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the elephant thought

"this world"
is a religious saying
"this " figures

Streets Enough to Welcome Snow by Rosmarie Waldrop

Streets Enough to Welcome Snow by Rosmarie Waldrop


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My five stars are based on an average rating of the sections. Mostly the book was a good solid 4-star read--you know: smart, classic-rosmarie goodness. But. One section, "Providence in Winter," received one of my famous, late-night, thousand-star downpours. Reading it felt like swimming. Call me a sucker. Call me a snorkeler.

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Humours Run Deep by Tom Bridwell

Humours Run Deep by Tom Bridwell


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
One of those crazy could-have-only-found-it-in-houston books that I'm so glad I bought. This book runs fast across the surface--as folksy as abstract as technical as he wants to be. I tinkled (perfectly literary response) with its many rolling-over inflect/ions. If you can find a copy, pick it up!

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The Romance of Happy Workers by Anne Boyer

The Romance of Happy Workers by Anne Boyer


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Hell to the yes Anne Boyer for her smirky yawp at the piddly moon. Just when I started to worry about whether poetry's meta-isms are just masturbatory, it hit me: masturbating is great. Of course! We should all be rubbing them out with as much gusto as Boyer in this awesome book.

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Miniature: Poems by Mac Wellman

Miniature: Poems by Mac Wellman


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mac Wellman Mac Wellman Mac Wellman! An utterly sputtering act of macro-writing on (you thought they were small) points. All hail all that choruses in cinched jeering omni-verses. Come combustible choruses! Come wiry, thirsty choruses! The undoable diddles. The pekingese boxes. The nectar just spazzes as it makes its way down. Call that a 'Mac Wellman!' Play it again.

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Alexis Smith (b. 1949)

Alexis Smith (b. 1949)
Life In America (1991)
Directed by Peter Kirby.




For the past 20 years Alexis Smith's mixed media work has explored primal American myths: the open road, the bad/good guy/gal, the quest for romance, and the search for paradise. This portrait of the artist explores the roots of her thought and work, and was produced in conjunction with her exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, held in November 1991.

This film has been made available on UbuWeb by the kind permission of Peter Kirby.

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• Alexis Smith: Life In America (1991) (ubu.com)

The Painted Room: A Tale of Mantua by Inger Christensen

The Painted Room: A Tale of Mantua by Inger Christensen


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Inger Christensen does not fail me on the first day of 2010. She my patron saint of peeling paint and intrigue and loftiness. This is the plottiest plot I've ever loved and I love it for its swiftness and obliqueness and because it reminds me of Gabriel García Márquez. This is the year of the fool and foolish accounts. This is the year of sour wine that blossoms sweetly. This is the year of Maria. Call us Maria. Call all of us one name.

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Chris Burden (b. 1946)

Chris Burden (b. 1946)
A Twenty-Year Survey, Newport Harbor Art Museum - A Video Portrait (1989)



Directed and Edited by Peter Kirby
Director of Photography: Dan Zimbaldi
Co-production of
Newport Harbor Art Museum
Media Art Services
Zona Productions
length 27:45