Tuesday, June 14
Tony Oursler {click here}
who is interviewed in Henry Hills' *Emma's Dilemma*, discussed below,
has a darkly humorous installation
at the Metropolitan Museum
titled *Climaxed* A cartoon
cloud-character, housed in a roomful
of reddish-yellow clouds,
explodes, again and again, in
comic-book rage at the world.
In *Emma's Dilemma*, Oursler
puts an emphasis on dialogue
and interaction as key elements
in his work and what most
interests him in art. His other
installation at the Met now, an
homage to a painting by
Courbet, commissioned by
the Musee D'Orsay in Paris,
is a replica of his studio.
Saturday, June 11
*Emma's Dilemma*, a film by Henry Hills
was shown last night at Anthology Film Archives.
Although there was an earlier showing of parts
of the film at the Museum of Modern Art, this was the
first complete showing of the 87 minute-long film.
Many of the interviewees were present in the audience,
including Carolee Schneeman, Ken Jacobs and
Kenneth Goldsmith; as well as the Bernstein
family, including Susan Bee's father Sigmund
Laufer as well as Charles Bernstein's mother-
aka the Countess Bernstein (more on that later).
The film focuses on a 12 year
old Emma Bernstein (she is now in her first year
at the University of Chicago) interviewing such
art world luminaries as the artists
mentioned above, as well as
Richard Foreman, Tony Oursler,
poets Lee Anne Brown and
performance artist Julie Patton
and poet Susan Howe. Audience
sightings: Rodrigo Toscano, Bob
Perelman, Francie Shaw, Mimi Gross,
Mira Schor, Bradley Eros, Nada Gordon,
Bruce Andrews, Laura Elrick,
Sally Silvers, Jay
Sanders, Rob Fitterman, Jean Foos,
Abigail Child, Dirk Rountree.
Henry Hills is the consummate
experimental filmaker and this
film will be a delight
for those in search of films
that defy to an extreme
the current Hollywood
model of seducing audiences
determined to protect their limited
or waning attention spans.
Hills is a filmaker who deserves
to be recognized as a
prime contemporary leader of the
avant-garde. If you question
whether such a thing exists,
you are now required to
consider the career of Henry
Hills closely. One could understand
why in the course of this witty, but
uncompromising film, Charles
Bernstein makes a point of
comparing his own aesthetics
closely with that of this filmaker.
Hills defies every precept of
conventional film making:
not only in relation to plot,
but in his insistent and
very thoroughly,
even obsessively,
explored visual and psychological
interests: notably physical gestures
and their expression of situation and
personality. In one of the most outstanding
scenes in the film, Emma is interviewing
Ken Jacobs and the camera focuses on the filmaker's
hands. I did not quite understand all of Henry's
technical details when he explained to
me how he advanced and reversed the
images in doing a study of Jacob's hand
gestures that move rapidly again and again
to create an image
of a whirling globe. Also, the focus on
aspects of "home movie or video" is
suggestive of his wit and avant-gardism
(I'm thinking now of Stan Brakhage and
Vito Acconci), in this case the family
of the poet Charles Bernstein,
his wife the artist Susan Bee
(whose paintings take on a
spectral and stunning stature in this film),
their son Felix (who ends the film
with a show stopping dance in a tutu)
and, of course, the interviewer, their daughter
Emma Bernstein. After the showing
Henry spoke about his fascination
with Emma's rapid personal
transformations going from age
12 to 16 or 17; indeed it is
fascinating to witness the huge
number of psychological and
social changes observable in
Emma's appearance, styles
and attitudes in the course of the
film; her pre-teen and teenage
boredom and sarcasm
occasionally emerges, but
Henry certainly seems to
enjoyably focus on her appealing,
sphynx-like demeanor but- even
more significantly- engages her
prescient and impressive
youthful insights into his own
work and the work and ideas of
such artists as Tony Oursler,
Richard Foreman and Carolee
Schneeman. Sighted also in the
film: poets Sianne Ngai and Fiona
Templeton. The segment on
Richard Foreman is phenomenal;
Foreman is amazingly relaxed with
Emma and startlingly
forthcoming for this usually
extremely reticent playwright;
he does a dance, he kids around
with Emma in delightful and
memorable ways. The filmed
sequences of the play Foreman
was working on at that moment
will doubtlessly be treasured by
future viewers; they richly and
uncannily capture the essence of
Foreman's art, which is itself
so replete in visual concerns and effects
(his work could easily be included in
a compendium of contemporary
installation artists). Another interview
worth seeing more than once:
the one with Susan Howe, where
many of her words appear in writing, words
animated in white on the screen as she speaks.
In another segment, Emma uses the word
"like" innumerable times, that also appear
animated in white on the screen. As a group walked
to a bar with Henry afterwards, Henry
reminded me about a talk Carolee gave not
long ago at the Bowery Poetry Club which
included an intricate take on the use of that
ever-present word. Also, in the after-screening
discussion, Emma and Henry were present to
answer audience questions. Kenny Goldsmith
asked Emma if her friends at the University of
Chicago ask her questions about her artistic family
milieu. She said she doesn't like to mention this
so often (audience laughter) but
she occasionally
surprises people when they
learn she is the daughter of one of their
favorite poets.
Hills seems here to be paying
tribute to artists who
have made it one of their prime
concerns to enlarge the
boundaries of their
chosen medium,
another clear example of his
avant-gardist values.
Both Henry and Emma
mentioned afterwards that
several interviews were
cut from the lengthy film; some with artists,
also footage of the late,
great, Jackson Mac Low.
Emma's engaging and perceptive
commentary is certainly one of
the more entertaining and
vibrant aspects of this
many faceted, complex film. At one point she
says (of the Bernsteins), "My
parents are arty, but not hip."
(Charles later agreed, admitting to
a lack of interest in being fashionable;
another calling card of the avant-garde).
At another point, Susan Bee's collagist
paintings spin into innumberable rectangular,
interpenetrating, transforming fragments.
