My Halloween costume this year....

This is how I answered the door this year. The thing on my head is black furry ear muffs that hold the dime store wig in place. In the front window we had a big "BOO" with orange lights!.  I had the door cracked open with Oggi dog on guard. Erie Thermin music was playing with its weird moans and slides.  It's eight thirty and we've had over thirty kids and attendent moms and dads. I love Halloween!

It's nine pm and we have had 38 tricker-treaters. We are out of treats and the lights are out.

 It's good to take off this wig...

My cat and dog are settling down now that the  weird music is finally off....

Priests screw up the mass - no ligntening, just screaming kids

There must be something in the air - at work (I am a mezzo soloist at an RC church, a mercenary arrangement not a religious one) the father forgot to follow the cross during the processional and got left behind. He also forgot to end the mass!!! A lay minister reminded him, and he shouted WAIT. What a riot. These guys need cue cards I guess. And the flock gets really peeaved. Deviation from the norm is not appreciated! Also, today, babies and toddlers were present in larger numbers than usual and they were so LOUD, hollering and shrieking all though mass. At least they were in a happy mood. None of those grinding and angry screams. If there were a god, surely he or she must remain baffled by this crazy flock....

Another face in polymer

Fog like cold smoke hugs the landscape this morning. A blood sun begins to burn through it now - the light is changing, a reluctant warmth rises in the air.

Grief is a fog that lingers for years. Visited my father's grave and also the grave of Rob Ayotte this past weekend.  (They are in the same cemetery. ) You hardly ever  know what the weight of a person is for you until you try to make do without them...   Some people leave a rend in the fabric of things.

The face is polymer clay It's of no one in particular.

It's resting on a wrinkled pedestal made of cement color pinkish like the polymer.

I read an amazing fact last night: in a recent month there were 2700 people PER DAY  who were losing homes to bank foreclosure.

Don Giovanni, Ave Verum, Poetry & Friends

This weekend was packed to the gills with music and poetry.
First on Saturday morning, with Edwin Taylor and his singers, and with other singers from St Mary’s, I rehearsed f the Rutter Gloria or two and half hours. This is Edwin’s the First Congregational Church (Ridgefield) “Concert Choir.” It’s a tough but beautiful and engaging composition with lots of time changes and spates of 5/8 just to drive us crazy. The concert which includes a brass and percussion ensemble, is Nov. 2.

Later that day, I saw the Hillhouse Opera Company’s first production – Mozart’s Don Giovanni with baritone Michael Trinik in the lead. He is a long-time student of tenor Perry Price, and at 36 years old, – and after years and years of hard work and study – this singer is really coming into his own. On the stage his voice just rolls out of him in a big grand fashion. He seems really in his element, really at home on stage, 100% engaged with his character. Another singer, really blooming in this production is soprano Victoria Gardener who’s high notes were lush and lovely. Besides sounding elegant, Ms. Gardener, all in red, tall and stately, looks like some legendary diva in training. She is also the person who made this show happen along with her parish, clergy, donors, and friends, especially Nicole Rodriquez and Regina Wagner and many others The church, St Mary’s in New Haven, is big, with its own natural reverb. There was a small orchestra under the direction of Mercy OBourke, and it was a pleasant surprise, being not only in tune but quite skilled — not a small feat for a volunteer, startup company production… I wonder if they tapped the Yale School of Music.
The score was uncut and the production was three hours. I enjoyed it all and had the company of fellow Shijin poet Eli Cleary to make the evening companionable as well.

The next morning back in the loft at that other St. Mary’s choir Mass, we sang Ave Verum and a choral version of Eye Hath Not Seen. Both seemed to go particularly well, so the experience was a good one, but I still terribly miss Rob Ayotte, our former Music Director who died in June.
Later that day there was poetry in two languages at a house warming party for Reggie and Marionela Medrano-Marra. What a lovely home, and lovely lively set of folks there to celebrate the occasion: poets, professors, artists, a college president, a radical intellect or two, not to mention the resident poet-therapists of this lovely new space. The vibes were good, the conversation lively and the food fresh, the wine, subtle, the company warm. Great day!

Unbelievable!!!

Read this Reuter's Article!: I can't imagine what they do with it all.


Banks borrow record $437.5 billion per day from Fed

GET MAD! AIG's ENORMOUS insurance payouts on Lehman bonds will come dueTuesday!

OK Cramer is a wild sounding guy - but he is so often right.

