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Dry tropics
every minute counts
four lines a day
snap frozen
*
Lorine Niedecker,
what would she have to say
(‘pick up that bucket’)
*
my brief career
as a shopkeeper
kaput
my new life
begins,
tending the demented
*
exit gaps stuffed
with strips of newspaper
against the western chill
locally
‘chill factor’
has become
‘feels like’
*
in a pastoral
regeneration,
blackened eucalypts
might dance
for me, it’s useless
imagining
a treeless plain,
then describing it
continually changing landscapes
are way too much
sickly yellowing weeds,
bogged gullies,
cracking surfaces
pesticides
ruining pristine reefs
and so on
*
the wind gusts furiously,
the verandah lattice
blown from its frame
like living
in a light house
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
raise the blinds
turn up
that medina music,
start keening now
*
Twenty+ Ways to Teach Poetry
Without Comprehension Questions
and
Tristan Tzara
To Make A Dadaist Poem
preparations for the poetry class
*
dinner out
at the Renee Geyer cabaret,
neon turning blonde hair pink
warm cocktails
in a harbour bar
the old beauty
of an autumn evening
*
in a gadda da vida
and other stormy music
*
a million droplets,
influenza
*
world gone somewhere,
dry tropics
*
in Bangalow
revisiting the site
of my truck crash
a new shop
has been built
in the ditch
*
Bassekou Kouyate is a virtuoso of the ngoni (West African lute), approximating the larger kora (West African harp) in sound but with a tougher, more percussive edge. Outside his home country of Mali, where he is widely celebrated, Kouyate is known for his work with artists like the late guitarist Ali Farka Toure—he was featured on Toure's posthumous album Savane (World Circuit, 2006) — kora player Toumani Diabete and American roots musician Taj Mahal.
Segu Blue is, Kouyate's debut recording as leader. It's an album of understated but awesome beauty, full of lush melodies and supple rhythms, deep, peaceful and healing; happier sounding than Ali Farka Toure's music, but equally weighty and mesmeric.
Kouyate's band, Ngoni Ba (”the big ngoni”) is a quartet of ngoni players — treble, mid range and bass — augmented by Kouyate's wife, Ami Sacko, on lead vocals, and two percussionists. Guest singers and musicians are also featured. The earthy tenor Zoumani Tereta takes lead vocals on two tunes; shades-of-Ali Farka Toure electric guitarist Lobi Traoré is featured on another. All the tunes are drawn from, or closely based on, traditional Bambara music from the Segu region of Mali: three are traditional, all but one of the others are composed by Kouyate.
The album is almost as much Sacko's as it is Kouyate's (in the Malian capital, Bamako, husband and wife are the musicians-of-choice at wedding celebrations, feast days and other traditional gatherings). She's known locally as “the Tina Turner of Mali,” but this must be for her looks more than her voice, which—apart from her cathartic delivery on “Lament For Ali Farka”—is lightfooted and soft-textured.
Bamako Market, foto by Peter Ptschelinzew
Behind Sacko, the four ngoni players weave in and out of each other's lines with such intricate intimacy that, pitch aside, it's often hard to tell where one instrument stops and another one starts. The effect is rather like hearing a broader-ranged kora played by eight hands. The treble and mid range players favour crisp, brisk, tumbling riffs, the bass anchors them with more measured ostinatos. “Segu Blue” itself is one of just two instrumental tracks, and the piece closest to Ali Farka Toure's savannah blues in feel and notation.
Segu Blue was produced by the British writer and broadcaster Lucy Duran in Mali, and mixed by Jerry Boys (of Buena Vista Social Club repute) in London. (With thanks to Chris May of ‘African Jazz’)
Starting this coming Thursday,
La Mama Poetica
presents Voiceprints as part of the
Melbourne International Arts Festival
La Mama Poetica: Voiceprints, an eclectic polypoetry (literally poetry of many possibilities) mini-season. The programme includes live works by visiting Japanese sound poet and composer Tomomi Adachi, Sufi-inspired World Jazz by Ali Alizadeh and musicians Elissa Goodrich and Ria Soemardjo, Sydney-based poet Amanda Stewart, TTO and visual artist Sandy Caldow, Ania Walwicz, Emilie Zoey Baker, Peter Murphy and jeltje with the improvising chorus Unamunos Quorum.
