Partially a poetic tribute to Dada, and partially the practice of it, Hartman provides us with a glimpse of that luminous anti-moment at the beginning of the century as we slide down the greased obelisk of its final decade. One of the purest strokes of Dada here is to have Ken DiMaggio write a "Neon Dadaist Manifesto" even though he confesses to never having met a Neon Dadaist or even being familiar with the movement. And as with earlier Dada, Hartman chooses the menial as fodder for his poetry in "Saturday Nite Dada" by bringing in John Travolta, and later the Tom Tom Club in the "Sacred Words of Dada". Hartman is practicing uninhibited imagination in a convoluted, uptight world. He turns that world inside out to reveal its secrets in an absurd levity.--Jake Berry
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #4,
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Copyright Burning Press 1994, 1995.