Victor D. Infante's Blog, page 177

Happy Birthday, Lea

A lot can happen in 15 years. Lea and I met on the steps outside of opening ceremonies at the 1996 National Poetry Slam Finals in Portland, Oregon. I was coaching Long Beach, she was coaching Worcester, as she often sums it up. It was love at first sight, except that I didn't actually know what that meant. I thought I did. I thought it was a glistening, swooning passion, a cascade of fireworks. And it was that, but the truth is, that's a fairly common occurrence, and I had been there before. That sort of love is common, and burns quick

Lea was something else entirely. She was a fact. She was an utterly necessary truth in my world, one I had no idea I'd been previously missing.

15 years later, and she's still a fact, still that unshakable truth in a life that, in most other ways, has been prone to constant and rapid change. We've changed coasts repeatedly, changed jobs, started and closed readings and literary journals. We've had amazing adventures and faced absolutely devastating losses, and still, here we are. The person I was before her seems remarkably different, like a character in a TV show I used to watch. I can't even imagine him anymore. Her, though, I see with clarity. Sometimes, I think she's the only thing that utterly makes sense to me, the star I follow home. My Neponset Circle, as Jack McCarthy wrote.

It's going to be a hectic weekend. Lisa Sisler and Dorinda Wegener are coming up Friday night for the Knocking at the Door reading at the Poets Asylum Sunday, so we're not exactly set up for a romantic birthday weekend. That's OK. We rarely ever ask for more out of life than good company and good poetry, and we'll have those in abundance. But I am grateful. I've spent the past decade and a half with the most amazing woman I've ever known. And that's a blessing.

Odds and Ends ...

Radius has had the sort of week that makes me glad to edit an online poetry journal. Following on a great poem by Kazim Ali, and a feature package of Dodie Bellamy, Daphne Gottlieb and Danielle Montgomery, we have up a fascinating essay by Sam Cha, looking at Robert Pinsky and poetry in performance, and then three new poems by the amazingly talented Monica Hand. As always, there's more where that came from, not the least of which is a little Brendan Constantine ...

Pop Culture Notebook is still going strong. Today, I've got up musings on American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Glee an Wonder Woman. Also up today is the transcript of last of Scott Croteau's great Idol online chats.

Work, work, work ...

Busy, but I have to share this immediately: The Radius signature feature returns, with three absolutely amazing poets: Daphne Gottlieb, Dodie Bellamy and Danielle Montgomery. For real.

Sigh ...

A couple of weeks ago, I rejected some poems from the old Nov3rd submission email. Of course, Nov3rd has been out-of-business for months, so the fact that they're submitting means the poet didn't bother looking at the site, which would have told him it was gone. The poems were pretty good, actually, but not political in the least, and Nov3rd exclusively published political poetry. (Radius publishes a slightly broader range, although these didn't fall into Radius' parameters, either. Sometimes I'll take something that was submitted to Nov3rd for Radius. The right poem is the right poem, even if the poet's not bothering to check to see if the journal he's submitting to is still in business.)

Anyway, the poet writes me back to tell me he doesn't write political poetry. I squelched the urge to respond by asking him why he sent me the poems in the first place. Sigh. This on the heels of not being able to publish three poems from someone because they were simultaneously submitted and accepted elsewhere, even though our guidelines clearly state that we don't accept simultaneously submitted poems. 

Seriously, people. Read the guidelines. It helps both you and the editor at the other end. A LOT.

***

Happier news: Gorgeous poem up on Radius today from Kazim Ali, and cool stuff up in Pop Culture Notebook. Enjoy!

Of "American Idol" and Afghani Poets

Not terribly long ago, I write something on this blog along the lines of "I don't watch American Idol, because I love music." Which is true, as far as it goes. But, because of things we're doing at the newspaper, most notably Scott Croteau's excellent noontime Idol chats every Thursday on Telegram.com, I've been tuning in. And you know what? It's not that painful. Some of it has been actively good. To be fair, large stretches have been massively dull, but none of it's been actively bad. Which is something. (It pays to only start tuning in with the final five, I think.)

