Have a good summer!

Stay tuned for workshop news & publication news. If anyone wants to meet up and bookswap - email us! ALSO: OUR NEW ISSUE IS OUT.

Spring 2009 Farewells:

The other day I was sitting in the office, sharing a bag a popcorn (sort of) and I got this very sort of sad feeling. The issues are coming in and we are getting sweet mugs and t-shirts, so I knew that wasn't the cause.

Some very dear members of the olivetree review staff are getting the hell out of dodge. (those rascals).

Here are some near and dears who have decided that graduating from CUNY Hunter is a good idea (I personally have been here awhile, but have not come that close to filing for my degree. "Give it awhile...." I say, let me finish my major up and then take requirements like the idiot I am...or older transfer student I am, whatever) and will be missed by TH 212. They will always have a place here. They will no longer have a key, and the phone is disconnected, but still:

Salvatore Conte:
Known as "Sal" Jack of all trades. Proclaimed smartstuff and reader of foreign languages. A good travel guide and not an asshole. Completely thorough in everything he did. I saw his transcripts recently, and holy smokes, some one fucking give him the Hunter College award for not ever having a No-Credit in any semester (and having a GPA spiked like a rogue diabetics sugar level). Sal- a great guy who didn't like people I thought were stupid too (& more!). Could a person ask for a better cynical partner-in-eyebrow raising? Congrats on all the Dino Run wins, as well.

Steven DeSiena:
Known as "Steeeeeeeeve" by Zoraida. Commonly referred to as "Steve what do I do?" by everyone else. The answer man. (He also pretends to hate people who annoy him, but secretly loves it.) Another Staten Island commuter. Props to him and Sal for that. Steve speaks several languages of video game on many different interfaces. He's taken many budget proposals from annoying people who can not do math. I have never once annoyed Steve in my entire life and he may resent me for that. Perhaps I should have given him a proper ribbing.

Thesanica Eunice Marcos:
An awesome lady by all. A fierce one too. One of the sweetest people I've ever met who can kick major ass, read Dickens like a boss, laugh with me about inappropriate things, and share a passion for being awesome. A role model for any little lady or dude, and someone who really gave a shit. A rarity these days. Knowledgeable on all fronts from nutrition and exercise to "how to wear the best threadless t-shirts." You are loved Thesanica!

Irina Dorosheva:
What the fuck can I say about Irina? Perhaps she was one of the only people I could initiate a talk with about what would be the best and worst food to have sex IN. Irina is raunchy, disgusting, and one of my favorite people. She is far too clever for her own good. To trump her in any pun is a major feat (as it is basically impossible). She knows ridiculous facts about ridiculous things. A major loss to the office. I'm getting more and more sad as I go on. This sucks.

Kim Nguyen:
Farewell Master Poetry Editor. I never got to know Kim well enough, because she is one busy mofo. Always popping in and out and microwaving delicious smelling food and peacing hard. Always claimed she was going to "cut a bitch" (her stress humor is unparalleled), but I've concluded that she is a complete sweetheart and will buy you coffee instead. It goes without saying that Kim is also disgustingly talented. I did some copy editing recently for an issue and it was only her shit that was in check. I'm not even lying. Congrats to her on winning that huge boss prize, may she either get into law school or write another book that puts us older cats to shame(bles). Can I suck up a little more? Farewell mami.

David Tuchman:
Dude. David is the sweetest guy ever. He's also a fantastic shit-talker. I know those two don't seem together but in this instance you'll have to trust me. I keep forgetting he's graduating. He hosted the last open-mic and he didn't suck at all. Always down for thirsty thursdays, always down for some hysterics. A fiction editor, he recently read a piece outloud and included witticisms in smooth delivery, rendering laughing fits inevitable. What a smart-ass this guy is. The office dynamic will be thrown off by the absence of a charisma only a frustrated holy man of his sort (he'll deny it) can implement. Mazel Tov. David is graduating right? I keep forgetting...

Anyway, that wraps this up. If I'm forgetting anyone, I apologize. I wanted to let these people know how much they'll be missed. Perhaps I'll edit in some photos later on. You probably thought I didn't care at all! Suckers! I really do have a heart. I probably write about you. Shit, all of those open-mic performances were about you! On the serious tip, good luck with all the nastiness you encounter outside of Thomas Hunter and the 68th street bistro. Thanks for all of your help- thanks for being part of a delicate instrument that looks so hard in black type with an issue number, but is really just a bunch of people shooting the shit and trying to make things work.

