Previous Updates: December 2005

December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 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

December 29, 2005 10:18 AM For a story of the recent Finnish poetry evening in St. Petersburg, check the web site of the Finnish Consulate, in Finnish, and in Russian.

December 24, 2005 9:51 AM "runouden loppu" (The End Of Poetry) is a Google Poem by Ville-Juhani Sutinen (& note also Ville-Juhani's blog Susi rajoilla). With this poem (more likely just one more new beginning), Happy Holidays to everyone!

December 24, 2005 9:41 AM My answers to seven questions by Elise Tarkoma, in new issue (4/2005) of Virke, the in-house magazine of Äidinkielen Opettajain Liitto (the Finnish Finnish-Teachers' Union).

December 19, 2005 8:53 AMBack home from Sant Petersburg. We had three great days in the splendid city (a great Russian city, and a world of its own, like New York for US). Readings / meetings in the Conference Hall of the Finnish Consulate and in the Anna Akhmatova Museum were successes - not least because of the enthusiastic and acute Russian response from Leonid P. Romankov, Arkadii Dragomochenko, Misha Berg, Mihail Kuzmin, Darya Suhoveii, and others. Everybody agreed this was a beginning of something... In wait for a more detailed documentation, this image reveals this writer mouthing the air in the Brodsky Cabinet in the Akhmatova Museum.

December 15, 2005 9:05 AM More new Finnish poetry in Russian at Tuli&Savu Net. (& the train's name is Sibelius.)

December 15, 2005 6:51 AM A Russian translation of my poem, "Suomalaiset kommunistit Itä-Karjalassa" (Finnish Communists in Eastern Carelia) by Sergej Zavjalov here. & I'm off for St. Petersburg now.

December 15, 2005 6:03 AM googleflarf.blogspot.com is a new, interesting, well, googleflarf blog by Arja Vanajas, an "MUP" (Master of Useless Philosophy) from Eastern Helsinki. Her regular blog is Mietintämyssy.

December 13, 2005 12:45 AM I am the proud owner of #3 of 15 (!) copies of Navegando pela internet, O poeta militante!, a great new chap-book by Canadian poet Weldon Gardner Hunter, published by Ruining Your Vacation Press of Nanaimo, British Columbia. For a sample in the Google Anthology - all the poems in the volume are "heavily search-engine assisted" - click here. - Also, The First Hay(na)ku Anthology, ed. by Jean Vengua and Mark Young, and with poems by Tom Beckett, Monica Fauble, Michael Helsem, Crag Hill, Karri Kokko, Sheila E. Murphy, and Mark Young, among others, is out from Meritage Press, and highly recommended.

December 12, 2005 1:38 PMSome big poetry in this small world of ours this week: New York, Monday, Dec. 12, 6 PM at Bowery Poetry Club, Charles Bernstein, Kenny Goldsmith, Charlie Morrow, Anne Tardos et. al in publication party for Doings: Assorted Performance Pieces 1955-2002 by Jackson Mac Low; St. Petersburg, Thursday, Dec. 15, 6 PM in the Finnish Consulate, a Nihil Interit reading; Stockholm, Friday, Dec. 16, 6.30 PM at Kolsyrefabriken, Johannes Heldén and Martin Högström in publication party for their respective new books, Det underjordiska systemet and Transfutura (OEI editör). Alas, my server will be down for maintenance for several hours starting 3 PM Finnish time (GMT +2) today.

December 9, 2005 3:23 PM "Don't Be Afraid", a Google Poem by Paavo Heinonen. And the Finnish Ylioppilaslehti writes about Google poetry and Flarf.

December 9, 2005 1:30 PM Yesterday evening, I had the great pleasure to listen to Charlie Morrow perform his and Jerome Rothenberg's homage to late Jackson Mac Low: with Rothenberg's reading coming from the tape, and Charlie accompanying him with all kinds of natural and artificial horns. I also enjoyed the contributions of other guests of the evening: Timothy Page (USA) / Halldor Ulfarsson (Island), Tim und Struppi (Finlanf), and Marko Timlin (German/Finland). This was at Äänen Lumo Club, in Kokoteatteri, Helsinki. Äänen lumo, organized by Tommi Keränen and Petri Kuljuntausta, is a project dedicated to experimenting with sound, electronic and other, and very much worth following for those of us at the poetry scene as well.

December 8, 2005 9:45 AM Information on a Poetry Reading in St. Petersburg, Dec. 15, 2005: In Russian: Invitation, Fact Sheet, in English, in Finnish.

December 2, 2005 1:25 PM I've been rather pressed for time - from many quarters, the practical ones included... Two quick updates: The Helsingin Sanomat Weeky, NYT, today has a short insert about my Ulysses translation project - see the text here, and also note the why: Ulysses theme evening at Yle Teema channel, Sat., Dec.3, starting 8 PM. Also note (related or not) a new upcoming event in my calendar: a discussion on the possible death of "cultural journalism", organized by PEN Finland, Monday, Jan. 23, 2006, 6 PM, in Pressiklubin kabinetti, with Kaisu Mikkola, Jukka Petäjä, and myself.