Later, over drinks, Hills mentioned to
me his memory of going to a nightclub
with CB in the early 80's (thanks to the
Warhol set connections of Charles Bernstein's
mother-known as "the Countess
Bernstein") and feeling they "kind of
stood out there." One wonders
if Emma as yet sustains her 12 year old stated
dream that "an agent might see me
in the film and call me up." Emma also
mentions a serendipitous,
but ultimately frustrating moment when
the filmaker and interviewer happened to
capture Parker Posey in a sponaneous
interview, now lost to us due to a worn-out
camera battery.
Henry Hills' *Emma's Dilemma* is a
cinematic, psychological and
philosophical
tour de force. We should
be grateful to him for so boldly
and entertainingly keeping
alive fast fading, 19th and
20th century utopian visions of
complete artistic freedom.
*********************************
A Henry Hills retrospective
tomorrow night, Sunday June 12
at 7:00 pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue at 2cd Street
*********************************
At Philosophy Box
1511 Lexington Avenue
(Between 97th & 98th Streets)
Yu-Whuan, Director)
Abigail Child, New York
Premier of *Cake and Steak* (2004)
also showing: *Kitas Window Image*
by Jackie Matisse
and Miguel Trelles, New Work
from June 8-June 26,2005
Weds-Sun, 2-8 pm
opening reception:
Saturday, June 11th, 6-8 pm
and book party for Abigail Child's
*A Critical Poetics of Film* (2205)
University of Alabama Press
***************************************
Nada Gordon on Emma's Dilemma
Ululations {click here}
***************************************
Over the Bridge: Toni and Nada's Musings
Coming Home from Emma's Dilemma
ululations {click here}
***************************************
was shown last night at Anthology Film Archives.
Although there was an earlier showing of parts
of the film at the Museum of Modern Art, this was the
first complete showing of the 87 minute-long film.
Many of the interviewees were present in the audience,
including Carolee Schneeman, Ken Jacobs and
Kenneth Goldsmith; as well as the Bernstein
family, including Susan Bee's father Sigmund
Laufer as well as Charles Bernstein's mother-
aka the Countess Bernstein (more on that later).
The film focuses on a 12 year
old Emma Bernstein (she is now in her first year
at the University of Chicago) interviewing such
art world luminaries as the artists
mentioned above, as well as
Richard Foreman, Tony Oursler,
poets Lee Anne Brown and
performance artist Julie Patton
and poet Susan Howe. Audience
sightings: Rodrigo Toscano, Bob
Perelman, Francie Shaw, Mimi Gross,
Mira Schor, Bradley Eros, Nada Gordon,
Bruce Andrews, Laura Elrick,
Sally Silvers, Jay
Sanders, Rob Fitterman, Jean Foos,
Abigail Child, Dirk Rountree.
Henry Hills is the consummate
experimental filmaker and this
film will be a delight
for those in search of films
that defy to an extreme
the current Hollywood
model of seducing audiences
determined to protect their limited
or waning attention spans.
Hills is a filmaker who deserves
to be recognized as a
prime contemporary leader of the
avant-garde. If you question
whether such a thing exists,
you are now required to
consider the career of Henry
Hills closely. One could understand
why in the course of this witty, but
uncompromising film, Charles
Bernstein makes a point of
comparing his own aesthetics
closely with that of this filmaker.
Hills defies every precept of
conventional film making:
not only in relation to plot,
but in his insistent and
very thoroughly,
even obsessively,
explored visual and psychological
interests: notably physical gestures
and their expression of situation and
personality. In one of the most outstanding
scenes in the film, Emma is interviewing
Ken Jacobs and the camera focuses on the filmaker's
hands. I did not quite understand all of Henry's
technical details when he explained to
me how he advanced and reversed the
images in doing a study of Jacob's hand
gestures that move rapidly again and again
to create an image
of a whirling globe. Also, the focus on
aspects of "home movie or video" is
suggestive of his wit and avant-gardism
(I'm thinking now of Stan Brakhage and
Vito Acconci), in this case the family
of the poet Charles Bernstein,
his wife the artist Susan Bee
(whose paintings take on a
spectral and stunning stature in this film),
their son Felix (who ends the film
with a show stopping dance in a tutu)
and, of course, the interviewer, their daughter
Emma Bernstein. After the showing
Henry spoke about his fascination
with Emma's rapid personal
transformations going from age
12 to 16 or 17; indeed it is
fascinating to witness the huge
number of psychological and
social changes observable in
Emma's appearance, styles
and attitudes in the course of the
film; her pre-teen and teenage
boredom and sarcasm
occasionally emerges, but
Henry certainly seems to
enjoyably focus on her appealing,
sphynx-like demeanor but- even
more significantly- engages her
prescient and impressive
youthful insights into his own
work and the work and ideas of
such artists as Tony Oursler,
Richard Foreman and Carolee
Schneeman. Sighted also in the
film: poets Sianne Ngai and Fiona
Templeton. The segment on
Richard Foreman is phenomenal;
Foreman is amazingly relaxed with
Emma and startlingly
forthcoming for this usually
extremely reticent playwright;
he does a dance, he kids around
with Emma in delightful and
memorable ways. The filmed
sequences of the play Foreman
was working on at that moment
will doubtlessly be treasured by
future viewers; they richly and
uncannily capture the essence of
Foreman's art, which is itself
so replete in visual concerns and effects
(his work could easily be included in
a compendium of contemporary
installation artists). Another interview
worth seeing more than once:
the one with Susan Howe, where
many of her words appear in writing, words
animated in white on the screen as she speaks.
In another segment, Emma uses the word
"like" innumerable times, that also appear
animated in white on the screen. As a group walked
to a bar with Henry afterwards, Henry
reminded me about a talk Carolee gave not
long ago at the Bowery Poetry Club which
included an intricate take on the use of that
ever-present word. Also, in the after-screening
discussion, Emma and Henry were present to
answer audience questions. Kenny Goldsmith
asked Emma if her friends at the University of
Chicago ask her questions about her artistic family
milieu. She said she doesn't like to mention this
so often (audience laughter) but
she occasionally
surprises people when they
learn she is the daughter of one of their
favorite poets.
Hills seems here to be paying
tribute to artists who
have made it one of their prime
concerns to enlarge the
boundaries of their
chosen medium,
another clear example of his
avant-gardist values.