Love,
Rebecca.

Spring 2009 (in short)

The Olivetree Review is holding their end-of-year elections. If you'd like to run for the following categories, please e-mail us at olivetreereview@gmail.com by Friday.

Managing Editor
Treasurer
Office Manager
Secretary
Senior Fiction Editor
Senior Poetry Editor
Senior Art Editor
Publicity and Events Manager
&
Production Manager

In other news, we will continue our monthly fiction and poetry workshops during the summer with some possible monthly mini-poetry shindigs @ our colorful office.

There are mugs and tote bags and t-shirts on the way, as well as our issue #44 within 2 weeks.

Goodafternoon.
Goodluck with your finals.

* Zoraida

Open Mic Recap

If you missed the Prohibition Night Open Mic event- sucks for you because it was great. A lot of people showed up and I took a lot of pictures (majority posted on FB). D. Tuchman (pictured above as himself) did a great job hosting, reading, and not wearing his glasses. I was impressed.
While I don't know Milena personally, I do like her work. She read wonderfully. I remember she read an Audre Lorde poem last year.
Steve D. and Dubbs had a skit that I only somewhat understood. It was a monologue piece but I was half in the bag and trying to crawl out at this point. Needless to say, my inner monologue was battling theirs.
Reuben and Sal did the whole Who's on first dealie. It was hilarious. There's a recording on FB somewhere. Why don't guys dress like this all the time? I wrote something a while back called "When Men Wore Hats" and my friend Brian totally ripped it from me and titled his painting that. THEN some guy came over and saw it and decided to write about it and publish it and eventually I read this guy's talking about Brian's painting and the title and I was pissed for a quarter second until I reconciled that Brian is brilliant and we both failed out of art school at the same time in Fall 03. Brian also constantly wears interesting hats. I wanted Brian to come to this even but being from the 914 is hard. He lives pretty far up, too. Anyway, When Men Wore Hats. William Frawley.
Shakti, Meg, Irina D, Jess, some dude with a striped shirt that I like because it is collared. I'm glad I went on a photo quest because I can't handle people demanding things. Especially booze. Some guy asked for rose and I mixed a little red and white and got the hep out. Hey- have a sense of humor...you're drinking cheap free wine. Also some middle aged woman- clearly not a prof.- came up to me and said something like "darling this is simply wonderful what you all do here" hand on arm. Cool.
Kim. Reading from her book. Our office did represent.
Shakti being awesome. I totally stole some soul with this capture. She can't have it back, but I'm sure it regenerates.

All in all, the event went really well. We had sandwiches and scones from some dainty tea joint down the street. Everything ran out because people were ON that. Everyone who read was wonderful and brave. It's hard to read in public. I think the first time I read I was chewing gum. I dont do that anymore, but I still get the all eyez on me feeling.
I read something really simple. A realtime journal entry and a poem I wrote and reworked a bit that day. I didn't want to lay it on thick. I have this real fear of fucking up things that are too serious. When I read in public last I had this poem I had written about someone I loved that was on the backburner. It was on deck because if he came to the event then I couldn't read it, he'd figure it out. It wasn't really a sexual poem or anything just more of a "you have no idea how deeply the little things we do together mean to me" sort of thing. He didn't come (it was a passive invitation, natch) and I read it to a small and intimate group of people. It felt amazingly good to be able to get those words on paper and then get them into ears.

I always admire people who read things they've written about different abuse situations, etc. There's no judgment at school sponsored stuff like OTR open-mics. You won't find litteratti and such, just people who want honest, funny, intense, and personal.

The Olivetree Review thanks all the people who came out for the Open Mic. Building a literary community at Hunter and making connections remains high on the priority list.

Thanks for reading and thanks for listening. Thanks for Spring 2009.

HUNTER POETS. SUPPORT US!

Hunter College & Sarah Lawrence College Students
Poetry Reading

Hosted and Curated by Tina Chang,
Adjunct Lecturer, Hunter College & Sarah Lawrence

Sunday, May, 3rd, 2009
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Verlaine, 110 Rivington,
212-614-2424

Readers:

Sasha Fahme
Maria Garcia
Larrin Gerard
Richard Gonzalez
Erika Henry
Lauren Hourihan
Samson Lahti-Parsell
Vidonna Michailov
Audrey Moyce
Miranda Nadeau
Justin Pestana
Fausto Pinto
Sita Rojas
Jake Schneider
Jamie Smith
Cristine Somerville
Shannon Vayo
Anthony Figueroa

Direction: J, M, Z, F to Delancey Street
Website: http://www.verlainenyc.com/

Free and open to the public
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Go because:
-This poetry reading will be awesome.
-I read last year at Telephone Bar and it was scary-cool.
-Hunter students: undergrads! YES.
-It's on a Sunday.
-Tina Chang is a fantastic poetry professor. (Although my bias is heavy handed, ahem, I had her for two workshops).
-Supporting the writing community at and of Hunter is important and often a bit neglected, so it shows great solidarity when we get down en masse.
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OFFICIAL:


important people doing important things. yes our fall 08 issue has been sent to the printers. now onward to the gala.

