We’re hard at work laying out Annalemma Issue Seven: Endurance. To break up the monotony, print designer Jen O’Malley takes an opportunity to lay some tasty shapes on some phat beatz.

A crew of dear old friends put together a pilot for Dragons, an original comedy series about two skate buddies transcending their human forms and attaining enlightenment, starring skate legend Mike Vallely. Treat yourself to a half hour of good vibes.

Looking or a laugh on a Tuesday morning? Check out Chadwick Whitehead’s new joke book/zine, Knock Knock.

You get the idea. This last one’s a personal fave.

G’head and cheer up.

Issue Five contributor Max Kauffman is throwing his first solo show in a long time in Chicago. Go and check out his freakiness next month. From the press release:

R’fuah- new works by Max Kauffman

presented by Pawn Works

1050 N Damen Ave Chicago, IL

opening reception Friday Sept 10th 6-10 pm

available by appointment 312-841-3986

R’fuah: a renewal of spirit. A way of looking at things you hold dear, without idolizing them: knowing that these inanimate things you keep are important because of the emotions you impart on them. Are they real? Are the emotional ties meaningful because of the item or because of the emotion itself?

These thing we hold dear: they keep us happy, bittersweet, positive, appreciative of the things in our life. Why? Are they simply coping mechanisms or do they actually uplift us? From prophets and idols and relics to symbols and talismans of today, we alternately assign them power and draw power from them. We are actually pulling on the strength within ourselves, our thoughts and spirits when we look to these things. When we fall on dark times, we become even more attached to the inanimate—sure and committed to the power we believe they bring, until the storm passes and we relinquish them until next time.

This renewal, this evolution, this cycle of spirit and material. Does it make us more or less human? By putting our faith in objects, are we overpowering or overpowered by them?

They calm us; they bring us peace. R’fuah.

R’fuah will feature new mixed media paintings on paper and wood, ceramic works and a site specific installation.

Show runs through October 10th

for more information contact marz09@yahoo.com or mhkauffm@gmail.com

This is Sasha Fletcher. His writing is like walking towards a door but first putting on a blindfold and spinning in circles and then trying to walk towards a door and eventually ending up at the door but you’re not entirely sure how you got there. Sounds nauseating, but it’s a delightful experience.

Sasha emceed the Dzanc Best of the Web reading that took place last Tuesday at McNally Jackson. Other people read there. And I took videos of them too, but I was too far from the PA and they reading in semi-hushed tones. Sasha speaks loud when he reads in front of an audience. He knows how to perform. That’s what you’re doing when you’re reading at an event by the way. You know that, right? You’re supposed to be entertaining the folks in the audience. If you move some people on an emotional level, that’s fantastic, but priority number one is to be compelling. Sasha’s compelling. Take note, readers.

Leigh Stein read some very good poems. Elissa Bassist read some interesting anxieties on writing about Infinite Jest originally published on The Rumpus. For an extensive take on the evening, head over to Vol. 1.

The following is the first part in an ongoing series highlighting those hidden caches of awesomeness, the independent bookstores that pepper this great land. Subterranean Books is one of the many rad bookstores inhabiting the St. Louis area, and not only are they surviving, but they’re thriving. This short interview with owner, Kelly von Plonski, was conducted via email.

What’s Subterranean’s origin story?
I was working at another bookstore and knew that I wanted to open my own store using my ideas and vision.  I had a business partner and together we borrowed money from relatives and opened Subterranean as a mixed-stock new and used bookstore, in October 2000.  Along the way I’ve transitioned the store from the mixed-stock to all new books, and shed my partner.  This year is our 10th anniversary and we’re still going strong.

What’s the curatorial process when choosing books to stock?
Short version: Gut.  Long version: Everyone on staff has input and the stock is reflective of our personalities. If anyone knows something or feels something about a book or a subject, we’ll stock it.  We also eavesdrop on our customers, pay attention to what’s being special ordered, read blogs, magazines, newspapers…everything to stay up on what would be interesting to carry.  We also carefully track what is already selling so that we are carrying what our customers want.  But especially, since we’re a small store we know our customers–we have conversations with them and we always take what they have to say to heart.  Many many books are on the shelves now because a customer told us about them.

What’s the arts/literature scene in St. Louis like and what role does Subterranean play within it?
The arts/literature scene is thriving.  There are so many small galleries operating right now.  So many drama troupes and poetry groups.  We’ve had an art gallery in the store pretty much since we opened and we’ve had exhibits by almost 100 different artists up.  We help out with Noir at the Bar, a semi-regular literary event that focuses on crime fiction and takes place…in a bar. We’ve hosted traveling authors from Melville House, Soft Skull, Akashic Books, Found vs PostSecret and other really cool edgy publishers.

