Editorial Manifesto

Cats inhabit their own time and space continuum - that is to say, they transcend time and space as we know them. The clockwise cat, therefore, is “wise” to clocks - she knows they exist as an attempt to “capture” something maddeningly abstract and elusive. The clockwise cat, abstract and elusive herself, and being suspicious of clocks, can therefore live as she wishes - typically in a counter-clockwise - i.e., timeless - fashion.

Similarly, Clockwise Cat the webzine encapsulates in its poetry, polemic, and appraisal (review) offerings a sense of “timely timelessness.” As such, the webzine features works that are progressive in spirit, and not too mired in traditional forms or ideas. The poetry featured has an experimental or offbeat edge, and sometimes bends and twists language and concepts in innovative, provocative, forward-thinking ways. The reviews featured discuss art works - movies, music, books, etc. - that provoke and enlighten. The political polemics feature a markedly progressive slant, and yet are elastic enough to not hew fiercely to any ideology.

What distinguishes Clockwise Cat from some other literary e-zines is that we are eclectic in our tastes. We do not publish ONLY confessional poetry or ONLY neo-Beat literature, or ONLY surrealistic pieces. We favor a baffling variety of forms; our main critieria is that the pieces be daringly, even dauntingly, original. Also, we really really like stuff that's frayed around the ages, and that oozes a sort of raw, primitive imperfection - sloppy, raunchy, rowdy, REAL. There's a paradoxical virtue in imperfection, after all. It's like the difference between department store and thrift store threads: Both can be nice, but the thrift shop usually has more fun and funky stuff, stuff that's worn and torn, yes, but that's also cool because of those attributes, not in spite of them. So yeah, sure, we'll take polished writing, but only if it has something novel to offer our sense and sensibility.

Here are some of the Clockwise Cat's favorite authors, literary movements, artists, films, music, and causes:

AUTHORS: DR. SEUSS, EDWARD GOREY, URSULA K. LeGUIN, Maurice Sendak, SANDRA CISNEROS, JORGE LUIS BORGES, GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ, Jennifer Lash, ARTHUR RIMBAUD, CHARLES BAUDELAIRE, Paul Verlaine, e.e. CUMMINGS, TOM ROBBINS, Allen Ginsberg, OCTAVIO PAZ, LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI, Isabell Allende, ANDRE BRETON, TRISTAN TZARA, Phillip K. Dick, Luis Rodriguez, Franz Kafka, Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, RAY BRADBURY, Isaac Asimov, VOLTAIRE, Kate Chopin, Paul Auster, RAY GONZALES, PABLO NERUDA, Edgar Allen Poe, Sonia Sanchez, Anne Sexton, Fernando Pessoa, William S. Burroughs, Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, MARK TWAIN, Antler, Zora Neale Hurston, LANGSTON HUGHES, T.S. Eliot, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Toni Morrison, FLANNERY O'CONNOR, Carson McCullers, ANYA ACHTENBERG, Basho, Rumi, Hafiz, THICH NAHT HANH, Thomas Merton, ALAN WATTS, Ben Ramke, Sylvia Plath, HP Lovecraft, Richard Wright, Thomas Pynchon, Joseph Heller, Jack Kerouac, KURT VONNEGUT, GEORGE SAUNDERS, Richard Brautigan, Luigi Pirandello, Eugene IONESCO, Andrei Codrescu, Victor Hugo, Anais Nin, George Orwell, Lois Lowry, Henry Miller, Arthur Miller, Robert Heinlen, Barbara Enreich, Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower, Naomi Wolf, RALPH NADER, HOWARD ZINN, NOAM CHOMSKY, Michael Parenti, etc. etc. etc. etc.








LITERARY MOVEMENTS: Symbolism, Surrealism, Dada, Magic Realism, Beat Poetry, Romantism and Transcendentalism, Anti-Transcendentalism, Native Americans...

