I was wondering why it felt so underpopulated this year.
That is until the first host’s intro about Patti Smith not being there for the
first time since coming out of retirement. One would suppose that this 7-10
minute-brush-with-the-muse wouldn’t be the deciding factor for attendees at
this event but it certainly did appear so. And the usual clusterfuck of people
gathered at the Reader’s entrance was pretty thin; no one even got into fights
over leg-room. Of course, there was no Philip Glass either. Or Reno. Or Penny Arcade. But the vast majority
of the usual suspect did show up, and that should be enough for anyone not
interested in just fame and glory.
And for those reasons, perhaps, or some other I know not of,
this was also one of the best run marathons in memory. Nobody showboated the
number, ran on excessively or missed their mark (almost). It was efficient to
the point of embarrassment. So much so that there were two—count ‘em!—two
breaks. They used to put in a dinner break around 6pm but that only happened
once or twice in my memory, and it still ran behind for an hour. All this
would’ve been very nice, if I still smoked. However it did give me a chance to
try to repair my scrawls as much as possible to increase the chances that what
you’d read here has anything to do with what happened. It also gave me a chance
to peek at the Japanese artist next to me doing what I did, but in picture
form. Every reader up to Denize Lauture and a few beyond got a quick
pen-&-ink sketch; some she’d later color in. Wish I had’ve approached her
to add her pictures to my report, but there you are; sitting for hours on end
with a desire to get input from some of the best artists of our city, to sum up
the year if possible, and yet not wanting to be completely idle. (For the
record: close to 110 performances/whatevers from 2pm to just after 11pm. It
makes me want to apologize to the last ones and explain that discomfort has to
take precedence over enlightenment, sometimes.) As said before, I will look
back at these blog entries as historical markers, more for me than anyone else.
I was one of many who audited this happening; but only I am equipped to detail
exactly what I could remember. And am I looking for a life lesson? Inspiration?
A cheap holiday in other people’s mystery? The view from a window on Sunday of
Camus’ “The Stranger”?
I come to spend time, waste time, mark time,
Anne Tardos – in wishing the Poetry Project a “Happy
Birthday” one wonders what she emant by “entering teenage years” when this is
it’s 47th anniversary. Her piece was based on “NIMES”, which is 9 words in 9 lines, I think.
Best bit: “tirelessly peddling the endless source of ideas…”
Bob Holman – much hairier than usual…and NO HAT!?! First of
the dedicatees of their reading (inspired by trip to the Dogon people in Africa) to Jane (or Jamie?) Cortez, a poet who died in
2012, and who he enjoyed for her “Poets in Bars” series, and is appropriately
entitled: “Jane Needs No Plane”
Marcella Durand – “Intelligent Water” (re: Sandy) and used the word “algorithms” twice
Ethan Purey – “Flood Dream”
Simone White – references everything to “Lourdes did ____” to make one wonder if it
was her diety, priestess, role model, or “Our Lady of…”
Bob Rosenthal – “Storm Surge in Swamp Marsh” (maybe) was
pretty funny too, capturing the guy on the subway train with flashlights for
sale for “wundollah wundollah wundollah wundollah” in his vignettes of our
darktown Sandy ball to end with a poignant observation of a new view many share
of “the waste of all that light/and yet we live”
Martine Bellen – Ded. Jamie (Janie?) Cortez: “Cat”, as in
“the cat loves to _____”
Vyt Bakaitis – “More Than That”, “…trying to read between
the lines of stars…” and “When Etruscans were around to think like Etruscans
thought when they were Etruscans” (trust me: it made more sense in context)
Sarah Sarai – “Miracles” was all over the map, as one might
expect from a nightmare during Sandy:
Faith and “…emulsified condiments as dishwasher-safe…”, “iceberg lettuce”
(recurring visual), to end with “Brother Fork/Sister Spoon/We are loved”
Nathaniel Siegel – “tribute to this sacred room” lead
audience in chant-along to Bob Marley’s chorus from “One Love”
David Shapiro & Mohammed Fairuz – this was the first
music piece with David at the mike and Mohammed on the piano; seemed to have
something to do with Palestinian cause
Peter Milne Greiner – “Pilot Episode” was the most
embarrassing of the night as he lost his place reading from his iPhone – GET IT
ON PAPER, DUDE!
