Daniel Bailey is a mage

swordfishies

some sofa opened a can of bacon on me in pretend last nite on the sofa where you used to sit and i would sit on the other sofa and




everyday in the wall on the opposite side of my building a man comes and opens a box and puts abodhfoaiusdofiuasodifuoasiudfoiuasodifuaposidufpoiausdpoifuaposidufpoiausdpofiuasopdifuopaisudfpoiuasopdifuaopisdufopiajsd;ofja;skdjf;lkajsdl;fkja;slkdjfl;kajsd



why am i bothering to pretend i care about anything but tacos today or yesterday and not even tacos but the negative image of them leaving me in the gym room where every night for the past two weeks this kid has come in right after me around 11 pm and turned on the tv as loud as it will go to watch espn while i am on the stationary bike reading a book because i fucked up my ankle kicking the wall in the bathroom out of terror even if that's not really what i did

with the tv on and running my muscles there are two sets of words

i can place the brain on one or the other mostly and sometimes there are whole walls that get made

the kid always comes in before and leaves after me

the other night another guy told me not to drink the water from the cooler because there is black mold in the spigot, i have been drinking the water every day for as long as i can remember since we moved back in, except for the weeks they blocked the gym to do landscaping though i never saw anybody doing any work

that one night there was the naked woman having pictures taken of her in the window and i was walking past below and i did not stop even when she had her hand on the glass between us and was smiling

when i came back after exercise she was gone

i know i went and stood a second near the brick beside the pool and there wasn't any smell

the night we had to leave and go see a movie because the a/c broke

yellow undertone of bathroom light that isn't really a color at all




you took one mirror i kept the other
please come get mine
or bring yours back





boy aphex twin mostly sucks
but a lot of people still have him on their computers





not going to say anything else about anything else except the crap ringing my ears from the blue earstopper things i got from jamie's wife that block out so much sound, it's like sleeping in someone's armpit, i still haven't washed the sheets since the last day your stuff was all over the floor

the color of the floor is dark enough that when you scratch it it really shows

in the ice machine there is one huge crag of ice that almost all the cubes that come out stick to, and then there are the dozen or so cubes that hang out around and underneath that and are easy to pick up and use to cool a drink

i bought three kinds of soft drink last time i was at the grocery but two of them have caffeine though they did not seem to have caffeine when i bought them so now there's only one kind i feel ok enough about to drink at night, and i still don't stay home in the day, so






the neighbor's dog started barking again
i guess she took off the machine that squirts it
in the face when it makes noise

in bed i think about cutting a hole into her apartment
so i can go sit beside the dog and look into his mouth
when the other neighbor lived there for a while i thought
he was making meth in the bathtub and maybe the station might blow up
that was before the tornado hit the building and after that you moved in
i'd put an official count here of the number of days
but i have no ideas

Joyland published the first to exist excerpt from Ricky's Anus. It's from somewhere near the end of the first third of the book. Don't know what else to say.


Yesterday was probably a benchmark in my life and i barely went outside

I got some new popsicles tho

"That’s right, wordshit, bury me, avalanche, and let there be no more talk of any creature, nor of a world to leave, nor of a world to reach, in order to have done, with worlds, with creatures, with words, with misery, misery."

shitdick central

no one was what god is what god is what god is
gos god is gog gog is gods godds is is is is is is i
looked in the window of the window and the window was
was was window was was i looked looked hard and
and was window where was i am no one was anything to me
there there i was
look at the window of i i am am am am i was is is is is
i could have seen you so hard
could have licked that where the ice
and the time was
was
was
was
was
nothing looked long enough in eyes
in eyes of god of gos of no one looking
eating ashing crud of mother of the shit
cried in a bar this night at someone saying go off
for wanting to die when
when when was was was was was wwas was was
i don't have the wherewithall to be the person i know i am
i have the no door in the ass
i can't even say hi to the one room
saying
saying
saying hello saying hi or no
the smell of my clothes the touch of half legs halving
having nowhere to know for dinner
wads of say

bopdump

The Believer has shortlisted Scorch Atlas for their Believer Book Award, up with 4 superfreaks, wow, feels really nice.

The new issue is the film issue and is repping a new Heather Christle poem as well! Boom Heather!



Susan Tomaselli interview me at 3 AM, about Scorch Atlas, what destruction is, Beckett, my insomnia book, The Black Gazebo, editing, and other.




