friends of the cold picnic

‘capital sun’ by friends of the cold picnic, 2009.

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:00:02 +0100

‘capital sun’ by friends of the cold picnic, 2009.

Stein//Sedgwick

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:35:04 +0100

The care with which the rain is wrong and the green is wrong and the white is wrong. The care with which there is a chair and plenty of breathing. The care with which there is incredible justice and likeness, all this makes a magnificent asparagus, and also a fountain.

- Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons

He volunteers that I seem like someone for whom words have a big ontological importance- like things don’t quite exist till I’ve said them. ‘Or,’ I say, ‘maybe it’s more about loss- things exist without words, but without words I’ve no safeguard against losing them the next minute.’

- Eve Sedgwick, A Dialogue on Love

"Art is more than a matter of natural idiosyncrasy; you were the goddamnest biggest meteor to crash..."

Sun, 05 May 2013 12:47:11 +0100

“Art is more than a matter of natural idiosyncrasy;
you were the goddamnest biggest meteor to crash across these skies.”

- John Wieners, ‘The Cut’. Quotation found in ‘the sea under the house’: The selected correspondence of John Wieners and Charles Olson. Part of the amazing ‘Lost and Found’ series

"It knew no lapse, nor Diminuation — But large — serene — Burned on — until through Dissolution — It..."

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 14:49:45 +0100

“

It knew no lapse, nor Diminuation —
But large — serene —
Burned on — until through Dissolution —
It failed from Men —

I could not deem these Planetary forces
Annulled —
But suffered an Exchange of Territory —
Or World —

”

- Emily Dickinson poem #560, via Iain Morrison

‘electric garden hose’

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:45:22 +0100

‘electric garden hose’

"By choice, John lived a difficult life. He made my life what it is. He recorded me, supported me,..."

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 16:27:51 +0100

“By choice, John lived a difficult life. He made my life what it is. He recorded me, supported me, and remained my friend for over 30 years. I remember his beard in my ear, when we were both playing the Wort Hotel in Jackson Hole, and his stretched voice whispering, “Sing something! You have a great voice!” He hated my voice. I remember turtles, tons of them, around his office, his home. We build a turtle sanctuary in his backyard in L.A.- on Palms Boulevard, a breezy name for a concrete noise. Even the turtles were unhappy. And I remember his Prairie State guitars, his knowledge and his understanding […] But it is his vision that enriches us. He saw who we are. He wasn’t happy about it, but he told our story. And we fell down laughing, moved by what we had missed.”

- Leo Kottke, on the death of John Fahey (1939-2001)

and two cups of tea

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:51:49 +0100

and two cups of tea

"All speaks, when it speaks, in its own shape. I do not know why. Perhaps we may call it music. The..."

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:03:33 +0000

“All speaks, when it speaks, in its own shape. I do not know why. Perhaps we may call it music. The word, the right word, it seems to stand outside of us- like the shining of rails in the night, and even the way away from home. I suppose it is music. There is a mystery: the mystery is that the ear knows. If one revises and revises- perhaps weeks and months and years and cannot revise, then there is something wrong with what you are trying to say. The ear knows, and I don’t know why.”

- George Oppen, from ‘Statement on Poetics’

A little snow lightly is unlikely yet the dark ...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:21:00 +0000

A little snow

lightly

unlikely

yet

the dark

warm ground

is gone again

yet

is unlikely

thawing

dark

lightly

-Theodore Enslin

Pete McConville, sea shanty ‘Haul on the Bowline’

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:29:49 +0000

Pete McConville, sea shanty ‘Haul on the Bowline’

30 second Louis Zukofsky poem read by the poet. From the...

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 15:40:54 +0000

30 second Louis Zukofsky poem read by the poet. From the PennSound archive.

"Hiphop, afterall, emerged coterminously with Reaganomics, initially contesting, then celebrating,..."

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:24:11 +0100

“Hiphop, afterall, emerged coterminously with Reaganomics, initially contesting, then celebrating, the brutal reduction of culture to dog-eat-dog market dynamics; a political economic picture that collapsed with the banks last year. Everything on ‘Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love’ sounds like it is collapsing- or rather, decaying […] In photographs, Sa-Ra still posture like hiphop moguls, but the sound they have developed undoes, rather than bolsters, the rap alpha male ego […] What you hear is the return of the loose booty and the cosmic slop that hiphop eliminated when it disciplined funk into erectile stiffness […] Sa-Ra’s psychedelic soul 2.0 arrives at a time when the power elite have been unsettled and we’re in a new terrain without maps: a bombed-out space in which no one knows what will happen.”