Lynn Behrendt – “Shirts I’ve Seen” (?) Best bit: this may be
the boast of a doll (?) “I’ve eaten more pussy than cervical cancer”
Ralph Ferris – read “Solstice People” by somebody else
(who’s name I didn’t get) “the longest and shortest days are the best for love”
Erica Hunt & Marty Ehrlich – the poet is married to the
saxophonist so she’d read a line or two and wait for his baritone to answer:
pretty fun
Andrew Boston – another one illed with good lines, the only
one grabbed being “a Nike commercial that is the entirety of Wagner’s
Niebelungen cycle”
Karen Weiser – “for Herman Melville” which may have had some
Sandy
references amid the Moby Dick angles
Bobby Previte – one of old downtown’s favorite avant
jazz/rock drummers does a couple of riffs on a standing cymbal while offering a
coming-of-age vignette of triumph and gaff
Steven Zultanski – “Landing pleasures” (?)
Elinor Nauen – in reference to husband’s injury in the flood
is “happy to see the end of 2012”, hence: “Home Poem”
Cliff Fyman –leads in to poem about leaving home at 21 but
whereas most of us flee TO NYC he was fleeing FROM NYC: “Loosening Ties”
Jennifer Firestone – best bit is coming up with two towheads
in tow who cling to skirts like static, reading about changing times “Not
gentrification anymore, but beautification”
Mike DeCapite – sharp local vignettation like the guy at the
top of the subway exit putting the trash out, and the “creamsicle blue” sky,
“even though creamsicle may not be a word”, driving here to end with, “take the
Pallisades/and there’s New York/Like it’s always been… We come off the bridge
and Gene Clark is playing… I feel that dream of New York before I even got here/Now I can
live anywhere/Except inside my skull”
Tom Savage – talking about a traffic accident that has
impaired mobility lead into “Boxing Day”
Camille Rankine – “It’s a free world”…”I fix my old
grievances to a helium balloon… Seeking companionship/I spend my days before
pet shop windows”
Khadijah Queen – very long title that may contain “Analogies
to various aspects of the self”
First BREAK!
Patricia Spears-Jones – “Self Portrait as Midnight Storm”
which may or may not have been about Sandy, and one for Cortez and other recent
dec’d: “May They Rest In Poetry”
Murat Nemet-Nejat – first one seems to be about counting
things as “slowly, everything takes the shape of numbers”, and then does a
brief reading from a memoir of his youth in Istanbul
Betsy Fagin – dedicates this to C.A. Conrad (who is not dead
and in-house) and seems to be accessing some Wizard of Oz analogies...
Denize Lauture – does poems in Haitiian, French and English
trans, and does that incredible eerie whistling thing which, given his sonorous
tones and rich velvet basso sotto voce, could just as well be calling up
zombies, but the 2nd one, in French, really sounds like a version of
Tuli Kupferberg’s “Nothing Song” from his Fugs days…
Jennifer Bartlett – charming gal with some sort of palsy or spastic
muscle disorder reads “I was born dead”, but was really quite cheery about the
whole thing…
Brenda Coultas – “My tree”
Larissa Shmailo – has the audience reorder the lines via
random numbering and reads her composed way as well, but either way “Seasick”
seems to give a bit of queasiness, and may or may not relate to Sandy
Carol Mirakove – “Love Kills Hate” (something about
reconciling Nietzsche’s abyss)
Ricardo Maldonado – “Jason Pirette” (?) and “Layaway”
Katy Lederer –pregnant and proud of it, does “Two Genetic
Songs”, one a sort of waltzing rhythm, while “Translocations” is sort of a
tattoo
Matthew Pennock – 39 “I’m totally hungover…”
(…ok. Good for you Matt. And a good time for me to check out
the facilities…)
(back in time for…)
Tracey McTague – also brings up unconscionably cute child,
“Melancholia Formosa”
Church
of Betty -
Bill Kushner – recalls his meeting with Robert Frost at the 92nd Street
Y..again!
