FALL CONCERT SERIES


Mills College 2004-2005
Concert Series and CCM Songlines Series
Presented by the Mills College Music Department and
the Center for Contemporary Music
Concert Series

Alternative Rock
ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
Death Ambient
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Toychestra
Carla Bozulich
Friday, September 3, 8:00 p.m.
$12 general, $6 seniors

Concert Series
MUSIC BY WOMEN COMPOSERS
Mills Performing Group
Selected Songs by Maggi Payne, Fanny Mendolssohn Hensel,
and Clara Wieck Schumann
Bye, Bye Butterfly by Pauline Oliveros
Apparent Horizon by Maggi Payne
Dirge for two quarter-tone pianos by Mildred Couper
Six Japanese Gardens for Percussion and Electronics by Kaija Saariaho
Outline for Double Bass, Flute, and Percussion by Pauline Oliveros
Performers include Belle Bulwinkle, Sara Ganz, Chris Brown,
William Winant, Mark Dresser, and Stephen Adams
Friday, September 10, 8:00 p.m.
$12 general, $6 seniors

Concert Series
VIET SPRING FOLK ENSEMBLE
A Vietnamese multicultural performance troupe whose signature style
blends together Western and Vietnamese traditional instruments.
Van-Anh Vo, director
Sunday, September 26, 4:00 p.m.
$12 general, $6 seniors

CCM Songlines Series
GINO ROBAIR, CCM Composer-in-Residence
I, Norton, a multimedia work by the composer based on the writings of
Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.
Monday, September 27, 7:30 p.m.
FREE - Ensemble Room

CCM Songlines Series
SHEVADNAZE
Composers Boris Baltschun (electronics) + Serge Baghdassarians
(guitar, electronics) strategize as improvisers in this German duo.
Monday, October 11, 7:30 p.m.
FREE - Ensemble Room

Concert Series
WERNER BDRTSCHI
Pianist
Robert Schumann: Studien und Konzertetden nach Paganini,
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata quasi una fantasia cis-moll op. 27/2,
Johannes Brahms: Paganini-Variationen op. 35, Ulrich Gasser:
Paganini-Variationen, Werner Bdrtschi: Bogensan fr Klavier und
Computer-Elektronik, Franz Liszt: Six Grandes Etudes de Paganini
Saturday, October 16, 8:00 p.m.
$12 general, $6 seniors
CCM Songlines Series
AMELIA CUNI
A lecture-demonstration on dhrupad singing, the oldest form of North
Indian classical music, by the highly acclaimed singer.
Monday, October 18, 7:30 p.m.
FREE - Ensemble Room

Concert Series
Mills College Music Department Artists-in-Residence
QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO
Jeremy Cohen, violin; Kayo Miki, violin; Emily Onderdonk, viola;
Joel Cohen, cello
Program includes United Quartet by Henry Cowell and a
New Work by Chris Brown
Saturday, October 23, 8:00 p.m.
$12 general, $6 seniors

Concert Series
Darius Milhaud Concert
LOVE AND DEATH
A 20th-Century Chamber Opera Double-Bill
Darius Milhaud: Les Malheur dOrphie
Gustav Holst: Savitri
Directed by Paul Flight and Nalini Ghuman Gwynne
Theatrical Designs by Richard Battle and Richard Olmstead
Performers include Sara Ganz, Rita Lilly, Sumner Thompson, Karen Clark,
the Quartet San Francisco, and members of the Mills Performing Group.
A rare opportunity to see productions of Milhauds dramatic 1920s
Parisian setting of the Orpheus myth, complete with a quartet of
animals and feminine furies; and Holsts setting of an episode from the
Mahabharata, featuring an ethereal womens chorus who begin the
performance with two of Holsts Hymns from the Rig Veda with harp.
Saturday, October 30, 8:00 p.m.
Free

Concert Series
David Tudor Composer-in-Residence
RON KUIVILA
The composer and sound artist from Wesleyan University presents Rock's
Role (After Ryoanji), an exhibition of sound works by Mills composers
that embrace overlap. Kuivila curates the collection using software
that follows John Cage's classification of the percussion and glissandi
he used in the pieces entitled Ryoanji (1983-1992), where "sand
provides an articulation of time within which rocks are freely
overlapped."
Saturday, November 6, 8:00 p.m.
$12 general, $6 seniors

CCM Songlines Series
JOHN SALMON
The musical connections between jazz great Dave Brubeck and French
master Darius Milhaud are featured in this lecture/recital entitled
"What Brubeck Got From Milhaud."
Monday, November 8, 7:30 p.m.
FREE - Ensemble Room

CCM Songlines Series
NEIL ROLNICK
A preview of the composers new sample-based piece, Plays Well With
Others, for the Paul Dresher Electro-Acoustic Band.
Monday, November 15, 7:30 p.m.
FREE - Ensemble Room

allison cobb pointed this one out to me . . .

