Oliver Sheppard

I recently (last week of January, 2022) spoke with Ian MacKaye about Steady Diet of Nothing, the dark horse FUGAZI LP that turned 30 (!) a few months back. (Thirty!) The 1991 LP's concerns about abortion rights, SCOTUS, &c are unfortunately relevant as ever. The interview is here: https://thebattleground.eu/.../16/the-ian-mackaye-interview/

Advice for young writers or aspiring writers of any age: I find it renews writing confidence to read bad reviews of great literature. (It's also just entertaining!) These are pics I took from the book ROTTEN REVIEWS II. (The Plath quip is shocking, if not downright ableist.)

Another fantastic find during my brief and dreary recent trip to Oklahoma City: This deluxe, 1971 edition of Charles Baudelaire's FLOWERS OF EVIL, hardback and with crimson slipcase. The edition was for some reason being sold for only $10 USD and wasn't behind glass, or in the collectibles section at the Half-Price Books I went to in OKC -- it was simply up in the Poetry section alongside other used books. This volume doesn't even appear used -- no markings, etc. I had to get it. 🖤 The volume does feature the complete poetry of Les Fleurs du Mal but the individual poems herein are translated into English by divers hands -- and what a group of translators! Everyone from Edna St. Vincent Millay to Aldous Huxley to HP Lovecraft comrade Clark Ashton Smith has showings of Baudelaire translations in this volume! And there are elegantly erotic engravings by Pierre-Yves Tremois featured throughout. I have about 10 other editions of Fleurs du Mal in my collection; it's one of my favorite single books of all time. (I even have one published by the Louvre from the 1960s that still has the Louvre's cash register receipt in it from 1968!) But this edition by Heritage Press is up there among my favorite versions of this book. Still amazed it was ten bucks.

Why was I in OKC? A long-ish story I may relate in a subsequent post -- essentially, finishing up business related to a deceased (step-)relative's estate (such as it was). It's a distant relative I didn't know that well, but the process has been emotionally and physically exhausting nonetheless, and I seemed to be the only one in the family willing or able to do what was needed to bring closure to the tangled mess of bank accounts, storage units, property, etc., that were left in the wake of the death. More on that later. 😓