Anything You Can Do
the conversation continues....
Crowing, boasting, workshop critiques, MFA programs, fame, success and more on
Poesy Galore {click here}
Saturday, May 14
*Writing is a fine thing*
"Writing is a fine thing, because it combines the two
pleasures of talking to yourself and talking to a crowd.
If you were able to write without making any alteration,
without revising, without republishing, would your
pleasure be increased? The ideal method is to polish yourself;
calmly and quietly to set about making yourself into a crystal."
Cesare Pavese
May 4, 1946
*The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935-1950*
Walker and Company, 1961
translated by A, E, Murch
"Writing is a fine thing, because it combines the two
pleasures of talking to yourself and talking to a crowd.
If you were able to write without making any alteration,
without revising, without republishing, would your
pleasure be increased? The ideal method is to polish yourself;
calmly and quietly to set about making yourself into a crystal."
Cesare Pavese
May 4, 1946
*The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935-1950*
Walker and Company, 1961
translated by A, E, Murch
Thursday, May 12
Don't Fence Me In
Greg Perry (Grapez) opines on poet ranking and hierarchies
*********************************************************************
The Blogger's Code
The discussion continues on
Tympan {click here}
Greg Perry (Grapez) opines on poet ranking and hierarchies
*********************************************************************
The Blogger's Code
The discussion continues on
Tympan {click here}
Envy Eclipsed: Poesy Galore on Competition
Poesy Galore {kick here}
************************************************
Bemsha Swing continues to host a discussion on the virtues of poetry criticism by poets
Bemsha Swing {click here}
Poesy Galore {kick here}
************************************************
Bemsha Swing continues to host a discussion on the virtues of poetry criticism by poets
Bemsha Swing {click here}
Wednesday, May 11
Poet, Be Not Proud
Interesting discussions about blogging, poetry, poet's
reputations and criticism over at Jonathan Mayhew's
Bemsha Swing {click here} and Timothy Yu's
Tympan {click here}. The comments sections are smokin'!
Anyway, we bloggers seemed to have gotten all hepped up about something or other
late at night. Hope you will check it out!
**********************************************
Singin' In The Rain
The latest interview on
E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S {click here} between
Mark Young and Jukka-Pekka Kervinen is a collaborative
poem in itself, chock full of information about this
excellent poet's ideas and ways of working.
***********************************************
If you haven't seen it yet, please don't miss our review below of
Greater New York 2005, the 160 artist group show now
on at MOMA's PS1 in Long Island City...
Interesting discussions about blogging, poetry, poet's
reputations and criticism over at Jonathan Mayhew's
Bemsha Swing {click here} and Timothy Yu's
Tympan {click here}. The comments sections are smokin'!
Anyway, we bloggers seemed to have gotten all hepped up about something or other
late at night. Hope you will check it out!
**********************************************
Singin' In The Rain
The latest interview on
E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S {click here} between
Mark Young and Jukka-Pekka Kervinen is a collaborative
poem in itself, chock full of information about this
excellent poet's ideas and ways of working.
***********************************************
If you haven't seen it yet, please don't miss our review below of
Greater New York 2005, the 160 artist group show now
on at MOMA's PS1 in Long Island City...
Sunday, May 8
Saturday Double Feature
Toni had the idea yesterday that if were going to
go to Flux Factory to -hopefully- meet Grant
Bailie- at the Novel launch party at 7pm-
we might as well also go to PS 1 to see
Greater New York 2005- 160 New York
artists who have "emerged" since 2000-
which was nearby. This turned out to be a prescient
idea as Flux Factory was anything but easy to
get to. Our cab driver managed to barely
miss going over the Queensboro Bridge twice
trying to locate the Flux Factory. But we
did locate it in plenty of time. We also managed
to find the nearest N Train subway stop after
leaving the Flux Factory party. But Toni was
damn mad we didn't get a cab out of there!
We were disappointed to have to miss
Stan Apps and Douglas Rothschild at
the Bowery Poetry Club. Hopefully, another
blogger has filed- or will- file a reading report
on what must have been a dynamite reading!
Well, we did get to meet Grant Bailie-
and we do have good news. Here's a treat
for ::fait accompli:: readers. Two of the *Novel*
writers- so far- Grant Bailie and Laurie
Stone- have opened blogs in which they
promise to post excerpts of their novels.
These blogs are
Grant Bailie Novel Blogspot {click here}
and
Laurie Stone Novel Blogspot {click here}
After going to the blockbuster
Greater New York 2005 {click here}
we did get to meet Grant Bailie and Ranbir Sidhu
at the Flux Factory Launch. As Grant mentioned
in the interview below, he was anxious to get
started on the project. Flux Factory is a loft
building in Long Island City near Northern
Blvd where 15 artists and writers-in-residents
live and do their work. We were very pleased
to meet Grant- and Ranbir Sidhu at the launch party.
We're sure many - if not all of you- have had the
experience of meeting someone online and
finally getting to meet them in person. After a little bit of
party type waiting around, it was
a sheer delight to meet Grant- and Ranbir Sidhu.
We had spotted Grant chatting with someone
in the corner and fortunately had seen his photo
in the aforementioned interview (see below).
Fortunately we didn't need to ask him a whole
lot of questions about the project
that had already been fully answered in this very
recent interview (Grant was surprised to hear
it was already online). But we did find out that
the Flux Factory novelists involved in this project
can't leave the Factory- for long- for the entire month! Pretty
strict rules. We'll be following this project closely
here on ::fait accompli::. Best of luck to Grant
and to the other novelists participating in this
adventurous- and very rigorous- experiment in writing!
Can't resist mentioning that wandering around looking
for something to eat after visiting the amazing PS 1
massive group show we found an
excellent French restaurant in the
middle of this relatively deserted Queens area.
It is called *Tournesol* and it is located at
50-12 Vernon Blvd- but this won't help you find
it after visiting PS 1. We suggest calling for
instructions- and maybe even reservations
(we got there early but we were lucky to get a table)
(#7 train to Vernon-Jackson stop)
(718) 472-4355. Cool place.
*****************************************************
The PS 1 show is fortunately up until September 26.
We'll say right off the bat that we have never heard
Toni say she wanted to return to a group
show right after seeing one before this.
