Wednesday night at the Tobenski-Algera series opener. Quite good. Dennis sang beautifully, a full program, quite something. Of course I was pleased to hear the NY premiere of echoes, six of my poems which Dennis was originally commissioned to set for the Staunton Music Festival in 2008 and which were performed that August there. Originally they were set for soprano--hearing Dennis' tenor and his real sense for singing poetry was a pleasure. As was seeing some VCCA friends, painters Julie Gold and Ann Polashenski. Jane LeCroy was also there, a poet who spends a lot of time thinking about music and words.
Thursday we went to a benefit for Haiti at the Stephen Wise Synagogue in Manhattan. This was a stirring concert (we stayed for more than two hours, then had to leave, hunger and exhaustion winning out over a desire for more music). I couldn't say who all the performers were but the variety was extreme, a focus on linking Jewish community and culture with Haitian. Formidable and beautiful. Jesse took a lot of video of this. If he posts it, I will update with a link.
abrazos,
Mark
Showing posts with label Dennis Tobenski. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dennis Tobenski. Show all posts
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Some good nights
Last night met up with Dennis Tobenski--next Wednesday, January 27 is the first performance this year for the Tobenski-Algera new composer series (see info in an earlier blog post or go to tobenskialgera.com ). They'll be performing echoes which has four poems from Tourist at a Miracle. Dennis will spend the month of March at the VCCA. Lucky guy.
After that, Jesse and I headed over to the Poetry Project for the William Corbett and Jonas Mekas reading. Bill read some wonderful poems, not only his own, but some by Jimmy Schuyler (a kind of memorial for Darragh Park) and ended with a poem by Rolfe Humphries. Jonas Mekas, the godfather of avant-garde film-making read some wonderful and amusing anecdotes about from his life. The last one was a serious and moving one about Allen Ginsberg's last days.
Jesse shot some video, converted it into a short film, Nearing the Edge, which you can see by going to bandoftheland.com.
Pam Laskin's book party at Perch on Tuesday was a good deal of fun. She read from her new short story collection, a collection of poems that came out last year, and the new (though the poems span 30 years) Van Gogh's Ear (Cervena Barva Press). Saw Sarah Porter there who was very excited about her three book young adult deal. Look for more when it comes out.
School starts next week and syllabus writing has been the order of the past few days. Hope to finish that up today and have a few more days to work on some new poems, some Hinojosa (which is almost done in this draft, lacks an into). But more on him later. Still having Tourist at a Miracle
feelings.
abrazos,
Mark
After that, Jesse and I headed over to the Poetry Project for the William Corbett and Jonas Mekas reading. Bill read some wonderful poems, not only his own, but some by Jimmy Schuyler (a kind of memorial for Darragh Park) and ended with a poem by Rolfe Humphries. Jonas Mekas, the godfather of avant-garde film-making read some wonderful and amusing anecdotes about from his life. The last one was a serious and moving one about Allen Ginsberg's last days.
Jesse shot some video, converted it into a short film, Nearing the Edge, which you can see by going to bandoftheland.com.
Pam Laskin's book party at Perch on Tuesday was a good deal of fun. She read from her new short story collection, a collection of poems that came out last year, and the new (though the poems span 30 years) Van Gogh's Ear (Cervena Barva Press). Saw Sarah Porter there who was very excited about her three book young adult deal. Look for more when it comes out.
School starts next week and syllabus writing has been the order of the past few days. Hope to finish that up today and have a few more days to work on some new poems, some Hinojosa (which is almost done in this draft, lacks an into). But more on him later. Still having Tourist at a Miracle
feelings.
abrazos,
Mark
Sunday, January 17, 2010
News and news
Some updates:
The Tourist at a Miracle reading last Saturday, January 9 at Bowery Poetry Club was a lot of fun. Many thanks to all who attended (too many to mention by name, a very good sign, I think). But much appreciation to Bill Zavatsky and Jane LeCroy, my fellow readers, and Bob Hershon who moderated. A deep note of thanks to Donna Brook for her special surprise introduction.
After years in the making, my website is up! Go to markstatman.com and let me know what you think. Since the website is linked to the blog, it gives me one more reason (compelling, no doubt) to blog more often. Thanks to Jesse Statman for all his work.
Another link: for images-music-words look at http://www.youtube.com/user/bandoftheland. In particular Gowanus and Fireworks (Fireworks go to uploads on that page to see).
Upcoming of interest:
Tonight, Sunday at Zinc Bar (82 West 3rd Street) a reading for The Portable Boog Reader 4, 7 PM.
