Jonathan Williams (1929-2008)

A Bibliography

• Garbage Litters the Iron Face of the Sun's Child, engraving by David Ruff, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1951.
• Red/Gray, drawings by Paul Ellsworth, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1951.
• Four Stoppages: A Configuration, drawings by Charles Oscar, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1953.
• The Empire Finals at Verona, collages and drawings by Fielding Dawson, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1959.
• Lord! Lord! Lord!, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1959.
• Amen/Huzza/Selah, preface by Louis Zukofsky, photographs by Williams, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1960.
• Elegies and Celebrations, preface by Robert Duncan, photographs by Aaron Siskind and Williams, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1962.
• Emblems for the Little Dells, & Nooks & Corners of Paradise (includes a reproduction of a page of Samuel Palmer's sketchbook of 1824), Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1962.
• In England's Green & (A Garland & Clyster) (poems), drawings by Philip Van Aver, Auerhahn (San Francisco, CA), 1962.
• LTDG (Lullabies Twisters Gibbers Drags) (poems), covers by R. B. Kitaj, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1963, reprinted with new introduction, Design Department, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), 1967.
• Lines about Hills above Lakes (prose), foreword by John Wain, drawings by Barry Hall, Roman Books (Ft. Lauderdale, FL), 1964.
• Petite Country Concrete Suite (poems), Fenian Head Centre Press, 1965.
• Twelve Jargonelles from the Herbalist's Notebook (poems), graphic design by Ann Wilkinson, Design Department, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), 1965.
• Ten Jargonelles from the Herbalist's Notebook (poems), graphic design by Arthur Korant, Graduate Graphic Design Program, University of Illinois (Champaign, IL), 1966.
• Four Jargonelles from the Herbalist's Notebook (poems), Lowell House Printers, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), 1966.
• Paean to Dvorak, Deemer & McClure (poems), Dave Haselwood, 1966.
• Eight Jargonelles from the Herbalist's Notebook (poems), graphic design by Dave Ahlsted, Design Department, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), 1967.
• Affilati attrezzi per i giardini di Catullo (selected poems in English and Italian), translations by Leda Sartini Mussio, drawings by James McGarrell, Roberto Lerici Editori (Milan, Italy), 1967, published as Sharp Tools for Catullan Gardens, introductory note by Guy Davenport, Fine Arts Department, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), 1968.
• Mahler Becomes Politics . . . Beisbol (poems), silk-screen prints by Kitaj, Marlborough Fine Arts (London, England), 1967, revised and enlarged edition published as Mahler, Grossman (New York, NY), 1969.
• 50! Eplphytes,-taphs,-tomes,-grams,-thets! 50!, Poet & Printer (London, England), 1967.
• Les Six Pak ("disposable six-pak xerox edition"), Aspen Institute (New York, NY), 1967.
• A French 75! (Salut Milhaudious), Dave Haselwood, 1967.
• Futura 15: Polycotyledonous Poems, Edition Hansjoerg Mayer (Stuttgart, Germany), 1967.
• The Lucidities: Sixteen in Visionary Company (poems), drawings by John Furnival, Turret Books (London, England), 1968.
• Descant on Rawthey's Madrigal: Conversations with Basil Bunting, Gnomon Press (Lexington, KY), 1968.
• Ripostes (poems), silk-screen print and design by William Katz, Edition Domberger (Stuttgart, Germany), 1969.
• On Arriving at the Same Age as Jack Benny, Finial Press (Dent, Cumbria, England), 1969.
• An Ear in Bartram's Tree: Selected Poems, 1957-1967, introduction by Davenport, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1969, New Directions (New York, NY), 1972.
• Six Rusticated, Wall-Eyed Poems, graphic realizations by Dana Atchley, Press of the Maryland Institute of Art (Baltimore, MD), 1969.
• The New Architectural Monuments of Baltimore City, lithographs by John Sparks, typography by Robert Gotsch, Press of the Maryland Institute of Art (Baltimore, MD), 1970.
• The Apocryphal, Oracular Yeah-Sayings of the Ersatz Mae West (poems), lithographs by Raoul Middleman, Press of the Maryland Institute of Art, 1970 (not released).
• (Editor) Edward Dahlberg: A Tribute (prose and poetry collection; festschrift for Dahlberg's seventieth birthday), David Lewis, 1970.
