This is probably a Lew Gallery book. I remember really liking this book. I remember thinking that these poems almost feel like raps, or comic books. Something very city about them. Greg has a great last name.
22. Dispatch- Marci Nelligan/ Nicole Mauro
Maybe a Dusie Kollectiv book? I don’t remember anything about this book unfortunately.
23. Lola- Lyn Hejinian
I have no recollection of reading this book. It must be a chapbook though. I don’t think I’ve ever read a full length Hejinian. Unless Sight or Sunflower count. But those are collabos. Where the hecka would I have picked up a Hejinian chapbook? I know I haven't purchased a Hejinian chap recently. I mean, I see her sometimes at work, but I don't think she's ever given me anything. I remember she was sporting some awesome socks one afternoon, I think they were purple with stripes, and I wanted to say "hey Hejinian, nice socks...!" but I didn't. But if I DID, she would probably say "hey thanks, got em' for my birthday along with a new watch...hey John, have you seen my new book Lola...?" and she would hand me her new chapbook and I would promise to read it sometime in the future.
24. Hamlet- William Shakespeare
Re-read! I re-read along to Rodney Bennett’s version of the theatrical play streamed on Netflix. Derek Jacobi! Right? And then it was pretty neat realizing that Derek Jacobi played Hamlet’s father in the Kenneth Branagh version 20 years later. I plan on reading all forthcoming Shakespeare while streaming the theatrical play on Netflix from here on out. A great way to experience both worlds.
25. Theory Of Colors- Mercedes Roffe/ trans. Margaret Carson
I think this is a Belladonna chapbook. Rachel Levitsky sent me a ton of BD chapbooks while I was at Naropa. Just getting around to reading them. I alternate between backlog of Belladonna chapbooks, Dusie chapbooks, issues of Combo magazne and issues of Temblor magazine.
26. How Many Of You Are You- Philip Jenks
Actually I think this is the chapbook with the photos in it. I love this book. Another Dusie Kollectiv project if I’m not mistaken. A book that engages with what it means to call someplace your hometown. This book is gorgeous. It made me want to immediately write a response series to it. I wonder if this book ever made it out of the limited edition chapbook ghetto. I would kill to see this expanded as a full length.
27. Spy Wednesday- David Brazil
My favorite book of Brazil’s so far. A “day in the life of” epic. I remember Molotov’s, coffee, Greek, protest and arrest. A really beautiful elegy in the form of a notebook meticulously filled out and then reconfigured into a poem. But David’s notebooks are poetry in and of themselves. This is a TAXT book I’m pretty sure. You know, for free, Bay Area, get em’ if you can steez…I recommend your steez goes and gets it. Say “hi Suzanne Stein, Johnny sent me for your TAXT…”
28. Yale Younger Poets #1
Bought this from Moe’s in 1999 I think. Took a trip by myself to Berkeley specifically looking for experimental poetry. I had no idea what “experimental poetry” was, I just knew that I wanted to read stuff other than what they had us reading at DVC (eg. Kim Addonizio, Stephen Dobyns, Galway Kinnell, Raymond Carver). Mike And Dale’s Yale Younger immediately popped. I don’t think I’d ever seen a chapbook at that point, certainly didn’t know what a chapbook was. Picked it up not knowing anything about anybody listed in the table of contents, read a couple poems, maybe something by Duncan Mcnaughton? Fell in love…I also found an Alex Katz and Kenneth Koch collabo book called Interlocking Lives. I remember the guy at the register up front looked at the Katz/ Koch book and said “Where did you find this? Huge score…”…felt like the coolest dude on Telegraph Ave. Moe’s was one of the best places to score rare New College’y affiliated chapbooks/ books/ magazines back in the day (maybe because of Andrew Schelling?). Lots of Yale Younger, Gas magazine, a large assortment of Opstedal's Blue Press stuff, Skanky Possum...so many hard to find goodies. I haven't gone poetry digging at Moe's in over 10 years so I have no idea what used selection is like now.
29. Boston Vermont- William Corbett
Another Peter Weltner era purchase. Hardcover. Don’t remember if we touched on any of these poems in class. I write to Bill at work ordering Pressed Wafer books every couple of weeks. He’s pretty much the dude. He spends time in Boston, he spends time in Vermont. Voila. I enjoyed reading this book on my lunch break in my car in front of SPD on 7th St with KNBR playing in the background. Go Giants!
30. Combo #1
I was gifted a big set of Combo by my co-worker Todd McCarty while working as an audio technician at the Naropa Audio Archives back in 2006. He came in with a Ron Silliman book and 8 or 9 copies of Combo, said “you want these?, not my thing…”…said (while probably sitting at my work station fiddling about with ProTools cleaning up a John Weiners or Allen Ginsberg or Robert Creeley tape) “dude, for sure...”…Combo is a great magazine, just my type, fit, small, beautifully designed, leaves you wanting more, has an aesthetic point of view but isn't afraid of straying, just a really solid mag. Todd was supposed to air my Shakespearian mixtape “Merk’s Macbeth” on his radio program on late night KGNU. Not sure if he ever did (I play it in the warehouse at SPD every couple of months). I'm not sure why, but every time I read an issue of Combo, Rodney Koeneke posts a comment to my blog that reads simply "Combo!"...pretty much, Combo!
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