HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My inclination, right now, is to very quickly type ‘here’s our issue’ and dash out the door because I am on vacation. Vacation, vacation, vacation! As my daughter Hannah would say, “Bitches love vacation” and you know she’s right. And sure, it’s a working vacation, but a vacation nonetheless. It started out January 19^th in an airport hotel outside Pittsburgh, and will end at the Palm Springs International Film Festival when the feature film A Thousand Cuts premiers January 12th. I’ve already went through Dallas en route to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California, and from there drove to my best friend’s Kristen & Anita’s beach house in GGLB. And now as I sit here typing about as fast as I possibly can it is New Year’s Eve RIGHT OUTSIDE MY DOOR!

I love New Year’s Eve in the Gay Ghetto. It’s a gorgeous time of lights and joyous party goers spilling from apartment after apartment—of the sounds of drinks clanking in a toast and medicinal smoke pouring into the streets in clouds. Gunshots. Whistles. Bells and Music. And it is a heck of a long way from the home offices of Connotation Press in the forests of Appalachia. I adore our home in West Virginia for all the right reasons, but I am a Long Beach boy at the core, and it’s good to be home.

On this trip I’ve had the privilege of seeing my dear friends Janet & Kevin, Greg & Wendy, my parents and sisters, my amazing daughters and their mom & Jim, nieces and nephews, the band Cracker & Camper Van Beethoven, our Editors Robert Clark Young & Nicelle Davis, Jessica Wilson, David Womack, the incomparable Maurya Simon, of course Kristen & Anita and Lumpy Hillenbrand every day, and this thing isn’t even half way over, yet. I’ve still got time scheduled with another two dozen friends. And since I want to be outside at the party down the street before the bell strikes 12 let’s kick this pig and see what it’ll do!

Our Featured Artists of the Month for January 2012 is a collaborative effort by cinematic artist Swoon and poet David Tomaloff. We’ve got the world premiere of Swoon’s new movie, Proof (a triptych) featuring David’s poetry, an interview with Swoon & Tomaloff, and we even have the poems themselves. It is a great honor for us to be able to deliver what we consider new directions that talent, collaboration, and technology are bringing to the arts for your pleasure and inspiration, and I send out my most heartfelt thanks to Swoon & David.

Connotation Press’ exclusive internet TV foodie show SPATULA starring Amanda McGuire & Sarah Lenz brings you its fourth episode this month and it’s all about CHEESE! Amanda makes some kind of crazy-delicious Pimiento Cheese Dip for you no-clue-whatsoever kitchen amateurs out there while Sarah delivers on the home made ricotta cheese and simultaneously cites Nabokov. Yep. It’s an episode just like that. WE LOVE SPATULA! Thanks to Amanda & Sarah!

Travel Editor Nicholas Baker’s Discovered column is out on the road to Nirvana again, this time in VENICE, Italy! Join Nick & Freddy and their friends Rasha & Ugo as they take us to the gorgeous, gondola thumping slice of watery heaven. We have gorgeous photos of the city and remind you to click on each picture for a much expanded view. Another splendid, slightly snarky, slightly romantic look at the world through the eyes of the best travel writer in the business. Thanks, Nicholas!

INK on the TRACKS, with Anna March has a guest editor this issue: Spencer Griffin. Spencer’s theme is appropriately New Year. We’ve got a great playlist featuring the work of U2, The New Pornographers, Third Eye Blind, Foo Fighters, Donald Fagen, The Black Ghosts, Alpha Rev, George Harrison, Midnight Oil, David Bowie, Cowboy Junkies, Alexander, The Alternate Routes, and Paul Simon. Thank you Spencer doing such a great job. Anna will return with an all new playlist in our mid-month issue.

Finally, our Creative Nonfiction and Fiction teasers for January 2012 are Faye Rapoport DesPres with her Creative Nonfiction piece, “No One Watches the Old Lady Dance” and Sara Lippmann’s Fiction piece, “Body Scan”. And as always, we run these teasers as a reminder to return on the fifteenth of the month for our completely new Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction columns along with new book & movie reviews, another terrific music playlist from Anna March, and a whole lot more.

And that’s it then. I’m free! Off and into the party scene on the streets of Long Beach and hoping to see you soon. Oh, and a reminder while I have your attention, AWP is only TWO months away! Can’t wait for the fun.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

~Ken

Connotation Press: Bitch, It’s New Year’s Eve...Bitches Love New Year’s Eve

Caricature art by Roger Bethke