NOTES

I am in Marseille until February 4th. Getting online is difficult but worth it to bring to anyone’s attention a few poems by Edward Dorn: a reminder of a point-of-mind still missed.

click for details

Supper

Elsa Martinelli

It Came in the Night A Raincoat It Came in the Night 45
Vignette of Idealistic Life in South Texas Terry Southern
Don’t Blame Me Coleman Hawkins 1944
Sonata lll John Cage Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
Sonata lV John Cage Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
Sonata V John Cage Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
Si Quieren Guerra- Alpachino Dj Sin-cero Encendio Vol.14
Hidden Track Jarvis Cocker Jarvis

Direct Download kanger.mp3

From Baghdad Diary (Andrew North, BBC News)

The violence becomes more vicious, random and constant.

Gunfire in our part of Baghdad carries on long into the night now. The distinctive sound of mortars being fired or car bombs wake us up most mornings.

But several incidents stand out.

A gangland-style shooting at an evening groceries market in east Baghdad. Gunmen drove up and raked the stalls with machinegun rounds, leaving at least 10 people dead and many others injured.

Then there was the devastating double-bombing at Mustansiriya university in east Baghdad last week, in which 70 people were killed – most of them young students. One hundred and seventy others were injured.

First, a car bomb was set off at the university entrance. Then, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives vest in a crowd fleeing the scene.

Rescue workers arriving to retrieve the dead and wounded were greeted by the sound of dozens of mobile phones ringing amongst the wreckage, as friends and relatives tried again and again to check on the fate of loved ones.

Just as depressing now is how quickly such events are forgotten. Seventy students dead in one attack. It is an amazing figure. Anywhere else it would be a story for days

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NOTE: January 25th. Those living outside the USA can now sign-up online as a virtual marcher.

sentimental journey

…is a Half today.

Happy Birthday! to Jim Nisbet.

i.e. reading series now has a website.

Now the other thing we’ll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively — that means all of us together — collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That’s power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don’t have to argue with anybody. We don’t have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don’t need any bricks and bottles. We don’t need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, “God sent us by here, to say to you that you’re not treating his children right. And we’ve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God’s children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.”

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy — what is the other bread? — Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart’s bread.(Note: Throughout 1963, Medgar Evers was busy organizing a boycott of Barq’s soft drinks, Hart’s bread, and McRae’s department store because of their support of White Citizens’ Councils.) As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven’t been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on town — downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

But not only that, we’ve got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a “bank-in” movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. I’m not asking you something that we don’t do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an “insurance-in.”

Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.

(Speech in Memphis, April 3rd. 1968)

Click for pictures

The New Yorker will soon examine Money and Poetry: this anonymous Skelton has been rattling in the breeze.
NOTE January 16th:This piece is not mine (I’d claim it if it were), but something that has been circulating in the US Midwest recently.

Nine Eleven Allende
Zamba del Che Victor Jara
Feuilles Mortes (lent et mélancolique) Walter Gieseking Debussy Preludes
Joe Hill Paul Robeson
Madame Vod’s Celeste Blues Meade Lux Lewis The Blues Piano Artistry Of Meade Lux Lewis
Gloomy Sunday Billie Holiday
Miroirs РOiseaux Tristes (tr̬s lent) Paul Crossley Maurice Ravel Рcd 7
Un Grand Sommeil Noir Edgard Varèse The Complete Works (CD 2 of 2)
Shuffle Boil John Zorn BBC Jazz File
www.elyucateco.com (thanks to Bill Fuller)

Direct download: bluered.mp3

Bognor Regis, Sussex: Bore Place, Kent

I’ve put the link to Amazon because it’s not only $6 cheaper there than on the Duke University Press site, but you can also read one of Kevin Killian’s excellent reviews.

Some details from Gary Snyder:

Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 8:28 PM
Subject: Nanao Support Plan

Dear Friends, This is another step in regard to Nanao Sakaki and his elder-problems.
Bob Rosenthal of the Committee on Poetry non-profit org which was set up years back by Allen Ginsberg says, yes they can still umbrella some $ for Nanao. I just made a modest contribution, by check, to apply to this year 2006.

People should be told:
“Contributions should be written and sent to Committee On Poetry, Inc , PO Box 582, Stuyvesant Station NYC NY 10009.
Mention, or note on check that it is for the Nanao Sakaki fund. “

Bob says, “Remember we need donors’ full addresses.” – It is a 501.c.3, and contributions are tax deductible. (TR. I assume this is US only)

This will not be a one-time push because what we are aiming for is a steady enough flow of funds to guarantee maybe as much as $30,000 a year to enable the caretakers in Japan to place him in a suitable Elder-Home which would not be free – would cost at least this much. Reports on this aspect will come later.

Meanwhile, let me know whoever else you think of who might want to be an occasional supporter of Nanao and send their e/ address or postal. Gary Lawless of Gulf of Maine Books, and publisher of some of Nanao’s works in America, has said he’d work on getting a real appeal going from his place too. We’re just getting started with this.

yoi otoshi wo… great new year coming… and best to all,
Gary

A mild jab at Bush (below) has to date triggered two death threat, one “you ought to be hanged” and one “you think you’re smart that’s not funny” emails: compared with the single death threat after an earlier slight on Mohammed it seems the War on Terror is won.