Monday, July 13
Wood s lot remembers fait accompli's Unbearable Lightness of Blogging: A Mid-Summer Night's Masque (scroll down) July 13, 2005
Saturday, July 11
Friday, July 10
Peter Ciccariello- "Hidden poem with brain scans and chairs"
Peter Ciccariello-hidden poem with brain scans and chairs"
Peter Ciccariello-hidden poem with brain scans and chairs"
Tuesday, July 7
Mourning and Poetics
The most recent thread on the Suny Buffalo Poetics List has been mourning and poetics. This absorbing issue is concerned with poetry one might read at a time of mourning and how this reflects on issues of poetics. To read the thread in its entirety or to join the list go to:
Poetics LIst Archive
Click on July 2009 on topic headings: poetics and mourning.
Today I posted the following as a contribution to that thread:
This is one of those threads that gets me thinking, and I've been looking forward to every post. I've not read them all, so I apologize if I am repeating anything. Eight years ago when someone I felt particularly close to died, almost literally in my arms, I needed some poetry that would help. What met my need at the time was Lynn Dreyer's book The White Museum (Roof,1986). Here's a sample: Lynn Dreyer. Something about its heartbeat, its wave-like backbeat, soothed me, the way a mother might rock a child during a stricken moment. That episode of choice in reading pushed me towards thinking about writing as healing, an issue that's been on my mind ever since.
Much of post-avant writing, obviously, employs parody, often of a particularly biting kind. It's no surprise that at a time of ear splitting, mind smashing hypocrisies and assaults on a social/political level that some of our best minds might want to address such grotesque realties in ways that accurately reflect them when modes of earnestness or literal or symbolic or abstract statement, what I once called writing below the din, won't suffice.
At a time of personal crisis, what one might want, what I wanted as I said, are truthful yet gentle words, singing, compassionate, and yes, even quiet words. Still, such occasional personal needs probably do not justify a dominant poetics of quietism in an ongoing way. There is something reassuring and stimulating about experiencing a number of relatively newer voices work to invent and persist with new forms that convincingly reflect the impossibility of accepting as such the eco-socio-political realities we are forced to live in right now. The post avant employs a biting, confrontational voice that says, to me anyway, don't give up trying to dispassionately recognize and reveal what that reality is, as painfully traumatic, as incessantly quotidian as it is coming to be. Forms that meet that continuous nightmare face to face, as unimaginable as it is, or was. Is the most relevant issue in contemporary poetics hegemony, or power, or is it which model, the quietist or the post-avant, suggests the more apropos interpretation of current reality as it actually presents itself?
Either way, life's needs are inordinately complex, and issues of poetic movement aside, one size will not always fit all.
* * * * *
New Links
Check out:
Contemporary LIterary Horizon
Drunken Boat 10
I Am A TV Junkie-Rachel Maddow's Big Catch Thanks for the link!
* * * * *
Caterina, one of the pioneer bloggers, who helped create Flikr, has created a new site, Hunch.
Here is the poet category: Hunch Poets
The most recent thread on the Suny Buffalo Poetics List has been mourning and poetics. This absorbing issue is concerned with poetry one might read at a time of mourning and how this reflects on issues of poetics. To read the thread in its entirety or to join the list go to:
Poetics LIst Archive
Click on July 2009 on topic headings: poetics and mourning.
Today I posted the following as a contribution to that thread:
This is one of those threads that gets me thinking, and I've been looking forward to every post. I've not read them all, so I apologize if I am repeating anything. Eight years ago when someone I felt particularly close to died, almost literally in my arms, I needed some poetry that would help. What met my need at the time was Lynn Dreyer's book The White Museum (Roof,1986). Here's a sample: Lynn Dreyer. Something about its heartbeat, its wave-like backbeat, soothed me, the way a mother might rock a child during a stricken moment. That episode of choice in reading pushed me towards thinking about writing as healing, an issue that's been on my mind ever since.
Much of post-avant writing, obviously, employs parody, often of a particularly biting kind. It's no surprise that at a time of ear splitting, mind smashing hypocrisies and assaults on a social/political level that some of our best minds might want to address such grotesque realties in ways that accurately reflect them when modes of earnestness or literal or symbolic or abstract statement, what I once called writing below the din, won't suffice.
