http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGbCW7-5jVs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4enUp8ZT8YQ
http://youtu.be/sQfU2xfAO4I
Showing posts with label Jaimes Palacio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jaimes Palacio. Show all posts
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
A glass-half-full statement re NEXT reunion in Long Beach tonight.
Tonight is the publication reading/party for NEWS CLIPS AND EGO TRIPS at Harvelle's in Long Beach. Won't be there, but I express thanks to G. Murray Thomas for publishing NEXT magazine and continuing its poetry calendar onto the Poetix.net site. Finding a copy of NEXT in the spring of 1998 was one of the best things to happen to me as a poet/writer--that a scene in SoCal existed and poetry wasn't limited to Drew Barrymore and Charlie Sheen and the old Cafe Largo on Fairfax.
Friday, April 20, 2012
NEWS CLIPS AND EGO TRIPS: not a review but an observation.
I will keep my promise not to write a specific review of the G. Murray Thomas/Derrick Brown NEXT magazine compilation NEWS CLIPS AND EGO TRIPS.
But, here's an observation from reading some of its content:
There are articles/letters from several LA/OC community veterans in the book. And I've either irritated or created extreme fits of pique in some of those vets; some of that has come from questioning the way things get done/people get rewarded in the community, while other times I've been scourged for talking to Poetry Royalty as if they were mere mortals who need to be looked at eye-to-eye instead of from a bowing-peasant perspective.
It's definitely worth it to be more enlightened as to past history and to know that a lot of today's poetry community issues existed in a seems-like-long-ago time when the Internet was relatively primitive and readings were abundant.
And, unfortunately, it's clear from diving into the book that a lot of the "if we don't like you and/or what you write, we'll smash into you like an atomic-powered ram" ethos of certain community vets was also ever-present fifteen-to-eighteen years ago. After all, they see themselves as fighting (and also working) hard to get their eminence in the community--and they see it as normal to take up the shield and the sword to beat back professional challenges and notions of dissent from damn-fool younger people who must be made to know that so-and-so is THEE greatest host/poet in the city, etc..
As Woody Allen said in a different context (about mainstream Show Business) in CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, "It's more than dog eat dog. It's dog doesn't return other dog's phone calls."
Nothing further to add--except to recommend that SoCal poets buy a copy, read the book and form their own opinion(s).
But, here's an observation from reading some of its content:
There are articles/letters from several LA/OC community veterans in the book. And I've either irritated or created extreme fits of pique in some of those vets; some of that has come from questioning the way things get done/people get rewarded in the community, while other times I've been scourged for talking to Poetry Royalty as if they were mere mortals who need to be looked at eye-to-eye instead of from a bowing-peasant perspective.
It's definitely worth it to be more enlightened as to past history and to know that a lot of today's poetry community issues existed in a seems-like-long-ago time when the Internet was relatively primitive and readings were abundant.
And, unfortunately, it's clear from diving into the book that a lot of the "if we don't like you and/or what you write, we'll smash into you like an atomic-powered ram" ethos of certain community vets was also ever-present fifteen-to-eighteen years ago. After all, they see themselves as fighting (and also working) hard to get their eminence in the community--and they see it as normal to take up the shield and the sword to beat back professional challenges and notions of dissent from damn-fool younger people who must be made to know that so-and-so is THEE greatest host/poet in the city, etc..
As Woody Allen said in a different context (about mainstream Show Business) in CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, "It's more than dog eat dog. It's dog doesn't return other dog's phone calls."
Nothing further to add--except to recommend that SoCal poets buy a copy, read the book and form their own opinion(s).
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Poet John F. Buckley's blog offers insight into current LBC/OC poetry readings.
http://johnfrancisbuckley.wordpress.com/
Recommending the above blog (which is like a secretary taking minutes of a meeting) to those who may be curious about current readings in LA/Long Beach/Orange County--who attends, what they read, etc.
Recommending the above blog (which is like a secretary taking minutes of a meeting) to those who may be curious about current readings in LA/Long Beach/Orange County--who attends, what they read, etc.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
New poem: LONDON POEM.
Took the Underground
from Holborn to Trafalgar Square
to see the stone lions
and the oversized ship-in-bottle--
plus the 2012 Olympics Countdown sign.
It was a clear and sunny day in London Town
as the busker in front of the National Gallery
sang Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah
almost as well as an Orange County poet/DJ once did.
from Holborn to Trafalgar Square
to see the stone lions
and the oversized ship-in-bottle--
plus the 2012 Olympics Countdown sign.
