New Poem: LITTLE STEVIE KEEPS ORDER AS THE HOUSE BURNS DOWN

 no politics either way

 no causes no sir no ma’am 

 just poetry on my Meta site

 and absolutely no posts or e-mail

 irritating me about Meta embracing Trump

 and my being on a Meta site ignoring all of this 

That feeling of helplessness

It’s a Saturday afternoon.  You’re abiding by the new normal of staying home and flattening the infection curve.  You turn on an online telethon to bring money into the Los Angeles Covid-19 fund.

And then you see Rick Lupert—a poet who has dealt out professional and personal discomfort to you.

You know how that went—he’s generally acclaimed in a certain subculture and is being seen today by more people than, say, a typical Cobalt Cafe reading.  By being critical of him, you were seen as a sorehead and a loser.

So there’s a feeling of wanting to find the nearest paper bag and hyperventilate into it.  Plus brooding over mistakes I made and unproductive thoughts.

In any event, it’s  better to stay home (except for trips to supermarket/pharmacy), not infect or be infected and donate to charities and businesses which need cash infusions to pay employees.

That’s all I can do in the present and future.

Better than to muse about who prospers and who doesn’t.

More Cobalt Cafe and CobaltPoets farewell messages.

Found these in my e-mail inbox:

Tuesday December 30, 2014
Cobalt Reading 20th Anniversary / Farewell Party

It's a potluck! Bring food and drink of any kind and plan on an evening of reminiscing, socializing, farewell and the mother of all group poems. Not so much a reading tonight but the mic will be open for the sharing of memories. We'll also be taking donations to send Cobalt owner Dave off with a little bit to help him move forward... so think generously, bring a nosh, and yourself as we end an era.

"Tell us what the Cobalt reading has meant to you.  Keep it brief."

I won't be attending the Cobalt farewell on the 30th since I believe it's meant for true friends of the host as well as those who stopped attending years ago but want to return.

Thanks to Dave and his former employees for keeping the Cobalt Cafe alive as a music venue which generously  chose to spare one night each week for poets of all types to read and/or just listen.

For exit music, I'm choosing the following:
http://youtu.be/p51Fgm1m6V0

New poem: FADED COBALT BLUE

vinyl album covers stuck
to the back of one wall
back room for BANDS ONLY
sticker pasted inside men's room urinal
bygone days when security guards
and refreshment counter employees
were still provided by the owner
open mike that drew young people
eventually replaced by poets with
varying degrees of pedigree
as features plus open mikes
stylishly designed featured poet broadsheets
on the host's adjoining table
plus numerous books by the host
at his personal table
peers of the host who used to attend
more often in the days of Magical Then
less frequent in the days of
LotsofGrownUpThingstoDo Now
readings started at Nine
and, much later, at Eight
and, by the beginning of January,
likely to be
no more events
at all
then all you can do
is turn on your mental DVR
to replay highlights

Los Angeles poetry/music venue Cobalt Cafe, as we know it, will close soon.

The Canoga Park rock club which provided a home for teen bands and Rick Lupert's long-running reading (which, during the years I went there, morphed from an all-open mike into a mostly more conventional featured poet and open readers format) will close its doors at the end of this month.

Assuming Rick will find another venue in 2015--or, at the very least, become a recurring host of special-event readings at Beyond Baroque in Venice CA.

Quoting Rick's letter in its entirety:

Sad News from the Cobalt front:
The Cobalt Cafe is closing

After over 20 years of providing an all-ages venue for music and poetry in the West San Fernando Valley, the Cobalt will be closing it's doors at the end of 2014. We're planning a 20th Anniversary/Farewell event for Tuesday night December 30th at the Cobalt. So please save the date for that.

Thank you very much to Dave Politi, the Cobalt Cafe owner for essentially giving a giant donation to the L.A. Poetry community over the last 20 years by providing the venue for free on Tuesday nights. We wish you nothing but the best in health and success in whatever adventures lay ahead for you.

There's a very slim chance the Cobalt will be sold, and if so we have no idea if the new owners would be interested in contuing to offer the venue for the reading to continue. It's all very unlikely but we will update you if anything develops.

Thanks very much to the thousands of people who have attended the weekly reading over the last 20 years that I've had the privilege to host it.

Word,

Rick Lupert

Trying to parse a Presidential-selfie Tweet from a beloved poet.

At the risk of criticism from some for bringing this to people's attention, here's a recent tweet from Los Angeles' poet/comic Rick Lupert:
Ahh Obama's selfie at the Mandela funeral. To think of the fun we could've had if we had camera phones during the black plague.

