Simply put, The Sienese Shredder is an annual journal of art, literature, poetry, and culture. I can say confidently this is definitely what it is because I personally went to sienese-shredder.com and, you know, that's what it says. It was very interesting to read. I can't say every single entry interested me. A lot of the more, er, academic entries tended to... not necessarily bore me, but they definitely did not excite me as much as the more poem-esque entries did. I especially liked Denise Duhamel's Ghost Weave. Maybe it's because I like ghosts or maybe it's because I've always wanted a brother, but I found Ghost Weave to be extremely entertaining. I mean, it was three stories pretty much in one! It also inspired me to do my own weave poem and I think I, along with plenty of others I am sure, tend to hold near and dear to my heart works of art that inspire me to create something of my own.
I also liked Edwin Denby's poem about the "no-nonsense escalator." See, I'm scared of escalator's because my Grandma was a scary person that told me really nonsensical things about ordinary everyday objects that transformed them, in my mind, into monstrosities. The escalator was one of them. And I am sure plenty of other kids can admit to being horrified by the story about the boy whose foot got stuck in the escalator. I mean, it's a traumatizing thing when you're seven years old. So I think the poem really hit a reminiscent spot for me which helped me to identify with it and ultimately cherish it.
Actually, I really liked all of The Sienese Shredder. Even the boring parts were more exciting than reading the usual monotony that people read in things like Time magazine everyday. And there was just something about the journal, beyond the entries, just a general feel about it I guess you could say, that really seemed to resonate with me. I felt like it's a journal that represents a new chapter in the life of art, a chapter that I get to be experiencing first hand, and as cheesy as that may sound, I'm not going to lie; I'm excited.