At a time of personal crisis, what one might want, what I wanted as I said, are truthful yet gentle words, singing, compassionate, and yes, even quiet words. Still, such occasional personal needs probably do not justify a dominant poetics of quietism in an ongoing way. There is something reassuring and stimulating about experiencing a number of relatively newer voices work to invent and persist with new forms that convincingly reflect the impossibility of accepting as such the eco-socio-political realities we are forced to live in right now. The post avant employs a biting, confrontational voice that says, to me anyway, don't give up trying to dispassionately recognize and reveal what that reality is, as painfully traumatic, as incessantly quotidian as it is coming to be. Forms that meet that continuous nightmare face to face, as unimaginable as it is, or was. Is the most relevant issue in contemporary poetics hegemony, or power, or is it which model, the quietist or the post-avant, suggests the more apropos interpretation of current reality as it actually presents itself?
Either way, life's needs are inordinately complex, and issues of poetic movement aside, one size will not always fit all.
* * * * *
New Links
Check out:
Contemporary LIterary Horizon
Drunken Boat 10
I Am A TV Junkie-Rachel Maddow's Big Catch Thanks for the link!
* * * * *
Caterina, one of the pioneer bloggers, who helped create Flikr, has created a new site, Hunch.
Here is the poet category: Hunch Poets
Tuesday, June 30
In The Middle of It All with Fred G. Leebron
So far, Fred G. Leebron has published three novels, all well worth reading; Out West in 1997, Six Figures in 2001 and In the Middle of It All in 2002. Six Figures was made into a movie in 2005.
Contemporary novels, it seems to me, fall basically into two large categories; one type giving great attention to physical description and depiction, the other focussing essentially on the mind and internal life of the characters. Leebron's exceptional writing style and point of view encompasses both. Critics have compared his work to Richard Yates, and the comparison is apt. Having recently completed reading every word available by Richard Yates in print, I was initially so greatly attracted by these books because it feels that Leebron is the clear inheritor of Yates' vision. But there are enough touches of Flannery O'Connor, Truman Capote and Milan Kundera and his own very unique and original style to make Fred G. Leebron already a standout in today's fiction. Along with Heather O'Neill, Paul Auster and Jonathan Lethem, he has quickly joined my group of favorites.
Out West tracks a young pair of murderers closely through virtually every physical action, feeling and thought they have over several days. The book is astonishing in its cinematic qualities, but also in its philosophical depth and complexity. The writer's excitement in writing every single sentence is palpable; this has become my measure in assessing quality in writing. If the writing feels dutiful and labored, I start to wonder why the writer bothered. In the three books by Leebron I've read in the past week, I notice a gradual transition towards a close examination of family life. Leebron in his two more recent books takes the risk to examine the quotidian with the same great focus on detail as his first book, which depicts a greatly unusual and grotesque situation, the same risk that Yates takes, of course. And with Leebron I see an empathy with the issues that plague nearly every marriage and relationship that makes Yates so unusual, particularly for a male writer. Six Figures follows a suburban couple in their intense efforts to remain ethical and become adequately financially successful at the same time. This is without doubt among the most unexplored and undocumented crises of our time. The pathos, dark comedy and masked desperation implicit in American suburban living is exactly what made the film American Beauty such a classic. There are lots of numbers out there assessing this, but few portrayals on the level of Leebron's. Like Out West, in Six Figures a mysterious violent act ( in Six Figures, the aggression is acted out against the wife and mother character) tests every internal and social aspect of all the novel's characters, major and minor. The family's efforts to deal with all this creates a Sisyphus myth for our own time. In each of his novels, Leebron's concerns with the dialectic between what someone can show, and what a person can know and care about in the life of another is explored in a way that creates a kind of suspense of the social kind that is well beneath the surface and mostly concealed and camouflaged in everyday life. It is in this sense that Leebron's take on suspense in fiction is so cathartic yet so unique psychologically and philosophically.
I will conclude with a quote from Leebron's most recent novel In The Middle of All This, which mostly concerns itself with the effects on a brother of a sister who is slowly dying of cancer. The sibling aspect of couples is a theme throughly and very interestingly explored in all of Leebron's books. What I found fascinating about the following quote is the fact that this internal moment is the actual, though not apparent, climax of the book, a fact that may have thrown off some of the book's critics. The passage, one of Leebron's best yet, I think captures Leebron's acute sensitivity and the breadth of his perceptions about contemporary living and, importantly, dying:
"Everybody died. But what went on between now and then- all the entanglements and annoyances and deprivations and enjoyments and inspirations and despair and redemption- you could never really know unless it was you or the person came right out and told you, and even in the telling there'd have to be a shift between what it was and what language made it sound like it was. Could nothing be shared? He wished he were back in his own bed with his screaming thoughts and fears and dreams. He wished he were younger, he wished he were older. He wished that his wife could tell him everything she ever thought, and he wished that he'd be interested by all of it. He wished he didn't ache for a hundred different women. He wished that his kids wold stop growing up, and he wished that they were already grown up and done and safe and out of the house. He wished that his father were dead and he wished that his father were once again young enough that he could actually talk with him. Had he every really talked with his father? And what the hell did that mean?- really talk? Did anyone really talk? Did anyone really listen?"