Both Henry and Emma
mentioned afterwards that
several interviews were
cut from the lengthy film; some with artists,
also footage of the late,
great, Jackson Mac Low.
Emma's engaging and perceptive
commentary is certainly one of
the more entertaining and
vibrant aspects of this
many faceted, complex film. At one point she
says (of the Bernsteins), "My
parents are arty, but not hip."
(Charles later agreed, admitting to
a lack of interest in being fashionable;
another calling card of the avant-garde).
At another point, Susan Bee's collagist
paintings spin into innumberable rectangular,
interpenetrating, transforming fragments.
Later, over drinks, Hills mentioned to
me his memory of going to a nightclub
with CB in the early 80's (thanks to the
Warhol set connections of Charles Bernstein's
mother-known as "the Countess
Bernstein") and feeling they "kind of
stood out there." One wonders
if Emma as yet sustains her 12 year old stated
dream that "an agent might see me
in the film and call me up." Emma also
mentions a serendipitous,
but ultimately frustrating moment when
the filmaker and interviewer happened to
capture Parker Posey in a sponaneous
interview, now lost to us due to a worn-out
camera battery.
Henry Hills' *Emma's Dilemma* is a
cinematic, psychological and
philosophical
tour de force. We should
be grateful to him for so boldly
and entertainingly keeping
alive fast fading, 19th and
20th century utopian visions of
complete artistic freedom.
*********************************
A Henry Hills retrospective
tomorrow night, Sunday June 12
at 7:00 pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue at 2cd Street
*********************************
At Philosophy Box
1511 Lexington Avenue
(Between 97th & 98th Streets)
Yu-Whuan, Director)
Abigail Child, New York
Premier of *Cake and Steak* (2004)
also showing: *Kitas Window Image*
by Jackie Matisse
and Miguel Trelles, New Work
from June 8-June 26,2005
Weds-Sun, 2-8 pm
opening reception:
Saturday, June 11th, 6-8 pm
and book party for Abigail Child's
*A Critical Poetics of Film* (2205)
University of Alabama Press
***************************************
Nada Gordon on Emma's Dilemma
Ululations {click here}
***************************************
Over the Bridge: Toni and Nada's Musings
Coming Home from Emma's Dilemma
ululations {click here}
***************************************
Friday, June 10
You Went to College, I went to Cool-idge
A Compendium of Coolidge Cliches
right now on
Bemsha Swing {click here}
*******************************************
Thanks to Geof Huth (dbqp Visualizing Poetics) {click here}
(that indispensable blog) for reminding us that the
Tom Phillips show at the
Flowers Gallery {click here}
is open for one more day!
(closes Saturday, June 11th)
A Compendium of Coolidge Cliches
right now on
Bemsha Swing {click here}
*******************************************
Thanks to Geof Huth (dbqp Visualizing Poetics) {click here}
(that indispensable blog) for reminding us that the
Tom Phillips show at the
Flowers Gallery {click here}
is open for one more day!
(closes Saturday, June 11th)
Thursday, June 9
Penn Sound
just added the reading we did recently on the My Vocabulary show
to their listings:
Featured Authors {click here}
*************************************************
Whmsey Speaks {click here}
in answer to Radical Druid's nine questions
**************************************************
thanks to Green Integer (Douglas Messerli)
for sending us three very exciting new books
they just published:
Charles Bernstein, *Shadowtime* libretto for the
"thought opera" about Walter Benjamin*
**
Douglas Messerli, editor: *The PIP Anthology of World Poetry of the 20th Century
Volume 5, Intersections: Innovative Poetry in
Southern California"; includes: Will Alexander, David Antin, Rae Armantrout,
Therese Bechand, Todd Baron, Guy Bennett, Franklin Bruno, Wanda Coleman,
Robert Crosson. Catherine Daly, MIchael Davidson, Leland Hickman,
Barbara Maloutas, Deborah Meadows, Douglas Messerli,
Harryette Mullen, Martin Nakell, Dennis Phillips, Christopher Reiner, Martha Ronk,
Joe Ross, Jerome Rothenberg, Mark Salerno, Standard Schaefer,
John Thomas, Paul Vangelisti, Pasqualle Verdicchio, Diane Ward
**
and
Paul Celan, *Lightduress* translated by Pierre Joris
just added the reading we did recently on the My Vocabulary show
to their listings:
Featured Authors {click here}
*************************************************
Whmsey Speaks {click here}
in answer to Radical Druid's nine questions
**************************************************
thanks to Green Integer (Douglas Messerli)
for sending us three very exciting new books
they just published:
Charles Bernstein, *Shadowtime* libretto for the
"thought opera" about Walter Benjamin*
**
Douglas Messerli, editor: *The PIP Anthology of World Poetry of the 20th Century
Volume 5, Intersections: Innovative Poetry in
Southern California"; includes: Will Alexander, David Antin, Rae Armantrout,
Therese Bechand, Todd Baron, Guy Bennett, Franklin Bruno, Wanda Coleman,
Robert Crosson. Catherine Daly, MIchael Davidson, Leland Hickman,
Barbara Maloutas, Deborah Meadows, Douglas Messerli,
Harryette Mullen, Martin Nakell, Dennis Phillips, Christopher Reiner, Martha Ronk,
Joe Ross, Jerome Rothenberg, Mark Salerno, Standard Schaefer,
John Thomas, Paul Vangelisti, Pasqualle Verdicchio, Diane Ward
**
and
Paul Celan, *Lightduress* translated by Pierre Joris
Wednesday, June 8
Poet, Publisher, Playwright
Douglas Messerli {click here}, aka Kier Peters and Per Bregne now has a Homepage at the electric Electronic Poetry Center.
Douglas Messerli {click here}, aka Kier Peters and Per Bregne now has a Homepage at the electric Electronic Poetry Center.
Tuesday, June 7
The Vogue for Questions Continues
Evelio's Meme (Blindheit) {click here}
Thanks to Evelio for sending me the following questions.