• Blues & Roots/Rue & Bluets: A Garland for the Appalachians (poems), photographs by Nicholas Dean, graphic realizations by Atchley, Grossman (New York, NY), 1971.
• (Author of preface) The Appalachian Photographs of Doris Ulmann, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1971.
• Strung out with Elgar on a Hill, plates by Peter Bodner, Finial Press (Dent, Cumbria, England), 1971.
• (With Thomas Meyer) Epitaph, typography by Benvensite, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1972.
• (With Thomas Meyer) Fruits Confits, decorations by Gardner, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1972.
• The Loco-Logodaedalist in Situ: Selected Poems, 1968-1970, embellishments by Joe Tilson, Grossman (New York, NY), 1972.
• Pairidaeza, lithographs by Ian Gardner, typography by Ronald Pearson, Blue Funnel Press, 1973.
• Imaginary Postcards (Clints Grikes Gripes Glints), drawings by Tom Phillips, typography by Asa Benvensite, Trigram Press, 1973.
• Much Further out Than You Thought, drawings by Furnival, Turret Books (London, England), 1973.
• (With Thomas Meyer) Gone into When (seven epitaphs), William Katz, 1973.
• Selected Essays (Poeticules Criticasters Kitschdiggers & Just-folks), edited by Herbert Leibowitz, (New York, NY), 1973.
• (Editor and contributor) Epitaphs for Lorine, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1973.
• Adventures with a Twelve-inch Pianist beyond the Blue Horizon, photographs by David Colley, Finial Press (Dent, Cumbria, England), 1973.
• Five from up T'Dale, Finial Press (Dent, Cumbria, England), 1974.
• Who Is Little Enis?, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1974.
• (Editor and author of preface) Lyle Bonge, The Sleep of Reason, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1974.
• Hasidic Exclamation upon Stevie Smith's Poem "Not Waving but Drowning," University of Connecticut Library (Storrs, CT), 1974.
• My Quaker-Atheist Friend (poems), drawings by Ian Gardner, privately printed, 1974.
• (Author of introduction) John Clarence Laughlin, The Personal Eye, Aperture (Millerton, NY), 1974.
• Hot What? (prose), Mole Press, 1975.
• A Wee Tot for Catullus (poems), Moschatel Press, 1975.
• A Celestial Centennial Reverie for Charles E. Ives (poems), Donald B. Anderson, 1975.
• Gists from a Presidential Report on Hardcornponeography, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1975.
• GAy BCs, Finial Press (Dent, Cumbria, England), 1976.
• In the Field at the Solstice, Finial Press (Dent, Cumbria, England), 1976.
• Untinears & Antennae for Maurice Ravel (poems), Truck Press (St. Paul, MN), 1977.
• An Omen for Stevie Smith (poems), Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University (New Haven, CT), 1977.
• Super-Duper Zuppa Inglese (and Other Trifles from the Land of Stodge) (poems), drawings by Barbara Jones, Aggie Weston's Editions, 1977.
• (Editor with Allen Ginsberg and contributor) Madeira and Toasts for Basil Bunting's Seventy-fifth Birthday, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1977.
• A Blue Ridge Weather Prophet Makes Twelve Stitches in Time on the Twelfth Day of Christmas, illustrations by Carolyn Whitesel, Gnomon Press (Lexington, KY), 1977.
• A Hairy Coat Near Yanworth Yat (poems), North Carolina Wesleyan College Press, 1978.
• (Editor and author of introduction) "I Shall Save One Land Unvisited": Eleven Southern Photographers, Gnomon Press (Lexington, KY), 1978.
• Portrait Photographs (photographs and prose commentary), Gnomon Press (Lexington, KY), 1979.
• Shankum Naggum (poems), Friends of the Library, North Carolina Wesleyan College, 1979.
• The Delian Seasons (poems), Topia Press, 1979.
• St. Swithin's Swivet (poems), Circle Press, 1979.
• Glees, Swarthy Monotonies, Rince Cochon, and Chozzerai for Simon (poems), drawings by Furnival, DBA Editions, 1979.
• Elite/Elate Poems: Selected Poems, 1971-1975, photographs by Guy Mendes, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1979.
• Homage Umbrage Quibble and Chicane (poems), drawings by Furnival, DBA Editions, 1980.
• Jonathan Williams--A Poet Collects: February 27-April 30, 1981, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (Winston-Salem, NC), 1981.
• The Magpies Bagpipe: Selected Essays of Jonathan Williams, North Point Press (San Francisco, CA), 1982.
• Get Hot or Get Out: A Selection of Poems, 1957-1981, Scarecrow Press (Metuchen, NJ), 1982.
• April 19, Lexington Nocturne: A Poem, as interpreted by Keith Smith, Visual Studies Workshop Press (Rochester, NY), 1983.
• Get Hot or Get Out. Audio Cassette. Washington, DC: Watershed Tapes, 1984.
  