By REUTERS
LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein is passing his time in solitary confinement by reading the Koran, writing poetry, gardening and snacking on American-style cookies and muffins, The Guardian reported Monday.

The Iraqi human rights minister, Bakhtiar Amin, was quoted as saying in an interview that Mr. Hussein's health was "generally good" but that he was being treated for high blood pressure and had a chronic prostate infection.

Mr. Amin spoke to the newspaper after he had visited Mr. Hussein in prison on Saturday. The location of the prison has been kept secret.

"One of the poems is about George Bush, but I had no time to read it," said Mr. Amin, a Kurd originally from Kirkuk, who had spent much of his life in exile in Europe and the United States. "He is looking after a few bushes and shrubs and has even placed a circle of white stones around a small plum tree."

Mr. Hussein is being held in a white-walled air-conditioned cell, a little more than 9 feet wide and 13 feet long, Mr Amin said. He is kept apart from the other prisoners, who can mix freely during the daily three-hour exercise periods.

Like the other high-value detainees, Mr. Hussein's day begins with a substantial breakfast, an MRE (meal ready to eat), which provides 1,300 calories. He also gets hot food twice a day, which could consist of rice or potatos and broccoli, along with either fish, beef or chicken. For dessert, there might be oranges, apples, pears or plums, but Mr. Amin said that Mr. Hussein had developed a penchant for American snacks like muffins and cookies.

There is regular access to showers and a barber, and a personal grooming kit that includes soaps, toothpaste, comb, shampoo and deodorant, and plastic sandals.

For relaxation, the minister said, there are no newspapers, television or radio, but there are 145 books - mainly novels and travel books - donated by the Red Cross, which visits the detainees every six weeks. "

amidst missing is
document inside more
what thinks rethinking
so that such
day certain documentary
word filled images
are is, am

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.
—Dick Cheney August 26, 2002

We know for a fact that there are weapons there.
—Ari Fleischer January 9, 2003

McKenzie: Mr Perkins, what took place there yesterday is a total/disgrace and/and Mr Perkins, there is no way you can pinpoint a soldier to say dat dis is de soldier dat did it because the soldiers doan carry numbers! The soldiers doan carry anyting dat you can i/dentify dem to say dat dis is de man oou/oou did it! M/M Mr Perkins, what I am saying to you is not fictitious, it is not done to score political points, it is someting dat took place, I am speaking about REALITY, someting dat took place yesterday.
—Kamau Brathwaite, Trench Town Rock

My problem presupposed that I couldn't judge because I didn't know what the facts were. All I had, or could have, was a series of different perspectives, and so nothing that would count as an authoritative source on which moral judgments could be based. But, as I have just shown, I did judge, and that is because, as I now think, I did have some facts.
—Jane Tompkins, “ ‘Indians’: Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History”

If you are a reader of Chain, we would be pleased to read your work for Chain 12: FACTS.

We are interested in work that begins from fact. Numbers. Testimonies. Litanies of various gross domestic products. Scientific formulas. Art that addresses pesticide load in corporate farming. The poetry of charts and resource usage comparison. Maps of colonization. The prosody of statistics. We will welcome all genre and disciplinary considerations of hard data: visual art, writing, new media, non-fiction, essays, actions, debates. In this time of contradictory information, how do know facts, how do we circle around them, how do we act on them?

Please be aware that we can only print visual images in black and white.

Submissions will be read by Jena Osman and Juliana Spahr. We welcome cover letters or notes where you discuss how your work relates to the topic. If your work begins from a certain fact, perhaps explain this to us in your
letter.