1. Total number of books I've owned:
About 8000 (figuring
about 100 per box,
I moved recently and
gave away or sold 40 boxes
and moved 40)
2. Last book I bought:
I bought 6 books at McIntyre
and Moore in Somerville, on
Memorial day. They were:
*Theodore Dreiser's "Every Month"*
edited by Nancy Warner Barrineau.
Hardbound, Unversity of Georgia Press,
1996. Paid $9. Theodore Dreiser's
earliest writings, October 1895-
September 1897, published
in a piano music magazine
of the era. Dreiser's brother
was a songwriter. Many of
these articles are intensely
political and anticipate Dreiser's
first novel *Sister Carrie*.
Mircea Eliade, *Journal III:
1970-1978*, Hardbound,
University of Chicago Press,
1989. Paid $9. Eliade's journals
are classics in the form. "17 October.
Joint seminar with Paul Ricoeur on
hermaneutics in philosophy and
the history of religions. Ricoeur
gives an excellent historic
overview, from Aristotle up to Kant."
Anne Sexton, *A Self-Portrait in Letters*,
edited by Linda Gray Sexton and
Lois Ames. Hardbound,
Houghton Mifflin, Boston,
1977. Paid $7.50. The
famous volume, 433 pages.
Possibly a first edition.
"Perhaps now I have learned
only one thing, a very American
thing- that to fail (the endurance
shattered, broken into small
unimporant pieces) is the ultimate
humiliation. How does one muddy
oneself with failure in this
'literary marketplace' and survive?"
George Orwell, *Essays,
Journalism and Letters*,
three volumes: 1: An Age Like This,
1920-1940; 2: My Country Right or Left,
1940-1943; 3: As I Please, 1943-1945.,
edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus,
David R. Godine, 2000. Softcovers,
paid $9 a volume. "As I write,
highly civilized human beings are
flying overhead trying to kill me."
3.
Last book I read.
Cathy Yardley, *L. A Woman*,
Worldwide Library, 2002.
Another in a welter of novels
coming out of contemporary L.A.,
probably engendered by
the novels of Kate Braverman,
including *Wonders of the West*,
1993, and *Palm Latitudes*. In
Yardley's LA Woman, sedate
Sarah leaves suburban Northern
CA for LA and becomes wilder,
and wiser. Subway reading,
a little on the trashy side, but I
enjoyed it. Purchased for $1
on an outside shelf at Ivy's
Books on the Upper West Side.
4.
Four books that mean a lot to me.
Lynne Dreyer,
*Lamplights Used
To Feed The Deer*,
Some of Us Press, c. 1975.
"And then I looked down I/
saw not only thousands of people
/but thousands of people making/
noises, wailing"
Nada Gordon, *V. Imp*,
Faux Press, 2003.
"Poetry...I too.../my head...I won't go into it"
Douglas Messerli, ed.
*The Gertrude Stein Awards
In Innovative Poetry*, Sun and Moon,
1995. "Suspend craft,
hesitation, influence,
and dramatize/inherent
wilderness (light side of sin..."
- Sheila Murphy, "Floor Piece #4"
Daniel Davidson, *Product*, e.g., 1991.
"Humans are planning made
easy, all the thorny, perplexing,
tedious situations that sell."
***************************************
Passing the baton to:
Phaneronoemikon (Lanny Quarles) {click here}
and
Elsewhere (Gary Sullivan) {click here}
Evelio's Meme (Blindheit) {click here}
Thanks to Evelio for sending me the following questions.
1. Total number of books I've owned:
About 8000 (figuring
about 100 per box,
I moved recently and
gave away or sold 40 boxes
and moved 40)
2. Last book I bought:
I bought 6 books at McIntyre
and Moore in Somerville, on
Memorial day. They were:
*Theodore Dreiser's "Every Month"*
edited by Nancy Warner Barrineau.
Hardbound, Unversity of Georgia Press,
1996. Paid $9. Theodore Dreiser's
earliest writings, October 1895-
September 1897, published
in a piano music magazine
of the era. Dreiser's brother
was a songwriter. Many of
these articles are intensely
political and anticipate Dreiser's
first novel *Sister Carrie*.
Mircea Eliade, *Journal III:
1970-1978*, Hardbound,
University of Chicago Press,
1989. Paid $9. Eliade's journals
are classics in the form. "17 October.
Joint seminar with Paul Ricoeur on
hermaneutics in philosophy and
the history of religions. Ricoeur
gives an excellent historic
overview, from Aristotle up to Kant."
Anne Sexton, *A Self-Portrait in Letters*,
edited by Linda Gray Sexton and
Lois Ames. Hardbound,
Houghton Mifflin, Boston,
1977. Paid $7.50. The
famous volume, 433 pages.
Possibly a first edition.
"Perhaps now I have learned
only one thing, a very American
thing- that to fail (the endurance
shattered, broken into small
unimporant pieces) is the ultimate
humiliation. How does one muddy
oneself with failure in this
'literary marketplace' and survive?"
George Orwell, *Essays,
Journalism and Letters*,
three volumes: 1: An Age Like This,
1920-1940; 2: My Country Right or Left,
1940-1943; 3: As I Please, 1943-1945.,
edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus,
David R. Godine, 2000. Softcovers,
paid $9 a volume. "As I write,
highly civilized human beings are
flying overhead trying to kill me."
3.
Last book I read.
Cathy Yardley, *L. A Woman*,
Worldwide Library, 2002.
Another in a welter of novels
coming out of contemporary L.A.,
probably engendered by
the novels of Kate Braverman,
including *Wonders of the West*,
1993, and *Palm Latitudes*. In
Yardley's LA Woman, sedate
Sarah leaves suburban Northern
CA for LA and becomes wilder,
and wiser. Subway reading,
a little on the trashy side, but I
enjoyed it. Purchased for $1
on an outside shelf at Ivy's
Books on the Upper West Side.
4.
Four books that mean a lot to me.
Lynne Dreyer,
*Lamplights Used
To Feed The Deer*,
Some of Us Press, c. 1975.
"And then I looked down I/
saw not only thousands of people
/but thousands of people making/
noises, wailing"
Nada Gordon, *V. Imp*,
Faux Press, 2003.
"Poetry...I too.../my head...I won't go into it"
Douglas Messerli, ed.