Foot is kind of fucked, not sure how but have been limping for two weeks. Switched to stationary bike in the meantime, which is actually giving good results in change of moves. Also able to read fatter books in the process there, about halfway now through Joshua Cohen's Witz, which is just something I've been waiting for for a long time, and delivers even more than I expected. Review forthcoming.




The 2nd issue of Gigantic is out, and I have a list in it, along with a slew of amazing others. The design on this issue is just insanely nice and new. $7 is unbeatable. They are doing it right.




Problemz this week.
Ok.


Come watch Dorothea Lasky read live tonight at HTMLGIANT, 9 PM Eastern. Her new forthcoming book Black Life is just gorgeous, and power.

Western schools

12/17/09 Mike Kitchell typed: "i’ll make a video of myself setting a copy of scorch atlas on fire amid the snowy landscape of northern illinois after i finish reading it if you send me a copy to read"

12/18/09 I put book in mail

3/28/10



3/28/10 Anyone else interested in reading/burning/filming please inquire

Jobs by Steve Jobs

900% of persons appearing are to be appeareing ierjeirj aij jijijijijijijijiijijij

800% of persons sodijoidjroaijsdkfjaskdjfakjsdfkjal sjdkfjalskdjlf ajslkdjfa

700% of any persons who have done the talk

600% fhisdfioasjdofijaosidjflakjsdlfkjasldkjf;askjdf;lkjas;ldkjf;alksjd;fkja;lskjdf;lkjas;kd f;ajsdl;kf jal;skjdfl;akjs ;dlkfj;alk sjl;kfja;dskjf;l kajsdlkfja;lksjdf;ljasd

500% give back any inch you had planned to give back to give back to

90ei990ir9iapoipofkpajsdfkijasjdfl;ajsl;krjl;kj% is peraaeirjlkajsdlfk alksjdfl kajsldkfjlaksjdf;lkjal; skjdlfk ;laksjdkfl jal;ksjdflkj

Let's have a walk to the Tunica

2222222 ni ininnni ninnninn ninin KA ka ca cacacacacacacaca


Barrettes in the bareijarlkjs lkdjf a;lkjds; kjas;lkdjf;lkajsdlk
Batons in jiafjd oiajfo;ijsa odj;fojah;sldjf;lajsl;kjd lkjasldkjflkajsdlkfj kj
Badges for aoils aj oil will have dinner if
Beebees for BB
Baabaablacksheep if you alihjsdl fjao shofhaojdhf;oahjsd;ljf;lajsld;kjf
Hornbucket
Past person

#11 diuretic stimulus pancreatic dementia sundowner tablet box

Today I watched my dad pour OJ on cereal, he said it was good
The cereal went in the fridge
Still haven't found the OJ


Easy click kat no hello no buybybybye
Instant message

Instance messagedgdafsdf aspoidu foaisd;oifjaso djfha;s hdf;ljha s;ljdhf; lajs;ldfj ;lajshd ;jfha; sdjhfkajs
dpfia
s[odkf
a[sd
f[as
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p
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P#
${#$P$
#

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port authority panbeep

box o babs

boods if u r r r rrrrrr rice



the letter e


the letter e



ajdfiua osiduhf oahjsdo;fha;osdhf;oah;osidhf ;aoihsjd;oifj
osdi
foais
dpofi
a9er8t9ri9 ur9u iu iuj
iu
apoudpifua
pisoduf
poiju

-----*&&*

being home is good. feel kind of like a moron a lot. had a good time out west though. saw some people i'd known a long time and never met, relaxed, ate food, ate mexican food every day but one, played live cards for the first time in more than a year and won $, spent $ at powell's which was a very nice store, spent 4 hours at city lights and bought nothing on purpose, had a car campout, petted simmons's cat who i liked even though i couldn't breathe him, talked some, slept some, didn't drink that much, liked the west coast feel.

jamie blogged about an odd thing that happened on our flight to san francisco.

i probably won't be going anywhere for a while.



while i was out Molly Templeton wrote a review of Scorch Atlas for the Eugene Weekly that is very excellent and kind indeed: "I think I fear it — its relentless and overwhelming vision, and the power Butler has to drill a hole in my chest with language. But Butler’s strange masterpiece doesn’t ask for your love. It demands your attention."