• Aposiopeses: Odds and Ends, Granary Books (Minneapolis, MN), 1988.
• (Presenter) Uncle Gus Flaubert Rates the Jargon Society: In One Hundred One Laconic Presale Sage Sentences, Hanes Foundation, Rare Books Collection, University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC), 1989.
• No-nonse-nse: Limericks (Invented in Ireland c. 1765), Meta-fours (Invented during the Non-Summer of 1985 in Lower Stodgedale) and Clerihews (Invented in 1890 by Edmund Clerihew Bently) 1993 by a Perdurable "True Descendent of Aristophanes and Catullus," Perishable Press (Mt. Horeb, WI), 1993.
• Krino, 1986-1996: An Anthology of Modern Irish Writing, Gill and Macmillan (Dublin, Ireland), 1996.
• (Author of essay) Harry Callahan, (photography), Aperture Foundation (New York, NY), 1999.
• A Palpable Elysium, (biography), David R. Godine (Boston, MA), 2000.
• Blackbird Dust: Essays, Poems, and Photographs, Turtle Point Press, 2000.
• Some Jazz from the Baz: Excerpts from Basil Bunting's Letters to Jonathan Williams, 1963-1985. Scaly Mountain, N.C. : Press of Otis the Lamed-Vovnik, Skywinding Farm, 2000.
• A Garden Carried in a Pocket: Letters 1964-1968. Haverford: Green Shade, 2004.
• Kinnikinnick Brand Kickapoo Joy-Juice: Meta-fours. Isla Vista, [Calif.] : Turkey Press, 2004.
• Orpington via Pratt's Bottom: JW at 75 ; a festschrift for 'Fess Williams. New York: Brown Roux, 2004.
• Jubilant Thicket: New & Selected Poems. Port Townsend, WA : Copper Canyon Press, 2005.
  

[updated from "Jonathan (Chamberlain) Williams," Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Accessed March 24 2008.]

more louisville

friday started off with a heavy-duty panel on music and mysticism in nate mackey's work, four good papers (norman on poet/speaker as shaman, robert on music esp as treated by jankelevich in music of the ineffable, joe on sufism, and dylan on the latest installment of broken bottle)and not a lot of time to discuss afterwards (or rather lots of interesting discussion that could not be accommodated in the space we had), and then it was off to the panel that my paper was being added into: lynn k on ecopoetics (and specifically on srikanth reddy, a cal press poet new to me), me on coolidge, and michael b on slam and langpo. lunch was at the food court in the student center, big crowded tables with all the usual suspects, and a belated arrival of carla b whom i was delighted to see and had not seen in again probably 8 years (photo courtesy of laura h).

then into the afternoon sessions, and the carla harryman panel organized by laura h and went on in spite of some tech difficulties. good papers, and ran into bonnie there who's now in colorado and whom i first met in baltimore this summer. the papers were good -- christine's more reader-response, carla b's more theoretical, laura's more focused on performance -- and then back to the dudes and a ronald johnson panel that was put together in conjunction with the forthcoming life and works volume from the NPF. very interesting to get a sense of where RJ scholarship stands at present (joel b), a coming-of-age memoire from peter o'l, anagrams by mark s, and a teaching experiment by eric s.