Don Yorty -
Marc Nasdor – dedicated to recently dec’d dog “Personal
Hygene” (?), and seems to be big on the plosives and vocalizing, and “The Fog
of War Drone”
Judith Malina – tribute to late partner of his epic
presence: “When Julian Walked Alone”
Christine Elmo – choreographer has dancers raid audience
from side to side, dow the aisle, climbing over chairs
Jennifer Miller – with Chris Cochrane, the Circus Amok
performer does improve dance
Rachel Levitsky – reads for Cortez from novel “Rigid
Bodies”, with repeating trophe: “Some of us _____”
Nicole Peyrafitte – sings acapella: “The sun has set too
fast for today”
Rangi McNeil – does one about a cremated body (?) and one
about Bin Laden (?) “Family Reunion”
Steven Taylor – “The Cradle song: words, William Blake;
music, Allen Ginsburg
Serena Jost & Dan Machlin – poet accompanied by
cellist/guitarist
SECOND BREAK!!!
Steve Earle – details how little of the stuff he’s done
qualifies, even the one year he decided to write a haiku every day, and his one
per annum is “so that I can justify coming here to breath the air of poets once
a year”
Dael Orlandersmith – Dael deals it back to a friend’s memory
when she was a hot toddy hot body in the olde town of the ‘20s and ‘30s
Tammy Faye Starlight – channeling Nico, platinum blond only
lacks the two-ton teutonic accent AND MANAGES TO ADD COY Factory-era
observations and asides before singing
Adeena Karasick – in red dress a splash of color, sings
“Southbound on a cloud” but SEEMS to be ref’ing more of the cellphone culture
so the “cloud” may be the metaphoric one of infodata…and then THIS arrives
handed out to the crowd--
Beth Gill – dances to tape recording of “Observatory Crest”
(sort of MOR song by band/person called The Married Monk)
Sue Landers – caught something about “Franklinstein” and
seems to be about street names in Philly(?)
Josef Kaplan – first political statement of day, “This is
what Justice said” (?) (from “Democracy is not for the people”), uses the Sandy Hook massacre as example of government conspiracy
(like “Parallax View” movie, if you buy that) wherein innocent is used as
scapegoat so that “…you changed the country in 15 minutes
Charles Bernstein – something else and one for the departed
poets or the year, “Fare Thee Well”
Corrine Fitzpatrick – extra-svelte gal claims an affinity
with previous two to make up a tryptich (which I didn’t get)
Diana Hamilton – cute girl utterly obsessed with all matters
fecal
Maggie Estep – having just come from an all-night
after-party from that ex-Dresden Doll frontwoman’s concert (name escapes me)
she and pal Jenny were dressed in purple “slut attire” to do a call and
response number called “SHUT UP!”
Edgar Oliver – gentle storyteller weaves memories of an
organic boyhood outdoors
Tim/Trace Peterson – TG person does “The History of
T-Typography”
E. Tracy Grinnell – “Love has a bitter taste” and “Garden of Light”
Julian T. Brolaski – “…some say I am an army of horse
people…” (?)
Avram Fefer – sax solo, long and elegiac like Gato in “Taxi
Driver”
Edwin Torres – with Steven Taylor on guitar and son on some
kind of theremin, does “Occupy Song”
Poez - “in a
monotone” as song, accompanied by self on piano
CA Conrad – a title which might be “For children who will be
obvious immortals…is bad for the economy” (think I missed some words in there)
and seems to be about our recent wars in the Middle East (+/-), but might
include Sandy Ridge, ends with “American fashion is
bullet holes”
Bruce Andrews & Sally Silvers – no point in trying to
describe either his sound clusters, non-sequitors, neo-axioms and buzzwords or
her multiplanar space folding dance imrov
Ed Friedman – “Two Towns” and something about the Spring of
1958, how reading “Lady in the Lake” made him
give up on the composition method of cut-up
Nurit Tilles – Scott Joplin rags on piano
Pierre Joris – ode to an Algerian Sufi mystic poet (who’s
name I did not get) OR interp of same: “I am Love”; then another Algerian poet
who might be Humid Skib(?) “Poem to my Prick”; then a female Moroccan
poet/freedom fighter’s poem
Lee Ranaldo – half of Sonic Youth with Steve on cardboard
box miked like bongos with Alan Licht and one other musician
Tony Towle – “Semi-Private” reverie on the post-trauma care
from a recent accident (“if you’re dressed in white…you could be a Health Care
Professional…”)
Jason Hwang – funny how these things stick with you, almost
20 years ago he was one of two violinists in this band called Hugo Largo, and
that’s how I still remember him even though he’s had lots of other claims to
fame…but here it was still a violin solo
Suzanne Vega – new acapella song
Nick Hallett – another acapella blast but blazingly funny
[gotta insert video here!]