Remember: April 24th>>DEADline.

-I got my Gatsby dress and it's huge and smelled like old lady. It is now washed and smells like great laundry detergent.

-We are currently reading our respective folders and everything is coming along. We are yay and nay-ing. Please drop by if you are interested in being an editor or coming on board as staff.

-The office got a makeover. Reuben, Zoraida, and Victoria cleaned it out. There is a new red couch. To anyone who sat on the disgusting (yet beloved) predecessor, this is a remarkable improvement. There are photos on FB of the new and improved office. Many things have been moved and organized.

I hope everyone had a great holiday.

Spring 09 Submissions! - EXTENDENDEDEDED!

All deadlines have been extended through April 24th, 2009.

So far we have gotten many more submissions than last semester (at least in poetry). This extended deadline should give you a chance to attend a workshop or flesh out a piece you had not readied in time. Come by Thomas Hunter 212 and give us more fantastic work to consider for the upcoming publication!

HEY. FLAP TO THIS:
THE GATSBY THEMED PARTY/OPEN-MIC IS APRIL 30th.
Come enjoy our refreshments (free booze and food) and listen to some talented people drunkenly take the mic and try not to screw up lines they've gone over a hundred times. Or at least come and watch me do that. I love a good heckler- so come heckle if you don't fancy yourself a clapper.


Dressing up is encouraged. Photos will be taken and possibly posted here or on FB. Of course if you'd like to remain on the dl and mysterious- your right to do so is recognized by the entire Hunter College Administration (and you may consider purchasing those funny glasses with a nose and mustache attached).

Well, it's a beautiful Saturday night and I've got a couple of seasonal Captain Lawrence brews to enjoy. Please keep us abreast of your praise, questions, hatemail, (and if you proof read - corrections to this blog post), etc.
olivetreereview@gmail.com <<<<

-Reebot.

The OTR In Pictures

Regrettably, we weren't able to get too many fun pictures of our literary adventures up on this blog throughout the course of the past year. I admit, we were possibly just a bit too out of our minds to properly keep a pictorial journal. We all know that looking at pictures is a lot more fun than reading words.

I have a few nice ambient shots of the office that I occasionally snap in the early morning, before the crew rushes in to make our humble office claustrophobic. I thought I'd share a couple with you in hopes that you'll actually feel as if you were there with us through the good and the bad of this past semester.

Here's the office in its entirety. It can sometimes feel like we're helpless animals trapped in cages in the great kennel of Thomas Hunter, but it's home. Sometimes it's just a tad much too home for some of us and, as a result, we often recommend that no one actually sit on our couches. Legend has it that they were brought in by previous administrations while trash sailing, and back then they were considerably cleaner than they are now.

We keep a somewhat recent catalog of issues on our bookshelf, which is actually filled with a few interesting finds should you be bothered to actually look. Pictured all the way to the right is Amphigory Also, an incredible picture book collecting works by the macabre artist Edward Gorey.

Here's what our calendar looks like by the end of the month. There is a surprising number of Steves in our office, so don't be alarmed by the large number of birthdays. As the Media Board Chair here at Hunter, it's endearing to see such an active publication visually represented as so. Not pictured is the legendary "Lost Count," a piece of paper that tallies the number of times someone wanders down our end of the hallway confused and misplaced.

Here's the Velociraptor puzzle that was given to me for my birthday by Zoraida, the editor-in-chief. I spent precious minutes in confusion as I assembled it with Dave, a dear friend of mine. We eventually finished it and someone had taped it up to the computer monitor without my knowing. Observant readers will notice Facebook's second appearance in this blog post. Productivity is way up.

This is a wonderful art piece that I like to call "The Reality of the Olivetree Review." It sits proudly atop our bookshelf, perhaps as wonderful commentary upon the writers whose work is featured on each magnificent page of the books within.

