Bad Back / Bad Book / Dancing, Flesh-Eating Corpse

I've returned to work for the New Year with high spirits and a wrenched back. On Saturday, I went to a party attended mainly by University of Iowa graduate students, and young organic farmers from Van Buren county. The grad students were harmless, of course, but the farmers, used to bailing hay and wrestling cattle, were perhaps a bit overzealous in their approach to the basic swing step. Luckily, my paralysis on Sunday morning was only temporary and I am now just left with a fading reminder of my similarly fading youth.

In other news, I have a double book review published in this week's issue of Boston's Weekly Dig. I've wondered lately if it's somehow in bad faith to be involved in the publishing and reviewing of books, then I remember how little either pays, and wonder, instead, why I didn't go to law school.

UPDATE: My dear friend Janaka, aka J. Cannibal, aka The Hotness, is profiled in this week's Dig. You may remember his other profile in The Boston Phoenix a few months ago. I would venture to guess that he's currently Boston's most profiled poet/undertaker/burlesque-dancer which makes him famous. Congratulations on being famous!