I met Jim Harrison only once, in 1968, when we were on a “little magazine” panel with Russell Banks, Anne Waldman, and Charles Newman. Even then Harrison was a “character,” a voluble personality who cut quite a figure.—wore a rakish straw hat, a black patch on his blind left eye, and sported a hand-carved walking stick.
‘Tribute in Light’
Phantom Presence of the Missing Twin Towers
It first appeared six months after 9/11 as a public art installation and has appeared every year since. It is presented from dusk of Sept. 11 to dawn of Sept. 12. It’s the most striking memorial to be seen, especially in person.
The Day the Twin Towers Vanished in a Shroud of Ash
My report grew longer by the minute. It ran, updated in real time, as MSNBC.com’s cover story. The lede kept changing throughout the day. … It was the scene of a nightmare … people on fire jumping in terror from the towers … the buildings collapsing … splinters of debris falling from the sky like confetti … deadly smoke blackening the air … an exodus of thousands of New Yorkers coated in white ash streaming on foot for hours across the city’s bridges.
Visions of ‘Ground Zero’ That Fell by the Wayside
I have seen the future and it is B-I-G. It is also tall, fantastical, memorial, ecological, symbolical, cultural, commercial, skyward, subterranean, park-like, Lego-like and — what seems most certain — futuristic, as in a long way off.
Myles & Waldman
Performance Poets Together Again
They go back a long way to the 1970s in New York, most notably to their participation in, and leadership of, The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
A Lost Poem Found
‘Born Black’ was lost eight years ago.
Memory Pictures Coming In
An Old Friend Is Gone Too Long
Norman Ogue Mustill was an extreme dissenter. Nothing pleased him more than reaming out the human race. His collages stopped you dead with their vicious satire, like the writings of William S. Burroughs. And for technical precision Max Ernst didn’t do better.
Cold Turkey Press
*#%&@#$*@%#*&#+@%$+ ! ! !
If we call life
a fabulous blur —
as though it were a lark —
even when our sorrows
founder in the dark,
let’s just call it bad luck.
Cicero Sez
My two years of high school Latin got me to Julius Caesar’s account of his exploits in the Gallic war, written in a straightforward, rather simple style. Unfortunately, I never took third-year Latin, which would have got me to Cicero, whose style was more sophisticated, more complex, and thus more difficult. But I have read Cicero in English and his words of wisdom are eminently clear.
The war made a quick mess of the family.
I.B. Singer Tells the Bloody, Cold-Blooded Truth
I had never really read him . . . a few tales here and there, the novel ‘Enemies’ . . . until I opened a volume of his ‘Collected Short Stories’ not long ago. It has kept me riveted.
‘The Wild Heart’
Dylan Mattingly Makes Debut on Nonesuch Records
UPDATED!
When you’re a young composer, perhaps your most formidable problem is not just learning your craft but getting your music played. To solve that problem two Bard College undergrads — Dylan Mattingly and David Blum — put together a band of fellow Bard musicians. Sixteen years later that band still thrives, performing the works of many contemporary composers. And Mattingly’s own music has since been commissioned and presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Ojai Music Festival. Now he makes his debut on Nonesuch Records with the release of ‘The Wild Heart.’
Early Reviews Are In
Book Launched in Brooklyn: ‘The Midnight Special’
UPDATED:
Colin Asher is “a calm and sophisticated storyteller who picks you up and sets you back down in places you didn’t anticipate,” NY Times book critic Dwight Garner writes. He calls “The Midnight Special” “a fog-piercing down-bound train of a book” that “underlines sheer human resiliency.” The Observer says Asher’s new book will “transform” the way you see art. Booklist calls it “mesmerizing.” Publisher’s Weekly likes it; Alex Gershman dives deep into the book on his YouTube Channel; Maurice Chammah drills down on Ike White, one of the book’s featured musicians, in a discussion with Asher at The Marshall Project.
Nazi Greeting That Preceded the Trump Handshake
UPDATED
The collagist John Heartfield defined “The Meaning of the Hitler Salute”: “Little man asks for large gifts.” Or in Trump terms, “demands big bribes.”
New from Moloko TRAVEL PAINTING
A. Robert Lee’s Omnibus Edition Is Here to Go
UPDATED
The author won’t need a headstone . . . This monumental omnibus will do . . . Five hundred and eight-six gorgeous pages of verbal pleasure . . . Intimate collaborations with esteemed artists . . . Landscapes of descriptive simplicity . . . Pure thought objectified . . .
David Hockney Liked to Draw by Other Means
David Hockney’s departure has drawn obituaries from across the art world and the popular press, which is testimony to his eminence whether his paintings and drawings are considered a simple pleasure to look at or regressive to contemplate. Whatever it comes down to, he loved to experiment.
When Gates Testifies About Epstein, Will Mask Drop?
UPDATED
At Microsoft, Bill Gates was by many accounts a nightmare boss, ‘prone to expletive-laden fits of rage,” Anupta Das is quoted as reporting in her new book ‘Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King.’
Petit Cabinet #7: ‘Just Two More Times to Sleep’
A simple poem becomes an otherworldly love song with the collaboration of a singer and composer.