1984: The Book: The Production

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine brought to my attention an off-broadway production of every high schooler's collective favorite dystopian future novel, 1984. I, not being one to miss such a heroic attempt at live-action, low-budgeted adaptation, sought to buy tickets to see a Saturday matinee performance of it. At a paltry $25 per ticket (plus applicable convenience charges), this 80-minute uninterupted spectacle of postmodernism is well worth the price of admission.

Without spoiling too much, this envisioning of the 1949 George Orwell novel does a more-than-adequate job at capturing the disconnected, lonely feeling of Winston's troubles throughout the course of the story. Naturally, minor details are cut in favor of cramming the main plot points into something that's just barely under an hour and a half, but the important bits are there. It's done by a group of artists known as the Godlight Theater Company, who have worked on similar adaptations of other novels such as Blindness, Slaughterhouse Five, Farenheit 451, and so on and so forth. I could go over their merits as a company, but to be honest this is the first time I've ever heard of them, so if you're so inclined to learn more about them you can just click on the link. That's the magic of Al Gore Presents : The Internet, Hard at Work!, hard at work.

The acting was delightful, especially the pasty, soft-spoken yet intimidating man who played O'Brien, although Julia looked somewhat similar to a girl I once dated who dumped my loser ass swiftly, so that totally took me out of it. I also very much liked how the actor who played Parsons reacted in an explosion of nervous fury when he was sentenced to Room 101, as his sentiments very closely parallel mine whenever I'm told I have to go to school, or work, or outside, or basically anywhere that involves leaving my basement.

Perhaps the most interesting of design choices involved the lighting - there was often a square of light in the center of the stage, which was treated differently in each scene (for example, in one scene it's treated as an imaginary table). The telescreens were depicted by four women standing at the outer edges of the stage, quietly chattering away as the action unfolded in the center and wonderfully illustrating the claustrophobic feel Big Brother hammered down on the doomed city.

It's currently being shown at 59E59 on 59th Street between Madison and Park, and it's a grand old time and highly recommended by this sci-fi fart in the wind, so take that as you will.

(Cross-posted on a lesser blog.)

hunter poetry workshops!

Dear Hunter Writers,

The Olivetree Review is launching a new section to their publication. The Olivetree Review's Poetry and Fiction Workshop. This is a completely voluntary intiative and will be unconventional to the regular workshop classes you may already have. The goal here is to take an intimate look at the works submitted. So, you will get a chance to communicate what you're trying to say while getting 100% feedback on what you wish to write about. This meeting will happen twice a month on a Friday.

If you'd like to participate, send your work to olivetreeshoppe@gmail.com by the Monday deadline.
We will accept submissions the Monday of the appropriate workshop. This is the schedule for the remainder of the Spring 2009 semester.

Poetry Deadline: Monday 4/6 ----------------Workshop Friday 4/10

Fiction Deadline: Monday 4/20 --------------Workshop Friday 4/24

Poetry Deadline: Monday 5/4 --------------- Workshop Friday 5/8

Fiction Deadline: Monday 5/18 -------------- Workshop Friday 5/22

Best,
the olivetree review

(P.S. This is available to ALL Hunter students, regardless of department affiliation, etc)

day for night. DON'T ARGUE.

Tomorrow: Tuesday March 24th:
Heather Armstrong of www.dooce.com is reading.
I love her blog: writing, photography, lapsed mormonism. Good stuff. She makes a living off of blogging - and - apparently - putting together a book whose pages I will pick up and graze/gaze on.She's at Barnes and Noblez. The one in Chelsea. It's free. And it's at 7pm.
---------------------------------------------

Do you want to see Alyssa Milano on Wednesday? Want a signed copy of a book she "wrote?" Then google it yourself,cause I'm not posting it here.
---------------------------------------------

Lifted from Bluestockings.com :
Saturday, March 28th @ 7PM - $5 Suggested
Open Mic: Ya-Ya Network “NYC Sex Education”
The Youth Activists - Youth Allies Network (Ya-Ya) is welcomes Breasts Not Bombs to lead a discussion on sex education in New York City. Sex education in public schools intends scare young people away from sex. Come discuss methods of staying sex-positive in a sex-negative society. Come out and spit, rap, rant, sing. Share your ideas about the world you know and the world you want to see, or at least come and listen! The Youth Activists - Youth Allies Network (Ya-Ya) is a citywide anti-racist, anti-sexist organization and allies with the LGBTQ community, staffed by young activists ages 15-19.