So in the course of writing for the Pop Culture Notebook, I've been theorizing what songs I would give the competitors to sing. I was looking for songs that would work well with their own skills, but would bring out something I hadn't felt I'd seen. For Scotty, I wanted that would show some emotional depth and perhaps some steam. I suggested "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaaks. The judges gave him Kenny Rogers' "She Believes In Me." To be fair, Scotty really captured the warmth Rogers brings to the song, but frankly, it's way too adult a song for him to really connect to. That songs about old love, the sturdy kind you've lived in for years. He did fine with it, but frankly, he would have been better served with something more youthful.

Lauren, on the other hand, I simply find to be dull. As Ani DiFranco once sang, "I think pretty is nice/but I'd rather see something new." My suggestion for her was to step out of her comfort zone and try something more challenging. I recommended some Motown, particularly Aretha Franklin's :"Respect," because if she nailed it, she would have owned the night. The judges gave her Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance," which again, strikes me as an older person's song. It's from a mother to her children. Still, it was lovely, if dull. again. I'll give this round to the judges' instincts, because frankly, I no longer believe she can leave her comfort zone. She's the most limited performer left in the competition, so consequently, she'll probably win.

And then there's Haley. Haley, Haley, Haley. She seems to be the audience's least favorite remaining, but really? She's the only one that doesn't come off like a kid playing pop star in front of the mirror. She's got an amazing voice, the best phrasing of anyone left up there, and can convey emotion like nobody's business. If I chose this thing, she'd win. But I don't. Still, after he blockbuster performance of Led Zeppelin's  "What Is and What should Never Be," followed by her interesting, moody rendition of Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon," I was curious to see what the judges had given her. My recommendation was to utilize her sense of defiance (never a minus in a pop star) and to meet her competitors on their own field. Consequently, I'd have liked to see her have done "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks. They gave her "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette. Which? Not bad, actually. Neither of her two later songs measured up to her Led Zep, but then again, nothing on the stage measured up to that. She's still, by and far the most talented performer up there.

So ... yeah. I started watching Idol so I could understand it better, and so I could be on top of things at work. And now I have opinions, and actually give a damn. Who knew?

***

Things are rolling along over at Radius, and if you haven't been paying attention, you REALLY should. G. Murray Thomas reopens the "Next .. Files" to find a handful of capsule reviews I wrote after returning from my first National Poetry Slam Finals: Portland, Oregon, in 1996. Even funnier? I ended up marrying one of the poets I reviewed.

Also on Radius, Lenore Weiss examines Songs of Love and War: Afghan Women’s Poetry, edited by Sayd Bahodine. Her essay is fascinating, portraying as it does a poetry that is, in many cases, literally dangerous for the poet to write. a poetry that actually puts the authors' life in jeopardy. It's a humbling thought, in a culture that esteems art too cheaply, that dangles reality-television fame in front of young artists who, in all honesty, might be better served as artists honing their craft before seeking stardom. 

That's a harsh critique, and probably unfair. Any opportunity an artist has to share his or her work is inherently a good thing, no matter how grand or humble, just as anybody is entitled to enjoy whatever art they enjoy. But it does all matter. Every devastating work of beauty, every mumbled open mic mediocrity, every slam rant and burning lyric. All of it.

Tony Brown writes, in his poem "Mission Statement":

poets in other places and times have died
doing what we do here tonight so casually
They stand at our elbows every time we pick up that pen
step to the mike or
(God Forbid!) listen to one another
so: do not let anyone define your voice
and if you want a leader then lead—
you lead
And many voices will come together in one mission
The way storm clouds come together to make lightning
And when lightning passes it leaves thunder
And one day
they will say the same
about us

Most of the women in the book Lenore reviews are published anonymously. For most of them, the world will ever know who they are. That's a tragedy. That's an injustice. But those words they've written? They'll survive. And that's something. That's a small piece of a better future.

Drive-By Posting ...

