Category: Uncategorized

If I’m killed in jihad while dressed as a woman, will I still get my houri?

(from, of course, Yahoo Answers)

Unadorned, she is not desirable. Adornment excites love. If there is a connection between ornaments and love, that is because the first ornaments of all were in the centre-jar of the celestial granary; and that jar is the symbol of the world’s womb. (acc. to Ogotemmelli)

In certain societies where sounds have become letters with sharps and flats, those unfortunate enough not to fit into these letters are tossed out of the system and qualified unmusical. They are called noises….A music bound up with movement, dance,and speech, one in which the listener becomes a co-performer, one that has no overall form except one of continually recurring sequences of notes and rhythms, one that plays endlessly – for nobody has enough of life – has been repeatedly called elemental or rudimentary. Is irritable to most Westerners’ ears.

The sound of a swelling cry of ululation.
That high wail that speaks her joy, excitement, or grief.

from a script by Trinh T. Min Ha, NAKED SPACES: Living is Round, published in Cinematograph, Volume 3 1988, purchased for 50 cents at a garage sale on Sunday

a Hasid on a bicycle, coattails flying
a cardinal
a wild rabbit
a redwing blackbird
a dog carrying a big stick and walking softly

a copy of the Semiotexte Schizo Issue for 50 cents
a copy of Cinematograph from 1988 also for 50 cents

Mitch and Jackson

Listen!

Adem Fieled on The Joy of Ginseng.

Bay Areans, please come see us! 8 pm! Scroll down for details…

Lupine. Poppies. An interesting butte. Blackberry brambles. Cows. River. Wild roses. A rusty barn. Gravel mound.

Another kind of cow. Raven. Rusty equipment. Scotch broom.

Pink dune buggy. Tattoo parlor. Tool shop. River. Diving kingfisher. Cow parsnip. Motel 6. Oak trees. Sign reading “your tax dollars at work.”

Fish viewing area. Wild oats. Wrapped speedboats. Billboard: “are they making a monkey out of you? http://www.whoisyourcreator.com.” Stacked boxcars. Model homes. Mufflers. A & W. Black and piebald horses. Sign for a town called “Drain.”

— Post From My iPhone

Sitting in a Greyhound bus station in Medford, Oregon, otherwise known as Methford, surrounded by human beings in various stages of damage. So far the trip has been blessed with poetic and familial convergences, first in Portland in its floral glory. I talked submarines with Auden Andrew Koeneke, explored Powell’s and the Japanese garden with Rodney and Gary, plotted a trip to Egypt with Leslie and Rodney, shopped for the BBQ with Rodney and Julian, sunbathed with Julian and Tracy, and just generally had a convivial time in what I understand is the rare Portland sun. It’s a groovy city, to be sure, but how long before I might get bored there, I wonder. Two weeks? Or would I adopt the local hobbies of gardening and cycling and tattouage? One wonders. Of course,I don’t remember the last time I lived anywhere sedate, so there’s no telling.

Still, how very pleasant to read to assembled guests and friends on Rodney and Leslie’s lawn in the blinding sun (now I’m burnt) while gleeful kids gamboled about in the hamburger-redolent afternoon air.

Then last night an absolute hootenany reading at Bohemia Gallery in Ashland with Gary and Kasey and Mel and Rod. We drenched the place in hilarity, I believe. I’d give more details but iphone typing sucks. Now back to Corvallis where we spend a night with Gary’s folks…

From tomorrow, May 14 (which day, it occurs to me, is our fifth wedding anniversary: details here) Gary and I are off to Portland, Corvallis, Ashland, and Oakland for two weeks to see family and friends.

If you are in San Francisco on Sunday, May 24, please come to our intermedia extravaganza:

kino21 presents NY Poets Nada Gordon and Gary Sullivan

Nada Gordon and Gary Sullivan lead an evening of poly-vocal poetics, neo-benshi film narration, and mangled imagery.

Visiting the Bay Area live for one night only, the latter-day vaudeville team of Gordon and Sullivan will present their most recent poetry, performance and video work showcased last month (fresh!) at The Whitney Museum and Dixon Place in New York. Gordon and Sullivan are founding members of the notorious and irreverent Flarf Collective. They have been committed. To hilarious and unsettling entertainment. Throughout this millenium. Together, they authored the non-fiction e-pistolary techno-romantic novel Swoon.

Local poet-provocateur Erika Staiti will perform her live film renarration of a short scene from “Woman Under the Influence,” which premiered last month in the Los Angeles underground venue, Machine Project.

New York visual artist, montagist and poet Brandon Downing will premiere several disturbingly funny new video collages.

Sunday, May 24, 2009. 8PM $8

Artists’ Television Access
992 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 824-3890
ata@atasite.org