This review was published in The Poetry Project Newsletter, #154 , Fall 1994.
Weeighteen We Magazine #18 We Press, 1994 Videotape, $17
What we have here is Video Mimeo.
Weeighteen (We Magazine # 18) is
hot off the press, the press being a 1/2" vid-
eotape duplication system, while the
vidzine itself is comprised primarily of
unedited performances made during Au-
gust, 1993, on Lincoln Street in Santa Cruz.
Chris Funkhauser and Stephen Cope serve
as base, leading a dog team of Thought and
Theory across the tundra of US Culture,
hauling lo-fi jazzdada deconstructions and
a tribe which is the Next Generation.
We always snaps out, a rattlesnake in
the mailbox. Previous issues have appeared
on cassette, CD, silkscreen, as prints and
in print. How the poem is shoveled is part
of the fun, Hon. The vitality of poetry is
directly imprinted on ears' retinas, and if
you need more (and you do!) let thy mo-
dem reach out to cf2785@albnyvms.bitnet
where on the weekly internet offshoot of
We, DIU, I recently read a poem of
Eileen Myles and an attack on the exist-
ence of Marianne Moore, who often taps
in on the mu that is DIU (a mu (or "moo")
being a textual "virtual world" where you
assume a character when you log on).
Meanwhile, back on the video # 18, el-
ementary formal elements like in-camera
framedropping and a strange "channel-
surfing" colorization add a sense of stasis
and high deconstruction and fuck-the-me-
dium to what is essentially a one-camera
documentary. This brilliantly centers the
Poem as It. Is this all there is? Quite so,
when you're hearing Will Alexander's
"Utopian Stellar Concentrations," Angela
Coon, Sara Biel, Kimi Sugioka, Randall
Homan, and Corey Weinstein performing
as Bloodtest in "The Housewife in the Back
of Your Mind," or Richard Loranger,
whose recently published three-volume
Mythkiller is also our from WE on pieces
of paper stapled together. Sound on "WE
18" is exquisitely placed, the bands Eddie
Gale Quintet, thelemonade, and Ed's Re-
deeming Qualities are danceable to all alone
in your living room (catch "Spoken Word"
by Ed's Redeeming Qualities for exegesis
of current moves).Like Ed Sanders' one-camera network,
"The Sanders Report," "Weeighteen"
punches a sweet fist into the VasterWaste-
land. The unedited intersticials of home
movie footage take you backstage of Some
New Punk (Chris Funk), Sun Ra puts in a
guest appearance, a party for the mind.
Panic may be a natural millennial state, but
WE twisrs a new perspective, Artist-con-
trolled and human, mellow in frenzy, on
the dial.Address all correspondence to: We
Press, P.O. Box 1503 Santa Cruz, CA
95061. Subscriptions: $15/3 issues. Sample
package $5.