Thursday, July 29, 2010
Why There is No Marathon Man in Philadelphia
Today an article was published in The Boston Phoenix about Jim Behrle and the poetry marathon he's organized in Boston this Summer. In the article ("Marathon man: reclaiming the tea party, one poem at a time"), Jim says that he tried to co-organize a poetry festival in Philadelphia but it fell through because he "found a bunch of poets who were even lazier than [he and David Kirschenbaum] were. We couldn't get a venue." This is a lie. Here is my response, which I posted in the comments stream under the article:
For the record: the main reason the marathon did not take place in Philadelphia is that we (the Philly people) were unable to see eye-to-eye with the Boog people (Jim and David) on the basic objectives of the marathon. We found it impossible to collaborate with Jim, whose tone was insulting--he spoke to us as if we were his employees. That kind of nonsense doesn't work over here. So we canned the idea. It wouldn't have been worth it. Jim refused to negotiate even the name of the festival (he insisted on calling it "BoogPhilly 76"--how cheesy is that?), gave us orders and referred to us as "people on the ground."
I should have guessed there might be a problem from David's initial call, when he told me the reason they wanted to have a festival in Philadelphia was so they could see a Mets-Phillies game. They never expressed any knowledge, interest or even curiosity about poetry in Philadelphia. Are poets lazy here? Maybe. But Jim and David certainly would have no idea. Anyway, most of us here have, uh, jobs.
Hope it's a blast in Boston. Never been there, but I've heard it's a great place if you've got a lot of money to splash around in. I wonder what all the poets there will be singing about . . .
Ryan Eckes
For the record: the main reason the marathon did not take place in Philadelphia is that we (the Philly people) were unable to see eye-to-eye with the Boog people (Jim and David) on the basic objectives of the marathon. We found it impossible to collaborate with Jim, whose tone was insulting--he spoke to us as if we were his employees. That kind of nonsense doesn't work over here. So we canned the idea. It wouldn't have been worth it. Jim refused to negotiate even the name of the festival (he insisted on calling it "BoogPhilly 76"--how cheesy is that?), gave us orders and referred to us as "people on the ground."
I should have guessed there might be a problem from David's initial call, when he told me the reason they wanted to have a festival in Philadelphia was so they could see a Mets-Phillies game. They never expressed any knowledge, interest or even curiosity about poetry in Philadelphia. Are poets lazy here? Maybe. But Jim and David certainly would have no idea. Anyway, most of us here have, uh, jobs.
Hope it's a blast in Boston. Never been there, but I've heard it's a great place if you've got a lot of money to splash around in. I wonder what all the poets there will be singing about . . .
Ryan Eckes
Monday, July 26, 2010
2 POETRY EVENTS THIS SATURDAY, 7/31
at 2pm
MAGDALENA ZURAWSKI, JOEY YEAROUS-ALGOZIN, HOLLY MELGARD, ROBBIE DEWHURST for TRANSGRESSORS
at 8pm
REB LIVINGSTON, HUGH BEHM-STEINBERG, KIM GEK LIN SHORT for CHAPTER & VERSE
CAConrad
p.s. poetry TONIGHT, and dance, music, two shows this Monday, details HERE
MAGDALENA ZURAWSKI, JOEY YEAROUS-ALGOZIN, HOLLY MELGARD, ROBBIE DEWHURST for TRANSGRESSORS
at 8pm
REB LIVINGSTON, HUGH BEHM-STEINBERG, KIM GEK LIN SHORT for CHAPTER & VERSE
CAConrad
p.s. poetry TONIGHT, and dance, music, two shows this Monday, details HERE
Monday, July 19, 2010
ELFRETH'S ALLEY poetry celebration!
SATURDAY
JULY 24TH
6pm
New Philadelphia Poets
sponsor a celebration at
ELFRETH'S ALLEY
Philadelphia
many Philadelphia
poets will perform
sponsored by the amazing
New Philadelphia Poets
Debrah Morkun & Carlos Soto Roman
Friday, July 16, 2010
McCreary / Reed "Inter[re]view" @ Dialogue's End
I've recently conducted a fairly lengthy (and hopefully interesting!) "inter[re]view" with Marthe Reed, author of Gaze. We reviewed one another's recent books and then interviewed each other over the course of a couple of weeks, discussing writing process, influences on our work, and plans for future projects. Gaze is a multi-layered, whip-smart text, and it was a pleasure to work with her.
Check us out at Christophe Casamassima's new blog, Dialogue's End. Thanks to Christophe for instigating this whole process - and for publishing Undone in the first place!
