Drew Gardner's Poetics Orchestra

peformed on Sunday with poets Nada Gordon and Kimberly Lyons. There were readings as well by Gary Sullivan, Kimberly Lyons, Mitch Highfill, Brenda IIjima and others before and after sets with the Orchestra. Nada, who was in spectacular form yesterday at the BPC was brought back, not suprisingly, for an encore at the end of the Orchestra's second set.

I am going to try very hard not to sound overly melodramatic- I admit I sometimes have a tendency to exagerrate in favor of work I wish to be noticed- but I've had such an experience of watching a ripening talent like Nada's hit the stratosphere enough times in my life to know what it looks like, and a few of these were: Buddy Holly at the Brooklyn Paramount in 1958, Ted Berrigan at St Mark's in 1966, Blondie at CBGB's in 1975, and Holly Hughes at the Wow Cafe in 1985. If you weren't there, and probably you weren't, you should do everything in your power to watch Nada Gordon perform as soon as possible. Nada read mostly from her new book *Folly*, Her second set involved a section of her new Roof Book in which three girls rap while trying on clothes at Target, who somehow manage to teach each other-and us-more about life and postmodern philosophy than a barrel full of Derridas ever could hope to; she ended the set with a heartbreakingly funny, hypnotically repetitive recital of a part of a song made famous by none other than Dean Martin: "when the moon hits your eye." And I'm here to tell you the audience knew it did. Other awesome performances took place on the BPC stage yesterday as well: Gary Sullivan's grandmother was hilariously portrayed as doing things with her gastrointestinal system that would qualify her for a Barnum and Bailey acrobatic contract, and employed his voice in ways that made me sometimes wonder if he was channeling beings from another dimension and it all starts to remind me of a comic from my chlldhood called Plastic Man; Kimberly Lyons read some of her most deftly charged, nostalgically lyrical works excellently with the Orchestra as well (who were also in top form today, by the way, under Drew's able baton}; Mitch Highfill read with that terrific baritone voice of his from his upcoming "Abraham Lincoln" (from new publisher K. Silem Mohammad) chapbook *Mothlight* as well as one poem from his new chapbook-Rebis- just out from seasoned publisher Christina Strong's Openmouth Press, and Brenda Iijima surprised the audience with handstands, bravely defying ringing cellphones and crying babies with poetry that for moments still somehow transported me back to recent quiet states of reverie in the varied moods of Cape Cod's waves and clouds, partly, it seems, by means of her frequent mentions of sunscreen; Jill Stengel was followed by Sean Cole, whose wit and polished verbal pyrotechnics concluded this day of shining performances with the glittering bright finish it well deserved.

I left sorry that I had only been able to attend only one of the Boog City events, as this one well qualified for one the best sawbucks I've ever spent. And I keep reading that ubiquitous mag in newsprint form published by David Kirschenbaum with pleasure every time I find it..

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ha-Ha America: Antonioni and the Importance of Being Earnest

New Beauty from the Old World

via wood s lot

Boog City Festival: The Penultimate Event

SUNDAY AUGUST 5, 1:30 P.M., 3:45 P.M.
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
NYC
$5 1:30 p.m.

The Future of Small Press Publishing
curated and moderated by Mitch Highfil
l
featuring David Baratier, editor Pavement Saw Press (Columbus, Ohio)
Bob Hershon, co-editor Hanging Loose Press
Brenda Iijima, editor Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs (Brooklyn)
Jill Stengel, editor a+bend press (Davis, Calif.)

Readings and musical performances
3:45 p.m.-The Poetics Orchestra
4:15 p.m.-Kimberly Lyons
4:30 p.m.-Gary Sullivan
4:45 p.m.-Brenda Iijima

5:00 p.m.- break

5:15 p.m.-The Poetics Orchestra
5:35 p.m.-Jill Stengel
5:55 p.m.-Mitch Highfill
6:10 p.m.-Nada Gordon
6:25 p.m.-Sean Cole

Directions: F/V to 2nd Ave., 6 to BleeckerVenue is at E.1st St.
_________________________________________________________________

Even Newer: Art as Comfort discussion continues onThe Newer Metaphysicals

Nicholas Manning said

"Nick, Suzanne, you'd know more about this than me, but I wonder if it wouldn't be also interesting to introduce someone like Piaget into this type of discussion: the idea of 'play' as a constructive psychic process, which may be another spin on "composition" as Nada sees it (not so much "straightening things out" as testing, trying, embodying).

