Monday, February 21, 2005
more on Orlovitz
Shit Tom! I can't believe I did this, but I forgot that Lou McKee was one of the other contributors to that symposium panel. In fact he was there to read from, and speak about, both Ice Never F, and Milk Bottle H, two experimental novels Orlovitz wrote.
There's so much that happened at that event, but I remember ALL of it, as though it had happened not more than a week ago. McKee actually gave one of the better readings, and I believe I forgot he was there because it always puzzled me a bit that he was into Orlovitz at all, considering how conservative I always considered his taste in poetry. In fact, it's the only time in the many years I attended poetry readings that I ever recall McKee and Gil Ott in the same room at the same time.
One more interesting moment from that event. I covered Miriam Kessler's sexual arousal from her poem "Snowblind" for Orlovitz, but what I didn't talk about at all was when Herschel Baron got up to speak and Miriam BOOED him off stage and out of the building!
Herschel knew Orlovitz back in the forties, so of course I had invited him. He was supposed to read from some of Orlovitz's poems, but when he got up there he instead said, "I always HATED Gil Orlovitz's poems! They were confusing experimental shit! And NOT ONLY THAT! But I HATE him too!" He then went on to explain how Orlovitz had seduced his fiance away from him back in the forties with a poem which had something to do with how many angels you can fit on the head of a penis. Something like that. Anyway, Herschel started to then read his OWN poems, and that's when Miriam stood up and booed and hissed and told him to shut up and get lost. Which he did. In fact, he never made it through the first poem. She wasn't going to have ANY of Herschel's poems at this event, no way, not Miriam, not the woman who had JUST stood up in front of us and touched her vagina through her pants and proclaimed wanting to be Orlovitz's whore.
Anyway, I'm sorry I forgot that Lou McKee was there. He was the only one in the room besides Gil Ott who had read those novels. And both McKee and Ott seemed to like those novels very much, and both men suggested that everyone in the room read them. Of course they are out of print, as is everything else Orlovitz wrote, but the Philadelphia Free Library has copies for loan.
More later,
CAConrad
There's so much that happened at that event, but I remember ALL of it, as though it had happened not more than a week ago. McKee actually gave one of the better readings, and I believe I forgot he was there because it always puzzled me a bit that he was into Orlovitz at all, considering how conservative I always considered his taste in poetry. In fact, it's the only time in the many years I attended poetry readings that I ever recall McKee and Gil Ott in the same room at the same time.
One more interesting moment from that event. I covered Miriam Kessler's sexual arousal from her poem "Snowblind" for Orlovitz, but what I didn't talk about at all was when Herschel Baron got up to speak and Miriam BOOED him off stage and out of the building!
Herschel knew Orlovitz back in the forties, so of course I had invited him. He was supposed to read from some of Orlovitz's poems, but when he got up there he instead said, "I always HATED Gil Orlovitz's poems! They were confusing experimental shit! And NOT ONLY THAT! But I HATE him too!" He then went on to explain how Orlovitz had seduced his fiance away from him back in the forties with a poem which had something to do with how many angels you can fit on the head of a penis. Something like that. Anyway, Herschel started to then read his OWN poems, and that's when Miriam stood up and booed and hissed and told him to shut up and get lost. Which he did. In fact, he never made it through the first poem. She wasn't going to have ANY of Herschel's poems at this event, no way, not Miriam, not the woman who had JUST stood up in front of us and touched her vagina through her pants and proclaimed wanting to be Orlovitz's whore.
Anyway, I'm sorry I forgot that Lou McKee was there. He was the only one in the room besides Gil Ott who had read those novels. And both McKee and Ott seemed to like those novels very much, and both men suggested that everyone in the room read them. Of course they are out of print, as is everything else Orlovitz wrote, but the Philadelphia Free Library has copies for loan.
More later,
CAConrad
