Best. Ostdick. Vol. 1 Brooklyn. Pac-Man. Poetry Month. Yo.

Truth that. It is Poetry Month. And the Nick Ostdick is talking poetry with the BJ Best at the Vol. 1 Brooklyn. So let's hit that shall we? Indeed. Excerpt? Cool.

A dear poet friend of mine often speaks of the idea of obsession in regards to poets and the subjects of their work—that is, one idea or theme or object they keep coming back to for further exploration. Is it fitting to say that video games function as one of your obsessions?
 
I’m not sure what divides the line between “obsession” and “intense interest,” but I think video games are the latter for me.  Or, if they’re an obsession, they’re one of several. But I did find video games fascinating to write about.  One reason is simply that they are so overlooked, and written off as brain-rotting ephemera. But more importantly, video games—and in particular classic video games—are flat-out weird, and it’s easy to forget that.  What is a Pac-Man, and why is he haunted by ghosts? The fauna of The Legend of Zelda is equally nonsensical. And the cool thing is that any of these details can be a trigger to develop a poem.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Fifty-Seven - As Good As Good Gets, starring the Nick Ostdick.

Wonderfully good it is. All of it. The Podcast. The Ostdick. And talking everything from running and MFAs to obsession and Hair Lit Vol. One. We should also note that Nick was one of several guests on the first ever edition of the Podcast - "Walt Whitman Means Delicious" - which we recorded almost five years ago to the day way back in the January 2008. So please do enjoy yourself some Ostdick love. It just might change you life. A lot. If only for a little while at that.

There is Hair Lit, Vol. One cover. All boss and beautiful.

Ostdick. Thursday. The Northville Review. Beautiful.

Like totally beautiful.

Ostdick. About That. Quick Lucks.

The Ostdick is Quick Lucks. Feel it. It just might change your life.

Ostdick. THE2NDHAND. Word.

There is new Ostdick in THE2NDHAND. There is boy. A father. Ghosts. And pain. Check it out. It just might change your life. For reals.

"Begin with a ghost. Dim the bulbs in your small rented cabin until the moonlight beams bluish shadows down over everything. Sit on the arm of the foldout sofa where your five-year-old son sleeps — weekend visitations only, as your ex-wife stipulated, and once in a while on Wednesdays when she has date-night with her new beau, a lounge singer named Tony. Then, lean close and whisper that his mother’s house, the one he lives in now, is haunted, terribly so."

Anderson. Ostdick. Literary offerings.

We are travel, again, it is a new year, and there are things to do, it is also time though to read, and catch-up, and we are reading and catching-up, now, here, and are happy to have read and caught-up with pieces by long time TBWCYL, Inc. favorites and BFFs Pete Anderson and Nick Ostdick, the former with a new joint "Tangled in Wishes" at the microliterature and the latter with new story "Moons" in the Sheepshead Review. You may be wondering if reading these pieces will change your life, and to that we say, what do you think, yes of course they will, at least briefly, so, go now, read, nice.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Five - Robot Girlfriend Roundtable. Redux. And Re-Release.

Episode Five. Madness. Multiple Jason's. Tim Hall's. Guth's. And hot robot girlfriends. Its madness we tell you.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life - Redux and Re-Release.

In essence MySpace sucks it. They bought imeem and our entire catalog of podcasts disappeared. Gone. Like really gone. After we recovered from the shock though, we thought maybe this is an opportunity, free stuff can be scary and more control would be nice. So, we connected with our new best friends at libsyn and we have now uploaded the entire series into a nice clean platform, with much bandwidth and the opportunity to access the iTunes universe, which is good when world domination is the goal. What does this mean for you though? Well, first off, it means This Podcast Will Change Your Life is back in business and better than ever. Take that MySpace. It also means that we have all new links, so if you have previously linked to one of these podcasts please make sure you are up to speed. Finally, we are just geeked to be looking forward after weeks of despondency and late nights, and so in celebration of our new platform and sunnier, less stressful, future, we have decided to re-release all twenty-two podcasts over the next two days beginning right now with Episode One, Walt Whitman Means Delicious, starring the Jason's, Pettus and Behrends, and the Ostdick, Nick Ostdick. Cool?

Some things we are digging as we prepare to briefly drop off of the grid.

Fact, we are sort of mostly briefly dropping off of the grid this week. And so we sort of thought we should leave you with some stuff to read and/or contemplate during our time away.

Yes, we're just good like that.

