Voices in Utter Dark

Wrapped In Plastic Live at Melt! December 15th 2011

2011-12-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

Live @ Melt, San Francisco, 12-15-11 by Brandon Jackson We did it again, now with poet Tom Comitta.

Live @ Melt! December 9th 2011

2011-12-09T11:01:00.001-08:00

Live @ Melt, San Francisco, 12-8-11 by Brandon Jackson 3

More work with jazz band Wrapped In Plastic. This time, I'm reading some translations of Esther Tellermann's book, Terre exaccte.

Live @ Melt, San Francisco, 11-17-11

2011-11-18T21:45:00.000-08:00

Live @ Melt, San Francisco, 11-17-11
Live @ Melt, San Francisco, 11-17-11 by Brandon Jackson 3 Karen Hannah and I collaborated with the jazz band Wrapped In Plastic on November 17th. Trumpet player Brandon Jackson made the recording.

ASHES by Alex de Campi and Jimmy Broxton on Kickstarter

2011-10-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

The wonderful and talented Alex de Campi has a new graphic novel project, titled Ashes, in collaboration with the equally talented illustrator Jimmy Broxton. It's currently seeking funding through Kickstarter. It's the sequel to her previous graphic novel Smoke with Igor Kordey (which came out through IDW and was nominated for the Eisner only to lose to Grant Morrison's (et al.) Seven Soldiers. Yes, it's really hard to compete with Grant Morrison).Here's Alex presenting her project:

And here are a couple of pages (uncolored) of Ashes:

Now click here to help Alex and Jimmy finish this. You know you want to. Otherwise, all you deserve is crappy super hero comics and Jim Behrle's cartoons.

Oh, and John Cassaday, Kieron Gillen, Colleen Doran, Dave Gibbons (yes, of Watchmen), Marcella Puppini (of the Puppini Sisters), Rich Johnston are already supporting the project.

Okay, click here now.

New video by Alex de Campi

2011-08-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

Whom you might know for her digital comic Valentine (which I translated into French), her graphic novel Smoke (with Igor Kordey), and other work, including a music video for the Puppini Sisters and other bands.

"Tear Us Apart" -- Stop Motion Short Film by Alex de Campi from alex de campi on Vimeo.

And a quote, which I found on Bleeding Cool:

Glen Duncan wrote a book and called it The Last Werewolf. Stephen Coates/The Real Tuesday Weld wrote a soundtrack to that book. Then Stephen gave one of the songs to Alex de Campi to inspire a new film. And this is it.

This video pretty much represents the limits of what one person can do in her mom’s garage with no money. A solitary month building sets; four days filming (in 103 degree heat) with the invaluable assistance of cinematographer Nolan Maloney, 1st AC John Hubbard and grips Dan Politz and Katy Cecchetti. Then another month in post. And now it appears, to be a momentary distraction on the internet before it is instantly buried in an avalanche of newer things.

Puppets created by Liesje Kraai; without her, we are nothing.

New Broadside by a.rawlings

2011-07-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Zumbar Press, Karen Hannah's letterpress project, has released its first broadside, "Tree Hymn" by a.rawlings.

Karen hasn't set up a website yet, so send me a message for order information.

UPDATE: You can contact Karen directly to order. A website will be created soon.

New Issue of New American Writing

2011-06-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

ISSUE #29 of New American Writing, our 25th anniversary issue, and our 40th year of publishing OINK! (until 1985) and New American Writing since 1986. Orderr through CCNOW or by sending a check for $15 (this issue) or $36 (three issues) to NAW, 369 Molino Avenue, Mill Valley CA 94941.

In this issue, cover by Anna Gaskell, (untitled #2, wonder):

Swenson, Joron, Revell, Ramke, Shurin, Tardos, Eshleman, Equi, Waldrep, Mullen, Lease, de la Perriere, Schultz, Olson, Turcot, Gagnon, S. Savage, LaFleur, Avasilichioaei, Neveu, Lussier, A. Carr, Farah, Canty, Ruiz, Garthe, Wilkinson, K. Wagner, Turcotte, Carr, Mutschlecner, Kelsey, Hogue, Potts, Latta, Irwin, McKinney, Coulton, Loden, Kocot, Bendall, Platt, J. Wagner, Pethybridge, Lewis,. Ducharme, Clements, Wickswo, Norton, Caspers, Schultz, McSweeney, Miller, Tomash, Molinary, Bellflower, Martinez, Heide, Frym, Dailey, Kostelanetz, Tu, Steward, Maxwell, Winter, Laidlaw, Rebele, Terris, Dentz, Bentley. Translations by Luong and Moorhead. 198 pages.

Methane Combustion

2011-06-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

I just saw a commercial for a gas company promoting natural gas as a clean energy source. Not posting a video link, but, really? Natural gas?

Let's take the example of methane (the most common natural gas):

CH₄ + 2 O₂ → CO₂ + 2 H₂O

This is the simplified balanced equation for the combustion of methane, skipping all the intermediary steps. What's this CO₂ business on the right? Oh, Carbon Dioxide. And water! Both of which are considered greenhouse gases (the latter in vaporized form).

Oups, gas company.

Some Links about Friends

2011-06-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

Photographer friend Tricia Lawless Murray is interviewed in the online photography magazine Rotating Gallery. She discusses her interest in pornography (way to be reductive), and two of her current projects, "Some Men" and her "quasi-contemporary reinterpretation" of Marguerite Duras's novel L'amant, both of which I have seen. Her work is also featured in Fraction, another photography magazine.

Artist Alicia Escott's love letter project is featured in the Examiner. Some other work is featured in grist.com. She also interviewed in Eco Salon and on KUSF.

Leah Rosenberg is featured in In The Make.

Issue #2 of Telephone was recently released, with the appropriate release readings in New York City, Montréal (at the Port de tête!), and Amherst. This issue features the work of Renée Gagnon & Steve Savage, translated by: Oana Avasilichioaei | | Mark Bibbins| | Daniel Canty Angela Carr| | Geoffrey Cruickshank | | Dorothea Lasky Guy Leblanc & Étienne Lenoir | | David Lehman François Luong & Karen Hannah | | Erin Moure | | Emily Pettit & Michelle Taransky | | Matthew Rohrer Cole Swensen Joe Wenderoth | | Dara Wier & Luke Bloomfield | | Joshua Marie Wilkinson

My favorite French-Canadian publisher, La Peuplade, celebrates its 5th birthday. La Peuplade has published among other people, François Turcot, Chantal Neveu, and Alexis Lussier, whose work will appear in English in the next issue of New American Writing, in a feature on poetry from Québec. Congratulations, Simon-Philippe.

Recall Momentum! (Green Bay)

2011-03-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

Why you shouldn't listen to the modern GOP when it comes to climate change

2011-03-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

Because the vast majority of Republicans probably failed basic chemistry.

Case in point: When you burn an organic compound (in this case, an alkane), the amount of CO₂ increases.

From which we can assume that modern-day Republicans most likely failed arithmetic as well.

From which we can assume we should not listen to a Republican when it comes to economics.

Or public education.

Would you trust someone who failed middle school mathematics and chemistry to handle your finances?

Here is another speculation: Republicans want to gut public education to eliminate the possibility of having people smarter than them.

Before you start calling the Japanese stupid...

2011-03-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

... for using nuclear power, which is awfully condescending, when it comes to energy choices, it's not like Japan has a choice. The country is too mountainous for solar, too small for wind (remember, their population is half the size of the US for an area twenty times smaller), and geothermal and tidal power sources are still too underdeveloped. The only other alternative would have been to buy power from China, which is politically not possible.

And before you start criticizing their energy consumption (again, condescending), remember that a Japanese person probably has a lower carbon/energy footprint than you do (despite all the lights used in Akihabara).

Tax Breaks vs. Budget Cuts

2011-03-11T10:57:00.000-08:00

via Gerry Canavan.

Google Demo Slam: Extra Spicy

2011-03-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

Google Translate as spontaneous interpreter. Or why Americans have one more reason not to learn a foreign language.

For that matter, I am going to stop pretending that I speak Japanese. My smartphone grants me access to Google Translate on the go (well, as long as I am in the US or Canada. Damn you, CDMA).

Republican War On Working Families

2011-03-03T14:47:00.000-08:00

2011-03-03T09:57:00.000-08:00

Starting today, Norma Cole will be one of the columnist for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts's blog, OPEN SPACE.

2011-02-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

The book and augmented reality: Suppose I insert within a book a QR code, which can be viewed via a smartphone or on a browser. Should what appears on the screen from the scan of the code considered part of the book's architecture.

***

In the few minutes of the Oscars ceremony I willingly subjected myself to, Justin Timberlake joked he was Banksy. Regardless of what you think of either, assume he was telling the truth. How would this affect the perception of the work of either? Compare to the mistreatment online of James Franco's literary endeavors.

UPDATE 17:00: So people don't take James Franco seriously as a poet/fiction writer/PhD candidate/General Hospital cast member. Yet, peers take Natalie Portman and Danica McKellar as scientists (see here. I have more respect for mathematicians and physicists than I do for poets. That being said, I don't have much respect for Amber Tamblyn or Ethan Hawke as writers either.

***

This should be my last Feedbag post. More collaborations with Ray Hsu and other Feedbaggers will ensue.

Nob Hill

2011-02-26T12:51:00.001-08:00

Borders declaring bankruptcy

2011-02-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

So today is my 31st birthday and most major newspapers have announced that Borders Group Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 protection (read: it has declared bankruptcy). It pretty much bums me out. Of course, I have no loyalty to Borders as a brand. It's after all a big chain bookstore with all the negative aspects this entails. But I used to work there. First as a bookseller, then as IPT (I still have no clue what the acronym stands for, just that it had to do with inventory), and finally as special order clerk (okay, really, it also meant I was the book buyer for the store; a note: a famous poet who had the same position as mine, Christian Bök, for Chapters). I made several friendships while working there (well, mostly at store 605 at the San Francisco Center, which is still safe. For now). It gave me a stable job after graduating from college (because an English Lit degree in Houston is rather useless) and because it was a corporate job, it gave me a job when I moved to San Francisco for grad school.

It wasn't so bad for a big chain bookstore. I had a lot of latitude in what I could order for the store (ask Alli Warren how many orders I placed with SPD; oh, and thanks Andrew for giving me the space to do my job). Thanks to this, the store I worked at had a rather decent poetry section (some of the books I ordered are still there). Sure, corporate headquarters made some rather stupid decisions, such as outsourcing the e-commerce site to Amazon (that was before I started there). Such the decision to restructure (which is why I left; unsurprisingly, my position was eliminated some months after I left). It reminded too much of Circuit City (where I also worked as an undergraduate) and we know what happened.

It's not going to be catastrophic in San Francisco, except for those who couldn't be transfered to another store (strangely, the only store closing is the one on Post and Powell, which used to be the flagship store in the city), because we obviously have an abundance of independent bookstore (Green Arcade, Green Apples, City Lights, Borderlands, ...). But in other parts of the United States, Borders and Barnes & Noble are the only bookstores around for miles (the only independent bookstore in Houston for example is Brazos Bookstore, which was in dire straits not too long ago). Not to mention the damage this will do to publishers and distributors who are not going to be paid for the books Borders ordered. Hopefully, this won't apply to small presses distributed by Small Press Distribution (I'm pretty sure I was the only special order clerk to order there).

Tony Hoagland's "The Change"

2011-02-14T16:18:00.000-08:00

I am not sure I have anything of value to say about the recent online activity/controversy surrounding Tony Hoagland's poem "The Change," following Claudia Rankine's talk on the matter at the latest AWP (for Rankine's text, visit her website and click on "AWP"). For an interesting analysis, read Seth Abramson's take on the matter.

I remember the unease expressed by a friend at the University of Houston the year Tony was hired at "The change" and "Dear John" (also in What Narcissism Means to Me) and talking with Tony about those two poems in specific in conference and I don't remember much of his response, except it didn't make me feel uncomfortable with Tony and it had something to do with "liberal feel-good and good intentions." But I've started noticing many Google searches including the terms "tony hoagland racist," which have already led here.

