The summer 2008 Rain Taxi, just up, has a special portfolio devoted to John Ashbery, his house in Hudson, New York, and the idea of "created spaces" -- how Ashbery, in his dwelling place as in his poems, creates an architecture capable of accommodating many kinds of disparate artistic phenomena. Micaela Morrisette edited the feature, which has an introduction from Rain Taxi editor Eric Lorberer as well as essays by Roger Gilbert, David Kermani, Rosanne Wasserman, Penelope Creeley, Michael Gizzi, and Robert Kelly.
The timing couldn't be better. Today is Ashbery's birthday and in offices around the country much water-cooler gab is being devoted to Ashbery's close friend, Frank O'Hara, whose poems fascinate the enigmatic hero of the great AMC series Mad Men in last night's season opener.
-- DL