the keynote reading by mackey followed, featuring excerpts from bass cathedral (the latest installment of the epistolary life-in-jazz from a broken bottle traces of perfume still emanate as well as from the latest poetry collection, splay anthem. scott and i sped back to the hotel right after, stopping along the way for some provisions and hanging out in the room a bit talking about life, scholarship, pedagogy etc before join the cash bar at the seelbach shortly before the conference dinner. sat with bonnie and jill among others, the meal was distinctly mediocre, and everyone retired to the seelbach bar afterwards: a great, old, wooded place with a fine selection of bourbon (too sweet for me so i had rye instead) and an excellent house jazz trio (keys/vibes, bass, drums) amidst which there was much mingling -- barry w, joel l, alan g, aldon n, laura h, megan s, and finally tyrone w after most others had called it a night.

saturday morning i jumped panels, first to hear scott's paper on stein and benjamin -- who knew that she described something very much like "aura" in the gradual making of the making of americans? (i think that's the text) -- and then to a panel kristen p had organized. i missed kristen's paper on the helen adam archives in order to hear scott's (but got part of the scoop from her: some 50 boxes of adam's books and MSS discovered in a NYC warehouse!) and stephen c was unable to give his talk on oppen, but in his place had a very interesting paper that had been postponed due to weather on thursday (was actually scheduled to be in the same panel as me): jessica l wrote on a deaf poet, josephine dickinson and the cognitive aspect of sound/image processing. margaret k presented some archival research on laura riding's editorial/collaborative work on the poetry of robert graves.

then it was off to the panel i was chairing on "black arts: mackey, baraka, and music" with excellent papers all around by amy h (collaboartion as a way of contesting autho/ownership), luke h (music and/in poetics) and joel l (theory and anethics). lively discussion ensued. scott and i took a jaunt in the honda immediately after this panel, just to get out, stretch the legs, get some air and take in some local color on bardstown road, where a quick trip into ear-x-tacy where i found a few things, very appropriate for all the music we were disussing in such scholarly fashion: marion brown's 1977 LP la placita: live in willisau (not to my knowledge reissued on CD) and dewey redman's musics also from the late 1970s (on prestige CD reissue).

then back to campus for critical keynote by aldon l, once again showing how the best scholarship is the kind that teaches us something we did not know before, and al's work always does this. who knew that russell atkins, a black small press poet and publisher in cleveland, was writing theoretical articles using the term "deconstruction" in a way not altogether dissimilar from derrida, in his own magazine the free lance in the mid 1950s? who knew? "now we know." and now that we know, what do we do with this knowledge? it might not simply be accommodating the knowledge of atkins to our already-existing understanding of (white european) deconstruction but, more complexly, an entire rethinking of deconstruction along the lines and terms proposed by atkins. hard work, since the texts are largely unavailable, and no one is going to rewrite the OED and put atkins' use of the term ahead of derrida's translator's in the chronology.

by this time bill h had roughly arrived from oxford ohio, satchelfull of slack buddha chapbooks in tow. he and scott and i met in the seelbach bar, went back to the room to sort out all the poetry goods, and then found our way to saffron, a fantastic persian restaurant where we had delectable spinach and eggplant (separate) appetizers (pureed in mildly spice yogurt sauce) and then braised lamb and chicken stew, also delicious. then it was to the annual post-conference party at alan g's house, in many ways the capstone event of the conference. plenty of mingling, celebrating and, in a newish tradition now apparently in its second year, a quick three-minutes-a-piece reading by any and all poets present. great to hear quick shots from everybody. i was able to plus slack buddha via my new chap, and bill actually sold enough chaps to cover his expenses and then some. (thanks to all who enjoyed and bought!)

