Tiff Dressen on Poet as Radio, Crawling beasts, Sex Machine and The Feeling is Mutual

My lovely Tiff Dressen rhapsodizes about light like no one else on Poet as Radio (Save KUSF!)

http://poetasradio.blogspot.com/2012/07/july-7-2012-tiff-dressen-live-in-studio.html

Some scattershot Tiff lines (what came to my ear--NOT actual sequence or line breaks from her poem. To hear that, click above). From Icarus Children

"Because we no longer live in sensitive bdoes lit up from the inside"

"a star corpse"

"are sleeping more"

"are sleeping in"

"because we are children of clouds and distirbuted memory machines"

"because we will never share the same story"

"scale to the sun"

"all the sunflowers were fertilized by dead angels laid out side by side in rows like corn" 

"because we have perceived light the natural bdoy can never account for"

In other poetry news, Beast Crawl in Oakland on Saturday was hot! On many levels. (Why am I leaving the 10-degrees-warmerness of the East Bay to settle back into my Sutros place in SF? Because I miss lower Polk Street. Love is strange, even place love--because I have traversed it--   Has flaky skin and cold wind, "the dry rot of riddles and smiles"...) So, but Beast Crawl. A gorgeosuly varied trajectory. From Kelsey-Street-and-cupcakes at Awaken Cafe  to dripping strippy pro-dom/switch prose at a handsomely wallpapered adult gallery called Feelmore. Then, after party in which Mg Roberts was requesting Too Short from the DJ, but Val and I were doing OK with Sex Machine.

Still feel terrible about missing (due to generalized personal  derailment, but also the external BART train) my chance to read and have fun  and, most importantly, support Small Press Traffic at the Endless Summer event a few weeks ago. 

To help me make up for it, please buy lots of copies of this anthology: 

The Feeling I$ Mutual: A List of Our Fucking Demands, edited by Sara Wintz, and designed by Michael Cross and Stephen Novotny. These guys created it to raise funds for SPT.

Harriet says: 

As Wintz has written, the book includes writing by “tons of incredible writers who contributed wonderful, beautiful responses to the very simple question: WHAT DO YOU WANT?” Her prompt went further:
“+hey: what do you want?+
-a partner?
-a baby?
-an end to capitalism?
-a job that <3s you?
-a family that <3s you?
-free healthcare?
-student loan forgiveness?
-to be able to get married?
-a government that pays for art?
-an audience/readership?
-a bike?
-a chicken coop?
let's try to write it out, take a picture of it, draw a picture of it, journal about it... and then let's make a book out of our unique and special demands."

Buy it at Michael Cross' blog http://disinhibitor.blogspot.com/2012/06/feeling-is-mutual.html

Dancing with Disability/Pushing Limits KPFA

Listem

Radio Collage With Adrienne Lauby, Petra Kuppers, Neil Marcus, Lakshmi Fjord and Amber DiPietra(music from Mindy Dillard). Many thanks to P and N for dancing with me, and thanks to Adrienne for getting me back in the recording studio!

Spoke about the LightHouse for KPFA

Jessie and I spoke on 94.1 about the Vision Loss Resource Center (LightHouse for the Blind in SF) andrelated current affairs. It was good to be among old friends at Pushing Limits Radio. I have them to thank for my introduction in 06 to the disability community. The podcast of our interview is here www.pushinglimtsradio.blogspot.com

news of Todd Shalom

5/16/09

Dear Friends,

On Sunday June 7th, I will join over 20 New York-based sound artists and musicians in an experiment — the ISSUE Project Room Soundwalk-a-thon — a fundraiser and collective public inquiry into the connection between urban space and our collective sonic imaginations.

With my friend Andrea Williams and the fine folks at ISSUE Project Room, we designed this Soundwalk-a-thon as a way to couple the traditional walk-a-thon structure of fundraising with a more creative way of walking.

In short: you can sign up to be a walker on a soundwalk; you can sign up to sponsor someone who is walking; or you can give a straight donation without walking. Regardless of whether you can walk on June 7th, you can still help out:)

I ask you to please sign up for my soundwalk and pledge your support:

http://issueprojectroom.org/soundwalk/?id=16

And, if my walk does not appeal to you, then, by all means, please sign up for a different walk. The goal is to raise money to support ISSUE Project Room, an incredible organization founded in 2003 by Suzanne Fiol. ISSUE produces more than 200 experimental arts events in our community each year. Your support is critical at this time, as they work towards moving to 110 Livingston, a space in which they have the historic opportunity to create the first 20-year home for experimental arts in downtown Brooklyn.

Please visit the site and sign up either as a walker or as a “sponsor,” contributing a gift of $10, $20, $50 or more.

There’s a full list of fantastic soundwalks from which to choose. Please let me know if you've any questions.

Thanks so much!