I know that my mother, in her work with children in developmental psych, encourages them to use dolls, puppets and drawings to construct different images, symbologies, narratives, in ways which often deeply resemble poetic processes..."

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Young at Art

Otoliths 6

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Nada Gordon's *Folly* might be funny but art isn't easy: listen up

Critical Cities

Stan Apps: Jacket MagazineOn Nada Gordon's Tolerance

Art as Comfort- the discussion continues on
The New Metaphysical (Nicholas Manning)

Nada said:
"Healing as composition" But she was not sure she believed that.

suzanne said;

"I worked with 70 women
diagnosed with borderline personalitiy disorders
(many of them dual diagnosed with substance abuse
or bipolar)

I gave them amulets
from my medicine pouch
in the form of stories
made up specifically for them;
I told them
their "disorder" was really a perceptual one
and then they worked on altering their perceptions

off all meds
seldom calling the crisis line"

Happy Birthday, Gary Sullivan

Gary shares a birthday with Prino Levi (check out today's wood s lot), which is appropriate, in that Gary is one of the most compassionate people I have ever known.

I am also taking the occasion to proffer Elsewhere fait accompli's fourth Thinking Blogger award.

(Strange coincidence dep't: I was introduced to the writing of Primo Levi just yesterday, by Mira Schor, at Tim's Books, and read the amazing essay The Gray Zone very early this morning).

On My Desk

Ross Macdonald: The Galton Case, The Ferguson Affair, The Blue Hammer, The Underground Man, Black Money

Cornell Woolrich, Waltz Into Darkness



Last summer, when I was working away on the book version of *fait accompli* I happened to drop by the local used bookstore, Tim's, in Provincetown, and we got to talking about mysteries. I wanted to read something that was unusual for me, and easy, and as I never in my life read one of those, outside of Sherlock Holmes (which I loved), I thought I would try one. He recommended Raymond Chandler, I also found a Sue Grafton, and I was on my way. Grafton has written a series of easy to read mysteries, that are named according to the alphabet, (A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, C is for Corpse, etc; the latest is S is for Silence). I also read all the Raymond Chandlers I could find. I know I don't have to tell you about those.

I might have read a couple of Ross Macdonald novels last summer, I don't remember; I have my list of about 20 novels I read then. Since I ride a subway to work, one train, I usually read a novel, at least I did up until I started using my Ipod, damn thing. This summer I've been reading Ross Macdonald quite a lot and Joseph Kanon, who I mentioned a few weeks ago - don't miss Alibi!- it's great (that one was a gift from Ray DiPalma, as well as The Good German). My recent interest in postwar Germany dates from my early childhood when I lived in Nurnberg and that amazing Weimar show at the Met last year.

But Ross Macdonald! The more I read him, the more I like him. Macdonald is not only psychologically acute- almost all his plots have to do with family dynamics- but his descriptions are superb, and often poetic to boot. Looking at the page as you read it, you feel like you are watching a movie screen as every sentence jumps out at you whole and transforms itself into a moment in the scene that is taking place. And somehow, the descriptions usually add to the suspense. ("The university had been built on an elevated spur of land that jutted into the sea and was narrowed at its base by a tidal slough. Almost surrounded by water and softened by blue haze, it looked from the distance like a medieval fortress town....Close-up, the buildings shed this romatic aspect. They were half-heartedly modern, cubes and oblongs and slabs that looked as if their architect had spent his life designing business buildings." [The Blue Hammer].