I'm trying hard to understand the outburst of apparent humor/social comment above regarding a photo taken by the President at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.  Would it have been less offensive/source-of-joke to Mr. Lupert if a White House aide had snapped it with a cameraphone/tablet?  Or is the point meant to be that the solemnity-blended-with-celebration occasion has been just as demeaned by a President-taken selfie as those on the Right were trumpeting with regards to President Obama's shaking of Cuban leader Raul Castro's hand?

Or is this merely a time-juxtaposition joke about taking selfies during the black plague which tipped over into unfunniness when yoked to the Presidential selfie?

Poem about cover of Pink Floyd's ATOM HEART MOTHER.

ANSWER POEM TO SIMON JACKSON'S "COWS" FROM EKPHRASTIA GONE WILD

[Also inspired by cover of Pink Floyd's ATOM HEART MOTHER:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_Heart_Mother]
(Cow on phone with agent)
What is this with these
allegedly "progressive" record labels?
You told me EMI would pay me two bales of hay,
but only ONE arrived!
>
Okay, I'll pose for the photo
but they're only getting a side view
with my head turned to camera.
One shot only, then I'm through.
>
Hey, while you're at it,
ask Pink Floyd
why they haven't made a good album
since they fired Syd Barrett?
(Cow drops phone to ground in disgust,
sighs loudly and prepares for low-wage immortality)

How I ruined it for everyone.

Here's a coda to the Yahoogroups CobaltPoets situation:

I recently accessed the at-that-time-open archives for the purpose of seeing whether a poet who hosts one week of the Rapp Saloon's reading series (I host the second week) had posted an announcement there.

Only then did I notice the discussion about the Monsanto protests.

To restate my earlier opinion in a more temperate way--I do understand the list proprietor's feelings that it's his domain to regulate as he pleases.  But once the not-a-poetry-announcement subject of Monsanto appeared (and was allowed to stay), then it should have continued, so long as the participants didn't try to strangle each other rhetorically.

Of course, it doesn't help that the list proprietor and I have had a history of disagreeing with each other--though I have, on occasion, acknowledged his talent and value (the latter in terms of his long-running reading series and pioneering poetry website).

I'm not comfortable with keeping things secret (whether they're poetry announcements or discussions/arguments within the "poetry community"). 

But other people are.

So now you have a poetry listserve mainly consisting of poetry announcements (which, ideally, should be available to the entire public) kept under lock and key.  And you have to be approved by the proprietor before being allowed to join.

And it's all my fault. 

Or is it?

UPDATE: Rick Lupert, CobaltPoets proprietor, replies to the above.  Here's his complete answer.
"oh, dear...no...I've received a couple of request from people (one recently and one not so recently) to delete past messages that had content they had written that they were concerned would come up as potential employees researched them on the web that they thought might not shed the best light on them. It was suggested to me that making the archives available only to members would make those posts not accessible by google searches etc while still allowing anyone who was part of the group (which is open to anyone to join) could still have access. So, yes there is an extra step for the public to get to the archived material, but it's still available and you, So you've ruined nothing and, Terry, you are more than welcome to rejoin the list if you'd like access to it. Re the Monsanto piece, I also received NUMEROUS requests to nip the conversation in the bud and a handful of "Thank Yous" after it was done...people tend to be pretty finicky about the amount of email they receive and when so much, to them, irrelevant material is posted to a list they're really just looking for poetry information on, it leads to people unsubscribing in flocks...many folks would just unsubscribe without bothering to send an email requesting the list remain focused on poetry...the main point being that the Cobalt list's primary purpose is to support the Cobalt reading...although it's very liberal on allowing other people to post news and information and marginally liberal on allowing occasional commentary and conversation on things involving poetry, when items like the Monsanto conversation come up directly cause people to want to leave the list, it becomes clear that the main purpose of the list begins to take a back seat which does not serve well the reading series or anyone interested in that primary purpose, which is most people on the list. Thanks, by the way, for the kind words you wrote about my website and me. I enjoyed your occasional picture from Italy and hope you and Valerie had an extraordinary experience there."

No pro-and-con disputes on Monsanto allowed on CobaltPoets list.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CobaltPoets/message/17384

Rick Lupert takes the floor:
I'd like to ask once again that this conversation be taken elsewhere. The Cobalt Poets email list is open to anything revolving around poetry, poetry events, , poetry announcements and any civil conversation regarding issues of poetry.

Thanks in advance for not responding to this email or any future emails to this list on the topic below.

R

[I was out of the country on vacation, so I came to this dispute on CobaltPoets' Yahoogroups list only a few minutes ago.