But even with several hours it was impossible to cover
this entire show. We hurriedly scribbled down a few
notes but missed the name on our favorite video in
the show- a video of a violin performance that is transformed
into a complex and rapidly mutating film, doubling and
quadrupling the image of the violinist along with constantly
accelerating the film and the music!
Here are a few favorites:
Oliver Michaels lyrical *Train* (2003-2004)
originally shown at the Shoshana Wayne Gallery.
This is a 13 minute film. The observer is a passenger
on a little train riding along the floor of a room which
disappears again and again into tiny mouse-hole
tunnels in the floorboards of the rooms only to emerge
into another room or somewhere in the surrounding
area.
Anna Conway's stunning 2001 35"x 48" painting
titled *October 17th, 41 degrees 46 minutes
N. 70 degrees 31 minutes W.* The painting
depicts four puppet heads floating in a whirling ocean
storm, with a searchboat casting a beam on
each head in moody, continuous rain.
Anna Conway- *October 17th* {click here}
James Yamada's quirky, hilarious *Smoking at Home #1* (2005).
(wood, steel, DVD player, DVD, karaoke version of
Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" sung by Takayoshi
Nonaka, Mica Joshita and Hanayuki Hagashi, motors,
mirrors, cigarette smoke, cigarettes, laser, smoke
detector, misc. 30"x 30"x 18" plus pedstal).
This piece consists of a small wooden house constructed
out of wood and steel. The museum guard has to light a
match, put it inside the little house, which triggers a smoke
alarm- this starts up a small blue laser light show inside the tiny house
and the Johnny Cash song sung by the singers listed above.
The piece was originally shown at the Galleria Raucci in
Santamaria, Naples.
James Yamada-interview {click here}
Frank Magnotta's intricate, subtly detailed, surrealistic drawing *Breakout*
(2004 graphite on paper). An imploding, eroding, abandoned factory with broken
sign "OXY" falling off the side of the building, with a bent wire fence around it it.
Frank Magnotta at White Columns {click here}
Carol Bove's nostalgic, wistful *Adventures In Poetry* (2002) which
consists of a cheap, brown wood bookshelf with various books from
the 60's piled on it: Henry Miller, Freud's *Civilization and Its Discontents*,
The Radical Therapist, Quotations from Mao-Tse Tung, A Skeleton
Key to Finnigans Wake, the script for Michaelangelo Antonioni's *Blowup*,
Genet, The Communist Manifesto, Clockwork Orange
Carol Bove {click here}
Tobias Putrih's delicate, yet incredibly monumental cardboard sculptures,
called *Macula Series A & L* (2005) originally shown at the Max Protech
Gallery. These are biomorphic forms about 3-4 feet high and varying dimensions
around, made by cutting out thin slices of cardboard
attaching, stacking and sandwiching the pieces. The
sculptures are shown in one of the most beautifully lighted rooms in the museum,
with windows facing out on the skyline and the bridge.
You can see light through these gorgeous
cardboard sculptures, about 10 in all. Don't miss this work!!
Rico Gatson's 2001 film *Gunplay* . Sounds and images from
westerns are altered into bent and twisted, multiple, kaleidoscopic,
cartoon-like sequences, faintly reminiscent of op-art,
with sounds of gunshots and some of the lines repeating
thoughout. A witty must-see piece shown on one of the 3rd or 4th
floor staircases.
Rico Gatson- video still from Gun Play- Ronald Feldman Fine Arts {click here}
Peter Coffin's dreamlike installation piece,
*Untitled (Hollow Log with Model of the'
Universe)* A teepee in the sand, with
Neil Young-like 70's dancemix playing
inside. A mannikin with long hair, dressed in cowboy
clothes is standing in the sand looking out the
museum window onto a brick wall, with a couple of rusty beercans
lying at his feet. The piece made me think of Neil Young's
*Cowgirl in the Sand*
One of the most interesting aspects of this young
artists show is to consider what aspects of modern
and recent art is still of interest to them. Notably: Dada,
surrealism, collage, altered film and sound images and
filmed animation.
There are numerous apparent references to contemporary
artists such as Tony Oursler, Jenny Holzer, Carolee Schneeman,
Tim Hawkinson, Barbara Kruger and Vito Acconci, and many others, of course.
This is a fine opportunity to try to pick out which artists
and artistic techniques are being noticed and
seized on by more recent artists.
Nostalgia for the colorful, imaginative,
idealistic world of the 60's is clearly revealed
in many of the pieces.
But a good many of these works are more meditative
and consciously less "flashy" than their predecessors,
even when the earlier works are being echoed.
Still, preoccupation with fragmentation and discontinuity
continues apace as it has from the later 19th through the 20th century,
and much earlier, if you think of Bosch and Archimbaldo,
just to select two examples.
Very few 1980's influences seemed to be present,
thinking of the recent Lower East Side retrospective
at the Chelsea Museum: much more emphasis on technique.
Not so many pop references, a la Andy Warhol and when
they are referenced the allusions are embedded securely
within the formal techniques being employed.
Cut paper and cardboard, collage, mixed media,
and most notably gentle irony and humor are
constantly in evidence. We noted a work reflecting on
9/11 and another one concerned with the Lebanon car bombings.
We were impressed by the huge amount of excellent work
and the generally impressive qualities of of the work in this show:
profundity, social awareness, formal innovation, focus.
We'll identify many more works for discussion more closely on our
next visit.
We are definitely returning to this show next
weekend - so more on these artists next week-
there are a number of artists, such as
Mika Rothenberg and Aida Rulova, and numerous others
-whose names we missed- we need
to consider further. No doubt a number of
works will jump out at us only after a
second visit- which we plan to make
after going to view the work of
Jean Foos- studio #403
May 14 and May 15 open studio
at Jevenal Reis Studios- 43-01 22cd Street
L.I.C. 646-403-9584
E or V train to 23rd St./Ely Ave.
