The Luna show was great...the Nashville Scene's Scott Manzler called it a "sublime show." The only talking they did with the crowd was to mention our very own Parthenon (which I'm sad to say I haven't visited yet, but plan to soon!). The band was cool, too...hung around after the show to talk to the superfans (which I'm not, but my friend is, so we talked to the Britta the bass player who looks like she could be Scarlett Johanssen's big sister). I'm a Steely Dan superfan, but that's grist for another blog post (don't get me started on my weird love for Donald Fagan).
So, I just finished my last project at work, and now I'm off to pack up my chirren's stuff and leave at 7 a.m on our trip to the Magnolia State! Can't wait to get back to the Hub City, Pike County (land of my birth), and then trip on down to the Crescent City/Big Easy/Nawlins. Whew...I'm gonna be one tired Poetry HotGirl come Sunday. I'll take pictures, though, and will post any that are interesting/beautiful/not incriminating.
Happy Stuffing!
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Long time, no blog
Friday, November 12, 2004
Chicks Rule
Saw Mindy Smith and Tift Merritt at the Belcourt tonight. It made me want to go back and listen to the Mindy Smith CD someone gave me that I've never really listened to. Tift Merritt got people to stand up and move at the Belcourt. Well, alright.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Tell me a story, but make it sound
I'm trying to get my head around language poetry vs. narrative poetry (and why do they have to be in opposition to each other?), so I decided to do a little research on the Internet to see what I could find (I'm a uniter, not a divider!).
Some background: I was brought up in the narrative tradition of poetry--Post-Confessional and all that. Not New Formalism, but as close as you can get without making the end-words rhyme. I'm still interested in what all that has to offer, but a few years ago (4 to be exact), I was introduced in a major way to the NY Poets, old-school (Ashbery, O'Hara, Koch, and Schuyler). I loved the energy, the personalism, the language of these poets. In turn, I discovered Gertrude Stein and language poetry, and I was hooked. The problem is that, while I love the project of language poetry (the Cubist attention to words, fracturing grammar & syntax, sliding along the sounds of language, etc.), I don't like the alienation I sometimes feel as a reader. Gimme a story already! So, I thought: "why can't I do both...tell a story while using language in a way that is unexpected or rule-breaking?" My first thought was that this was insane. My second thought was that it had surely already been done. And my 3rd thought (which is usually my 3rd thought) was to look it up on the Internet, and see what others have done. So, here I am.
The first place I found told me this:
"L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E P=O=E=T=R=Y was born in 1971 with the release of a new magazine titled This, which culminated in the release seven years later of the magazine titled L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E. The early 1970s was an ideal time for a new movement in poetry. Early challenges to mainstream poetry had already begun, thanks in large part to the Projectivist poets of Charles Olson, a Black Mountain poet."
Unfortunately, it went on to tell me this:
"A difficulty for many readers of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E P=O=E=T=R=Y is its preoccupation with fragments, nonsense, and unmeaning; as well its rejection of the narrative model that has been the basis of nearly all types of literature...Whether L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E P=O=E=T=R=Y succeeds to gain a large audience is irrelevent."
This didn't bode well for my venture.
Next, I read an article by Marjorie Perloff that boiled down to one point for me...that no matter how hard the LangPo poets try to get away from "authorial domination," someone had to put hand to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and type in those words, make those choices. Bingo. The only way to get away from that would be to create a computer program to automatically generate poems (I've heard such exist), but then what would be the fun of that? Poetry-spew at the push of a button?
Hmm....I'm wondering if composers feel this need as much as writers do...the need to get away from their "authorial domination." We crave the familiar, the machine that works. A broken fax machine just doesn't have the same magic, now does it?
To be continued...
Some background: I was brought up in the narrative tradition of poetry--Post-Confessional and all that. Not New Formalism, but as close as you can get without making the end-words rhyme. I'm still interested in what all that has to offer, but a few years ago (4 to be exact), I was introduced in a major way to the NY Poets, old-school (Ashbery, O'Hara, Koch, and Schuyler). I loved the energy, the personalism, the language of these poets. In turn, I discovered Gertrude Stein and language poetry, and I was hooked. The problem is that, while I love the project of language poetry (the Cubist attention to words, fracturing grammar & syntax, sliding along the sounds of language, etc.), I don't like the alienation I sometimes feel as a reader. Gimme a story already! So, I thought: "why can't I do both...tell a story while using language in a way that is unexpected or rule-breaking?" My first thought was that this was insane. My second thought was that it had surely already been done. And my 3rd thought (which is usually my 3rd thought) was to look it up on the Internet, and see what others have done. So, here I am.
