The Suburban Ecstasies is Now Available!

I'm thrilled to announce that my first book, The Suburban Ecstasies (Ghost Road Press, hardcover, 124 pp.) is now available for purchase on Amazon! You can find it here (or by clicking on the picture and icon at the end of this post). It's also available online at Barnes & Noble, and will be sold through SPD and Ingram as well.

I'm excited beyond belief, so I won't try to describe or explain that excitement here! Suffice to say this is one kid's dream come true. I've included some blurbs below, as a way of prying myself away from the temptation to discuss the collection in greater detail here:

"Working in the vivid and revivifying borderlands of such American adventures as Paul Metcalf's Genoa and Ed Dorn's Gunslinger, The Suburban Ecstasies propounds a syllabic heroism, one in which even the gentlest, most lyric proposals set forth towards ecstasy. These pages glow with immediate mastery."

— Donald Revell, author of A Thief of Strings


"Seth Abramson's first book is enough to make Stephen Dedalus dizzy, being somehow lyric, epic, and dramatic all at the same time. He has a fine ear and a keen eye. He has mastered a prosody that both drives his narrative — I read the book at a single sitting because I couldn't stop reading once I had started — and that also rings the changes on repeating themes or motifs. It is very difficult to write a book-length poem, but Abramson makes it seem easy. He has a compelling story to tell, both down to earth and fantastical. I would guess it's equal parts autobiography and invention. He calls it a monomyth, and it's that too. First books aren't meant to have this kind of authority."

— John Matthias, Poetry Editor, Notre Dame Review


I've been contacted by some magazines and individuals regarding review copies; if you're interested in receiving one, e-mail me and I'll see what I can do to expedite the process. Thanks so much to all those who've been supportive over the months and years I've been working on this collection! And needless to say, if you're able to help get the word out about the collection (via blog, e-mail, review, whatever), I'd be deeply in your debt! So, without any more preamble, here's the official Amazon.com link for The Suburban Ecstasies:

[Music]

Released on the last day of my 18th year, I like this song (as so many do) though really my response to it is, ultimately, the title of a song from Dexy's Midnight Runners' best album: "Thankfully Not Living in Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply." Which is to say, the song describes a common problem, but in the suburbs of Massachusetts the best way of describing the situation wouldn't be so heavily in debt to (clearly) The Smiths and The Cure (as so much British music over the past twenty-five years has been). Granted--in the event that sounds like an insult--the more accurate anthem for suburban New England would have to be something unbearably white and stealth-conservative, like Five for Fighting's essentially vapid ballad "Superman (It's Not Easy)."

I think we can all see who makes out better there, and it's one reason I had to find (through poetry) a different, deeply-coded/fractured way of addressing the values, aspirations, and experiences of my youth and young adulthood (which extended further than it ought to have).

Pulp, "Common People" (1995)

[Music]

The video below is from the sub rosa Belle & Sebastian album, God Help the Girl. The music starts at 1:30. The project (an album-length cycle about a troubled girl; a set of hyper-orchestrated story-songs) seems reminiscent in some ways to Kaleidoscope/Fairfield Parlour's "lost" 1970 concept album about Marilyn Monroe, White-Faced Lady. Stuart only sings on a couple of the songs ("Pretty Eve in the Tub" is nice), but what God Help the Girl is, more than anything else, is new evidence of what Belle & Sebastian would've been capable of if--from the start--they'd had a better female lead vocalist, and if that whole fascination with the 70s (e.g. Thin Lizzy) hadn't happened. This takes me right back to The Boy With the Arab Strap, even if B&S will never again achieve (as I wish) the heights of If You're Feeling Sinister. In any case, it always amazes me how B&S so effortlessly displays that special "it" which the Cardigans--for instance--have never been able to tap into, even if (to an extent) the concept and aim is the same.