It has been a very long time since I have read the aforementioned poem. I did try to reread What Narcissism at some point, but put it down rather quickly. Not out of disgust, but because I moved on in terms of poetics. This was before Tony started reading George Oppen and Lyn Hejinian. I am not sure why I am mentioning this last detail. There was a point when I was actually dismayed at Tony, but this was because of his poem "The Galleria" (which later appeared in Unincorporated Persons of the Late Honda Dynasty), because he seemed to embrace this liberal anger at commercialism, full of good intentions, but ultimately empty in consequences.

As a Frenchman (no hyphen, please. I've never felt particularly Asian and my former interest in Japanese literature was never an attempt to reclaim some form of roots), I've always been intrigued this continuous discussion around identity politics in the United States (and Canada). I remember discussing this with Ray Hsu the second time we met, in St. Louis. The discussion didn't go very far, degenerating into a rant against the use of Walter Benjamin's biographical details in poems and Scottish clan politics. Perhaps this amazement stems from cultural insensitivity on my part. Even though I have been living in the United States, I am still navigating through the various socio-economical cleavages of this country. The events of the Civil Rights Movement are as old as the events of May 68, events that are still resonant to French politics to this day.

I am not going to call "The Change" a bad poem (or a good one for that matter). And it seems disingenuous to finally talk about this poem almost 10 years after it was first written, but more disingenuous are some of the responses I've seen (such as here). The discussion about race has not stopped because you have elected an African-American as President. Yes, there is all that birtherist tea party inanity, but you patting yourselves in the back for doing so makes it even more obvious (speaking of empty liberal good intentions). Good intentions are not going to repair centuries of inequity. And much like Tony, I do think that racism is deeply ingrained within our collective consciousness (yes, that includes the French too).

But I am not going to use this as a call for political activism to poets, like Seth does, or Juliana Spahr. Poets don't have enough presence to make their political poems matter. I have lived long enough in the San Francisco Bay Area to see that any political action undertaken by poets is only self-serving. And a discussion on race among poets matters only to the AWP (that is, it doesn't matter at all, because even though it is full of good intentions, no one but poets are listening). The problem about political activism in the United States is that there isn't enough of it in the general population in the first place. If you want political activism, join the Tides Foundation, or ACORN (back when it was still around), or the Communist Party. You know, like George Oppen.

UPDATE 21:19: I think Juliana Spahr, when she creates a causal link between the decrease of political activism in poets and the MFA institutionalization, is referencing Jacques Rancière. I'm not sure, having not read the essay in question (if anyone has a link, feel free to post it). I don't think Rancière is appropriate in this context, as he wrote in a very French context (that is to say, the radicalism of the May 68 protesters and the more conservative slant of protesters in subsequent generations (including mine)). The history of the United States since the 1960s is vastly opposite to France's in that they have witnessed an eroding of institutions (see for example, the fact that the United States is now lagging behind other countries in scientific education). The decrease of political activism in the general US population (and therefore in the poet population) shouldn't be blamed on any form of institution, but elsewhere. Where? I don't know. That would be a question for a sociologist.

Poetry Center Feb 17 & 19 Events

2011-02-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

The Poetry Center
presents

• Thursday FEB 17, 2011
Gloria Gervitz (Mexico City)
3:30 pm @ the Poetry Center, HUM 512, SFSU, free

• Saturday FEB 19
Gloria Gervitz (Mexico City) and Esther Tellermann * (Paris)
with François Luong, Stacy Doris, and Susan Gevirtz
7:30 pm @ Unitarian Center, 1187 Franklin (at Geary), $10

* NOTE: Esther Tellermann has had to cancel her travel plans. We are arranging for a virtual presence, together with her work in translation to be read by poet-translators François Luong and Stacy Doris.

French poet Esther Tellermann is best known in the US for her work Mental Ground (Burning Deck), translated by National Book Award-winning poet Keith Waldrop. Born in 1947, she is an agrégé of letters and teaches in Paris, where she’s on the editorial board of the psychoanalytical review La Célibataire. Flammarion has published her seven books of poetry, beginning in 1986 with Première apparition avec épaisseur; Trois plans inhumains (1989), Distance de fuite (1993), Pangéia (1996), Guerre extrême (1999), Encre plus rouge (2003), and Terre exacte (2007). Regarding Keith Waldrop's translation Mental Ground (2002, from Guerre extrême):

“I read, on page 49, ‘Nothing will be disclosed/ but stone to dissolve/ at the border. . . .’ And it was then that I had to return to poem one and begin reading again to be within the poetry . . . and with my next breath moist on the window, I was released again, as I am by great poetry to travel within my life. . . . Poems like these allow people like me, and you, access, free and open, to other real realms.” —Michael Basinksi

Gloria Gervitz was born in 1943 in Mexico City, where she still lives. Her work as a poet for almost thirty years was one multi-book poem, Migraciones. The first volume, Shajarit, was published in 1979, and the last two volumes, Treno and Septiembre, each appeared in 2003, completing the work. Published, in Mark Shafer’s translation, in the UK by Shearsman and in the US by Junction Press, Migrations has been called “one of the more important poetic texts to emerge from Mexico, or just about anywhere, in recent decades.” (Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno)

“To say that is this is a book of the immigrant experience — which in some sense it is — is to underrate the range of form and feeling that Gervitz brings to it, creating thereby an epic of the migratory self. Like Pound’s Cantos or Zukofsky’s “A”, hers is the work of a lifetime. . . . Migrations takes its place with theirs as a long and difficult poem which is the achievement of a great poetic talent: a complex tribute to the complex world from which it comes.” —Jerome Rothenberg

Gloria Gervitz has pubished studies of the work of Clarice Lispector, and Osip and Nadezhda Mandelstam, and translated poetry by, among others, Anna Akhmatova, Samuel Beckett, Kenneth Rexroth, Susan Howe, and Lorine Niedecker. Her own work has also been translated into French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Swedish, and her name appeared on the list of recent nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
For Esther Tellermann’s reading, her voice will be accompanied by poems read in translation by poet-translators François Luong and Stacy Doris.

François Luong, originally from Strasbourg, France, lives in San Francisco. He is the author of a chapbook, The Symmetries (Ink, France, forthcoming) and the French translator of Angela Rawlings’ Wide slumber for lepidopterists (Le clou dans le fer, France, forthcoming). His poems and translations can be found or are forthcoming in Telephone, Open Letter, Absent, Bombay Gin, Mantis, Washington Square Review, and elsewhere. He works in the video game industry.

Stacy Doris, who teaches at SFSU, is a prolific translator, primarily from the French. Esther Tellerman’s poetry was the first work by a French poet she translated, for the anthology of contemporary French poetry that she co-edited, titled Violence of the White Page (Tuoyonyi, 1991). Her recent books include Knot (University of Georgia) and Cheerleader’s Guide to the World: Council Book (Roof Books).

Gloria Gervitz will read her own work en Español, with translations read by Susan Gevirtz, author most recently of Thrall (Post-Apollo), Broadcast (Traffiker), and Aerodrome Orion and Starry Messenger (Kelsey Street). Cofounder with Greek poet Siarita Kouka of the Paros Symposium for Translation and Conversation, she teaches at California College of Arts and at Mills College.

Gloria Gervitz's Poetry Center appearances are in conjunction with the exhibition México Política y Poética, and are co-sponsored by the Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco State University.

Exhibition: OPENING Feb. 17, 4:30–7:30pm; runs thru March 24; Wed–Sat, 11am–4pm

Photos: (top) Esther Tellermann; (above) Gloria Gervitz by Graciela Iturbide; (below) The Trench by Máximo Gonzalez. Watercolor on out-of-circulation currency. 6.5 cm x 15.5 cm. 2003. Private collection, Mexico City.

COMING UP:

Most events are free for SFSU students and Poetry Center members; reduced low-income admission; no one turned away for lack of funds.
• Thursday FEB 17
Gloria Gervitz (Mexico City)
3:30 pm @ the Poetry Center, HUM 512, SFSU, free

• Saturday FEB 19
Esther Tellermann (Paris) and Gloria Gervitz (Mexico City)
with François Luong, Stacy Doris and Susan Gevirtz
7:30 pm @ Unitarian Center, 1187 Franklin (at Geary), $10

• Thursday FEB 24
Steve Katz (Denver) and Barbara Henning (New York City)
3:30 pm @ the Poetry Center, HUM 512, SFSU, free

• Thursday MAR 03
Tisa Bryant (Los Angeles) and Ronald Palmer (San Francisco)
3:30 pm @ the Poetry Center, HUM 512, SFSU, free

• Sunday MAR 06
The New Talkies, with Tisa Bryant, Jen Hofer, Jennifer Nellis, Ronald Palmer,
Konrad Steiner, and special guests Erin Morrill and C.S. Giscombe
co-sponsored with ATA and Small Press Traffic
curated by Konrad Steiner and Jen Hofer
7:30 pm @ Artists Television Access, 992 Valencia Street (at 21st), $10

• Thursday MAR 10
Fred Moten (Durham, NC) and Steve Dickison (San Francisco)
7:30 pm @ Meridian Gallery, 535 Powell Street (above Sutter), $10

• Thursday MAR 24
Jennifer Martenson (Providence, RI) and Claire Becker (San Francisco)
3:30 pm @ the Poetry Center, HUM 512, SFSU, free
7:30 pm @ the Green Arcade, 1680 Market (at Gough), free

• Thursday APR 07
Reginald Dwayne Betts (Maryland)
3:30 pm @ the Poetry Center, HUM 512, SFSU, free

• Thursday APR 14
Camille Roy (San Francisco) and Robert Glück (San Francisco)
7:30 pm @ Meridian Gallery, 535 Powell Street (above Sutter), $10

• Saturday APR 16
Philippe Beck (Paris) and Guy Bennett (Los Angeles)
7:30 pm @ Meridian Gallery, 535 Powell Street (above Sutter), $10

• Thursday MAY 05
Poetry Center Book Award reading
Joseph Stroud (Santa Cruz) and Peter Weltner (San Francisco)
3:30 pm @ the Poetry Center, HUM 512, SFSU, free

• Saturday MAY 14
Susan Thackrey (San Francisco) on Robert Duncan’s THE H.D. BOOK
7:30 pm @ Unitarian Center, 1187 Franklin (at Geary), $10

Most events are free for SFSU students and Poetry Center members; reduced low-income admission; no one turned away for lack of funds.

Received today

2011-02-07T16:48:00.001-08:00

Nu(e) 39, a French magazine. This issue is focused on Esther Tellermann.

Vancouver is everywhere, everywhere is Vancouver

2011-02-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

This post is for Aaron Peck.

Rule of thumb: If your TV series has more than 5 sequences of stock footage per episode, it was most likely filmed in Vancouver.

Case in point: Fairly Legal on USA Network (the pilot was free on iTunes; it seems that many pilots from USA Network were made available on iTunes).

Said pilot seemed rather promising. The office of the main character are located in what seemed to be the Wells Fargo building on Sutter and Market; coffee with brother on Union Square; shot of the main character on Columbus and Kearny, walking to her office, with a view of the Transamerica Tower and the Zoetrope building in the background (meaning the protagonist has no sense of orientation, since her office is the other way around); protagonist riding the ferry to Sausalito, the Ferry Building in the back.

There are geographical inconsistencies, of course. One has already been mentioned. The protagonist also seems to live in a British Columbia version of either Fort Mason or Sausalito (from the proximity of the Golden Gate Bridge, obviously added with Adobe After Effects or Final Cut Pro). There are too many fir trees. There are fir trees around.

(Rule number 2 of TV series: If your TV series shows more than 3 tourist sites per episode, it was probably shot in Vancouver)

Episode 2 went cheap and offered this shot of Bernal Heights:

Except that there are no hills around or indication of hills, and there are no buildings with less than two stories in Bernal Heights. Not to mention that Bernal Heights is a densely populated neighborhood.