Send two copies of your submission and two copies of your cover letter to
CHAIN (c/o Jena Osman)
English Department
Temple University
Anderson Hall (022-29)
1114 W. Berks St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122-6090.

Deadline: December 1, 2004

If you have questions, send them to josman@temple.edu and spahr@hawaii.edu.
But please, NO email submissions (we tend to lose them).

Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you would like your work returned. Do not send us originals.

We read work in December and then reply in early February at the latest.

See also . . . http://www.temple.edu/chain

Three items of news from John Tranter's Jacket magazine --

Poet and editor Pam Brown is now Associate Editor of Jacket magazine. Pam has an author notes page which provides links to the items she's published in Jacket, including an informative interview:     http://jacketmagazine.com/bio/brown-pam.html

Jacket magazine is seeking reviewers; for more information please see this page:    http://jacketmagazine.com/reviews-db/reviewing.html

More than three hundred Jacket book reviews and author interviews are now gathered in one page of glittering links:     http://jacketmagazine.com/reviews-db/reviews-a.html ...from John Ashbery to Leslie Scalapino, from Ian Hamilton Finlay to Caroline Bergvall, this mass of chatter, lapidation and deep introspection mines the ore of literary production and analyses the seat of the soul.

__________________________________________________

"It seems to have given people the idea that I was actually dealing with a subject matter in some recognizable way, and this was a great relief; but I think really it's just as random and unorganized as my other poetry is."  -- John Ashbery

"I don't think I can tell you what the social utility of poetry is. 'Utility' is a word I try to stay away from; it reminds me of bills." -- Nada Gordon.

"I mean, if we publish sadomasochistic tales of decay and mutilation, putrefying corpses and the like, everyone's happy because they can see where these stories fit into the cultural spectrum!" -- Pete Ayrton, publisher of Serpent's Tail books.

 
from John Tranter  > 
Editor, Jacket magazine: http://jacketmagazine.com/  
>  homepage... poetry, reviews, etc, at: http://www.austlit.com/jt/  
>  early writing at http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/tranter/          
39 Short Street           Balmain NSW 2041           Sydney, Australia          
Tel [612 +]   9555 8502           Fax [612 +]   9818 8569

oddity of chaotic nature
calmess that seives
independence acts onward
which is which itself
one remains one self
there seeks, there discovers
here focuses, here wild

 

lisa jarnot groupies . . .

could you think of anything more exciting than a hat made by lisa jarnot?

from her blog . . . http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/lisajarnot/blog/

Some people asked about my hats. I am working on a project called "One Hundred Hats". So far I've made 18 of them. I've been distributing the hats to illustrious people. The great poet of London, Miles Champion, has hat number 8. My mom has hat number 2. Sophie's hat is number 17.

It takes me about 10 hours to knit a hat. I use a pattern that I found on the internet. It's called the Crazy Cap. I make hats in all different colors and different patterns. (Current experiments include Persian Rug hats, Field Theory hats, camoflage fish hats.)

If you want a hat from the 100 hat series, send me an email at jarnot@earthlink.net. Special bargain for lisablog readers= $25.

so much poetry news lately...

bill luoma and jack spicer both have poetry in hexameter if you want some cardiac synchronization after the greeks.

 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Reading Hexametric Rhyme Supports Cardiac Synchronization, Especially After A Heart Attack
(July 14, 2004) - Bethesda, MD –

According to new findings from a team of European physiologists, you might receive greater health benefits (and probably a deeper appreciation of the classics) by forgoing the movie “Troy,” and instead, reading The Iliad out loud. The gist of this new research focuses on the hexameter, the poetic format unique to classical Greek and Roman epic poems like those found in the works of Homer and Virgil. 

Background
The effects of different breathing frequencies and patterns found in poetry readings on cardiovascular regulation have been investigated extensively in recent years. Poetry recitation has been known to cause a frequency adjustment of breathing oscillations with endogenous blood pressure fluctuations (Mayer waves) and even cerebral blood flow oscillations during the saying of the Catholic Rosary and the ‘OM’ mantra. This effect is  attributed to the breathing frequency of approximately six breaths per minute induced by the metric of both religious verses. Researchers have also observed increased arterial baroreflex sensitivity, which is a favorable long term prognostic factor in cardiac patients. Thus, some have endorsed recitation of specific poetry as a means to control breathing patterns.

