I don’t know anything about this book but I’m already interested. When designing a book cover, this is the sentiment you’re trying to get out of a random book buyer. Caketrain not only nailed this requisite, but they just plain knocked it out of the park with Kim Parko’s Cure All. They’re getting their money’s worth out of Elene Usdin’s dreamy, haunting photograph. Full of movement and light, straddling a line somewhere between enticing and frightening. Well done, Amanda and Joseph.

Heads-up: Elene Usdin is unveiling her new show, “Femmes D’Interieur,” in Brooklyn this month. If you like this cover you should go check out this very talented French photographer.

Our intrepid intern comes at us with a report from the burgeoning art capital of the world, Orlando, FL. Take it away, Janelle!

Good friend and Annalemma contributor Gianelle Gelpi held an art opening at Stardust on Saturday night.

Fans and friends came together to celebrate Gianelle’s first solo show.

I donned my newly dubbed “Montana” jacket in honor of the furry family.

Gianelle’s choice of medium ranged from rich, seductive oils to bright and yummy acrylics. The most beloved though were her drawings.

By the end of the night they were all $OLD! Cha-ching is a good thing indeed.

Gianelle’s style, influenced by World Mythology, has evolved into a kind of mystical optimism. Through the creatures of the Grand Family, she conveys a belief in the connectedness of all things alive and imagined. Their serenity may be ours as well.

I especially loved the lion. Just look at his eyes! Gorgeous. Someone else snatched it up before I got there. Boohoooo.

We are just bursting with pride. Gianelle owned Stardust. (And the dance floor a little later that night.) Expect to see more of her.

We are just bursting with pride. Gianelle owned Stardust. (And the dance floor a little later that night.) Expect to see more of her.

What showed up in this unassuming envelope with the sick lightning-bolt-heavy-metal handwriting that looks more at home on a high school notebook cover?

The new Caketrain! Can’t wait to read it. How insane is that Cure All cover, btw? Looks like someone’s got a BBCDW coming their way.

I may or may not be late to this party, but ever since I saw this video last week I’ve become obsessed with Karin Driejer Andersson:

How come writers don’t do shit like this?

Is it because pop music and performance art is all about getting as far away from being human as possible and writing is about getting to the core of being human? Is it because writers are trying to stimulate your brains and not your eyes?

Maybe that’s not true though, the stuff about performance artists moving away from being human. I see Driejer Andersson going so other-worldly that she circles back around, getting closer to a more primitive and spiritual part of being a human.

Nevertheless, what’s her counterpart in the writing world? Only person I can think of is JT LeRoy. Or possibly Tim Jones-Yelvington.

Favorite tracks:

…and this (dicks won’t let me embed).

Like setting sandbags against the portals for an oncoming flood, we’re bracing ourselves for the deluge of work on our next print issue. Which means a few months from now a giant semi truck is going to arrive at our doorstep delivering ten or so heavy boxes full of books. Our storage space is bursting at the seems. To empty it a little bit we’re giving you the opportunity of a lifetime:

Annalemma Issue #4 is on sale for half price! That’s $5 for stories by Joe Meno, Nick Ostdick, Thomas Cooper and many more. What else does $5 get you? Illustrations by Spanish illustration sensation Raquel Aparicio, photos by Simi Valley photographic inspiration sensation Alex Martinez, and an essay by Sam Weller about Kiss.

What are you waiting for? Forget that five dollar foot-long, spend your money on something that will last!

Some interesting articles have been arriving by post as of late. Let me tell you about them.

The talented J.A. Tyler was kind enough to send me this beautiful bundle of chapbooks from Mudluscious Press. Mind you, I ordered and paid for them (as you should too), but I just thought it should be noted that Mr. Tyler is not a deadbeat who will abscond with your cash, should you order something from him. Not that anyone has said contrary. Goddamnit. See, this is what happens when I try to compliment someone.

Got my first issue of PANK! Feel the need to always spell that with a exclamation point for some reason. Or clap hands together.

Conan Tobias did a trade for his colorful Canadian journal  Taddle Creek (or should I say colourful.)