*The Gertrude Stein Awards
In Innovative Poetry*, Sun and Moon,
1995. "Suspend craft,
hesitation, influence,
and dramatize/inherent
wilderness (light side of sin..."
- Sheila Murphy, "Floor Piece #4"
Daniel Davidson, *Product*, e.g., 1991.
"Humans are planning made
easy, all the thorny, perplexing,
tedious situations that sell."
***************************************
Passing the baton to:
Phaneronoemikon (Lanny Quarles) {click here}
and
Elsewhere (Gary Sullivan) {click here}
Monday, June 6
Sunday, June 5
Nada Gordon and Corinne Robins
gave excellent readings at the Ceres Gallery
on Thursday evening. If you weren't there you
didn't get to hear Corinne's poems about
artists, including a beautiful one about Joseph
Cornell. Nada read a terrific autobiographical
poem, in a mode of channeling Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, I think it was.
Also at the reading I got to meet
Burt Kimmelman, who is the editor of the recently (1/05) pubished Companion to 20th Century American Poetry {click here}, and who
has promised to send me a copy
of one of his own books of poetry.
The four volume compendium includes discussions
of the following poets:
Companion Poets, poems, topics, etc {click here}
*****************************
Downfall {click here}
Thanks to Heathens in Heat {click here} for
posting this review of the
recent movie about Hitler,
a balanced review that rightly
takes issue with the inevitable
"humanizing" of the Nazis this
film indulges in.
***********************
Who cares? {click here}
***************************
gave excellent readings at the Ceres Gallery
on Thursday evening. If you weren't there you
didn't get to hear Corinne's poems about
artists, including a beautiful one about Joseph
Cornell. Nada read a terrific autobiographical
poem, in a mode of channeling Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, I think it was.
Also at the reading I got to meet
Burt Kimmelman, who is the editor of the recently (1/05) pubished Companion to 20th Century American Poetry {click here}, and who
has promised to send me a copy
of one of his own books of poetry.
The four volume compendium includes discussions
of the following poets:
Companion Poets, poems, topics, etc {click here}
*****************************
Downfall {click here}
Thanks to Heathens in Heat {click here} for
posting this review of the
recent movie about Hitler,
a balanced review that rightly
takes issue with the inevitable
"humanizing" of the Nazis this
film indulges in.
***********************
Who cares? {click here}
***************************
Friday, June 3
The Silence of the Lambs
"The arrogance of critics prospers, even fattens,
on the silence of the poets over whom the critic
means to tyrannize."
Jerome Rothenberg {click here}
thanks to Mappemunde (Tim Peterson) {click here} for the link.
Parrhesia
from Gary Sullivan's *Elsewhere*
"Just before leaving, I had a brief
but kind of strange conversation
with Bruce Andrews.
I hadn't seen him in a while,
not since the Coolidge/Gizzi reading,
where I had given him--Bruce--a copy of my comic.
Bruce congratulated me on the comic,
said that while he hadn't read it,
he didn't think it was worth my having
dropped out of the scene for a year
to create. I reminded him
that I had been "missing" really
only for half a year, and he said,
"even so." He said it nicely enough,
so perhaps he simply meant
that he missed me.
But the subtext seemed to be
"What you're doing isn't worth
the time you're spending on it."
Wasn't sure how to respond to that.
I could have, I suppose,
reminded him that my procedure
is different from his own,
that drawing comics physically
takes a lot of time, and
that it is a learned skill--very
different from scribbling on
3x5s while on auto-pilot,
which he's been doing for the
last twenty years or so.
Too, I felt like reminding him
that I had already sold more
copies of my little
self-published comic in
its first month than that
powerhouse Sun & Moon
probably sold of what's
considered his best book,
I Don't Have Any Paper, Or Shut Up,
in its first year in print.
This is hubris, of course,
but if sales continue as they've
been, I'll sell out of the first printing
before a year has gone by, whereas
Shut Up was published
more than a decade ago, and
I don't think it has yet gone
into a second printing.
I can't imagine that more than
1000 copies were made.
I suppose I could have patiently
explained all of that to him, but
I was tired after a long day of working.
Plus, it seemed more intended
as a kind of conversation stopper, not starter.
His comment--and he's famous
for these kinds of comments--
shouldn't have bothered me,
but it did. As a personal slight, sure,
but more as a kind of reminder
of the worst aspects of the poetry
scene, of why it can sometimes
seem a monumental waste of
one's energy and resources to
engage with it. If one's interaction
with the poetry scene leads to
these kinds of banal but hurtful
conversations, why would anyone
in their right mind steal time away
from their creative endeavors to be
available for them?
Of course, I'm overreacting. (
I'm a Leo; we do that.)
The truth is, I had a great time with
everyone else, picked up some
wonderful-looking books,
and look forward to the next event,
which is tonight, I realize:
The Hanging Loose book party
at Teachers & Writers.
New books by Sharon Mesmer
and Jeni Olin! I guess I have to go to the ATM."
rom Gary Sulllivan's
Elsewhere {click here}
for the complete text excerpted from
above scroll down to *Getting Out More*
"The arrogance of critics prospers, even fattens,
on the silence of the poets over whom the critic
means to tyrannize."
Jerome Rothenberg {click here}
thanks to Mappemunde (Tim Peterson) {click here} for the link.
Parrhesia
from Gary Sullivan's *Elsewhere*
"Just before leaving, I had a brief
but kind of strange conversation
with Bruce Andrews.
I hadn't seen him in a while,
not since the Coolidge/Gizzi reading,
where I had given him--Bruce--a copy of my comic.
Bruce congratulated me on the comic,
said that while he hadn't read it,
he didn't think it was worth my having
dropped out of the scene for a year
to create. I reminded him
that I had been "missing" really
only for half a year, and he said,
"even so." He said it nicely enough,
so perhaps he simply meant
that he missed me.
But the subtext seemed to be
"What you're doing isn't worth
the time you're spending on it."
Wasn't sure how to respond to that.
I could have, I suppose,
reminded him that my procedure
is different from his own,
that drawing comics physically
takes a lot of time, and
that it is a learned skill--very
different from scribbling on
3x5s while on auto-pilot,
which he's been doing for the
last twenty years or so.
