Miriam Suzanne

the art and inspiration of Miriam Suzanne.

[ericsuzanne]

Moving off tumblr

I've enjoyed many things about Tumblr and the Tumblr community over the last year, but my site was experiencing regular technical issues, and maintaining a custom design on here is quite difficult. As of today, eric.andmeyer.com takes you to a new site I've created using rstblog static-site generator.

This account will stay open, since (for now) Vicious Trap is remaining on Tumblr. And because I like the community aspects.

[ericsuzanne]

We've been making vast improvements to the greenmud interface. The full text is now online, though I may still make some changes as I flesh it out. From here on, I'll be adding design, one page at a time.

The first step in that process is to complete the font-family. JJ Regular is mostly complete (and in use), JJ Bold is coming along nicely, Susy's font sketches are done but not implemented, and the narration font is even farther behind. Back to work!

[ericsuzanne]

ReDesign: Step #1.

Step #1 is not about design so much as function. I can't stare at the bare ugly for so long. I can't get a sense of the content or underlying structure without a small touch of sanity.

This, then, is the minimal touch of sanity I could live with:

A bit of pink

A nice ampersand

A frame to harness the typographic measure.

 Number 3 is essential, the other 2 make me happy. Good enough for now.

[ericsuzanne]

Time for a re-design. Publicly. From scratch.

I've launched several small sites recently, and have a few more on the way. I'm enjoying a few new techniques and tools, and a minimalist content-out approach. It's time to bring that home.

The first step is content. For the time being I've striped out all the design. I'll start by getting the content structured the way I like, and then slowly add typography, color, interaction, and graphics back in.

[ericsuzanne]

What we've been doing:

Thumbnail sketches for chapters 1-7 (so far).

Establishing the code template and reading controls.

Exploring the ePub3 possibilities.

Recording sketches for songs 1-5 (so far).

Planning for various E-Literature conferences.

Designing desktop images for you to download.

Designing the next 4 months of love-note postcards.

Editing, editing, editing.

[ericsuzanne]

A stack of love notes from JJ and Susy. Ready to deliver.

[ericsuzanne]

It's been a wild month, and a needed retreat Into The Work after a winter of making connections and raising money. That's done, and so: storyboards (using paper for ipad).

Sondra is helping me craft and edit the visuals.

Dan is in the basement making music.

Brandi has the text for a final round of editing.

Jonny is getting Javascript in place for touch screens.

Meanwhile, I'm building tools to help me build and animate quickly in the browser. The new Compass animation module is in place, and I'm putting final touches on Susy 1.0.

(Susy the software is named after Susy the character)

[ericsuzanne]

Thank you all for the successful funding campaign! I'm honored to have you on board with the project.

I celebrated yesterday with a cookie and chai at the Tattered Cover bookstore, where I recorded this "celebratory dance". I also ordered books by Samuel Ace, TC Tolbert, and Time (Trace) Peterson. That's what I call a party.

[ericsuzanne]

Chapter 13 (a reading).

This fundraising campaign for Into the Green Green Mud has been an exhilarating ride, and generated more attention than I ever expected. Now, with a few days left, I'm just $1000 short of my goal. Will you help me bridge the final gap? Contribute now: http://rkthb.co/6066

Tell a friend to drop your name when they contribute. I'll offer you both the rewards one level above your donation level.

[ericsuzanne]

I'll be reading more, with live music and projections tomorrow night! 2228 Vine St, Denver @ 8pm.

There's only 10 days left to contribute, and $1350 to go. Every little bit helps! http://rkthb.co/6066

[ericsuzanne]

[ericsuzanne]

Is There Love Without Eternity?

[This initially appeared as a guest post on the Boulder Writers Workshop blog.]

Into the Green Green Mud: A Novel (with pictures).

December 16, 2006. I was sitting at my computer, listening to music and chatting with my friend Mary Beechy. We talked about divorce and wrote absurdist poetry together, alternating lines. In my background, CocoRosie sang:

I once fell in love with you just because the sky turned from gray Into blue...

I thought of John Lennon's early poem:

I sat belonely down a tree, humbled fat and small. A little lady sing to me I couldn't see at all.

I thought of love starting, and love ending, and the clouds passing. I thought of the benign indifference of the universe, and Albert Camus, and shooting a man because the sun was in my eyes. I thought about the theatre of Michelle Milne, the writings of Charles Mee Jr, and the absurdist science of Douglas Hofstadter. I thought about "Like Water for Chocolate" and the classics filled with eternal love, and it made me curious.

Is There Love Without Eternity?

What's this obsession we have with eternity, and how do we deal with the ephemeral? Life is so transient some times; nothing seems to stay where we left it last. The clouds shift, and friends move away. The sun moves from the three hand to the four, and squirrels are collecting nuts, so where does that leave us?

