The Best American Poetry

Lewis Saul, Guest Author June 16-22

This week we welcome Lewis Saul as our guest blogger.  Lewis is a composer who lives in Tucson, AZ. He studied composition at Juilliard and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. You can read his posts about the films of Kurosawa here.  Lewis spent the past year composing a work for his daughter and her intended entitled MIDRASHIM -- a 10-movement work for violin and marimba. Four of the ten movements can be seen and heard in a rough run-through here.

Welcome, Lewis.

-- sdh

Does Anyone Care About F. R. Leavis? [by David Lehman]

    I recently reread F. R. Leavis's New Bearings in English Poetry (1932), one of the most influential books of literary criticism in the twentieth century. What impressed me on this reading -- my first since my student days at Cambridge, where Leavis, though retired, was still active.-- was the exalted treatment of Hopkins. The passionate reading of Hopkins's poems, the appreciation of his work, should stand as sufficient evidence of Leavis's critical strength. I had remembered more clearly other judgments in the book: that "The Waste Land"  was the ne plus ultra of modern poetry, that Pound was at his best in "Hugh Selwyn Mauberly," that Pound's "modern interests, one feels, are for him mainly opportunities, taken or made, for verse practice." Leavis was astringent, exclusive, not to say dogmatic; he felt that great poetry was an activity of the moral imagination. Few modern poets were acceptable. "No one could be seriously interested in the great bulk of the verse that is culled and offered to us as the fine flower of modern poetry. For the most part it is not so much bad as dead -- it was never alive." There is the authentic Leavis note. Not generous; but genuine, fierce, dedicated to the critical ideal as Matthew Arnold had articulated it. He was also irate when he was not bitter, a man who radiated contempt for his foes or for disciples who veered from the orthodoxy as pronounced by the great man, his wife (herself an esteemed Cambridge don), and their literary journal Scrutiny. Stephen Fry recently called him a "sanctimonious prick," as you'll see if you read this Spectator review of the new book, Memoirs of a Leavisite by David Ellis. It was, by the way, the Spectator that published Leavis's notorious Richmond Lecture of 1962 -- and a spate of letters protesting it a week later.

"Does Anyone Care About F. R. Leavis?" There are readers who will feel that this phrase at the head of an aricle is a rhetorical question that answers itself. Leavis, a lost cause, was never all that attractive to begin with. But I bring him up not only because his ghost hovered at the bookshelves of Heffer's and G. David Bookseller on a recent visit to Cambridge -- but because the Leavis-Snow controversy of the early 1960s seems to me in retrospect even more significant than people thought at the time. In The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution (1959), C.P. Snow asserted that the sciences and the humanities were drifting ever farther apart and strongly implied that the future belonged to the sciences. At his Cambridge college (Downing) on February 28,1962, Leavis devoted the Richmond Lecture to a vitriolic attack on Snow's position (which itself originated as a Cambridge lecture -- the Rede Lecture of 1959). It was, alas, less a defense of the humanities than a contemptuous dismissal of Snow. I think that debate, if one can call it that, has foreshadowed the major intellectual story of our time, which is the utter triumph of technology, media, and gadgetry. Trilling has an excellent essay on the controversy (in Beyond Culture). It is possible that Leavis was right but his manner so offensive as to overshadow all else. When "foreshadow" is followed by "overshadow" two sentences later I figure it's time to type 30, as in ancient days. -- David Lehman

The Complete Works of Frank Zappa -- an American composer (1940-1993) (Part 4) [by Lewis R. Saul]

RELEASES #41-53 (1984-1988) 

41. Thing-Fish (3LP, Barking Pumpkin SKCO-74201, November 21, 1984)

It will soon be 30 years.

When this three-album box-set was released, many Zappa fans were severely disappointed. Many old tracks were simply re-recorded with overdubs: ("Torchum" and "Artificial Rhonda" from 1976; "Galoot Up-Date," "YAWYI," "Mudd Club," and "Meek," from 1980; "Clowns" and "No Not Now" from 1981-1982 as well the guitar outro to "Mammy Nuns.") The whole thing seemed outrageous and offensive.

The album's storyline is inspired by Broadway theatre, AIDS, eugenics, conspiracy theories, feminism, homosexuality and African American culture. It involves an evil, racist prince/theatre critic who creates a disease intended to eradicate African Americans and homosexuals. The disease is tested on prisoners who are turned into "Mammy Nuns" led by the story's narrator, Thing-Fish. The story within a story is a satire of a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant couple, Harry and Rhonda, who attend a play performed by the "Mammy Nuns," and find themselves confronted with their pasts: Harry presented as a homosexual boy, Rhonda presented as a sex doll brought to life (Wikipedia).