#7 to 45th Road/Courthouse Square
G to Court Square
walk north on 23rd Street (under the train
tracks) make a left on 44th Avenue
and right on 22 Street
Jean Foos
Images {click here}
Toni had the idea yesterday that if were going to
go to Flux Factory to -hopefully- meet Grant
Bailie- at the Novel launch party at 7pm-
we might as well also go to PS 1 to see
Greater New York 2005- 160 New York
artists who have "emerged" since 2000-
which was nearby. This turned out to be a prescient
idea as Flux Factory was anything but easy to
get to. Our cab driver managed to barely
miss going over the Queensboro Bridge twice
trying to locate the Flux Factory. But we
did locate it in plenty of time. We also managed
to find the nearest N Train subway stop after
leaving the Flux Factory party. But Toni was
damn mad we didn't get a cab out of there!
We were disappointed to have to miss
Stan Apps and Douglas Rothschild at
the Bowery Poetry Club. Hopefully, another
blogger has filed- or will- file a reading report
on what must have been a dynamite reading!
Well, we did get to meet Grant Bailie-
and we do have good news. Here's a treat
for ::fait accompli:: readers. Two of the *Novel*
writers- so far- Grant Bailie and Laurie
Stone- have opened blogs in which they
promise to post excerpts of their novels.
These blogs are
Grant Bailie Novel Blogspot {click here}
and
Laurie Stone Novel Blogspot {click here}
After going to the blockbuster
Greater New York 2005 {click here}
we did get to meet Grant Bailie and Ranbir Sidhu
at the Flux Factory Launch. As Grant mentioned
in the interview below, he was anxious to get
started on the project. Flux Factory is a loft
building in Long Island City near Northern
Blvd where 15 artists and writers-in-residents
live and do their work. We were very pleased
to meet Grant- and Ranbir Sidhu at the launch party.
We're sure many - if not all of you- have had the
experience of meeting someone online and
finally getting to meet them in person. After a little bit of
party type waiting around, it was
a sheer delight to meet Grant- and Ranbir Sidhu.
We had spotted Grant chatting with someone
in the corner and fortunately had seen his photo
in the aforementioned interview (see below).
Fortunately we didn't need to ask him a whole
lot of questions about the project
that had already been fully answered in this very
recent interview (Grant was surprised to hear
it was already online). But we did find out that
the Flux Factory novelists involved in this project
can't leave the Factory- for long- for the entire month! Pretty
strict rules. We'll be following this project closely
here on ::fait accompli::. Best of luck to Grant
and to the other novelists participating in this
adventurous- and very rigorous- experiment in writing!
Can't resist mentioning that wandering around looking
for something to eat after visiting the amazing PS 1
massive group show we found an
excellent French restaurant in the
middle of this relatively deserted Queens area.
It is called *Tournesol* and it is located at
50-12 Vernon Blvd- but this won't help you find
it after visiting PS 1. We suggest calling for
instructions- and maybe even reservations
(we got there early but we were lucky to get a table)
(#7 train to Vernon-Jackson stop)
(718) 472-4355. Cool place.
*****************************************************
The PS 1 show is fortunately up until September 26.
We'll say right off the bat that we have never heard
Toni say she wanted to return to a group
show right after seeing one before this.
But even with several hours it was impossible to cover
this entire show. We hurriedly scribbled down a few
notes but missed the name on our favorite video in
the show- a video of a violin performance that is transformed
into a complex and rapidly mutating film, doubling and
quadrupling the image of the violinist along with constantly
accelerating the film and the music!
Here are a few favorites:
Oliver Michaels lyrical *Train* (2003-2004)
originally shown at the Shoshana Wayne Gallery.
This is a 13 minute film. The observer is a passenger
on a little train riding along the floor of a room which
disappears again and again into tiny mouse-hole
tunnels in the floorboards of the rooms only to emerge
into another room or somewhere in the surrounding
area.
Anna Conway's stunning 2001 35"x 48" painting
titled *October 17th, 41 degrees 46 minutes
N. 70 degrees 31 minutes W.* The painting
depicts four puppet heads floating in a whirling ocean
storm, with a searchboat casting a beam on
each head in moody, continuous rain.
Anna Conway- *October 17th* {click here}
James Yamada's quirky, hilarious *Smoking at Home #1* (2005).
(wood, steel, DVD player, DVD, karaoke version of
Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" sung by Takayoshi
Nonaka, Mica Joshita and Hanayuki Hagashi, motors,
mirrors, cigarette smoke, cigarettes, laser, smoke
detector, misc. 30"x 30"x 18" plus pedstal).
This piece consists of a small wooden house constructed
out of wood and steel. The museum guard has to light a
match, put it inside the little house, which triggers a smoke
alarm- this starts up a small blue laser light show inside the tiny house
and the Johnny Cash song sung by the singers listed above.
The piece was originally shown at the Galleria Raucci in
Santamaria, Naples.
James Yamada-interview {click here}
Frank Magnotta's intricate, subtly detailed, surrealistic drawing *Breakout*
(2004 graphite on paper). An imploding, eroding, abandoned factory with broken
sign "OXY" falling off the side of the building, with a bent wire fence around it it.
Frank Magnotta at White Columns {click here}
Carol Bove's nostalgic, wistful *Adventures In Poetry* (2002) which
consists of a cheap, brown wood bookshelf with various books from
the 60's piled on it: Henry Miller, Freud's *Civilization and Its Discontents*,
The Radical Therapist, Quotations from Mao-Tse Tung, A Skeleton
Key to Finnigans Wake, the script for Michaelangelo Antonioni's *Blowup*,
Genet, The Communist Manifesto, Clockwork Orange
Carol Bove {click here}
Tobias Putrih's delicate, yet incredibly monumental cardboard sculptures,
called *Macula Series A & L* (2005) originally shown at the Max Protech
Gallery. These are biomorphic forms about 3-4 feet high and varying dimensions
around, made by cutting out thin slices of cardboard
attaching, stacking and sandwiching the pieces. The
sculptures are shown in one of the most beautifully lighted rooms in the museum,
with windows facing out on the skyline and the bridge.
You can see light through these gorgeous
cardboard sculptures, about 10 in all. Don't miss this work!!
Rico Gatson's 2001 film *Gunplay* . Sounds and images from
westerns are altered into bent and twisted, multiple, kaleidoscopic,
cartoon-like sequences, faintly reminiscent of op-art,
with sounds of gunshots and some of the lines repeating
thoughout. A witty must-see piece shown on one of the 3rd or 4th
floor staircases.