And the scenes in the Financial District? Yup, that's Granville:

Also note the wide sidewalks:

This is all fairly innocuous stuff. It's not as bad as this recent episode of Human Target where a hostage situation takes place at the San Francisco Opera. The building itself has a neoclassical style:

But the exterior shots are of a red-brick building, closer looking to the SFMoMA. Not to mention the ludicrous plot where the hostage takers chose the Opera (located next to City Hall) to dig a tunnel to a CIA safe house located on Kearny St, the address given placing it between City Lights Books and the Zoetrope building (you may want to Google-map it for distances and other topographical difficulties).

This is not a rant against filming in Vancouver. There are many reasons why things cannot be filmed on location, although it does occur from time to time (Trauma was filmed entirely in San Francisco and a couple of months ago, I had to take the long way to my bus stop because scenes from Rise of the Apes were shot on my street). And we are talking about mass entertainment, where verisimilitude is not really a concern.

During his last visit to San Francisco, Aaron Peck remarked that it would become more difficult for Vancouver because the recent Olympics would make the city more recognizable. Karen Hannah recently mentioned in one of her Feedbag posts the Cittaslow movement. One of the stated goals of this movement is to "resist the homogenization and globalization of towns around the globe". Both statements make me skeptical. Even when people state an interest in architecture, I don't see them notice architecture as such, which goes beyond the features of a building.

Architect Bernard Tschumi somewhere wrote of architecture as "the organization of space" along an "urban program". In this sense, the San Francisco Main Library, designed by the firm of Cathy Simon (SWVM), is successful in that it is in dialogue with the surrounding buildings (the Asian Art Museum, the Opera House, the San Francisco Municipal Court, ...) while looking modern. With its open-ness and windowed foof, it also speaks of a public space, more than a dusty library.

During his visit last year, Daniel Canty had remarked upon the relative homogeneity of San Francisco's residential neighborhoods (Hayes Valley, the Mission, North Beach, Noe Valley) compared to Montréal, where every neighborhood will change based on whether they were historically Anglophone (Outremont) or Francophone, whether they were a recent addition to the city (during my visit to Montréal, Daniel stated that Verdun was not "true Montréal"; it has only been part of the city for the past 10 years or so). Not to mention whether the neighborhood was a blue-collar neighborhood (Meyerland) or not (Le Plateau).

Meanwhile, most of San Francisco's residential neighborhoods have been historically working class, even the gentrified ones (which is why the homogeneity mentioned by Daniel does not exist in the Presidio). Sure, like Montréal, the neighborhoods have been divided along ethnic and socio-economic lines (the Mission, Chinatown). But those occupants received those neighborhoods second-hand and the characteristics that define those spaces are merely decorative (the murals of the Mission, the Chinese decorations of Chinatown, the mall in Japantown). But there is always something San Franciscan to them.

This post was not written in Vancouver.

UPDATE 2/7/11 10:37AM: I guess I should also mention how the BBC has used Cardiff, Wales, as a stand-in for 1930s Manhattan in the Tenth Doctor's "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks."

Diaristic style and technology

2011-02-06T15:19:00.001-08:00

Posted with smartphone.

2011-02-02T12:01:00.000-08:00

I have nothing of value to say about the current events in Egypt and Tunisia. Like many people in the Western Hemisphere (by which I really mean Western Europe and North America), I don't even have a clue of what it is like to live oppressed under the regime of Ben Ali and Mubarak, and so whatever I could have said, although well-meaning and well-intentioned, would be rather reductive and essentializing. Like this friend (a fellow French Socialist) comparing the Muslim Brotherhood to the Taliban. Which is a stupid comparison, because neither Tunisia nor Egypt have gone through 20 years of civil war.

Nonetheless, here are my vacuous speculations.

The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt will probably unfold the way the Romanian revolution unfolded in November 1989, when the Romanians overthrew Nicolai Ceausescu, or the start of the Sixth Republic in South Korea in 1987, which ended what was essentially a military regime.

I could speak of how a frightened people started being fed up of being frightened. But from the comfort of my office chair in cushy and liberal San Francisco, this sounds awfully patronizing.

In the days the Egyptian government cut off access to the Internet, I could have given my support to the TOR project or re-tweeted or shared on Facebook such and such item as a show of support to the oppressed. Like people were changing the twitter icon or my Facebook profile picture to a green background, as people did recently in support of the Iranian people.

But this is completely inane. Revolutions do not need technology to occur. Or at least twitter or Facebook. And the last thing the Egyptians and the Tunisians need is a symbolic gesture of support that only shows how well-meaning you are.

Because we were ultimately and still are, despite all of our good intentions, complicit in their oppression in the first place.

Found at City Lights

2011-02-02T10:07:00.000-08:00

Feedbag

2011-02-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

Today, Vancouver's poète extraordinaire Ray Hsu launched a month-long Hollywood Squares-like project, Feedbag, involving poets and artists doing the darndest things. Contributors include Christine Leclerc, Karen Hannah, Ray Hsu, Gillian Sze, Katie Fedosenko, Carleton Wilson and Tetsuro Shigematsu, people from Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco and maybe Montreal.

So for a month, most of the things I will be posting here, on my twitter feed and my flickr account (wait? I have a flickr account?) will be rebroadcast on Feedbag.

Oh, and a proof of Ray's extraordinariness:

Don't go blaming guns

2011-01-10T22:58:00.000-08:00

Don't go blaming guns

Chantal Neveu at Port de Tête

2011-01-10T10:05:00.001-08:00

Chantal Neveu et la Librairie Le Port de tête
en collaboration avec les éditions Contre-mur
ont le plaisir de vous inviter au lancement
de Je suis venue faire l'amour
une publication récente de Chantal Neveu.

Jeudi 13 janvier prochain, à partir de 17h30 - et jusqu'à 22h

Le Port de tête, 262 avenue du Mont-Royal Est, Montréal.

Contre-mur est une association créée en 2009 par Caroline Scherb et Nicolas Tardy, à Marseille, dont le but est la promotion de la littérature contemporaine, à travers des éditions ainsi que l'organisation d'événements publics liés aux auteurs édités.

Lors du lancement, les quatre titres déjà parus chez Contre-mur seront présentés :

Je suis venue faire l'amour de Chantal Neveu
Name Dropping ou l'autobiographie des noms de Éric Giraud
Bien des années que de Éric Suchère
Rose devant rose derrière de Lucien Suel

http://contre-mur.com/

http://leportdetete.blogspot.com/2011/01/je-suis-venue-faire-lamour.html

Current Projet

2011-01-06T15:43:00.001-08:00

Almost done.

Dean Young Is In Need of A Heart Transplant - A Message from Tony Hoagland

2010-12-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

(François: Also don't forget to sign up as an organ donor.)

To make a donation to NFT in honor of Dean Young, click the link below. If you'd prefer to send your gift by mail, please send it to the NFT Texas Heart Fund, 5350 Poplar Avenue, Suite 430, Memphis, TN 38119. Please be sure to write "in honor of Dean Young" on the memo line.

A letter from Tony Hoagland:

Dear Friends,

If you are reading this, you are probably a friend of Dean Young and/or a friend of poetry. And you may have heard that our friend is in a precarious position. Dean needs a heart transplant now. He also needs your assistance now.

Over the past 10 or 15 years, Dean has lived with a degenerative heart condition--congestive heart failure due to idiopathic hypotropic cardiomyopathy. After periods of more-or-less remission, in which his heart was stabilized and improved with the help of medications, the function of his heart has worsened. Now, radically.

For the last two years he has had periods in which he cannot walk a block without resting. Medications which once worked have lost their efficacy. He is in and out of the hospital, unable to breathe without discomfort, etc. Currently, Dean's heart is pumping at an estimated 8% of normal volume.

In the past, doctors have been impressed with his ability to function in this condition. But now things are getting quickly worse. Dean has been placed on the transplant list at Seton Medical Center Austin, and has just been upgraded to a very critical category. He's got to get a heart soon, or go to intermediate drastic measures like a mechanical external pump.

Whatever the scenario, the financial expenses, both direct and collateral, will be massive. Yes, he has sound health insurance, but even so, he will have enormous bills not covered by insurance--which is where you can help, with your financial support.

If you know Dean, you know that his non-anatomical heart, though hardly normal, is not malfunctioning, but great in scope, affectionate and loyal. And you know that his poetry is what the Elizabethans would have called "one of the ornaments of our era"--hilarious, heartbreaking, courageous, brilliant and already a part of the American canon.

His 10-plus books, his long career of passionate and brilliant teaching, most recently as William Livingston Chair of Poetry at the University of Texas at Austin; his instruction and mentorship of hundreds of younger poets; his many friendships; his high, reckless and uncompromised vision of what art is: all these are reasons for us to gather together now in his defense and support.

Joe Di Prisco, one of Dean's oldest friends, is chairing a fundraising campaign conducted through the National Foundation for Transplants (NFT). NFT is a nonprofit organization that has been assisting transplant patients with advocacy and fundraising support since 1983.

On behalf of Dean, myself, and the principle of all our friendships in art, I ask you to give all you can. Thanks, my friends.

Yours,

Tony Hoagland

Mantis Issue 9

2010-11-07T19:06:00.000-08:00

I just received the new issue of Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism & Translation. Beautiful issue featuring new poems by Keith Waldrop (yay!), Farrah Field and Shane McCrae, Ayane Kawata (translated by Sawako Nakayasu (yay!)), Aimé Césaire (translated by Clayton Eshleman and A. James Arnold, César Moro (translated by Elisa McCool, Suzanne Buffam (yay!), Lynn Xu (double yay!) and yours truly) with an introduction by Mariela Dreyfus, Alejandra Pizarnik (translated by Jason Stumpf), Marosa di Giorgio (tr. Adam Giannelli), Marcos Canteli (tr. Forrest Gander), as well as texts by Arielle Greenberg, Elisa Gabbert (yay!), Tony Tost, Seth Perlow, Yael Dekel & Ern Tzelgov.

Many thanks to Josh Edwards for inviting me to work on this translation, and to Bronwen Tate.

Absent Mag #5 is here

2010-10-18T17:02:00.001-07:00

Ladies & gentlemen, the fifth issue of absent magazine is now live, including new poetry by

Andrea Applebee

Travis Brown

Donald Dunbar

Caroline Ebeid

Evelyn Hampton

Joshua Harmon

Kirsten Kaschock

Lily Ladewig

François Luong

Nicole Mauro

Ben Mirov

Danielle Pieratti

Fred Schmalz

Please visit*, read, and spread the word! : http://absentmag.org/issue05/#

Elisa Gabbert

Poetry Editor

*absent is lovingly hand-coded in HTML 5. Please use a modern, up-to-date browser (such as Chrome, Firefox, or Safari) for the best experience.

More Daniel Canty News

2010-10-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

In case you happen to be in Montréal, Daniel is showing his beautiful movie (so I keep hearing, from trusted sources) again.

English follows.

Chers amis,

J’ai le plaisir de vous convier à la première de mon film, CINÉMA DES AVEUGLES, en sélection internationale du Festival du nouveau cinéma.

Il y aura deux projections:

Samedi le 16 octobre, à 19h30, au Cinéma ONF / Séance 80

Dimanche le 24 octobre, à 17h00, à la Cinémathèque québécoise / Séance 309

Billets: 10$ et variations

On refusera l’entrée aux chiens et aux morts.

- Daniel

-

Dear friends,

I have the pleasure of inviting you to the premiere of my film, CINEMA FOR THE BLIND, part of the international selection at the Festival du nouveau cinéma.

There will be two screenings:

Saturday October 16th, 7h30 PM, NFB Cinema / Program 80

Sunday Otober 24th, 5 PM, at the Cinémathèque québécoise / Program 309

Tickets: 10$ and variations thereof

Dogs and the dead will be turned back at the door.

- Daniel

I too share Daniel's prejudice against dead people, but not against dogs.

