Allen Ginsberg >> Moon now attainable

Allen Ginsberg - "Poem Rocket (Be A Star-Screwer)"

(live reading, 1959)

Here's one artist who needs zero introduction.  In the intro, Ginsberg says he wrote this poem in Amsterdam at the time of the Sputnik launch, meaning October 1957.  Based on where it was written, it's not gauche to wonder if he was chemically-enhanced at the time of its writing.  This reading was recorded at the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University on Feb. 27, 1959, and it apparently never got any sort of official release.  This one goes out to Drea.

After a fairly tedious midsection that demonstrates all the reasons why I usually avoid "Beat Poets," the ending suddenly adds a lot to the recipe, but also helps to decrypt the whole thing: "I send you my rocket of amazing chemical, more than my hair, my sperm, or the cells of my body, a speeding thought that flies upward with my desire as instantaneous as the universe and faster than light, and leave all other questions unfinished for the moment to turn back to sleep in my dark bed on earth."  I guess he's saying that one can transform into a hybrid poem/rocket that flies up into outer space and impregnates stars, using the concept of a rocket as a phallic metaphor.  And since he says "you," he's referring to the reader as a star that is presumably soon to be knocked up.  If not totally romantic, it's at least quite an avant-garde scenario, hence the reason why A.G. became so famous and why he needs zero introduction.

A permalink to the mp3 at UbuWeb (where I downloaded this mp3 years ago) is here, and all the Ginsberg stuff they have is listed here.  So knock yourself out.  It's good to see the amazing UbuWeb back online after its recent disappearance.  All I can ask of anyone who reads this post is to tell at least one person about UbuWeb, and make sure that person passes the word along.  I used to spend untold hours on there, watching old experimental short films and reading strange prose.

This manuscript was typed by A.G. in Paris in 1958; it was sold in a 2006 auction. Here's page 1:

I recently saw the above page, or one very similar to it, replete with the ASCII rocket drawing, in a huge Ginsberg compendium at Barnes & Noble.  I will go back and check on it to see if I should take a pic of it.

Found this making the rounds the other day:

Here's a not-so-subtle juxtaposition of ads I saw on an ultra-conservative website named Vision To America at the beginning of this month, meaning right around the time of the election:

People have probably been put on the Secret Service's watch list for much less than this, so here's hoping that Vision To America's advertising director lands a spot on the Service's speed dial.  And while they're at it, perhaps they could investigate whomever came up with that extremely clunky site name.

Thu. Nov. 22: Had short Thanksgiving dinner at Ashley's parents' house; lent her some shoegaze CDs (Lush, MBV, Slowdive, Verve; also The XX).  Then another short dinner at Jay & Kathleen's.  Jay had been hit by a car while riding his bike a few days earlier; he he was flipped over her Mercedes and she fled.  He didn't even need surgery, mainly due tot he fact that he's built like Ray Lewis.

Sat. Nov. 24: Went to the monthly art market at Palmer Park & bought some photos. For irony value, I went into the new American Apparel on Magazine.  Yeah, it sucked, and was packed with shoppers.  $22 for a plain one-color t-shirt.  I think I heard a song by Blouse on their radio, and definitely one by Future Islands.
"Pull me to the edge."

Mon. Nov. 25 - Went to the Southland Mall in Houma out of boredom and went into a trashy store called Spencer's.  If you have never been to this store, please brace yourself and suspend all semblance of morals or class that you might normally possess.  But I'll admit I did find a cool AK-47 necklace for a special someone.  So yeah, this post featured all kinds of weaponry (rocket, pistol, automatic weapon), plus the destruction of Earth.

eBay tells Glenn Beck he may not auction off an Obama statue floating in urine - "Someone actually offered $11,300 for the statue, maturely named 'Obama in Pee Pee'"

Planets with similar climates: John Ashbery - "A Blessing In Disguise" (1966), Long Fin Killie - "A Thousand Wounded Astronauts" (1996), American Music Club - "Will You Find Me?" (1992), Poem Rocket - "Milky White Entropy" (1994).

Dayna Kurtz >> Somewhere hearts are pounding

Dayna Kurtz - "Beside You" (Live)

(Deebles Music, 1997 / Kismet Records, 2002)

I bought this CD a few years ago on a whim at a thrift store on Highway 61 (we call it Airline Highway in Louisiana) for $2.  The cover shot of her face was starkly bold, apparently an homage to Joni Mitchell's Blue, and the title, Otherwise Luscious Life, was an obvious nod to the jazz standard "Lush Life."  It turned out to be a live album, with just Dayna accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, though the songs are full-sounding enough that the first few times I listened to it I didn't even realize there was no drummer, bassist, etc.  It was recorded live at Wintertide coffeehouse in Vineyard Haven, MA, on 7/18/97.  So: A solo performer on acoustic guitar, live at a coffeehouse... That doesn't exactly sound very promising as Blowtorch Baby material, but it so is.  This is heavy music.  This is heavier than anything that those pathetic pansies in Slayer, Wolf Eyes, or Converge could ever come up with.   She won the National Academy Of Songwriters’ award for Female Songwriter Of The Year in 1996, 1997, and 1998, while you were sitting around wasting your time listening to Guided By Voices, Stereolab, and Neutral Milk Hotel, respectively.

How great of a line is "Somewhere hearts are pounding"?  So vague, yet every interpretation of it is probably interesting.  DK has a very husky voice, probably quite influenced by Nina Simone; this is one of the few songs that she sings in her high, essentially falsetto, register.  The last name is presumably German, but she looks somewhat Native American.  I like this pic by an unknown photographer:

I recently got a 2004 promo EP of hers called The Beautiful Yesterday Sessions, but I dislike it.  She is playing here for Jazz Fest (the most inaccurately-named festival in the country) in a few weeks, and also has scheduled two little club gigs, so I might go see her.  She even named her 2006 album NOLA (hilariously spelled Nola on most websites) in honor of New Orleans, LouisianA.  I have a feeling she no longer plays any early, melancholic stuff, though.

I nabbed this from the Tumblr of super-negra a few months ago:

And then I just found this new, even more detailed one she had drawn for someone else:

...LOL

I'm missing Chairlift tonight, but will hopefully see them sometime, if only for their songs "Wrong Opinion" and "Cool As A Fire."  One reason I'm not making the hour-long drive to NOLA is that I don't like opening act Nite Jewel.  I do have tickets to this at Tipitina's on Friday, though:

Put your hack into it: Anonymous targets Monsanto

Egyptian cleric: No to Mother's Day

Planets with similar climates: Tracy Chapman - "For You" (1988), Maxwell - "Know These Things: Shouldn't You" (1998), Ani Difranco - "Sorry I Am" (1995), American Music Club - "Last Harbor" (1988), Suzanne Vega - "Small Blue Thing" (1985), Joni Mitchell - "Blue" (1971), Alicia Keys - "Butterflyz" (2001).


Currently eating or drinking: Cabot Seriously Sharp (white) Cheddar; Sunbelle blueberries; Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse oatmeal bread; Samuel Smith Imperial Stout; Rogue Chocolate Stout.