So far, Fred G. Leebron has published three novels, all well worth reading; Out West in 1997, Six Figures in 2001 and In the Middle of It All in 2002. Six Figures was made into a movie in 2005.
Contemporary novels, it seems to me, fall basically into two large categories; one type giving great attention to physical description and depiction, the other focussing essentially on the mind and internal life of the characters. Leebron's exceptional writing style and point of view encompasses both. Critics have compared his work to Richard Yates, and the comparison is apt. Having recently completed reading every word available by Richard Yates in print, I was initially so greatly attracted by these books because it feels that Leebron is the clear inheritor of Yates' vision. But there are enough touches of Flannery O'Connor, Truman Capote and Milan Kundera and his own very unique and original style to make Fred G. Leebron already a standout in today's fiction. Along with Heather O'Neill, Paul Auster and Jonathan Lethem, he has quickly joined my group of favorites.
Out West tracks a young pair of murderers closely through virtually every physical action, feeling and thought they have over several days. The book is astonishing in its cinematic qualities, but also in its philosophical depth and complexity. The writer's excitement in writing every single sentence is palpable; this has become my measure in assessing quality in writing. If the writing feels dutiful and labored, I start to wonder why the writer bothered. In the three books by Leebron I've read in the past week, I notice a gradual transition towards a close examination of family life. Leebron in his two more recent books takes the risk to examine the quotidian with the same great focus on detail as his first book, which depicts a greatly unusual and grotesque situation, the same risk that Yates takes, of course. And with Leebron I see an empathy with the issues that plague nearly every marriage and relationship that makes Yates so unusual, particularly for a male writer. Six Figures follows a suburban couple in their intense efforts to remain ethical and become adequately financially successful at the same time. This is without doubt among the most unexplored and undocumented crises of our time. The pathos, dark comedy and masked desperation implicit in American suburban living is exactly what made the film American Beauty such a classic. There are lots of numbers out there assessing this, but few portrayals on the level of Leebron's. Like Out West, in Six Figures a mysterious violent act ( in Six Figures, the aggression is acted out against the wife and mother character) tests every internal and social aspect of all the novel's characters, major and minor. The family's efforts to deal with all this creates a Sisyphus myth for our own time. In each of his novels, Leebron's concerns with the dialectic between what someone can show, and what a person can know and care about in the life of another is explored in a way that creates a kind of suspense of the social kind that is well beneath the surface and mostly concealed and camouflaged in everyday life. It is in this sense that Leebron's take on suspense in fiction is so cathartic yet so unique psychologically and philosophically.
I will conclude with a quote from Leebron's most recent novel In The Middle of All This, which mostly concerns itself with the effects on a brother of a sister who is slowly dying of cancer. The sibling aspect of couples is a theme throughly and very interestingly explored in all of Leebron's books. What I found fascinating about the following quote is the fact that this internal moment is the actual, though not apparent, climax of the book, a fact that may have thrown off some of the book's critics. The passage, one of Leebron's best yet, I think captures Leebron's acute sensitivity and the breadth of his perceptions about contemporary living and, importantly, dying:
"Everybody died. But what went on between now and then- all the entanglements and annoyances and deprivations and enjoyments and inspirations and despair and redemption- you could never really know unless it was you or the person came right out and told you, and even in the telling there'd have to be a shift between what it was and what language made it sound like it was. Could nothing be shared? He wished he were back in his own bed with his screaming thoughts and fears and dreams. He wished he were younger, he wished he were older. He wished that his wife could tell him everything she ever thought, and he wished that he'd be interested by all of it. He wished he didn't ache for a hundred different women. He wished that his kids wold stop growing up, and he wished that they were already grown up and done and safe and out of the house. He wished that his father were dead and he wished that his father were once again young enough that he could actually talk with him. Had he every really talked with his father? And what the hell did that mean?- really talk? Did anyone really talk? Did anyone really listen?"