In retrospect, Zappa may have pulled a fast one here. After years of imagining an actual production -- someone actually pulled it off in 2003. What a shame Frank didn't live to see it. 

42. Francesco Zappa (LP, Barking Pumpkin ST-74202, November 21, 1984)

The one and only Frank Zappa release without a speck of music written by Frank Zappa!

Yes -- Francesco was a real composer -- check him out here.

Zappa's assistant, David Ocker, helped him program the synclavier with what he thought might be "appropriate" patches for 18th century music.

Naturally, Frank would come in the next day and change all of David's settings with more bizarre patches -- marimbas, spooky synths, etc.

A toss-off for the average Zappa fan, this one continues to hold interest for the person deeply interested in the Complete Works of Frank Zappa.

43, The Old Masters Box One (7LP, Barking Pumpkin BPR-7777, April 19, 1985)

For many years, a great deal of Zappa's early work was nearly impossible to obtain. In 1985, with the new medium of the compact disc creeping up on the music industry, Frank remixed nearly his entire catalogue -- sometimes adding new bass and drum parts (#03, #05) or creating radical new mixes like #08).

At $100 per box, this was an easy choice for most serious Zappa fans. Using high-quality vinyl and reproducing the album covers and booklets (cutely scratching out old addresses for defunct record companies, fan clubs, etc.) -- FZ put the first five releases in here plus the "Mystery Disc" (which later -- along with the "Mystery Disc" from #46 -- become a separate release, #68).

44. Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention (LP, Barking Pumpkin ST-74203, November 21, 1985)

At the time, watching Frank testify up on Capitol Hill, you just sensed that something amazing was going to come out of all this -- musically, speaking!

This is it!

Certainly, "Porn Wars" (12:05) is the featured track here -- but again, Zappa is nothing if not imaginative and all-encompassing in this exciting mid-80's release.

"I Don't Even Care" (4:39) features Johnny Guitar Watson, one of Frank's childhood heroes.

The next three tracks are Synclavier compositions -- "Little Beige Sambo" (3:02) is a nice tribute to Conlon Nancarrow. Pure genius at work here -- and a wonderful preview of much exciting "classical" music to come in the few years left in Zappa's too-short life.

"We're Turning Again" (4:55) is Zappa commenting:

They took a whole bunch of acid
So they could see where it's at
(It's over there, over there,
Over there, over there
And under here also)

Name-checked: Donovan, Hendrix, Morrison, Mama Cass, Janis Joplin, and Keith Moon.

"Alien Orifice" (4:10) -- an instrumental -- is played nearly perfectly by this amazing eight-piece '81-'82 band!

"Yo Cats" (3:33) -- Zappa's third anti-union ditty (previously, "Ruby Wants to Buy Yez a Drink" [#11] and "Stick Together" [#36]).

"What's New in Baltimore" (5:20) is another one of those very special FZ compositions that is truly filled with beautiful marvels! The track is put together with at least three separate edits from the above-referenced '81-'82 band.

Albert York, "Woman and Skeleton" (c. 1967) [by David Lehman]

I love this painting by Albert York, the famously reclusive painter, said (by Calvin Tompkins) to be " "the most highly admired unknown artist in America." York, who died in 2004 at the age of eighty, shunned the art world yet had a coterie of fervent fans, which is either the best of both worlds or eating your cake and having it, too. Sharon Butler has this column on York illustrated with three of his paintings. York told Tompkins, who profiled him in 1995, "The modern world just passes me by. I don't notice it. I missed the train." But another one came along and he took it, as my father said would happen when he advised me  never to chase a train, advice as applicable to romance or the stock market as to that great nineteenth century invention without which the Russian novel would be a much poorer thing and the West would still be wild. The New Yorker's official line: "Each still-life and landscape as exquisite weirdness," and that's certainly true of "Woman and Skeleton," left. Congratulations to Davis & Langdale on the York show, which came down on June 14. -- DL

Bach's Goldberg Variationzzzzzzzzzzzz (by Stacey Harwood)

Of Jerome Robbins's 90-minute ballet to J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, New York Times dance critic Clive Barnes wrote:

Jerome Robbins's new ballet, seen for the first time in its final version at the New York State theater on Thursday night is a work of such amplitude and grandeur that it can make you fall in love with the human body all over again. What a piece of work is man! And with what ballets does Mr. Robbins celebrate that workmanship!

I was in the audience with my parents for the Sunday matinee following the Thursday night premiere. It was May, 1971. We sat in the 5th ring, where the seats were $1.00 and arranged in a single row along the railing (in which, during a previous attendance, I had carved my initials with a hairpin). My father insisted that watching ballet from that vantage point was ideal; you took in the entire stage and sometimes, depending upon how many dancers took the floor at once and the variations in their costumes and movements, you could imagine you were looking into a kaleidescope with its magical changing patterns.