The first place I found told me this:
"L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E P=O=E=T=R=Y was born in 1971 with the release of a new magazine titled This, which culminated in the release seven years later of the magazine titled L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E. The early 1970s was an ideal time for a new movement in poetry. Early challenges to mainstream poetry had already begun, thanks in large part to the Projectivist poets of Charles Olson, a Black Mountain poet."
Unfortunately, it went on to tell me this:
"A difficulty for many readers of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E P=O=E=T=R=Y is its preoccupation with fragments, nonsense, and unmeaning; as well its rejection of the narrative model that has been the basis of nearly all types of literature...Whether L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E P=O=E=T=R=Y succeeds to gain a large audience is irrelevent."
This didn't bode well for my venture.
Next, I read an article by Marjorie Perloff that boiled down to one point for me...that no matter how hard the LangPo poets try to get away from "authorial domination," someone had to put hand to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and type in those words, make those choices. Bingo. The only way to get away from that would be to create a computer program to automatically generate poems (I've heard such exist), but then what would be the fun of that? Poetry-spew at the push of a button?
Hmm....I'm wondering if composers feel this need as much as writers do...the need to get away from their "authorial domination." We crave the familiar, the machine that works. A broken fax machine just doesn't have the same magic, now does it?
To be continued...
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Serious Busy Girl returns to her roots
My poem is now online at The Nashville Scene. The picture is cropped so closely that I can't remember exactly which shot it was (obviously, not the one of me and Poetry with a Capital P!). It looks decent enough...does anyone ever really like a picture of themselves? I always think I look way more serious in pictures than I really am (except for pictures taken at the end of a night of imbibing the demon rum...or the demon Cosmopolitan). The bio is word-for-word what I wrote in a email to the editor when she asked me to send in my bio. I figured they would probably do that, so I tried to write a good one. I didn't make it as folksy as the other writers...so, again, I end up sounding like The Serious Busy Girl. I think that this is my life's philosophy...when in doubt, be serious, wear black, be overdressed rather than underdressed. I promise I can be fun and spontaneous...really, I have references and everything.
The other cool thing is that the other 2 poems that I submitted ("Paramecium Love" and "Tribology") both received "finalist" (read: close, but no cigar) status. I feel good. I knew that I would.
Thanksgiving, the American homage to all things stuffed, looms on the horizon. The best thing about it is that I get a 5-day holiday, which I will spend driving all over the Deep South. I will take lots of pictures, and might even post some here. I will be going back to the land of my birth--McComb, MS--the Fatherland, home to Bo Diddley, Britney Spears (well, Kentwood, LA is just McComb South), the Rhinestone Cowboy, and me. Oh, and one of the streets is named E. Presley Boulevard after the King himself. Viva Pike County!
PS--I still have the computer-generated message from Bill Clinton on my answering machine. I can't erase it. Is there a 12-step group for me?
The other cool thing is that the other 2 poems that I submitted ("Paramecium Love" and "Tribology") both received "finalist" (read: close, but no cigar) status. I feel good. I knew that I would.
Thanksgiving, the American homage to all things stuffed, looms on the horizon. The best thing about it is that I get a 5-day holiday, which I will spend driving all over the Deep South. I will take lots of pictures, and might even post some here. I will be going back to the land of my birth--McComb, MS--the Fatherland, home to Bo Diddley, Britney Spears (well, Kentwood, LA is just McComb South), the Rhinestone Cowboy, and me. Oh, and one of the streets is named E. Presley Boulevard after the King himself. Viva Pike County!
PS--I still have the computer-generated message from Bill Clinton on my answering machine. I can't erase it. Is there a 12-step group for me?
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Apologies to the World
Check this site out. I'll add my apology here: Really, World, we're not all Ugly Americans bent on dominating you through McDonald's and bombs. Really, we're not.