Saturday, June 27
Rachel Maddow's Big Catch
Toni and I ran into Rachel Maddow who was with some friends on Herring Cove Beach today walking her good sized black dog. I mentioned to her that we had spoken with her a couple of years ago in Provincetown when the dog was still a puppy who clearly liked meeting Toni (the dog reacted similarly to Toni today also). At that time, as you will see in our post from two years ago, Rachel seemed doubtful that she would land a show of her own on cable. Well, I'm quite sure you know what happened since then, now that she is back to back nightly with Keith Olbermann (she has hosted her own show on MSNBC since September, 2008). I mentioned to Rachel that I had noticed on Twitter yesterday that she was heading for Nelson's Bait and Tackle on Race Road in Ptown. She told me that she caught a 22 pound bass this very day! Check out the story and photos at their website, here: Nelson's Bait and Tackle
check out our Rachel Maddow post from two years ago, here: Rachel's puppy
Toni and I ran into Rachel Maddow who was with some friends on Herring Cove Beach today walking her good sized black dog. I mentioned to her that we had spoken with her a couple of years ago in Provincetown when the dog was still a puppy who clearly liked meeting Toni (the dog reacted similarly to Toni today also). At that time, as you will see in our post from two years ago, Rachel seemed doubtful that she would land a show of her own on cable. Well, I'm quite sure you know what happened since then, now that she is back to back nightly with Keith Olbermann (she has hosted her own show on MSNBC since September, 2008). I mentioned to Rachel that I had noticed on Twitter yesterday that she was heading for Nelson's Bait and Tackle on Race Road in Ptown. She told me that she caught a 22 pound bass this very day! Check out the story and photos at their website, here: Nelson's Bait and Tackle
check out our Rachel Maddow post from two years ago, here: Rachel's puppy
Thursday, June 25
Sunday, June 21
Contradicta
The inability to be completely and totally silly or to respond sympathetically to such reveals a dead or dying spirit. Of all the pretenses available to most, to be utterly silly might also be among the hardest responses to fake.
*****
The imagination is not about picturing things. Even if it is, this is a small, unimportant part of it. Imagination is more about believing in possibilities where none had existed before. But accepting limitations might assist in this. Knocking one's head against the wall is bad for the mind so it is equally bad for the imagination.
The inability to be completely and totally silly or to respond sympathetically to such reveals a dead or dying spirit. Of all the pretenses available to most, to be utterly silly might also be among the hardest responses to fake.
*****
The imagination is not about picturing things. Even if it is, this is a small, unimportant part of it. Imagination is more about believing in possibilities where none had existed before. But accepting limitations might assist in this. Knocking one's head against the wall is bad for the mind so it is equally bad for the imagination.
Tuesday, June 16
The Extreme of The Middle-Jack Tworkov writings edited by Mira Schor
I've been following Mira's progress in editing this book for awhile now, and I'm so excited it's out. My early summer reading is looming into view: The Extreme of the MIddle, I Am You by Anne Tardos, Notes on Conceptualisms by Fitterman and Place and Douglas Rothschild's Theogony. Ah, the pleasures of the text, as Roland Barthes put it so well!
Oh, and one more: Reread David Bromige's selected, titled Desire.
I've been following Mira's progress in editing this book for awhile now, and I'm so excited it's out. My early summer reading is looming into view: The Extreme of the MIddle, I Am You by Anne Tardos, Notes on Conceptualisms by Fitterman and Place and Douglas Rothschild's Theogony. Ah, the pleasures of the text, as Roland Barthes put it so well!
Oh, and one more: Reread David Bromige's selected, titled Desire.
Saturday, June 13
David Bromige
David Bromige, a friend whose writing and spirit I much admired and was grateful for, had a way of saying things sometimes that I still think of, again and again, years later. Once we were talking about irony. Later in the conversation I had occasion to mention that I used to have a great repugnance for doing anything twice the same way. But, given the direction my life had eventually taken, becoming more and more bound to a tight schedule, I told him I had given in, but had switched over to the opposite and now did as many things every day as much as possible exactly in the same way. "But, NIck", he said, in his witty yet warm way, "that itself is a kind of irony, an irony of action."