Many features of the cardiorespiratory control during recitation of poetry are still unknown. Recently, with simultaneous recordings of an electrocardiogram and a respiratory trace, new techniques for the analysis of cardiorespiratory interaction were developed.  They unambiguously revealed that heart rate and respiration may intermittently synchronize. The application of these techniques promises new information about the cardiorespiratory interaction, specifically after a heart attack.

What is the Hexameter?
The ideal dactylic hexameter consists of six (hexa) metrons or feet called dactyls (fingers). Each dactyl consists of three syllables, the first long, the other two short. Note that the last foot is not a real dactyl, as it only consists of two syllables. The following represents a hexameter:

Down in a deep dark hole sat an old pig munching a bean stalk

A New Study
Now, European physiologists have investigated the cardiorespiratory synchronization in healthy subjects using a cross sectional study design: recitation of hexameter verse, controlled breathing and spontaneous breathing. They hoped to improve the understanding, through poetry, of regulatory processes that maintain stability and coherence between different physiological functions since cardiorespiratory interaction seems to play a crucial role in this context.
The authors of “Oscillations of Heart Rate and Respiration Synchronize During Poetry Recitation,“ are Henrik Bettermann, from the Department of Clinical Research, Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Herdecke and Dirk Cysarz, at the Institute of Mathematics, University of Witten/Herdecke, both in Germany; Dietrich von Bonin and Peter Heusser at the Institute for Complementary Medicine KIKOM, University of Berne, Switzerland; Helmut Lackner at the Institute for Noninvasive Diagnostics, Joanneum Research, Weiz, Austria; and Maximilian Moser with the Physiological Institute, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.  Their findings appear in the Articles in Press section of the American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology. The journal is one of 14 published each month by the American Physiological Society (APS) (www.the-aps.org).

Methodology
The researchers investigated the cardiorespiratory synchronization in healthy subjects during recitation of hexameter verse.  Three different exercises were compared using a cross sectional study design: recitation of hexameter verse, controlled breathing, and spontaneous breathing.
Some 20 healthy subjects without prior knowledge of the hexameter text used for the recitation were enrolled in the study. After an initial check 3 subjects had to be excluded due to frequent ectopic heartbeats. The 20 subjects (10 female; age: 43 ± 6.6 years, average ± SD; 3 smokers) had no history of cardiovascular diseases, especially no hypo- or hypertension or anti-arrhythmical therapy.

All subjects were invited individually three times to the therapy center at the same time of day. In each of the three sessions the subjects performed a different exercise (in random order): hexameter recitation (H), controlled breathing (C) and spontaneous breathing (S).  The researchers used a piece from Homers Odyssey in a German translation, which did not alter the rhythmic scheme of the verse.

During each session an electrocardiogram and the nasal/oral airflow were recorded simultaneously. The overall duration of each session was 50-60 minutes, divided into three successive measurements: 15 minutes quiet rest in a resting chair, 20 minutes of exercise measurement, and 15 minutes quiet rest in a resting chair. During S1 and S2 the subjects were allowed to breathe spontaneously.  This procedure resulted in nine different measurements of each subject. To ensure comparable levels of physical activity during the three types of exercises, the subjects walked through the room at a pace of 50 steps per minute (given by an electric metronome). The three experiments had to be at least 24 hours apart but within 14 days.

Results
With respect to cardiorespiratory interaction the results of the analysis of the phase difference and the coherence analysis revealed: (1) during recitation of hexameter verse the low frequency oscillations of the breathing pattern were synchronized to a large extent with the heart rate oscillations; (2) the cardiorespiratory interaction was also synchronized during the controlled breathing exercise, but to a slightly lesser extent; (3) the resting periods before and after the exercises showed a further reduction of cardiorespiratory synchronization; and (4) during the spontaneous breathing exercise, the cardiorespiratory interaction was almost completely desynchronized. Rhythmic speech thus has the strongest impact on synchronization of low-frequency breathing oscillations and heart rate fluctuations, whereas cardiorespiratory interaction during everyday activities is rarely synchronized.

