Had been having some doubts about 2009 – felt like sort of an under-the-radar year for me. Enough doubts to make a list… and it turns out 2009 was pretty busy after all (and I know I’m only hitting a few of the highlights – what’d I miss?). Not to mention, AMR visitors have more than doubled since this time last year – so thanks to everyone for making this a thing [update: just checked, we actually sextupled, not doubled]. And I think we’re actually going into our 5th year!
1. moved twice (and with gf!)- now at literal foot of the Williamsburg bridge. logged over 70 miles walking to work before it got too cold, can’t wait to pick up again.
2. switched jobs, from editing english composition books to being a singularitarian for a literary house. am now working on some of my favorite authors’ books (which, has that ever happened in publishing? maybe twice?).*
3. recorded 23 AMR Podcasts with Rachel.
4. conducted 11 pretty exhaustive Friend of a Friend interviews.
5. wrote 5 articles (polemics) on plagiarism, copywrite, humanity, and the aspirational self: Rethinking Plagiarism: The Death of Text as Authorial Icon, pts. 1-3; Achieving Humanity: Theoretical Background; Civil Disobedience: J-B. Lamarck & the Aspirational Self
6. 6+ paintings, including: Skeleton, Magneto Tweets, Lucky the Cat (timelapse below), Fishman Jones, and my portrait of Rachel.
7. Mark Fullmer curated/birthed COURAGE: A Portrait of the Artist as a Man, which is too sweet to even talk about (and came with a Courage wiki!).
8. wrote a few songs I’m proud of (can listen to most of these at right, if not there: are in the AMR archives somewhere): Fierce Love (on Loud Guitars), So Okay So, Everything Fake is Real, Our Jurassic Holiday, Home Movie, Don’t Be Yourself. Also re-recorded Green.
9. wrote a few poems I liked enough to post: Finning Sharks on Garbage Island and Eco-Warrior at the Feminist Bookstore.
10. lost Bat to Miami at beginning of 2009 – getting Bat back in 2010. this time a real rock experience is inevitable.
11. celebrated Halloween in July, threw two housewarmings. these were strong parties – wish everyone reading could’ve been there.
12. my boner dollar was shanghaied and stickered all over Brooklyn and the LES. had fun tracking these – super weird to see something you did so cavalierly posted on every ATM in town.
13. was sketched alongside Moony (my favorite catahoula) by Michel Gondry.
14. co-published, but really just publicized, Tweet Tweet – the first ever Twitter-based poetry book.
15. was a comp-rhet cover boy for New Comm Ave.
16. contributed to AMUZE (L.E.S. zine) as much as possible – even got a chance to do the cover:
17. first real vacation since undergrad – Nantucket with Rachel’s family and Pounces the Cat. Caught some of the Nantucket film festival, read a book about dinosaurs. Touched a whale skeleton.
18. read both Infinite Jest and 2666 in the same month – year of the big books.
19. conquered year-long authorial dryspell (maybe linked to not having a computer in 2009) – psychically prepared for first full-length book
20. i had a garden in 2009. Did anyone know about that? Watering can and morning glories and window box and mini-trowels and everything.
Hope y’all all have strong 2010s!
xo
courage
*Hey, speaking of my new job – if you watch/share this I might have a better chance of keeping it.