David Bromige, a friend whose writing and spirit I much admired and was grateful for, had a way of saying things sometimes that I still think of, again and again, years later. Once we were talking about irony. Later in the conversation I had occasion to mention that I used to have a great repugnance for doing anything twice the same way. But, given the direction my life had eventually taken, becoming more and more bound to a tight schedule, I told him I had given in, but had switched over to the opposite and now did as many things every day as much as possible exactly in the same way. "But, NIck", he said, in his witty yet warm way, "that itself is a kind of irony, an irony of action."
Tuesday, June 9
Thursday, June 4
Wednesday, June 3
Sunday, May 31
Happy Birthday, Walt Whitman
Possible sound recording of Walt Whitman reading from "America"
*************
Twitter Poetry
Baby Trotsky reviewed on Lemon Hound
Possible sound recording of Walt Whitman reading from "America"
*************
Twitter Poetry
Baby Trotsky reviewed on Lemon Hound
Saturday, May 30
Elaine Equi Photographs
at Turtle Point Press. Two of Elaine Equi's latest photograph series A Guide to the Cinema Tarot and Votive Candy, with accompanying poems, were on display at the opening at Turtle Point Press in the beautiful Woolworth Building at Park Place and Broadway.Two examples, first from A Guide: "Use your powers for good/and one day they'll name a robot/in a theme park after you" and second, from Votive: "Somewhere between/three wise men and three stooges/an epiphany comes." Elaine's photos encompass both the wit and the double-take insight her poems have become rightfully famous for. On hand to celebrate these terrific works were Turtle Point publisher Jonathan Rabinowitz, Elaine Equi and her husband poet Jerome Sala, as well as many poetry and art notables including Dirk Rountree, Wayne Koestenbaum, Geoffrey O'Brien. Star Black, Corinne Robins, Sal Romano. Coffee House publisher Allen Kornblum, Joanna Fuhrman, Toni Simon and many others.
When I was there, by the way, Sal Romano gave me an invitation to a group show opening May 27 6-8pm called Wiser Than God ("born before 1927, working and living") at the BLT Gallery (270 Bowery) right across the street from the New Museum show Younger than Jesus featuring 50 artists from 25 countries under age 33.
*******************
Freud's Office and a Zombie Parade
Toni Simon's slide shows from our recent trip to Prague and VIennainclude photos from the Vienna Freud Museum and the Prague Zombie parade.
at Turtle Point Press. Two of Elaine Equi's latest photograph series A Guide to the Cinema Tarot and Votive Candy, with accompanying poems, were on display at the opening at Turtle Point Press in the beautiful Woolworth Building at Park Place and Broadway.Two examples, first from A Guide: "Use your powers for good/and one day they'll name a robot/in a theme park after you" and second, from Votive: "Somewhere between/three wise men and three stooges/an epiphany comes." Elaine's photos encompass both the wit and the double-take insight her poems have become rightfully famous for. On hand to celebrate these terrific works were Turtle Point publisher Jonathan Rabinowitz, Elaine Equi and her husband poet Jerome Sala, as well as many poetry and art notables including Dirk Rountree, Wayne Koestenbaum, Geoffrey O'Brien. Star Black, Corinne Robins, Sal Romano. Coffee House publisher Allen Kornblum, Joanna Fuhrman, Toni Simon and many others.
When I was there, by the way, Sal Romano gave me an invitation to a group show opening May 27 6-8pm called Wiser Than God ("born before 1927, working and living") at the BLT Gallery (270 Bowery) right across the street from the New Museum show Younger than Jesus featuring 50 artists from 25 countries under age 33.
*******************
Freud's Office and a Zombie Parade
Toni Simon's slide shows from our recent trip to Prague and VIennainclude photos from the Vienna Freud Museum and the Prague Zombie parade.
Friday, May 29
Music on Twitter
The Music of Jukka- Pekka Kervinen located today on Twitter
JPK
**************
The Twitter Poets
OCHO 24-the Twitter Poets
*************
10 OCHOs AGO
OCHO 14 Did you miss this one?
************
Or This One?
OCHO 21
The Music of Jukka- Pekka Kervinen located today on Twitter
JPK
**************
The Twitter Poets
OCHO 24-the Twitter Poets
*************
10 OCHOs AGO
OCHO 14 Did you miss this one?
************
Or This One?
OCHO 21
Friday, May 22
Salt of The Earth: Saving A Press One Book at a Time
[Check out Salt's impressive catalogue: I just bought this book:
I Am You
Anne Tardos
Paperback
2008
I Am You collects three new poems: “The Aim of All Nature Is Beauty,” which Tardos wrote soon after the death or her husband and frequent collaborator Jackson Mac Low; “Letting Go,” a 100-page poem which combines memoir and self-examination in the face of loss, and the 50-page “The Letter: A Bloodbath.”]