First off, Stories II from the most excellent short story writer Scott McClanahan is due out soon. This is quite good news. The dude is the bomb. We loved Stories. And yes we love him as well and we are not embarrassed to say so.

We would add, that Scott has also recorded a piece from Stories II for the fine crew at Apostrophe Cast and it should be heard, so why not listen to it? They are even throwing in an interview for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

The Nick Ostdick has a new piece titled True Hair up on STORYGLOSSIA. Yes, that STORYGLOSSIA. Please feel free to consume it. And yes we love him too.

Meanwhile, for the record, feel free to assume that all writers, and publishers, referenced going forward are loved by the staff here at TBWCYL, Inc. We say, so we don't have to sound repetitive. We also say this, because how many times can you say love something before it grows stale?

This is a no stale zone. Cool?

There is a fine interview with Ken Wohlrob at Emprise Review.

And we have alternative cover and pre-order action for the Fox Force 5 collection from Paper Hero Press. Very good.

Robert Duffer has a most excellent piece on the most excellent Jason Behrends and Orange Alert at Time Out Chicago.

The Collin Kelley has a conversation with singer Vannessa Daou at soldout.

We get to learn Mel Bosworth's Best of 2009 at the Big Other.

The J.A. Tyler's novella Inconceivable Wilson from Scrambler Books is now available for pre-order. Nice.

The Pete Anderson has a series of wonderful short story reviews at the Pete Lit including pieces by TBWCYL, Inc. favorites Spencer Dew, William Walsh and the always something Kendra Grant Malone.

David Masciotra has a killer piece on the progressive politics of Tim McGraw at the Daily Yonder.

And finally, Tim Hall brings us new Uplift the Positivicals. Can you say, Santa on the beach? We thought you could.

The Ostdick. Brothers. Blackbirds. Staccato Fiction.

Unabashed we are when it comes to the Nick Ostdick. Always have been. And proud of it. Still, please ignore this and go read his new piece The Blackbirds in Lime Rock, Connecticut anyway. It is the goods and it is quite Ostdickian. It might even change your life.

Nick Ostdick is the bomb. And if you wish to confirm this feel free to check out Slow Dancing at the Night Train.

We know that you know that writer Nick Ostdick is the bomb. It goes without saying. Still, who doesn't like to be reminded of these things, you know? And yes, we know that you know that too. So, why not check out his new joint Slow Dancing which is up on Night Train. Nick is totally working his usual Ostdickian magic with this piece and once again spinning a tale of longing and pain that ultimately contains just enough hope to make it all bearable. It's nice work and now we suggest that you go take a look. Yes, now, it just might change your life.

It's the last day. The last chance. For This Book Tour Will Change Your Life. Yes, Day Thirteen is upon us and today we finish up with the J.A. Tyler.

Quasi-disco and Emo-length blog titles aside, it's true, it is Day Thirteen, the last day of this wonderfully self-absorbed journey we called This Book Tour Will Change Your Life. We really appreciate all of the hospitality and kind words we have received along the way. We hope that we have changed lives, many lives, ideally in good ways, though if we changed any lives in bad ways, we hope it wasn't too bad. Today we visit the always cool J.A. Tyler where we riff on the future of publishing and then it's done, way done. So, many thanks to CCLaP for organizing this and giving Repetition Patterns a home and if you, and you know who you are, are so inclined, please feel free to revisit the entire tour below.

Day One - Pete Lit

Day Two - stand By Bert

Day Three - So the devil and a circus walk into a bar

Day Four - What to wear during an orange alert

Day Five - Does this font make me look fat?

Day Six - Michael Fitzgerald

Day Eight - Bigmouth Indeed Strikes Again

Day Nine - Chicago Literary Scene Examiner

Day Ten - Jason Riley

Day Eleven - In The Nick of Time

Day Twelve - I don't know what I'm Talking About

Update: And would you look at this, for the same low price, you also get an official tour round-up kind of thing from the good people at CCLaP. Sweet.

It is Day Eleven of This Book Tour Will Change Your Life and we are Living La Vida Ostdick. In a big way.

Repetition Patterns is apparently the gift that keeps on giving and so here we are on Day Eleven of This Book Tour Will Change Your Life hanging out at In The Nick of Time and Living La Vida Ostdick. We are also podcasting and riffing on everything from from the word azure to Linda Barry and the CIA. Please join us won't you? Cool. Please also consider swinging by the CCLaP and then after you suck down your fifth or sixth Red Bull maybe join us tomorrow as well when we head south and visit with the Renfroe where we will talk self-marketing, self-absorption and saturation. Deal? Nice.