Tuesday, 1/19 at Perch (5th Ave at 5th Street, Brooklyn)--book party for Pamela Laskin's Van Gogh's Ear 7:30
Wednesday 1/20 at St Mark's Poetry Project, William Corbett and Jonas Mekas, 8PM
also The Tobenski-Algera Concert Series: New American Art Song
Wed., Jan. 27, 2010
9:30pm
Dennis Tobenski: echoes, six songs on poetry by Mark Statman (NY premiere)
Jeff Algera: “Twenty” and “Former Soldier”, on poems by Oscar Wilde (world premiere)
Ricky Ian Gordon: “As Planned”, “Adolescent’s Song”, “Proof of Gold”, and “A Contemporary”
Aaron Alon: “All Rights Reserved” (NY premiere)
Tim Kiah: “La Nuit”
George Lam: Fog Argument, two songs on poetry by Mark Doty (NY premiere)
Justin Merritt: “Dissonance” & “May Evening in Central Park”
Keane H. Southard: selections from Three Songs of Dylan Thomas (NY premiere)
Zachary Wadsworth: Three Lullabies (NYC premiere)
The Duplex
(Cabaret Theatre upstairs)
61 Christopher St @ 7th Ave, NYC
$10 with a reservation, $12 at the door
2 drink minimum
Reservations: http://www.theduplex.com/webcalendar/view_entry.php?id=4787&date=20100127
also see tobenskialgera.com
abrazos,
Mark
The Tourist at a Miracle reading last Saturday, January 9 at Bowery Poetry Club was a lot of fun. Many thanks to all who attended (too many to mention by name, a very good sign, I think). But much appreciation to Bill Zavatsky and Jane LeCroy, my fellow readers, and Bob Hershon who moderated. A deep note of thanks to Donna Brook for her special surprise introduction.
After years in the making, my website is up! Go to markstatman.com and let me know what you think. Since the website is linked to the blog, it gives me one more reason (compelling, no doubt) to blog more often. Thanks to Jesse Statman for all his work.
Another link: for images-music-words look at http://www.youtube.com/user/bandoftheland. In particular Gowanus and Fireworks (Fireworks go to uploads on that page to see).
Upcoming of interest:
Tonight, Sunday at Zinc Bar (82 West 3rd Street) a reading for The Portable Boog Reader 4, 7 PM.
Tuesday, 1/19 at Perch (5th Ave at 5th Street, Brooklyn)--book party for Pamela Laskin's Van Gogh's Ear 7:30
Wednesday 1/20 at St Mark's Poetry Project, William Corbett and Jonas Mekas, 8PM
also The Tobenski-Algera Concert Series: New American Art Song
Wed., Jan. 27, 2010
9:30pm
Dennis Tobenski: echoes, six songs on poetry by Mark Statman (NY premiere)
Jeff Algera: “Twenty” and “Former Soldier”, on poems by Oscar Wilde (world premiere)
Ricky Ian Gordon: “As Planned”, “Adolescent’s Song”, “Proof of Gold”, and “A Contemporary”
Aaron Alon: “All Rights Reserved” (NY premiere)
Tim Kiah: “La Nuit”
George Lam: Fog Argument, two songs on poetry by Mark Doty (NY premiere)
Justin Merritt: “Dissonance” & “May Evening in Central Park”
Keane H. Southard: selections from Three Songs of Dylan Thomas (NY premiere)
Zachary Wadsworth: Three Lullabies (NYC premiere)
The Duplex
(Cabaret Theatre upstairs)
61 Christopher St @ 7th Ave, NYC
$10 with a reservation, $12 at the door
2 drink minimum
Reservations: http://www.theduplex.com/webcalendar/view_entry.php?id=4787&date=20100127
also see tobenskialgera.com
abrazos,
Mark
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Post-Christmas meander
It was a good and sweet, simple Christmas. We woke up, and had the usual Christmas morning snacks--smoked salmon, oysters, a duck pate, cheeses of sorts, bread, crackers, a nice Italian blood orange sparkling something or other. Stocking presents, gifts. Jesse was quite happy with his chosen harmonica and new ukulele, surprised by Slipknot and Coheed and Cambria tablature books (interesting to think of those two bands on a ukulele, but he mainly was playing his own songs). With the uke, Jesse is becoming a young man of many stringed instruments, from the above, to guitars to mandolin. He gave Katherine and me each a personalized cd (this the answer to why he'd spent the day before Christmas quizzing us about our favorites of the songs he has written).
Afterwards, Jesse decided to stay at home and Katherine and I went to the movies, Sherlock Holmes, Not a great movie, but a whole lot of fun. Then we took a long walk in Prospect Park. The snow disappeared yesterday in the rain but Christmas day it was all still there, shimmering under the lights.
