Tayari Jones: “I was on the phone yesterday with a poet-friend who was feeling very demoralized about all of the contests to which she had submitted her manuscript. (For those of you not in the poetry loop: Many poets publish their first books by sending the manuscripts to contests. There is a fee, usually about $20. The winner gets a small cash prize and publication. Winning the ‘right’ contest can launch a career.) My friend was just plain wore out. She had taken on considerable student debt to get her MFA and she has spent hundreds of dollars in fees and postage. She has a love/hate relationship with the mailman. She was hoping for The Letter but she knew that he may be bringing a rejection letter. She said sometimes she wants to give up writing.”
I appreciate that an “officially” accepted writer like Tayari Jones is writing about this issue. The usual Negro tactic is to commune in quiet desperation until the proper (white) third party validation comes in (from the loved/hated mailman). The problem with this is that young people (“at risk”/“of color”) who see you as famous because you won the “right” (white) contest are deliberately misinformed about how mafia-like the real world actually is… This is far from a meritocracy, ladies… In my very particular and “strange” case, I prefer to be respected and recognized by other Black writers (who gives a f’ about a god-damned Grammy)—and there are very few Black poetry contests that launch careers. Am I wrong by saying there are none? The folks over at Cave Canem took over year to send me one t-shirt—they were happy to take my money tho’…
In order for the self-described “average Negro” of our post-modern world to vaguely understand where I am coming from, we have to go back to the days of Mile-Davis-era music—what music-playing contest run by white folks would “launch” Miles’ career? Yes, Miles went to Julliard—but go into his autobiography (with poet Quincy Troupe) to find out about what he thought of that “robot-music” school… Now, of course, my little analogy falls apart very quickly when we recall the Harlem-Renaissance, white-sponsored world Langston Hughes lived in… Some footsteps ain’t made to follow…
“Alan Moore takes Watchmen movie money to sue DC for print rights reversion…”
comicmix.com: “In what may go down as the biggest sucker-punch to hit DC Comics since the Superboy lawsuit, Alan Moore has reversed his position on taking money from the film version of Watchmen. The reason is elegant and ironic; he’s using the money to fund a lawsuit against DC, with the intent of forcing a reversion of rights to the print edition of Watchmen.”
“YouTube Monty Python Videos Boost DVD Sales 23,000%”
Kit Eaton: “And now for something completely fantastic: The trick of making Monty Python videos available for free online has boosted DVD sales of the comedy sketch show. If you compare DVD sales figures on Amazon before and after the creation of the Monty Python YouTube channel, the boost apparently tallies in at around 23,000%.”