A recent visit to Tim's brought me Cornell Woolrich's great *Waltz into Darkness*- the author was suggested by an acquaintance who is up here, the artist Mira Schor. Waltz into Darkness takes place in the late 19th century in New Orleans and thereabouts. Woolrich is credited, for good reason, for inventing along with Hammett and Chandler, the noir genre. He wrote the story that the film Rear Window was based on. He had a tough life and ended up a recluse. This book is full of plot twists and turns, and is the kind of book I find myself at times exclaiming out loud, as if to the character I am reading about, "Don't do it!"

Great writing: "A vanishing point was bound to be reached eventually. It had been imminent for some time, if he'd only taken the trouble to make inventory. But he hadn't; perhaps he'd been afraid to, afraid in his own mind of the too-exact knowledge that that he would have derived from such a summing-up; the certainty of termination. Afraid of the chill that would have been cast upon their feasting, the shadow that would have dimmed their wine. There was always tomorrow, tomorrow, to make a reckoning. And tomorrow, there was always tomorrow still. And meanwhile the music swelled, and the waltz whirled ever faster, giving no pause for breath."

Anyway, time to go back to Ross Macdonald's *The Underground Man* See you later..."It was late on a Saturday afternoon, and the beach was littered with bodies. It was like a warning vision of the future, when every square foot of the world would be populated. I found a place to sit in the sand beside a youth with a guitar who lay propped against a girl's stomach. I could smell her sun-tan oil, and I felt as if everybody but me was paired off like animals in the dark....I got up and looked around me. Under the stratum of smoke which lay over the city, the air was harshly clear. The low sun was like a spinning yellow frisbee which I could almost reach out and catch..."

Nicholas and Nicholas continue their discussion on Manning's essay "Art as Comfort: Some Misgivings on a Therapeutic Poetics"

on The New Metaphysicals (Nicholas Manning)l

*fait accompli* third Thinking Blogger Award goes to wood s lot

Mark Woods is a blogger living in Canada whose blog I find to be the most valuable resource on the internet. Mallarme in a poem once imagined a newspaper composed of dreams. wood s lot is the ultimate time traveler's newspaper, bringing you news that stays news. It is the true come dream. On wood s lot you will celebrate Debussy's birthday or the latest essay by Kasey S. Mohammad on the crises of poetry or a series of articles on the subject of happiness. And it is a feast for the eye as well as the mind. It is almost unimaginable that someone could, on a daily basis, provide information that not only feeds the mind but feeds the spirit and the imagination, but this is what you will find constantly at wood s lot.

Our first two awards went to Ray Davis and Tom Beckett.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The Newer Metaphysicals: Art as comfort: some misgivings on a therapeutic poetics. An excellent article by Nicholas Manning with two cents thrown in from Nicholas you-know-who.

Oh, What A Loverly Bunch of Coconuts

Coconut #9

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Adam Fieled, has guest edited OCHO 11/LuLu, a print poetry magazine produced by Didi Menendez of Mipoesias fame. Adam opens the issue with a sharp and touching introduction, which sets the tone for the entire issue: "This poetry is a tough gig, isn't it? We don't do it to become celebrities, because the machinery is not there to turn us into celebrities. I would like to think that the reasons for pursuing this ancient, contemporary, always relevant art form are spiritual." Read the whole introduction, and some of the poetry, and do consider purchasing it, by clicking on "preview this book" on the LuLu link above. The work in the issue matches the promises and premises of the introduction. There is an overall quality to this charming collection that has entirely its own character: not flip, not pretentious, not "different": merely and wholly pleasurable, considered, insightful, lyrical, imagistic, and, in that sense completely personal, present and absorbing. Check out the lovely cover by Hector Milia on the LuLu page, and click "preview this page" to look at the contents. Again: OCHO 11/LuLu.

Meme Corner

Beckett's Best: this just in


Tom Beckett selected Shanna Compton for his Third Thinking Blogger award; his first two were given to Geof Huth and Eileen Tabios.

*fait accompli* will announce our third choice in a few days: our first two were awarded to Ray Davis (who graciously accepted it, though I found out just today he dislikes memes); and our second went to Tom Beckett.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Another Great 8

Boynton

Contradicta



In the heart of your wound, find your path.



*****************


Suffering shouts, happiness whispers.

