Ah, the old Polish poetry prick-tease move. But just wait until my Czechowicz translations cum out. ;)

I must confess: I've blushed a couple of times translating a poem from 1927 that spoke quite frankly about "plowing away" and "getting plowed" during s-e-x. #grampabegettingit

The funniest thing I saw on Tumblr today:

Came up with a new catchphrase for myself: „Euro-Frankie just can’t be stopped Once he masters this moka pot.”™️

Tonight, praying for softness with poet Adam Zagajewski Ode to Softness Dreams are soft, and tenderness looms over us

I foolishly thought that by following a policy of only translating the long dead that my work would be less stressful, less filled w conflict but then you’re sucked into family/heir drama w even more lawyers & academic territorial pissing contests.

On the main square in Kraków’s Old Town is a bookstore that claims: „In this building Europe’s first bookshop was founded in 1610.” The first book I saw when I walked in was something by Dan Brown, so I turned around and walked out. That was enough book history for me today, thanks.

In Poland you always the choice between smoking and nonsmoking. (The Poles love my sense of humor.)

I hate to tell everyone, but there’s only one sex and only one gender. (And for the advanced student, only one species.) It’s just that it’s very wide. For I have lived on a farm and am familiar with this oft-cited „nature” of which the so-called experts speak.

It’d be much more productive, wouldn’t it, if we instead focused on the cause of willful stupidity and conservatism.

The great thing about escalators is that when they aren’t moving they can be used as stairs.

Nałęczów implies the existence of a Załęczów, a Przyłęczów, and an elusive Wyłęczów. (Poles love my sense of humor.)

I’d like for just once for Christians to cosplay the beginning of time.

Stolpersteine but for sad, lost queer boys who got lost/lost themselves (I’m still trying to properly articulate that quintessential reflexivity endemic to sad, lost queer boys) looking for other sad, lost queer boys both in the present as well as in the past. Hier geliebt… Hier verloren…

I’d like to see precise ROI figures for all the machines that verify through machines that I am not a machine.

"Everything in this country was understood backward; the more recent the arrival, the more American, the truly exceptional." If you really wanna hear my voice, I did a 2-minute radio reading of Daydreamers for @kalwradio.bsky.social 91.7 FM's "New Arrivals" show. Thank you, Lisa Morehouse!

Holy holy.

Two texts I saw at the castle today made me shout in agreement. The Derrida quote reads: „Największa władza logocentryzmu usadowiona jest w milczeniu dzieła. / The greatest power of logocentrism lies in the silence of the work.” I mean, the motherfucking writing is on the motherfucking wall.

Visited some of my very favorite works of art today in the whole history of the world: the Byzantine frescoes in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity (completed in 1418). I haven’t been a Christian in almost 40 years, but ohmygod what these images do to my spirit! @markjmasterson.bsky.social

Looking forward to history books in the future writing about how rich tech bros once invented machines that ginned up enough hate to start a civil war that made them all richer, but of course in that future there are no history books.

Fascinating read by @stuartelden.bsky.social. (Also, I’d like to organize my own Université de Captivité for independent scholars in the current post-late-capitalist world, which of course would produce its own research projects that lack basic access to library and lab.)

Today I looked up the singular form for naleśniki because curiously it hadn’t ever been needed. 🥞 Related: I think most foods should only exist in plural forms.

Hung out with my Polish boyfriend today in his hometown, which weirdly also happens to be one of the few cities in the world I consider home. I think this relationship is getting serious.

The book is available in print and ebook from @renardpress.com and in audiobook from HarperCollins: catherinemayer.co.uk/book/time-li... Event details: 1 pm GLASGOW (and via ZOOM) Glasgow: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creative-c... 7.30 pm EDINBURGH Edinburgh: www.eventbrite.com/e/catherine-...

Great to see these translations of Maria Janion into English: "A queer woman and survivor of World War II, a leftist who resisted Soviet orthodoxy, Janion lends a uniquely disruptive voice to contemporary discussions of fascism, and her insights resonate far beyond her Eastern European roots."