Aaron Belz at Bookshop West Portal

2010-10-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

Aaron Belz will be reading from his new book Lovely, Raspberry at the Bookshop West Portal on Tuesday with Denise Newman.

Here is what Bookshop has to say about those two:

Denise Newman is a San Francisco poet and translator whose two previous collections are Wild Goods and Human Forest. Her latest book, The New Make Believe, is, according to poet Norman Fischer, "more haunting than ever, and as needful of contemplation."
Newman, who teaches creative writing at the California College of Arts and Crafts and Mills College, is a staff editor at Five Fingers Review, and has been a Djerassi Resident Artist. Her translation of The Painted Room by the Danish poet Inger Christensen was published in 2000 by The Harvill Press. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications, including Denver Quarterly, Volt, apex of the M, New American Writing, and ZYZZYVA. For the past decade, she has been collaborating with composers, providing lyrics for choral works.
Aaron Belz, author of The Bird Hoverer, will read from his masterfully offbeat new collection, Lovely, Raspberry. Called “gravely hilarious,” Belz writes with a deadpan whimsy that fronts mischievously for keen cultural insights in poems like “You Bore Me,” “Asking Al Gore About the Muse,” and “Thirty Illegal Moves in the Cloud-Shape Game.”
Dr. Belz, who is Assistant Professor of English at Providence Christian College, earned his doctorate in English from Saint Louis University, where he specialized in comedy and modern American poetry.
"Reading Aaron Belz is like dreaming of a summer vacation and then taking it." — John Ashbery

Aaron gave me my first reading back when he was curating the Observable Reading Series in St. Louis. He's also responsible for many other friendships.

Tuesday, October 12 at 7 PM @ Bookshop West Portal
80 West Portal Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94127
415 564 8080

PXL 2000 Film Update, from Michael Koshkin

2010-09-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

I received the following note from Michael Koshkin, of Hot Whiskey Press:

Dear Friends and Family,

As many of you know, I’ve been working on a documentary called PIXEL VISIONS about the PXL 2000 for close to a year now. The project has grown in ways we never thought it would, earning the attention and support of many notable filmmakers and bands along the way. As of this point, not one of us has been paid to work on the project and I seriously appreciate everyone’s dedication to the vision. The progress we have made on the film would have never been possible if it weren’t for the support of my talented friends.

I am calling on you guys now because we are reaching the finish line. Most of the film has been shot, but we need to make one final trip to complete filming. In addition, we will need to pay an editor and sound designer as a solid month of full-time work is just too much to ask from anyone without compensation.

I have created a Kickstarter page for the project (link below) to help raise funds for completing the film. If you aren’t familiar with Kickstarter, the way it works is we have a set amount of money we are trying to raise and a deadline (November 21) to raise it by. People put up bids in exchange for rewards. In exchange for your donation you will receive things like free tickets to screenings, t-shirts, posters, dvds and even a pixelvision film made on any subject you like. If we make the goal, then all payments will be deducted at the time the Kickstarter project ends, November 21. If we don’t make the goal then we receive nothing and nothing is charged to your credit card.

If you would like to read more about the film and/or make a donation, please visit our site here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/129498015/pixel-visions-a-documentary-on-the-pxl-2000

I have also created a Facebook page for the film so please “Like” it if you are interested in updates about the project:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pixel-Visions/158494090829222?ref=ts

If you don’t know much about the camera and are interested to learn more, you can read more about the PXL 2000 here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PXL_2000

I sincerely appreciate all of your support and would be happy to tell you more about the project if you are interested. Just drop me a line!

Best Regards,

Michael Koshkin

If anyone can contribute to this Kickstarter fund...

For those who don't know, Koshkin and I co-edited the short-lived poetry e-zine blowfish.

A1, by Daniel Canty

2010-08-29T16:32:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to point you to A1, Daniel Canty's new adventure in print and new media.

François Turcot Recipient of the Prix Émile Nelligan

2010-05-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Chantal Neveu sent me an email this morning to inform me that François Turcot has received the Prix Émile Nelligan for his last book of poetry, Cette maison n'est pas la mienne (La Peuplade, 2009). I've known of his nomination for the past two or three weeks now and spent the last 7 days with him in trepidation of the news. The Prix Émile Nelligan is a big prize in Québec. I am not surprised that he received it. François is a poet for whom the valence of words matters a lot. In my reading of his work, I find a continuation the work of Jean Daive, Claude Royet-Journoud and Anne-Marie Albiach, among others. FT's project follows the literalism of those formers, but reinstills a sense of marvel and naïveté in the sentence. An opening of the possibility of the word that I find more possible in the Québécois context than in the metropolitan French one (FT had also described francophone Québécois literature as a minor literature, with everything that it entails).

Here is the éloge the jury wrote in praise of Cette maison:

François Turcot's book is caracterized first by the originality of its architecture: more than a collection, this is first a project where an archeological quest fed by old photographs and strips of found texts. In the background of a distant Irish immigration to America, this books keeps inviting the gaze into a hazy, yet very concrete real. At the core: a house torn down and rebuilt, where subsist images, objects, a table and ghostly residents – a true theater of an uncertain existence. In various form, from the narrative poem to the lyrical fragment, this book thus enters into the mystery of memory and generations, of presence and absence, and the intimate universe it makes come forth with an alluring strangeness, tainted by abstraction. With a singular sensibility and a nice sharpness of writing, Cette maison n'est pas la mienne lets a new voice in contemporary Québécois poetry speak.

For the ceremony, I think FT read from the third section of the book, Vingt fois vos mains sur la table, as well as a piece for Daniel Canty (another beautiful poet, translator, editor and multi-disciplinary artist from Montréal). An earlier draft of this section was recently translated by Nathalie Stephens in Aufgabe. And here is an excerpt from the 4th section of the book, Sur le chemin, l'image, with my translation:

Bond 5, case 4



Plombe
derrière je sais
une maison assise
et les vents analogues

loin au-dessus des 10 pierres file
un hydravion                          le vol d’un souvenir
glisse un photon

(songe que je bouge)


je n’entends plus le bimoteur
le ciel cathodique balise aussi le regard
ricoche la pierre

Step 5, Square 4



Sun
behind I know
an occupied house
and analog winds

far above of the 10 stones flies
a hydroplane                          a memory’s flight
slides a photon

(dream that I move)


I stopped hearing the engine
the electronic sky also marks the gaze
bounces the stone

More work by François Turcot can be found here.

Readings this week

2010-05-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

I will be reading at those places this Saturday:
Please celebrate with us as we launch Issue Seven of
Parthenon West Review

Our first reading will be at the San Francisco State University Poetry Center
SFSU Humanities Building, Room 512
1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco
Thursday, May 6, 2010, 7:00 p.m.

featuring

MAXINE CHERNOFF

CAMILLE DUNGY

ANHVU BUCHANAN

HOLLIE HARDY

FRANÇOIS LUONG

Maxine Chernoff is the author of six books of fi ction and eight books of poetry, most recently The Turning (2008) and Among the Names (2005), both from Apogee Press. She recently translated The Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin (Omnidawn, 2009), with her husband Paul Hoover, with whom she also co-edits New American Writing. Chernoff is a professor and Chair of the Creative Writing program at San Francisco State University.

Camille T. Dungy is author of What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison (Red Hen Press, 2006) and Suck on the Marrow (Red Hen Press, due January 2010). She is editor of Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (UGA, 2009) and co-editor of From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great (Persea, 2009). Dungy is associate professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University.

Anhvu Buchanan’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 580 Split, William and Mary Review, Boston Literary Magazine, Transfer, and Cream City Review. He is the first place winner of the 2009 Barbie Cage Haiku Contest and inaugural winner of Virginia Tech’s Steger Poetry Prize. He co-curates the Living Room Reading series with poet Ric Delia and is finishing up his MFA at San Francisco State University.

Hollie Hardy’s poetry has appeared in Transfer, Milvia Street Journal, Goetry, and Boxcutter. She is an MFA candidate for poetry at San Francisco State University, where she also earned her BA in Creative Writing. She is a poetry editor for Fourteen Hillsand curator of The Velvet Revolution, a weekly open mic reading series. Her current project is a series of “Survival Poems” with titles ruthlessly appropriated from The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook.

François Luong, originally from Strasbourg, France, currently lives in San Francisco. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Action Yes, Cannibal, Bombay Gin, New American Writing and elsewhere. In addition to his translations of Rémi Froger he is also translating Esther Tellermann, a.rawlings and other French and Canadian poets. His translation of angela rawlings' The wide slumber for lepidopterists (Coach House Books, Canada, 2005) is forthcoming in 2012 through Un clou dans le fer (France).

San Francisco State University Poetry Center is in Room 512 of SFSU's Humanities Building.
1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132
For more information email: editors@parthenonwestreview.com

Bernal Yoga Literary Series
The Bernal Yoga Literary Series continues its 2009-2010 program by
presenting six writers who will read from their own creative work.
The reading will take place on Saturday, May 8, 2010. Fiction
writers KM Soehnlein and Maggie Shipstead and poet Dina Hardy will be featured. Three other other local authors, Karin Cotterman, François Luong, and Melissa Stein, will also share their work. A reception
will follow the reading.
The Bernal Yoga Studio is located on 461 Cortland Avenue, in Bernal
Heights in San Francisco. The reading begins promptly at 7pm. A
small donation at the door is welcomed.

When: Saturday, May 8, 2010 from 7-8:30pm (the event starts on time).
Who: Dina Hardy (Poet), KM Soehnlein and Maggie Shipstead (Fiction Writers)
Where: Bernal Yoga on 461 Cortland St., San Francisco (Cross street:
Andover) (directions at www.bernalyoga.com ).
There is a $5 suggested donation to help cover expenses. Any excess is
offered as a contribution to the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center.
Contact info or questions for public and media: costello.elizabeth@gmail.com

Biographies of featured readers below:

K.M. Soehnlein is very happy to launch his third novel, Robin and Ruby, into the world. The book is a sequel to his debut, The World of Normal Boys, and updates that novel's teenage characters into their early 20s. Soehnlein has also published the novel You Can Say You Knew Me When as well as various essays and short fiction. He teaches creative writing at the University of San Francisco’s MFA in Writing Program and lives in San Francisco with his husband, theater artist Kevin Clarke

Dina Hardy earned degrees from Pratt Art Institute and the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Agni, Black Warrior Review, Phoebe, Smartish Pace, Southeast Review and Meridian's Best New Poets anthology. She is a 2008-2010 Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

Maggie Shipstead is a graduate of Harvard and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and her short fiction has appeared in the Mississippi Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Missouri Review, and Glimmer Train. Her story "The Cowboy Tango" received the VQR's Emily Clark Balch Prize for the best fiction published in its pages in 2009. Currently, she is a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

From Mark Lamoureux

2010-04-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

He saw the birdwatcher in the distance
raised the gun to his head, the woman yelled
"oh lord" the animals scattered and he fired.
A sameness of birds flew off in his direction.
A smart sheep learned to see a human dying.

Then he was headlines, a bullet's report.
Quotes of friends who'd seen his rise to fame.
A few appearances and a private library,
only the chief librarian never answered.

His poems stirred the old feeling underground
where love still made its signal word for live
and silent with their truth they passed around
declaratives like cheaper currency,

the coiling of the wind in groves of autumn,
an old vagrant fogging wiping and looking in.

--Ben Mazer from January 2008

The above poem was written by my good friend Ben Mazer shortly after the suicide of our friend Landis Everson in November 2007. Since then, the poetry community has lost still others to suicide. Indeed, it seems like an almost annual event that news is heard of another colleague and comrade who has taken his or her own life. I myself have even at points come perilously close to being just such a statistic. It is for this reason, that I've decided this year to be a part of the AFSP Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk in Boston on June 26-27th. This is an 18-mile overnight walk to raise awareness and funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (for more information on the organization and its programs, go to the website here: http://www.afsp.org/).

