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, appraisal (review) satirical 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 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 too fiercely to any ideology. And the satire skewers dogmatic thinking and forges audacious new (anti-) philosophies from the ashes of the incinerated orthodoxies.

What distinguishes Clockwise Cat from some other literary e-zines is that we are especially eclectic in our poetic tastes. We do not publish ONLY neo-Beat verse, or ONLY surrealistic pieces.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, EMILY DICKINSON, 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, SHAKESPEARE, MARK TWAIN, Antler, Zora Neale Hurston, LANGSTON HUGHES, T.S. Eliot, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Toni Morrison, FLANNERY O'CONNOR, ANYA ACHTENBERG, Basho, Rumi, Hafiz, THICH NAHT HANH, Thomas Merton, ALAN WATTS, Ben Ramke, Sylvia Plath, HP Lovecraft, Richard Wright, Thomas Pynchon, Joseph Heller, KURT VONNEGUT, GEORGE SAUNDERS, Richard Brautigan, Luigi Pirandello, Eugene IONESCO, Andrei Codrescu, Victor Hugo, Anais Nin, George Orwell, Lois Lowry, Arthur Miller, Robert Heinlen, Barbara Enenreich, 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, Romanticism and Transcendentalism, Anti-Transcendentalism, Native Americans, Street Art...

ARTISTS: MIRO, KAHLO, BOSCH, RIVERA, DAVID WOJNAROWICZ, BOTERO, MUNCH, KLEE, ESCHER, MAGRITTE, REDON, 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, Porl Thompson, Eddie Owens MARTIN, Otto Wagner, William Turner, Pollack, Giacometi, EL GRECO, GRAFFITI ARTISTS, etc. etc. etc.







MOVIES: Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Woody Allen, Kathryn Bigelow (especially HURT LOCKER), Richard Linklater (especially SLACKER, TAPE and BEFORE MIDNIGHT), IDIOCRACY, THE VISITOR, MAN ON WIRE, BORAT, THE ICE STORM, KIDS, 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, BRIGHT EYES, DEERHUNTER, PUBLIC ENEMY, THE COATHANGERS, JOY DIVISION, Snowden, JOHNNY CASH, PINK FLOYD, CLINIC, The Black Lips, MANU CHAO, CHOPIN, HANK WILLIAMS SR., PIXIES, MOGWAI, BAUHAUS, CAB CALLOWAY, INTERPOL, SLEATER KINNEY, CAT POWER, Beats Antique, The Black Angels, Torche, Suicide, Vivian Girls, Wu Tang Clan, NWA, Vampire Weekend, 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, Gang of Four, Lucinda Williams, Grandmaster Flash, The Commodores, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, 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, AC/DC, Journey, 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, 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, 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.