Updates Archive: August 2005

May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005

August 31, 2005 11:30 AMParallax Friday (Sept. 2, 2005): I'll be in Kuopio, as a moderator in a seminar on sound in poetry, 1 to 4 PM, in Restaurant Kummisetä, with poet and Professor of Art Risto Ahti, literary scholar Sakari Katajamäki, and poet and leader of the Linnunlaulupuu collective, Teemu Manninen. Whereas in Jyväskylä, as part of a conference on "Dimensions of Authorsip", Juri Joensuu is going to give a talk with the title "Chance vs. Author(ity), Meaning vs. Intention. Notes on Leevi Lehto's Päivä" (this is in the morning session, 10 AM to 1 PM).

August 27, 2005 11:30 AM This image shows the true environment of my German media coverage (1135 unique visitors yesterday...)

August 27, 2005 11:10 AM Poetry Slam Helsinki qualifying round, Monday Aug. 29, 7 to 10 PM, in the cellar of Rest. Manala, Dagmarinkatu 2. Gonna be there and stand up...

August 26, 2005 9:20 AM "Rilke würde sich zwar bei dem einen oder anderen Ergebnis im Grabe umdrehen, aber lustig sind sie allemal." Yesterday and today, these German urls have have brought hundreds an hundreds new users to the Google Poem Generator. Danke!

August 24, 2005 10:35 AM The Finnish poetry season is building up: Kari Aronpuro's new book, Gathandu, Tammi 2005, feels, on first looking-into, especially strong, even for the author. One quick translation, of "Jälkipuhetta" (Subsequent Criticism, or Trace-Speak): "There are no foreigners in art, remarked / Constantin Brancusi to André Breton / in Closerie des Lilas' Cafe at Montparnasse / after his presenting Tristan Tzara as the one from Zürich." There's also a translation from Celan, and a poem reminiscent of Rimbaud's "Vowels", "Huuto", with these immortal lines: "hillitöntä mielihyvää, annan / kummuta / Jäähile! / Jäähile! / Jäähile! Suolijärven sädehtivä anus!"

August 24, 2005 10:15 AM Poetry/Visual Art conspirations downtown Helsinki: Jyrki Pellinen's paintings from four decades at Galleria Sam Vanni, Kalevankatu 4, third floor; and Mari Roger has her poems hanged on the line, like laundry, at Galleria Katariina, Kalevankatu 16.

August 24, 2005 10:02 AM Stuff from the Helsinki Poetics Conference, Aug. 22, 2005 (in English, Swedish, and Finnish) at Tuli&Savu Net.

August 20, 2005 9:13 AM Weldon Gardner Hunter, Sex Glare - a Google poem that seems conscious of itself.

August 19, 2005 11:59 PM Coming up in Runokuu / Poetry Moon (and yes, it is full moon in Helsinki) on Monday: The Helsinki Poetics Conference, on "Tradition", "Meter", "Materia", "Resistance", and "Ways to the Distance", and starting with Hubert van den Berg's question "Why Should I Read Finnish Modernist Poetry In The Swamps Of The Rhine Delta Or On The Slopes Of The Olympus?"

August 18, 2005 8:20 Karri Kokko's Varjofinlandia (first - now last - 134 sentences in English still here) is out as a book and an e-book.

August 18, 2005 8:15 At Katu-Kohina, as part of Runokuu, today: Teemu Manninen with Linnunlaulupuu and Lars Mikael Raattamaa, Sweden, among others. The place is Mbar's terrace, Mannerheimintie 22-24, time 7 PM.

August 18, 2005 8:10 New Google poems by David Vincenti, Ville Luoma-aho, and Karri Kokko.

August 17, 2005 9:20 Runokuu today: Sergei Zavjalov, Hamdan Zakirov, and Arvi Perttu with Jukka Mallinen, on (I think) beneficial foreign influences, 6 PM in Pasilan kirjasto (Rautatieläisenkatu 8).

August 17, 2005 8:50 AM una vaga sombra en la vaga historia Took the risk of putting online four early political essays of mine, from years 1980-85, on Rudolf Bahro, Antonio Gramsci, Louis Alhusser, Urho Kekkonen - or on a more general level, on the crisis of the then "really" existing socialism, some fundaments of Marxism, and certain issues of Finnish Nationalism. From a seemingly remote time, I think they are not totally without relevance today - even beyond what I indicate in my Foreword, 2005... All the stuff is in Finnish; English version of the Foreword may be forthcoming. - As for the risk, it may well be double: that 1) people won't read the texts, 2) they will...

August 16, 2005 9:50 AM Marko Niemi turns over the roles of art and embroidery in his new series of visual poems titled "Kohtaamisia" (Encounters; at nurotus.blospot.com), now in its ninth installment.

August 16, 2005 9:40 AM Starting today in Helsinki: Runokuu - Poetry Moon and/or Month with Agneta Enckell, Mikael Enckell, Stella Parland, and Vesa Haapala discussing the Finland-Swedish Modernism and After, Itäkeskuksen kirjasto, Turunlinnantie 1, 6 to 8 PM. Poeterna reciterar på svenska. Guitar solos by Ville Piispa & Nico Placeres & Tatu Varis. Read more on Runokuu (in Finnish).

August 12, 2005 11:22 AM runo lentää lävitseni / se on siivet / minä sille ilmaa Postman brought Hannu Helin's new book, Linnumpi nyt (More Like Bird Now, Pulvis & Umbra). It's the fruit of the brewing that's been going on at 127.0.0.1. Goes where his latest, ctr alt del, came from. Appears where it dis. Try reading it eyes closed. It is unrelenting verbal music, an unsentimentally sentimental book whose last section, "lie here", may be our first 21. century elegy. A fine start for the poetry season and a guide to the region where "wind is caused by the trees' swaying" (a line I imagine having smuggled to the literature back in 1967). Go to the bookshops everywhere and ask them to order it immediately - since, or before "amerikarnevalisoituneessa maailmassa (...) meri hukkuu kalaan". (& for my discussion with the author, click here.)

August 9, 2005 8:32 AM "1337 |>00|>" alias "leet dood" alias "elite dude": draft for Teemu Manninen's next - it seems, very strong - book of poetry now online at his blog Kesken Kaiken. (Fennically challenged should check out at least this piece.) Teemu's poetics blog is now Cacoethes Scribendi.

August 6, 2005 3:48 PM Google poems galore. New pieces by Teemu Manninen, Sheila E. Murphy, and Daniel Sanders.

August 1, 2005 10:28 AM "I always thought that there was something simple and penetrable in my poetry screaming to be let out." A nice journalistic presentation of Ashbery in Guardian, from April 2005.