Conclusion
The special breathing pattern used for the recitation of hexameter verse produced a strong cardiorespiratory synchronization with respect to low-frequency breathing oscillations and heart rate variations. Controlled breathing showed cardiorespiratory synchronization to a lesser extent. The results of this study may improve our understanding of regulatory processes that maintain stability and coherence between different physiological functions since cardiorespiratory interaction seems to play a crucial role in this context.
-end-

Source:  Articles in Press section of the American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology. The journal is one of 14 published each month by the American Physiological Society (www.the-aps.org).

The American Physiological Society (APS) was founded in 1887 to foster basic and applied science, much of it relating to human health. The Bethesda, MD-based Society has more than 10,000 members and publishes 3,800 articles in its 14 peer-reviewed journals every year.
***
http://www.the-aps.org/press/journal/04/18.htm

thinking here is
a thought not
thinking, not
working I work
things are of
chaotic nature
in it I am

I have to be late today. Sorry. A poem will appear. Hopefully tomorrow...Although I have read quickly through all the postings! Please give me time to respond.  I will.

Just in case you're curious, I am working as a script writer / re-writer for a soon to launch channel called Thailand Outlook. You'll be able to get it through cable in California. YES, California!!  So watch out. You might hear me there. But right now,  it's chaos and more. (And I teach English to kids and adults on the weekends....crazy...yes...I'm trying to get out of it..)

Promise to come back with something more interesting next time!

So I was talking to William last night at the New Brutalist cabaret which was beautiful and I can't believe so many of you missed it. Do you actually have better things to do on a sunday night in July? If so, I envy your social life. Some highlights... Kevin Killian singing Velvet Underground (accompanied by Geoff Dyer), Patrick Durgin and Jen Hofer doing some sort of vaudeville song and dance, and a rock opera featuring Maggie Zurowski, Judith Goldman,  Brandon Brown (accompanied by Joel whose last name I do not know but who has generously given me rides to poetry readings in the past and I feel guilty for not knowing it). Anyway William pointed out the obvious that no one was posting to the blog and that even the sad state of poetry understanding in Arizona wasn't motivating any responses. Oh well I said. I figured as much.
 
But I have thus decided to reclaim the blog unless big protest happens. Here is how it will work, I will add the participants in my workshop next semester but not kick anyone off and encourage anyone, currently enrolled at Mills or not, to participate. No, I will beg anyone not currently enrolled at Mills or in my workshop to participate. This might jumpstart the blog back into activity. But Bluffalot used this model when I was in poetics program and the idea is to create a larger poetics discussion that while it might intersect with various classes also filters into life in general making it more rich and interesting because it is full of poetry news and events and deep thoughts and wonderful poems from Padcha.
 
Unrelated... I was reading Chris Nealon's The Joyous Age the other day and I had a fantasy of doing the Mills reading series around a theme and also asking visiting poets to talk some informally about the theme when they come read. I mean not themes like "craft" or "poetic meter" but something a little more open. When I was reading his book I was thinking a good theme would be Impossible Love Poems. But it might also be interesting to make themes by putting together a list of adjectives and nouns and then picking out two at random and seeing what the poets could do with it. But maybe that is asking too much.
 
But does anyone have any good theme ideas? 

David Perry pointed these two things out recently.
 
First is a discussion on Slate of Kerry's use of Langston Hughes line as his slogan: http://slate.msn.com/id/2101575/
 
Check out the link on the words "didactic and influenced by naive admiration for the Soviet experiment" and it seems that Noah finds that communism destroys one's artistry.
 
Second is from Asia Times.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FG17Ak01.html
 
PART 2: The fighting poets 
(PART 1: Losing it)
 
On May 11, one day after US marines conducted their last patrol into Fallujah following their decision to pull back and hand over to a Fallujah Brigade after a bloody month-long siege, hundreds of dignitaries gathered under a long tent in the city 50 kilometers west of Baghdad for a poetry celebration organized by the National Front of Iraqi Intellectuals.
 
It was staged in front of the unfinished Rahma Hospital, and a podium was placed on top of the rough gray stairs at the hospital's entrance, with the front's emblem and Iraqi flags draped on the podium. Tall columns and arches framed the background. Graffiti on the walls of the hospital read, "Long live the mujahideen and the loved ones of Mohammed", "Victory is Fallujah's and defeat for the infidel America" and "the Fallujah martyrs are the lights for the way to the complete liberation of Iraq".
 