But I'll butt in and say that--even if the topic inspires heated and sometimes ill-considered remarks--topics such as Monsanto and its practices pro-and-con should get a discussion on a poetry listserve, for the sake of those who write poems about topics that aren't intended for workshops/MFA classes.

Someone like Phil Ochs would have a tough time on some of today's poetry listserves.]

CODA (6/3/13): The CobaltPoets Yahoogroups archives are now blocked to non-members.

Keeping Them Honest: Poetry Listserve Division.

Cobalt Listers,

The Cobalt Poets lists exists primarily for the promotion of the
Cobalt Cafe Poetry Reading.

I've left it un-moderated to allow folks to feel free to promote
other projects, converse with each other and be mildly annoying, as
we all tend to be on e-mail lists, in our attempts to be humorous,
intelligent or clever. This has strayed, far too often, from far too
many people into the arena of pain causing personal attacks, slander,
insults, unpleasantly :'discussion', and generally an
atmosphere of embarrassment for me at being the host of such a thing
which has served more to damage community than foster it.

Any future posts here which, at my sole discretion, even hint at this
kind of unpleasantness again will cause the poster to me immediately
removed from this list, no second chances, thanks bye.

Rick
--August 27, 2006


Subscribe or unsubscribe to the Cobalt Poets e-mail list. Also sort through the message archive or join in the un-moderated fun by posting anything you want about anything at any time for any reason.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention Terry. That [subscribe or unsubscribe....] was written when the Cobalt Poets email list was created, when, as a naive poetry host I thought having an unmoderated list was possible and before, as you know, so many people, yourself included, used it as a bully pulpit. I'll be editing the description to remove the 'anything goes' implication of the text. More good work sir!

It's a tiny thing as poetry community matters/manners go, but the Cobalt listserve description seen after the reprint of the 8/27/06 message hasn't been changed to reflect the list proprietor's "evolved" viewpoints on acceptable speech/conduct/posting, as promised.  So it appears as if I was subjected to either an untruth or withering "you lesser being" sarcasm.http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/links.html

UPDATE: The proprietor, via Facebook, addressed this issue.  Here's a portion of his response:

 Regardless of the inaccurate leftover original descriptions on the website, there has been a consistent moderation on the list which has applied to everyone equally specifically designed to avoid the kind of harm that was caused previously and refocus the list on its intended purpose to support and provide information about the Cobalt reading.

What appears to be a SoCal poetry community in-joke.

Actual quote from a description of a link to a SoCal poetry listserve, written by the listserve's creator:

"Subscribe or unsubscribe to the Cobalt Poets e-mail list. Also sort through the message archive or join in the un-moderated fun by posting anything you want about anything at any time for any reason."

To the above quote, I can only say:
A lot of people are comfortable with/unquestioning of the "my site, my rules" policies of websites that allow comments after posts--or listserves where, in theory, a member can post on a topic of his/her choosing.
Perhaps this is an oblique way of stating this rather than writing something boring and technical
i.e. "if you post anything that isn't a reading announcement and you criticize the community (or someone in it), even if it doesn't descend into blatant insults/profanity, then I will moderate content and possibly ban you."

So now, as the late commentator Paul Harvey used to say, you know the rest of the story.

UPDATE: The proprietor of the Cobalt Poets list, via Facebook, posted an answer to this post.  And, in the interest of equal time, here it is:
Thanks for bringing this to my attention Terry. That was written when the Cobalt Poets email list was created, when, as a naive poetry host I thought having an unmoderated list was possible and before, as you know, so many people, yourself included, used it as a bully pulpit. I'll be editing the description to remove the 'anything goes' implication of the text. More good work sir!

My reply to the proprietor's statement: Always glad to advocate truth in advertising.

War Against Humanity blog--updated with corrections.

First, I'll offer an apology to Rick Lupert: Rick did not create the War Against Humanity blog.  Rick and Amelie Frank were most helpful in terms of helping to ensure the situation with the blog was resolved.

From the earlier post:

"Not expecting too many people reading this to care, but the blog (another example of some in the SoCal community wanting me to "shut the fuck up" as was quoted in the previous post) caused a lot of needless stress and mental anguish to me.  And it was intended as a mixture of cowardice and malevolence: intended for the blogger to have lots of fun imagining me running around, making unfounded accusations to people, and with hopes that I might lose my temper in public--causing me to be banned from poetry venues and professionally/personally ostracized."