Too, I felt like reminding him
that I had already sold more
copies of my little
self-published comic in
its first month than that
powerhouse Sun & Moon
probably sold of what's
considered his best book,
I Don't Have Any Paper, Or Shut Up,
in its first year in print.
This is hubris, of course,
but if sales continue as they've
been, I'll sell out of the first printing
before a year has gone by, whereas
Shut Up was published
more than a decade ago, and
I don't think it has yet gone
into a second printing.
I can't imagine that more than
1000 copies were made.
I suppose I could have patiently
explained all of that to him, but
I was tired after a long day of working.
Plus, it seemed more intended
as a kind of conversation stopper, not starter.
His comment--and he's famous
for these kinds of comments--
shouldn't have bothered me,
but it did. As a personal slight, sure,
but more as a kind of reminder
of the worst aspects of the poetry
scene, of why it can sometimes
seem a monumental waste of
one's energy and resources to
engage with it. If one's interaction
with the poetry scene leads to
these kinds of banal but hurtful
conversations, why would anyone
in their right mind steal time away
from their creative endeavors to be
available for them?
Of course, I'm overreacting. (
I'm a Leo; we do that.)
The truth is, I had a great time with
everyone else, picked up some
wonderful-looking books,
and look forward to the next event,
which is tonight, I realize:
The Hanging Loose book party
at Teachers & Writers.
New books by Sharon Mesmer
and Jeni Olin! I guess I have to go to the ATM."
rom Gary Sulllivan's
Elsewhere {click here}
for the complete text excerpted from
above scroll down to *Getting Out More*
Thursday, June 2
Radical Druid Asks:
1. Do you write with the intent of submitting (and getting published)? Is that your primary objective in writing poetry (publishing to print media, or online journals, or other outlets [i.e., contests, prizes, etc.])?
I fell in love wtih the printed page at an early age. So I
always wanted to see my writing in print and be a part
of the vast libraries of books I loved so much as a child.
My earliest poems were imitations
of my favorite poets:
A.E. Housmnan and Thomas Gray,
poets I read in the high school anthology.
Though I heard e.e.cummings and Lewis Warsh read in college in NY in the early 60's, I didn't
discover many of my favorite contemporaries
until the middle to late 60's and on to the 70's. Meanwhile, I had strongly pulled away from trying to publish, when certain late 60's
anti-ego values became attractive to me. At this point, my social concerns and anti-war activities, and a concommitant quest for answers
to personal concerns submerged
aesthetic concerns in favor of wanting and needing to understand things-to answer life's
questions. Jackson Mac Low's poetry became an inspiration and challenge, as did the work of John Ashbery, the work and teaching
of Bernadette Mayer and the
work of Robert Smithson and Vito Acconci.
It wasn't until I began to give readings
after participating in Bernadette Mayer's
workshop in the early 70's that I again
started to get a handle on where poetry and publishing might fit into my life after my lttle bit
of publishing poems in the middle 60's. I see now that my love of abstraction in poetry and art,
but my simultaneous interest in
psychology and philosphy just
wouldn't mesh to a point that I
could see a way for my many
extremely varied experiments
to arrive in print; though I was very
interested in (but still shy about
at first) reading them aloud when invited.
The issue for me was that my poems
were meant to be stationary
points in the frequently conflctual
currents of experience and thought;
they felt like part of a personal
project that I couldn't easily frame
within a public persona.
While all of this was intensely
problematic career wise, my
relative obscurity seemed to
allow an internal fanning
of the flame of my poetic
concerns and interests,
in the same way that my
avoidance of academic
employment helped me to
remain enthusiastic about
literature in general, or so it
seemed. I guess I really didn't
want to professionalize my
writing interests. Eventually,
after discovering some ideas
in the work of Paul Valery,
working with poetics offered a
method for dealing with such
concerns that paralleled my
use of psychoanalysis in
working with my personal
issues and those of others-
an approach that seemed more
constructive to me; these were
modes of connecting my
experiences and activities
with others that still allowed
my poetic process to remain
somewhat private,. Presenting my writing
to others has consistently created
personal challenges for me,
even at times seemingly
insurmountable challenges
and conflcts in terms of my inner
concerns with the issues in the work
itself. I never liked the emotionally
cumbersome process of arranging
and submitting my work for
publcation, though I certainly
enjoyed and benefitted from
seeing my works in print when
they were published and
having them available in an
attractive and convenient way
to readers. As I've said countless
times now, and never seem to tire of
saying, weblogging and the web in
general have, for the first time, made
available some of the rapidity and availability of interaction and response, combined
with the "automatic" archiving and
record-keeping, that I've always
longed for. One of my collages in the 80's was titled *Distribution Automatique.*
The other part of the publishing/critical
reviewing system I didn't appreciate was the academicism, a quality in
intellectual life I have had a problem with since my honors courses in college. I'm uncomfortable with
pretentiousness and afraid and worried about seeing
it increase in myself; though
I cerainly enjoy the satisfactions
and pleasures of eperiencing
my own and others'
successes in doing artistic work
1. Do you write with the intent of submitting (and getting published)? Is that your primary objective in writing poetry (publishing to print media, or online journals, or other outlets [i.e., contests, prizes, etc.])?
I fell in love wtih the printed page at an early age. So I
always wanted to see my writing in print and be a part
of the vast libraries of books I loved so much as a child.
My earliest poems were imitations
of my favorite poets:
A.E. Housmnan and Thomas Gray,
poets I read in the high school anthology.
Though I heard e.e.cummings and Lewis Warsh read in college in NY in the early 60's, I didn't
discover many of my favorite contemporaries
until the middle to late 60's and on to the 70's. Meanwhile, I had strongly pulled away from trying to publish, when certain late 60's
anti-ego values became attractive to me. At this point, my social concerns and anti-war activities, and a concommitant quest for answers
to personal concerns submerged
aesthetic concerns in favor of wanting and needing to understand things-to answer life's
questions. Jackson Mac Low's poetry became an inspiration and challenge, as did the work of John Ashbery, the work and teaching
of Bernadette Mayer and the
work of Robert Smithson and Vito Acconci.
