IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY

and I have no plans, other than getting in to work early and then heading off to wander around the city before meeting a few friends for beers.

This has been a pretty great year so far; I've been blessed to meet and hang out with so many great people, new and old, all over the country, and of course here in the apparently always rainy city of New York. (It is, for instance, drizzling it looks like, now.)

Of course I thought this morning of Leslie Gore (born Leslie Sue Goldstein), and her great pop hit, "It's My Party (I'll Cry if I Want To)," especially as Nada and I just saw footage of her singing in the T.A.M.I. Show a few weeks ago.

But it's my party, and I have nothing to cry about, so I'll leave you with her lesser-known, but infinitely more resonant & powerful "You Don't Own Me":



Oh, oh, dear wonderful Leslie. Thank you for kicking out the jams so relentlessly, you fabulous human being, you.

Here's to another year of all of our individual and collective striving for, and occasionally achieving, same.

DISCOVERED THIS WEEKEND IN BROOKLYN



Asala Yousef ... the other Asala.

AM I EMO?



My comic, "Am I Emo?" went live on the Poetry Foundation's Web site this morning.

Read it here.

Read the whole issue, including the Flarf/Conceptual section, here.