I did find out that the person (still wanting anonymity) sent Rick an e-mail apologizing for the trouble caused and stating that the War Against Humanity blog was taken down (which I noticed around 9:00 p.m. Sunday night).

The blogger's ironic pen name: Jesus Christ.

Rick Lupert, dubious word use and the silence of poets.

http://poetry-arts-confidential.blogspot.com/2012/09/more-of-whats-in-socal-poetry-pond.html

Moral Conundrum Department:
You're a poet who attends a reading where Rick Lupert, in an effort (apparently without much thought) to get laughs, uses the word "Chinaman.". You find his use of the word offensive, but you're also aware he doesn't do this sort of thing all the time--plus he's well liked and respected in the Southern California community. But his use of a casual racial epithet bothers you.

Do you:

A. Go up to Rick and say you are offended by his use of the word--speaking respectfully but firmly, regardless of consequences to you.

Or
B. Say nothing, because he hosts a nearly two-decades old reading series at Canoga Park's Cobalt Cafe and you have a plethora of worries--that you may never get to feature there or (if you're a poetry host) get him to feature at your venue or possibly never be chosen by Rick for anthologies he may edit or readings he may curate at prestige poetry venues.

Or

C. Say nothing because Rick Lupert is popular and you don't want to be condemned for talking about a momentary slip of the tongue that's not "a big thing." But remember to condemn an unpopular poet if he/she says something racist/sexist at a reading because it's safe and "the right thing to do."

[UPDATE: Rick responded via Facebook that this was "an attack bordering on libel."  I gave him the opportunity to apologize for the remark he made (on video) at the reading.  He did not apologize, choosing instead to criticize me for criticisms I've made about SoCal poets and regarding the use of the word as part of a non sequitur in a poetry performance piece full of them.]

More of what's in the SoCal poetry pond.

This bromantic poem isn't as irritating as "What's In The Pond?" but with some of the same in-the-club cutesiness.
Again stating that the two poets above are usually much better than this.  But Rat Pack-style joking
can often be found at ostensibly Literary poetry readings.
Also, notice the use of an ethnically-incorrect word (in a not-Lenny Bruce context) by the poet on the left, followed by audience laughter.

Here's what's really in the SoCal Poetry Pond (revised and edited).

Let's start this post with a haiku.  I didn't write it, but someone who posts the TERRY McCARTY'S WAR AGAINST HUMANITY blog did:
bitter man banned from

club. LOBs yawns when his output

makes hyenas sleep

My first response is this: if I were truly bitter and envious (presumably from wanting to be "let back in"--something I gave up on about a year ago in terms of making peace with certain intersecting SoCal poetry circles that want me forever banished), I wouldn't be posting occasional critiques/observations on how certain poets choose to use the power much of the community gives them.

I've never truly absorbed the lesson that if you ask select

"craft-conscious poets" beyond your station in the poetry community to sit down with you and/or answer certain questions, the poet(s) refuse(s) and you're a gigantic Figure of Snarky Fun behind other people's backs.

My previous post--putting up the Rick Lupert/Brendan Constantine "What's In The Pond" video--seems to have triggered the haiku outburst above.  I thought the video might be instructive to poets and nonpoets alike to see something with the musky odor of clubbiness and two talented practitioners of writing/working a crowd wasting five minutes doing stupid, lazy crap they were assured to get away with because of their Name Value in the community.  If two newcomers had read something like "What's In The Pond", it's highly doubtful that they would have gathered the laughter and applause rolling in appreciative waves towards the Brand Names at the mike.

 

Your chance to see two L.A. poets self-indulge.

Two guys who have done better work on other occasions; here essentially having lazy fun with their peers in the clubhouse.  This is what SoCal poetry can be like at times.

Matthew Mars/Niblock: Selected Works

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGbCW7-5jVs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4enUp8ZT8YQ
http://youtu.be/sQfU2xfAO4I

TRIBUTE TO BRENDAN CONSTANTINE'S CALAMITY JOE

TRIBUTE TO RICK LUPERT--"Tired Dogs, Uninterested Cats"

Through-lines - with Brendan Constantine and Rick Lupert 03/18 by PSH Live | Blog Talk Radio

Brendan Constantine and Rick Lupert interview each other on their respective books CALAMITY JOE and DEATH OF A MAUVE BAT (warning: echoing during playback).  Giving them props for mentioning the classy-and-now-defunct chapbook series published by Pat Cohee when he and his then-wife Marcia hosted their reading at the old Wells Fargo Bank building in Laguna Beach in the 90s/early 00s.
Through-lines - with Brendan Constantine and Rick Lupert 03/18 by PSH Live | Blog Talk Radio