In Friday's Pop Culture Notebook, we had a fun rattlebag of stuff: An open mic at Coney Island Hot Dogs, Amanda Palmer being arrested, poetry at the White House with Common controversy and more.If you look close, you might find a few familiar names from the Worcester arts scene peppered throughout. It's an old trick, asking locals about things to "localize" a story, but it's still a good one, and certainly one I intend to continue, even if I'm run way too ragged to do much actual journalism with the dang thing. Also interested in getting little reports from local artists about their comings and goings. Obviously, I can't use everything I get, but if something particularly cool, amusing or out-of-the-ordinary happens at a Worcester-area show, drop me a line and we'll see if we can sneak it in.

Today on Radius, there are two lovely poems from Paula J. Lambert, elegies for Bottom Dog Press co-founder David Shevin. They're gorgeous, and I'm happy to have published them.

It's become clear to me that my commitments to Radius and the Pop Culture Notebook will almost certainly affect how I use this blog, but aside from having somewhat less time to spend on it, I'm not entirely sure what the difference will be. For the most part, I think I'm content to just play it by ear and see where we end up.

Thursday is ... Wait, Is It still Thursday?

Yeah. Work's had my head spinning. All good stuff, but I've been pretty much enslaved to my desk for the last week or so, getting the new project up and running. And now it's here! Starting today, the Telegram will be publishing the its Pop Culture Notebook! It's just a little thing, really ... a way to catch stories that are buzzing in the arts & entertainment world, but which aren't really being covered on the wires, or to localize national stories by getting local artists to chime in, or to just pick up interesting bits from the local scene that we might not otherwise be able to get in the paper. The Notebook will update daily Mondays through Friday, and starting next week will be digested in Friday's paper. Right now, I'm writing it all, but hopefully soon there will be contributions from the rest of the Telegram staff. So far, it's been a lot of fun, and hopefully, as it finds its voice, it'll give us a useful tool to do a lot of things regarding arts coverage that we've not been able to do before. So that's nice. So please, by all means, if there's something that should be in there, drop me a line backchannel. (But not press releases for upcoming local shows. Keep sending them to submissions@telegram.com. Because if they don't go there, they'll probably not end up in the calendar, which decreases the odds that anyone will think to write about them. And then you'll be sad.)

Also today was the second installment of Scott Croteau's "American Idol" lunchtime chat.  A lot of people thought it was odd that a crime reporter would want to do that sort of thing, but you know? In the current newsroom environment, everyone's got to be prepared to mix up what they cover, and how they cover it. Flexibility's the name of the game, and Scott's been doing a great job with this.

In our other arts stuff, I talk bluegrass and duende with legendary local musician and journalist, Paul Della Valle, and Craig talks up the new album by Worcester's eclectic rockers, the Bee's Knees. In TWSN, we have recs for Crystal Bowersox, James Montgomery, Jimmy Tingle, the "Salient Point" art exhibit and the RPM Puppet Conspiracy. And in our "People, Places, Things" page, which runs on Page A2, we had, among other bits, an AP item on the White House Poetry Reading and the flap about Common being invited to perform. On the Web version this morning, we added the video for Common's "Testify," which is a thing we're trying to do more of these days. "Add value," as the people with marketing degrees would say, I suppose. I don't know from marketing, though. If I did, I'd probably not be working in news. I just think it's a good idea to put videos up on the Web so readers can get a taste of the music being discussed. Indeed, somewhere in the links above is hidden a video for Bruce Springsteen's "Human Touch."!

Oh, and on the Common flap -- and it really was a flap -- we'll have a bit more in tomorrow's Pop Culture Notebook, but did anyone else see that Bob Holman was quoted in the AP story linked to above? Go, Bob!

***

Oh, and then there's that other thing I do. Radius is still kicking along, with poems by Changming Yuan and Janet Barry. As always, more to come.