Yesterday as the snow disappeared in the rain, we walked around a little and then I went over to the bookstore and did some post-Christmas shopping (my gift was to be able to do this). Bought some Chekhov short stories, the correspondence of Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salome, Andamios, a novel and El amor, las mujeres y la vida, a poetry collection by Mario Benedetti, Lituma en los Andes, a novel by Vargas Llosa, short stories by John Fante, Of This World, a poetry collection by John Stroud whose work I don't know very well, and Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky, which Katherine is reading in the original French these days. Very happy to have these books. Along with Conrad's Nostromo, and a few other things here and there, these are the books I expect to be reading for the rest of the winter break (school starts again on January 25th).
Most of these are coming with me to the VCCA which I leave for tomorrow morning. Very excited by this. Should arrive in the evening, with luck in time for dinner. If I do make dinner, the plan will be to set up my studio afterwards and be ready to think and work as soon as I can Tuesday morning. My hope is to work on poems I started last summer, return to Hinojosa (a big push on Flor de California). Without setting it all in stone, I'm hoping to get started on work that will continue after I come back on the 4th, take me through the rest of the break and give me some clear vision for the writing I can do this semester. It's always hard to do that, write during the semester, but I want to make that push this spring, a nice lead in to the summer (can I really be thinking that far ahead?). In the middle of all this will be readings from Tourist at a Miracle (keep eyes peeled for those on this blog and elsewhere).
Of note: received word from Dennis Tobenski that there will be a performance of Echoes on Wednesday, January 27 at 9:30 pm in the West Village. He says that he'll be singing the poems himself, which makes it a real treat indeed.
More later.
Abrazos,
Mark
Afterwards, Jesse decided to stay at home and Katherine and I went to the movies, Sherlock Holmes, Not a great movie, but a whole lot of fun. Then we took a long walk in Prospect Park. The snow disappeared yesterday in the rain but Christmas day it was all still there, shimmering under the lights.
Yesterday as the snow disappeared in the rain, we walked around a little and then I went over to the bookstore and did some post-Christmas shopping (my gift was to be able to do this). Bought some Chekhov short stories, the correspondence of Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salome, Andamios, a novel and El amor, las mujeres y la vida, a poetry collection by Mario Benedetti, Lituma en los Andes, a novel by Vargas Llosa, short stories by John Fante, Of This World, a poetry collection by John Stroud whose work I don't know very well, and Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky, which Katherine is reading in the original French these days. Very happy to have these books. Along with Conrad's Nostromo, and a few other things here and there, these are the books I expect to be reading for the rest of the winter break (school starts again on January 25th).
Most of these are coming with me to the VCCA which I leave for tomorrow morning. Very excited by this. Should arrive in the evening, with luck in time for dinner. If I do make dinner, the plan will be to set up my studio afterwards and be ready to think and work as soon as I can Tuesday morning. My hope is to work on poems I started last summer, return to Hinojosa (a big push on Flor de California). Without setting it all in stone, I'm hoping to get started on work that will continue after I come back on the 4th, take me through the rest of the break and give me some clear vision for the writing I can do this semester. It's always hard to do that, write during the semester, but I want to make that push this spring, a nice lead in to the summer (can I really be thinking that far ahead?). In the middle of all this will be readings from Tourist at a Miracle (keep eyes peeled for those on this blog and elsewhere).
Of note: received word from Dennis Tobenski that there will be a performance of Echoes on Wednesday, January 27 at 9:30 pm in the West Village. He says that he'll be singing the poems himself, which makes it a real treat indeed.
More later.
Abrazos,
Mark
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Out of touch (but working hard) and they've finally erased the Advanced Learning Lab from the NYU Child Study Center
Since getting back from Maine, it feels like non-stop work. I've been working on "Invisible Man" though some of those poems may re-appear elsewhere and put together a proposal for an interested press for the Hinojosa translations which I hope they look on kindly (please send waves of support into the general atmosphere). It included 18 translations which I think are pretty good. I've also been working on the Guggenheim application, proposal and publications list seem done, but the auto-bio confounds me. Hard to write, since the path on the surface has been rather clear (23 years at Lang, 19 with T & W) but it has not been a seamless one and the telling is a long story filled with more mis-directions than a well-called football offense.
Been working hard too on syllabi for the fall, in particular my Arts of Sport course which is coming together nicely. I have the essays and the non-fiction stuff in order, today got at the poetry, went through a hundred or so poets and found some nice stuff, and will work out the art and music in the next few days. Some of this will be done on the road as we leave for Nimrod on Tuesday, have the Staunton (VA) Music Festival premiere of my poems/song cycle by Dennis Tobenski on the following Tuesday (19th) but I really am feeling like it's coming together. This is a course that makes me feel a little nervous because there's so much material and making the decisions about what to include and what to exclude is not fun.
