At year’s end, it’s customary to reflect on the year and ask, “so what?” Here are some highlights, from the blog and offline. Life offline has been work-intensive: I moved to a new apartment, settled into a new job as a web developer for a non-profit, and I finally began to learn my way around Baltimore. The blog has been quieter this year than it was last year, but there were a few interesting moments.
Archive for 2007
Augury
Paint chips have collected for decades, at the base of the once-red steel supports, underneath a concrete underpass, where the train stops. A pigeon the color of concrete arrives. It has frayed feathers, as though the bird is dissolving. It seems oblivious to any human presence there. Eddies of dust sketch themselves in the breeze. The bird walks in a circle, stops, pecks at nothing, and walks in an opposite circle. Its eyes are like pebbles.
This bird only has one foot. Its amputated limb must have been like a rubber stamp, step-stamping red impressions on the concrete, but the leg had long ago blackened like asphalt, and the red spots below it now are only flakes of red paint, or rust.
The train arrives. Passengers embark. That one-legged pigeon flies low and away, to peck at some other place.
Downtown, the gulls dive wildly. They aim, perhaps, for some bit of leftover fried breading, or leftover lake trout sandwich. But the gulls dive too low. They smash against rooftops, the sides of busses, or windshields. Wipers scrape against blood and small fractures. Traffic flows impeded by dozens of slight delays, bumps in the road.
At noon, an announcement is broadcast to explain that the city’s waste management services will add a collection of the animals to the weekly garbage regimen, as a public service. The national economy adjusts to a sudden rise in the demand for new glass. A prominent national league cancels the evening’s athletic activities, due to the littered field.
The evening news interviews local residents. One of them carries a ruined umbrella. None of their conjecture about the birds is conclusive. Local authorities are unavailable for comment. Helicopters take flight to survey the altered scene below: the sidewalks are littered with bags to be collected. The news is that the pigeons and gulls were alone in this. Swallows, owls, geese, chickadees, sparrows, canaries, orioles and even the great American Bald Eagle: none of them sing, fly, scream or swim. Some of them are consuming each other. Others, losing their eyes, starve. Every bird is gone.
At night, huge fires burn the bodies of birds, to keep vermin from pecking at them – to keep diseases out of the water.
At dawn, the sky is void of all but the helicopters and a single, frayed cloud.
Ed Schrader Show
Here it is folks, the video from episode 5 of the Ed Schrader Show. Here I am performing my spoken word routine. Enjoy.
Is This Going to Be on the Test?
Mark Bernstein commented on a really interesting educational project, where the students created a wiki as part of their studies. The students were very active with the project, and learned a lot about technology, sharing information, etc. Unfortunately, the standardized tests have no way to measure this type of learning, so the time spent may have actually hurt the students academically.
A damn shame, if you ask me.
Call For Submissions: A New Zine Seeks Content for its Inaugural Issue
This will be a zine with literature and art, in particular, but we’re open to anything, in general. We’ll consider artwork of any media, style, or subject. The zine will have an online component, as well as a paper issue, so feel free to submit video, audio, etc.
We reject the notion that great art comes only out of misery and that all good artists are filled with angst and frustration. We say: delight — rather than despair — in creation. Artists are still constrained by certain dogmas, or unquestioned “truths” about what art is or should be. We encourage you to question rules about art and literature. We prefer to explore sensory imagery. Create an innovative process, combine media; and remember: there are no categories!
As a contributor, your work remains your sole property, and you grant our zine one-time rights to publication. Compensation for your inclusion in this, the inaugural issue, will be in the form of contributors’ copies, your name in lights, everlasting glory, etc.
To contribute, or for more info:
zine@nocategories.net
An Old Man Recalls Wartime
She’s my Daisy, always my daisy
Daisy my derring-do is all for you
She’s not the same as she was in her youth
not quite the same in the mind
but she’s mine. I’m hers.
Seems the way it’s always been.
It was after the war.
