i can't really sing, so

I have been busy in the month of February. Usually, I am a prolific reader, amongst other things in my life. However, for the month of February, I have not been reading much. Mostly, I have been building lesson plans for the class I teach at Rowan University: American English Grammar. Using a book on grammar and sentence diagramming by Cindy Vitto, I have already learned more and learned how to teach more, about the English language than I ever thought I knew existed. If you are a lover of language and ever would like to brush up your grammar skills, I highly recommend looking into the art of sentence diagramming. I find myself, when writing or speaking or laying in bed thinking, imagining how my thoughts/words would be diagrammed. Though this can sometimes prove distracting, thorough (and I mean THOROUGH) understanding of American Standard English is an excellent tool to have and use. Here is a link to the Declaration of Independence diagrammed. It's kind of pretty and mostly awe...

Because of a few unexpected production delays, Gigantic Sequins 1.2 has not yet been able to go to print. However, be assured that the magazine is ready to go, we are just waiting on a few things. This is preventing us from both distributing this issue to our subscribers and also from going ahead with the schedule we have made for issue 2.1. We apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused anyone, but look forward to going ahead with our plans as a magazine as soon as the production issues we are facing dissolve. We hope that this will be soon as in, within the next week or so. We appreciate everyone’s patience with this issue. Please direct all questions to giganticmagazine@gmail.com As an editor, this is not something that makes me happy. The above two paragraphs were posted on our official page, but this being our blog, I would like to add my two cents' worth. Unfortunately, due to the fact that two of us have left New York City in the past year, the cohesiveness we had ...

I am now teaching an American English Grammar course at Rowan University, and as much as I do not like to admit it, it has seriously affected the amount of time I usually spend reading. However, in January I read and enjoyed all of the following books. books read: January Complete Minimal Poems by Aram Saroyan I read a review in the nyt of this book awhile ago. This book, as much as a book of 'minimal poems' seems also an ode to the typewriter. While minimalism is something easily faked, Saroyan is a true original. His poems are akin to a Jackson Pollack painting, in that the untrained eye will scoff, "my five year old could do that!" True, but he didn't, and could never do it that well. Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon I picked this up to read for a failed book club. I read the whole thing, but was highly disappointed, and wish I had instead read a class Pynchon that I haven't gotten my hands on yet. This is a detective novel set in 1960's California wit...