OCT 21 - next Tuesday is the day "insurance" ie credit default swap payouts on defunct Lehman Brother's bonds are due, according to Mr. Cramerica (Mad Money on CNBC.)  He said AIG is most likely the major underwriter and will have to pony up such enormous amounts of money that it will take what little value is left in the stock.  Once that is gone, the government - ie taxpayers -  us, will be writing big fat checks for AIG to very same hedgefund fat cats that acted together to "short" Lehman into oblivion. 

(Shorting is a bet that a stock will go down - and apparently you don't even need to own or even borrow shares of it - to short them. This is called naked short-selling. Though illegal, this rule was almost never enforced under the corrupt Bush SEC  and its fellow travelers in both houses and both parties in congress...)

According to a piece broadcast on NPR a few weeks ago - the thing that makes no sense and is apparently a fact of business is that "insuring"  bonds with credit default swaps is like fire insurance on STEROIDS.   Say you own a barn. You are the one who can insure it. Not so with bonds.  If a barn were a bond you could "insure" it for its full value and so could an UNLIMITED NUMBER of your closest neighbors.  Naturally they have torches and your barn burns while they stand by fanning the flames. That's what happened to Lehman Brothers, according to Cramer. And he has the contacts to know....

What kind of idiot insurance company would insure the same thing for full value over and over?    An un-regulated one.   They didn't call it insurance, either because insurance IS regulated.   Oh AIG!!     WHY would they do it?   Simple -the cost of credit default swaps  for a bond in the billions,  is in the millions! And they could collect those millions over and over again. And there was no requirement for them to have billions in cash on hand to pay up later.  As long as the barn didn't burn - the ponzi scheme continued. Just Thank your congress. Thank Henry Paulson. And remember - thanks to Paulson's AIG bailout - WE get the bill.   Not only for the $150 billion in bonds, but that times however many times the insurance was sold to whoever bought it.  It's nuts. REGULATE THESE GUYS...   and It wasn't just AIG selling this crap or buying - almost every major financial firm had a credit default swap desk with a dozen or more personnel manning it.

Somebody needs to be indicted on this one. There should be a conspiracy investigation of the multple hedgefunds who drove Lehman down while buying "insurance" ie credit default swaps on the bonds that they didn't even own!     What a racket!  AL CAPONE MOVE OVER~

The trouble is, you can't even root for the hedge funds to fail. If they all fail at once the DOW will be at ZERO. There would be so much stock for sale nobody could by it all....

Phooey on politics!

There are some things in the world that require a direct address not a remote vote.  The polite request of  dog who wants something is one of them. Shown here is Oggi who's is now around 11 years old.  Her muzzle wasn't so white when I got her from Danbury Pound.

Below is her sort of friend, the cat Miet, also adopted from an unknown past......  When they want something they sit one on either side of me and stare at me intently.  Maybe we could go to Washington and stare at congress until they get the idea!!! haha! Oh well, we'd all be staring for different reasons....

At Sub-Q an emergency verse arrives!

At Sub-Q this morning, Alice-Anne Harwood gave us a writing prompt - a quote from Eli Cleary who was not there today.  Apparently, under circumstances too complex to explain here, Eli said the following words ---  "Can you hurry this up? I have to call 911."  Naturally Alice-Ann wrote it down. It's always a danger when your friend is a writer, that something you have said will appear in print at a later time..... Of course you can always quote them right back....   Eli is a writer too.

     Based on that line-prompt, I wrote following. It's not what I consider a poem but it's really a verse....

I hear the doorbell,

see the truck.

(Don't driveway pavement

sellers suck?)

Yet over there

my neighboor's door,

- a hole that wasn't

there before!

And smoke 'n flame

in minor form

now billow from

his upstairs dorm!

Can we speed this up?

No sale! We're done!

I need to go

call 911!

Birthday Baritone, the lead in Don Giovanni 10/17 & 18

After a depressing afternoon watching the DOW sink like stone once again – I went out on a birthday celebration. I had a fine time tonight at TK’s in Danbury celebrating the 36th Birthday of baritone Michael Trinik, a fellow musical employee of St Mary Parish, and a long-time student of tenor Perry Price.