Douglas Dunn – more restrained dance this year; and no
costume
Lenny Kaye – tribute to Hank Williams…and then, as a special
“guest” Patti shows up (some explanation how she was “supposed to be on
vacation right now but the South Korean embassy is holding my passport”) and
sings a very moving song dedicated to the children of Sandy Ridge
Jonas Mekas – discursive and non-metric meditation on
“light” and especially “the light in churches” of “candlelight”: “…artificial
light…something’s missing—the shadows…electricity is not really light, it is
something else…I miss the mystery of light”. Amazing thing is this is the kind
of thinking you get from really old men who have spend a really long time
figuring out what things are worth paying attention to…
Anne Waldman – “MORE POETRY IN SCHOOLS AND LESS GUNS!” but
she was actually pretty restrained this year is that the set was short (only
with a guitarist and her son on sax) and was more of an ode to John Cage’s
centenary
Rodrigo Toscano – various questions about what, exactly,
“OCCUPY” occupies in the modern consciousness
Taylor Mead – more frail and still rigid on his erections as
his spine can’t be, lamented the fact that he couldn’t bring up his boombox
with the Mingus accompaniment cassette, and went on to laugh and digress
through a poem “on death”
Yoshiko Chuma – instead of her standard silence, she speaks
of her recent travels to Ramallah and Fukushima
and Hiroshima
and has Anne Waldman read something of a summation of these while she improves
in the aisle and apron
John Giorno – “Where were you in 1963 on the day JFK died?”
weaves between the personal and apolitical to conspiracy theory and love
Foamola - the mad
caps wear no hats…but sing and play “New Awning”, “Hollow Ice” and “Have a Good
Day”
Kristin Prevallet – “…if water has a memory…on the beach, it
is making a conncetion…” [which you might connect to Sandy as well]
Secret Orchestra – large ensemble in a sort of aetherized
modal mood
Yvonne Meier – “Beware of your Stars” (?) which might be
about a neurotic scratching himself to death
Jon Glaser – Adult Swim star of “Delocated” [news to me:
haven’t watched it since “12 Ounce Mouse” stopped] comes to lectern with patch
over throat and holds up recording on iPhone from doctor explaining how he
swallowed a bottle rocket on New Year’s and can’t speak so the doc will read
his poem for him…and thence hilarity proceeds from this conceit as he keeps
poker face while dr. cuts him to pieces with withering critique—gimmick, yeah,
but actually works quite well in this context
Macgregor Card – “The Ambition of my _____” in various
premutations
Anselm Berrigan – [no idea what he said]
Callers – is a band “utilizing the poetry of Anne Seton”
David Henderson – one of the few Obama references, i.e.: the
current state of governance—“…and now they know/if they never did before/the
president doesn’t run the ship”
Eileen Myles – preamble was something about “used poems” [as
opposed to new ones] that she’d found, such as the one here “written floating
on a boat on a river in India”
Gordon Gano – “I’ll have a happy New Year, Next Year”
Elliott Sharp – plays a lap slide guitar to deliver another
searing solo: “Guns nor Money”
Ernie Brooks, Billy Ficca & Peter Zummo – outside of the
intro claiming they are from “the outer boroughs” the bass/vocals, drum, and
trombone make for a strange-but-interesting combo
Reuben Butchart – pianist/composer accompanies self on song
“White Flag”
Edmund Berrigan – “Insecurity Blanket”
Arthur’s Landing – another smaller than usual ensemble, but,
as usual, dreamy treatment of the late composer’s music, with flugelhorn to
boot
Laura Elrick – “Love Fracture Love’s Factions” and “Arrow
Shampoo”, then words and variations on “Riding the Tilt-A-Whirl”
Erica Kaufman, Nicole Eisenman & Matt Longabucco – trio
trades off on measures
Elizabeth Devlin – with autoharp, makes you understand how
almost anyone with an ancient instrument and angelic pipes could be compared to
_____________ [drat! Who is that popular gal from the pop-indiecult?]
LZ Hansen – slut Brit in hip-huggers, Cockney slouch cap,
feathers and ‘tats, read from her early NYC memoir of sex and nightclubbing
Douglas Piccinnini – “…inspired by the artists Cynthia
Graham…”