Clerics resplendent in their turbans, tribal leaders wearing white kafiyas, or headscarves, businessmen, military and police officers and men in Ba'athist-style matching solid-color open-collar shirts and pants called "safari suits" sat on plastic chairs under a long tent shading them from the noonday sun. Banners hung on the sides of the tent and walls of the hospital made clear the sentiments of the moment: "All of Fallujah's neighborhoods bear witness to its heroism, steadfastness and virtue", "The stand of Fallujah is the truest expression of the Iraqi identity", "Fallujah, castle of steadfastness and pride" and "The martyrs of Fallujah, Najaf, Kufa and Basra are the pole of the flag that says God is great".
 
Above the podium, tough-looking men wearing sunglasses and grimaces looked down on the crowd. A banner above them described the event as a poetry festival to support Fallujah against the occupation. Cans of soft drinks and bottles of water were provided for the honored guests.
 
"Hey Fallujah," called one poet, "when I wrote my poem you were the most beautiful verse inside it and without your stand I could not raise my head again." Another poet, with the strong accent of Shi'ite southern Iraq, declared: "Fallujah is full of real men." Bridging the Sunni-Shi'ite divide, he referred to the important Shi'ite martyr Hussein, who is venerated for defying Sunni tyranny: "From the 'no' of Hussein Fallujah learned so much." He continued that just as "Hussein was supported by 70 of his followers, we have to be like his followers and end the internal strife ... I have a brave friend from Fallujah and I came from Karbala." He led the audience in chants and hand-clapping, calling for unity between Sunnis and Shi'ites.
 
Another Shi'ite poet from Baghdad, Falah al-Fatlawi, declared that radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Army of the Mahdi militia "awoke for Fallujah, and Sadr's voice from Najaf" declared the value of Fallujah. "We will never sell it," he said, "people sacrificed their spirit for Fallujah, one heart, one line, Sunni and Shi'ite for Fallujah!" Mohammed Khalil Kawkaz recited a poem called "The Fallujah Tragedy" in a barely intelligible local accent. "Fallujah is a tall date palm," he said. "She never accepts anybody touching her dates, she will shoot arrows into the eyes of those who try to taste her, this is Fallujah, your bride, oh Euphrates! She will never fall in love with anyone but you ... Americans dug in the ground and pulled out the roots of the date palm."
 
Choosing an interesting metaphor, given the recent decapitation of American Nick Berg, he announced: "We will slit the throats of our enemies!" and added that "the earth hugs the destroyed houses ... the women burned and the children suffered, calling to the governing council, you are deaf and dumb O governing council! You found honor in meeting him who pillaged Fallujah [the Americans]."
 
He cried to the Euphrates River, asking it why it did nothing to help the city: "Oh Euphrates, what happened to you that you just lay down? Get up and fight with your waves and swallow this country [US] and the others [the coalition], stand with Fallujah! You are the Iraqi flag, they tried to change you but they cannot, for you are her love! Oh Fallujah, you are my blood, my eyes, my everything! All the mosques say God is great and call for jihad, as the Americans bomb their towers! No honor, no justice, no right, nothing, but we have the scarved ones [mujahideen] who will restore all, he brought them, prisoners, hostages, like a wolf and he negotiated and sold them in the market! He who did not bleed for you [Fallujah] is dishonorable!"
 
Another poet shouted, "Congratulations on the victory of the revolutionaries, your heads will always be high and the one who wanted to conquer you hangs his head low!" A poet from the southern Shi'ite shrine city of Najaf sang, "I brought with me all the love from Najaf to this city and I send it as kisses to the people of the Anbar."
 
A 12-year-old boy from Najaf followed him, and the microphone was lowered to accommodate his small stature. He wore a pressed white shirt neatly tucked into his jeans, and he waved an arm angrily, pointing a finger at the sky. "I came from Najaf to praise the heroes of Fallujah!" he shouted, and ended by calling to God, screaming, "Ya Allah! Ya Allah," and then burst out sobbing. Older men escorted him off as he wiped away his tears, and he was embraced and kissed in succession by the dignitaries in the front row. He returned to recite another bellicose poem, this time brandishing a Kalashnikov as long as he was tall.
 
