014 by Exangel

by David D. Horowitz.

 

“I’m going to have the amber ale. How about I order a pitcher of it? You’re a poet! You can drink that much!”

“Actually, I don’t drink much beer—perhaps one or two glasses monthly.”

“But you’re a poet! Don’t disappoint me! Well, okay. What do you want? My treat.”

“I would really love some carrot juice, but I doubt this place features it, so I’ll order a small bottle of sparkling mineral water.”

“Carrot juice?! Okay, I’ll order a bottle of Perrier or San Pellegrino. I’ll tell the waiter when he gets here. Carrot juice?! You’re pulling my leg.”

“I’m really not. I love carrot juice, and I’m very health conscious.”

“But all the biographies and movies and TV shows…. Poets drink, for God’s sake! They’re mad with inspiration and incapacitated with despair over love gone wrong and the woes of humanity, and they’re affable rascals who down a pint every day with chums at the pub. A poet does not drink carrot juice!”

“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint, but I love carrot juice and merely like an occasional beer or ale. This poet wants clear vision and a tactful tongue, and alcohol usually yields hurtful exchanges. I know the power of words—and ‘I didn’t mean it’ rarely negates an insult.”

“Well, I’ll admit I regret some stuff I blathered while drinking.”

“And I do drink beer or ale—just not often and not much. Poetry for me is the intersection of language and music. It marries passion and precision to yield resonance. Does heavy alcoholic consumption refine one’s phrasing or deepen appreciation of a reader’s perspective? Does it intensify passion? Perhaps. More often, I dare say, it reflects fear of passion, avoidance of its complexity and depth. I don’t want to accustom myself to avoidance. Life is simultaneously glorious and brutal—but to heal the brutality I for one need a clear mind. And genuine passion feeds my desire to help. As for love, I distinguish healthy from unhealthy passion. If a woman does not want me, I go away then seek love—and meaning—elsewhere. I don’t need to be a victim; I don’t cling. And I’m a very happy person, thank you.”

“You’re making me want some carrot juice.”

“And I’m fine with a Perrier or San Pellegrino. Perhaps next time I’ll want an ice-cold amber ale. For now, a small bottle of San Pellegrino will be fine. Thank you.”

 

Filed Under: EAP: The Magazine, Fall 2014: Beer & Movies.

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In This Issue.

  • Who Was Dorothy?
  • Those Evil Spirits.
  • The Screaming Baboon.
  • Her.
  • A Tale of Persistence.
  • A Conversation with Steve Hugh Westenra.
  • Person Number Twelve.
  • Dream Shapes.
  • Cannon Beach.
  • The Muse.
  • Spring.
  • The Greatness that was Greece.
  • 1966, NYC; nothing like it.
  • Sun Shower.
  • The Withering Weight of Being Perceived.
  • Broken Clock.
  • Confession.
  • Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse.
  • Sometimes you die, I mean that people do.
  • True (from “My Life with Dogs”).
  • Fragmentary musings on birds and bees.
  • 12 Baking Essentials to Always Have in Your Poetry.
  • Broad Street.
  • A Death in Alexandria.
  • My Forked Tongue.
  • Swan Lake.
  • Long Division.
  • Singing against the muses.
  • Aphorisms from “What Remains to Be Said”.

In The News.

That cult classic pirate/sci fi mash up GREENBEARD, by Richard James Bentley, is now a rollicking audiobook, available from Audible.com. Narrated and acted by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio, you’ll be overwhelmed by the riches and hilarity within.

“Captain Sylvestre de Greybagges is your typical seventeenth-century Cambridge-educated lawyer turned Caribbean pirate, as comfortable debating the virtues of William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, and compound interest as he is wielding a cutlass, needling archrival Henry Morgan, and parsing rum-soaked gossip for his next target. When a pepper monger’s loose tongue lets out a rumor about a fleet loaded with silver, the Captain sets sail only to find himself in a close encounter of a very different kind.

After escaping with his sanity barely intact and his beard transformed an alarming bright green, Greybagges rallies The Ark de Triomphe crew for a revenge-fueled, thrill-a-minute adventure to the ends of the earth and beyond.

This frolicsome tale of skullduggery, jiggery-pokery, and chicanery upon Ye High Seas is brimming with hilarious puns, masterful historical allusions, and nonstop literary hijinks. Including sly references to Thomas Pynchon, Treasure Island, 1940s cinema, and notable historical figures, this mélange of delights will captivate readers with its rollicking adventure, rich descriptions of food and fashion, and learned asides into scientific, philosophical, and colonial history.”

THE SUPERGIRLS is back, revised and updated!

supergirls-take-1

In The News.

Newport Public Library hosted a three part Zoom series on Visionary Fiction, led by Tod.  

And we love them for it, too.

The first discussion was a lively blast. You can watch it here. The second, Looking Back to Look Forward can be seen here.

The third was the best of all. Visions of the Future, with a cast of characters including poets, audiobook artists, historians, Starhawk, and Mary Shelley. Among others. Link is here.

In the News.

SNOTTY SAVES THE DAY is now an audiobook, narrated by Last Word Audio’s mellifluous Colby Elliott. It launched May 10th, but for a limited time, you can listen for free with an Audible trial membership. So what are you waiting for? Start listening to the wonders of how Arcadia was born from the worst section of the worst neighborhood in the worst empire of all the worlds since the universe began.

In The News.

If you love audio books, don’t miss the new release of REPORT TO MEGALOPOLIS, by Tod Davies, narrated by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio. The tortured Aspern Grayling tries to rise above the truth of his own story, fighting with reality every step of the way, and Colby’s voice is the perfect match for our modern day Dr. Frankenstein.

In The News.

Mike Madrid dishes on Miss Fury to the BBC . . .

Tod on the Importance of Visionary Fiction

Check out this video of “Beyond Utopia: The Importance of Fantasy,” Tod’s recent talk at the tenth World-Ecology Research Network Conference, June 2019, in San Francisco. She covers everything from Wind in the Willows to the work of Kim Stanley Robinson, with a look at The History of Arcadia along the way. As usual, she’s going on about how visionary fiction has an important place in the formation of a world we want and need to have.

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