My fundraising goal is $1,000, but I hope to exceed this, so every small donation helps. If you or someone you love is or has been affected by depression and/or suicide, please consider helping me in my efforts to support an organization working to intervene in these instances, and to raise general awareness concerning the often stigmatized topics of mental illness and suicide--something that affects not just poets but countless other individuals, many of whom need not become statistics or memories.

You can reach my fundraising page here: http://www.theovernight.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=extranet.personalpage&confirmid=10016122 to make tax-deductible donations online.

Thank you for your time, and my apologies if you have received this message from me more than once.

Sincerely,
Mark

BE COUNTED - George Takei & Brad Altman

2010-04-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

Rami Efal

2010-04-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

Rami Efal is a comic book artist whose work I like a lot. His new book is out.

"Never Forget, Never Forgive" - The Graphic Novel / Mocca 2010

NEVER FORGET, NEVER FORGIVE is a 182pp 6"x9" perfect bound trade paperback. See a preview, observe the creative process or read it online at the links below. It is available for purchase through Lulu.com in a minimum price of $12.50 (+shipping and handling) for a limited time. It is self-published and its success depends on generous word-of-mouth -- If you enjoy reading it online or printed, please consider recommending it to friends and family, or reviewing it on your blog and Lulu.com.

I will be attending Mocca 2010 NYC Art Festival at the Act-i-vate table (F17). Books will be available throughout the weekend, and I will be sitting in on Sunday 4-6pm together with 2009 Xeric Award winner Nathan Schreiber and his excellent Power Out. Also, We plan a book event in late May at Bergen Street Comics, so come and say hi, pick up a copy and have it sketched and signed.

Quick links:

Buy NFNF on LULU.COM

NFNF main page

Read NFNF on Activatecomix.com

The Making of NFNF

The OneFace Project -- signed copy+original art -- see offer

NEVER FORGET, NEVER FORGIVE "Widower Samurai Oda struggles raising his spirited teenage daughter Ryoan and his seven-year-old boy Kaimen amidst a bloody clan war. When the enemy lord’s daughters are captured and paraded through town, Ryoan sets off to liberate them, an act that forces Oda, the children and their clan to face old lies that divide and older truths that may ultimately unite. NEVER FORGET, NEVER FORGIVE were the common calls Rami Efal, the author and illustrator who is also a descendent of Holocaust survivors, heard while growing up in Israel. The infant author was puzzled: “Whom will one forgive if not one’s enemies?” Told in the tradition of classic epics and tragedies such as Antigone, Throne of Blood, and Lone Wolf and Cub, this tale invites one to an inner journey of breaking through the barriers within one’s own self to uncover the vast heart we share together."

Republican hypocrisy

2010-02-26T09:54:00.001-08:00

Dear Climate Change Denialists...

2009-12-21T11:53:00.000-08:00

(via Gerry Canavan)

Valentine has launched

2009-12-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

J'ai récemment traduit en français la bande dessinée Valentine, par Alex de Campi et Christine Larsen. Vous pouvez lire gratuitement le premier épisode sur le site de la BD. Plus d'infos sur le site de Robot Comics (en anglais seulement).

I've recently translated into French the comic Valentine by Alex de Campi and Christine Larsen. You can read the first episode on the website of the comic. More info on the Robot Comics website (English only).

Currently Reading

2009-12-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

Derrière les forêts and Cette maison n'est pas la mienne, both by François Turcot and published by La Peuplade. Some of my translations of François's latest book (Cette maison... appeared in the latest issue of Action Yes. More has also been translated by Nathalie Stephens in the latest issue of Aufgabe.

Also reading Under The Dome by Jean Daive (Burning Deck), translated by Rosmarie Waldrop, who will be giving the George Oppen Memorial Lecture at the Unitarian Center this Saturday. The book itself might have some clues about Esther Tellermann's latest book, Terre exacte.

New issue of Action Yes

2009-11-04T15:57:00.000-08:00

The new issue of Action, Yes is up, featuring a Canadian poetry section curated by moi. You will find the work of a.rawlings, Jason Christie, Ray Hsu, Chantal Neveu, Angela Szczepaniak, gleN robsoN, Sonnet L'Abbé, cris costa, Daniel Canty, François Turcot, Hector Ruiz, Angela Carr, Sarah Dowling, Jenny Sampirisi, Jordan Scott, Darren Wershler-Henry and Bill Kennedy. François Turcot and Hector Ruiz were translated by moi. Daniel Canty translated himself. Chantal Neveu had several people translate her (there is also a video performance of her reading of d'après mentale online somewhere (it's in my bookmarks)).

It's obviously not meant to be representative of Canadian poetry, but a selection of people I know and the people they know (for this, big thanks to a.rawlings for connecting me with some of the anglophone poets, and to Angela Carr for the francophone poets). There are many more people I would have loved to have included (Donato Mancini, Nathalie Stephens, Oana Avasilichioaei who with Angela Szczepaniak has the coolest name, Aaron Peck, derek beaulieu, Larissa Lai, Sina Queyras and many many more). There was also an instant messenging interview that a.rawlings and I wanted to conduct. It obviously didn't happen, mostly for technical reasons (a. being in Iceland or Belgium, me not having a computer between April and September). Anyway, I hear this is the first time (if not, one of the rare times) where French- and English-language Canadian poets are featured together.

The issue also features the work of Anne Lesley Selcer, Scott Abels, Maureem Alsop, Kathleen Anderen, Takako Arai (tr. Jeffrey Angles), Rachel Gontijo Araujo, Cara Benson, Megan Martin and others.

Link Post

2009-10-12T22:50:00.000-07:00

Amy Trachtenberg has a new book.
October 15 Thursday 7PM Free
TRACKING GROUNDWORK: Making the Process Legible
AMY TRACHTENBERG and her project GROUNDWORK

With a series of notebook sketches, models and photographic source materials, the book Groundwork details San Francisco-based artist Amy Trachtenberg's process for her award-winning public art project Groundwork, at the new San Jose Public Library. The book contains essays by writers Rebecca Solnit and Mary Burger, Solnit offering a meditation on the associations of library, language, forest; and Burger interpreting Groundwork in the tradition of public artworks commemoration of labor history. Amy Trachtenberg will discuss the process of conceptualizing a permanent public artwork and making it legible to the viewer and reader through a publication.

1680 Market Street @ Gough San Francisco

***

Alex de Campi writes about her new sequential project, Valentine, over at Bleeding Cool.

Why "sequential project" and not the more common terms "graphic novel" or "comic book"? Only because the project lacks a binding for now, so it seems silly to talk about a book. I am also puzzled by the term "graphic novel" in that it tries to legitimize through literary means a form that does not need to be so.

Oh, and I am one of the translators Alex is mentioning in the article.

Jordan Scott at nonsite

2009-10-05T09:09:00.001-07:00

Jordan Scott and Donato Mancini came all the way from Vancouver to read at the Right Window Gallery at Artist Television Access.

Jordan also gave a talk at the nonsite collective. Anne Lesley Selcer's introductory remarks are posted here. Jordan's notes will be posted later.

NONSITE || Aesthetics as Somatic Practice: A Talk with Jordan Scott (author of Blert)

2009-09-29T08:42:00.001-07:00

Anne Lesley and I are facilitating this event:

If you're in the Bay Area, join the Nonsite Collective on Saturday afternoon, October 3, for a discussion around Aesthetics as Somatic Practice with Canadian poet Jordan Scott, author of Blert (Coach House).

Blert suggests that language originates in the mouth. So how is language different for the person who stutters? Canadian poet Jordan Scott sustains one answer in his latest book length work, and in doing so, offers a possibility for language writing that is attached to the body.

3:30 - 6 PM at 935 Natoma Street in San Francisco

(btwn. 10th and 11th and btwn. Mission and Howard)

Close to Van Ness and Market (Muni) or Civic Center (BART)

from Blert:

"Jaw flex slate; tip crabs, techno as a Tourette tide spaz. A labyrinth, a game. Calcites glut. Cheliped sound lattice. A single storey of an L shape with one leg ending in a large glass conservatory" (50).

"Of my mouth and me. Of other people’s mouth and me. Of fluency and me. Of me and my mouth. Of me and other people’s fluent mouths. Of me and fluentcy. My mouth and me" (48).

http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/scott/

Jordan Scott will be reading together with Donato Mancini and Lisa Robertson as part of the opening for Right Window's new show, Punctuation, on Sunday, October 4, 4 PM, at 992 Valencia Street in San Francisco.

More info here.

Poets Basketball

2009-09-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

Part of the Deep Oakland project. Took place last June near Lake Merritt in Oakland.

First half

Poets Basketball: First Half from Deep Oakland on Vimeo.

Half-time interviews

Halftime Interviews from Deep Oakland on Vimeo.

Second half

Poets Basketball: Second Half from Deep Oakland on Vimeo.

Wrap Up

post-game wrap-up from Deep Oakland on Vimeo.

Rematch this Sunday, apparently...

Urbanités Littéraires

2009-09-09T21:31:00.001-07:00

Anne Lesley, Sitka and I will be heading to Buffalo tomorrow for this event:

In the fall 2009, SUNY - BUFFALO in collaboration with the European journal Formules is sponsoring on the UB campus a bi-lingual international Colloquium entitled "Urbanités Littéraires / Cityscapes - Literary Escapes." The goal of the conference is to study the relationship between writing and the urban environment, and specify interactive engagements between literature, architecture, and urbanism. We have planned eight academic panels.

To read the abstracts of the communications go to : www.ieeff.org/cityscapesabstracts.html

Anne Lesley will be presenting a paper there.

Superman supports healthcare reform

2009-08-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

Via Gerry Canavan

2009-08-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

Sitka cried after hearing Tony Hoagland's Galleria poem in Poetry. I just went "Oh, Tony, you didn't!" No more Hoagland for Sitka. Mind you, her first poetry reading was Vanessa Place and Peter Culley at 21 Grand. Anne Lesley says Sitka likes Kurt Schwitters best.

2009-07-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

Hip-hop D

2009-07-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

Thinking about something Australian filmmaker David Cox said at the T-10 video festival last Thursday, about the rise of video-capable cellphones as a way to democratize filmmaking and a way to remain outside of the spectacle. Not to mention the greater availability of cheap-ish video camera (nevermind that I remain skeptical about being able to remain outside of the spectacle and about this utopian thought about technology. $199 is still a lot of money for some). Technique and (video) resolution is not what matters. What matters is that everyone can do it.

Thinking about the prospect irate letters regarding the flarf/conceptual issue of Poetry and the various reactions against flarf/conceptual poetry in various listserv (e.g., accusation of elitism etc.). All of which misses the point. One of the possibilities of flarf is that everyone can write poetry. Style and talent do not matter. Access to Google is not even necessary.

Think of Gary Sullivan's comic book Elsewhere.

***

Having a look at Paul Celan's translation output. He threw himself into the Seine around 50, having translated 45 poets from French, German, English, Romanian and Russian. Some of whom might not have been lifelong commitments (Shakespeare).

I'm not even close to that.

Anne Lesley Selcer at 21 Grand

2009-06-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

21 Grand and Killer Banshee Studios present:
The 9th Annual T-10 Video Festival
two nights celebrating short videos

An hour of videos under 10 minutes long each night, followed by a 30 minute feature on a local, accomplished and often under-recognized video artist.

This year's featured artists:
David Cox, Thursday July 16
Bulk Foodveyor, Friday July 17

The 9th Annual T-10 Video Festival examines the growing collision in the space prior occupied separately by cinemagraphic and video traditions. A popular forum in the East Bay for local artists working in video since 2000, T-10 began shortly after 21 Grand first opened its doors. As the cultural landscape has shifted so has T-10, redefining its purpose each year, while remaining focused on short form works.

Including experimental documentary, narrative shorts, animations and expanded media works, this year's entries mark a shift from the low-resolution immediacy that used to separate video from film. Hi-res digital cameras and low cost editing equipment have enabled more ways to produce independent work than ever before, and have collapsed film and video into the same media space. These tools allow independent artists to provide an important counterbalance to the dominance of mass production in the ecosystem of media experience. Some media works do not need to have an audience of millions; some belong to an audience measured by the size of a small room, that care passionately about seeing something different.