Amanda Stewart, 2005
Voiceprints has been inspired by international polypoetry festivals in Ghent (krikri), Berlin and Barcelona, and strives to widen conceptualized expectations of what poetry is. The performance-orientated pieces bear witness to the struggle of finding a contemporary and authentic voice in times of language crisis - something beyond the page, sometimes even beyond the confines of language itself.
La Mama Theatre
205 Faraday Street
Carlton
Melbourne
Thursday October 11 and Friday October 12 @ 8pm
Matinees: Saturday October 13 and Sunday October 14 @ 2.30pm
Sunday Oct 14 fully booked
Ticket prices: $25 full/$15 conc.
Running time: 2 hours 15 mins. approx.
To gain an idea of Amanda Stewart's kind of unique vocal performance work,
here’s an excerpt from unexpected synergies by Bernadette Ashley -
a review of recent ‘see hear now’ performances in Townsville
(from the current issue of realtime)
performance 4: untitled
The most effective incorporation of visual art was achieved in Performance 4.
Movement artists Nicole Keen and Kate Hooper were wrapped together in a single stretchy white sack centrestage. As they contorted in response to Amanda Stewart’s vocal performance, visual artist Michelle Deveze drew on the cloth. Slower passages allowed her to make deliberately directed work, while at times the movement artists’ staccato responses caused Deveze’s charcoal marks to become random and opportunistic, confined to wherever she could establish contact with her heaving canvas in the moment. A further layer of intrigue was added by local artist Donna Foley’s simultaneous responses using a data tablet, the images projected onto the dancers and walls.
Stewart’s voicework and Foley’s projections carried a heightened synergy underpinned by Foley’s specialisation in the intersection of the visual and aural. Just as Stewart pares back language from the coherent into its component parts, Foley’s calligraphy, using stylus on data tablet, is like pre-writing scribble, almost fooling the audience into believing they could decipher, in Foley’s chaotic, lacy marks, what Stewart was vocalising.
The intensity showed in Stewart’s mobile features and taut neck muscles as she worked rapidly back and forth between two microphones. An unbelievable array of effects was conjured. At times it was like someone quickly turning an old radio dial across stations, or overhearing the sighs, whispers and tragedies of the inhabitants of a whole apartment block all at once.
In between evoking echoes of kissing, popping, chattering teeth, ripping velcro, rain, trains, Morse code from space or a penguin colony in distress with her hoarse, breathy scat, Stewart threw in the odd, tantilising word, which she later described as “a rant for the underlings; women and low caste people.”
Foley’s projected marks changed colour, overlapped, intensified until the screen was practically filled, emptied and the process begun again. The lighting replicated changing weather. Photographer Glenn O’Mallley ducked and wove through the action, adding his shadow to the backdrop as he recorded Deveze trying to tame a ground which behaved like a large, unruly and reluctant animal.
Eventually Stewart’s vocals wound down from disturbing to soothing, ending quietly with “fait accompli...the economics of us...” She walked away from the microphones cueing Foley and Deveze’s last slow lines as they all eyed each other.
These disparate elements married to produce a multidimensional, sensual and random collage. The eye was kept moving, the ear straining and the mind racing to connect the nuances of voice, hand and body: an engrossing journey.
Tinfish is proud to announce
the publication of
farout_library_software
by Pam Brown & Maged Zaher.
Design by Chae Ho Lee.
• 2007 • 27 pages • US$10.
2 Excerpts from
F A R O U T _ L I B R A R Y _ S O F T W A R E
cut me down your biggest tree
fill my tank with toxic fossils
in case I live bring me a spoon
in case I die bring me a flower
for my reincarnation
and I will talk all night long
in a hydroponic haze
- - - - - - - - -
this is the life come on
an abundance of optimism
we will do it and how bring it on
the wonderful world
the total fucking brilliant world
and oh how lovely is everyone
- - - - - - - - -
The collaboration between Pam Brown (Australia) and Maged Zaher (Seattle) came about due to the absence of a poem. Maged sent Pam a submission to Jacket, of which Pam is associate editor. But Maged forgot to enclose the poem. In an effort to atone, Maged proposed a collaboration between them; this collaboration was to last for a year and a half and comprise the poems published in this chapbook. The collaboration is seamless; even Pam attests she could no longer tell whose writing was whose as she proof-read. Among the poems' subjects: change, constant change of jobs, friends, cities, and of course the software with which we mark time's passing.