All the planes had landed
All the troops disbanded
We headed home once more
The marching, the days and days of marching
They were at an end.
The bleeding, the ceaseless bleeding,
Screaming pain of broken bones.
This was on the mend.
We could ignore what came before.
My Daisy, My darling Daisy
I won’t be long. I’m coming home.
I’m coming home to you.
But when I do, what you mustn’t do
is ask me anymore.
Don’t ask about the war.
Does it hurt? She wants to know.
The wound is open, but it will close.
I dressed it tightly, rewrapped it nightly
with shreds of the clothes that I wore.
I came marching home to you
My Daisy, always my darling Daisy.
My Derring-do is all for you.
It won’t be long. I’m coming home.
I’m coming home to you.
Lizz King: Best Singer/Songwriter in Baltimore
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Baltimore’s City paper awarded the title of Best Singer/Songwriter to Lizz King. Lizz is my friend, longtime neighbor and a fellow West Virginian. Congrats, Lizz. Here’s what the City Paper had to say about her.
Wham City might be best known for giddy, hyperactive noisemakers such as Dan Deacon and the Santa Dads. But the collective’s best-kept secret, Lizz King, defies her crew’s prevailing aesthetic with bluesy vamps wherein she wraps her throaty voice around a single instrument
Cheers Lizz, defying a prevailing aesthetic like that.
Ed Schrader Show: Thursday Night Lineup
Like I said before, I’ll be performing on the Ed Schrader Show on September 13th, at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore.
The Lineup
The Ed Schrader show always features a variety of shenanigans and this show should be no exception.
Honnie Wells & The Hundred Quart will perform music that has been described as “making Tom Waits look like a sissy”, with a bluesy raspy sound.
The more obscure Teeth Mountain will also perform.
The manager of Baltimore infamous night spot, The Talking Head, will make an appearance, presumably to discuss the reopening of the aforementioned night spot.
Baltimore’s self-styled vigilante super-hero, Blue Leader is sure to bring some gut-busting laughs to the whole affair. Check out his “Do The Math Comics” for even more laughs.
I’ll be performing spoken word, as well.
Spoken Word on the Ed Schrader Show
On Thursday, September 13th at Baltimore’s Metro Gallery, I’ll be featured on the Ed Schrader Show. I’m really excited about the opportunity to perform some of my new spoken word material, in front of a live, televised audience. What should I perform?
I auditioned with the latest version of my perpetually-in-progress piece entitled “The Outside Talker“. With such short notice, I’m not sure I can come up with the entire garb I’d need to really pull it off. “The Outside Talker” is an imitation of a carnival barker, or sideshow announcer. I’d need a top hat, at the very least. I might decide to perform something else, instead.
I’ll need to practice, maybe memorize (yeah, right). Whatever happens, you’ll just have to see the show for yourself. If you’re not in the neighborhood, don’t worry, the whole show is usually syndicated online via YouTube, etc..
Since it’s a late show, there are sure to be plenty of gags and jokes, and perhaps some room for the kind of quick promotional suggestions that guests usually make on that type of show (I’ve got two, as it happens).
Again, I’m still not totally set on what to perform. Any requests?
Publishing to the Blog from Microsoft Word
Several years ago, I wished that there was a way to publish writing online, straight from my favorite word processor. I’m testing that feature of word 2007 now. I don’t say this often, but thanks Microsoft!
Spoken Word Recording Session at Magnanimous Records
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My first recording session was last Saturday, at Magnanimous Records. Normally, I suppose recording sessions are reserved for musicians and the like, but this was a spoken word recording. The goal is to eventually produce an album of some sort, but since it was the first time, we took it easy, and simply made recordings. Often, between takes, we digressed into conversation and jokes, and recorded some of that too.
Playing the recording back, I’m glad that there is some conversation on there. All too often, I think that writers read their work in a special voice, a voice they reserve for the solemn act of reading words on a page, and that voice is very unlike a normal voice. The recording shows me that I am guilty of that crime too. As a result, my favorite recording is actually a piece that I hate; I read the thing in an ordinary voice. What a difference that makes!