Monday Morning Reading

Hello! For the past week, I've been busily figuring out how a bunch of new activities fit into my work week, and thus, very busy. And there was Mother's Day. Also, there was a moderate depressive episode where I spent a couple hours completely detached from reality. And then there was Mike McGee and Thor, which would be the BEST! BUDDY FLICK! EVER! Seriously, I would TOTALLY pay big money  to see a Mighty Mike McGee and Mighty Thor team-up on the silver screen. It would be AWESOME. But I have totally digressed ...

Busy. In the meantime, here's some great reading that's crossed my desk this morning:

*The new Danger Mouse album sounds fascinating.

*Pagan High Priest of Iceland approves 'Thor' movie.

*The New York Times offers correction for getting name of Bilbo's sword wrong. (The actual name is Gordon Sumner.)

*Amanda Palmer talks about the development of one of the songs from the 8in8 project.

*David Cox poses the question, "Do kick-ass young heroines empower women or are they just sustaining a masculine idea of what feminism is?"

*The Rumpus interviews Wylie Dufresne.

*We Who Are About To Die posts a bit from Adam Penna, "I feel differently about poetry these days."

*3:AM has an excellent interview with Albanian poet Luljeta Lleshanaku, accompanied by poems.

*The Guardian has a great bit on Eeyore as literature's archetypical outsider.

*David Orr has some interesting thoughts on Philip Larkin.

*Radius has new poems up by Caroline Harvey and Jane Cassady.

 

Feeling Minnesota

BoingBoing reports:

"(Minnesota) House Majority Leader Matt Dean said he reminded Urdahl of the 'importance of making sure he has [Republican] caucus support' for Legacy funding for arts and cultural heritage projects, an area of spending that Dean acknowledged had rankled some Republicans. 'MPR, it's safe to say, has been a concern in the past,' said Dean.

"Dean also singled out a $45,000 payment of Legacy money that was made last year to science fiction writer Neil Gaiman for a four-hour speaking appearance. Dean said that Gaiman, 'who I hate,' was a "pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota.'"

Author Neil Gaiman Replies:

"I don't like being called a thief. I'm pretty sure that I know what thieves are and do. In this case, Matt Dean's claiming that I 'stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota.' (I'm not sure where the $45K number comes from. I just checked: I actually received $33, 600 from the Minnesota Library System for a talk that was then broadcast and is still up.)

"I do not know whether this man is calling me 'a thief' because:
 "A) I charged more than he's comfortable with for a talk, orB) People happily pay me a lot of money to come and give talks, orC) He thinks I gave the talk wearing a stripy sweater to an audience of people who were there at gunpoint and afterwards took their wallets, orD) He's against the principles of the Free Market, and feels that governments should regulate how much people are paid to talk in public.
 "But for whatever reason, it seems kind of weird, and is a lie. (Yes, I gave the money to charities - a sexual abuse one and a library/author one, long ago, when the cheque came in, well before this ever became a political football. But that seems completely irrelevant to this: I don't like the idea that a politician is telling people that charging a market wage for their services is stealing.) "

The Constant State of Catching Up

Running a little close to the wire right now. Had a good time seeing Dave Perez at the Poets' Asylum Sunday, and bopped in to talk to Simone Beaubien and Megan Thoma about NPS Monday at Ralph's. Lovely to see them (and a bit more of Dave), but we weren't able to stick around. Work is piling up, and when it lets up a bit, housework takes over. Indeed, as soon as I bang this note out, dishes and dinner await ...)

***

The Podcast of Barbara DeMarco-Barrett's interviews with myself and Air Kissing on Mars author Kim Dowler for Writers on Writing is up. I'd heard much about Dowler's book, but hadn't read it, but she had some interesting things to say, so I'm looking forward to tracking it down. As always, I sound like an incoherent basketcase on the radio.

***

On Radius: Poems by Lenore Weiss, Pam Ward and Buff Whitman-Bradley. Also, Jean Macpherson responds to poems by Christie Ann Reynolds, and G. Murray Thomas reopens "The Next ... Files," this time looking at one of the most important pieces of my own poetic life, Jam's Coffeehouse, later known as The Java Garden. Memory lane? Oh, yes.