Rico Gatson- video still from Gun Play- Ronald Feldman Fine Arts {click here}
Peter Coffin's dreamlike installation piece,
*Untitled (Hollow Log with Model of the'
Universe)* A teepee in the sand, with
Neil Young-like 70's dancemix playing
inside. A mannikin with long hair, dressed in cowboy
clothes is standing in the sand looking out the
museum window onto a brick wall, with a couple of rusty beercans
lying at his feet. The piece made me think of Neil Young's
*Cowgirl in the Sand*
One of the most interesting aspects of this young
artists show is to consider what aspects of modern
and recent art is still of interest to them. Notably: Dada,
surrealism, collage, altered film and sound images and
filmed animation.
There are numerous apparent references to contemporary
artists such as Tony Oursler, Jenny Holzer, Carolee Schneeman,
Tim Hawkinson, Barbara Kruger and Vito Acconci, and many others, of course.
This is a fine opportunity to try to pick out which artists
and artistic techniques are being noticed and
seized on by more recent artists.
Nostalgia for the colorful, imaginative,
idealistic world of the 60's is clearly revealed
in many of the pieces.
But a good many of these works are more meditative
and consciously less "flashy" than their predecessors,
even when the earlier works are being echoed.
Still, preoccupation with fragmentation and discontinuity
continues apace as it has from the later 19th through the 20th century,
and much earlier, if you think of Bosch and Archimbaldo,
just to select two examples.
Very few 1980's influences seemed to be present,
thinking of the recent Lower East Side retrospective
at the Chelsea Museum: much more emphasis on technique.
Not so many pop references, a la Andy Warhol and when
they are referenced the allusions are embedded securely
within the formal techniques being employed.
Cut paper and cardboard, collage, mixed media,
and most notably gentle irony and humor are
constantly in evidence. We noted a work reflecting on
9/11 and another one concerned with the Lebanon car bombings.
We were impressed by the huge amount of excellent work
and the generally impressive qualities of of the work in this show:
profundity, social awareness, formal innovation, focus.
We'll identify many more works for discussion more closely on our
next visit.
We are definitely returning to this show next
weekend - so more on these artists next week-
there are a number of artists, such as
Mika Rothenberg and Aida Rulova, and numerous others
-whose names we missed- we need
to consider further. No doubt a number of
works will jump out at us only after a
second visit- which we plan to make
after going to view the work of
Jean Foos- studio #403
May 14 and May 15 open studio
at Jevenal Reis Studios- 43-01 22cd Street
L.I.C. 646-403-9584
E or V train to 23rd St./Ely Ave.
#7 to 45th Road/Courthouse Square
G to Court Square
walk north on 23rd Street (under the train
tracks) make a left on 44th Avenue
and right on 22 Street
Jean Foos
Images {click here}
Saturday, May 7
Tom Beckett is Still Editing His MiPoesias Issue
but not for long:
How to send Tom Beckett work for MiPoesias {click here}
but not for long:
How to send Tom Beckett work for MiPoesias {click here}
Facing the Gallows at Flux Factory
An interview with Grant Bailie about his upcoming month's
"monk like" devotion to Art {click here}
*****************************************************************
::fait accompli:: review of
*Cloud 8* by Grant Bailie {click here}
****************************************************************
FLUX FACTORY
is at 38-38 43rd Street in Long Island City, Queens. It now encompasses 7,500 square feet and the population of Flux Factory has grown to approximately fifty individuals internationally.
take the #7 train at Times Square/42cd Street
to 40th Street/Lowery Street stop and
walk 5 blocks
An interview with Grant Bailie about his upcoming month's
"monk like" devotion to Art {click here}
*****************************************************************
::fait accompli:: review of
*Cloud 8* by Grant Bailie {click here}
****************************************************************
FLUX FACTORY
is at 38-38 43rd Street in Long Island City, Queens. It now encompasses 7,500 square feet and the population of Flux Factory has grown to approximately fifty individuals internationally.
take the #7 train at Times Square/42cd Street
to 40th Street/Lowery Street stop and
walk 5 blocks
Friday, May 6
Take A Bow
Grant Bailie, author of *Cloud 8*, Laurie Stone and
Ranbir Sidhu will participate in a unique writing
experiment over the next month-writing a complete
novel on the spot. Opening party
at Flux Factory this Saturday, May 7th 7-10pm {click here}
****************************************************************
Tickets have just gone on sale for *Shadowtime*,
an opera about Walter Benjamin, libretto
by Charles Bernstein
Shadowtime {click here}
****************************************************************
Bowery Poetry Club
Saturday, May 7 2005
4:00pm
Segue: DOUGLAS ROTHSCHILD and STAN APPS $5
Douglas Rothschild is the creator and host of “The Poetry Game Show”
currently running at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York.
He has also served as Curator of the Zinc Bar Reading Series
and the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, and is a
Co-Founder of Subpress. His books include
The Minor Arcana (Bivouac/subpress) and MatchBook (Situation).
He lives in Albany, NY.
Stan Apps was born in Canada and has lived in Texas and California.
He has recently published poems in Mirage#4/Period(Ical).
His chapbook, Barbara Bush’s Visit on Behalf of the Chosen One
(umbrellad devil press) was performed by the Oracular Vagina Collective at
L.A.’s Inshallah Gallery. Stan has a blog (refried ORACLE phone)
and a few collaborative blogs, such as bed bird bed
(whereisericbara.blogspot.com) with Marco Saenz,
and genius nieces (geniusnieces.blogspot.com) with
Ara Shirinyan. A chapbook is forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Presse.
Grant Bailie, author of *Cloud 8*, Laurie Stone and
Ranbir Sidhu will participate in a unique writing
experiment over the next month-writing a complete
novel on the spot. Opening party
at Flux Factory this Saturday, May 7th 7-10pm {click here}
****************************************************************
Tickets have just gone on sale for *Shadowtime*,
an opera about Walter Benjamin, libretto
by Charles Bernstein
Shadowtime {click here}
****************************************************************
Bowery Poetry Club
Saturday, May 7 2005
4:00pm
Segue: DOUGLAS ROTHSCHILD and STAN APPS $5
Douglas Rothschild is the creator and host of “The Poetry Game Show”
currently running at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York.
