Some months back I submitted a long “poem” to a new publication called Uncanny Valley. (I quote-mark the word “poem” for reasons that are quickly evident to the reader. It’s part poem, but it’s also comprised of elements that are’t poetry at all – snips of drama script, blog entries, actual e-mail exchanges, photographs, newspaper clippings, playbills, and so on.)
Read moreYou’ve probably heard by now: REM, one of the progenitors of alt.rock has called it quits after 30 years and 15 albums. The first five REM records (Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, Life’s Rich Pageant and Document) deserve at least 18 stars out of a possible 20 and 1992’s Automatic for the People earned five more. By any standard, they
Read moreWhile our country has in recent times engaged in a relentless policy war against the working class I grew up in, there was a time when honest labor was a thing to be celebrated. America became the greatest nation on the planet for a period of time thanks to its workers, not its CEOs or its bankers. Our character is
Read moreLast week, Sady Doyle published a protracted rant against George RR Martin’s Song of Ice & Fire series at TigerBeatdown.com. My initial reaction was that while her piece was certainly stylishly composed, the level of intellectual rigor informing it was lacking. Acacia Graddy-Gamel, commenting in an online discussion thread earlier this afternoon, put it this way: “the Doyle piece is everything
Read moreHere’s a preview of this week’s ArtSunday feature, with some comments from the editor at the end. King Subway (Tokyo Station)—October, 1988▲
Read moreOh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that’s how it always starts. Then later there’s running and screaming. – Dr. Ian Malcolm Mary Shelley spent the summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva, Switzerland with her husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their close friend Lord Byron “watching the rain come down, while they all told each other ghost stories.”
Read moreAs I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I now live in a development on the site of Denver’s old Elitch Gardens amusement part, which operated from 1890-1993. In addition to the really cool new urban community, there’s also some historic preservation going on, as they renovate the old theater. I’m being told that at this stage they’re doing basic
Read moreToday we offer a nod to the music of America by paying tribute to our past and to our future. First, Woody Guthrie reminds us: this land is your land, too.
Read moreDay 2 of our celebration of America, its art and literature. This is Jeunesse, by the Harlem Renaissance painter Palmer Hayden. More on the Harlem Renaissance can be found at Artlex.
Read moreS&R salutes the United States, warts and all. Today we launch a little 4th of July Art & Poetry Jam with Claude McKay’s famous sonnet, “America.” More great poetry, and more on McKay, can be found at The Poetry Foundation’s site. America Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, Stealing my breath
Read moreHeading down to the First Friday event in the Highlands Gallery District here in a bit, and am very much looking forward to seeing mentalswitch’s eyePhone show at Sports Optical. You’ve seen some of his iPhone art here before, in fact, and tonight – lots more. Head this way, Denver folks. Meanwhile, I’m ramping up for the evening with some
Read more
lullaby pit 