we were a bit noisy and rowdy on return to the hotel, and scott had to dash off in the early morning for his flight back to the great white north. bill and i arose later and found a down-home brunch buffet at cunningham's just down the street. it was the only way to get breakfast food there, which was fine: i was more than eager to follow up a plate of eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuit and gravy with a plate of roast beef, roast pork, gravy, stuffing, mac & cheese & southern green beans. (i'm sure my arteries were just as eager). light flurries fell, unusual for the good folks of louisville, and bill and i made our way a half price books in the louisville suburbs wher ei foisted all kinds of goodies on bill while limitin myself to a purchase that excites me greatly, a signed hardbound copy ($7) of a book i already own in paperback and love, john godfrey's dabble.

more pix as/if they become available (my own new digital camera still intimidates me and so i did not bring it with...)

(view the full program in PDF here.)

louisville conference

this past weekend was the first time i'd been to what used to be known as the louisville 20th-century literature conference since, as i now tally it up, 1999 (which was at the time my fourth year in a row). it was great to be back, see some old friends and make new ones, hear some interesting scholarship and some great poetry, and be amidst the general company of people who like the same stuff you do.

the journey to louisville thursday last week was rather potentially perilous. i left nashville with what should've been plenty of time, and forecasts for both cities suggested that i would miss most of the precipitation. less than an hour into the 3-hour drive, just over the tennessee border into southern kentucky, i even stopped for a sit-down fast food breakfast. big mistake. shortly after that, I-65 in the bowling green area became a parking lot: no one moving, no apparent precipitation on the road or in the sky, no emergency vehicles, nothing. we more or less remained stationary for over an hour and a half, finally passing a state trooper and a slight crumpled car in either shoulder. we got back up to speed for only about 10 minutes when traffic ground to a halt once again.

since by this point it was clear i was going to be late if not miss altogether my 1:30 panel, i tried dialing 411 from my cell but was disconnected the first time and then given an inaudible/incorrect number the second. so i phoned my family in ohio and asked if they could get online and get me a number off the conference webpage. cleveland was experiencing frigid temps and bluster conditions already, but my aunt managaged to get online and read on the conference homepage: all conference activities for thursday postponed due to approaching ice storm. well thank god, my anxiety was relieved that i was not going to miss anything and i could take as much time as needed to get there -- but there was still no precipitation on the ground or in the air. salt trucks and plows passing to be sure, but otherwise the traffic backup made no sense whatsoever.

finally i got off the highway to stretch my legs, grab a snack and mebbe have a look at a map and see if there wasn't a better way to go. and when i pulled into the gas station parking lot i began to understand what all the traffic was about: the lot was coated in a sheet of ice. a map inside indicated that US 31W paralleled the interstate clear up to louisville so i considered taking on the backroad. but, i thought, at least the interstate was being salted and plowed. so i started back up the onramp to I-65 and, seeing its traffic again at a complete standstill, i did a complete reverse gear back down the ramp and set my course for 31W, which was slow going through cave city, ky, but once we got through the town was salted, plowed, and essentially empty of vehicles.

a perfect backroad tour of southcentral ky: cave country, tumbledown shacks, cheap motels and abandoned storefronts. hart country looks especially hard hit: horse cave ("sleep in a wigwam!"), munfordville etc. but i love it, and so much better than sitting on an interstate. after 60-90 minutes of steady 40-50 mph making steady progress on 31W we paralleled I-65 and it appeared to be quite clear, so i hopped back on it and sailed pretty much straight into louisville, ice-covered as my little red honda was.

immediately checked into the seelbach and met up with my roomie scott p, who'd arrived from thunder bay a few hours earlier, very happy to see him after 8 years (not seen since MLA 2000 in DC). a number of conference goers were conspiring in makeshift panels throughout the mezzanine level attempting to make up for a whole day's worth of cancellations. conference honcho alan g was among them and said this was the modus operandi, to make up for cancellations where possible and add people into subsequent panels space permitting. he thought of including me in a panel the next day with himself and lynn k, which i was more than honored to do.

then back down in the lobby ran into ewa c out of knowhere, she was planning on dinner with phil m and wanted to know i we'd join them. of course. so we went for the nearby japanese steak and sushi house at her suggestion, good food and fine company. after which scott and i just went back and flaked out in the room, unpacked, read mags, watched the pres debate and crashed.