The other day the local classical music station played the Goldberg Variations and I finally learned the story behind Bach's composition, comprising 30 variations on a theme. According to the program host, legend has it that Count Kaiserling, the Russian ambassador to the Saxon court, commissioned Bach to compose the piece, to be performed by Kaiserling's musician-in-service, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg. Kaiserling, it seems, was frequently troubled with insomnia, and requested Bach to write some reposeful keyboards pieces which Goldberg could perform as a soporific.

It pleased me to hear this anecdote. Though I was in the audience for a historic performance, and though the original cast of the Goldberg Variations included some of the most celebrated dancers of all time -- Sara Leland, Gelsey Kirkland, John Clifford, Patricia McBride, Helgi Tomason, Karen Von Aroldingen, Peter Martins, Anthony Blum, Merrill Ashley-- I missed the show. As soon as the curtain lifted and the pianist struck the first cords, I placed my head on the railing and fell asleep, only to awaken, 90 minutes later, in time for the record seventeen curtain calls.

-- sdh

The Complete Works of Frank Zappa -- an American composer (1940-1993) (Part 3) [by Lewis R. Saul]

RELEASES #28-40 (1979-1984) 

28. Joe's Garage Act I (LP, Zappa SRZ-1-1603, September 3, 1979)
29. Joe's Garage Acts II & III (2LP, Zappa SRZ-2-1502, November 19, 1979)

Originally, three discs covering two separate releases. The compact disc era compressed the material and today the CD is one complete release on two discs.

These are the final Frank Zappa albums recorded in a regular studio -- after this, everything will emanate from the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen, Zappa's home studio.

As Zappa distanced himself from corporate control, he seemed intent on releasing a few new singles: "Catholic Girls" (Frank's response to the "Jewish Princess" critics) and "Joe's Garage."

However, as we discussed in #18, getting his music on the radio was really not Zappa's highest priority! The "singles" were incorporated into an ever-evolving Project/Object which today we call a "rock-opera." Zappa himself referred to it as a "stupid little story about how the the government is going to do away with music."

After "The Central Scrutinizer" (FZ) introduces himself, "Joe's Garage" surprises us with its undisguised sentimentality:

Down in Joe's Garage
We didn't have no dope or LSD
But a coupla quartsa beer
Would fix it so the intonation
Would not offend yer ear
And the same old chords goin' over 'n over
Became a symphony
We could play it again 'n again 'n again
Cause it sounded good to me
ONE MORE TIME!

"Catholic Girls" is not only as hilarious as "Jewish Princess" -- but contains some remarkable passage work. "Crew Slut" has a dirty Chicago-blues feel to it which just keeps on grinding.

"Fembot" (note the different titles on the LP and CD versions) uses a cool little theme which Frank liked so much, it became the opening motif of "Mo 'N Herb's Vacation" (#38), a complex orchestral work.

Zappa also continued his work with xenochrony, splicing guitar solos on top of unrelated backing tracks. His guitar playing is as exciting as any other time-period here, and he pushes his band to respond accordingly. "Keep it Greasey" features a section in 19/16 time (5/4 with one 16th-note chopped off the end of the bar!)

"Watermelon in Easter Hay" (original title: "Playing a Guitar Solo With This Band is Like Trying to Grow a Watermelon in Easter Hay") -- a 9/4 magical ride into Zappa's most intimate guitar solo ever -- is a very special piece of music; as is "Packard Goose" which closes with Zappa's classic and eternal statement:

Voice Of Mary's Vision:

Hi! It's me . . . the girl from the bus . . .
Remember?
The last tour?
Well . . .
Information is not knowledge
Knowledge is not wisdom
Wisdom is not truth
Truth is not beauty
Beauty is not love
Love is not music
Music is THE BEST . . .
Wisdom is the domain of the Wis (which is extinct)
Beauty is a French phonetic corruption
Of a short cloth neck ornament
Currently in resurgence ...

You don't want to miss this one!

30. Tinsel Town Rebellion (2LP, Barking Pumpkin PW2 37336, May 11, 1981)

With Steve Vai now playing "stunt guitar," and a huge band filled with keyboards and percussion and more guitars -- Zappa was beginning to enjoy re-arranging some of his earlier material into challenges for this exciting new band:

"Fine Girl" is the only studio cut. Bob Harris #2 sings falsetto. (#2 because there was another Bob Harris who played in the "Flo & Eddie" band!)