We have our dog-eared copy of Repetition Patterns in hand, and we are heading west for Day Ten of This Book Tour Will Change Your Life. You?

Please note though, that we are not just heading west for Day Ten of This Book Tour Will Change Your Life, oh no, but re-visiting the mostly friendly confines of Goodreads as well, this time stopping by the home of author Jason Riley, a most hospitable host indeed. We would like to believe that you are coming with us, is that true, that you will visit our good friends at CCLaP too, would that be correct, and that for sure, you will be back tomorrow for Day Eleven of the tour when we visit with long-time TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Nick Ostdick for some Repetition Patterns podcast and essay love. Which you are going to do, yes? Cool, and many thanks to Jason for his time and support.

Stop the presses, we have a This Tour Will Change Your Life update. We also have a schedule. And a tour icon. Yes, an actual icon. Sweet.

It's on. This Tour Will Change Your Life officially kicks off on Monday, February 16th. Expect much Repetition Patterns love and more of TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer than anyone should be asked to bare. We will gladly be keeping you apprised on what's happening on a day-to-day basis, but in the interim please take a look at the schedule below, please figure out how best to plan your schedule around it and we look forward to visiting with you while we are out on the road. Well, the "virtual" road anyway.

February 16th - Pete Lit

February 17th - stand by Bert

February 18th - So the devil and a circus walk into a bar

February 19th - What to Wear During an Orange Alert

February 20th - Does this font make me look fat?

Februrary 21st - Michael Fitzgerald

February 23rd - Bigmouth indeed strikes again

February 24th - Chicago Literary Scene Examiner

February 25th - Jason Riley

February 26th - In the Nick of time

February 27th - I don't know what I'm talking about

February 28th - j.a. tyler

The Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine focus groups - Check it out on YouTube.

TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer recently had the opportunity to oversee a series of Orange Alert Press focus groups designed to explore the impact of Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine on people's lives. Sadly, many of the interviews were lost during the transition from Betamax to VHS. We were able to salvage one though, sort of, and the below video captures some of the excerpts, sort of, including translations. We hope you enjoy it.

So, hit it.

The TBWCYL, Inc. 2008 Top Ten Lists are coming and today you get our Top Ten Books. No for real, you do. Just look below.

It is Top Ten time here are TBWCYL, Inc. and our plan is to roll out lists on books, movies and music as we did last year and maybe add one on television this year as well. As we have also done in the past, we are not limiting our books list to books released in 2008, though we will do so with our other lists. On the other hand, we are quite pleased to say that we have done some kind of review on everyone of these books during the last year here at This Blog Will Change Your Life, and while we may be terribly biased in our reviews and choices, something that bothers us not in the least, we are happy to say that we have also had the opportunity to connect with everyone of these authors in some capacity, which frankly is quite cool, for us anyway, the experience for them may have been something else entirely. That said, here we go (including the hyperlink to our previous reviews):

(1) Breaking it Down - Rusty Barnes
(2) The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli - Ginnetta Correli
(3) Black Flies - Shannon Burke
(4) Half-Empty - Tim Hall
(5) The Heebie-Jeebies and CBGB's - Steven Lee Beeber
(6) Songs of Insurgency - Spencer Dew
(7) Sunbeams and Cigarettes - Nick Ostdick
(8) The Love Book - Ken Wohlrob
(9) Unmarketable - Anne Elizabeth Moore
(10) When the Leaves are Falling - Kelly Moran

Honorable mention: I Call This Flirting - Sherrie Flick, Unlucky Lucky Days - Daniel Grandbois and My Inflatable Friend - The Confessions of Rollo Hemphill - Gerald Jones.

Please note, that all of these books are self-published or released by independent presses, something that pleases us to no end. Also, we honestly believe that all of these books will change your life, though to be honest, even if they don't, your patronage and support will certainly help change the lives of the authors and their publishers.

Back at headquarters and some more Most Likely list love. Good times, yes? Well, except for the whole economy thing. You've heard about that, yeah?

We're back, mostly, physically for sure, and easing back into the grind here at TBWCYL, Inc. headquarters. We missed you of course, a lot, which makes us glad to be back. We are also really glad though to see that Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine has made the honorable Nick Ostdick's year-end list of love, which is quite cool, yet quite humbling as we are sharing this list with among others the Joe Meno, The Hold Steady and the Blago. Nice, right? Way. Many thanks Nick, drinks on us for sure when next we cross paths.