Monday, November 08, 2004
Derrida is dead and I don't feel so good myself
Okay, so we've had one week (almost) since the election, and it's like it happened a year ago. Bush is now using his "political capital" (is this like a Visa with no credit limit??) to bomb the tar out of Fallujah. My favorite quote is Rummy in an AP story today: "no Iraqi civilians will be harmed" in the bombing...how can he be so sure? Do the Iraqi civilians all wear large "C's" on their heads to make sure the planes don't bomb them? War fosters the most ridiculous doublespeak...
So, my poem comes out in the Nashville Scene this week (I'll post a link for all who have requested it when it becomes available). I had my photo taken for the issue on Friday at the Nashville Public Library by a very nice guy named Josh (who just happens to be the brother-in-law of my son's teacher!! Nashville really is a small town wrapped up in big city clothes). I've never had my picture taken in a library before; Josh wasn't even sure if it was allowed officially, but we did it anyway. He took 3 shots...one of me standing in the middle of the stacks, one by the window (poet contemplates large words while staring into the morning light), and one with a book. He asked me to choose a book to be photographed with, and I froze. All of my insecurities came out (should I pick someone famous? someone obscure? Ezra Pound just to be ironic? there's that book of poetry by Jewel...AARGH!). In desperation, I picked a Poetry anthology (that's poetry with a big "P" for those in the know). As I stared into the camera, I tried to convey this thought: "Hey, I may not have ever had a poem published in Poetry, but I have touched people who have!" And so it goes...we'll see which shot they pick.
The allergy season is nigh in Nashville. I never knew I had allergies until I moved here. The locals say that it gets better once the real winter starts. Here's to real winter.
So, my poem comes out in the Nashville Scene this week (I'll post a link for all who have requested it when it becomes available). I had my photo taken for the issue on Friday at the Nashville Public Library by a very nice guy named Josh (who just happens to be the brother-in-law of my son's teacher!! Nashville really is a small town wrapped up in big city clothes). I've never had my picture taken in a library before; Josh wasn't even sure if it was allowed officially, but we did it anyway. He took 3 shots...one of me standing in the middle of the stacks, one by the window (poet contemplates large words while staring into the morning light), and one with a book. He asked me to choose a book to be photographed with, and I froze. All of my insecurities came out (should I pick someone famous? someone obscure? Ezra Pound just to be ironic? there's that book of poetry by Jewel...AARGH!). In desperation, I picked a Poetry anthology (that's poetry with a big "P" for those in the know). As I stared into the camera, I tried to convey this thought: "Hey, I may not have ever had a poem published in Poetry, but I have touched people who have!" And so it goes...we'll see which shot they pick.
The allergy season is nigh in Nashville. I never knew I had allergies until I moved here. The locals say that it gets better once the real winter starts. Here's to real winter.
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Deflated but not defeated
Still getting over the big loss on Wednesday morning. I don't know what's worse...the loss of Kerry as President or the far right-wing moralizing that has accompanied Bush's win. And the scariest of all is this guy and others like him (i.e. Ann Coulter calling for charges of treason for liberals, etc.). What happened to democracy and "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free?" Sigh. Four more years. Can someone point me to the nearest war protest?
Monday, November 01, 2004
President Clinton calling...
So, when I got home today, I had a message from Bill...Bill Clinton, that is. Having spent most of my voting life in the decidedly non-battleground state of Mississippi, I have never had the pleasure of the recorded message from a Famous Politician imploring me to get out and vote. From what I've heard, Tennessee is not considered "in play" for 2004, but Bill's not ready to give up on us yet. Bless you, Bill.
Hillary in 2012!
UPDATE: I found out last week that I won 3rd place in The Nashville Scene's 2004 Fiction/Poetry Contest...$200 prize! I'll post a link to the poem soon (the print edition will come out 11/11/04). For those non-Music Citizens out there, the Scene is our alternative weekly. R.T. Smith, ed. of Shenandoah, was the judge.
Hillary in 2012!
UPDATE: I found out last week that I won 3rd place in The Nashville Scene's 2004 Fiction/Poetry Contest...$200 prize! I'll post a link to the poem soon (the print edition will come out 11/11/04). For those non-Music Citizens out there, the Scene is our alternative weekly. R.T. Smith, ed. of Shenandoah, was the judge.
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