He has also served as Curator of the Zinc Bar Reading Series
and the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, and is a
Co-Founder of Subpress. His books include
The Minor Arcana (Bivouac/subpress) and MatchBook (Situation).
He lives in Albany, NY.
Stan Apps was born in Canada and has lived in Texas and California.
He has recently published poems in Mirage#4/Period(Ical).
His chapbook, Barbara Bush’s Visit on Behalf of the Chosen One
(umbrellad devil press) was performed by the Oracular Vagina Collective at
L.A.’s Inshallah Gallery. Stan has a blog (refried ORACLE phone)
and a few collaborative blogs, such as bed bird bed
(whereisericbara.blogspot.com) with Marco Saenz,
and genius nieces (geniusnieces.blogspot.com) with
Ara Shirinyan. A chapbook is forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Presse.
Thursday, May 5
Life and Art on the Suny/Buffalo Poetics List
Awhile ago, a discussion that, for once,
wasn’t about the list itself emerged on the
poetics list. It is about the life versus the
work of the poet. Some of the remarks
a few days ago inspired me to
scribble the following.
You can read the listserv by clicking here:
Poetics List Archives {click here}
To contribute to the discussion, follow the instructions for
subscribing. At the present time, the list is calling for
writing on poetry and poetics; we would
love to see many more reviews of books, chapbooks
and blogs by contemporary writers as well as focused commentary on
related issues.
.
Anyway, here’s
my brief recent offering:
on the life versus the work of a poet
Obviously, over time, poets' works and lives
are interwoven in the public imagination, and are occasionally
seen together as representative of an era and even have been
claimed by some to usher in an artistic era. In this case, the
"humanity" of the poet is looked at closely. Think of Mallarme
in this light; few ardent readers have not read about and
visualized his famous "Tuesday night" soirees, attended
by such luminaries as Debussy. Mallarme and
Baudelaire's interest in the visual arts
have been a great influence on countless subsequent poets.
A fascinating example of this tendency are the oft-cited
discussions of Walter Benjamin on Baudelaire. Baudelaire's
way of handling his poverty, and the fact that his poetry
remained largely unrecognized in his lifetime helped to
create the very concept of the "bohemian" lifestyle.
Think of how Emily Dickinson and Gertrude Stein are
depicted not only in the light of their works, but their lives.
The "imperfections" of an artist's life might later be seen as an
opening for liberating possibilities for the lifestyles of countless
others. My favorite book on this is Shattuck's *The Banquet Years.*
Despite the earnest and sincere efforts on the part of
many critics and theorists to separate poets' lives
from their works, readers of poetry and people
on the whole generally connect the two. Who
hasn't thought about the implications of Kafka asking, shortly
before he died, that his writing be destroyed by his best friend,
who, thankfully, disregarded this? There are so many
examples of such anecdotes that shape the
way we regard a writer's works.
For me, "biography" or published biographies do not represent
the totality of the continued cultural presence of anyone,
particularly their crucial cultural "imago," least of all that of a poet.
There was a life lived; it is experienced and remembered in
certain ways; there were words written, and things said; these are
initially experienced in a cultural context and then recorded
and remembered in certain ways. Most people who become
fascinated with a book or a movie eventually want to know
everything they can learn about the person who wrote
the book or made the movie. This is because the movie has
caused them to think about the experience we call "life."
Countless memoirs and biographies continue to appear
about Sylvia Plath, for example. Most of her readers do not
content themselves with rereading her poems.
They want to know more. A better example might be the record
made of the life of Wallace Stevens, "Parts of a World Remembered",
where nearly every living person who knew Wallace Stevens
at all was interviewed. Paul Celan's poetry is loved, treasured even,
but the reality of his cultural presence evolved not only from the publication
of the poems themselves. These reflected things thought and spoken by an actual
living person. Celan is a "character" is the ongoing cinema we call "real life."
JW's [list member's] statement, for me, somewhat discounts this aspect
of dream in so-called "real life." There are no such sharp distinctions in the life
of art, in either its creation or its reception. Check out D.A. Levy's
*Translating Tradition* concerning Paul Celan, for example.
The cultural role of Celan grows more complex and interwoven with the lives of countless people each and every day. This isn't only because of the poems.
Pavese is another great example. Poet suicides go to the heart
of the issue we are discussing here. Their final acts are just as much
a "statement" as anything that was written or said by them.
Their works and their lives constitute a total "statement." We
don't just read, we feel, we empathize, we have antipathies,
we react, we identify. Writing and reading poetry, or any literature,
or significantly experiencing any work of art, is also partly
an adventure in personal insight and transformation.
It is utterly "personal", even when contemporary life at the
moment is less and less so. Poetry and poets and all artists
struggle to enliven the personal, individual aspect of living.
I would imagine at one time people talked about poetry-
even here on the list the still do sometimes- the way now
almost everyone talks about movies, movie actors, directors, etc. *Blade
Runner* is a cultural touchstone in every detail now. Book after
book keeps appearing offering more and more information, opinion
and insight. At one time the same thing happened with Byron.
Such discussion is not just for the purpose of intellectual
understanding. It is part and parcel of cultural experience,
in the sense that culture is a work in process, wherein artistic
works and lives are interventions in the process, interventions
towards change, nor "progress" but mutative transformation.
Andy Warhol played off these blurry boundaries between art
and life more or less constantly. He carried a tape recorder
around he called his companion and published he diaries
and journals even though he was mainly a visual artist. He did
this with humor and irony; nevertheless the presence of living
people was crucial; out of this he created his films in which his
"stars" were very deliberately people in the act of living their lives,
also trying to become *stars* themselves. OK, they were underpaid
but that's another story.
The Dada poets, and in a more diluted way, the surrealists
were out to make just this point. But in a literary culture obsessed
with critique and evaluation of a poet's book's "greatness",
it is only the actual product that counts, not the person who creates it.
In art the story is different; everything counts.
******************************************************************************
Drew Gardner on Tim Hawkinson
Overlap (Drew Gardner)
Awhile ago, a discussion that, for once,
wasn’t about the list itself emerged on the
poetics list. It is about the life versus the
work of the poet. Some of the remarks
a few days ago inspired me to
scribble the following.
