How in hades are y'all? I'm finally posting something after a long withdrawl into the abyss that is California. Oakland, specifically. In any case, wanted y'all to know that my first book of poems just came out from Penguin. Poetry Daily is featuring one of the poems today (poems.com) and there's more info and general smarmy nonsense at markyakich.com
Hope y'all are being good boys and girls and aren't teaching any kids this summer how to, oh I don't know, how to copy DVDs or history lessons in Atari and what a joystick is/was.
josh [email] said at 12:20 PM 07-21-2004: MARK!!! Yay! Wow, that's awesome about your book, man... I will have to check it out. I'm not teaching camp but Ben is. Cricket is teaching ESL to immigrants!
yak said at 12:33 PM 07-21-2004: ach -- i was kidding about the teaching kids camp -- i can't believe Ben is doing it again. i think secretly (maybe not so secretly) he really likes it. poor boy. and Cricket teaching ESL. cool. where is she doing that anyway? DC area?
yak said at 12:37 PM 07-21-2004: hey Alice -- how are you? where are you? i still see Mr. Andy Spear every once in a while out here in Oakland/Berkeley -- tho, he got married and his wife doesn't let me see him much. maybe she's afraid i'll make him play spin the bottle on some rooftop around town with pretty girls. hmmm.
meredith [email] said at 12:42 PM 07-21-2004: I'm good! I'm in Chicago! Doing plays and stuff! You have been busy! Writing and stuff! Look, we're doing what our liberal arts degrees intended!
yak said at 12:40 PM 07-21-2004: hey there -- is this the Brandon of KLSU who showed me how to use the board and how to make funky adverts for The Spoken Word w/ Andy Spear? if this is you, Brandon, what in the name of fabliau are you doing now? if this is some other Brandon, hello hello.
meredith [email] said at 12:43 PM 07-21-2004: One of my favorite things Mark ever said, (concerning english majors) "Are you a poem or a short story? If you're a novel, you're in trouble."
yak said at 1:11 PM 07-21-2004: did I say that? hmmm...still true. those some days one feels more like a footnote. Chicago! that's where i'm from, if you remember. i'm moving to BFE Michigan in a few weeks. got a prof job teaching at Central Michigan U. since my p's and sis are still in the Chicagoland area, i'll be making regular visits. i'll try to make your play (HUGE congrats by the way), and i'll pass on a note to Andy. he'll be happy to hear the news....
yak said at 1:07 PM 07-21-2004: ah, the lettuce. you remember it. i still have a box of tapes of the radio show at my p's. once i get them i'll make a best-of cd and send you a copy.
cricket [email] said at 2:52 PM 07-21-2004: hi mark. i just cut my finger and its bleeding.....ahhh fixed it. yes, i teach in dc and every night i learn something new. for instance, if you have a sister and she has a fever, then she needs to drink a bottle of tequila. i never knew that. this might work for brothers. it probably works for everyone except children. my favorite part about teaching is the vocal warm-up we do to practice english vowel sounds and tricky consonants. last night we worked on our y's with old fashioned yeeeehaws! a salvadoran student cracked a joke about the mexicans having the advantage, while my shyest guatamalan boy belted out a racous one that sent everyone into hysterics.
glad to hear you are well. i miss you lots!