There's No Such Thing As Intelligence: A Catchy Tune

Some days back, Ray Davis mentioned the above post by Joseph Kugelmass that I'm still rereading. Even if I don't agree with all of his conclusions, I am still returning to many of his allusions. I enjoyed his defense of psychoanalytically informed critique, which he notices are sometimes today too easily dismissed by weighted, if not weighty arguments. And he refers also to a blog called Sour Duck, which I read today and enjoyed a bit of metablogging, something I haven't seen much of for a while:

Sour Duck admits to some ambivalence about the stylistic limitations of blog writing, but feels that, in this context, content makes it all worth it. Kind of like, say, relationships.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Perusing Ray Davis' loglist

Acephalous (Scott Eric Kaufman)

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Mark Young's *Lunch Poem*
Gamma Ways

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

First New Katie Degentesh Post in Two Months

Bloggedy-Blog Blog

Further comments on *There is No Such Thing as Intelligence* The Kugelmass Episodes

It’s hard to imagine a more passionate defender of “brilliance” than Bloom, so I can see why you you brought him in. But I still think his *The Anxiety of Influence*has a lot to offer.

Some of my thoughts about your essay come out of working as a school social worker in NY for 25 years. I often get the feeling that in schools, and in society in general, the less people recognize the given talents and abilities of others, the more shrewdness is a valued and admired substitute for thinking.What happens when there is no status to be earned by intellectual accomplishments, according to the common sense idea that “if you’re so smart why aren’t you rich?” I just finished reading Gissing’s *New Grub Street.* In part, it seems to me, the book is an indictment of contemporary culture’s inability to benefit from the talents of those who cannot transpose their intellectual abilities into saleable skills. What would Gissing say now? I’ll bet there are not a few poverty stricken bloggers out there; and who can make a living as an adjunct? Edwin Reardon, the main character in *New Grub Street* dies clearly as a result of disease brought on by malnutrition. He had written a couple of brilliant novels and waited too long to take a job as clerk because, if he didn’t work as a brilliant intellectual, how were people to know he was one? In a rational and responsible society, it seems to me, it would be considered unethical to underrate people because the visible results of their talents do not match who they are as persons. People would then appraise others according to what they have to offer, not according to what they have been able to sell in themselves.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

OCHO 11is available from LuLu.

as is our own

Free Fall

The publisher, Mark Young, had this to say about Free Fall:

gamma ways

Happy Birthday Tom Beckett!

Tom Beckett video on *The Continental Review*

Beckett's *Unprotected Texts* reviewed in the current Jacket (#33, July 2007)

Tom Beckett/poetry/Otoliths

Allen Bramhall on Tom Beckett

Tom Beckett/Steps/Meritage Press

Tom Beckett, curator/E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S The First XI
Interviews/Otoliths

Tom Beckett's e-x-c-h-a-n-g-e- v-a-l-u-e-s blog

hb t.b. Arroyo Chamisa

Tom Beckett is the recipient of our second Thinking Blogger Award (the first was Ray Davis). Tom's blog, Soluble Census, as well as his earlier blogs, have become mainstays of the literary blogging world. Tom is a true thinking blogger if there ever was one: his openness, knowledgeability and dedication to poetry and poetry blogging are legendary. In the stormy seas of contemporary poetry, Tom Beckett's blog is a lighthouse and it is our pleasure to have proffered this token of appreciation. (fait accompli/ 7/17/07)

Tom Beckett today awarded Soluble Census' second Thinking Blogger Award to Eileen Tabios (the first went to Geof Huth)

By George

I've just finished reading the remarkable novel "New Grub Street* by George Gissing. For the past few years I've been searching out early novels that reveal underlying factors leading to the reality of social life as it is lived today. I've been fascinated by the work of Flaubert. Dickens, Wharton, Dreiser, James, Maugham and Orwell, to name a few, partcularly Flaubert's *Sentimental Education*, Orwell's *Keep the Apidistra Flying*, Wharton's *House of Mirth*, Dickens' *David Copperfield*, Maugham's "Of Human Bondage*, Dreiser's *Sister Carrie.*, and James' "Washington Square*. I've been trying to trace themes and connections in these writers, and have been garnering impressions and ideas about prophetic and predictive qualities in the turn of the century and early 20th century realist novel.Any suggestions? Please write to me at nickpoetique@earthlink.net.