[Check out Salt's impressive catalogue: I just bought this book:
I Am You
Anne Tardos
Paperback
2008
I Am You collects three new poems: “The Aim of All Nature Is Beauty,” which Tardos wrote soon after the death or her husband and frequent collaborator Jackson Mac Low; “Letting Go,” a 100-page poem which combines memoir and self-examination in the face of loss, and the 50-page “The Letter: A Bloodbath.”]
Saturday, May 2
Movie Nite (Saturday May 2) at Dixon Place
[for Movie Nite on Friday, May 1 See Nada Gordon's Capsule Reviews on Ululations]
Movie Nite took place this past Saturday evening at Dixon Place. Neo-Benshi by Brandon Downing, David Larsen, Tisa Bryant, Nada Gordon, Gary Sullivan, Eileen Myles, Linh Dinh, Bruce Andrews (with Brandon Downing), Mac McGinnes and Konrad Steiner and Drew Gardner and Risa Puno.
For those of you who have not yet heard about or experienced this relatively new form (already very popular on the West Coast), here poets add their own dialogue, sound effects, comments, sound tracks, etc to already existing films. While the themes, in general, were satiric and parodic send-ups, still, there was much intense poetic ambience to immerse oneself in, as one might expect of a line-up like the one above. There were so many surprising, artistically complex and satisfying, even exhilarating moments throughout the evening that I would love to describe for you, but due to my newness to the form, this might be difficult. But at least I can mention Brandon Downing's (who introduced and organized these presentations) "After Eileen Myles' Hell, Pterodactyl I, The Ship,The Anchor, and Pterodactyl II", David Larsen's stirring, heroic "Paris of Troy", Tisa Bryant's "Inspiration," sizzling B movie noir renditions, Nada Gordon's "Navrang," labyrinthine and operatic Bollywood recitations, Gary Sullivan's "Darby O'Gill and the Little People," Irish giants and midget leprechauns at odds in a magic poetry cave, accompanied by sly, hilarious references to the contemporary poetry scene, Eileen Myles' witty "Satyricon" with handmade original sound effects (at the end she joyfully rolled across the floor), Linh Dinh's "Smooth Life," fatal attractions behind a stack of modern classics (I kept trying to read the titles, while constantly being distracted by the heavy breathing in the movie), Bruce Andrews and Brandon Downing's ' "Gossip Bruce," one liner darts to the tune of endless conversations between two preening, priviliged Upper East Side girl friends (great fun for me as I am a fan of chick lit), McGinnes and Steiner's "Love Before Breakfast: An Interstellar Interlude", with a text by James Schuyler, starring Norma Cole as MOON, Edith Kramer as LAKE LONESOME GAL, David Larsen as CANOE and Roham Shakhani as SPACE, including the moon, stars and ducks in lyrical dialogues, and Drew Gardner and Risa Puno's Untitled piece focussing on violent video game targets, accompanied by a first, a haunting Drew Gardner movie soundtrack.
While academics continue to dispute the number of avant-guard angels that can stand on the head of a pin, the flesh and blood personnel like those who performed so brilliantly at Dixon Place last night will continue to create and perform works that astonish, confound, and provoke their grateful and delighted audiences.
[Comments, corrections or additions from Flarfists or audience members will be gladly published in the comments field].
[for Movie Nite on Friday, May 1 See Nada Gordon's Capsule Reviews on Ululations]
Movie Nite took place this past Saturday evening at Dixon Place. Neo-Benshi by Brandon Downing, David Larsen, Tisa Bryant, Nada Gordon, Gary Sullivan, Eileen Myles, Linh Dinh, Bruce Andrews (with Brandon Downing), Mac McGinnes and Konrad Steiner and Drew Gardner and Risa Puno.