Listening to the hyperbolic poems amid a devastated city I was reminded of Ma'rouf al-Resafi (1875-1945), nicknamed "the poet of Iraq". A teacher, writer, translator, journalist, historian and politician, Resafi traveled for much of his life and settled in Fallujah, from which he fled in 1941 to Baghdad when British troops and mercenaries attacked it. He wrote famous poems in tribute to Fallujah, including one that went: 
 
Oh Englishmen, we will not forget 
Your cruelty in the houses of Fallujah 
Sanctioned by your army, wanting revenge 
Its parasites dazzled by Fallujah's inhabitants 
And on the defenseless you poured a glass 
Of blood mixed with betrayal 
Is in this the civility, and loftiness 
Your people claim to ascend to? 
 
Seated majestically in the center of the crowd, prominently next to the chief of police, Colonel Sabar Fadhil al-Janabi, Sheikh Dhafer al-Ubeidi, the guest of honor, rose to speak, a white scarf framing his dark-bearded face and a gold-braided translucent cape draped over his shoulders. "There was never unity in Iraqi history like this," he said, describing the event as "the wedding day for Fallujah". Muslims had not felt such joy, he said, since Saladin liberated Jerusalem in 1187. Silencing the enthusiastic crowd, he continued: "I don't like clapping, so if I say something you like then say 'Allahu Akbar' [God is great], which is in accordance with our traditions. Clapping is for poets, not religious leaders."
 
Dhafer warned that Zionists, imperialists and Masons were leading the occupation and inciting sectarian war. "The meaning of Fallujah has become victory," he told them. Fallujah was now haram for the Americans, he said, religiously prohibited, until judgment day. "And Iraq will be haram for America until judgment day." Dhafer wished peace upon the crowd and descended to shouts of "God is great!"
 
As the tribal leaders seated behind Dhafer parted and lumbered out of the tent, holding their gowns up slightly with one hand, I stopped one of the guests, Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Zowabi, to ask him about the event. "It is a victory celebration," he told me. "It is a message that all Iraqis are one people, as you saw, and there are many well-known people here from all Iraq." I asked the chubby sheikh if the battle would continue, and he laughed, answering, "Fallujah is part of the victory, but there are more battlefields. There will be a popular rebellion in all of Iraq."
 
I asked him what political plan they had for the rest of the country, and his answer was typical of what I have been hearing in Iraq for the past 13 months. "We want a national government that represents the Iraqi people," he said. When I pressed him on what type of government, he said, "We want any government that satisfies the Iraqi people." And did the tribal leader want a democracy? "We don't hate democracy, we believe in democracy, but it should come from the Iraqi people. We have our own special democracy that takes Iraqi history and culture into consideration." He explained proudly that "the first code of laws on Earth was Hammurabi's code in Iraq, before America even existed", referring to "priest king" Hammurabi (circa 1792-1750 BC), who united all of Mesopotamia under his 43-year reign of Babylon.
 
Zowabi's companion, a tall, gaunt sheikh with a thin mustache, told me, "We don't want freedom or democracy if it comes from America." Another sheikh cut him off, shouting, "How can you tell a foreigner that you don't want freedom or democracy? He will tell the whole world." The interrupted sheikh did not respond, telling me only that "America should leave today, before tomorrow". 
  
 

something talks of something
else, where much goes in
unspoken, where much is
left screaming so not to
hear other things more
clearly. It sounds.
It is present. Inside this, me.  
 
(BTW: This is turning into a diary....)
 
 

 

something translates in
to something else, some
thing else does translate
into language, something
surrendered to language
is translating like a machine
within which nothing lingers.

everywhere. there. a.i.d.s.
where. every. there. is.
ever. is. there. here.
we sit with us, hearing things
like promises, like agenda, like
everywhere. there. is. h.i.v.
h.i.v. a.i.d.s. every. there.

(Thanks for the assignment, Juliana. & Sorry for being late.)

padcha,

please post here a new poem of seven lines every three days for the next three weeks about some daily event in thailand.

literary reading, are you for or against?


Literary Reading in Dramatic Decline, According to National Endowment for the Arts Survey
Fewer Than Half of American Adults Now Read Literature

July 8, 2004

Contact:
Ann Puderbaugh
202-682-5570



New York, N.Y. - Literary reading is in dramatic decline with fewer than half of American adults now reading literature, according to a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) survey released today. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America reports drops in all groups studied, with the steepest rate of decline - 28 percent - occurring in the youngest age groups.