[ Chris McC ]
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Feast Day Gone & Coming by Frank Sherlock
ORDER FROM Cy Gist HEREPRINT RUN OF 50 COPIES
(so HURRY! in other words!)
"Wildlife is living in / the old hero boneyards"
cover art by James Comey
(posted by CAConrad)
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
lesbians don't want...
...to be fucked by Billy Collins!
SOMEONE PLEASE TELL HIM THIS!
A dear friend of mine who knows how much I LOVE the poetry of Emily Dickinson called me today to tell me that Terry Gross was interviewing someone about Dickinson's poems. So I tuned into NPR and instantly cringed at the voice of Billy Collins (the Phil Collins of poetry!)!
What ANGERED me most was when they were discussing her possible sexual preference(s). And he said, HE ACTUALLY SAID, that whether she was a lesbian or not, HE was going to put to rest this argument with HIS poem. Which he then read. It's called UNDRESSING EMILY DICKINSON, and it's about wanting to FUCK HER, and how she sighs
and makes little sounds in between his removing various items of clothing from her body.
Whether she was a lesbian or not, it's pretty clear to me that THAT very issue turned him on enough to write his sexual fantasy of putting his poet laureate prick inside her!
I VOMIT
I VOMIT FOR YOU EMILY
Not only that, if you listen to this show PLEASE NOTE how he makes such a big deal about how irrelevant her biography is. BUT THEN GOES AHEAD AND SHOWS HOW IMPORTANT HER BIOGRAPHY ACTUALLY IS TO HIM THAT HE WANTS TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT (SO TO SPEAK!)!
Has this dude NEVER heard of Susan Howe's MY EMILY DICKINSON by the way? Because his excessively reductive view of her poems makes me think he needs to read Howe.
When I win the lottery I'm buying Susan Howe's MY EMILY DICKINSON for every single library in the world! And if they REFUSE TO TAKE IT, I'll just put in on the shelf MYSELF!
May Emily Dickinson's ghost exact REVENGE on Billy Collins! Dear Emily, I'm writing a poem called UNDRESSING BILLY COLLINS, to see how he likes gay sex! I'll let you know how it goes!
CAConrad
SOMEONE PLEASE TELL HIM THIS!
A dear friend of mine who knows how much I LOVE the poetry of Emily Dickinson called me today to tell me that Terry Gross was interviewing someone about Dickinson's poems. So I tuned into NPR and instantly cringed at the voice of Billy Collins (the Phil Collins of poetry!)!
What ANGERED me most was when they were discussing her possible sexual preference(s). And he said, HE ACTUALLY SAID, that whether she was a lesbian or not, HE was going to put to rest this argument with HIS poem. Which he then read. It's called UNDRESSING EMILY DICKINSON, and it's about wanting to FUCK HER, and how she sighs
and makes little sounds in between his removing various items of clothing from her body.Whether she was a lesbian or not, it's pretty clear to me that THAT very issue turned him on enough to write his sexual fantasy of putting his poet laureate prick inside her!
I VOMIT
I VOMIT FOR YOU EMILY
Not only that, if you listen to this show PLEASE NOTE how he makes such a big deal about how irrelevant her biography is. BUT THEN GOES AHEAD AND SHOWS HOW IMPORTANT HER BIOGRAPHY ACTUALLY IS TO HIM THAT HE WANTS TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT (SO TO SPEAK!)!
Has this dude NEVER heard of Susan Howe's MY EMILY DICKINSON by the way? Because his excessively reductive view of her poems makes me think he needs to read Howe.
When I win the lottery I'm buying Susan Howe's MY EMILY DICKINSON for every single library in the world! And if they REFUSE TO TAKE IT, I'll just put in on the shelf MYSELF!
May Emily Dickinson's ghost exact REVENGE on Billy Collins! Dear Emily, I'm writing a poem called UNDRESSING BILLY COLLINS, to see how he likes gay sex! I'll let you know how it goes!
CAConrad
Sunday, July 04, 2010
GHOST DANCE
The GHOST DANCE by Native Americans in 1890 led to the massacre at Wounded Knee. Here is Pattie Smith singing the GHOST DANCE, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY AMERICA!
CAConrad
p.s. today in Philadelphia I will be singing GOD BLESS AFGHANISTAN to the tune of GOD BLESS AMERICA at the Liberty Bell.
CAConrad
p.s. today in Philadelphia I will be singing GOD BLESS AFGHANISTAN to the tune of GOD BLESS AMERICA at the Liberty Bell.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
#44 AIDS Snow Family
"The poem is restorative, rather than fragmenting."--Alexandra Grilikhes
(Soma)tic Exercise #44 can be seen HERE
CAConrad