It wasn't until I began to give readings
after participating in Bernadette Mayer's
workshop in the early 70's that I again
started to get a handle on where poetry and publishing might fit into my life after my lttle bit
of publishing poems in the middle 60's. I see now that my love of abstraction in poetry and art,
but my simultaneous interest in
psychology and philosphy just
wouldn't mesh to a point that I
could see a way for my many
extremely varied experiments
to arrive in print; though I was very
interested in (but still shy about
at first) reading them aloud when invited.
The issue for me was that my poems
were meant to be stationary
points in the frequently conflctual
currents of experience and thought;
they felt like part of a personal
project that I couldn't easily frame
within a public persona.
While all of this was intensely
problematic career wise, my
relative obscurity seemed to
allow an internal fanning
of the flame of my poetic
concerns and interests,
in the same way that my
avoidance of academic
employment helped me to
remain enthusiastic about
literature in general, or so it
seemed. I guess I really didn't
want to professionalize my
writing interests. Eventually,
after discovering some ideas
in the work of Paul Valery,
working with poetics offered a
method for dealing with such
concerns that paralleled my
use of psychoanalysis in
working with my personal
issues and those of others-
an approach that seemed more
constructive to me; these were
modes of connecting my
experiences and activities
with others that still allowed
my poetic process to remain
somewhat private,. Presenting my writing
to others has consistently created
personal challenges for me,
even at times seemingly
insurmountable challenges
and conflcts in terms of my inner
concerns with the issues in the work
itself. I never liked the emotionally
cumbersome process of arranging
and submitting my work for
publcation, though I certainly
enjoyed and benefitted from
seeing my works in print when
they were published and
having them available in an
attractive and convenient way
to readers. As I've said countless
times now, and never seem to tire of
saying, weblogging and the web in
general have, for the first time, made
available some of the rapidity and availability of interaction and response, combined
with the "automatic" archiving and
record-keeping, that I've always
longed for. One of my collages in the 80's was titled *Distribution Automatique.*
The other part of the publishing/critical
reviewing system I didn't appreciate was the academicism, a quality in
intellectual life I have had a problem with since my honors courses in college. I'm uncomfortable with
pretentiousness and afraid and worried about seeing
it increase in myself; though
I cerainly enjoy the satisfactions
and pleasures of eperiencing
my own and others'
successes in doing artistic work
A Blogland Vogue for Questions:
Radical Druid Asks Jonathan Mayhew
Radical Druid {click here}
asks
Jonathan Mayhew (Bemsha Swing) {click here}
and
Laura Carter {Ecritures Bleues) {click here}
answer
***********************************
Speaking of Whispers, Don't Miss These
Jack Kimball (Pantaloons) {click here}
boards time's winged chariot
Radical Druid Asks Jonathan Mayhew
Radical Druid {click here}
asks
Jonathan Mayhew (Bemsha Swing) {click here}
and
Laura Carter {Ecritures Bleues) {click here}
answer
***********************************
Speaking of Whispers, Don't Miss These
Jack Kimball (Pantaloons) {click here}
boards time's winged chariot
Wednesday, June 1
Tuesday, May 31
The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging
Listening to Sibelius, as played by Maxim Vengerov,
a little enervated after
dinner, and a long train ride home
after a holiday
weekend out of town, reading
Boynton (Melbourne)
opening the
mail, mostly damn bills,
reading the email, welcome words from friends,
reading
Never Neutral (Mexico City)
I'm home again.
Listening to Sibelius, as played by Maxim Vengerov,
a little enervated after
dinner, and a long train ride home
after a holiday
weekend out of town, reading
Boynton (Melbourne)
opening the
mail, mostly damn bills,
reading the email, welcome words from friends,
reading
Never Neutral (Mexico City)
I'm home again.
House of Fame
One thing about visiting my in-laws in Arlington is the shopping,
and, in particular-used book shopping- more on this
later (now the books are in the suitcases, we're leaving shortly)
but one amazing book we found was Chaucer's *House of Fame*,
a late 19th century copy in the old English. Fascinating stuff
(hadn't even heard of this work before, though McIntyre and Moore,
the great scholarly used bookstore in Somerville, had tons
of books about it; the poem has a lot of material about dreams)
and I can't wait to read it and learn more about it. Another book
found in McIntyre and Moore, not purchased but examined led
to a fact that was interesting, though perhsps not that surprising-
the Routledge Press (published in 2000)
*Who's Who in 20th Century World Poetry*
edited by Marc Willhardt with Alan Michael Parker, has a
lengthy entry on Charles Bernstein; the book, covering every
country in the world for the whole century, has only 900 entries sent
in by 75 contributors!
One thing about visiting my in-laws in Arlington is the shopping,
and, in particular-used book shopping- more on this
later (now the books are in the suitcases, we're leaving shortly)
but one amazing book we found was Chaucer's *House of Fame*,
a late 19th century copy in the old English. Fascinating stuff
(hadn't even heard of this work before, though McIntyre and Moore,
the great scholarly used bookstore in Somerville, had tons
of books about it; the poem has a lot of material about dreams)
and I can't wait to read it and learn more about it. Another book
found in McIntyre and Moore, not purchased but examined led
to a fact that was interesting, though perhsps not that surprising-
the Routledge Press (published in 2000)
*Who's Who in 20th Century World Poetry*
edited by Marc Willhardt with Alan Michael Parker, has a
lengthy entry on Charles Bernstein; the book, covering every
country in the world for the whole century, has only 900 entries sent
in by 75 contributors!