- Mark Fisher reviews Sa-Ra Creative Partners’ album, The Wire July 2009

the greeny world/ with the sun, a yellow maw This is Leafcutter...

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:13:00 +0100

the greeny world/ with the sun, a yellow maw

This is Leafcutter John.

Three Good Things

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 16:06:45 +0100

1. Music: Rozi Plain, ‘Sometimes Joined Sometimes Unjoined’

Sometimes a line becomes a song unawares, something in its contour, the syntax already imbued with a kind of melody. I think this after listening to Rozi Plain’s new album. I know why it feels overproduced even though it’s not. It’s because the real treasure is her line, and I want nothing to impede it, the generous and sometimes cracking voice, and the hypnotic guitar that draws circles around fleeting thoughts and moments of comfort. ‘Nothing can beat this/ nothing but the newness. nothing can beat this/ nothing but the newness.’ In the sung chant it’s an old lyric of longing that is so amazing, and so sad. The frills added by others, the twin male voices crooning, the trumpets, bass, tinkly pianos, may add to a mood, but are unnecessary, embellishments for something that needs no ornament. When she comes right up to the feelings that matter, you can take it like that, raw and frayed, by itself, maybe a few tom-toms, but not much else.

2. Poem: Denise Riley, ‘Poor Snow’ (Selected Poems, Reality Street Editions 2000)

Poor Snow

The violet

light of snow falling.

Its tiny darts

make eye stripes.

Dark flakes

rapid, upwards.

It’s restless, it can’t

find whiteness.

Its grey and violet

trillion souls.

3. Letter: Ian Hamilton Finlay to Robert Creeley, 18th August 1962. (From Stanford University Library archives)

‘It is the Festival here just now, so it is raining very heavily, and everything has an undersea air. I read in the paper they had fireworks, to mark the opening, and the crowd ‘stood in silent sympathy’ because the set-pieces did not go off, and one of a walking elephant only appeared as two legs ‘which wavered feebly’ and ‘faded away’. I enjoy this, partly because of being wicked, and partly because it is always somehow a relief when the waiting sadness comes into the open and something they forget, or ignore, is vindicated. Also, it is hilarious too. That is a good thing about Scotland – it tries, but it never really, in the end, gets away with anything. It always comes back to wee cups of tea.’

Five Good Things

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:52:00 +0100

1. Art and thought: Freya Powell. Multi-media artist exploring geography, colonialism, military occupation, colours, and the inscription of history-making in books, texts, and maps, with emphasis on craft-making and the archive. Freya is a friend from primary school and it’s a pleasure to witness her explorations of politics and art over these years.

2. Music: ‘Los Angered’ by Trailer Trash Tracys. Reverb trance-pop; also something Cocteau Twins happening here. I am looking forward to seeing them in Glasgow 12 May, Captain’s Rest.

3. Words: ‘Marx at 193’ by John Lancaster, essay in LRB. Astute words:

The financial system in its current condition poses an existential threat to Western democracy far exceeding any terrorist threat. No democracy has ever been destabilised by terrorism, but if the cashpoints stopped giving out money, it would be an event on a scale that would put the currently constituted democratic states at risk of collapse. And yet governments act as if there is very little they can do about it. They have the legal power to conscript us and send us to war, but they can’t address any fundamentals of the economic order.

4. Periodical: PICPUS. A beautiful folded broadsheet with intriguing transmissions from the art world, with particular interest in historiography, politics, and the French Revolution.The first issue was scented with grass perfume as a reference to the 18th century Parisian pedestrian custom of coping with rank city smells with handkerchiefs doused with perfume. PICPUS can be picked up for free at various places (in Endinburgh: Ingleby Gallery and Talbot Rice Gallery).

5. Geology: Quartz Gabbro, Walks around Arthur’s Seat has set in motion interest in igneous rocks generally.

Four good things

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:04:00 +0100

1.Book: Weir’s Way by Tom Weir. This is a story of Scotland told through Weir’s passage through its geography and geology. He is a sociologist at heart, taking interest not only in the varied natural landscape (beautifully evoked, never sentimentally, like a good poem), but also throught the social landscape of the people. This is an amazing book and I am looking forward to reading his autobiography.