At a time when the means of production has never been more accessible, the ability to be heard or seen has has become increasingly hard. Recent closures, including the Parkway & Cerrito theaters, limit access to screenings of independent, experimental and locally produced work. YouTube offers vast amounts of work, but no context within which to view it. T-10 provides a forum that connects local audiences with local and national artists and producers, offering a survey of current practices in independent media production.

David Cox is an award-winning filmaker with a background in animation and videogames. He lives in the Bay Area and teaches at City College of San Francisco and DeVry University.

Experimental video artist, Bulk Foodveyor (Philip R. Bonner), creates media based theater using physical assemblage with a bizarre satirical humor. In 2008, Bulk Foodveyor was an Artist in Residence at the SFdump.

Plus videos on Thursday from: Anne Lesley Selcer, Ronnie Cramer, Desciple, Michael Trigilio, Anna Whitehead, Sarah Matik, Rebekah May, Raymond Yeh, Alfred Hernandez & Amy Green & Stephanie Sheriff and videos on Friday from: Rebecca Najdowski, Michael Goodier, Tricia Lawless Murray, Corrine Bot, Samara Halperin, Hilary Harp & Suzie Silver, Tony Coleman & Sean Levon Nash, Katie Krohn, Eve Edelson, Antero Alli, Magnetic Stripper, & Ian Winters

Veteran festival participants Killer Banshee return this year as co-organizers of T-10 with 21 Grand. Killer Banshee is a media arts and technology practice shared by Kriss De Jong and Eliot K Daughtry. Known for their live video performances, they have presented work locally and nationally in spaces ranging from ATA to the Bowery Poetry Club. As part of the Illuminated Corridor, they have presented in various public locations including the 2008 Whitney Biennial.

Please check the websites for highlights, full artist list and schedule:
Killer Banshee Studios, Oakland, CA
http://killerbanshee.com/t-10/
t10@killerbanshee.com

21 Grand http://21grand.org
21grand@21grand.org 51044grand

Ray Hsu interviewed by rob mclennan

2009-06-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

Ray Hsu is interviewed here by rob mclennan.

Ray is the first Canadian poet I met and the first I've wanted to translate into French.

Ray is the first poet I've ever read with.

New Issue of Action Yes is up!

2009-06-24T00:42:00.000-07:00

Please visit the new issue of Action, Yes (www.actionyes.org).

"Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy": A special section devoted to the poetry and art of the scandalous cabarets performed by Anita Berber and Sebastian Droste in Weimar Germany.

Abstract comics!(Including a preview of Andrei Molotiu's upcoming anthology from Fantagraphics Books.)

"Always/Only/A/Plenum": Tim Wood's essay on Robert Grenier and Grenier's response.

Translation of writers Agrafiotis (tr. by John Sakkis and Angelos Sakkis), Dragincescu, Froger (translated by françois luong), Lamat, Rubinstein, Sacré.

Per Bäckström's essay " "Crush the Assholetters Between the Teeth": Språkgrotesk in Henri Michaux and Gunnar Ekelöf."

"Dead Can Dance," Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle's ruminations on Decadence.

As well as poetry, visual poetry, collages and prose from Downing, Lundwall, Yankelevich, Schapira and others.

Esmail K'hoi's portrait of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

2009-06-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

Someone was googling Esmail K'hoi's poem "Pasdar Ahmadinejad," K'hoi's denunciation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and got here. My partial translation (with Mehregan Oskooi) can be found here. I can't find the full translation of it on my back up hard drive, but will post the full text when I do.

Bruce Sterling's "Eighteen Challenges to Contemporary Literature"

2009-06-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

At Wired.

Some parts recall the Action Books Manifesto:

1. Literature is language-based and national; contemporary society is globalizing and polyglot.

アラバマ物語 or translating titles

2009-05-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

Anne Healy follows up on my post last year on cover design at Thomas Riggs & Co. blog with a comparison of different cover designs for Muriel Barbéry's L'élégance du hérisson. It is striking to see how uniform and unambiguous the translation of the title is. One exception perhaps is the Japanese title, 「優雅なハリネズミ」("yuugana harinezumi"), literally "The elegant hedgehog."

Similarly, To Kill A Mockingbird in Japanese is titled 「アラバマ物語」("Alabama monogatari") or "Tale/Story of Alabama").

More later perhaps on the politics of title translation. I am also remember how some foreign movie titles are changed tremendously when they are distributed in France. Well, at least American movies in the 80s. On the other hand, starting the 90s, those movies would simply keep their original titles (e.g., Last Action Hero or True Lies (yes, I had horrible taste as a twelve-year-old)).

Lunch with Gary

2009-05-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

Gary and Anne

Hum ...

Washington Square Review

2009-05-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

Just received the latest issue (Summer/Fall 2009) issue of Washington Square, featuring works by:
John Ashbery, Joshua Beckman, Aase Berg (translated, as usual, by Johannes Göransson), Katherine Bogden, Genevieve Burger-Weiser, Rof Dieter Brinkmann (tr. Mark Terrill), Mahmoud Darwish, Rémi Froger (tr. françois luong), Eleni Sikelianos, and others.

La dialectique peut-elle casser des briques?

2009-05-21T16:25:00.000-07:00

Mentioned in Abé Nornes Mark's essay on abusive subtitling ... Nevermind that the movie is dubbed. And that the English subtitling is anything but abusive.

Footnotes

2009-05-19T17:01:00.001-07:00

A discussion at the end of the semester:

Me: What's wrong with footnotes in translation anyway?

J.: It diminishes the integrity of the poem!

Me: Which integrity?

And then I went on about Nabokov's remarks about footnotes and Keith Waldrop's use of them in his translation of Roubaud's La forme de la ville change, hélas, plus vite que le coeur des hommes.

Discuss.

EDIT 5:10PM: Also, another classmate discussing alliterations and assonances in Chinese poetry, and his attempts to preserve them. Do Chinese poets really care about those aspects of poetry? Are they even discussed in scholarly literature on Chinese poetry? You know, Chinese being tonal and not really functioning on the same syllabic/accented systems we find in Indo-European languages.

Parthenon West Review Reading

2009-05-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

Event: Parthenon West Review Reading
Location: The Poetry Center at San Francisco State University
What: Performance
Host: David Holler and Craig Rebele. And maybe Chad Sweeney
When: Monday, May 11th at 5:30pm
Who: Deborah Wood, françois luong, Nguyen Do, Paul Hoover

Beckett

2009-04-08T11:10:00.001-07:00

When discussing Samuel Beckett's major works in an American academic environment, is it ever mentioned that they are translations from French?

Stolen laptop

2009-04-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

Details on the laptop specs here. Not quite sure how posting this on Craigslist is going to help.

a.rawlings at infusoria in Ghent

2009-04-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

With Flemish subtitles!

Cannibal & Parthenon West Review

2009-03-27T12:53:00.000-07:00

New issues of both magazines can be bought here (Cannibal) and here (PWR)

The new issue of Cannibal features work by:
Stephanie Balzer, Zach Barocas, Laura Carter, Dot Devota, Christopher DeWeese, Claire Donato, Buck Downs, Christopher Eaton, Bonnie Emerick, Jeff Encke, Clayton Eshleman, Lucas Farrell, Drew Gardner, Garth Graeper, Meg Hurtado, Ethan Hon, Kevin Holden, Bethany Ides, Shannon Jonas, Pierre Joris, Friederich Kerksieck, Michael Koshkin, Mark Lamoureux, Hank Lazer, François Luong, Amanda Nadelberg, Linnea Ogden, Akilah Oliver, Cate Peebles, Lanny Quarles, Elizabeth Robinson, Morgan Lucas Schuldt, Brandon Shimoda, Stephen Sturgeon, Janaka Stucky, Amish Trivedi, & Allyssa Wolf

I will update this list later with the list of people in Parthenon West Review.

Stolen computers

2009-03-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Our house was broken into. Anne's and my computer were stolen in the process. Trying to figure out how to get a new computer while having just paid the deposit for our new place (among other expenses), so if we have promised you anything, it might be a little late.

Stolen Black MacBook, Serial W8730DF8YA4

2009-03-21T15:45:00.000-07:00

Posting this for archival purposes, since Craig's List will not allow you to post it more than once:

My old house in West Oakland was broken into on March 21st and three laptops were stolen, my girlfriend's (Compaq Armada, 2001 model), my personal laptop (Black MacBook, late 2007 model, 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, slight burn/melt mark on the outside cover of the screen) and my work laptop (Dell Inspiron 710m, with a "Property of [my company]" sticker). If anyone has information on the whereabouts of one of those laptops, please contact me or the Oakland police department. Much of my income and my girlfriend's is dependent on those computers. I will offer a small but substantial reward for the return of those computers.

You may contact me here or by calling me at 415-724-7924 (please leave a message).

Rae Armantrout and Laura Sims' reading report

2009-03-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

Small Press Traffic invited to write the reading report of Laura Sims' and Rae Armantrout's passage in the Bay Area. Despite the cynicism and venom presented in the piece, Samantha Giles was still kind enough to publish it on SPT's blog. You can find the thing here.

And yes, I am aware that I can't be nice without being an ass about it.

And I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. I had forgotten my camera.

2009-02-27T11:37:00.000-08:00

In an interview with Wired, comic book writer Alan Moore writes:

It has occurred to me that the superhero really only originates in America. That seems to be the only country that has produced this phenomenon. Yes, we have had knockoffs of American superheroes originating in this country and presumably in other parts of the world, but they're not natural to this environment. They're an alien species. And I've thought about it and wondered why that was. And I wonder—perhaps this is being too simplistic, I don't know, but I wonder if the root of the emergence of the superhero in American culture might have something to do with a kind of an ingrained American reluctance to engage in confrontation without massive tactical superiority. I mean—does the term 7/7 mean anything to you at all?

Perhaps it has something to do with Picabia's remark about "Dada not being able to survive in America because America is already Dada." The spectacle being so overwhelming in New York (because most superheroes appear in New York or stand-ins for New York), the ridiculousness of superheroes seems quaint. Now try to imagine a superhero full of primary colors appearing in Reims or (God forbid) Watford. Yup, pretty silly.

some preliminary notes on electronic (art)

2009-02-25T09:19:00.000-08:00

In relation to the responses on Johannes' recent blog enty thereof and Darren Wershler's responses:

1. The Internet being the most prominent mode of dissemination of electronic content, any discussion of electronic art should be in relation to the Internet.

2. Yet, some of the most interesting pieces of electronic art does not occur on the Internet or is not even electronic (Dan Graham's two-mirror pieces).

3. Like the illuminated manuscript in the Gutenberg Bible, the e-chapbook and the e-zine are transitional artefact from print technology. Because, they are disseminated electronically, they should still be considered electronic art, even though they retain many characteristics of print technology.

4. The ability to be printed should not preclude content from being considered electronic.

5. Is the platform for spectating a piece of electronic art the screen upon which it is spectated or the computer itself?

6. What interactions are allowed by something that is not permanent?

7. Darren Wershler-Henry wrote on his Twitter feed: "I don't buy the auteurism at the heart of Strickland's argument. Few good poets are good programmers & vice versa which means good epoetry will necessarily be created by assemblages, returning again to the importance of the social." As opposed to the permanence of the technology of the book (see Mallarmé's remark thereof).

8. Dan Graham's remarks on the state of surveillance afforded by the two-way mirror and Derrida's dissemination. The internet as a form of two-way mirror. It embraces notions of democratic participation, but also allows a gaze left unseen. On the other hand, a piece of work can be left in such a space, but the prime mover has no control over what happens next.

9. Like the two-way mirror pieces of Dan Graham, the spectator becomes part of the piece of art because he/she is reflected on its surface.

10. Electronic art should not be conflated with video games. Video games, as games, imply a set of normative rules from which the agent cannot deviate. Video games can be a form of electronic art, but not the other way around (e.g., the solo work of Rod Humble of Electronic Arts, Sony's Loco Roco).