(1/6) Anonymous Populations: Diamanda Galás’s InSEkta Thirty Years Later Second excerpt by Kamikaze Jones, Artist The Kitchen Archives 2023

One of Robert Redford’s most brilliant contributions to film was casting a bunch of likable comedians in Ordinary People, a gut-wrenching drama about the disintegration of a quintessentially dysfunctional American family.

Rereading bits of Pitol ten years later and all the more convinced that the English translation by @unpoetaloco.bsky.social really was a transformational event in world literature … if only the English-speaking/reading world were interested in and ready for transformation.

Y’all, this is happening. If you like it or not. #czechowicztour2025

No, I think you precisely want to sound like, nay be, a dick, which is why I just blocked your sorry ass. But also for not knowing basic researchable information about the first 50+ years of film.

Egg-based casseroles are now called quicheroles. I won’t be taking questions at this time.

One week today! Next Monday 22nd September, @mayeroflondon.bsky.social is in Scotland for two events! 1pm Glasgow, in conversation w/Nicky Melville @ Uni of Glasgow Creative Conversations, University Chapel. 7.30pm Edinburgh at Typewronger Books, in conversation w/Joanna Baker. Both events are FREE.

Gregor should go into advertising fine leather goods and luxury products. #effortless #luxpuss

A GRAVE FOR A DOLPHIN – A real-life David Bowie love story – how an African folk tale drawn from a rare, forgotten book helped inspire Bowie’s lyrics for "Heroes" www.splicetoday.com/music/a-grav... #bowie

Just now learning about the death of master theater director & designer Leszek Mądzik. I managed to see only a couple of his productions when I was living in Lublin but wow. Shortly after arriving I made an appointment with him to see about working with him, but my Polish was too weak at the time.

Dang. Sweden goes hard: invades the largest European state, murders ⅓ of the population, then packs up a damn palace to take home with them. Fucking Swedes.

A beautiful poster for FRANZ 🖤

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Writing two emails in Polish has destroyed my brain for the day. You'd think that as a translator I'd be able to do this more efficiently, but apparently my brain works much better in one direction.

„Me acerco al agua Bebiendo tu beso La luz de tu cara La luz de tu cuerpo” youtu.be/0Ml3szyLMG4?...

On this day in 1939, days after Germany invaded Poland, Queer avant-garde poet Józef Czechowicz, who had recently been evacuated from Warsaw along with his friend Czesław Miłosz, was killed when the building where he was getting a haircut in his hometown of Lublin was bombed.

On my way out to my 6:30 appointment this morning I stumbled upon this chunk taking full advantage of the cooler nights homestay experience.

👊🏻Join me for this 'Translation as Activism' workshop at the 2025 Manchester Literature Festival 👊🏻 @mcrlitfest.bsky.social manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/trans... 🤜🏻10 free tickets can be claimed by MMU (@manmetuni.bsky.social) & UoM (@uomhums.bsky.social) students ➡️📧 [email protected]

Cultivar el silencio no es lo mismo que ignorar el mundo o quedarse callado, es aprender a escuchar para no dejarse distraer por los sinvergüenzas.

Me flirting at church: “So, is there a Mrs. Saint Acutis?”

Support the arts.

Photos of some of my favorite works/details from the Anila Quayyum Agha exhibit Let One Bird Sing at the Crow Museum of Asian Art, Dallas Arts District.

For another 9 hours, it's still Bandcamp Friday! They don't take their revenue share, all the money goes to the artists. Lots of time left to buy my recordings, books and art prints here: jaapblonk.bandcamp.com/merch

Really outstanding essay on what went down with Baillie Gifford, and not unlike the manufactured crisis by PEN America last year. As always, the lesson is to organize.

NOW FOR LIMITED TIME! FIRE SALE ON MY ART! barrenmesa.com/collections/... Original ink on paper drawings, untrimmed and unframed, ship via USPS in shipping tube. FREE SHIPPING, USA DOMESTIC ORDERS ONLY. Each drawings 12"x14". More will be added in coming days. #art #originalart #drawing