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Well, we have most of the other arts covered, so why not some love for poetry -- distinguishing it a bit from the What are you reading thread. Through a confluence of forces, I have been inspired to write poetry again. The trigger was seeing Charles Simic give a reading in Chicago, but in the background I have wanted to be more creative and not simply be a consumer of culture (prodded by the creative types here I assume). I had two major creative periods: a 3 year sustained period during college (when I also kept journals like you wouldn't believe) and then the year after I got my Masters in English. I was involved in poetry workshops (even in grad school) but for some reason the second time around, my writing was definitely better after the workshops had ended. Anyway, at the Simic reading, I picked up some fliers for local magazines that were looking for poetry, so I brushed off a few and sent them in, but more importantly I have written a few new poems. Hard to tell if they will stand the test of time, but perhaps. I will refrain from posting my work for the time being (though some were published in zines and small magazines, so I wasn't a poet just in my own head). I thought I would list some of the poets I've really liked and try to sort them into categories. Probably the genre that interests me the most are poets writing on urban themes. Here are some I like: Paul Blackburn (really underrated in my opinion) Frank O'Hara (while a bit overexposed some of his pieces are wonderful) Ted Berrigan Weldon Kees L.E. Sissman (I think this is the one I am thinking of) Gwendolyn Brooks Audre Lorde Charles Reznikoff I also like poets that use strong imagery and/or surrealist techniques. Here I would group: Anne Sexton Sylvia Plath Charles Simic Faye Kicknosway John Berryman Dylan Thomas Lawrence Ferlinghetti W. B. Yeats Finally, in a grab-bag category there are poets that have something interesting going on with their inner voice. Almost all poetry is reflective, so I suppose it is how I react to the pieces. These are generally cerebral poets, though a few are very political poets that resonated with me at one time or another. Philip Levine Wallace Stevens T.S. Eliot (not sure I would like as much now but a big influence when I was young) Adrian Rich Marge Piercy Robert Creeley Sharon Olds Emily Dickinson (It's really hard to decide where to put foreign poets, or indeed whether it is worth reading poetry in translation, since so much is lost in translation. Still, I would probably put Baudelaire and Rimbaud under the strong imagery category and Rilke in the inner voice category.) I think this covers most of the poets I like enough to read for pleasure from time to time. I'm sure I forgot a bunch and maybe I'll update the list later. Eric

A small update. I never did make the DADA show, though I did manage to see the Cornell boxes (I think we discussed this on another thread). Likewise I missed the Cezanne in Provence show in DC, but I more than made up for it by seeing the exhibit in southern France. I was in Europe for roughly 18 months and saw all kinds of amazing museums. Probably the best unified shows were the Cezanne, Jeff Wall (Tate Modern, then a slightly smaller show in Chicago I saw several times) and Kandinsky (Tate Modern). There was also a pretty cool exhibit on the theme of Melancholy that I caught in Berlin, and Vienna had a special exhibit on Klimpt (more than usual), which partly makes up for missing the Klimpt show at the Tate Liverpool now that I am back in the States.

Chicago currently has a Jeff Koons exhibit at MCA. Not all that really, though a few of his pieces are nice (or at least shiny). The Art Institute has been undergoing renovation and up until now it was ok, a few things shuffled and some pieces sent off to Texas I believe. But now they have gone and moved out all the modern pieces. There is maybe 1 room left out of 15-20. That's the main reason I go, though their Asian art collection is still very fine. I'll probably go half as often as I normally do until they start reopening some of these rooms in 2009. Anyway, they have a major exhibit on the art of Benin. But honestly I wasn't that moved by it. One exhibit that really moved me was Portraits from the Mind: The Works of William Utermohlen, 1955-2000 at the Chicago Cultural Center (this is a real gem of Chicago that only locals know about). The show only runs through Sunday, however. The artist found out in 1995 that he had Alzheimers, and his paintings/drawings shift and become more claustrophobic. Eventually he loses motor control, and the drawings regress:Last portraits It is sad but somewhat inspirational in that the drive to create was so strong. (Though it seems that his final art was from 2000 and he died in 2007, so the sadness of a tragic end outweigh the uplifting coda -- in my mind.) Anyway, I had never heard of this artist (American but had most of his career in London) and his paintings from 1991-1995 are just stunning. This is probably the best from the series, titled Snow: It just was one of those neat art exhibits that you stumble into and it changes your life a bit.

I had a copy of Elvin Jones Skyscraper (v. 2 I think). I can't recall about the sound quality. I thought it was too bad that there wasn't a legit release, since the music was pretty interesting. Haven't checked, but it might be a concert that has ended up on dime or a torrent.

These are excellent. I particularly like Terminal 1. Definitely my favorite late period Golson. I've just snatched up a bunch of the Milt Jackson's but The Harem is still there and someone should grab that. It's quite good. Eric

Not sure you can watch the L'Accension TV programme from outside the UK, but this link will take you to the radio broadcast and you can listen again for about 5 days: Prom 14 - Messiaen

I caught most of this. I thought it was a very good tribute show, esp. given the short timeframe to pull it together. Still sad about the news, and it makes me redouble my efforts to go see the last of the giants while they are still touring.

Not nearly enough of a fan to go, but since the fan base pretty much only wants to see a movie related to the Conspiracy, why does Chris Carter insist on delivering a stand-alone episode? (I know he was up front about it, but that doesn't make it less baffling.) Is this really going to increase the audience for this movie? While I somewhat disagree with you re: Batman that movies really should be directed at the fan base, I think it is more appropriate in this case where it really is only the fan base that is going to go.