Maged Zaher was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt and came to the U.S. to pursue a graduate degree in Engineering. He has published two chapbooks, as well as poems in journals such as New American Writing, Tinfish, and Exquisite Corpse. He translates contemporary Egyptian poetry.
Pam Brown has published many books of poetry and prose. Her most recent collection is Dear Deliria (Salt, 2003). She has a new collection forthcoming in 2008, True thoughts.
- - - - - - - - -
While you're there, please check out the other new stuff.
The War Criminal offer is still on for Sarith Peou's Corpse Watching.
Someday I'll Be Sitting in a Dingy Bar, by Hwang Jiwoo
is on SPD's new “recommended” list.
(And I recommend Hwang Jiwoo's wonderful chapbook of poems from Korea too - P.B.)
Also new from Tinfish:
Art feature, a new issue of Tinfish net (this one on translation), an anti-war project on facebook, the sidewalk blog (click on the photos
to make them bigger and to unveil the narrative of each sign's life)
You can purchase 'farout_library_software'
and other titles on-line
or by sending a cheque/money order
in US dollars to
Tinfish
47-728 Hui Kelu Street #9,
Kane`ohe,
HAWAI'I 96744.
The latest issue of Beat Scene (number 53) is out now.
back cover
If you haven’t left fortress-Sydney and joined the clogged traffic on the M4, F3, M5 freeways out of town then here are a couple of things to do besides attending political rallies and spontaneous demonstrations against your particular regional bugbear during the APEC summit meeting :
Stay in and watch SBS TV tonight
Julia Zemiro & Brian Nankervis - Rockwizzers
Rockwiz returns (hooray) after a winter break.
And Small Boxes, a film by Rene Hernandez
will also screen late (around midnight) on SBS TV tonight.
Demian Iturra in Small Boxes
Small Boxes is a film by Rene Hernandez and produced by Kristina Ceyton. Small Boxes follows the journey of Alberto Alvarez, a 20-year old Australian Latino who lives with his mother and grandmother in the outer suburbs of Sydney. Alberto works the night shift unloading boxes of fruit and vegetable at the local produce markets. On a trip to buy his grandmother new shoes Alberto notices a 'position vacant' sign and decides to go for the job. But making a change is difficult, and for Alberto it will mean learning about his identity and finding the courage to believe in himself.
Or spend the weekend at the cinema
at the underground film festival running in Sydney.
Watch a promo.
Paul Winkler, Albie Thoms, David Perry and Festival Director Stefan Popescu
The 2007 Sydney Underground Film Festival will be joined this year by some of the pioneering UBU Filmmakers including Albie Thoms, Paul Winkler, John Clark and David Perry, who first used the term ‘Sydney Underground’ in Australia.
If young experimental filmmakers today think they have it tough, try forming the first ever group in Australia dedicated to making, exhibiting and distributing experimental films. The UBU Films group, which was founded by Albie Thoms, Aggy Read, David Perry and John Clarke operated from 1965-1970, and later became the Sydney Filmmaker’s Co-operative, producing some of Australia’s most important experimental works. The group was named after Alfred Jarry’s play Ubu Roi, a precursor to the Absurdist, Dada and Surrealist movements. The group staged multi-media ‘happenings’, expanded and independent cinema productions, with themes that subverted the status-quo.
The aims of SUFF are all too familiar to the goals of UBU Films 40 years ago. As Albie Thoms recalls: “We were sick of all the talk about the Australian film situation and had begun helping ourselves, financing our small movies and helping each other make them...we decided to screen our films ourselves.”
The 2007 Sydney Underground Film Festival will be premiering Paul Winkler’s playful commentary on pop culture, Pop Kitsch (Paul still only uses only in-camera effects!) and David Perry’s new digital collage film, Dingbats!
I attended UBU Films screenings at the old Greek Community Theatre opposite St Vincent's on Oxford Street, Darlinghurst back in the early 1970s. Albie Thoms shot a lengthy segment of his film about Sydney, Sunshine City, in my flat in Crown Street, Surry Hills. And, a little later on, but still around 1972, we held film nights in the lounge room of our terrace house in Ann Street, Surry Hills where everyone was to bring a 16mm film to screen. On one of these nights, Albie showed his film of Antonin Artaud's Spurt of Blood.
The Chaser has been arrested again.
