May 2007 Archives

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I hear In the markets they say of me, I sleep badly

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The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century, Eds. William Allegrezza and Ray Bianchi. Also available at Amazon.

Jennifer Scappettone * Suzanne Buffam * Srikanth Reddy * Robyn Schiff * Nick Twemlow * John Tipton * Eric Elshtain * David Pavelich * Peter O’Leary * William Fuller * Michael O’Leary * Mark Tardi * Erica Bernheim * Michael Antonucci * Chris Glomski * Garin Cycholl * Luis Urrea * Kristy Odelius * Lina Ramona Vitkauskas * Simone Muench * Lea Graham * Ed Roberson * Arielle Greenberg * Tony Trigilio * Shin Yu Pai * Dan Beachy-Quick * Maxine Chernoff * Kerri Sonnenberg * Jesse Seldess * Paul Hoover * Michelle Taransky * Robert Archambeau * Bill Marsh * Larry Sawyer * Cecilia Pinto * Johanny Vázquez Paz * Ela Kotkowska * Jorge Sanchez * Joel Craig * Daniel Borzutzky * Joel Felix * Raymond Bianchi * Cynthia Bond * William Allegrezza * Jennifer Karmin * Tim Yu * Laura Sims * Roberto Harrison * Brenda Cárdenas * Stacy Szymaszek * Chuck Stebelton * Jordan Stempleman

Cover art by Waltraud Haas

To read sample poems from the anthology, click "continue"

In 1977, I Spit on Your Grave (Meir Zarchi), issued under the less flamboyant title Day of the Woman (and also known as I Hate Your Guts and The Rape and Revenge of Jennifer Hill), was condemned across continents for being a film that, according to Roger Ebert in “Why Movie Audiences Aren’t Safe Anymore,” fostered in the audience rape and violence towards women (Ebert 54). Initially, the film was banned in the United Kingdom, Finland, Australia, and Germany. Upon its release in theaters, it was picketed by various groups (including women’s organizations) and panned by critics; and still, thirty years later, it remains a subject of controversy. That a low budget B-film can generate an inordinate amount of storm and stress is illustrated by Ebert’s assessment of the film as "a vile bag of garbage” that is “so sick, reprehensible, and contemptible that I can hardly believe it’s playing in respectable theaters” (Ebert 61). Gene Siskel, in a concurrent review, labeled it as “easily the most offensive film I have seen in my 11 years on the movie beat” (Siskel 3). Ten years later, in the 1987 Video Movie Guide, film critics Mick Martin and Marsha Porter called I Spit on Your Grave

Does The Shark care about or covet the 10k just awarded by The Driehaus Foundation to two members of the Consensoriat? -neither of them particularly strong or interesting 'painters' (-I use the term lightly).....No! Of course not. But what does bother me is the blatant corruption and cronyism practiced, even flouted!, with such sneering impudence by (but who else?) Mr Curator himself, in the uhhhhhm! 'decision' making process...

Ok, I know I haven’t written for the forum in a while now. Told Sharkboy I was just too busy, but in reality…LAZY is a much more accurate description. Anyway, after a conversation last night with Finface about Wilco’s new album he said to me, (in between assassinating some poor shmendrick on BAS) “You should review the record on Sharkforum, Blockhead!”

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The world was this as well, figures in windows a thousand feet up

I just received yet another invitation to a symposium (the preferred form of communication in the Consensoriat) concerning the Role of Exhibition Development in the Contemporary Artworld. I have a proposal.

Catherine Pierce is the author of Animals of Habit (Kent State University Press, 2004), a winner of the Wick Chapbook Competition. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Slate, Gulf Coast, Mid-American Review, Barrow Street, Third Coast, Blackbird, and elsewhere. She holds an M.F.A. from the Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. In the fall, she will join the English faculty at Mississippi State University.

Instinct

I woke to screaming. Outside, a raccoon
was opening a cat. The cat shrieked like a child

In case you didn’t know Bo Diddley had a stroke – Here’s part of an article that appeared on Fri, 18 May 2007

Four days after being stricken by a stroke, rock 'n' roll legend Bo Diddley's condition is steadily improving, according to manager and longtime friend Margo Lewis. Although he's still having trouble speaking, Lewis said she was "encouraged" by Diddley's condition, but adds that it's too early to know whether he'll be able to perform again.

Thinking of Bo I thought I’d share this little story of mine.

A couple years ago I was traveling in Fez, Morocco when a pair of interesting characters approached me and introduced themselves. They resembled the Moroccan version of the old American cartoon characters Mutt and Jeff. Mutt was short of course, with a mustache and dressed in a blazer and loafers. He did all the talking, while Jeff stood beside him, silent and patient. Lanky in his striped djellaba and fez he sort of resembled Boris Karloff in The Mummy with his hollow cheekbones and somnambulant eyes that would occasionally roll back into his head as if he was about to pass out.

Artist and critic John Perreault uses the recent exhibition High Times /Hard Times to examine amnesia in art. I have discussed this exhibition here several times; furthermore the topic has also disturbed me for some time. I did one of my Covers paintings about it in 2003, which is the title image here. Perreault’s Artopia art diary blog is usually insightful, but this is one of his best posts yet.

Michael Robins was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and educated at the University of Oregon and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of The Next Settlement, which was selected for the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry and just published by University of North Texas Press. His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Boston Review, Court Green, Meridian, Denver Quarterly and elsewhere. He currently lives in Chicago.

The Beautiful Corpse

Initially there were geese that refused
their passage south, some intents that rose

in the city's plume. During the first hours
I sifted through America, her bare gifts,

A fear of blushing or the color red.

My adventures in Artropolis. With far too many pictures of myself.
I got back Tuesday to Switzerland after my 6 day extravaganza in Chicago, but slept through the rest of the day. I had a fabulous time and will try to extol it in surges, as recollections and considerations come to my mind.

Lorna Dee Cervantes is an internationally acclaimed Chicana poet from San José, California. Her poetry has appeared in The Norton Anthologies of Modern, American, English, Contemporary & Women's Poetry. The recipient of many honors, awards & literary fellowships, her first book, Emplumada, (Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1981) won an American Book Award; her second, From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger, (Arte Público Press, 1991) won the Paterson Prize for Best Book of Poetry (judge-Hayden Carruth) and the Latino Literature Award. Her first collection of poetry to appear in 15 years is Drive: The First Quartet (Wings Press, 2006).

"How to Explain Paintings to a Dead Hare"
          a love sonnet for Joseph Beuys

Take a bit of copper between your teeth.
Bite down hard while pressing the first two

A fear of nudity, sight of a naked part or body.

Not only was Sharkstock 2 completely brilliant, but the Sharkpacks own Poet Laureate Dr. Simone Muench easily blew away all competition when it comes to being Chicagos most alluringly literate bartendress.

In linguistic prescriptivism, a solecism is a grammatical or other mistake or absurdity.

Some examples of usages often regarded as solecisms in standard English are: