Tuesday 11 December 2007

Tommaso Durante's new artist's book



A collaboration by Tommaso Durante and Chris Wallace-Crabbe
Orders to:
Tommaso Durante at tdurante at big pond dot net dot au or through
Vamp & Tramp Booksellers in the USA.

The Continental Review

The Continental Review

The Continental Review aims to be:

(1) A forum for video readings of new poetry (2) A forum for video reviews of new poetry (3) A forum for video interviews on poetics

Poetry hasn't missed or resisted the New Media boat, so why should poetry journals? The Continental Review is debuting from its Paris base with the help of a video editor, a webmaster, and a number of extraordinary poets. There will be no monthly or quarterly issues: the site will be continuously updated, on a rolling basis, with new video reviews, readings and interviews. This is an evolving project.

Saturday 8 December 2007

Searching for the holly grail - Books - Entertainment - theage.com.au

A poet of great discernment and taste is Jennifer Maiden!


JENNIFER MAIDEN

Had the request been for a "best book", I'd have bolted, but "my fancy" seems less hierarchical. And had they not published my last collection, I would have said that an irresistible poetry book this year was anything by Giramondo - including Not Finding Wittgenstein by J. S. Harry. I'd have added that the Giramondo periodical, Heat, continues to develop successfully into what Encounter tried to achieve, unsuccessfully, 50 years ago. Fortunately, elsewhere and just as impressive: Tim Thorne's A Letter to Egon Kisch (Cornford Press) uses traditional forms to express untraditional sentiment with gritty wit. Phyllis Perlstone's fine The Edge of Everything (Puncher & Wattman) blends careful details of reality and the danger behind reality in moving time. Chris Mansell's Love Poems (Kardoorair Press) shine with Mansell's wonderful wiry stylistic precision and a poignant mood of loss.

David Kelly's Tall Trees (thekelly@bigpond.com) studies trees as trees sensually, with a metaphor of communal undergrowth in society and self. And Dorothy Porter gave again in El Dorado (Picador) an incisive public voice to private human obsessions.


Searching for the holly grail - Books - Entertainment - theage.com.au

Monday 3 December 2007

PVN Archived Stream - 60-Second Lectures

Now Scientific American does it, but go to PVN Archived Stream - 60-Second Lectures for lectures like:

Vijay Balasubramanian, Merriam Term Assistant Professor of Physics
"The Knowable Universe"
(0:01:44)

(an expanding universe perhaps since sixty seconds now takes 104 seconds...)

or


Charles Bernstein, professor of English, answers the question: "What Makes a Poem a Poem?"
(0:01:23)

Concelebratory Shoehorn Review

Concelebratory Shoehorn Review which carries the tag line: "A Monthly Literary & Arts E-Zine Powerful Enough To Disrupt Language & Still Leave A Q Where The U Once Was" - hmmm.

This (December) issue has poems by John Tranter among others.

Friday 23 November 2007

Beowulf version

Here is a bilinguage rendering of Beowulf (modern and old English) for those who want to see how much the movie does not match the poem:

Beowulf, I. The Passing of Scyld

Wednesday 21 November 2007

Salary Information - Latest Pay Rates by Industry at MyCareer

For a truly depressing picture of salaries in Australia if you are a writer. It's not that we earn crap money, that's not news, but that we don't even make a proper classification in the list:
Salary Information - Latest Pay Rates by Industry at MyCareer

Welcome to Dymocks Online. More for Booklovers.

Welcome to Dymocks Online. More for Booklovers.

Digital books here. No contemporary poetry I think. But plenty of "best sellers" and "classics".

Sunday 18 November 2007

North of the Latte Line

Anne Kellas's blog North of the Latte Line now has some new contributors in Ivy Alvarez, Chris Mansell and Ralph Wessman. Check it out for writing links, news etc.

DIY lazy person's voting

Try this out: GetUp!

for your own How to Vote card. Not all of the candidates have filled out their profiles, but I found this remarkably accurate when I looked at the candidate's information. It didn't change the way I intend to vote, and I won't follow it exactly, but it did pretty well reflect my vote.

Try it out for yourself, be amazed.

In the clouds

From Michael Quinlon's World Wide Words bulletin:

"cloudware", online applications such as Web mail that are powered
by massive data storage facilities, often called "cloud servers"


Maybe everyone else knows this already, but I didn't.

Sunday 11 November 2007

Bloom. Western Canon

A list to get you started on reading everything in the known world: Bloom. Western Canon This is a famous list. Many of the books listed are available free if the translations are out of copyright. See the Library link on Blusterhead.com which will give you links to download free digital versions.

Friday 2 November 2007

Haiku Productivity: Limit Your Projects to Achieve Completion

How many projects do you have on your projects list? How many balls can you keep in the air?I submit that the more projects you have, the less likely you are to complete each one. And the reverse is also true: the fewer projects you have, the more likely you are to complete them.

read more | digg story

Monday 29 October 2007

Fluxus Poetry Blog: oktober 2007

As they say:

FLUXUS POETRY

W H A T C O M E S N E X T ?
'Post-Poetic' poetry, or electronic art using any available digital tools to create any sort of production that mixes and blurs the notions of categories previously held to be separate, such as the fine arts, entertainment, engineering, science, politics, and religion. The constants that remain might be termed metaphor and representation. Worlds and worldviews are still represented, and they are represented metaphorically. And what comes after that? The art of living. Just being. No more need to represent our thoughts, ideas and emotions, but simply complexly to live them.


