SLEERICKETS

By Matthew Buckley SmithArts Books

SLEERICKETS episodes

October 22, 2021 BONUS: Permission to Boo, ft. Alice Allan
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– The 150th episode of Poetry Says (The windy background noise goes away after the intro, so stick with it!)
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Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
34 min
October 20, 2021 Ep 27: Baker’s Poetry, ft. Alice Allan
NB: Ron Padgett is, of course, a member of the New York School, not the New School as I for some reason say early in my conversation with Alice.
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Alice Allan’s podcast Poetry Says, her book The Empty Room, and her chapbook Blanks
– The 2016 Jim Jarmusch poetry movie Paterson
– Method Man and/or Paul Laurence Dunbar
– The goodness of Adam Driver and William Jackson Harper
– Donald Hall’s poem “Without”
– Jane Kenyon’s poems “Happiness” and “Having It Out With Melancholy”
– Mary Oliver
– Pam Brown
– David Brooks (not that David Brooks)
– Commonplace with Rachel Zucker
– The Poetry Gods with Aziza Barnes, José Olivarez, and Jon Sands
– What it actually feels like to publish a first book of poems
– Alice’s podcasting wisdom
– Dorothy Porter’s poem “Lucky”
Please rate, review, and subscribe! Or just recommend the show to a friend!
Send questions, comments, and suggestions to [email protected].
1 hr 23 min
October 13, 2021 Ep 26: Death’s Second Selfie
NB: Next week, Alice Allan of the Poetry Says podcast will be joining me to discuss the 2016 Jim Jarmusch poetry movie Paterson, but not the insanely long William Carlos Williams poem of the same name. Watch it now to pre-empt spoilers!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– More Alice!
– Good advice from Ocean Vuong
– Michael Robbins’ poem “Alien vs. Predator”
– Michael Robbins’ review of Postmodern American Poetry
– Michael Robbins’ essay on atheism
– Michael Robbins’ book Walkman
– José Ortega y Gasset’s book The Revolt of the Masses
– Another smart email from Coleman
– An interview with Melissa Lovada-Oliva
– Helena Feder’s interview with Stephen Dunn
– “Sun Under Wood”
– Sonnet 73
– Sappho 31
– Catullus 51
– Claudia Rankine’s book Citizen
– Sam Riviere’s essay “In Defense of Poetic Plagiarism”
Please rate, review, and subscribe! Or just recommend the show to a friend!
Send questions, comments, and suggestions to [email protected].

Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 34 min
October 08, 2021 BONUS: Besmirching The Aeneid, ft. Brian Platzer
NB: Please buy a copy of Now You Know It All, the new story collection by beloved former poetess and current wife of the podcast Joanna Pearson!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Brian Platzer!
Please rate, review, and subscribe! Or just recommend the show to a friend!
Send questions, comments, and suggestions to [email protected].

Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
24 min
October 06, 2021 Ep 25: Metaphorical Gal, ft. Brian Platzer
NB: Please buy a copy of Now You Know It All, the new story collection by beloved former poetess and current wife of the podcast Joanna Pearson!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Brian Platzer!
– Iain Reid’s novel I’m Thinking of Ending Things
– Charlie Kaufman’s movie I’m Thinking of Ending Things
– The narrative frame of The White Lotus
– The definition of “literary thriller”
– Luis Buñuel’s movie That Obscure Object of Desire
– Kevin Brockmeier’s book The Brief History of the Dead
– David Eagleman’s book Sum
– The series finale of Lost
– Oklahoma!
– Wordsworth’s poem “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections in Early Childhood”
– Eva H.D.’s poem “Bonedog”
– The end of The Usual Suspects
– The Nobel Prize acceptance speech in A Beautiful Mind
– Henry Darger
– Alexander Sokurov’s movie Russian Ark
Please rate, review, and subscribe! Or just recommend the show to a friend!
Send questions, comments, and suggestions to [email protected].

Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 30 min
September 29, 2021 Ep 24: Musée des NSFW Arts
NB: Next week, Brian Platzer and I will be discussing I’m Thinking of Ending Things, the novel and the movie. Read/Watch it now to pre-empt spoilers!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– A recent episode of Poetry Says
– More poetry readings!
– The Trolley Problem
– Ekphrasis
– Rodin’s sculpture Toilette of Venus and Andromeda
– Dante’s Inferno
– Michelangelo’s mural The Last Judgment
– Diego Rivera’s mural Man at the Crossroads
– “The Wanderer”
– Another good question from Coleman
– Keats’ poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
– Euripides’ Bacchae
– Donna Tartt’s novel The Secret History
– Joshua Mehigan’s poem “Cold Turkey”
Please rate, review, and subscribe! Or just recommend the show to a friend!
Send questions, comments, and suggestions to [email protected].

Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 18 min
September 22, 2021 Ep 23: Rhymes Without Beats, ft. James Nguyen
NB: In a week or two, Brian Platzer and I will be discussing I’m Thinking of Ending Things, the novel and the movie. Read/Watch it now to pre-empt spoilers!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– James Nguyen’s spoken-word poetry
– My conversation with Austin Allen
– Some very popular very Christian very bad spoken-word poetry on YouTube
– Harry Baker’s spoken-word poetry
– Danez Smith’s poetry, spoken-word and otherwise
– Nate Marshall’s poetry, spoken-word and otherwise
– David Pizarro’s Beats Without Rhymes
– David Brooks’ book The Second Mountain
– Mark Manson’s book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
– Will Smith, actor, philosopher
– Plato’s Gorgias
Please rate, review, and subscribe! Or just recommend the show to a friend!
Send questions, comments, and suggestions to [email protected].

Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 29 min
September 15, 2021 Ep 22: The Truth Is Probably Not Out There
NB: (1.) I meant to say “Aristotle,” not “aerosol.” (2.) Yeah, I know, it’s not Mattie Lee’s family but her friends who pass judgment on/express concern for her.
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Derek DelGaudio’s taped magic show In & Of Itself
– Piero della Francesca’s fresco cycle The Legend of the True Cross
– Coleman Glenn’s good poem “Antipodes”
– Alice Allan’s good poetry podcast Poetry Says
– Robert Frost’s poems “Putting in the Seed,” “The Silken Tent,” and “Home Burial”
– Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
– Danielle Rose’s utterly anodyne and bizarrely controversial tweet and Barren Magazine’s stupid and histrionic response
– George Orwell’s essay “Poetry and the Microphone”
– Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death”
– Rebecca Hazelton’s essay in which she argues for the importance of mastering scansion by demonstrating that she has not mastered it
– Robert Hayden’s poem “Unidentified Flying Object”
Please rate, review, and subscribe! Or just recommend the show to a friend!
Send questions, comments, and suggestions to [email protected].

Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 32 min
September 08, 2021 Ep 21: A Dirty Thing for Boys, ft. Steve Teare
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Prolific artist and illustrator Steve Teare
– Steve’s work in The Nib, The Believer, Awry, Bright the Mag, Vice, and The New Yorker
– The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
– Subsequent representations of the TMNT: gritty, hyper-violent Manga, “Dawson’s Creek,” goofy, adult, film, more film, most film(?)
– “Middle-Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles”
– Three screen incarnations of the Batmobile: West, Keaton, and Bale
– Susan Sontag’s essay “Notes on Camp”
– Armond White’s review of The Dark Knight
– Struggle Session
– Sam Kieth’s “dreamy grungy masterpiece” The Maxx
– David Graeber’s book The Utopia of Rules
– Dave Sim, “misogynist comics wizard of type and word bubbles”
– Greil Marcus, “music and critic and mythologizer of all things American”
– Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent
– Hell House
– Robert Bly’s book Iron John
Please rate, review, and subscribe! Or just recommend the show to a friend!
Send questions, comments, and suggestions to [email protected].

Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 23 min
September 01, 2021 Ep 20: Shop like a Poet
NB: Sorry some of these episodes have been so quiet. It’s a problem I’ve been working on, and I think I finally figured out how to fix it! Unfortunately, that was just after I finished recording this week’s episode. Next week I should finally be audible!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Freddie de Boer on making a living in publishing
– Cameron’s smart email
– Kaveh Akbar’s book Pilgrim Bell
– Man-of-many-hats Ryan Wilson
– My bad college workshop poetry
– Lyn Hejinian’s edition of The Best American Poetry
– Ocean Vuong’s poem “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong”
– Frank O’Hara’s poem “Katy”
– Roger Reeves’ poem “Someday I’ll Love Roger Reeves”
– Andrew Epstein on the New York School roots of “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong”
– Ocean Vuong’s book Night Sky with Exit Wounds
– Wolfgang Iser’s article “The Reading Process”
– Baudelaire’s mean prose poems
– Philip Larkin’s poem “The Old Fools”
Please rate, review, and subscribe! Or just recommend the show to a friend!
Send questions, comments, and suggestions to [email protected].

Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 10 min