Blue Hawaii - "Blue Gowns". The milk curdled, after it happened. It had been just two days. The air was motionless and sharp. On the stereo, voices sneered. J, sad, angry, eyes rimmed red, went to the fridge. Sludge sloughed from the carton. In the two days since it happened, everything had soured. Sour milk, sour voices, sour air, sour dreams. J kept trying to imagine a melody, a hook, a song that would carry J out of these grey and yellow rooms. A song could do it. The right song could break through all of this, give J's heart a chance to uncurl. The right song, sung. But it would have to be the right one. Soon it would be evening. [buy, from Montreal]

Maps & Atlases - "Pigeon". Larry Twin's first draft was his best draft. The first draft of the first thing he ever wrote. He was 22 when he wrote it, straight out of college. His whole apartment was packed up, ready to move back to Denton. Only his desk was left, and a pad of paper. He thought, Oh what the hell, I'll start being a writer right now. It took him fifteen minutes, the short story. "Pretty good," he thought. He went out for a beer with Lula. When he moved back to Denton he started tinkering with the story. He changed the sequence, the ending, the main character's gender. Then he changed the title. That first draft was lost. Eleven years later, he had never written anything as good. He knew this. For eleven years, he had published dregs, remnants. He had chased something he'd already forgotten. He had never been as close as on that first night. Larry Twin wished he had brought it to the bar; showed it to Lula. He wished he had showed it to everyone. He wished it had stayed. [buy Perch Patchwork]

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Any Said the Gramophone readers in Dawson City, Yukon?

(photo is of a lemur)