God Help the Girl, "Come Monday Night" (2009)

[Little Britain]

Two of my favorite Little Britain sketches. The first confirms what I've known ever since I watched a young Scottish actor pretend to be an American in a play in Edinburgh in 2000: folks in the UK think we are idiots. The one consolation is that, per this sketch, the English also think the Scots are idiots.

[Sixties]

A song which is definitely in the running for best song of the 1960s.

The Zombies, "She's Not There" (1964)



And here's a top 500 one. [NB: Seems Peter Noone forgets the words].

Herman's Hermits, "No Milk Today" (1966)

[Video]

Have you ever felt like Limahl's 1984 hit "Neverending Story" was two minutes too short? I'm sure you have. Who hasn't? Thankfully Limahl did his many dozens of fans a favor and immediately cashed in on the hit with a re-mix version, complete with a new video. Have you ever felt like Limahl's videos were lacking in feather earrings, Pleather, file footage of a man confusing a snare drum for a bongo, amateur lighting and video-editing, Limahl's take on the air guitar (commonly called air singing), and an inexplicably spooled clip of Limahl peeking mysteriously through a fake cobweb? Well, Limahl's right there with you. Thus, this video: which nicely encapsulates everything cool and (to a greater extent) everything totally embarrassing about my least favorite decade. Sure, this is painful to watch, but don't blame me. I was seven, I thought Limahl was a Fraggle. I was also one of the few seven year-olds (apparently) who hated The Neverending Story when it was released; I can actually recall thinking it was bad cinema. And I thought the same thing about Goonies. But then, in a characteristic bit of half-assed mental gymnastics, I loved the videos for Scandal's "The Warrior" and REO Speedwagon's "I Do' Wanna Know," two of the most appalling three-minute slices of Americana in the past hundred years. Go figure. I also preferred Dusty and Barbecue to Hawk, Duke, Flint, and Snake Eyes. And dude, Barbecue was a Green Beret armed with a water pistol. My judgments of the 1980s are not to be trusted. But still, whatever song that guy is playing guitar for is not this one.

Limahl, "The Neverending Story" (1984) [Rockamerica Remix]



A note to all those born after, say, 1986: Do you see now the shit we thirty-somethings had to put up with? Not to mention the Care Bears.

[Video]

WARNING: THIS IS THE MOST GRAPHIC VIDEO EVER LINKED TO ON THIS SITE. DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO UNLESS YOU ARE ABLE TO OBSERVE A GRAPHIC SCENE OF VIOLENT DEATH WITHOUT TRAUMA.

The video at this link is energizing a nation; it's also as upsetting a video as I've ever seen in my life and is probably impossible to watch without crying and (possibly) being ill. I have watched it twice and could barely handle it; it pushed me to my very limits. To be clear, this video depicts the graphic death of an unarmed female civilian in real-time.* I only link to it so that readers can understand viscerally what the lawless Basij militia are doing in Iran today--killing their own countrymen in cold blood, including unarmed civilians. This blood is on their hands only, whatever Iran's cruel dictator Khamenei may say. [NB: Update: the victim's name is believed to be Neda, and her age is believed to be 16].

* = Without any pixelation, blurring, or alteration whatsoever.

The man who posted this video on Facebook had the following to say:

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a Basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight [at] her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than two minutes. The protests were going on about one kilometer[] away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gas used among them, towards Salehi Street. The film [was] shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know.

Iran on Brink of Revolution?

More stunning video:



UPDATE: an excellent on-site video report from MSNBC here.

More video. Things get crazy two and a half minutes into this; the Ayatollah warned everyone to stay off the streets, you can see how well his threat is being heeded. Warning: as the gunfire increases and gets louder, some may find this video upsetting. In any event, the courage of these unarmed protesters is amazing and worthy of the utmost admiration.