I started writing. I discovered characters who float from one idea to the next because they hear a song, and remember a book, and then move out west. They see a tree, and hum a poem, and head on home for hot chocolate (when it starts raining). I followed their lead, and let myself be moved by everything around me: music, work, conversations, associations, movies, references, sounds, architecture.

I wrote a novel, and it was a poem, and I called it "Into the Green Green Mud." But coming from an experimental theatre background, where script and performance are distinct entities, the text was only the beginning. How would I "perform" this novel? The standard performance of a novel is justified black text on white paper. But is that really the best way to explore time and love and change and the weather?

Ann Bogart insists that theatre can be more than speaking dialogue from a script. Theatre can be everything that is possible in space, time, sound, and story: all together at once. And then theatre can be all of us remembering the things we were reminded of. Can a novel be all that as well? Can we break down the boundary between mediums, and use everything at our disposal to communicate with an audience?

By Any Medium Necessary.

The first performance of Into the Green Green Mud is under way, and I'd like you to be a part of it. We're starting online, with original illustrations, animations, fonts, and music. OddBird will write the code, and Teacup Gorilla will write the music. From there we can make it a reading, a rock concert, a book, or all of these things at once.

This Saturday, March 31, at 8pm I will perform a few selected chapters as a reading, along with projected images and live music, and four of my collaborators reading from their own work.

The reading is free, but we're also raising money to complete the production and cover our costs. We can't do it without you, and we're running low on time. Will you join us?

Read a sample of Into the Green Green Mud: http://greengreenmud.com And help bring this strange beast into the world: http://rkthb.co/6066

Thanks!

[ericsuzanne]

“Nothing is more important than an unread library.” ― John Waters

I attended the AWP 2012 conference in Chicago last month. We had a great time hanging out with the small press, experimental, and queer writers. I heard and met some brilliant artists. Then I bought their books. Then I came home and bought more books. Here's the rundown.

People and Presses:

Erin Costello is a poet, digital artist, web designer, and co-founder of SpringGun Press. "A SpringGun is simultaneously insane, comical, violent, practical, ingenious, irresponsible, terrifying, vulnerable, and deadly." Erin is also involved in the Electronic Literature Organization.

Stacey Waite organized a panel on genderqueer writers, with Ely Shipley, Joy Ladin, and Samuel Ace. Love Poem to Androgyny is now on my list.

Trace Peterson and TC Tolbert are the editors of the upcoming Anthology of Trans and Genderqueer Poetry. Trace is also editor of EOAGH Books.

Amaranth Borsuk and I met by chance. Her digital pop-up book of poems was published by Siglio Press.

Joe Hall and Chad Hardy yelled from their book The Container Store (SpringGun) over the noise of the AWP Bookfair.

Steven D. Schroeder is the Editor of Anti-.

Michelle Milne, Brandi Homan, Sondra Eisenstat, Nicole Antonopulos, and Daniel Singer were also there. I like them.

AWP Books:

Between Page & Screen, Amaranth Borsuk & Brad Bouse (Siglio)

Handiwork, Amaranth Borsuk (Slope Editions)

Everything Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas, Denis Wood (Siglio)

It Is Almost That: A Collection of Image+Text Work by Women Artists & Writers, various (Siglio)

Dog Ear, Erica Baum (Ugly Duckling Press)

The Container Store, Joe Hall and Chad Hardy (SpringGun)

Red Missed Aches, Jennifer Tamayo (Switchback Books)

Who's Who Vivid, Matt Hart (Slope Editions)

Recent issues of Bombay Gin, Artifice, and Burnside Review.

Other Books:

And the Pursuit of Happiness, Maira Kalman (Penguin)

Why We Broke Up, Daniel Handler & Maira Kalman (Little, Brown)

The Three Incestuous Sisters, Audrey Niffenegger (Harry N. Abrams)

Found Poems, Bern Porter (Nightboat Books)

Sappho, trans. Mary Barnard (University of California)

And one more, as I write this at the Tattered Cover: Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon (Workman). Several of these books deserve their own posts. That will happen, I promise.

[ericsuzanne]

Most Basic Decency (left) and Peace Be With You (right), by Lindsay St. Antoine. I am in love with her style, and can't wait to see what she does next.

[ericsuzanne]

Politics yesterday fomented an explosion of Badly Photoshopped Romney Etch-A-Sketch graphics. You know pointillism isn't the style usually associated with Etch-A-Sketch, right?

Unfortunately I don't own an Etch-A-Sketch. I do have access to the internet, though. I think I captured the essence.

(HT: Jonny Gerig-Meyer)

[ericsuzanne]

Norge is excited to present its debut reading, featuring five local writers and a multimedia digital novel.

2228 Vine St, Denver CO Saturday, March 31 @ 8:00pm

Featuring Aaron Liechty, Dan Eisenstat, Eric A. Meyer, Jacob Liechty, and Sondra Eby.

[ericsuzanne]

Twisted Tree by my sister-in-law Hannah Gerig-Meyer. I love her combinations of photography, design, watercolor, and pen. So I bought it.