Recently (and some not so recently) Received Books

Click titles for info

• The Emily Dickinson Reader: An English-to-English Translation of Emily Dickinson’s Complete Poems, Paul Legault (McSweeney’s, 2012)
• As Long as Trees Last, Hoa Nguyen (Wave Books, 2012)
• Fifteen Poems, Bobbie Louise Hawkins (Belladonna, 2012)
• [Mary]:, J. Hope Stein (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2012)
• Everywhere Here and in Brooklyn (A Four Quartets), Kristin Prevallet (Belladonna, 2012)
• A Voluptuous Dream During an Eclipse, Elaine Kahn (Poor Claudia, 2012)
• I Am My Own Betrayal, Guillaume Morissette (maison kasini, 2012)

• Reading Duncan Reading: Robert Duncan and the Poetics of Derivation, ed. Stephen Collis and Graham Lyons (University of Iowa Press, 2012)
• Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Catholic Church, Kaya Oakes (Counterpoint, 2012)
• Five Copy Zine, Ross Priddle (Bentspoon, 2012)
• Tele Trance, Ross Priddle (Bentspoon, 2012)
• Revenge for Revenge, Christie Ann Reynolds (Coconut, 2012)
• The Last VISPO Anthology: Visual Poetry, 1998-2008, edited by Nico Vassilakis and Crag Hill (Fantagraphics, 2012)
• Not Hollywood: Independent Film at the Twilight of the American Dream, Sherry B. Ortner (Duke UP, 2013)
• The Sky The, Michael Sikkema (serif of nottingham editions, 2012)

Reviews of most of these will be forthcoming in Poets Quarterly, Altered Scale, ForeWord Magazine, or this blog.

More LB@O Coming Soon…

Top 10 Poetry Books of 2012

What better way to kickstart a blog than a year-end list?

1. Snowflake / Different Streets by Eileen Myles (Wave Books)
2. A Mind Like This by Susan Blackwell Ramsey (Univ of Nebraska Press)
3. Partyknife by Dan Magers (Birds, LLC)
4. Listening for Earthquakes by Jasmine Dreame Wagner (Caketrain)
5. To Embroider the Ground With Prayer by Teresa Scollon (Wayne State UP)
6. As Long As Trees Last by Hoa Nguyen (Wave Books)
7. Dear Jenny, We Are All Find by Jenny Zhang (Octopus Books)
8. The Emily Dickinson Reader: An English-to-English Translation of Emily Dickinson’s Complete Poems by Paul Legault (McSweeney’s)
9. Love, An Index by Rebecca Lindenberg (McSweeney’s)
10. 2500 Random Things About Me Too by Matias Veigener (Les Figues Press)

Surprised that two of the ten are McSweeeney’s publications. I was going to say that My Rice Tastes Like the Lake by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa (Apogee Press) was my favorite of 2012 but apparently the publication date for that was 2011 (though I don’t think it was available until 2012 – so, honorable mention.)

*These are in no particular order, but #2 is hands down my favorite of 2012.

Newly Acquired Books from Buffalo

On my trip to Buffalo, 9/30 – 10/2, I managed to visit Talking Leaves Books and Rust Belt Books. Here’s what I got:

• Little Winter Theater by Nancy Kuhl (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011)

• I Have Imagined a Center // Wilder Than This Region: A Tribute to Susan Howe (Cuneiform Press, 2007)

• Pretty Young Thing by Danielle Pafunda (Soft Skull Press, 2005)

• Floats Horse-Floats or Horse-Flows by Leslie Scalapino (Starcherone Books, 2010)

• Livingdying by Cid Corman (New Directions, 1970)

• Mainstream by Michael Magee (BlazeVOX, 2006)

• Waltzing Matilda by Alice Notley (Faux Press, 2003)

• Mountains in Berlin by Elke Erb, translated by Rosmarie Waldrop (Burning Deck, 1995)

• Dark Brandon by Brandon Downing (Faux Press, 2005)

• Sonnets of a Penny-a-Liner and You Bring Your Whole Life to the Material by Mark Wallace (Buck Downs Books, 1996 and Leave Books, 1992, respectively).

Papers for the Border #16 Has Landed

Reblogged from Papers for the Border Podcast:

... and here is the playlist, featuring music by Horsebladder (Elaine Kahn); Emily Hay; Audrey Chen; Cabinet of Natural Curiosities (Jasmine Dreame Wagner)!

1. Pioneer ~ Horsebladder ~ Not I'll Not (00:00)
2. Lashe ~ Horsebladder ~ Not I'll Not (04:20)
3. Five Golden Rings ~ Horsebladder ~ Not I'll Not (09:25)
4. Liturgy of Sound ~ Emily Hay ~ …

Read more… 178 more words

Latest Papers for the Border podcast...

Audrey Chen ~ Glacial

There is precious little information about this album on the internet, and not much more about Audrey Chen, other than a short bio that website maintainer upon website maintainer feels obliged to post. Chen is a cellist and singer, an improviser who incorporates electronics into her performances, and she is squarely situated in the avant-garde camp. According to her bio, she’s collaborated with all sorts of “out” musicians: Phil Minton and C. Spencer Yeh, to name a few.

I don’t remember where I got this CD, but I came across it a few weeks ago while doing some organizing – it comes in a transparent blue plastic clamshell case, and the only text is “Audrey Chen – Glacial” printed on the disc. The CD contains one 22-minute eponymous track that seems to serve as a showcase for everything Chen is capable of, although I wouldn’t be surprised to find that she has far more tricks up her sleeve than are in evidence on this recording.

(I’m doing something completely new here, to me, by the way: writing about a piece of music as I’m listening to it for the first time. This may not be ideal as I’m not able to give my whole attention to the music, but I’m able to at least get some thoughts down during the initial listening. (The piece just ended – I’ve been at this for more than 22 minutes now apparently, most of it surfing the web trying to find info on Chen). In any case this will be something I will listen to again with full attention, because there is a lot going on in those 22 60-second packets (you can only use the word minute so often during the day).)

Chen starts the piece playing a repetitive score,  dryly and somewhat abrasively, with minimal effects. It feels distancing and cold – the title makes sense here. By the end of the 22 minutes, the listener understands the importance of electronics in Chen’s music, and something else: the voice. It’s analogous to some sort of hallucinatory film sequence where we see Bjork singing and then superimposed within the image of Bjork, the voice, the soul within belongs to Diamanda Galas. When it’s done, the glacier’s begun to melt. There’s a clever analogy to be made here to global warming, but it’s too late. I need to catch up on Daniel Johnston’s back catalog. How’s that for ending on a non-sequitur?

(If you can find “Glacier,” get it. If you can find anything else by Chen, check that out too. 4/5 stars, or AAAA, or 8.9 if you’re a Pitchfork reader.)

Poem for September 2

RUTH

We think of
you often
in Portland –

One night there
Mark & I
walked around

a small pond –
raindrops made
ripples. At

that moment
I said to
Mark – Somehow

this makes me
think of Cid –
and he smiled

and said he’d
been thinking
of you too.

A little rain
has begun to
fall as night falls

* * *

(untitled)

Quiet quiets
if we’d only
sometimes let it.

-Cid Corman, from YEA (The Lapis Press, 1989).