You can read the listserv by clicking here:
Poetics List Archives {click here}
To contribute to the discussion, follow the instructions for
subscribing. At the present time, the list is calling for
writing on poetry and poetics; we would
love to see many more reviews of books, chapbooks
and blogs by contemporary writers as well as focused commentary on
related issues.
.
Anyway, here’s
my brief recent offering:
on the life versus the work of a poet
Obviously, over time, poets' works and lives
are interwoven in the public imagination, and are occasionally
seen together as representative of an era and even have been
claimed by some to usher in an artistic era. In this case, the
"humanity" of the poet is looked at closely. Think of Mallarme
in this light; few ardent readers have not read about and
visualized his famous "Tuesday night" soirees, attended
by such luminaries as Debussy. Mallarme and
Baudelaire's interest in the visual arts
have been a great influence on countless subsequent poets.
A fascinating example of this tendency are the oft-cited
discussions of Walter Benjamin on Baudelaire. Baudelaire's
way of handling his poverty, and the fact that his poetry
remained largely unrecognized in his lifetime helped to
create the very concept of the "bohemian" lifestyle.
Think of how Emily Dickinson and Gertrude Stein are
depicted not only in the light of their works, but their lives.
The "imperfections" of an artist's life might later be seen as an
opening for liberating possibilities for the lifestyles of countless
others. My favorite book on this is Shattuck's *The Banquet Years.*
Despite the earnest and sincere efforts on the part of
many critics and theorists to separate poets' lives
from their works, readers of poetry and people
on the whole generally connect the two. Who
hasn't thought about the implications of Kafka asking, shortly
before he died, that his writing be destroyed by his best friend,
who, thankfully, disregarded this? There are so many
examples of such anecdotes that shape the
way we regard a writer's works.
For me, "biography" or published biographies do not represent
the totality of the continued cultural presence of anyone,
particularly their crucial cultural "imago," least of all that of a poet.
There was a life lived; it is experienced and remembered in
certain ways; there were words written, and things said; these are
initially experienced in a cultural context and then recorded
and remembered in certain ways. Most people who become
fascinated with a book or a movie eventually want to know
everything they can learn about the person who wrote
the book or made the movie. This is because the movie has
caused them to think about the experience we call "life."
Countless memoirs and biographies continue to appear
about Sylvia Plath, for example. Most of her readers do not
content themselves with rereading her poems.
They want to know more. A better example might be the record
made of the life of Wallace Stevens, "Parts of a World Remembered",
where nearly every living person who knew Wallace Stevens
at all was interviewed. Paul Celan's poetry is loved, treasured even,
but the reality of his cultural presence evolved not only from the publication
of the poems themselves. These reflected things thought and spoken by an actual
living person. Celan is a "character" is the ongoing cinema we call "real life."
JW's [list member's] statement, for me, somewhat discounts this aspect
of dream in so-called "real life." There are no such sharp distinctions in the life
of art, in either its creation or its reception. Check out D.A. Levy's
*Translating Tradition* concerning Paul Celan, for example.
The cultural role of Celan grows more complex and interwoven with the lives of countless people each and every day. This isn't only because of the poems.
Pavese is another great example. Poet suicides go to the heart
of the issue we are discussing here. Their final acts are just as much
a "statement" as anything that was written or said by them.
Their works and their lives constitute a total "statement." We
don't just read, we feel, we empathize, we have antipathies,
we react, we identify. Writing and reading poetry, or any literature,
or significantly experiencing any work of art, is also partly
an adventure in personal insight and transformation.
It is utterly "personal", even when contemporary life at the
moment is less and less so. Poetry and poets and all artists
struggle to enliven the personal, individual aspect of living.
I would imagine at one time people talked about poetry-
even here on the list the still do sometimes- the way now
almost everyone talks about movies, movie actors, directors, etc. *Blade
Runner* is a cultural touchstone in every detail now. Book after
book keeps appearing offering more and more information, opinion
and insight. At one time the same thing happened with Byron.
Such discussion is not just for the purpose of intellectual
understanding. It is part and parcel of cultural experience,
in the sense that culture is a work in process, wherein artistic
works and lives are interventions in the process, interventions
towards change, nor "progress" but mutative transformation.
Andy Warhol played off these blurry boundaries between art
and life more or less constantly. He carried a tape recorder
around he called his companion and published he diaries
and journals even though he was mainly a visual artist. He did
this with humor and irony; nevertheless the presence of living
people was crucial; out of this he created his films in which his
"stars" were very deliberately people in the act of living their lives,
also trying to become *stars* themselves. OK, they were underpaid
but that's another story.
The Dada poets, and in a more diluted way, the surrealists
were out to make just this point. But in a literary culture obsessed
with critique and evaluation of a poet's book's "greatness",
it is only the actual product that counts, not the person who creates it.
In art the story is different; everything counts.
******************************************************************************
Drew Gardner on Tim Hawkinson
Overlap (Drew Gardner)
Wednesday, May 4
Echo Zone
"When we read, we are not looking for new ideas, but
to see our own thoughts given the seal of confirmation on the
printed page. The words that strike us are those that awake
an echo in a zone we have already made our own- the place
where we live- and the vibration enables us to find fresh
starting points within ourselves.
What a great thought it is that all *effort* is futile! It
is sufficient just to let our ego blossom, go along with it, take
it by the hand as though it were someone else, have faith
that we are more important than we realized."
Cesare Pavese
3rd December, 1938
*The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935-1950*
Walker and Company, 1961, p.139
"When we read, we are not looking for new ideas, but
to see our own thoughts given the seal of confirmation on the
printed page. The words that strike us are those that awake
an echo in a zone we have already made our own- the place
where we live- and the vibration enables us to find fresh
starting points within ourselves.
What a great thought it is that all *effort* is futile! It
is sufficient just to let our ego blossom, go along with it, take
it by the hand as though it were someone else, have faith
that we are more important than we realized."
Cesare Pavese
3rd December, 1938
*The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935-1950*
Walker and Company, 1961, p.139
Now at a Tributary near you {click here}
Allan Bramhall's blog is getting to be addictive.
Today he opines on the first issue of Gary Sullivan's
new comic *Elsewhere*
Tuesday, May 3
"Rarely remembering it was Congreve who said
Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.