2.Music: Peng! by Stereolab. Who else can make the most perfect pop songs using lyrics from the Communist Manifesto and One Hundred Years of Solitude? Especially notable are the tracks K-Stars and You Little Shits.

3. Art exhibition: Alison Turnbull at Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh. In one memorable piece, Turnbull has used colours ‘discovered’ by a crew member of Darwin’s Galapogos expedition while on the island, observing rocks and wildlife. On until 5 May 2012.

4. Magazine: SCREE issue 4- now available at http://screemagazine.wordpress.com. The cover has been beautifully made by Rachel Caunt using tissue paper. The inside has a variety of excellent poetry and artwork. Comes with a cd of electronic and acoustic sounds.

SCREE three. Now out!

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:41:33 +0100

SCREE three. Now out!

My mom is a knitter of fantastically intricate and colourful...

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:23:50 +0100

My mom is a knitter of fantastically intricate and colourful Estonian-style wrist warmers. I encouraged her to sell them on etsy.com, which is a wonderful site for artists to sell their crafts without any middle-middle involved. Here are some things I like. Undoubtedly many will remain in the realm of the ogling, as they reflect the true cost of making something by hand. I especially like the idea that someone can make a stamp of your face. It reminds me of those adverts I used to see in the back of teen magazines in the 90s where for $10 a ‘genuine’ musician would fill a tape with songs they wrote for you based on descriptions of yourself you sent them. ‘I love the way you like to eat carrots with ranch dressing’

Colin's book of poems.

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:19:00 +0100

You probably didn’t know that last year Colin Herd’s first book of poetry was published. It’s called too ok and it has a lemon yellow cover with a drawing by Sandy Christie which I think is really fantastic. But Colin, whom I sat next to at a magazine fair recently in Glasgow, worries that the drawing may be scaring people off from buying the book. Why would it though- to me it’s a faithful depiction of a heart-asteroid zig-zagging its way into a neon maw.

The poems inside are electric. I sat down one morning at my ‘breakfast table’ (do people who actually have breakfast tables have other tables intended specifically for other meals) and read it cover to cover, almost greedily. Ok- completely greedily. I laughed a lot and traced so many idea-phrases in my head. It’s definitely an asteroid, maybe a demure, witty, and very smart asteroid, going straight for your heart, great over any meal and in between.

I hope Colin doesn’t mind me printing one of the poems below. You can buy the book here.

i know your love is cap-
sized, louche & side
ways on your head,
gaudy, red, obscene,
its rim dramatically tilting,
lop-sided, sweat-stained,
old. at

the same time, i know
my personality is like
a kilt. heavy, scratchy &
tartan. when you reel, it
feels like you’re shrugging
me off to the tune of my
fiddle. i flap about you.

SCREE three.

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 13:23:00 +0000

The third issue of my magazine SCREE is now in progress.

The theme of this issue is Construction. In light of the earthquake and subsequent events in Japan, the idea of construction is germane: the way in which we build civilisations in the image of permanence, investing our establishments (buildings, systems, beliefs) with a stubborn sense of invincibility. Yet can we ever live cowering? We construct edifices and name things in order to survive, hold parades and rituals -meaningfully or not- to live our days- often greedily and selfishly- in abeyance of a certain end.

Yet perhaps a more optimistic interpretation of Construction lies in the possibility of existing within systems which encourages arenas of commonality. Hannah Arendt writes, ‘To live together in this world means that a world of things is between those who have it in common, as a table is located between those who sit around it; the world, like every in-between, relates and separates men at the same time.’*

This magazine is a hopeful construction, which acknowledges words, pictures, and music as technologies, as textual,visual, and aural organisations of consciousness- and not consciousness itself. The magazine doesn’t want to take for granted the permanence of structures, but nonetheless hopes to promote thoughtful ‘structuring’ with words, images, and sound. Arendt again: ‘The reification which occurs in writing something down… is of course related to the thought which preceded it, but what actually makes the though a reality and fabricates things of thought is the same workmanship which, through the primordial instrument of human hands, builds the other durable things of the human artifice.’

The contribution list for this issue is shaping up nicely: Greg Thomas is doing the cover art, and inside contributors include Sandra Alland, Ian Brand, Rodney Relax, Richie McCaffery, Jim Ferguson, Posie Rider, nick-e melville, and many others. The issue will be coming out on May 10. Please let me know if you’d like to receive it- it will probably cost £2, but I will let you know in due course.

* all Arendt quotations come from her book The Human Condition.