It was a clear and sunny day in London Town
as the busker in front of the National Gallery
sang Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah
almost as well as an Orange County poet/DJ once did.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
G. Murray Thomas' leadup to the NEXT magazine anthology.
Nostalgia for dead poetry venues, plus a subliminal plug for Murray's NEXT magazine anthology to be published later this year by Derrick Brown's Write Bloody publishing.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
It's coming: Anthology of Orange County poets and their fellow travelers.
Saw this poetry volume listed on someone's blog recently: Don't Blame the Ugly Mug: Ten Years of Two Idiots Peddling Poetry from Tebot Bach.
No comment; if you've read this blog in the past you know what I think of both the Ugly Mug in Orange, CA in general and one of the Two Idiots in particular.
I will make a wider comment to note that the OC poetry scene tends to thrive on social conventions of the kind Jane Austen and Edith Wharton wrote about (not necessrily admiring them)--plus, it brings up creepy memories of the trailer I saw for the cult horror film THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE.
No comment; if you've read this blog in the past you know what I think of both the Ugly Mug in Orange, CA in general and one of the Two Idiots in particular.
I will make a wider comment to note that the OC poetry scene tends to thrive on social conventions of the kind Jane Austen and Edith Wharton wrote about (not necessrily admiring them)--plus, it brings up creepy memories of the trailer I saw for the cult horror film THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Yes, I have a poetry attitude problem.
In terms of poetry advancement in Los Angeles and Orange Counties (forgetting for a moment about what you actually put on paper), it helps to be a joiner who will follow leaders just about anywhere--whether the leaders are right or wrong in the short term. Thinking about the long term tends to stay in uncharted territory--kind of like riding into the Forbidden Zone in the original PLANET OF THE APES movie franchise.
Years ago, I remember hearing this meant-to-teach-me-something statement from a poet in our community (someone I'll call LMN): "Well, I guess you just don't want to be on people's good sides."
I didn't start out to be a horrible, we're-tired-of-hearing-you-over-and-over malcontent; in long ago times, I looked up to those who proclaimed themselves to be Leaders until I discovered their alleged leadership qualities were too tied up in cliquishness and cronyism.
And I guess I'm sick to death of those community icons who now run on the fumes of their pasts--and who people unquestioningly worship instead of making things happen for themselves and other poets.
Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if people would take breaks from their own notions of poetry self-centered careerism (and I'm talking to those zine editors and MFA seekers in particular) to think about what L.A./OC poetry could be?
But, as we all know, self-centeredness and short-term gratification are always winners in SoCal.
Years ago, I remember hearing this meant-to-teach-me-something statement from a poet in our community (someone I'll call LMN): "Well, I guess you just don't want to be on people's good sides."
I didn't start out to be a horrible, we're-tired-of-hearing-you-over-and-over malcontent; in long ago times, I looked up to those who proclaimed themselves to be Leaders until I discovered their alleged leadership qualities were too tied up in cliquishness and cronyism.
And I guess I'm sick to death of those community icons who now run on the fumes of their pasts--and who people unquestioningly worship instead of making things happen for themselves and other poets.
Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if people would take breaks from their own notions of poetry self-centered careerism (and I'm talking to those zine editors and MFA seekers in particular) to think about what L.A./OC poetry could be?
But, as we all know, self-centeredness and short-term gratification are always winners in SoCal.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
And now, it's time for me to be shunned by Jaimes Palacio, Orange County poet/host..
Imagine Elton John's "Funeral For A Friend" playing as you read this.
Jaimes Palacio, someone of importance in the Orange County poetry community, has now shunned me. He unfriended me on Facebook--apparently because of the blog post below the one you're reading now (which I also put onto Facebook).
Here's my comment: I thought up until now that Jaimes and I were at least acquaintances, appreciated him and his poems and I have never given him any choose-me-or-them conditions re friendship during the decade I knew him. Time for a chorus of Taps.
[POSTSCRIPT 8/30/2010: At least I'm not banned from Jaimes' readings at Gypsy Den Grand Central in Santa Ana. But otherwise, whatever there was is over now.]
Jaimes Palacio, someone of importance in the Orange County poetry community, has now shunned me. He unfriended me on Facebook--apparently because of the blog post below the one you're reading now (which I also put onto Facebook).
Here's my comment: I thought up until now that Jaimes and I were at least acquaintances, appreciated him and his poems and I have never given him any choose-me-or-them conditions re friendship during the decade I knew him. Time for a chorus of Taps.
[POSTSCRIPT 8/30/2010: At least I'm not banned from Jaimes' readings at Gypsy Den Grand Central in Santa Ana. But otherwise, whatever there was is over now.]
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