I’m excited about making this spoken word recording. Next time I read, I’ll know what I sound like, and I’m sure that helps.
Writing “30 Times in 2 Days”
In a 2005 book entitled “The Ball // 30 Times in 2 Days” author Steve Benson ran a writer’s marathon, so to speak. The result is a book you can download from UBUWEB.
Saturday and Sunday, April 23 and 24, 2005, every hour on the hour, when my wristwatch alarm sounded, I wrote five minutes in a brown book Lyn gave me several years ago, as well as I could. This is the transcript, completed two weeks later.
Each entry is short, less than a page, and the lines are short as well. This reminds me of some of Jack Kerouac’s poems, which took the shape of the pocket-sized notebook they were written in. This book is a lucid, enjoyable read, and the method employed to write it sounds like a lot of fun!
Objectives
Seems to me, there’s usually some thing we’re all chasing after:
some thing to have,
some thing to do.
some thing we lack
or can not do
it was probably god, once.
and good was god and love was god.
god was god of all-important things
or gods were all important things
it probably wasn’t always like that,
or ever, entirely, either.
before, I’m pretty sure,
there was a green crescent, or a fertile garden
sex we ran chasing after
and good was sex and sex was loved
how else are there so many of us?
I don’t think we were always thinking about it.
I’m sure we’re thinking about it now,
maybe not always, but more than never
Seems to me it’s still a blind chase sometimes
now its probably money
and good is money and money is loved
and it tells us what to do
or maybe its war.
Maybe they’re related.
Maybe they’re the same
and we’re trying to know why.
Whatever it is, we have to think about it
there are so many of us.
Punk Planet Stops the Presses
The independent press lost a publication recently, with the demise of Punk Planet Magazine. An online Eulogy for the magazine reads, “Over the last 80 issues and 13 years, we’ve covered every aspect of the financially independent, emotionally autonomous, free culture we refer to as the underground.” The magazine died when their distributor went under.
This is a fate likely to befall much of the zine world, and many other less-than-ubiquitous print publications. When asked whether Punk Planet would be reborn online, the answer was: “Slow down dude. Everything in due time.” I do hope to see Punk Planet reborn online, where printing and distribution budgets are a non-entity, but there’s probably a lot of other fish to fry, like debt for example.
You can help out if you buy back issues of Punk Planet.
Mixing Writers and Artists
Lately I’ve been reading a blog about graduate school for writers. A recent post detailed a conversation like several that I have had, and a subject I often wonder about — why don’t writers get an education more like an artists’ education?
On several occasions, I’ve stumbled into an argument over whether or how writing is art. My art school friends, often on the other side of the argument, are focused on the creation of objects, more than on the creation itself. As a result, they argue that writing, although it is an artistic process “somehow”, it is not art because it does not create objects. Hogwash! After another beer, my artist friends can be convinced of the hogwash of their argument, and often they ask — so why is the school different?
It may just be that the education is different because of the “making stuff”. Writers don’t need all the gear, materials, and space in order to exercise their craft. There are other deep-seated reasons less clear to me. It simply isn’t the academic tradition to consider creative writing to be one of the fine arts. Why!?
Well, it seems like this is changing. There are a handful of graduate programs for writers, where the program is housed within an art department. I’ll have to do some homework to determine whether that actually means anything in terms of a different approach to writing, or anything like that.
A workshop for writing that is academic, but in the way that a workshop for the visual arts or the performing arts is academic… what would that be like, exactly? What’s the difference?
Like I said, it looks like I’ve got some homework to do.