The remarkable influence of George Gissing on George Orwell is discussed in an interesting essay I found today on the George Gissing site.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

E ratio9 edited by Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino is just out.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Veni, Vidi, Vici

Tom Beckett (Soluble Census) has chosen the pied piper of Vispo as the recipient of his first Thinking Blogger award.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

pseudopodium loglist

The second selection, in our ongoing perusal of Ray Davis' loglist is the wonderfully titled
Languor Management

Tom Marches On

Tom Beckett kindly responds and accepts our Thinking Blogger Award and promises to continue the meme.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
While The Boss is Out to Lunch

check out The Process of Avant-Garde Practice, a longish essay on William Watkins' Blog

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Rain, Rain Go Away

but until it does, check out Amy King's Links
which include tons of audio interviews she has conducted, including one with Elaine Equi

King of Brooklyn
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Too Warm? Take Off Your

July Jacket and read on...
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
If The Truth Be Told

Tracie Morris and Charles Bernstein sing a duet in
The Brooklyn Rail
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Rachel Maddow

our recent Provincetown neighbor interviews Steve Buscemi, our Park Slope neighbor
today on The Rachel Maddow Show | Air America Radio
Steve Buscemi will be in studio talking about his latest film

Tom Beckett

is the recipient of our second Thinking Blogger Award. Tom's blog, Soluble Census, as well as his earlier blogs, have become mainstays of the literary blogging world. Tom is a true thinking blogger if there ever was one: his openness, knowledgeability and dedication to poetry and poetry blogging are legendary. In the stormy seas of contemporary poetry, Tom Beckett's blog is a lighthouse and it is our pleasure to proffer this token of appreciation.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

pseudopodium loglist bloggers

The very first link we came across on the pseudopodium loglist is a gold nugget. Check outLink Machine

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

On My Desk

Our New Orwell?

*Alibi* by Joseph Kanon

Multiple reviews of *Alibi*

*

Toni, an aficianado of 19th century novels loved *New Grub Street* by George Gissing

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Two More Great 8

Jean Vengua

Nicholas Manning

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Jean Vengua, in one of her 8 random facts, mentions she's read all of the stories of H. P. Lovecraft. I was reminded that my friend, the novelist Peter Straub, who has published many terrific novels in the horror genre, is the editor of the Library of America collection of The Tales of H.P. Lovecraft,

Anger at the Scale

Just as Katie Degentesh, pointedly critiques psychological tests in her book The Anger Scale, Kugelmass takes aim at the idea, and specifically, the culture of intelligence, in an essay Ray Davis notably mentions and links to it in his latest post, discussed below, possibly making an indirect critique of the notion of the award I had just presented him with! Enjoy, you geniuses: Kugelmass: There is No Such Thing As Intelligence.

I am not very much in agreement with Kugelmass' thesis. There may be no such thing as intelligence, per se, but there is such a thing as intelligent resourcefulness and this can be taught. Lets not drown the baby in the bathos, Mr. Kugelmass!! Also, check out K's arch reference to Harold Bloom's amazing book, *The Anxiety of Influence*. He seems to feel the A of I was written because Bloom could not create literature on his own (has he wanted to?), in the spirit of those who can do, and those who cannot, teach. Anyway, this is a fine and provocative essay, and our thanks to Ray Davis for pointing us to it.

Ray Davis

Whose blog pseudopodium recently celebrated its eighth birthday, and was our first choice for a Thinking Blogger award, has invited us to peruse his loglist in search of blogs worth thinking about. This is a fine recommendation for a veteran blogger to make, as in my own case, there has been a declining propensity to wade into the ever increasing ocean of new blogs. Happily, Ray takes the moment to talk a bit about himself, and in so doing, mentions Miranda Gaw, and Mark Woods. I see in my crystal ball another Thinking Blogger award coming into view. And who would deserve it more?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Nobly Disheveled

ursprache