Rarely remembering that it was Congreve who said
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
In the same play."
David Markson
*This Is Not A Novel*
Counterpoint, 2001
pps. 97-98
Review of David Markson's latest book *Vanishing Point* {click here}
Remarks by Congreve {click here}
Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.
Rarely remembering that it was Congreve who said
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
In the same play."
David Markson
*This Is Not A Novel*
Counterpoint, 2001
pps. 97-98
Review of David Markson's latest book *Vanishing Point* {click here}
Remarks by Congreve {click here}
ON'T MISS THIS
Text/Styles
A poetry/fashion event
to benefit international garment workers
Sunday May 22 Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery) 8-10 pm
$5 donation
Featuring:
Kim Rosenfield
Rob Fitterman
Adeena Karasick
Shanna Compton
Katie Degentesh
Virginie Poitrasson
Tim Peterson
Christina Strong
Jack Kimball
Marianne Shaneen
Douglas Rothschild
Brenda Iijima
Tonya Foster
Jordan Davis
Meghan Cleary
& (organizer/MC) Nada Gordon
Wear your favorite or most outstanding clothing. Bring clothes to sell for the benefit of garment workers worldwide. All proceeds will be donated to Cleanclothes.org, #
*******************************************************
The Latest on PennSound Audio
(via Suny/Buff poetics list)
"Since out launch on January 1, we have added many new files, and continue
to do so on a weekly basis. We are developing a fully functioning catalog,
but this will take at least one more year. We are also beginning to create
links to author sound files from EPC author pages. In the meantime, we have
installed a quick search feature, which, combined with our "singles" index,
will help to locate most of our files.
PennSound {click here}
Recent additions to our "featured authors" include a selected poems of John
Wieners and Fanny Howe, and readings by Lyn Hejinian, Adrienne Rich,
Barrett Watten, Norman Fischer, Robert Creeley, Myung Mi Kim, and talks by
Ron Silliman and Leevhi Lehto.
On our "Series" pages, in addition to the new Studio 111 shows, we have
added "Poetic Brooklyn," produced by Susan Brennan, which features readings
by Anja Mutic, Matvei Yankelevich, Arielle Greenberg, Vijay Sheshadri,
Julien Poirier, and Filip Marinovic.
Also at "series", we have added a new season of Cross Cultural Poetics,
Leonard Schwartz's radio interviews/readings. New programs feature Robin
Blaser, Meredeith Quartermain, and Peter Quatermain, from Vancouver;
Richard Seiburth, who talks about, and reads from, his extraordinary
translation of Buchner's Lenz; and John Taggart on "Peace on Earth". Other
programs feature Trevor Joyce, Khaled Mattawa, Rodrigo Toscano, Charles
Borkhuis, Russell Banks, Joseph Donahue, Albert Mobillio, John O'Leary,
Wang Ping Stacy Doris, Ed Foster, Nada Gorden, Maxine Chernoff, Rita Wong,
Wang Ping, Mark Wallace, and more.
We have also just launched PennSound/Classics, with readings of Pope and
Swift by John Richetti and David Wallace reading Chaucer.
I also want to recommend a marvellous Rockdrill CD series of selected
poems, from Birkbeck (UK)
*Robert Creeley: 'I Know a Man', poems 1945-1975
* Robert Creeley: 'Just in Time', poems 1976-1998
* Lee Harwood: 'The Chart Table', poems 1965-2002
* Tom Raworth: 'Ace', poems 1966-1979
* Tom Raworth: 'Writing', poems 1980-2003
* Jerome Rothenberg: 'Sightings', poems 1960-1983
* Jerome Rothenberg: 'Seedings', poems 1984-2003
You can order these from Carcanet's web site:
go to http://www.carcanet.co.uk/search2.html
and put "rockdrill" in the title box"
(from Charles Bernstein)
Text/Styles
A poetry/fashion event
to benefit international garment workers
Sunday May 22 Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery) 8-10 pm
$5 donation
Featuring:
Kim Rosenfield
Rob Fitterman
Adeena Karasick
Shanna Compton
Katie Degentesh
Virginie Poitrasson
Tim Peterson
Christina Strong
Jack Kimball
Marianne Shaneen
Douglas Rothschild
Brenda Iijima
Tonya Foster
Jordan Davis
Meghan Cleary
& (organizer/MC) Nada Gordon
Wear your favorite or most outstanding clothing. Bring clothes to sell for the benefit of garment workers worldwide. All proceeds will be donated to Cleanclothes.org, #
*******************************************************
The Latest on PennSound Audio
(via Suny/Buff poetics list)
"Since out launch on January 1, we have added many new files, and continue
to do so on a weekly basis. We are developing a fully functioning catalog,
but this will take at least one more year. We are also beginning to create
links to author sound files from EPC author pages. In the meantime, we have
installed a quick search feature, which, combined with our "singles" index,
will help to locate most of our files.
PennSound {click here}
Recent additions to our "featured authors" include a selected poems of John
Wieners and Fanny Howe, and readings by Lyn Hejinian, Adrienne Rich,
Barrett Watten, Norman Fischer, Robert Creeley, Myung Mi Kim, and talks by
Ron Silliman and Leevhi Lehto.
On our "Series" pages, in addition to the new Studio 111 shows, we have
added "Poetic Brooklyn," produced by Susan Brennan, which features readings
by Anja Mutic, Matvei Yankelevich, Arielle Greenberg, Vijay Sheshadri,
Julien Poirier, and Filip Marinovic.
Also at "series", we have added a new season of Cross Cultural Poetics,
Leonard Schwartz's radio interviews/readings. New programs feature Robin
Blaser, Meredeith Quartermain, and Peter Quatermain, from Vancouver;
Richard Seiburth, who talks about, and reads from, his extraordinary
translation of Buchner's Lenz; and John Taggart on "Peace on Earth". Other
programs feature Trevor Joyce, Khaled Mattawa, Rodrigo Toscano, Charles
Borkhuis, Russell Banks, Joseph Donahue, Albert Mobillio, John O'Leary,
Wang Ping Stacy Doris, Ed Foster, Nada Gorden, Maxine Chernoff, Rita Wong,
Wang Ping, Mark Wallace, and more.
