betrayed by Berman's hostility toward them, to be involved with all subsequent Silver Jews albums. The pain that Berman felt around The Natural Bridge helped him to formulate a new Silver Jews album with Malkmus, American Water. It was significant to Berman and the band's progression. They had now "stepped out of Pavement's shadow ... This was clearly his project and represented his vision", his songwriting has been at the foreground of the former album. By this point he felt confident in his musical career. Berman's drug use continued, and he was using them during studio sessions. Despite his personal turmoil, Berman wanted the album to be joyous like "other people['s] records" rather than grim. The band intended to tour in late 1998 but plans were ended after a fistfight led to his eardrum rupturing. Actual Air, Berman's first collection of poetry was released in 1999 by Open City Books, which had been founded to publish the collection. Actual Air amassed critical acclaim—Carl Wilson called it "even better than [Berman's] albums". The book's unusually high sales of over 20,000 copies bolstered Berman's musical career. Its marketing was akin to that of an album, which contributed to its success; Drag City and record stores were the avenues from which a "significant portion of those sales" arose. In 2001, he was offered a job as poet-in-residence on a postgraduate course. The prospect thrilled Berman; however, he chose not to apply out of apprehension. Four years later, when asked in an interview if he would accept a lecturing role at university, he expressed uncertainty on genuinely taking an offer: "I should stay away from the rock clubs and the English departments if I can." Although he did publish some poems afterward—his poetry is featured in journals such as The Baffler, Open City and The Believer—and had reported working on a follow-up, Actual Air remained his only book of poetry. In his later years, Berman stopped writing poetry because of diminished motivation and a feeling of partial inadequacy in comparison to younger poets; another collection failed to materialize due to a lack of purpose and innovation. By 2003, his perception of songwriting and poetry as unified was no more, and felt that older age rendered him less capable of working in both mediums. "Poetry can never counter-propaganda. A song might be able to." Around this time, Berman, who no longer to work", estimated he