Terrible news, but thanks so much for the great music. I'm so glad I managed to see him in Chicago. I never thought I would see him live.

My copy of Mo' Greens Please just showed up (TOJC), so I guess that means it will be time to reissue it domestically. Actually, I got it for a decent price, and am looking forward to hearing it. I also have the Fantasy two-fer (have had for a while) but not My People Soul People. Sounds like it's Roach time at my house tonight.

I purchased this recently from bmg, it is wonderful! I find it intersting that some musicians are able to convey warmth and authenticity while others just sound cold. This album, to me at least, is very moving. Particularly 'Love is' I just played this last night. I got it from Yourmusic (believe it is still available there) and was debating whether it was a keeper. It really hit me this time: a lot more in than out (at this point I'm more or less finished with "out" music, though that may change again). I agree, a warm and moving album. So I'm definitely hanging onto this one.

There's a lot of them, I've known a few. But how many of you have known Dweezil Zappa lookalikes? I got that once or twice when I was a lot younger and skinnier.

This should be up for another three days or so: Proms Page The one I am referring to is Prom 3: Nigel Kennedy playing in a jazz quintet. It's just under 2 hours, and they end with Jimi Hendrix's Third Stone from the Sun (I guess in the tradition of Turtle Island String Quartet). Anyway, I thought it was interesting. The BBC music player has been redesigned and is going through some teething problems, esp. for those outside the UK. It looks like the content is coming back online, but for a week we outsiders missed out on World Routes (an apparently amazing concert by Either/Orchestra and the Ethiopiques All-Stars) and less crucially the World on 3 broadcast of July 14. It's a long-shot but if anyone taped either of these two shows, please PM me. Thanks. (Actually there are some YouTube clips of this Ethiopiques concert, and I will gather them up for a different post, but I'd still like to hear what the BBC recorded if at all possible.)

Lester Young w/ Basie - Disc 4

Always liked Camby, even when he was with the Knicks, but he sure has trouble staying healthy. I think he did play most of last season, so perhaps there is hope yet.

There is a real time/convenience factor as well. Early on in my various sales, I might sell 10-15 to the same person, but lately it is down to 4-5. While your collection is surely more interesting than mine, you are still likely to be making on the order of 500-1000 separate transactions. That's a lot of trips to the post office.

All the more reason to come to Chicago and see him in a real free concert. Can't hardly wait.

All international shipments have gone out, and others will go out soon. Thanks for looking/shopping. I've added a handful of items (in bold) and lifted a hold or two.

Agreed - I reached that point a long time ago. What I have done is set aside one bookcase with easy access for my top 500 or so CDs, and kind of alternate between that and the less accessible CDs (stashed behind books actually). I will even admit to having a box of CDs in the closet, but in this case they are CDs I am selling off (a bit too slowly for my taste). I am not interested in having crates of LPs in the garage that I never listen to, though I don't deny there is a nostaglic reason to treasure them. I have enough trouble storing the things that I occasionally listen to/use that I don't want things that I never listen to/use.

No To me, the key question is are you actively listening to and enjoying LPs. If so, it makes perfect sense to keep them. What is a little strange is keeping thousands of LPs that are literally never listened to, just boxed up and moved from place to place.

Glad to hear you are basically ok. My thoughts go out to you and your mom. Eric

Unless you get a firm commitment from them, donated material goes straight to the sale pile. You'd be hard pressed to find any LPs at all in the entire Chicago library system and what they do have is opera, classical or jazz.

Ha! Dream on! My 12 year old daughter thinks that ALL of my music "stinks". She likes the soundtrack of her life, recorded by people close to her own age. And so it goes, forevermore. I have concluded for myself only, that as long as I have storage space and feel like keeping old recorded non-jazz music, I will. There is no real way to "make money off of it," except for the odd rarity I somehow managed to accidentally keep in good condition. What surprised me a little bit is that when I decided to try to donate my old non-jazz vinyl to worthy organizations for the less fortunate, they had absolutely no interest in receiving it. That IS surprising! Bizarre, if you ask me. There must be someone who would enjoy this stuff (besides us in our younger days). The format is the real killer. Sure there is a small vinyl resurgence going on, but only among a small band of hipsters who would not be interested in mass market rock/pop. Very few people have working record players anymore, and 97% of the rock/pop is out on CD, so there really isn't that much interest.

This may have come up already, but one of the main complaints about YouTube/MySpace was that in the Terms of Service you gave away a lot of IP rights (some debate about whether it has changed but nonetheless it is still unclear if you can permanently retrieve your rights). Obviously, this only mattered if you were uploading stuff that you actually had the rights to, which is probably less than 5% of the material on YouTube. Anyway, there is a low-key competitor that is geared towards actual content creators (and not freeloaders). It's called digg.tv (Digg.tv doesn't have any claim to the IP rights, other than allowing to webcast them. You can sign up to allow advertising which allows you to be paid for your content, though the rate is so low as to be irrelevant.) I'm not directly involved, though a friend of mine is slowly loading in content that we developed years ago. One there are a few episodes up, I will post a link. In the meantime, I thought this was sort of amusing: Kyle Piccolo These are minisodes about a comic book store owner who dispenses wisdom. The geek factor is pretty high. It's shot on location at Midtown Comics in Manhattan (Times Square). I don't think I've been in this store more than once or twice (for a while I thought it was a store I visit more frequently in Union Square). (Whoops - got the name wrong, but it works in the link.)

Not too shabby a collection. Now just bust them up a bit and paste them in a frame and you have a counterfeit Arman: Typewriters Razors Clocks