Love,

Todd

Todd Shalom

212.920.4964

www.beautymarsh.com

11/1/07 Todd Shalom, Onceopolis and more

"Since arriving to Buenos Aires, I've worked on two projects. At
"Vortice Argentina", a visual-poetry festival in the city, I debuted
Sympathetic Twin, a performance using an Ultrasonic MIDI controller
that responds to my movement by outputting sounds from my body and of
my poetry. Secondly, I designed the sound for Onceopolis, a photo
exhibition of the "Once" barrio of the city that is known for its
mixture of Jewish, Korean and Peruvian merchants selling fabric and
electronics.

Upcoming: My Artner of the past 2 years, director Niegel Smith, will
be coming down here over Christmas. We make public performances that
seek to create new rituals in urban spaces. While he's here, we're
hoping to realize a piece in the city."

Read more at Todd's website, http://beautymarsh.com/

Cooley at his book party

Skin is the universal language. It will speak the same to everyone. When i was walking through these coastal headlands and the sun shined on my arms and the air moved against me, I knew this is how your arms would have felt if you were here in this light and temperature.

That's how it is spoken. Every hand knows the hammer. Every side knows the blade. This part of the story tells itself.

Some bodies will learna dialect--the numb arm, the phantom limb--pins pusehd agaimst the skin? Can you feel this? this? this?

--from Visit Me in California, Cooley Windsor 2008

Click here to listen to Cooley reading on August 24, 2008.

Maggie Council, Not in the House

My brilliant stepmother has put out a new album. When she came into my suburban south Florida life from the exotic land of Chicago, I was 12 and--completely intrigued by her knowledge of the blues, conspriacy, Native Americans, and Ricki Lee Jones.

She was the first person to turn me on to a new kind of storytelling

by setting the place I was from in a new context. A Midwesterner stranded in Tampa, she oriented herself by getting to know Spnaglish, by befriending and studying with local historians.



Not In The House

Americana that grooves with intelligent lyrics.
tracks

Organic, progressive Americana.Intelligent lyrics. Cage-free vocals. Slinky grooves. With influences from art rock to Chicago blues, Motown to mbaqanga, and funk to folk, Tampa-based Maggie Council's mostly-acoustic music is minimally processed; no click tracks, steroids or artificial flavors.A self-taught musician, she writes songs on guitar, bass and piano.

Maggie has shared bills with a diverse array of artists, such as:Acoustic Alchemy, Joan Armatrading, The Band, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Steve Forbert, Hot Tuna, Robert Earl Keene, Jr., Ronnie Milsap, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Michelle Shocked, Chris Smither, Al Stewart, Townes van Zandt, and Warren Zevon.

Produced, arranged and engineered by Rob Constable, "Not In The House" features the talents of Ray Villadonga, Dave Rogers and Danny DiPietra among others.“One of Tampa Bay’s most respected and admired performers, Council has an interesting style, combining the understated slink of, say, JJ Cale with the lyrical conscience of Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell.
–Craig Michaels, JAM magazine

Maggie is a happily married mother of three, originally from the Chicagoland area. A few words from Maggie about the songs:

Nebraska Avenue – Ode to southeast Seminole Heights neighborhood of Tampa. Every word is true. All the extraneous sounds are actually from on or near Nebraska Avenue, where Robert hung out with a field recorder. That’s dedication. One of the only songs with drums on this CD, the rhythm section is from my old band, Maggie and the Trashmen of Ybor (Maggie y los Basureros de Ybor), Ray and Danny.

You Were Dancing – Wrote this one for my dad, a Marine drill sergeant, shortly after he passed away. It was the pinnacle of my recording experience to play the Marine Corps Hymn on a toy piano into a $4,000 microphone.

When Mama’s Happy – Wrote this for my oldest son before he left for college. I gathered the lyrics from women who I thought were exceptional moms.

Palm Trees in My Backyard – A nod to Chicagoland and the girls I grew up with. My youngest son sings a harmony line. Now he wants his own album.

Waking Up – Composed on the Warwick bass my boys gave me for Mother’s Day. I don’t really play bass, but I like making up songs. Bassed [heh] on an instrumental riff mostly written by Andy Irvine. The lyrics reflect a daily struggle I think a lot of people can identify with; getting out of bed and going to work.

Ordinary Dias - Revisiting a song from my very first album. I combine it with an entirely new song. It’s my tribute to the spirituality of quantum physics.

Not In The House – OK. I was watching a Jeff Berlin bass instructional video and reading a book about using words to frame arguments called “Don’t Think of an Elephant” while wondering what would happen if the single mom with 4 kids I saw at the Laundromat [on Nebraska Avenue] ever became President. Rob Constable does the death star vocals. :D

Coulda Been - The only song I wrote on piano that I can sing at the same time, I wrote this long ago during a sad time. Dave Rogers put a sweet accordion part on there.

