Written by Mike Gordon, Illustrated by Priscilla Foster
Released: May 1, 1997
Format(s): Paperback, 148 pages, Bulfinch Press

Instead of paying attention to semiconductor physics lectures, or electromagnetic filed theory, Mike zoned out in the back pages of his little blue homework assignment notebooks. A high school teacher had encouraged him to write anything that would come out and it didn’t matter what or the integrity of punctuation. Often the whole intention was to mock the academic floundering which littered countless analytical works that came across Mike’s collection of course syllabi. Mike read Kant and wrote “On Philosophy.” I guess it was strange to be learning to surrender and not think during jams at band practice, and at the same time to be analyzing one miniscule moment of culture, like certain phonemes and how they do or do not contribute to self-consciousness in four year olds within certain ethnicities and demographics. Soon these rants made their way into the aptly titled Phish newsletter, Doniac Schvice in the “Mike’s Corner” column (Fish’s Forum and Mike’s Corner were at constant battle, often taking stabs at each other). Mike also created most of the illustrations that would later accompany these “daunting literary snippets” within the colorful little book, published by Bulfinch. During one entire Phish tour, Mike had to spend all of his leisure time arguing with a copy editor about whether certain made up words and made up punctuation and made up usages were okay in that they weren’t afterword misshapen in the has-but.

Mike’s Corner is currently out of print.