I know it will be in the Australian news media but for anyone elsewhere :
Article by David Braithwaite, Sydney Morning Herald
September 6, 2007 - 8:00PM :
Eleven members of ABC's The Chaser have been charged and granted bail following their arrest in Sydney today.
Julian Morrow and Chas Licciardello, two of the stars of the satirical show, were among those detained by police today, after staging a fake motorcade through Sydney as part of an APEC week stunt.
They were charged under new APEC laws with entering a restricted area without justification.
The crew members were in a convoy of three cars and two motorbikes, which was reportedly ushered through two checkpoints in Sydney's APEC security zone.
The convoy was pulled over in Macquarie Street in a block adjacent to the InterContinental Hotel where US President George Bush is staying.
All 11 have been bailed to appear in the Downing Centre Local Court on October 4.
NSW Police Minister David Campbell denied he was embarrassed by the comedians' ability to penetrate APEC's restricted zone - rather, he was pleased the "multi-layered'' security had worked.
He said the prank was inappropriate and he "did not see the funny side at all''.
The Chaser's production team had been specifically warned by police to behave responsibly during the APEC security lockdown, he said.
"[The police] said: 'We understand that parody and satire are entertaining and fun, many people watch the program and enjoy it, but please understand the seriousness of this matter and please take caution as you go about making your program.'
"That seems to have been thrown out the window and that, I think, is inappropriate."
Their motorcade, branded with the Canadian flag, is understood to have passed through at least one police checkpoint in the declared zone.
The vehicle was pulled over near the corner of Bridge and Macquarie streets.
A police statement said the show's producers were earlier this week urged to consider the ramification of stunts during APEC.
No charges were brought when the team dressed up as a police horse yesterday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said that the fact the Chaser team was arrested showed the security system worked.
But he told an APEC news conference: "Whatever you think of the humour of the Chaser ... they were clearly not going to harm anybody in a physical way.
"They presumably were, as is the nature of their show, aiming to humiliate a lot of well-known people."
Chaser team member Chris Taylor told smh.com.au that the motorcade comprised "three cars, a couple of motorbikes, and a lot of crew".
"It was a motorcade trying to get into the exclusion zone," he said.
"No particular reason we chose Canada," said Taylor. "We just thought they'd be a country who the cops wouldn't scrutinise too closely, and who feasibly would only have three cars in their motorcade - as opposed to the 20 or so gas guzzlers that Bush has brought with him."
The vehicles in the motorcade were hired - two were black SUVs imported from the US, and the other was a regular car.
Police superintendent Ken McKay confirmed the arrests had been made using new powers available under the APEC Act.
(with Arjun Ramachandran and Andrew Meares and AAP)
This evening, Sydney has snipers on roofs in a ‘secure zone’, helicopters hovering overhead, steel barrier-fences up around Circular Quay. Most business people from the area have closed for the duration and have gone bush. A public holiday has been declared for Friday to dissuade people from entering the city.
The Supreme Court of Australia has supported the New South Wales Police Department and is issuing a prohibition order against protesters demonstrating in certain streets of Sydney where today, behind a ring of steel barricades, Little Johnny Howard and George Dubya were busy strengthening military ties between Australia and USA. Bilateral deal-making between dork and adoring dork. A dangerous-simpletons' love-in. The Court ruling is provocative to anyone who believes in the right to demonstrate in so-called democratic states. It was ironic, given the restrictions on peaceful protest here in Sydney, listening to a segment of Bush’s speech, in his casual, almost inarticulate style, where he decried the treatment of Aung San Su Kyi and others in Myanmar (Burma). He championed the right to protest. A true hypocrite, but an unassuming freedom-loving kind of guy, right ?
In case you don’t know, there is a meeting of various world leaders (including China, Russia, Indonesia and so on) attending an APEC ( Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting in Sydney this week. If you would like to but can’t join the rally under the wondrous blast of the brand-new water cannon purchased recently, especially for this event, by the NSW government, you could look at the following example of resistance and make your opposition public in your own suburb -
Susan Schultz, poet, professor, critic and also editor of Tinfish Press has a sidewalk blog showing how small actions can have an effect.
The Webster-Schultz family workshopAfter today's press conference, Dubya was hungry. He remarked, as he left for lunch with Little Johnny - 'I'm glad you invited me to lunch today' - a breathy pause - 'I'm a meat guy'.
