quote unquote

tongues thick with music of alarm

--robert adamson 'approaching zukofsky'

the alhambra theater early 1970s

anna sent me this pic she found on facebook tonight.  the alhambra theater was a magnificent playhouse of moorish design.  i don't remember going to see any movies here.  i think it might've been too fancy for my parents.  they, we -- okay, me --, preferred our movie going to drive-in theaters.  but then again, i was pretty young in the early 1970s.  i have to ask my dad if we ever saw any movies at the alhambra.  however, sac back in the 70s did not lack for drive-ins and cheap one screen movie houses.  still, the alhambra was special to the community.  so it is a double shame that this theater was torn down in the mid 70s to make way for a grocery store.  i shop at that grocery store nearly everyday.  the area, midtown and east sac, needed a grocery store.  that goes without saying, but we needed art too, and the alhambra was one of those ornate, deluxe houses that are now things of the past.  well, anna texted me this pic because she knew i'd get a kick out of it.  this is our neighborhood.  the large green building behind the theater is a water tower.  the bottom floor of that water tower used to be the area blood bank.  every month my father would go to this blood bank and donate a pint.  i'd often accompany him.  when i was a wee lad i thought that the tower contained blood.  it made sense to me at the time.  it looks like the photo was taken at the intersection of 30th and k streets.  the herfy's hamburger sign located on the left of the frame is a particular kick for me.  herfy's was a burger chain where my family used to eat.  they had promos for little children called HERFY'S WACKY BURGER BOXES that i recall with great fondness.  of course this area has changed.  herfy's has become a del taco.  blech!  the only thing that survives of the alhambra is a wall with a plaque of a poem by omar khayyam in the parking lot of safeway supermarket. 

 

quote unquote

                      you are camouflaged
with simplicity

--joanne kyger

sci fi friday

spring among the heads bent
to glowing screens held in their hand
a robot, autonomous, glitches & glides
among the folk who ignore
the video adverts from the side of
the new sports arena
& among all these things is a boy
riding thru the throng
astride a single plastic
electric wheel

haiku

           moonless night cleaning
my dentures
           old man in the mirror gives me a wink

index of 1st lines

meditation among the freaks at the pussycat theater

* * *

& the customs officer takes my passport scans my face

* * *

gnomonist: a maker of sundials

* * *

what men of have done to get animals to ejaculate

* * *

poem with lines that end 'like a motherfucker'

* * *

another walker across the street

* * *

slew for a secular sermon

* * *

50 year old radio

* * *

the poet in the age of digital reproduction

* * *

watching south african soaps on youtube

* * *

1980s nudes by patrick nagel

* * *

we are but monkeys flinging poo

* * *

homeless guy writing a sound poem as he crosses the street

* * *

satori watching beach blanket bingo on TV

* * *

on the cutting room floor

* * *

lsd: a vision

* * *

blue ocean event

rafael cadenas

early afternoon i open twitter on my phone and see that the venezuelan poet rafael cadenas is trending.  i thought, oh shit.  the man is in his 80s.  death happens to all.  so i click on his name expecting to read obituaries.  rather, i find that the great poet [i don't use the word 'great' advisedly.  i've written about him before and tho i think distinctions like major and minor are bullshit, prizes are bullshit too, but still every once in a while an artist can be called great or major that describes the artist perfectly] was awarded the prestigious premio reina sofia award for being one of the finest latin american and spanish poets living, writing and reading today.  whew!  cadenas is alive and well and recognized for his art.  and good for cadenas for tho i just wrote that prizes are bullshit i rejoice that the poet is recognized for being what i've been saying all along, a major, important poet of our humanity.  bravo! 

the above is a cool video of what happens when two poets meet.  one is an iraqi poet, the other is a swedish poet.  the swedish poet is my hero tomas transtromer.  okay, i have a lot of poet heroes, but transtromer was an early love of mine, and he remains so to this day.  he was an unaffiliated poet, meaning that he was not an academic, or a teacher.  transtromer worked as a psychologist before his stroke.  once, he blew up at a critic who asked him how his job influenced his poetry.  transtromer asked why people didn't ask him how is poetry influenced his work as a psychologist influenced his poetry.  at any rate, i like this photo for the fellowship between these poets.  i like it for the glimpses we have of transtromer's stockholm book-lined flat.  i like it for the fact that tomas transtromer's great love, partner, and co-equal in his life, monika, is the central part of transtromer's life of poetry.  i like the video for the sheer love of poetry.  and i like the video because it features transtromer's beautiful face.  the video is in swedish, arabic and briefly english.  i understand partly one of those languages. 

another morsel by the plugz

great video that marries quite well to the plugz' latino version of johnny rivers' 'secret agent man'
the video was published in 2010 that is eight fucking years ago c'mon man!
the past is never past it hasn't even passed, as faulkner said
watch the video

 

happy cinco de mayo

i fucking love this song.  this tune is one of my favorite songs of all time.  a major anthem for me.  it has nothing to do with cinco de mayo but as we raise our shot glasses filled with tequila on this mexican holiday listen to this song by a los angeles latino punk band in spanish.  that, mi amigos, is california.  that is fucking america.  i double dog dare you not to tap your feet as you listen to this tune.  this song is a holiday all by itself. 

   

holy shit!  where has this song been all my life



this song 'gathering dust' is by the british post-punk band modern english, a band who are better known by their single 'i melt with you', which is a very great love song.  that was the limit of my knowledge of the discography of modern english, but then i heard this song, 'gathering dust', on the radio last week and i was blown away.  i didn't recognize the band so i took out my phone and used the app shazam to identify the song.  and i've been obsessively listening to this tune ever since.  i love its fast beat, how the heavily fuzzed guitars roll with the bass and drums, the squiggly synths move in and over the tune, and how the voice is reverb and arched with urgency.  this song was released in 1981.  it still sounds current to me.  but then i have biased ears.  i think this is one helluva a tune.  and a reminder that there are still so many things to discover and rediscover, especially as the world becomes even more weird and precarious, and wildly, still, cool.