Weird Deer

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Weird Deer will be on hiatus until we elect Barack Obama president. This is serious. Any time you might have spent here, please spend calling, registering, or canvasing voters, writing letters to your local papers, or raising money. We hope to return in November. Sincerely, Travis

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I woke up on November 3, 2004 with little hope left. The night before we had watched the early returns of the presidential election together, and by the time I had gone to bed no one had yet definitively reported the winner, but the momentum was swinging. I didn’t sleep well. That morning, I heard [...]

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Ish Klein Reads CA Conrad [ 1:26 ] Play Now | Play in Popup

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Our talk about the election the other day got me thinking about the issue of electability, which is something I wish nobody thought about. In fact, I’m beginning to think that “electability” is usually just a proxy for other concerns that for some reason we can’t seem to get at directly. John Edwards, clawing for [...]

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Travis might have convinced you that I’m really into politics, but don’t let him fool you. I’m not one of those Iowans. Well, at least I wasn’t ’till this year. Maybe it’s because I’m older and more mature (18!), or maybe it’s because the candidates are more fascinating this year (Chris Dodd’s hair!). Whatever it [...]

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I have a crush on the Ninth Amendment. I lay awake at night dreaming of its open embrace, agonizing over what I could possibly say to it, feeling wonderful and awful at the same time. Why? Just listen: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others [...]

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The artist Lee Lozano wrote in her notebook on December 20, 1969: “Confinement is the near root of all my rage.” Recently, I’ve been trying to imagine her name as a verb. Lee Lozano. Do you know her work? I think you would like it. She’s mostly known for her tool drawings and paintings—big graphic [...]

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Cornelia Shields has been trying to transcribe all the details of her father’s death, but she says it’s hard. “I’m trying to get it all down,” she told me over the phone last Wednesday, “My dad was never so proud of me as the day he found out I was keeping a diary. I keep [...]

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I think you’ll appreciate that Li-Young Lee is currently out of fashion (I haven’t heard his name mentioned in seven years) and, yet, I consider him one of the poets with the most influence on me. His book The City in which I Love You was the first “slim volume of verse” (to use Christina’s [...]

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