We have also just launched PennSound/Classics, with readings of Pope and
Swift by John Richetti and David Wallace reading Chaucer.
I also want to recommend a marvellous Rockdrill CD series of selected
poems, from Birkbeck (UK)
*Robert Creeley: 'I Know a Man', poems 1945-1975
* Robert Creeley: 'Just in Time', poems 1976-1998
* Lee Harwood: 'The Chart Table', poems 1965-2002
* Tom Raworth: 'Ace', poems 1966-1979
* Tom Raworth: 'Writing', poems 1980-2003
* Jerome Rothenberg: 'Sightings', poems 1960-1983
* Jerome Rothenberg: 'Seedings', poems 1984-2003
You can order these from Carcanet's web site:
go to http://www.carcanet.co.uk/search2.html
and put "rockdrill" in the title box"
(from Charles Bernstein)
Monday, May 2
"30th November" (1938)
"I) There are two stages in writing a novel. The first
is as though a sheet of water were becoming opaque and
dark with mud; there is a violent movement, upheaval, foam;
then there is a calm, a period of quiescence; the quivering
water grows still, begins to clear and suddenly is transparent
again. The depths and the sky reflected in them are
motionless.
The novel comes into existence quietly, during this
elimination of all motion and every impurity. Remember:
it happened quietly.
II) So a novel is born; the agitated water trembles,
grows clear and then is still. There are two stages: I)
cloudy and disturbed, II) Calm and serene."
Cesare Pavese
*The Burning Brand*
Walker and Company, 1961
p. 138
"I) There are two stages in writing a novel. The first
is as though a sheet of water were becoming opaque and
dark with mud; there is a violent movement, upheaval, foam;
then there is a calm, a period of quiescence; the quivering
water grows still, begins to clear and suddenly is transparent
again. The depths and the sky reflected in them are
motionless.
The novel comes into existence quietly, during this
elimination of all motion and every impurity. Remember:
it happened quietly.
II) So a novel is born; the agitated water trembles,
grows clear and then is still. There are two stages: I)
cloudy and disturbed, II) Calm and serene."
Cesare Pavese
*The Burning Brand*
Walker and Company, 1961
p. 138
Saturday, April 30
Tuesday, April 26
Drew Gardner and Katie Degentesh
Drew Gardner and Katie Degentesh
March 2003 at the
March Against the War In Iraq
[photo by Toni Simon-
click on photo to see
enlarged version on
*flikr*]
********************
One of the poems read on Sunday's *My Vocabulary* was
a tribute to Drew Gardner's poem, published in his book
*Sugar Pill* (Krupskaya) titled *Drew's Atlantic Sky*
published in
Slope 17 {click here}
********************
Katie Degentesh's blog is
Bloggedy Blog Blog {click here}
Drew Gardner's blog is
Overlap {click here}
Sunday, April 24
Put Another Nickel In
"In the nickelodeon
all I want is lovin' you
and music, music, music"
Matthew Shindell has created a most
unusual poetry show and it was
a blast to read on it. In between
each of my audioblog sets
he interpolated and interwove
some terrific songs, creating
an interesting emotional texture.
The playlist is already
available on
My Vocabulary {click here}
Be sure to stay tuned
for updates on coming
shows.
By the way, while he was listening
to the My Vocabulary show,
Brother Tom Murphy blogged
it, including a link
to my poem *Silenced*!
Check it out, and thanks Tom!
This Journal Blug {click here}
For those of you who missed the
show, hopefully I'll have the
links or mp3's available
on a site for you to listen to soon.
For now, as we say here in blogland,
it's a fait accompli.
***
....Ron's complete reading,
portions of which were broadcast today
on *My Vocabulary* is available
on his PennSound site at
Silliman on PennSound {click here}
"In the nickelodeon
all I want is lovin' you
and music, music, music"
Matthew Shindell has created a most
unusual poetry show and it was
a blast to read on it. In between
each of my audioblog sets
he interpolated and interwove
some terrific songs, creating
an interesting emotional texture.
The playlist is already
available on
My Vocabulary {click here}
Be sure to stay tuned
for updates on coming
shows.
By the way, while he was listening
to the My Vocabulary show,
Brother Tom Murphy blogged
it, including a link
to my poem *Silenced*!
Check it out, and thanks Tom!
This Journal Blug {click here}
For those of you who missed the
show, hopefully I'll have the
links or mp3's available
on a site for you to listen to soon.
For now, as we say here in blogland,
it's a fait accompli.
***
....Ron's complete reading,
portions of which were broadcast today
on *My Vocabulary* is available
on his PennSound site at
Silliman on PennSound {click here}
One More Time
Had an interesting, enjoyable conversation
with Matt Shindell, who is a history of science graduate
student at UCSD, after recording the audioblogs
due to be broadcast here today at 7pm Eastern Daylight Time
(is that what you call it?) Either way, we hope
you have the time to tune in to hear me and
Ron Silliman. Click on
KSDT Radio {click here}
at 7pm (if you live in the East)
or 4 PM (if you live in the West)
or sometime in between if you
live in between!
Or click on:
My Vocabulary {click here}
which will lead you to
the link for the station.
*My Vocabulary* is a new
blog sponsored by Matthew Shindell and
James Meetze, offering readings on
the UCSD college radio station at 4pm
Pacific Standard Time on Sundays.
Last week's show featured
Keith Waldrop and Rosemarie Waldeop.
Had an interesting, enjoyable conversation
with Matt Shindell, who is a history of science graduate
student at UCSD, after recording the audioblogs
due to be broadcast here today at 7pm Eastern Daylight Time
(is that what you call it?) Either way, we hope
you have the time to tune in to hear me and
Ron Silliman. Click on
KSDT Radio {click here}
at 7pm (if you live in the East)
or 4 PM (if you live in the West)
or sometime in between if you
live in between!
Or click on:
My Vocabulary {click here}
which will lead you to
the link for the station.
*My Vocabulary* is a new
blog sponsored by Matthew Shindell and
James Meetze, offering readings on
the UCSD college radio station at 4pm
Pacific Standard Time on Sundays.
Last week's show featured
Keith Waldrop and Rosemarie Waldeop.
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