I first met Michael quite a number of years ago, (when he was still a student at WestConn) during a summer production of the Mikado in New Milford CT. Michael was the Grand PooBah, I was the oldest, fattest little maid in the chorus, and also understudy to Katasha. (If I recall more names from that production I will add them later. I am in my late 50s and cannot be relied on to recall everything.) Dramatic tenor John Shackelford was the music director and Arlene Begelman directed the theatrical aspects of the production.

In any event, a few folks came down to TK’s tonight to help Michael celebrate including his friend and fellow WestConn Alumni Keith who was also having a birthday, and a very pleasant couple whose names have escaped my aging brain. Coloratura soprano Cheryl Hill, (whose lovely high notes are a delight to the ear) her father Braxton (a bass) and her very sweet mom were also there. (I had a great time taking with the Hills.) Everyone had a few of TK’s special wings because Michael said that was his tradition. We sang happy birthday to Mike and Keith in four-part harmony…. And the bar actually paused and clapped.
Later in the evening David Baranowski, who accompanied him at his most recent recital at the Danbury Music Center, and another fine singer – who so beautifully sang O Mio Babbiono Caro from Puccini’s Gianni Schicci at that recital, (might be David’s wife? Not sure.) were also in attendance.
Anyway, after all that long-winded business – I am finally getting to the reason I am making this post. Mike will be singing the lead in Don Giovanni later this month with the fledgling Hillhouse Opera Company in New Haven, started by Victoria Gardener and a few other folks. Performances will be October 17 & 18, 7:30 pm at (yet another) St Mary’s Church, 5 Hillhouse Ave. New Haven. See the Don Giovanni link website for ticket info and directions. Note: It’s fee….

Another black day for the DOW

While Fed Chair Ben Bernanke spoke this afternoon (I watched on CNBC) the DOW, steamed and churned down 300 points - then they broadcast George speaking. Tut Tut. The day ended down 508 points. We are all holding our breath, waiting for the shoes that will surely drop.

    This hat-clad person, is a drawing from my little leather book that I write and doodle in during meetings and events. It's really a method of translating experience directly to a page...  or a way to shut out experience - that depends on the day. Sometimes these sketches are persons in the audience. Sometimes they are images evoked by what is going on.

Northbeast '08 - some wild performances

This weekend was the NorthBeast - the Northeastern regional team slam in Cambridge.  I went to this at the last minute last year at the request of White Plains  slam boss Zork.

At his request, I made the trek again this year -Zork at the wheel and L.V. riding shot gun, and some computerized gizmo shouting out driving directions.  We were down a body as Zork's friend "the NUN"  broke her ankle at the last minute and could not come. Simone kindly assigned us a ringer poet - Steve who was absolutely hysterical and an excellent slammer. He out-scored all of us - even with his help it wasn't enough and  at first, according to the scores read that night, we were the bottom team in our four team bout with Hampshire College, New Jersey and  Worcester. This was the first bout of the evening at the Cantab Lounge Underground.

UPDATE  10/9 - however, LV wrote to say she checked the website NorthBeastRegional on myspace and  we actually came in third over Portland Maine.  (shown below!)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3

TEAM COMPETITION

8pm @ the Cantab Lounge

Worcester, Mass 116.8

 

Lincroft, NJ 115.7

White Plains, NY 108.5

Portland, Maine 107.0

 It was fun - lots of wild angst, indignation, hysteria and hysterically funny, clever poems well-performed. People had a lot to say - and there were several time penalties given - and our brave judges did a wonderful job - and they were fast too!

All in all, though I am not much of a partier, am older than most of these folks (yes I am) and utterly out of my element, I had fine time none-the-less. I howled till I was out of wind for the fine performances.  D.J. Muse added musical backup to the evening, and spun out some tunes afterwards as well.

Because of some babysitting snafu's for L.V. we left about 12:30pm  instead of staying the entire weekend as we had planned.  That meant we had to miss some workshops which I bet were great, and  the Individual Slam Saturday night at the Y where the top poets from Friday's round would compete.  On the plus side, this early departure  got me home in time to attend the dedication of the Peter Vicinanza Memorial Garden.     Things work out well sometimes.

iReports at CNN -- be skeptical!

This morning I wondered over to iReport CNN's so called citizen reporting webpage. I might as well have been in an old time AOL forum gone multi-media. Mostly - the posts seemed, well, like early Doctor Who special effects. That would be mostly tin-foil and very little else.....