[more to come...]

Catherine Wagner "On Writing"

Catherine Wagner's February 15 discussion "On Writing" at Vanderbilt University is now available as a podcast.

Stream or Download audio (mp3, 128kbps, 68.7MB)

Press Release

Tiny URL

campaign news wire 2/8/08

Latte liberals v Dunkin Donut democrats
By Gerard Baker / Times London
Mr Obama wins disproportionately among people who may be considered the winners in the global economy: the well educated, the mobile and the financially secure. Mrs Clinton's voters are the strugglers, the class that feels itself left behind by an increasingly unfair global economic system.

Can Mrs. Clinton Lose?
By Peggy Noonan / WSJ
Mrs. Clinton is losing this thing. It's not one big primary, it's a rolling loss, a daily one, an inch-by-inch deflation. The trends and indices are not in her favor. She is having trouble raising big money, she's funding her campaign with her own wealth, her moral standing within her own party and among her own followers has been dragged down, and the legacy of Clintonism tarnished by what Bill Clinton did in South Carolina. Unfavorable primaries lie ahead.

He's got Obamaphilia
By Joel Stein / LATimes
Obamaphilia has gotten creepy.[...] He's a politician so soft and safe, Oprah likes him. There's talk about his charisma and good looks, but I know a nerd when I see one. The dude is Urkel with a better tailor. All of this is clear to me, and yet I have fallen victim.

Gloves off: The Dem plan to hit McCain
By Jeanne Cummings / The Politico
From the economy to Iraq to immigration to abortion, the Arizona senator's lengthy voting record and his primary season offerings to the Republican Party's conservative wing provide a deep vein for opposition researchers to mine for shifting positions and policy inconsistencies.

The Nightmare Scenario for Democrats
By Chuck Raasch, USA Today
Hillary Clinton is running an heir apparent campaign that is heavily connected to the successes of her husband's administration. There are too many Democrats who view the 1990s as Happy Days, and there are too many others who believe she is a candidate of destiny as the first serious female contender for the White House.[...] Obama's campaign is the closest thing to a movement the Democrats have had in a long time and one that appears to be on the upswing. There is evidence that the longer Obama is exposed to Democratic primary voters, the better he does. The primaries and caucuses over the next four weeks favor him and should boost his fundraising. If you have money, momentum and parity in delegates, why even talk about giving in for the good of the partyhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif when your movement is all about a generational takeover of that party?

Taking Issue With the Democratic Race: An empty primary
By Jonah Goldberg / NRO
Obama is "the one" — in Oprah's words — not because of his policies but because his is a transcendent, unifying, super-nifty-cool personality. Hillary, meanwhile, is staying aloft largely through her ability to guilt-trip female liberals into sticking with her. Her cultivated weepiness and dour lamentations about how she's been so picked on sometimes make it seem like she's setting up a political version of one of those "how-does-a-Jewish-mother-change-a-lightbulb?" jokes. Answer: "It's all right; I'll just sit in the dark."

McCain Disdain: Why some Republicans won't vote for the senator
By Mona Charen / NRO
"There is a strutting self-righteousness about McCain that goes hand-in-hand with a nitroglycerin temper. He flatters himself that his colleagues in the Senate dislike him because he stands up for principle, while they sell their souls for pork. Not exactly. He is disliked because on many, many occasions he has been disrespectful, belligerent, and vulgar to those who differ with him."

Left Wing and a Prayer
By R. Scott Appleby / NYT
In short, the Democratic Party's long string of counterproductive responses to the enduring influence of the religious right has had the cumulative effect of driving away any type of base with the word "faith" attached to it, and opening the door to the Republicans' shrewd, if cynical, courting of religiously conservative white Christians. It's been a self-defeating failure, since there are millions of moderate and progressive Christians ready to embrace a reasonable alternative.