For those of you who have not yet heard about or experienced this relatively new form (already very popular on the West Coast), here poets add their own dialogue, sound effects, comments, sound tracks, etc to already existing films. While the themes, in general, were satiric and parodic send-ups, still, there was much intense poetic ambience to immerse oneself in, as one might expect of a line-up like the one above. There were so many surprising, artistically complex and satisfying, even exhilarating moments throughout the evening that I would love to describe for you, but due to my newness to the form, this might be difficult. But at least I can mention Brandon Downing's (who introduced and organized these presentations) "After Eileen Myles' Hell, Pterodactyl I, The Ship,The Anchor, and Pterodactyl II", David Larsen's stirring, heroic "Paris of Troy", Tisa Bryant's "Inspiration," sizzling B movie noir renditions, Nada Gordon's "Navrang," labyrinthine and operatic Bollywood recitations, Gary Sullivan's "Darby O'Gill and the Little People," Irish giants and midget leprechauns at odds in a magic poetry cave, accompanied by sly, hilarious references to the contemporary poetry scene, Eileen Myles' witty "Satyricon" with handmade original sound effects (at the end she joyfully rolled across the floor), Linh Dinh's "Smooth Life," fatal attractions behind a stack of modern classics (I kept trying to read the titles, while constantly being distracted by the heavy breathing in the movie), Bruce Andrews and Brandon Downing's ' "Gossip Bruce," one liner darts to the tune of endless conversations between two preening, priviliged Upper East Side girl friends (great fun for me as I am a fan of chick lit), McGinnes and Steiner's "Love Before Breakfast: An Interstellar Interlude", with a text by James Schuyler, starring Norma Cole as MOON, Edith Kramer as LAKE LONESOME GAL, David Larsen as CANOE and Roham Shakhani as SPACE, including the moon, stars and ducks in lyrical dialogues, and Drew Gardner and Risa Puno's Untitled piece focussing on violent video game targets, accompanied by a first, a haunting Drew Gardner movie soundtrack.
While academics continue to dispute the number of avant-guard angels that can stand on the head of a pin, the flesh and blood personnel like those who performed so brilliantly at Dixon Place last night will continue to create and perform works that astonish, confound, and provoke their grateful and delighted audiences.
[Comments, corrections or additions from Flarfists or audience members will be gladly published in the comments field].
Friday, May 1
Rain
Once, a long time ago, Toni and I got caught in a heavy downpour in Central Park. We waited, watched and listened, not saying much, under a huge tree. Eventually the storm passed, but for some reason, the moment stayed. Many years, storms and memories have, since then. come and gone. But this one stayed.
*****
Rain- 140 character version on Babytrotsky
Once, a long time ago, Toni and I got caught in a heavy downpour in Central Park. We waited, watched and listened, not saying much, under a huge tree. Eventually the storm passed, but for some reason, the moment stayed. Many years, storms and memories have, since then. come and gone. But this one stayed.
*****
Rain- 140 character version on Babytrotsky
Saturday, April 25
Friday, April 24
Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh edited by Rupert Loydell, an anthology of manifestoes and antimanifestoes to be published in September, 2009 has just been announced by Salt Publishing. The book will contain 8 of my automatic manifestoes.
Wednesday, April 22
My Lunch With Sala
After some of the more personal items were touched on over sandwiches, coffee and Jerome's diet coke with a twist of lemon (health, friends, work and lit life) Jerome and I talked about poetry, the arts and the lives and careers of the younger generations. Finally Jerome revealed he had been publishing on a blog provocatively titled,The Best American Poetry. His ideas about Hegel, Creeley and William Carlos Williams' dictum "no ideas but in things" offers much to think -and talk about further- at our next lunch, which I hope is very soon.
After some of the more personal items were touched on over sandwiches, coffee and Jerome's diet coke with a twist of lemon (health, friends, work and lit life) Jerome and I talked about poetry, the arts and the lives and careers of the younger generations. Finally Jerome revealed he had been publishing on a blog provocatively titled,The Best American Poetry. His ideas about Hegel, Creeley and William Carlos Williams' dictum "no ideas but in things" offers much to think -and talk about further- at our next lunch, which I hope is very soon.