Lastly, Sheba sent me a collapsible birdhouse. I love it.

These hazy little pockets of life captured by Lina Scheynius seem appropriate for winter. Her photos remind me of your eyes being a bit dried out from the heater, hair perpetually mussed up from wool hats and the static clicking of moving your arm across a bed sheet in the middle of the night, trying not to stir the one your with.

Stumbled upon UK illustrator and book cover design virtuoso  Adam Simpson and found his cover for last year’s Up a Tree in the Park at Night with a Hedgehog by Aussie writer P. Robert Smith. It’s rare you find yourself looking at a book cover for more than three to five seconds. This one won’t let you take your eyes off it until you’ve figured out what’s going on with every tiny Where’s Waldo-esque character. You are amazing, Adam!

Hope the holiday break was as reinvigorating for everyone else as it was for us. My computer took a shit and I had to get it fixed, hence the crickets and tumbleweeds over in this little corner of the internet for the past week or so. It was nice to step away for a bit, but I did get the feeling like the world was jogging away from me while I sat in a lawn chair and sipped hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps. Time to get off my ass! Time to get off your ass! Time to catch up with the world! Time to jog up to it and goose it as you run by it, then run backwards to face it and give it the two-fingers-to-the-eyes-I’m-watching-you move and then turn on the afterburners!

So what happened while we were away?

Someone came up with the best idea I’ve seen in a long time: Oprah, Read This [via]

Some people unleashed a final avalanche of year end lists and this guy made the definitive one. [via]

Some stuff got expensive.

Some big guns came to the aid of a Chinese writer.

Or wait, was this the definitive year-end list?

What else…um, some asshole set himself on fire on a plane, that blue cat alien movie made a shit-ton more money, and Rush Limbaugh didn’t die.

Some randomness from my week without cyber drugs:

Oh hey, Lexy. Who are you gchatting with?

Oh hey, Steve. Why’d you just close that gchat window?

Walking home from the store we found a park. I said it would be a perfect place to throw a ball or a ‘bee around. Magically, these were on the bench, waiting for us.

I lit off fireworks and danced on New Years Eve.

I drank but did not get drunk. While the ladies were inside dancing, the men leaned against a strangers car and talked about relationships. The first New Years where I felt old. I did not feel good or bad about being old. Just okay with it.

We bought fish. Not for keeping…

But for releasing.

To start the year off with some good karma.

In hindsight I realize this could potentially be environmentally irresponsible, releasing a goldfish into an ecosystem that isn’t used to it. I imagine I’d have a tsunami of bad karma coming my way if I destroyed an entire habitat.

Shit. Need to think these things through more.

Oh well. Here’s to hoping they don’t tip the balance too much.

I know I said we were gonna take off for the break but it just felt wrong to leave you hanging out there in the wind like that. We need to stick together in this world, so we’re going to be keeping it chill here over the break instead of ceasing all communications.

Anyway:

I got my issues with The Rumpus. Sometimes they can be a little too NY and SF focused and can kinda forget that anything of artistic and literary merit is happening anywhere else in the country. And also, after some pretty admirable efforts on my part to do what little promotion I can with the small amount of credibility I have to promote Stephen Elliott’s book, I have yet to get that attention reciprocated onto me and my project. Wouldn’t kill them to link to some of the cool shit that happens here. Not that that’s why I dedicated all that time and money to pumping up Adderall Diaries. It’s a damn fine book by a damn fine writer, and I believe in both. Wouldn’t kill him to show a little appreciation over there is all. I’m just saying.

Whatever. The Rumpus is cool. I’m just airing some sour grapes. It’s kind of petty to be ripping on one of the few places on the internet for things of substance. And I’m starting to sound like the nerd who wasn’t invited to the party.

My favorite thing they got goin on nowadys is Pornographic Barn Owl. Simple, subtle, sublime. Often laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes sweetly sad, always hilariously honest. Imagine if Raymond Pettibon was way funnier and drew a weekly strip. I’m waiting for the collected works of Ian Huebert to come out. I will buy that shit.

Geez, I thought I was supposed to be keeping it chill…