Nicolle Elizabeth wrote a review for The Brooklyn Rail that is also very kind: "Performing as an ashen, crumbling work in our hands, the work urges us to push forward before it—and we—turn to dust."





having returned home i am on a new regimen. no drinking, except special occasions, which was pretty much true anyway. running 7 miles at least 4 days a week and 3.5 miles the other three days. reading a lot. putting final edits on this novel, very close i think. more sleep book work and beginning a collaborative project that is very exciting and that will stay quiet for now, except to say it is with two people i admire massively.










something something fuck it

pear-0ae9ra04

A chapter from my completed-last-year novel-in-waiting, Decade, appears in the new issue of Redivider. It's the first long section of the book to be published, maybe the only. There's some weird typographic layout shit going on in it, which looks nice in the Redivider style. There are at least 5 voices going on at various times. It is called, "Our Anniversary, Repeated." Thanks to Brooks Sterritt and Matt Salesses for the time.

Michael Kimball, Dan Chaon, and many other excellents also appear.




A week from today Jamie Iredell and I are going to the west coast for a brief-ish trip, doing some readings.

Here are dates:

February 8 - SAN FRANCISCO - Dogeared Books 630PM w/ Meg Pokrass
February 9 - SAN FRANCISCO - tba
February 10 - RENO - some college I forgot to ask Jamie
February 11 - RENO - something else I forgot to ask Jamie
February 12 - EUGENE - Live Lit West 4. 6:00-6:45 at Tsunami Books on Willamette St.
February 13 - SEATTLE - Neptune Coffee 7PM


Hey, shitty job putting dates up Blake. I know.

Hey, shitty we aren't going to L.A. or Spokane or Portland, dude. I know.

We will stop in Portland for a lil though for sure, and hang out.

If you are around these places come out, or email me or something?

We are probably going to be thrown into a squat of pioaer.















um, editing editing editing
hide hide hide
life

&&@@@(((@@@(((((((((((

crod in the box
box dad
dad was a weeblo before me in the same cult
cutting little ones for strip bars
eating dice
i am hungrier when u r
when u u would have
hey
hey i am seven dollars short of a biggurl pony to take away
america is the best
of the best of the weeblos when we eat those cakes shaped like trees
that aren't trees but have lights on them also
shit
you shouldn't say crod in the box when you are a box dad
and will never have a son
except to go to clubs with
throwing animals out of the way to get to the big door
the bigger door than that

OO#r9u89

fine tuning this novel is making me dizzy. near the end of turning in a draft. i think it is called The Black Gazebo.

in the editing and fine tuning it is gathering some kind of exponential gathering i had only guessed in knowing as make, it is funny to stare and sudden click after many peerings




read this past weekend in Ann Arbor for the kickoff of Great Lakes Great Times reading series with Brian Evenson and Joanna Howard. was very calm and nice and good, good crowd, felt exciting

the first night i had nachos. the second night Brian ordered nachos and i felt glad




i am reading Wayne Koestenbaum's biography of Andy Warhol, called Andy Warhol, which is really interesting. i didn't know Warhol had made an early adaptation of A Clockwork Orange where his worker Gerard plays Alex and is subjected to drugs, actual drugs, during the treatment, a torture scene of sorts. i don't know where if anywhere you can find this

oh, it's called Vinyl. it's on youtube. there. not that cool. don't watch it. just think of what you think it could have been.


last night I watched the movie Sugar, it's probably the closest thing I've seen to a film version of Ever, at least in parts, though there is murder in it. it's a woman locked in her apartment. it's worth seeing, some amazing tactile scenes



very nice review of Ever by Angela Stubbs at The Collagist, thank you Angela and Matt







listening to Acid in the Style of David Tudor a lot, especially while editing, it makes me feel itccccccccccccc

c



ccc
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc


# version too many times to give a dingdong





days measured in days

Ujdjjjjdjj

Dash Snow freaks me






Crackshit on Vice with Gian and Ken




At 31 today, still feels nice to hear my mother say she doesn't know what she'd do without me

At 31 I feel ahead of where I'd planned to be and that is nice

I am thankful, could always be more thankful




My father said something else today to me that I know I won't forget, pointing at himself, the room, the backyard




Ever bestselling fiction of 2009 top 25




Sitting in this particular chair makes my head spin






New Sleepingfish has massive amounts of great, a piece of what is i think a companion to Ever, a draft here somewhere

thankful for Derek and people like him who continually give and make




the new John D'Agata book is beautiful and new





Creative Loafing listed my HP novel as among most anticipated of 2010, the working title they have there is not the final title










Depeche Mode






margaritas






sorry

MURRRRMLANNAMURRRRRRRRRRMAMAAAA

"Sourcebook" (from Tyrant 7) is published now at Vice

it is long, but maybe the story length thing i am most happy with of mine

it has an illustration by Atticus Lish, thanks to the Tyrant

it has more eating in it also

eating



i don't know what else