What helps a book sell? What’s been the most successful book at Subterranean?
A passionate bookseller.  People come to us because they trust us so when someone wants a recommendation they almost always take us up on the suggestion.  When one of us just loves loves a book, that excitement comes through and customers respond.  We have recommendation labels (shelf talkers) on a number of books and sales of those titles directly correlate.  Sales will all of a sudden spike for a title and I’ll check, and sure enough, someone has written a shelf talker for it.  By a landslide our bestselling title is ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’, second up is ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’.

How does a brick-and-mortar store not only survive, but maintain relevance in the age of Amazon?

Because you can touch them, smell them, flip through the pages and hear that lovely page-flipping sound. Turn the cover over to see the back.  You can have a real live conversation, standing at the counter. You can run into someone you haven’t seen in a while or that lives next door. People really appreciate that we curate, that they don’t have to dig through the dreck to get to something good.  They like it that they can ride their bicylcle over, take a coffee break next door, and ride home with a book from the Staff Picks shelf.

Please describe the cat that lives in your store. If you don’t have a bookstore cat, please explain why.

My mom and grandmother were horribly allergic to cats so even though I don’t have allergies, I am very sensitive to those that do and we’ve never had a store cat for that reason.

(image via)

We’re joining forces with a handful of publishing power houses this weekend to sell books at the Brooklyn Flea. Are you in the area? Come visit us and pick up some quality books. And why not grab a a corn dog and a vintage ottoman while you’re at it? See you there!

While it may not have been as cool as the reading that took place last week, the second edition of Soda Series, brought to you by Greg Gerke and John Dermot Woods, happened in Prospect Heights last Sunday. Holy crap did it have a good line-up. Matt Bell, ladies and gentlemen.

Matt read from his new story collection coming out on Keyhole later this year. If you’re a fan of Matt’s writing then you should start getting very excited because it is very, very good. He had a couple gallies to pas around. Mr. Peak and I fought for a copy with our teeth.

The inimitable John Madera. John and I got into a heated discussion over literature, which inevitably lead into a discussion about the meaning of art and, subsequently, to the meaning of life. Shit got a little deep and that was just fine with me.

I’m glad I went cause I got turned on to Jeff Parker. Jeff is a very funny man with very insightful things to say. And apparently he’s a skateboarder from Central Florida, which makes him nothing less than a King among men in my books. I bought his book and he wrote his favorite quote from T.S. Eliot in it: “Hello Mr. Death. How do you like your blue-eyed boy now?” So good.

I didn’t get a good pic of Amber Sparks, unfortunately. It was her first reading and she did a bang-up job. She got all high tech and read from her iPhone.

The writers in discussion. Thanks to John and Greg and all the writers for making it happen! Soda Series is swiftly becoming something very good to look forward to.

Last week I went to probably the best reading I’ve ever seen. Ladies and gentlemen, the graduation reading of Page 15’s Young Writer’s Camp 2010. In the reader’s chair here is Izabelle. She had a whip-smart piece about a couple of students competing for a marine biology scholarship. She dropped some serious wildlife science on a crowd.

This here’s Vincent. He wrote a story hot on the heels of the the biggest sporting event of the decade. It was about a fútbol player named Xavier who worked his way up from the bottom to win the World Cup. A dude literally gets kicked in the face in his story. Sports are rough.

Melik here unfolded an epic super hero tale about a dog named Dookie and his quest to defeat the evil Black I Peas. Have you ever written a story with sentient onions with the teeth of alligators? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Melik beat you to it.

The writing was phenominal, but here’s where most readings pale in comparison to this one: Pizza was served afterward. I’ll bet people would be a lot more interested in readings if ‘roni ‘za were involved.

Keep an eye out for these writers. Their imaginations are going to be making waves very soon. Thanks to Julia Young, Ryan Rivas, Jana Waring and all the volunteers for letting Annalemma be a part of Page 15’s 2010 Young Writers Camp.

And thanks for the card!

My blood pumped a little faster when I opened up my RSS feed this morning and saw two things that I loved were combined into one great thing: The Rumpus had interviewed  Jesse Hlebo. To be honest, I’d let Jesse fall off my radar a little bit since he sent us some photos for a piece we ran in Issue #4. What a mistake. For the past year, Jesse has been putting a lot of his contemporaries to shame with his never-ending enthusiasm and work ethic. Check out Swill Children, a small press and record label started by Jesse and a few of his friends. Already they’ve released  a fistfull of 7″ records, a zine featuring the photography of David Potes and a lit and arts broadside called _Quarterly. Oh, and he’s only 21.

For your dedication to positivity and community within the arts, for your inspirational work ethic, for your accomplishments in creating beautiful things, Annalemma salutes you, Jesse Hlebo.