Sounds awesome!
---------------------------------------------

SATURDAY MARCH 28th 2009:
Black Women and the Radical Tradition 2009
CUNY!!! : Graduate Center @ 5th Ave and 34th
http://www.blackwomen2009.org/
Register there & see who is speaking (listed first: Angela Davis...), etc.

--------------------------------------------

Things have been very productive @ the olivetree review. geeetin along.
It's mid-semester. We're still planning the open-mic. Details will be up soon!
----------------

asides:
Tragic news from the social-climbing- digging-itself-out-of-the-black-hole twitter:

-LANCE HURT HIMSELF.
-MY FRIEND BRIAN IS SITTING NEXT TO A HOTTIE IN CLASS.
-CHRISTOPHER WALKEN DOESN'T THINK ANDY DICK IS FUNNY.
-JESS IS STRESSED
-and. sadly- jimmy fallon reflects on meeting morrisey. I say sadly...because..I could not afford the 65 dollar tickets to see him sweat and croon. Morrissey is not recession proof. Love you Moz.

Brief Review:
Remember how I posted on Muldoon & his band "Rackett" playing at Bowery Poetry Club? I went. It was too expensive. There was another band called menage-et-twang (I think) and they sang about some funny stuff. Rackett-wise, Muldoon looked a little awkward on the stage. The lead singer had a Broadway voice (not a terrible thing but I'm used to growling). It wasn't really my thing, but it wasn't bad. There was a burlesque show afterward, but I didn't feel like paying 15 bucks just to stay where I was. AND they monopolized the bathroom- so I went into the mens and had someone refuse men entry while I was pissing out all that damn Bass Ale.

BWOCK.
-reebz.r.

Places to go besides the 68th street "bistro."

Hungry?
Nosh on some words and take off your sweater:

Thursday: March 15th at 6:30pm
Steven Greenhouse
@The Tenement Museum Shop
108 Orchard St (at Delancey St)
212-982-8420
Subway: F to Delancey St; J, M, Z to Delancey–Essex Sts

A FREE event!
Whats going down:
Where is Eugene Debs when you need him? American labor has been under assault for years, and Greenhouse discusses the plight of blue-collar citizens in his book, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.

RKOMMENTARY:
Feeling shafted? I've been meaning to visit the Tenement Museum for awhile. My class was recently in a documentary about Anzia Yeserskia (should be released to festivals by the end of the year and on PBS in about a year - I'm the one that makes a remark concerning one of the characters in Bread Givers and then stupidly eyes the camera, ruining the shot- it'll probably get cut)
-------------------------------

**
Saturday: March 21st @ 8pm
The one, the only:
Paul Muldoon
Ripping it up @ the Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery (between Bleecker and Houston Sts)
Subway: B, D, F, V to Broadway–Lafayette St; 6 to Bleecker St
http://www.bowerypoetry.com

This event costs $15
Described on bowerypoetry.com's website as:
RACKETT>> An evening of poetry and rock and roll with Paul Muldoon, the Pulitzer Prize winning poetry editor of the New Yorker, and the Princeton-based band Rackett, featuring Stephen Allen (keyboards), Bobby Lewis (drums), Lee Matthew (lead guitar, vocals), Paul Muldoon (guitar, lyrics), and Nigel Smith (bass).

RKOMMENTARY: I had such a great time seeing Muldoon for free that it's a pain to cough up $15----BUT with the addition of a BAND this should be interesting. If I'm not home washing my hair, I most likely will be checking this out.
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Asides:
This weekend I had to buy Invisible Man by Ellison. I used a 25% off one item coupon at Borders and got a new copy. You can see how exciting a Saturday can be up here in the 914.

Olivetree had a meeting about a new Workshop concept that Reuben is heading (and hopefully, a good portion of us are backing). It sounds really amazing and once we sort everything out, you can expect a blog post about it (as well as a facebook message).

Open mics are in the works:

*St. Patty's is Limerick open-mic. Make a start on you Limerick Career (I've seen dozens of postings on craigslist)

*The planning for the big open-mic is in full swing. Hopefully TH105 will see some new faces mingling with the old.

*WIN SOMETHING:
Please note the FLYER in the post below- It's a contest. Create an ode. Try to win. Literary Sports. If I had to write an ode right now it would be about...humm....olfactory glands.

Hope all is okay with you/ your pet/ your job and your blossoming quarterlife,
>>Rebecca.

Poetry Contest Goodness

Please click on the image for maximum potential.