The minutes get shorter, the walls start to close in
Feels like the brain is hanging on but with clothes pins
I’ve hidden in the darkness for too long
I make it look all right but in the inside its so wrong
I want life to change but I don’t know if it can
for a man or machine or whatever the fuck I am
I stand alone burned every bridge over the troubled water
No longer hiding from my personality disorder
  — Even Shadows Have Shadows

1. I first heard of Eyedea a couple of years ago from my son (who also tells me about Cage, Aesop Rock, Yak Ballz, Slug, etc.). The talented rapper from St. Paul, Minnesota suddenly died this weekend, at age 28. There’s still no word about how it happened.

2. I really don’t know what it means, probably nothing, that Eyedea was from Franzen country.

3. Was the Cadbury factory in Birmingham, England an inspiration for Roald Dahl’s Wonka works?

4. It’s oddly enticing to look at: how high-quality commercial printing ink is made.

5. Bud Parr, Joshua Tallent and Craig Morgan Teicher are exposing how bad, really bad, some professionally published electronic poetry books are, and what can be done to fix this problem.

6. Tony O’Neill’s excellent novel Sick City gets a cameo (on a picnic blanket) in a Lupe Fiasco video.

7. I’ve never seen this 1965 Royal Albert Hall Beat poetry reading before. If you’re into the Beats, this is a must see, all 26 minutes.

8. David Amram 80th Birthday Party on November 11, clearly a wild party, featuring Nora Guthrie, John Ventimiglia, Keir Dullea, Malachy McCourt, John McEuen (of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), Josh White Jr., Larry Kerwin & The Imani Winds. David Amram is an unforgettable performer and this is guaranteed to be an amazing show. I hope they’ll put Adira Amram and Alana Amram, two more very talented musicians, on the bill!

9. Why Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa once kicked the shit out of Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

10. The Battle of Chernobyl, a documentary film about a nuclear accident.