Monday, May 30
Poetics Trek Episode 6: Memorial Day
The Vogue Continues
Limetree {click here}
Kemel Zaldivar {click here}
{P.S. Note the contrasting answers
to question 5; inevitable absorption
in poetry as a way of life or
"my vocabulary did this to me"
windbagging: you choose}
The Vogue Continues
Limetree {click here}
Kemel Zaldivar {click here}
{P.S. Note the contrasting answers
to question 5; inevitable absorption
in poetry as a way of life or
"my vocabulary did this to me"
windbagging: you choose}
Sunday, May 29
Swept Away
Jonathan's Vogue-for-Questions Solo,
plus sets from JEWISHYIRISHY
and A New Broom
Bemsha Swing {click here}
JEWISHYIRISHY {click here}
A New Broom {click here}
Jonathan's Vogue-for-Questions Solo,
plus sets from JEWISHYIRISHY
and A New Broom
Bemsha Swing {click here}
JEWISHYIRISHY {click here}
A New Broom {click here}
A Vogue for Answers, Episode 4
It's such a pleasure browsing other people's bookshelves,
don't you agree? Visiting in-laws in Arlington, Mass, we long
ago noticed their petit collection of charming antique books,
including a complete 19th Century edition of Addison & Steele's
18th Century version of blogging, *The Spectator*. Having
nearly finished a cup of double-strength coffee, we wandered
over to our sister-in-law's I-book. And to our endless joy we
were charmed to start the morning reading Nada Gordon's
entertaining answers to Professor Mayhew's most stimulating
questions to bloggers. Full disclosure: these days, Nada Gordon {click here}
our #1 favorite poet. Nada's response includes a quote from a series
of hilarious questions put to her by the then ardently courting Gary Sullivan
in Swoon {click here}
This is cool:
Ululations {click here}
It's such a pleasure browsing other people's bookshelves,
don't you agree? Visiting in-laws in Arlington, Mass, we long
ago noticed their petit collection of charming antique books,
including a complete 19th Century edition of Addison & Steele's
18th Century version of blogging, *The Spectator*. Having
nearly finished a cup of double-strength coffee, we wandered
over to our sister-in-law's I-book. And to our endless joy we
were charmed to start the morning reading Nada Gordon's
entertaining answers to Professor Mayhew's most stimulating
questions to bloggers. Full disclosure: these days, Nada Gordon {click here}
our #1 favorite poet. Nada's response includes a quote from a series
of hilarious questions put to her by the then ardently courting Gary Sullivan
in Swoon {click here}
This is cool:
Ululations {click here}
Saturday, May 28
A Blogland Vogue for Answers Part III
Ron Silliman {click here} steps up to the plate re: the Bemsha Swing poetics poll; and comments on the trend, including some kind words for a number of the blogged responses, including our own: Ron Silliman {click here}
************************
Jack Kimball writes:
"(a) I think the distinction drawn between ceaseless v. sporadic comp. practice is not altogether apparent."
For starters, check this out, for the distinction:
Robert Kelly publications {click here}
compare
Anne Sexton {click here}
compare:
Sylvia Plath {click here}
compare:
Hart Crane {click here}
compare:
Charles Baudelaire {click here}
compare:
Frank Kuenstler {click here}
Selected bibliography- Wallace Stevens
* THREE TRAVELLERS WATCH A SUNRISE, pub. 1916 - play
* CARLOS AMONG THE CANDLES, 1917 - play
* HARMONIUM, 1923 (rev. ed. 1931)
* IDEAS OF ORDER, 1935
* OWL'S CLOVER, 1936
* THE MAN WITH THE BLUE GUITAR, AND OTHER POEMS, 1937
* PARTS OF A WORLD, 1942
* NOTES TOWARD A SUPREME FICTION, 1942
* ESTHÉTIQUE DU MAL, 1945
* TRANSPORT TO SUMMER, 1947
* THE AURORAS AUTUMN, 1950
* THE NECESSARY ANGEL, 1951
* SELECTED POEMS, 1952
* THE COLLECTED POEMS OF WALLACE STEVENS, 1954
* OPUS POSTHUMOUS, 1957
* LETTERS OF WALLACE STEVENS, 1966 (ed. by Holly Stevens)
* THE PALM AT THE END OF THE MIND: SELECTED POEMS AND A PLAY, 1971 (play: Bowl, Cat and Broomstick)
* SOUVENIRS AND PROPHECIES, 1977 (ed. by Holly Stevens)
* SECRETARIES OF THE MOON, 1986
* SUR PLUSIEURS BEAUX SUJECTS, 1989
* COLLECTED POETRY AND PROSE, 1996
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The more important thing is,
Jack Kimball {click here} is a damn fine poet...
Ron Silliman {click here} steps up to the plate re: the Bemsha Swing poetics poll; and comments on the trend, including some kind words for a number of the blogged responses, including our own: Ron Silliman {click here}
************************
Jack Kimball writes:
"(a) I think the distinction drawn between ceaseless v. sporadic comp. practice is not altogether apparent."
For starters, check this out, for the distinction:
Robert Kelly publications {click here}
compare
Anne Sexton {click here}
compare:
Sylvia Plath {click here}
compare:
Hart Crane {click here}
compare:
Charles Baudelaire {click here}
compare:
Frank Kuenstler {click here}
Selected bibliography- Wallace Stevens
* THREE TRAVELLERS WATCH A SUNRISE, pub. 1916 - play
* CARLOS AMONG THE CANDLES, 1917 - play
* HARMONIUM, 1923 (rev. ed. 1931)
* IDEAS OF ORDER, 1935
* OWL'S CLOVER, 1936
* THE MAN WITH THE BLUE GUITAR, AND OTHER POEMS, 1937
* PARTS OF A WORLD, 1942
* NOTES TOWARD A SUPREME FICTION, 1942
* ESTHÉTIQUE DU MAL, 1945
* TRANSPORT TO SUMMER, 1947
* THE AURORAS AUTUMN, 1950
* THE NECESSARY ANGEL, 1951
* SELECTED POEMS, 1952
* THE COLLECTED POEMS OF WALLACE STEVENS, 1954
* OPUS POSTHUMOUS, 1957
* LETTERS OF WALLACE STEVENS, 1966 (ed. by Holly Stevens)
* THE PALM AT THE END OF THE MIND: SELECTED POEMS AND A PLAY, 1971 (play: Bowl, Cat and Broomstick)
* SOUVENIRS AND PROPHECIES, 1977 (ed. by Holly Stevens)
* SECRETARIES OF THE MOON, 1986
* SUR PLUSIEURS BEAUX SUJECTS, 1989
* COLLECTED POETRY AND PROSE, 1996
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The more important thing is,
Jack Kimball {click here} is a damn fine poet...
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