Beyond Bush
By Alan Ehrenhalt / NYT
Frum's fundamental thesis is that Republicans must move beyond the policies and ideology not only of the Bush years but of the past three decades, even if this means repudiating some of the political axioms that brought it to power under Ronald Reagan in 1980. But it is never quite clear just how much renovation Frum is willing to undertake. Loudly denouncing government, as Reagan did, will not be enough in the 21st century, he proclaims. "There are things only government can do," he argues, "and if we conservatives wish to be entrusted with the management of the government, we must prove that we care enough about government to manage it well."

Questions for Dr. Retail
By David Brooks / NYT
The next states on the primary calendar have tons of college-educated Obamaphile voters. Maryland is 5th among the 50 states, Virginia is 6th. But later on, we get the Hillary-friendly states. Ohio is 40th in college education. Pennsylvania is 32nd.

welcome to the middle ages

"The wrath of God is the only way I can describe it. I'm used to seeing roofs off houses, houses blown over. These houses were down to their foundations, stripped clean." -- Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, after surveying tornado damage there. (depicted left are what remain of dorms at union university in jackson, tn)

i respect people's faith, but why must we look to god as the chief or immediate if not only way to explain and/or describe natural disasters? isn't it a little self-centered to think that the complex systems of nature, however governed (directly, indirectly or not at all) by a higher power, have a direct causal relationship with human beings, that is, that storms are a form of punishment for our misbehavior? is our christian god really that mean and vengeful? did union university do something bad to deserve the destruction wreaked upon it, or are they sort of taking one for the team here?

Mick Turner + Six Organs

a fine show at the end this past saturday night, and my second visit to the space. (my first was a WRVU benefit a few weekends ago with a whole mess o' local bands.) located on a stretch of elliston place just a block away from the northern edge of the vanderbilt campus known as "the rock block" because it includes other live music venues (most notable the exit/in) as well as nashville's oldest soda shop, a secondhand bookstore and a number of restaurants and pubs of various qualities and cuisines. proceedings opened a good hour-and-a-half after the door time -- i have yet to determine the proper arrival time for shows in nashville, i think largely because there is no consistent formula. anyway, the cherry tomatoes opened, featuring an amateurish (in the best sense) and whimsical take on the folk genre, which i appreciated although it was at times not terribly to my liking: the swooping vocals would have send joanna newsom fans into rapture.

mick turner was the guitarist for the dirty three, whose sparse acoustic instrumentals provided quite a contrast to most of the recordings coming out on the touch & go label in the mid-to-late 1990s. blue trees, a new release on drag city, caught my eye because of the striking and pleasing cover art, bearing a clear resemblance to the dirty three's cover art because, in fact, turner painted them all. -- and in a quasi-expressionist style full of fuzzy lines and stark color contrasts along with a common mythos (slightly distended mammals against natural landscapes for example). blue trees is a compilation of otherwise hard-to-obtain tracks recorded by turner and tren brothers, the moniker used when he's teamed with former dirty three drummer jim white.

turner was accompanied by a different drummer on this tour (whose name i did not catch), and the formula is even more impressive to witness live than it is on record -- and not only because the live performance is accompanied by a video projection. photographic stills of turner's paintings alternating with video footage of various landscapes shot from inside a moving vehicle provide the image-track accompanying the music, which could have stood alone (and of course does on CD). turner works with a softly amplified and lightly distorted electric six-string (could have been a hollow-body but definitely equipped with a tremolo bar), catch a chord progression or lick in his digital delay pedal and then playing overtop that looped signal. he frequently bows the strings to catch and add a wash of glissandi or harmonics into the mix as well. all the while the drummer reinforces the implied beat or improvises underneath in a seamless blend of premeditation and improvisation.

six organs of admittance headlined, and perhaps by the time ben chasney took the stage (1 am) i was just a little too spent. he opened with a series of solo acoustic numbers, some from his recent drag city offering shelter from the ash, that were deft and resonant. later he was joined by magik marker elisa ambroglio (just friends?) for a nice bit of twin electric caterwaul. it's the times when chasney is reaching for the darkest depths of mordor that his work perhaps least convincing, but otherwise this is inventive post-rock worth keeping an eye and ear on.