An image:



Another jarring image:


And some more video:



Massive rallies in which protesters are chanting "Death to Khamenei!" Rumors that various nations' embassies are agreeing to take in injured Iranian protesters. Harrowing images of water cannons being used on protesters. The Iranian government appears to have called out military helicopters. Mousavi has announced that he is "ready for martyrdom." A suicide bomber opposing the Ayatollah has blown himself up at a shrine honoring one of the architects of the 1979 Iranian Revolution*. Of course any suicide bombing is reprehensible; the point is simply that something incredible is happening in Iran...

* = Some believe this was staged by the regime to bring pro-regime conservatives into the streets.

[Video]

[All those I owe e-mails to: I promise, I promise, I'm working on it].

In the meantime, watch the video below, which is awesome.

Well worth the minute it takes to watch. Almost looks fake, huh? This guy's a minor leaguer who used to be with Seattle's Single-A affiliate.



And how about this?

[Poem]

(NB: This poem, for I do take it as a poem, was published, in 1915, alongside the notice that appears at the end of this post. According to a note published in the second issue of Blast, the literary magazine in which this poem first appeared: [Vorticist sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska] writes from the French trenches, having been in the firing line since early in the war. In September he was one of a patrolling party of twelve, seven of his companions fell in the fight over a roadway. In November he was nominated for sergeancy and has been since slightly wounded, but expects to return to the trenches. He has been consistently employed in scouting and patrolling and in the construction of wire entanglements in close contact with the Boches).


Written From the Trenches (Henri Gaudier-Brzeska)


I HAVE BEEN FIGHTING FOR TWO MONTHS and I can now gauge the intensity of life.

HUMAN MASSES teem and move, are destroyed and crop up again.

HORSES are worn out in three weeks, die by the roadside.

DOGS wander, are destroyed, and others come along.

WITH ALL THE DESTRUCTION that works around us NOTHING IS CHANGED, EVEN SUPERFICIALLY. LIFE IS THE SAME STRENGTH, THE MOVING AGENT THAT PERMITS THE SMALL INDIVIDUAL TO ASSERT HIMSELF.

THE BURSTING OF SHELLS, the volleys, wire entanglements, projectors, motors, the chaos of battle, DO NOT ALTER IN THE LEAST the outlines of the hill we are besieging. A company of PARTRIDGES scuttle along before our very trench.

IT WOULD BE FOLLY TO SEEK ARTISTIC EMOTIONS AMID THESE LITTLE WORKS OF OURS.

THIS PALTRY MECHANISM, WHICH SERVES AS A PURGE TO OVER-NUMEROUS HUMANITY.

THIS WAR IS A GREAT REMEDY.

IN THE INDIVIDUAL IT KILLS ARROGANCE, SELF-ESTEEM, PRIDE.

IT TAKES AWAY FROM THE MASSES NUMBERS OF UNIMPORTANT UNITS, WHOSE ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES BECOME NOXIOUS AS THE RECENT TRADE CRISES HAVE SHOWN US.

MY VIEWS ON SCULPTURE REMAIN ABSOLUTELY THE SAME.

IT IS THE VORTEX OF WILL, OF DECISION, THAT BEGINS.

I SHALL DERIVE MY EMOTIONS SOLELY FROM THE ARRANGEMENT OF SURFACES, I shall present my emotions by the ARRANGEMENT OF MY SURFACES, THE PLANES AND LINES BY WHICH THEY ARE DEFINED.

Just as this hill where the Germans are solidly entrenched, gives me a nasty feeling, simply because its gentle slopes are broken up by earthworks, which throw long shadows at sunset. Just so shall I get feeling, of whatsoever definition, from a statue, ACCORDING TO ITS SLOPES, varied to infinity.

I have made an experiment. Two days ago I pinched from an enemy a mauser rifle. Its heavy unwieldy shape swamped me with a powerful image of brutality.

I was in doubt for a long time whether it pleased me or displeased me.

I found that I did not like it.

I broke the butt off and with my knife I carved in it a design, through which I tried to express a gentler order of things, which I preferred.

BUT I WILL EMPHASIZE that MY DESIGN got its effect (just as the gun had) from a very simple composition of lines and planes.