11. Subject to change.

Quoted texts in translation

2009-02-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

In a text that appropriates lines from a pre-existing text, what should the translator do of these lines? Should he appropriate their existing translations, like Nabokov explains in his text on his translation of Onegin? And if so, which translation should he/she pick, should there be many? When Jacques Roubaud uses lines from Baudelaire in La ville change hélas que le coeur de l'homme, Keith Waldrop of course retranslates those lines (of course, KW has translated Baudelaire).

The question then is whether, when Nabokov uses existing translation, the translation is made more transparent as such or not. Pierre Joris had discussed a similar dynamic of the encoded text in his comparison of the McHugh/Popov translation of Paul Celan's "Frankfurt" to his own (where McHugh and Popov had made more apparent a reference to Kafka in the use of the word "Dohle.")

One of the French poets I am translating examines closely the phrasé of past French poets as well as Georg Trakl and Paul Celan. Yet, in a reading of those poems, her references are invisible, weaved within the fabric of the text. So when she appropriates those lines, they are ultimately rewritten. As such, perhaps I should rewrite those lines too.

2009-02-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

So Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's brother, John Cha, is also a literary translator, having worked with Michael Springate on the Korean poet Song Kijo's daytime moon day moon hanging, hazy my portrait. Will write more about this.

Tonight

2009-01-31T12:37:00.000-08:00

At the Yerba Buena Center.

Bombay Gin

2009-01-27T22:13:00.000-08:00

New issue is out:

and can be ordered here

With work by:

Ilya Kaminsky, Rachel Levitsky, Michel Aird, Derek Henderson, Jena Osman, Martha King, Tyrone Williams, Sara Veglahn, Christophe Casamassima, Arthur Nersesian, Martha Cooley, Roberto Harrison, Julie Carr, Michael Knight, Noelle Kocot, Troung Tran, Imraan Coovadia, Shira Dentz, Jared Schickling, Miranda Mellis, Sawako Nakayasu, Raymond Federman, Carrie Etter, Richard Hell, François Luong, Stacy Szymaszek, Peter Gizzi

My Addendum to Translation Trouble

2009-01-25T19:36:00.000-08:00

Much has been said about the lack of translation in US publishing on Johannes's blog. I don't think he is scolding the American readership for not being more interested in foreign-language poetry, advocating for a better readership. It's rather a lack of effort from the majority of US publishers.

Michael Palmer and Norma Cole mentioned something very similar today at a talk about the art of Martin Puryear. Michael Palmer has translated Emmanuel Hocquard, among other French poets, Brazilian and Russian poetries. Norma Cole has translated Danielle Collobert, Anne Portugal and other French poets.

Palmer mentioned about translation the looting of the Iraqi National Museum and the theft and destruction of several ancient jars. To the outcry of art critics and curators, Donald Rumsfeld replied that those jars were just jars, not "repositories of cultures and languages not our own." In short, it is not so much that people should read more translations, but that by not putting out more, what is at stake is "what we allow to speak." As such, Palmer sees the act of translation as an ethical act, a way of "opening the horizon of language and thought" in a way that would not be possible in an insular language.

This Saturday

2009-01-22T08:18:00.000-08:00

This Saturday

ARTIFACT and ACHIOTE PRESS presents...

Scott INGUITO

JTH (Johnny Hernandez)

Margaret RHEE

françois LUONG

Saturday, January 24, 2009
7PM Doors/7:30 Reading

@ Oakland Art Gallery
Frank Ogawa Plaza
199 Kahn's Alley
Oakland Ca 94612

Directions here.

$5 suggested donation

BIOS

Scott Inguito lives in San Francisco, teaches writing in San Jose, and paints in his garage. His most recent writing project, PANDAFUCK, is inspired by the pointless, the ill-tuned yet well-intentioned, the black and white of it all. You can find his paintings at scottinguito.com.

Originally from Strasbourg, France, françois luong currently lives in San Francisco. Other work of his has appeared or is forthcoming in Cannibal, Parthenon West Review, New American Writing, and elsewhere. He is also working on a translation into English of chutes, essais, trafics by Rémi Froger and into French wide slumber for lepidopterists by a.rawlings.

JTH (Johnny Hernandez) is a writer who has been born and raised in and around southern California. JTH currently resides in Emeryville and has been the recent recipient of the Academy of American Poets award for 2008. A recent graduate of the University of California at Berkeley in English, JTH is pursuing an MFA degree from Mills College. Achiote Press published his first collection entitled U.

Margaret Rhee is an interdisciplinary writer and artist. Currently she is a doctorate student in the program in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. She has written academic articles on representation, race, and sexuality for Amerasia Journal; the anthology, Crash Course: Reflections on the Film 'Crash' for Critical Dialogues About Race, Power and Privilege; and the journal, Sexuality Research and Social Policy. Previously she worked as writer and editor in Los Angeles for YOLK Magazine, Chopblock.com, and Back Stage. She earned her BA in creative writing at the University of Southern California, and her MA in Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. She is Kundiman fellow, where in the hot, humid, and gorgeous summers of Virginia, she fell in love with poetry.

--
Artifact Reading Series
Artifact Press
Digital Artifact

www.artifactsf.org
www.artifactseries.blogspot.com
www.digitalartifactmagazine.com

Artifact is a Member of the Intersection for the Arts Incubator Program

Rabbit Butoh

2009-01-15T14:00:00.000-08:00

or where I will be this Friday:

SPT POET'S THEATER: Please join us for a full night of theater, performance, and other delights, at the first night of our annual Poets Theater Fest fundraiser. Featuring:

WORLD PREMIERES OF:

"Only the Money is Real" by Raymond Pettibon (directed by Kevin Killian)
"Perverted Virtue" by Tetra Balestri (directed by Milenko Skoknic)
"Rabbit Butoh, Bunny Butoh" by Bhanu Kapil (directed by Erin Morrill)
"Elsa in Berlin" by Stan Apps (directed by David Brazil)

"Trademark Girls" by Wendy Kramer (directed by Mac McGinnes)

plus:
three short plays by Daniil Kharms, trans. Matvei Yankelevich (directed by Brent Cunningham) intermission performances by Lindsey Boldt, Ariel Goldberg, Brandon Brown, Lara Durbeck, and others as well as a huge raffle, with artworks, signed broadsides and more, from a variety of poets, artists, and presses.
wine & refreshments will be served.

see you then & there!
Show starts promptly at 730pm. $10
Timken Hall, California College of the Arts
1111 8th St., San Francisco

sptraffic.org
smallpresstraffic.blogspot.com

2009-01-14T13:07:00.000-08:00

Many months ago, anti-immigration activists argued something incomprehensible about illegal immigrants making the lives of legal immigrants harder (by the way, I refuse to let you lot speak in my name). Not that the life of a legal immigrant is that much better. For example, I am not eligible for Medicaid, Social Security or unemployment benefits (despite, you know, being a taxpayer).

2008-12-29T15:45:00.000-08:00

The problem with the poetic taxonomies proposed by American poet-critics (most recently Seth Abramson's) is that their scope is strictly limited to American poetry. Take the model elsewhere and it collapses. Take the work of Paul Celan (especially the late work) which is neither pragmatic (again, a very American term), purely syntactic, nor cognitive-semantic, and escapes classification. Or the work of the French poets of Esther Tellermann's generation (Anne-Marie Albiach, Claude Royet-Journoud, Emmanuel Hocquard), whose work might be syntactical at times, but whose study of the phrasé of Victor Hugo, Saint-John Perse, Georg Trakl, George Oppen, Paul Celan ... is an examination of classes in linguistics, of the role of writing and a psychological study. What to make of their interest in the architecture of the Book. What to make of those poets who do not write in the language of their birth countries and whose relationship to the language they are writing in differs in general to that of those who write in the language they were first taught to speak and write. Not to mention that such taxonomies completely ignore the place of translation.

ADDENDUM 4:22PM: I also forgot to mention our friends in the North, where the plethora of government grants encourages and supports directions and concerns not at all described in Seth's taxonomy (e.g., a.rawlings, Jordan Scott, derek beaulieu, the work Ray Hsu is doing at UBC, Darren Wershler-Henry's videogame interest, ...)

Some poets and writers not writing in the language of their birth countries

2008-12-27T09:28:00.001-08:00

Caroline Bergvall, Paul Celan, Anselm Hollo, Linh Dinh, Truong Tran, Hoa Nguyen, Rosmarie Waldrop, Li-young Lee, Charles Simic, Pierre Joris, Ryoko Sekiguchi, Stacy Doris (for two books), Johannes Göransson, Joseph Brodsky, Milan Kundera, Tristan Tzara, Oscar de Milosz, Arakawa, Franz Kafka, Erin Mouré, Samuel Beckett, Henry Parland, Gennadiy Aygi ...

Obviously, there are writers on this list for whom I have no or very little interest.

The list also includes writers who used to write in their native languages and changed later on (Beckett, Kundera).

ADDENDUM: Jack Kerouac, Louis Zukofsky

New issue of Achiote Seeds

2008-12-01T14:52:00.000-08:00

Contributors' Bios
Hugo García Manríquez. Author of two books, No Oscuro Todavia (2005), and Los Materiales (2008). His work has appeared in Mandorla, Damn the Caesars, New American Writing, and others. His translation of William Carlos Williams' poem, Paterson, will be published in Mexico next year.

Originally from Strasbourg, France, françois luong currently lives in San Francisco. Other work of his has appeared or is forthcoming in Cannibal, Parthenon West Review, New American Writing, Mirage #4/Period(ICAL), and elsewhere. He is also working on a translation into English of Chutes, Essais, Trafics by Rémi Froger and into French of Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists by A. Rawlings.

Evie Shockley is the author of A Half-Red Sea (2006) and two chapbooks, 31 words * prose poems (2007) and The Gorgon Goddess (2001). Her poetry and critical pieces appear in numerous journals and anthologies, recently including Foursquare, The Southern Review, No Tell Motel, Ecotone, PMS: poemmemoirstory, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Mixed Blood, Center, and Jacket. She currently serves co-guest editor (with Cathy Park Hong) of Jubilat. A Cave Canem graduate fellow and recipient of a Hedgebrook residency, Shockley teaches African American literature and creative writing at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

Roberto Harrison edits Crayon with Andrew Levy and the Bronze Skull Press chapbook series. Two full-length collections of his work appeared in 2006: Counter Daemons (Litmus) and Os (subpress). Elemental Song, a chapbook, also appeared in 2006 through Answer Tag Home Press. Recent work can be found in Chicago Review, Brooklyn Rail, Court Green, War & Peace 3: The Future, Cannot Exist, and string of small machines.

Cover art by Mary V. Marsh. Mary V. Marsh has exhibited paintings, drawings and artist books in many venues, including solo shows at the San Jose Museum of Art, Berkeley Art Center, and the San Francisco Public Library. She received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1992. Old library books and checkout cards are reconstructed to explore memory, propaganda, and consumer society.

Which can be bought here.

Vancouver Trip

2008-11-25T12:13:00.000-08:00

Kai's show at the VAG.

Jason Christie

Jordan Scott

Cris Costa and a.raw

Andrea Ryer, Summer, Jordan Scott, Donato Mancini

a.rawlings and Ray Hsu pretending to be cardboard cutouts.

a.rawlings and Anne Lesley Selcer. Anne calls this a classic Vancouver picture.

Bad picture of Larissa Lai

Me checking my email. Picture by Ray Hsu

Translating Procedural Poetry

2008-11-11T23:22:00.001-08:00

When K. Silem Mohammad came to read with Christian Bök at the De Young Museum, we discussed at length how one could possibly translate his sonnegrams. If you recall, KSM's sonnegrams are more or less line by line anagrammatic poems written from Shakespeare's sonnets. I had been somewhat dismayed by some Italian translations of Google-sculpted poems by Gary Sullivan, which were just reproducing the meaning of the poems in question (mind you, I can read Italian, but I don't really know the language). The translator had basically worked from an artifact, rather than try to recreate a certain moment of writing. Of course, had the translator written the translation by simply entering the translation of the search terms into the Italian version of Google, he would have gotten a wildly different poem. But is it that bad?