The study also documents an overall decline of 10 percentage points in literary readers from 1982 to 2002, representing a loss of 20 million potential readers. The rate of decline is increasing and, according to the survey, has nearly tripled in the last decade. The findings were announced today by NEA Chairman Dana Gioia during a news conference at the New York Public Library.


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"This report documents a national crisis," Gioia said. "Reading develops a capacity for focused attention and imaginative growth that enriches both private and public life. The decline in reading among every segment of the adult population reflects a general collapse in advanced literacy. To lose this human capacity - and all the diverse benefits it fosters - impoverishes both cultural and civic life."

While all demographic groups showed declines in literary reading between 1982 and 2002, the survey shows some are dropping more rapidly than others. The overall rate of decline has accelerated from 5 to 14 percent since 1992.

Women read more literature than men do, but the survey indicates literary reading by both genders is declining. Only slightly more than one-third of adult males now read literature. Reading among women is also declining significantly, but at a slower rate.

Literary reading declined among whites, African Americans and Hispanics. Among ethnic and racial groups surveyed, literary reading decreased most strongly among Hispanic Americans, dropping by 10 percentage points.

By age, the three youngest groups saw the steepest drops, but literary reading declined among all age groups. The rate of decline for the youngest adults, those aged 18 to 24, was 55 percent greater than that of the total adult population.

The rate of decline in literary reading is calculated by dividing the percentage point drop by the original percentage of literary readers.

Reading also affects lifestyle, the study shows. Literary readers are much more likely to be involved in cultural, sports and volunteer activities than are non-readers. For example, literary readers are nearly three times as likely to attend a performing arts event, almost four times as likely to visit an art museum, more than two-and-a-half times as likely to do volunteer or charity work, and over one-and-a-half times as likely to attend or participate in sports activities. People who read more books tend to have the highest level of participation in other activities.

The most important factor in literacy reading rates is education, the report shows. Only 14 percent of adults with a grade school education read literature in 2002. By contrast, more than five times as many respondents with a graduate school education - 74 percent - read literary works.

Family income also affects the literary reading rate, though not as strongly as education. About one-third of the lowest income group - those with a family income under $10,000 - read literature during the survey year, compared with 61 percent of the highest income group - those with family income of $75,000 or more.

According to the survey, the most popular types of literature are novels or short stories, which were read by 45 percent or 93 million adults in the previous year. Poetry was read by 12 percent or 25 million people, while just 4 percent or seven million people reported having read a play.

Contrary to the overall decline in literary reading, the number of people doing creative writing increased by 30 percent, from 11 million in 1982 to more than 14 million in 2002. However, the number of people who reported having taken a creative writing class or lesson decreased by 2.2 million during the same time period.

The survey also studied the correlation between literary reading and other activities. For instance, literature readers watched an average of 2.7 hours of television each day, while people who do not read literary works watched an average of 3.1 hours daily. Adults who did not watch TV in a typical day are 48 percent more likely to be frequent readers - consuming from 12 to 49 books each year - than are those who watched one to three hours daily.

"America can no longer take active and engaged literacy for granted," according to Gioia. "As more Americans lose this capability, our nation becomes less informed, active, and independent minded. These are not qualities that a free, innovative, or productive society can afford to lose.

"No single factor caused this problem. No single solution can solve it. But it cannot be ignored and must be addressed," Gioia said.

Reading at Risk presents the results from the literature segment of the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, conducted by the Census Bureau in 2002 at the NEA' s request. The survey asked more than 17,000 adults if - during the previous 12 months - they had read any novels, short stories, poetry or plays in their leisure time, that were not required for work or school. The report extrapolates and interprets data on literary reading and compares them with results from similar surveys carried out in 1982 and 1992.

it's quiet in here. I guess you all are on the fourth of july + summer mood. but i'm booked for work 7/weeks. can anyone suggest a /writing task/s and make sure that I do it?????? there has been nothing whatsoever in terms of work. arggghhh.

The blog doesn't love me anymore! I've been trying to post things for the past days and nothing appeared here. So. The terrible post about my rationalizing on my job selection. So. Yes. I have jobs. Two. And am working 7days/week. Argghhh.

I'm back to reporting--and teaching too.

keep posting!