ARTISTS: MIRO, KAHLO, RIVERA, BOTERO, MUNCH, KLEE, ESCHER, MAGRITTE, Dali, Francis PICABIA, Marc CHAGALL, Matisse, OROZCO, Martin RAMIREZ, Howard Finster, MAX ERNST, Man Ray, DUCHAMP, Nellie Mae Rowe, Jacob Lawrence, GOYA, Leger, Velasquez, de Koonig, Mondrian, BASQUIAT, Schiele, Klimt, Gaugin, Rousseau, Van Gogh, William Blake, Kandinksy, William H. Johnson, Romare Bearden, Lois Maloi Jones, Joseph Turner, Titian, Murillo, SIQUIEROS, Velasquez, Tom Ferguson, Porl Thompson, Eddie Owens MARTIN, Otto Wagner, William Turner, Pollack, Giacometi, El Greco, etc. etc. etc.







MOVIES: Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Woody Allen, Kathryn Bigelow, IDIOCRACY, THE VISITOR, MAN ON WIRE, BORAT, THE ICE STORM, KIDS, BULLY, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, EXISTENZ, VOLVER, OFFICE SPACE, AUSTIN POWERS, Schindler's List, FIREWORKS, EAUX D'ARTIFICE, The Color Purple, The Seventh Seal, Beetlejuice, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Oscar and Lucinda, SUNSHINE, Barton Fink, Like Water for Chocolate, Il Postino, Life is Beautiful, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, WIZARD OF OZ, The Wall, Streetcar Named Desire, Do the Right Thing, Europa Europa, Farenheit 9/11, Sicko, The Corporation, Enron, Roger and Me, etc. etc. etc. etc.

MUSICIANS: The CURE, TOM WAITS, DEERHUNTER, THE COATHANGERS, JOY DIVISION, SNOWDEN, JOHNNY CASH, PINK FLOYD, CLINIC, THE BLACK LIPS, LED ZEPPELIN, JIMI HENDRIX, MANU CHAO, CHOPIN, HANK WILLIAMS SR., PIXIES, MOGWAI, BAUHAUS, CAB CALLOWAY, INTERPOL, Torche, Suicide, Vivian Girls, Beastie Boys, Leonard Cohen, Steve Earle, Rush, Rage Against the Machine, The Church, Echo and the Bunnymen, Lydia Lunch, James Chance and the Constellations, The Shins, Bright Eyes, Gang of Four, Sex Pistols, The White Stripes, Lucinda Williams, Grandmaster Flash, The Commodores, Lyle Lovette, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, June Carter Cash, Roseanne Cash, Carl Perkins, Willie Nelson, U2, Emmylou Harris, The Clash, The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, Ministry, Metallica, The Smiths, The Cowboy Junkies, Profokiev, Holst, Brahms, The Fall, Jarabe de Palo, Bernard Lavilliers, Paco de Lucia, Public Enemy, Cramps, REM, The The, early AC/DC, early Journey, early Van Halen, Sonic Youth, Bob Willis, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Ravel, Bowie, The Libertines, The Byrds, Reverend Horton Heat, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Gipsy Kings, Cat Power, Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Jordan, Sarah Vaughn, Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Merle Haggard, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Chieftains, Tannahill Weavers, Duke Ellington, Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra, The Selmanaires, The Cult, Drive-By Truckers, The Monkees, Santana, Blacktop Rockets, The Ravenonettes, Iggy Pop, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Sam Cooke, Revolting Cocks, Front 242, Ween, Mozart, Buddhist Chants, Motown, Salsa, Rumba, Celtic, Mariachi, Cuban Jazz, Flamenco, etc. etc. etc. etc.







Clockwise Cat supports humanist causes and people:

Current/living: Food Not Bombs, Care, Amnesty International, ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Southern Poverty Law Center, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, The Green Party, Jill Stein, Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, John Lewis, Ted Kennedy, John Stewart and Steven Colbert, Amy Goodman, Evo Morales, The Dalai Lama, Thich Naht Hanh.

Past/dead: the Abolitionists, the Suffragists, the Desegregationists, the civil rights pioneers, Cesar Chavez, Mother Theresa, Thoreau, Ghandi, Malcom X, MLK, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Tom Paine, etc. etc.
etc. etc.