My problem with such translation is that it treats more or less the poem as a communicative object. The poem as artifact has something to say. As Walter Benjamin wrote in "The Task of the Translator," translations will always be read under the shadow of their originals, but it does not entail that shadows have to be dull. And so, what is interesting about procedural poetry (Oulipo, flarf, some Language poetry) is not so much what they have to say but rather their gestures and their mechanics. The semantic acrobatics are icing on the cake.

What I proposed to KSM was to take a translation of Shakespeare (in French) and apply to it similar permutations to the one KSM operated on the English text. As KSM put it, it's writing a new poem out of a constraint/procedure. Which in itself is what poetic translation tends to be anyway, writing a new poem within the constraints of a foreign-language text. (Note that I am not planning right now to translate Kasey's sonnegrams)

KSM thought this was somewhat of a novel way of translating, but it's not really. In The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry (ed. Mary Ann Caws), we find the following poem by Michelle Grangaud, "Isidore Ducasse comte de Lautréamont" (at least the first stanza):

méduse l'auditoire mets sac à côté nord
et mise du crocodile dans ta mare ouest
démode du croissant au court à demi est
toast à taire consomme le décideur sud
sors ta mince camelote du désert oui-da
monte maturité à la corde cuisse de dos

If we had just translated the poem word for word, sentence by sentence (the way Georges Hugnet translated The Making of Americans), this is what we would have gotten:

mystify the audience place bag on the north side
and stake of the crocodile in your western puddle
old-fashioned croissant on the eastern court and a half
toast to shut drink the southern decider
show your narrow crap from the oui-da desert
increase maturity to the rope thigh of back

Like the French, it's still funny and nonsensical, but Grangaud is an Oulipian and the poem is a repeated anagram of its title coupled with the structure of sestina. Here is the translation that Paul and Rosemary Lloyd did:

I am more cursed at close a dent outside
a sluice meet roused a distracted moon
some toadies direct moat clause under
o I must care seamed a rose tinted cloud
lo our coast master educated me inside
so tailed mouse can't deem dour ice star

The translation here in term of gesture is more faithful to the original. Nevermind meaning, there wasn't any to begin with. However, I am not saying this should necessarily be the way to translate procedural poems. This translation is still problematic, in that it is syntactically more correct than its original, for example (there is almost no syntax in the original).

Another interesting translation of procedural poetry is Cole Swensen's work on Pierre Alferi's Kub Or. The original text:

au lieu de moquer marquise
me font vos yeux beaux mourir
penser images secondes
arrangement d'étourneaux
qui vont à la ligne haute
tension battre le flip-book
et revoir le mouvement

cinéma

And as translated in OXO:

rather than mocking marquise
of your eyes so beautiful
die i think frames per second
the arrangement of starlings
aligned on the high tension
wire shuffles the flip-book
and revises the motion

cinéma

Alféri's original is 7 syllables in 7 lines in conversation with 7 photographs by Suzanne Doppelt. What is so admirable about Swensen's translation is that she manages to keep both the structural constraints of the original, but also the dialogue it establishes with the photographs.

2008-11-09T00:17:00.000-08:00

"Even factoring in the league’s occasional mayhem and behavioral mishaps, it is after nearly a quarter-century of Stern’s reign impossible not to credit the N.B.A. for being the industry leader in the creation of black cultural icons and the promotion of African-Americans into coaching and management positions in many of the league’s 30 franchises."

(from the New York Times)

Note: Although I have written posts here about soccer, I was a basketball fan before I was a soccer fan.

Dear Americans

2008-11-04T23:00:00.001-08:00

Thank you for proving me wrong. You are not as silly as I have been thinking those past 8 years.

Dear Americans ...

2008-11-03T12:35:00.000-08:00

Please remember tomorrow why I have not been very kind to you for the past 8 years.

2008-10-22T21:43:00.001-07:00

Reading on October 25th has been postponed.

from Craig Perez

2008-10-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

BACK ROOM LIVE ! SATURDAY NIGHT ! October 25th ! Curator M.C. CRAIG PEREZ ! STEPHANIE YOUNG ! MARGARET RHEE ! FRANCOIS LUONG ! JONNY HERNANDEZ ! Mc NALLY'S IRISH PUB 7pm !

Stephanie Young lives and works in Oakland, California. She's the author of Telling the Future Off (Tougher Disguises, 2005) and Picture Palace (ingirumimusnocte, 2008), and she edited the anthology Bay Poetics (Faux Press, 2006). Recent editorial work includes the collaborative website www.deepoakland.org. Find her online: www.stephanieyoung.org/blog.

Originally from Strasbourg, France, françois luong currently lives in San Francisco. Other work of his has appeared or is forthcoming in Cannibal, Parthenon West Review, New American Writing, and elsewhere. He is also working on a translation into English of chutes, essais, trafics by Rémi Froger and into French of wide slumber for lepidopterists by a.rawlings.

JTH (Johnny Hernandez) is a writer who has been born and raised in and around southern California. JTH currently resides in Emeryville and has been the recent recipient of the Academy of American Poets award for 2008. A recent graduate of the University of California at Berkeley in English, JTH is pursuing an MFA degree from Mills College. His most recent collection of poems entitled 'U' is his first published collection.

Margaret Rhee is an interdisciplinary writer and artist. Currently she is a doctorate student in the program in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. She has written academic articles on representation, race, and sexuality for Amerasia Journal; the anthology Crash Course: Reflections on the Film 'Crash' for Critical Dialogues About Race, Power and Privilege; and the journal of Sexuality Research and Social Policy. Previously she worked as writer and editor in Los Angeles for "YOLK Magazine,""Chopblock.com," and "Back Stage." She earned her BA in creative writing at the University of Southern California, and her MA in Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. She is Kundiman fellow, where in the hot, humid, and gorgeous summers of Virginia, she fell in love with poetry.

Craig Santos Perez is the co-editor of Achiote Press and author of from unincorporated territory (Tinfish Press, 2008).

LIFE LONG PRESS ! OAKLAND ! OCTOBER ! 2008

So that's,
Sat.Oct 25th at 7pm
McNally's Irish Pub
5352 College Ave
Oakland, CA 94618
Minutes from the Rockridge BART Station
and on the 51 bus line

There will be no reading the last Saturday of November!

Saturday December 6th Back Room Live Two Year Anniversary and Life-long Press Publication Event w/ JANE MILLER, BRIAN TEARE, CHRIS STROFFOLINO, HARMONY HOLIDAY, and issues of /BRL Editors Choice Edition/!!!

Thursday January 8th BRL at Book Zoo A Celebration Reading!!! w/ readers from the /BRL Editors Choice Edition/ to be announced

2008-10-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

LoveFest™: the notion of unrestricted love within lines of demarcations. We are free and tolerant, but only on certain days and only within Market St. Technology of the body in the service of architecture, the idea of this space, this city. Much like some of its architecture, maybe San Francisco is still Victorian.

***

Interestingly enough, the trademark sign (TM) is part of Unicode. So is the sign for copyright (©) and registered trademarks (®), but not the one for copyleft. Is this an instance of open-source code containing the idea of property or the idea of property infiltrating the open-source code.

***

Perhaps the reason why capitalism keeps striving no matter what is that technological concerns are given free reins rather than ethical ones. We hear: Si Se Puede! and "Change we can believe in." This insistence on the first person.

Something Marx omitted in his historical analysis: desire.

Perhaps a counter-politics should reformulate the notion of desire, but not as expression of free love, which is still working within a technological framework, but the desire of the Other. Logical operators are failing here. Then, rather than the expression of the Self's desire, the Other's desire?

2008-09-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

Rémi Froger has joined the blogosphere.

The new spectacle

2008-09-17T00:20:00.001-07:00

Coming into the spectacle that is American elections, perhaps politics are indeed a video game. Former roommate Antonin Bechler has of course written about how Japanese RPGs in the mold of Final Fantasy followed strictly the narrative of the Japanese nuclear family (that is to say the young protagonist/head of the family acting upon the axis of duty, accompanied by the mother, the perverted elderly, always of course male, the child and the pet), ultimately playing to preserve the statu quo. As for the US counterpart, the sociology seems reversed. Much like in a video game, the voter/protagonist and he alone will enact great change at the push of a button (or a touch screen), nevermind that said great change will be enacted by a higher authority/presidential candidate. And nevermind that said great change is really more of the same.

Of course, the choice of the 3rd person male is deliberate.

2008-09-14T23:50:00.001-07:00

Rémi Froger's new book is going to be titled Des prises de vue, forthcoming at POL Éditeur.

2008-09-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

(from Johannes, who got it from Paul Hoover and Leslie Scalapino)

Oh, yeah, pass it on.

2008-09-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

Christian Bök explains his Xenotext Experiment in comic book form over at Unlimited Magazine.

(via the ever delightful a.rawlings)

Voices in Utter Dark

Wrapped In Plastic Live at Melt! December 15th 2011

Live @ Melt! December 9th 2011

Live @ Melt, San Francisco, 11-17-11

ASHES by Alex de Campi and Jimmy Broxton on Kickstarter

Okay, click here now.

New video by Alex de Campi

New Broadside by a.rawlings

New Issue of New American Writing

Methane Combustion

Some Links about Friends

Recall Momentum! (Green Bay)

Why you shouldn't listen to the modern GOP when it comes to climate change

Before you start calling the Japanese stupid...

Tax Breaks vs. Budget Cuts

Google Demo Slam: Extra Spicy

Republican War On Working Families

Nob Hill

Borders declaring bankruptcy

Tony Hoagland's "The Change"

Poetry Center Feb 17 & 19 Events

Received today

Vancouver is everywhere, everywhere is Vancouver

Diaristic style and technology

Found at City Lights

Feedbag

Don't go blaming guns

Chantal Neveu at Port de Tête

Current Projet

Dean Young Is In Need of A Heart Transplant - A Message from Tony Hoagland

Mantis Issue 9

Absent Mag #5 is here

More Daniel Canty News

Aaron Belz at Bookshop West Portal

Tuesday, October 12 at 7 PM @ Bookshop West Portal80 West Portal AvenueSan Francisco, CA 94127415 564 8080

PXL 2000 Film Update, from Michael Koshkin

A1, by Daniel Canty

François Turcot Recipient of the Prix Émile Nelligan

Readings this week

From Mark Lamoureux

BE COUNTED - George Takei & Brad Altman

Rami Efal

Republican hypocrisy

Dear Climate Change Denialists...

Valentine has launched

Currently Reading

New issue of Action Yes

Link Post

Jordan Scott at nonsite

NONSITE || Aesthetics as Somatic Practice: A Talk with Jordan Scott (author of Blert)

Poets Basketball

Urbanités Littéraires

Superman supports healthcare reform

Anne Lesley Selcer at 21 Grand

Ray Hsu interviewed by rob mclennan

New Issue of Action Yes is up!

Esmail K'hoi's portrait of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Bruce Sterling's "Eighteen Challenges to Contemporary Literature"

アラバマ物語 or translating titles

Lunch with Gary

Washington Square Review

La dialectique peut-elle casser des briques?

Footnotes

Parthenon West Review Reading

Beckett

Stolen laptop

a.rawlings at infusoria in Ghent

Cannibal & Parthenon West Review

Stolen computers

Stolen Black MacBook, Serial W8730DF8YA4

Rae Armantrout and Laura Sims' reading report

some preliminary notes on electronic (art)

Quoted texts in translation

Tonight

Bombay Gin

My Addendum to Translation Trouble

This Saturday

Rabbit Butoh

Some poets and writers not writing in the language of their birth countries

New issue of Achiote Seeds

Tuesday, October 12 at 7 PM @ Bookshop West Portal
80 West Portal Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94127
415 564 8080