Fluxus Poetry Blog: oktober 2007

otoliths

Online magazine which includes some visual poetry:

otoliths

Wednesday 24 October 2007

Reading


Here's a reading you don't see every day...in a (very unusual) hair salon! See you there if you are from the Illawarra or nearby. 6 pm 20 November at Hair as a Weapon, Globe Lane, Wollongong. Enquiries, South Coast writers centre, 02 4228 0151.

Thursday 18 October 2007

National Novel Writing Month

National Novel Writing Month - allegedly this will get you into good writing habits - and sacrifice a November. The idea is that you write 1500 words a day for the month of November, ending up with a rough sort of novel. I like the idea although a frightening number of people sign up to do it.

Tuesday 16 October 2007

Gathering at Bundanon



At a reading at Bundanon for the Shoalhaven Poetry Festival Anthony J. Bennett (poet, publisher, Kardoorair Press), Alan Baptist (Arts Manager, visual artists Shoalhaven City Council), Robert Dickerson (visual artist) and Les Wicks (poet).

Friday 14 September 2007

An interview with Billy Collins

Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More - A Brisk Walk: Billy Collins in Conversation

Wisdom Publications :: Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry : : Andrew Schelling :

This could bw interestingWisdom Publications :: Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry : : Andrew Schelling :

Their blurb says:

Includes works by:

Diane di Prima o Lawrence Ferlinghetti o Norman Fischer o Sam Hamill o Jane Hirshfield o Mike O'Connor o Gary Snyder o Eliot Weinberger o Philip Whalen o Michael McClure o Leslie Scalapino o and more...

Playful, thoughtful, and important, the 28 poets found in The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry offer innovations on traditional and time-honored Buddhist poetic forms.

Monday 10 September 2007

Quote from Tom Paine

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
-- Thomas Paine

Thursday 6 September 2007

Tuesday 28 August 2007

Orpheus evolves in Brisbane | The Australian

Something to be explored:

WHEN hundreds of people gather at Brisbane's South Bank on Friday afternoon for an outdoor opera called iOrpheus, they'll be witnessing more than one marriage.

There's the wedding, of course, of the mythological hero Orpheus and his bride Eurydice, before the gods deliver the lovers a terrible blow. In the telling, too, iOrpheus combines antique and modern musical ideas: Monteverdi's 400-year-old opera L'Orfeo, and the six-year-old digital music player, the iPod. Both revolutionised the experience of music, but it's unlikely they have been brought together before in such an elaborate project.

iOrpheus potentially involves a cast of hundreds: jazz and opera singers, percussion ensembles from the Queensland Conservatorium, didgeridoos and trombones, sound installation artists, DJs and keyboard players, and as many people with iPods and mobile phones as can be accommodated.


Orpheus evolves in Brisbane | The Australian

Friday 24 August 2007

Frida Kahlo's last secret finally revealed | World | The Observer




The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). Photograph: Mario Guzman/EPA


The artist's confessions to her doctor were locked up for 50 years. Now the details of her misery at not being able to bear children have been exposed

She was always one of the most painfully personal of artists, producing a series of autobiographical canvases that dealt with everything from the consequences of the terrible injuries she suffered in a tram crash to her abortion. But finally the one part of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's life that has remained secret - at the orders of her former husband, fellow painter Diego Rivera - has been revealed in a new book published in Mexico...


The ObserverFrida Kahlo's last secret finally revealed | World | The Observer

Thursday 23 August 2007

Peaceful Simplicity: How to Live a Life of Contentment | zen habits

A good statement:
“Whatever the tasks, do them slowly
with ease,
in mindfulness,
so not do any tasks with the goal
of getting them over with.
Resolve to each job in a relaxed way,
with all your attention.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Master

quoted on:
Peaceful Simplicity: How to Live a Life of Contentment | zen habits

Saturday 30 June 2007

Second Life chairman's stump speech takes us down the rabbit hole [slideshow]: Sciam Observations

This is a great concept. I love it. And I'm not a part of it. Why? It's slow, it's awkward and it's full of people talking rubbish in spaces that have too much advertising. I trashed the protocol (application) after a while because of these things.

This will change, and when it does, I'm there. Watch this (and every other) space.

Second Life chairman's stump speech takes us down the rabbit hole [slideshow]: Sciam Observations

Saturday 9 June 2007

Lithop in flower

Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth

When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearnèd in the world's false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue;
On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O, love's best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love, loves not to have years told.
Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

William Shakespeare

Friday 6 April 2007

Review of Love Poems

Go to Stylus to see Patricia Prime's review of Love Poems offers some considerable insight into the book. I'd disagree with some of the analysis of rhythmical structures, but it's a good review (ie intelligent). Have a look.

Wednesday 21 March 2007

Ars Poetica

Really pleased to be in the company of those at Ars Poetica. It's a themed blog on the topic of... ars poetica.

Go there!

Wednesday 21 February 2007

See the Voice site

Have a look at this site. Small videos of poets reading their work. Great idea from Gian Paolo Guerini - See the voice

Monday 29 January 2007

Sunday 21 January 2007

Lauren Williams

Slow to catch up here, but have been listening to Lauren Lee Williams' 4 Songs recording - particularly the 'Busker' track which I like very much. This is a shift that's been going on for some time. She's still a poet and now some of those poems have music.