Though there are some real reports - many are Op-Ed  bits of widely varying quality rather than actual articles. This might reflect our sound bite culture or perhaps the general lack of skill at writing coherent and logical prose. It also might reflect a general misunderstanding of the real difference between "op-ed" and "news." In my years writing for newspapers, this point came up repeatedly. Folks would often ask me  if I'd read Mr. Jones' "article" when what Mr. Jones had actually written was an letter to the editor expressing his opinion on the upcoming election.  They rarely  drew any kind of distinction between an article by staffers which more or less simply gave the facts - and a letter to the editor expressing a totally one-sided, partisan  view.

On iReports it's VERY apparent that one must weigh and evaluate the point of view and skill of the writer - and make a pointed decision whether or not to bother reading the rest of the piece....

POST SCRIPT:  - today 10/7) I visited this site and it has been completely revamped. Not sure but I think it's finally being moderated. (last week fake reports of the death of a tech stock founder caused a huge decline in the stock...)

Memorial Garden: For Peter Vicinanza

Peter Vicinanza, a wonderful wry wit, a character in the very best sense of the word, also a writer and a supportive, intelligent and articulate reader of writing and poetry, and died a year ago, on Oct. 4, 2007.

He was remembered by many on Saturday evening at the one year anniversary of his death - at what I have to call the Magic Garden House. Now the backyard of this home already had many stately and venerable vines - plants that have a real presence and entangle arbors, archways and decks in a beautiful way, that were tended and preserved by the home's previous owner. But now --the font yard also holds amazement.

Peter's widow Faith, (poet Faith Vicinanza, of Mother Tongue, Shijin and Hanover Press) in her grief, threw herself into gardening and building garden paths. In the modest sized front yard of this suburban house- there are organically twisting walkways that double back on themselves creating intricate shapes in the process.

These paths enclose planting beds now filled with an amazing array of foliage, figures, garden decorations, oddly shaped rocks and paving stones. The yard is a living work of art, born from a wife's grief, expanded by contributions of plants and ornaments by friends.

.

On Saturday sixty or seventy people arrived, admired, talked, ate, remembered. Some of these performed a little ceremony of remembrance, not as a group but one by one. Faith had asked us each to write something to or for Peter, then to burn it in a metal container in the garden. "It's a very pagan ritual" she said and Peter who was an atheist would likely have appreciated it.

.

When everyone had left, Angel, Faith's grandson brought out his note for Grandpa. And the flames flickered and danced on Angel's note sending little shivers of sparks rising up into the night.

.

Peter we miss you.  Peter's Host entry on the WNPS Wedpoetry website:

The late Peter Vicinanza, who died Oct. 4, 2007, was a major sardonic wit who didn't believe in soft-pedaling reality. Peter often worked as a consultant, was an entrepreneur, a Vice-President of Information Technology at various corporations and a victim of multiple buyouts and take-overs with subsequent down-sizings. Around 1996 he took over hosting duties for a year to give his wife (WNPS founder Faith Vicinanza) a rest for a while when the series was still at Doctor Java's Caffeine Emporium in Bethel and she was its only host. Later, he was a willing participant in a 2,000 mile bicycling trek, an UtterFolly blogger, a poet & prose writer of memoir - particularly his days growing up in old New York. Peter's work has been in The Connecticut Review and in Bent Pin Quarterly. He was an honorary member of the Shijin-SubQ and we miss him still.

Read "The Fisherman," by Peter Vicinanza as it appeared in Bent Pin Quarterly

Bailout-rescue-big-tickect toxic paper plan passes on second try...

Ah well.  CONGRESS LET US DOWN. The depression will come anyway except to those rich folks the government expects us to save. Even if this bailout works somewhat - today I feel like the ultimate decline of the United States of America has begun. It wil fall apart under the weight of its own debt just the way the Soviet Union did.  Selah.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95395712

Had a 2nd place slam win - my songs as slam poems - weirdly it worked

At the Oct. 1 slam at the White Plains Library - which I had been promising to attend all summer - I tried a new slant to slamming. At least for me. 

When I slammed in 1996-97 I had a few signature pieces  that I used - Blood Brothers, and the Uses of Nature. I also slammed on occasion with Inverse Origami the title poem to my chapbook.

This year I thought I would try slamming with some of my song lyrics - which are more slam-like than most of my recent poetry. 

On Oct. 1, there were two rounds and I used "She Wouldn't Take Me Home" and  "Without You" which are songs of mine that I wrote long before I ever heard of slam...   It worked I guess, as I came in second in that evening's slam. Go figure.