“Have you ever been in combat, Ricker?” my spiritual advisor asked.
Pelham Bay Wilding
The Molotov cocktail burst against the wall shocking the quiet, suburban night with flames fifty feet high. The bricks of the old gothic school scattered the …{read more}
The living room of a student house in London. Emma sits holding a mug of tea. Robbie stands looking out of the window holding a bottle of beer. She is twenty. He is sixty.
ROBBIE: …{read more}
You think you know something
Son of Kerouac, Woodstock and God / James Crockett / 978-148125581 / 261 pages
As a young man about to embark upon a summer-long hitchhiking trip through the western United States in the mid-1970s, James Crockett was given a second-hand …{read more}
Franz Kafka wrote a long letter to his father. It said a lot of what I wanted to say to my father but did not have the words or self-composure or courage to say. So I left it on his …{read more}
Artist’s Statement: These are from a series I did in the studio here in Trinidad this year- small paintings of acrylic and oil pastel about 11 x 14 inches. …{read more}
splake fishing in america. Rockford: Presa Press, 2013
only in my dreams. Springfield: Gage, 2012.
Beyond Campfire Ashes. Battle Creeek: Gage, 2012.
Backwater Bard Loft Musings. Fort Wayne: The Moon, 2009.
Le Metrop 2012. Ed …{read more}
Based in Denver, Colorado, fused glass artist Helen Rudy creates vibrant decorative and functional art pieces. We asked her to tell us about fused glass, and her creative process.
What exactly is fused glass, and how is it made?
When …{read more}
Cold wind is building and ready. It is not understood the pent feelings that have suddenly surfaced after long and even further back and then along the slow moving world and probably before the long awaited return of a Gypsy …{read more}
It was nineteen-sixty-two, Saturday, a hot afternoon.
“Whadaya want to do?”
“I don’t know. Whadaya want to do, Kenny?” I answered. “Maybe we could go up to New Rochelle and play pool.” I was addicted to pool at that time. …{read more}
I think of how Allen Ginsberg
could see society when gizmos glistened
salvation, freeways traced our future,
freeon cooled our passions,
primeval blackooze birthed plastic,
the prophylactic of progress,
east yeasted west,
and Moloch masheened the spirit.
I try to …{read more}
I turned my laptop on just after dawn this morning, as I usually do, and sat down with a cup of strong black coffee to see what was happening in the world. Two stories caught me like punches to the …{read more}
He Forgot Again: (Sunday, November 11, 1962)
If i could dance around the light like a bug -
I would see all that I was through the sparkling beauty of wings.
The fluttering movements wandering around like a blind bird
SPRUNG by Laura Madeline Wiseman / San Francisco Bay Press, 259 Granby St. Suite 200, Norfolk, VA 23517 / 2012 / 100 pages / 978-0982829578
There’s fun in these irreverent poems, but also a serious look at gender and sexuality. …{read more}
Cut up by it, imagination
Strangled by stripes of shame
Painted poorly but purposefully by the kind of artist
whose arrows are shot before they are aimed
It burnt the blood from our dreams
Smoke rings in the distant scatter …{read more}
“I love the sound of background noise
I wanna hear the crack in the singer’s voice
Fingers moving on the fret board
Every time he plays a new chord”
(Art Brut, “Slap Dash For No Cash”)
When most people think …{read more}
Patience
i’m waiting for the president to ditch
his suit and tie and give his speech
in his underwear, looking down
at his crotch instead of teleprompters
i’m waiting for star’d generals to
dismiss their soldiers and abandon
the armies …{read more}
I woke up and you were gone. I rolled a joint and I stepped outside and lit it, saw the smoke linger in the sunlight, felt the THC enter my lungs and my bloodstream, realized it was the earliest I’ve …{read more}
One of the most important people in music history, Mr. Bob Dylan still stuns music lovers worldwide with his witty rhymes and colorful guitar sound. With his music being the definition of timelessness, now is the perfect time to revisit …{read more}
THINGS HAPPEN
Thank God these days I sleep and dream!
Things happen
…it is inevitable!, this angry wrangling
of the nerves
in a place that feels like Hell
or a paranoid respite
full of anxious passion
which can die down …{read more}
Rod Stewart / Time / Columbia Records / May 7, 2013
Way back when I was a teenager, I discovered Rod Stewart’s 1960s-1970s rock ‘n roll albums and got darn near obsessed with them for a while. Mom wasn’t too …{read more}
note: Here there be spoilers
By now it is cliche to label a Terrence Malick film a “visual poem,” but in the case of To The Wonder, that is what it is. Malick’s cinematic eye defers to poetry more …{read more}
Friday night is blues dancing in the South of Market district of San Francisco. A small studio space filled with about thirty people freely moving to the music in a way that can only be described as a one night …{read more}
Michael Buble / To Be Loved / Reprise Records
Michael Buble’s fifth studio album is joyful and upbeat – the perfect soundtrack for a spring or summer afternoon – or romantic evenings. For To Be Loved, Buble blends together …{read more}
YOU’LL SEE THE SIGN PAST THE RED MAILBOX.
Time rusts away at anticipation and so few things stay the same when red dust covers your boots and you don’t know the face at the milkbar or the hands at the …{read more}
My generation, troubled mutating hysterical hipsters
Poetic heavy hitters, recreating beat Burroughs beat Corso beat Ginsberg
“I’ve read Howl and I understand what he was saying.”
21st century poets, thick worded bastards
No pen and ink, only copy and paste
I started drinking while the Wyoming sky was pink and you could still see forever. Earlier that day I found just enough smack to keep me from being sick. It got me moving. It got me out in the sun. …{read more}
[Note: I took these photos in 2009, and present them here again in memory of Richie Havens, who passed away on April 22, 2013 at the age of 72. Rest in peace, Richie.]
Richie Havens played the Festival of the …{read more}
Jimi Hendrix FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the Voodoo Child / Gary J. Jucha
Backbeat Books / 978-1617130953 / 363 pages
I’ve been a listener of Jimi Hendrix’s music for several decades. However, anything beyond the bare basics …{read more}
The easily-recognisable origins of the Fender Telecaster electric guitar go back to the introduction of the Fender Esquire in early 1950, which endured an initially bumpy ride, but has changed relatively little since. The original single-pickup Esquire model was replaced …{read more}
Searching For Sugarman (2012)
4 stars
A documentary about the mysterious Rodriguez, the singer/songwriter who released the album Cold Fact in 1970. Directed by Swedish-British filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul, this is a well told underdog story that left me in happy …{read more}
i
We backtracked from the northern path after losin’ our way, me n’ my brother, to Tempest County. We’d been on n’ indian trail for three days, movin’ by night, restin’ in orchards n’ groves n’ swamps and two times …{read more}