"Easy Meat" begins with 4/29/80, Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA. At 2:59, we briefly hear the 9/18/75 (Royce Hall, UCLA) mini-orchestra. This dissolves into a brief "inside-the-piano" motif with Davey Moire (?) saying:

" ... if he'd played something else ...
'Cause, uh, they just aren't gonna stand for it ...

Billy Collins Pinch Hits for Garrison Keillor, and See What Happens

Billy Collins, guest editor of The Best American Poetry 2006, will be filling in as guest host of The Writer's Almanac from June through August. Garrison Keillor, the regular host, is devoting the summer to his weekly variety program, A Prairie Home Companion. (In addition to a run of outdoor performances, Garrison is taking the show on a thirty-day bus tour and a two-week cruise.) The Writer's Almanac is the daily radio show that features a commentary on the day in history, a profile of a poet or writer born on the day, and a poem specially chosen by the host. Today is Ron Padgett's birthday, and Billy chose Ron's poem "The Swiss Family Robinson." Click here for June 17 and here for yesterday, Bloomsday. The Writer's Almanac has got to be about the best five minutes that FM radio has to offer. -- DL

The Origin of Father's Day (A Day Late, But That's Part of It)

Billy Collins explains the origin of Father's Day:
<<<
Today is Father's Day, a holiday in this country that goes back to a Sunday morning in May of 1909, when a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd was sitting in church in Spokane, Washington, listening to a Mother's Day sermon. She thought of her father, who had raised her and her siblings after her mother died in childbirth, and she thought that fathers should get recognition too. So she asked the minister of the church if he would deliver a sermon honoring fathers on her father's birthday, which was coming up in June, and the minister did. And the tradition of Father's Day caught on, though rather slowly. Mother's Day became an official holiday in 1914; Father's Day, not until 1972. Mother's Day is still the busiest day of the year forists, restaurants and long-distance phone companies. Father's Day is the day on which the most collect phone calls are made.
>>>
from A Writer's Almanac, June 16, 2013

Monday Comics with Nin Andrews

This Just In - Popsickle Brooklyn Announces All Star Lineup for Saturday, June 22

Popsickle is Brooklyn's literary arts festival. Now in its fourth year, the fest aims to unite Brooklyn's array of reading series and mags into one day-long literary megareading. It's happening this year at LaunchPad. Come for some of it, stay for all of it.

Catch these terrific poets and performers:

ERFORMERS INCLUDE: Michael Robbins | Anthony Madrid | Paige Ackerson-Kiely | Dolan Morgan | Danniel Schoonebeek | Coriel Gaffney | Ben Nadler | Julia Guez | Rangi McNeil | Montana Ray | Jarrod Shanahan | Andy Gittlitz | Nicole Steinberg | Paul Simundich | Allyson Paty | Jacob Perkins | JD Scott | Christine Kanownik | Sasha Fletcher | Seth Oelbaum | Ana Božičević | Leigh Stein | Jennifer Tamayo | Ryan Strong | Hubert Vigilla | Carole Nicksin | Anna Moschovakis | Sarah V. Schweig | Elizabeth Zuba | Marisa Crawford & Becca Klaver & Lily Ladewig & Caolan Madden & Emily Skillings & Jennifer Tamayo | & more tba . . . . More information and full schedule is here.

LaunchPad is located at 721 Franklin Avenue, near the 2, 3, 4, 5 and S trains.

-- sdh

'Dog paraphernalia such as a treadmill...' (by Mitch Sisskind)

Dog paraphernalia such as a treadmill 
Out by the side of the road -- that will

Attract the attention of Citizen Joe
And LE will not be far behind.

Nasko Hooten was in the middle of
A Cococlops keep that time 
When he, Nasko, was matched into 
Molesworth in 2004 in Oklahoma.

Citizen Joe drove by and Joe called 
LE on his cell phone and the next thing 
You know Nasko was talking to the

Female officer just chatting peacefully

And then the male officer horned in! 

He horned in on Nasko Hooten and 

The female officer chatting peacefully 
And Nasko cold cocked the son of a bitch!

You'd have done the same thing 
And so would I have! Nasko Hooten 
And the female officer chatting peacefully
And the male officer horned in!

Six months Nasko got but he got out
After three and I said to him 'Tell me
'What it was like in there' and he said  

'Like Barnum and Bailey every day!'

Laughing that big laugh of his he said 

'It was like Barnum and Bailey every day
'In there! That's exactly what it was like.
'It was like Barnum and Bailey every day!'

I asked him what else it was like and 
He laughed that big laugh of his and said
'Well you don't want to be an old guy
'In there! No you don't to be an old guy!'

Aw haw haw! Aw haw haw haw haw!
He cold cocked the son of a bitch!
It was like Barnum and Bailey in there!
You don't want to be an old guy in there!