Reading Tonight at Red Emma’s
Red Emma’s hosts Wred Fright and Crzy Carl Robinson, authors from the Underground Literary Alliance, this evening along with special guest Sean Stewart of Baltimore’s ownThoughtworm zine, reading from their recent publications. Fright is the author ofThe Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus, a great comedic novel that tells the hilarious story of a garage rock band in a college town. Robinson’s novel,Fat on the Vine, called a “masterpiece” by at least one critic (and possibly more) details the protagonist’s breakdown after a breakup. If you haven’t checked out Stewart’sThoughtworm … you should. Check it out tonight at Red Emma’s. 7PM, free, at Red Emma’s.
China Says “Don’t Let The Fat Kids Fall in Love”
BBC News reports today that China “is changing the way it runs compulsory dance classes, introduced to tackle child obesity, because parents fear their children may fall in love.” God forbid the fat kids should find a dance partner!
Image-Only Poems
I said a while ago that my book of poems was finished. I thought it was finished, but it isn’t. When I started working on this collection of poems, one year ago, my goal was to quickly throw together 50 poems and to get them out there as quickly as possible. Life got in the way. I got in the way, too. I got picky.
At least I can say I’ve made progress. I finally made it to the point where I had the courage to show these poems to other people. This being in the way of their own lives, naturally, it took everybody a good while to manage to read the poems and reply – and for that I am very grateful. I especially want to thank my former professor, and my uncle, for their constructive criticism. It was very helpful.
Now that “the votes are in” so to speak, I’ve noticed a trend in the comments I got back about my poems. I got more than a few responses to about as many poems that resembled this one. “Decent image, but not much else going on here.” I’m confused about what I should do, exactly, about this type of comment. Other type of comments usually prescribe a remedy. Comments like “this line sounds out of place here” or “I don’t understand what this image has to do with the ones that followed it” – those comments suggest to me that I might want to rephrase or reorganize a poem. On the other hand, there are comments that “this poem is just an image” – I don’t have a problem with that. A comment like that, to me, reads: “this poem is finished”
What I mean is this: I’ve been writing poems that are “just an image” on purpose. I wrote about the idea a while ago. I am interested in physicalism, and as a result, imagism. Both ideas share an emphasis on the imagery of a thing, and deemphasize what I call “the moral at the end of a story”.
It’s just an image? That’s okay, right?
The Ed Schrader Show
Not long ago, Wham City exploded onto the front page of the Baltimore City Paper, branding it the WHAM City Paper. The cover story was titled Crazy Diamonds: Wham City Doesn’t Want To Take Over The World–But It Just Might Anyway. Read the article for a slice of life in my neighborhood. Suffice it to say that Wham City is a collective of creative types, whose work ranges from music to philosophy.
That’s not enough! Also in the neighborhood, the new Metro Gallery opened this month, and hosted Wham City’s favorite talk show: The Ed Schrader Show. Recorded live before a captive audience, the show vaguely resembles the late-night talk-and-variety shows, the kind you see on TV, but this one is broadcast on the internet, occasionally. Unlike the watered down crap on the networks, Ed Schrader’s shenanigans include occasional profanity and startling interview questions like “Would you rather see me destroy the human race, or ruin myself?”. Anything goes, at the Ed Schrader show. Cheap beer, too. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.
Episode 4 featured the Charm City Roller Girls, Baltimore’s all girl roller derby league. They boast of their ranking of 18th in the nation!
Next up was an interview with Simeon Walunas from “Shut Up, I’m on the Radio“. As its name suggests, “Shut up…” is a radio show in Baltimore, on the Loyola College AM Radio station. The show features music from Baltimore that you probably can’t hear anywhere else. The radio show is available online, but only via a stream that you must tune into at the proper time (every Monday, 9 to 11pm, which happens to conflict with the Baltimore Poetry Slam). I would much rather the show had a podcast, but oh well.
Finally, in true late-show fashion, we got to see a musical performance by WZT Hearts.
Episode 4 of the Ed Schrader Show isn’t available for your online viewing pleasure just yet, but check with Wham City TV for an update. Meanwhile, previous episodes are available. Here’s a promo, so you know what you’re in for.