Saturday, April 18
The Flarf/Conceptual reading at the Whitney Friday 4/17 was terrific, fun, a great success, featuring readings by Bok, Goldsmith, Wershler, Rosenfield, Gordon, Mesmer, Mohammad, Sullivan, introduced smartly by the organizer, Conceptual poet/artist Kenny Goldsmth. Hard to believe that each poet read for only 5 minutes, so much happened. Very concentrated thought, laughter, language, verbal and body, quite a charismatic bunch. Goldsmith, bearded in an orange tie, Sullivan in t shirt and suit jacket, Mesmer and Rosenfield, Wershler and Bok dressed to the nines, Nada in a striking cartoony dress she made herself, Mohammad in a costume composed of an astronaut's uniform. Each of the eight offered a thoroughly enjoyable performance of distinctively inspired writing enacted/ framed by a clearly conceived and energetically presented dramatic persona. Much applause for individual poems, much laughter. We will undoubtedly be hearing and seeing more from the flarf/conceptual groups. They were welcomed in a way that telegraphed that they are here to stay. Audience sightings: Susan Bee, Charles Bernstein, Star Black, Katie Degentesh, Jordan Davis, Laura Elrick, Rob Fitterman, Chris Funkhouser, Kristen Gallagher, Drew Gardner, Mitch Highfill, Tan Lin, Sean Killian, Marianne Shaneen, Toni Simon, Stephanie Strickland, Christina Strong, Rodrigo Toscano and many other familiar faces. The room was completely packed, and some stayed until they had to get out of the way of the closing crew. Sorry I couldn't make it to the downtown party later on. Perhaps there will be more about this on other blogs, that of Drew Gardener, Gary Sullivan, Nada Gordon or Sharon Mesmer, let's see.
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flarf vs conceptual poetry: the vids via Nada Gordon's Ululations
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flarf vs conceptual poetry: the vids via Nada Gordon's Ululations
Friday, April 17
Thursday, April 16
Search Cube
******
Nico Vassilakis New York Art Show opens April 16
Rhizome
******
Nico Vassilakis reading at the Poetry Project April 24
******
Poets and Writers Interview
By Pamela ?oler
(repostiing: original posting 4/1
******
Nico Vassilakis New York Art Show opens April 16
Rhizome
******
Nico Vassilakis reading at the Poetry Project April 24
******
Poets and Writers Interview
By Pamela ?oler
(repostiing: original posting 4/1
Tuesday, April 14
"We" Follow
twitter: we follow
****
Half an hour of browsing led to one twitter worth following
Al Gore
thus:
The Extreme Ice Survey
twitter: we follow
****
Half an hour of browsing led to one twitter worth following
Al Gore
thus:
The Extreme Ice Survey
Saturday, April 11
The Two Bright Doves- Laura Carter
*******
Jackie Lipton's New Paintings are on exhibit at Corinne Robbins Gallery
147 Atlantic Avenue (between Clinton and Henry Streets) April 16-May 17, 2009
Opening Reception is Thursday, April 16th 6-8pm
Gallery hours are Wed-Sat, 11-6 and Sun 12-5
718.855.1672
Directions: 2,3 or 4,5 to Borough Hall (or R to Court Street), walk down Joralemon Street
into Brooklyn Heights until you come to Clinton Street, then walk on Clinton to
Atlantic Avenue.
Turn right and you are there. Or walk down Court Street To Atlantic Avenue, then on Atlantic
past Clinton Street to 147 Atlantic Avenue.
*******
Jackie Lipton's New Paintings are on exhibit at Corinne Robbins Gallery
147 Atlantic Avenue (between Clinton and Henry Streets) April 16-May 17, 2009
Opening Reception is Thursday, April 16th 6-8pm
Gallery hours are Wed-Sat, 11-6 and Sun 12-5
718.855.1672
Directions: 2,3 or 4,5 to Borough Hall (or R to Court Street), walk down Joralemon Street
into Brooklyn Heights until you come to Clinton Street, then walk on Clinton to
Atlantic Avenue.
Turn right and you are there. Or walk down Court Street To Atlantic Avenue, then on Atlantic
past Clinton Street to 147 Atlantic Avenue.
Friday, April 10
This Just In from Nico Vassilakis
My first Visual Poetry Show
Runs April 16th – May 9th, 2009
at
AC [Institute Direct] Chapel
547 W. 27th St, 5th Floor, #519-529
Gallery Hours: Wed, Fri. & Sat: 1-6pm, Thurs.: 1-8pm
The opening is on April 16th
Rhizome
Brochure Pdf included
(I’ll be around early evening April 23rd)
&
A Reading at the Poetry Project – April 24th, 10pm
Lawrence Giffin & Nico Vassilakis
thanks for your time,
n
My first Visual Poetry Show
Runs April 16th – May 9th, 2009
at
AC [Institute Direct] Chapel
547 W. 27th St, 5th Floor, #519-529
Gallery Hours: Wed, Fri. & Sat: 1-6pm, Thurs.: 1-8pm
The opening is on April 16th
Rhizome
Brochure Pdf included
(I’ll be around early evening April 23rd)
&
A Reading at the Poetry Project – April 24th, 10pm
Lawrence Giffin & Nico Vassilakis
thanks for your time,
n
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