Grey Book Press Infinite Playlist

Christmas is in a week, and I'm trying my best to put off doing anything responsible, like wrapping gifts or figuring out for whom we have left to buy. As I'm finishing the last bits of my lunch here at work (Lipton Cup-a-Soup, veggie jerky ["wild" flavor], cheddar cheese-crackers, and a Sprite . . . and, I confess, a chunk of chocolate-covered peanut brittle), I'm thinking about music. I have bills to pay (most important), a chapbook of Fantome lyrics to proof (while listening to the CD), and poems to read for the journal (oh, wait, most of you aren't sending me anything so scratch THAT), but I'm doing this. All because it's an excuse to randomly post a list. Of music.

Some of you might remember I did mix CDs for my blog (Kamikaze Lunchbreak). Well, I started one for the poetry journal I'm gonna do . . . last Spring, when I came up with the title. By the time Issue #1 of it goes to press, I'll have done a half-dozen mix CDs. For me.

For you, I have the Grey Book Press "staff" buyers' guide! It's a listing of what's in "high rotation" . . . y'know, from a pre-MP3 world where "albums" and full-length CDs still matter. I guess this is more my list, because the long-arm stapler sits on a shelf above the desktop and mostly listens to the sounds of me playing Eve Online.

In no particular order (although six is an unusual number):
-- Bloc Party, A Weekend in the City
-- Forget Cassettes, Salt
-- Fields, Everything Last Winter
-- The Dresden Dolls, Yes, Virginia
-- The Cinematics, A Strange Education
-- I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Fear is on Our Side

Facebook, Fantome, and Brushing the Dust Off

We're anxiously building up to something here at Grey Book Press. At lunch today, I pulled the trigger on creating a group for the press on Facebook, complete with a snarky description and suitably minimalist picture. I invited 21 of my friends (on Facebook, so make the translation to "virtual" there) to the group, most of whom are not poets. In eight hours, almost half had joined the group, so I'm chalking that up as a success. Or, y'know, sympathy.

As mentioned last month, the first planned book is a collection of lyrics for Fantome's debut CD, Velvet on the Air. I've put together a some galley proofs, and I'm reviewing it with our singer, Chantal-Marie. I think the goal is to have this "going to press" in January.

To prepare the, um, "press," I've started assembling some copies of bound that have been stored in pieces/parts for more than seven years. This includes the remaining portion of the run for the final issue (#6), and scattered bits from the first three issues. I did some stapling about an hour ago and I only screwed up five or six copies before I remembered how to NOT mess them up. AMIDOINGTHISRITE?