These Two Boys - This really happened to the Wayuu people in Colombia less than 5 years ago, and I have a hard time extracting it from the continuing saga of the Mothers of the Disappeared.

Picket Dancing – My tribute to the un-group Anonymous, whose pickets against the Scientology organization have allowed stifled voices to be heard. They seem to be sparking a new direction in social change; it’s more fun with dancing and cake.

Studio 360 presents a love story of literary disparity

"This was a good week for us. I sold my novel for 11 million and my poet had a poem published by a noted literary magazine, for which she was paid in the form of an origmai swan made from her recycled submission."

This staged reading for Studio 360 sums up every novel/poet polarization I ever discovered while getting my MFA in Writing. But it renders it as a romantic comedy!

My Poet / My Novelist
What’s it like to practice the same line of work as your spouse? What if you’re both writers, but one is a novelist -- in love with plot and character -- and one is a poet -- obsessed with words? Novelist Naeem Murr wrote about that marriage for the Poetry Foundation. We brought him together with his wife, Averill Curdy, for both sides of the story. Produced by Pejk Malinovski.

Listen to the podcast. http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2008/02/08

Stars, Denis Wood

Stars
Originally uploaded by officialthisamericanlife

After listening to TAL's show on Mapping (thislife.org), I went to their website to view images of Denis Wood's maps and discovered not only that his maps were as thrilling as I had imagined, but that TAL itself has an official Flickr site!

Woods calls himself a cartographer of everyday life--a phenomenologist essentially He mapped leaf light in a neighborhood. How Nabokovian is that? Woods' book is called The Power of Maps.

Mofro: some detractions, but mainly testifying

I know they fall into the category of what one friend of mine who recently moved to Austin would label as bad bad white boy blues (and funk too), and by bad I don’t mean good—I mean pasteurized—But. They are from Florida and I am from Florida and yes, they are corny, but they are supposed to be because so is Fla. And even better, a little edgier, Mofro is alt-corny. And no, I don’t mean ironic like trucker hats (because I am pretty sure they wore trucker hats before they were cool, circa my uncle 1978 with said hat, smoking a Pell Mall and swinging me on the swings). I think they are alt-corny because they are pretty earnest actually, and that freaks people out a little but, which is also why the Santa Cruz contingent is into them. I saw some fighting slug hippie chicks at their last concert, lying on the sidewalk afterward, outside of the Independent. Them singing Lochloosa and being barefoot and I just thought Geez girls, I feel old. No more white wine in a box on a sofa bed on wheels in the parking lot of the 7-11 for me. I’m glad I haven’t left my shoes back by the pump.

But, alt-corny or not (and that tag is maybe really is the fault of too much Free Bird on ClearChannel--do they do that in SF? they do in FL.) when JJ Grey sings about "poke chops" I think, Can I take a number?" It's that Otis Redding-like writhe on the floor thing he does with his voice.... and yes, sure "He's not quite an Otis Redding, but then no one else is either."

Anyway,

Mofro @ The Independent Nov 3.!!!

http://www.mofro.net/home.shtml

"Soon even remote places in Florida will be gone forever, replaced by golf courses and country clubs. Music takes me back to those places. It takes me back to the past where I can live, breathe and remain sane. That's probably my biggest influence. Either that or we just make up stuff that we think sounds cool." -JJ from MOFRO

down sutter to divisadero (2)

down sutter to divisadero (2)
Originally uploaded by radio real time

We raced up Sutter, Then down and up and down Divisadero to Fell to get our Mofro tix for next Saturday before the box office closed at 6. My hands were too cold and the sidewalk too broken up for me to snap pictures while scootering, which is what I would usually do on a street I have missed and when it is the light time I like. So K climbed aboard (also because it was freezing) and huddled against me, taking pictures per my instruction. An interesting experiment I thought. "Get that" and he would guess and snap w/o me slowing down or taking time to specify. Then I would guess at what he actually took.

The happiest accident seemed to be the back edge of my cat ear hat, brown wool and twilight filament.

We passed men wearing wizards hats, pushing their bumble bees in strollers and everyone thought we were some kind of costume I guess--two adults on a red mobility device, tiny girl w/ cat hat, Asian guy with giant ear plugs. Hi folks wizard hat said and the bee baby waved. It was nice.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2007

September 07 journal

September 07 journal Lexi convinced me to go back to spiral bound (12)
Originally uploaded by radio real time

http://www.flickr.com/photos/not_words_but_in_things/1452723500/

Pigeonicana a la

Urabn Outfitters.

Too abashed to buy UO art for myself, I was thrilled when my friend Amy got me this for my birthday.

pigeons, Civic Center fountain

Tanyalee Davis

I helped to produce this interview with Leah Gardner for Pushing Limits.

"A midget on a scooter?! How many points do you get for that one?"

Listen here or click on the Pusing Limits link in the sidebar.

http://aud1.kpfa.org/data/20070420-Fri1430.mp3