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the personal is political
So it turns out that some of my friends and collaborators are thinking of starting up a socialist online journal. I'm going to be helping out a little with the design and also with some occasional solicitations for content.
One of the features they'll be running in the journal—and I think this is a great idea—is an advice column: imagine a cross between a socialist The Randy "The Ethicist" Cohen and a Marxist-feminist Abigail "Dear Abby" Van Buren and you might have something approximating what they're shooting for here.
So: if you're struggling with something, and you've been asking yourself that age-old question "what would a socialist do?", e-mail me at projects [at] imaginaryyear ["dot com"] and I'll pass on the contact information. All inquiries will be kept confidential if that's the way you want to play it. |
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
8:44 AM
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more on literary "risk"
There's a hot comment thread over at the Chicago Poetry blog in response to a long, grumpy post by Ray Bianchi (of Postmodern Collage Poetry).
It's difficult to describe the real thrust of Bianchi's argument because it's based largely in generalized abstractions, of the sort that make me a little bit crazy: he's calling for work that is "innovative" and "intellectually honest" without making any attempt to define what these terms might mean in the context of this discussion. I'm occasionally guilty of the same thing, although at least last summer when I was complaining about a lack of literary "risk," the vagueness of what I actually meant bugged me enough that I eventually wrote a long post complete with a complicated diagram to try to get at it.
I'm made similarly crazy when Bianchi says this: "poetry should be more than comfortable. It ought to challenge and ask questions." To my mind, any articulation of a desire to see art (of any sort) be more "challenging" should also contain articulation of who exactly we'd like to see "challenged" by it. Bianchi seems unhappy with the level of mutual admiration in the experimental poetry community and so maybe wants poets to write work that will "challenge" each other, although in a group that so admires the production of difficult and abstract work it's hard to know how you could get more challenging, at least at the level of formal innovation. Radical juxtaposition, chance operations and arbitrariness, wholesale appropriation, extreme patterning and repetition, the complete negation of lyrical subjectivity—all of these are "challenging" techniques that have been long accepted by this community. It seems to me like the prime challenge that experimental Chicago poets are offering one another is the opportunity go further, to be stranger: this is a form of challenge that I, for one, appreciate, although I don't think it's the type Bianchi has in mind, as it depends precisely on the sort of mutual admiration that he seems so dismissive of.
If he's looking to "challenge" the general public, the average Barnes-and-Noble book-buyer, I'd say that poetry is already doing this pretty well, pretty regularly: it's part of the reason why poetry books don't exactly fly off the shelves. I'd like to know how Bianchi squares his desire for a more challenging poetry with his belief that "poets cannot be content to create art just for ourselves." It seems, to me, like these ideals are at different ends of the same axis. And I don't think that there's any shame—any shame—in poets producing an art for themselves: this has been a trend in poetry for at least the last 900 years. I like the way Silliman puts it in the post I'm linking to there: a poetry intended for other poets is "the medium in which the poet demands the very utmost of him- or herself ... [where we find] the elements of poetry that, by definition, cannot be bled off into other genres."
Rantings aside, one advantage of participating in this thread is that I found links to the blogs of two more observers of the Chicago poetry scene: Steve Halle and Robert Archambeau. Both of their blogs look worth digging around in. |
Friday, February 17, 2006
9:30 AM
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the creative process
Bart de Paepe, the proprietor of Sloow Tapes, recenly interviewed Chris and I for a profile of Number None that will appear somewhere, in some form, at some point in the future. I'm not sure that this bit where I talk about "the creative process" will make it into the profile or not, but I was proud of it, so I thought I'd post it here:
"I’d never experienced learning an instrument as a child or a teenager and so the first time I started making music in any systematic way was in my late twenties, which seems relatively late to get started. I had a few advantages, though: and probably preeminent among them was a world-view in which I understand the 'creative process' as more or less a process of continual problem-solving, experimenting, hacking, and learning. This made it easier for me to embark upon a process with a lot of 'failure' involved. I don’t mind trying and failing—trying and failing is sort of what 'creativity,' for me, is about. Making something that I’m proud of, that 'succeeds,' is really just an occasional side-benefit."
Labels: creative_process |
Thursday, February 09, 2006
1:10 PM
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east coast micro-tour
Exact details are still being fixed, but the Number None / Son of Earth / Birds of Delay tour is beginning to come together.
It is looking like Number None will be joining the other two bands for the following four (4) dates:
Fri, Mar 24 - Boston, MA
Sat, Mar 25 - Northampton, MA
Sun, Mar 26 - Providence, RI
Mon, Mar 27 - NYC, NY
There's also a Fairly Good Possibility that I'll be performing a solo set (as Noah Opponent) with these guys in Philly, at Big Jar Books, on Monday, Mar. 20. Hope to see some of you out there in the country... Labels: number_none, personal |
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
10:02 AM
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100 favorite things: a project
Part of the reason I posted a new 100 Favorite Things list last week is because I'm participating in a project, over at Flickr, dreamed up by my friend Cathy.
The basis of the project, basically, is to interpret your 100 Things in a series of 100 photos over the course of 2006.
We've got fourteen members at the moment (it's invite-only) and the pool is just starting to collect its first few photos. I haven't posted any yet, because my camera is soon to be traveling with LJM to Tel Aviv, but I might pull some out of the archives to use until she's back. Labels: lists |
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
12:19 PM
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100 favorite things: winter 2006
In a long associative chain:
lists indexes the alphabet databases and spreadsheets the internet blogs mp3 blogs itunes and the ipod laptop computers taxonomies adobe illustrator and photoshop photocopiers noise (visual and auditory) ruins patterns psychedelia (some) drugs (in some circumstances) trance states drones number none repetition and variation chants prayers candles bonfires rituals magic altars grant morrison the woods the beach cities chicago philadelphia new hampshire + vermont the spring conference costumes and masks personae writing fiction writing poetry other people’s writing lyn hejinian, rae armantrout index cards narrative and serial narrative joss whedon (esp. buffy the vampire slayer) used bookstores and record stores libraries baths coffeeshops greasy spoons and diners breakfasts my dinner with andre hal hartley, david gordon green, david lynch dreams and dream-working sleeping next to someone sex making out with someone for the first time making out with someone who I’ve made out with many times before BDSM smutty writing fantasizing body awareness games and game design decks of cards brian eno’s oblique strategies divination tools: the i ching, tarot cards philip k. dick saint sophia venus thoth mystics and mystical texts maps encyclopedias (including wikipedia) collaboration improvisation collage taking photographs subcultures mix tapes and CDs listening to music with someone else projects william s burroughs ben marcus charlie kaufmann indie comics (note: 100 things I love about comics, here) the marvel universe handmade packaging zines getting mail writing letters making things things my friends made for me sketchpads roadtrips travelling and touring vernacular signage learning something teaching something students the world
Labels: lists |
Thursday, February 02, 2006
9:17 PM
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