So a lot to do: but an update on the old NYU Child Study Center. Yes, ALL, the Advanced Learning Lab, that experiment in pedagogy which was meant to really accomplish something and cost most of the parents at least $30,000 with no reimbursement (promised, of course by ALL and NYU Child Study Center) and which was supposed to be something special for a special group of six kids has been erased completely. Barry Ehrlich (nice guy and former director of education) is now finally listed as the director of education for the Asperger Institute, ALL has been dropped (just recently) from Candace Baugh's bio, and of course the Dana Levy bio mention of ALL was dropped the day after I blogged it. Any other former faculty seem to have also been erased (someone correct me if I'm wrong here). The tough thing is what this has done to the kids who expected to be back (and the fact that they had actually been inviting other parents/students to enroll until the last minute) and have no place to go. Of course, this could be a blessing in disguise, though I think not necessarily to those families (nor to the teachers who thought they had jobs and were summarily fired).
Bravo Harold Koplowicz, bravo Glenn Hirsch. What reasons will you give the press when they start wondering how this could have happened? Will leaks begin soon? I know you'll have something interesting to say. I wonder if those journalists will take the time to look at the actual transcript of the famous open forum which you guys conveniently edited (it's available in the complete form, do a google).
abrazos,
Mark
Been working hard too on syllabi for the fall, in particular my Arts of Sport course which is coming together nicely. I have the essays and the non-fiction stuff in order, today got at the poetry, went through a hundred or so poets and found some nice stuff, and will work out the art and music in the next few days. Some of this will be done on the road as we leave for Nimrod on Tuesday, have the Staunton (VA) Music Festival premiere of my poems/song cycle by Dennis Tobenski on the following Tuesday (19th) but I really am feeling like it's coming together. This is a course that makes me feel a little nervous because there's so much material and making the decisions about what to include and what to exclude is not fun.
So a lot to do: but an update on the old NYU Child Study Center. Yes, ALL, the Advanced Learning Lab, that experiment in pedagogy which was meant to really accomplish something and cost most of the parents at least $30,000 with no reimbursement (promised, of course by ALL and NYU Child Study Center) and which was supposed to be something special for a special group of six kids has been erased completely. Barry Ehrlich (nice guy and former director of education) is now finally listed as the director of education for the Asperger Institute, ALL has been dropped (just recently) from Candace Baugh's bio, and of course the Dana Levy bio mention of ALL was dropped the day after I blogged it. Any other former faculty seem to have also been erased (someone correct me if I'm wrong here). The tough thing is what this has done to the kids who expected to be back (and the fact that they had actually been inviting other parents/students to enroll until the last minute) and have no place to go. Of course, this could be a blessing in disguise, though I think not necessarily to those families (nor to the teachers who thought they had jobs and were summarily fired).
Bravo Harold Koplowicz, bravo Glenn Hirsch. What reasons will you give the press when they start wondering how this could have happened? Will leaks begin soon? I know you'll have something interesting to say. I wonder if those journalists will take the time to look at the actual transcript of the famous open forum which you guys conveniently edited (it's available in the complete form, do a google).
abrazos,
Mark
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Some week, lots of translating, poetry and the filming of "Gwen Hirsch"
Katherine and Jesse were away on Fire Island with some friends so I had the week to work. It seemed like a lot of time was spent waking up at 3 and 4 and 5 so I could call people in Spain re: the Hinojosa project, which is now going well (I think) though there is still some issue of permissions re: the use of the Spanish, though everyone in Spain (the heirs included) assures me this should be no problem as I think they really like the idea of his reputacion as a poet having some kind of resurrection. Of particular help has been the wonderful Alfonso Sanchez. Tin House has accepted three of the translations for their next issue along with a small essay by me which deals with the erasure of Hinojosa as a poet.
My goal these days is to seriously work on two poems of my own and two translations every day, which may not sound like a lot but it really is a lot of work. My goal is to finish typing all the poems from the June 2007-February 2008 moleskin and then using our two weeks in Maine (end of July) to do some serious revision on those as well as on the Hinojosa project. Then we come back to Brooklyn for a bit, off to New Hampshire to Dick Merryman's and then down to Virginia for a few days at Nimrod. Then we hit the Staunton Music Festival where Dennis Tobenski's song cycle for seven of my poems premieres. In between all this, I've got to plan out two new courses for the fall. Yikes.
Have I spelled this out before? Maybe. That would mean reading my own blog!
Meanwhile, while Jesse was out on Fire Island, he made this great film parody, Gwen Hirsch which really gets at the whole of the ALL experience. It really is a hoot but it also gets at how seriously awful and misleading the whole of ALL and the NYU Child Study Center were about what was supposed to be a ground-breaking program but became nothing more than a disaster. What they did to the kids (and the parents) was practically criminal and I warn anyone against having anything to do with them. Or at least go in with your eyes wide open and know that what I've heard from other folks in the field, those guys have the reputation of being full of themselves and have no regard for the kids they pretend to care about.
On a different note, a poem from Celia Cruz:
the evolution of complexity
for Alan MacGowan
why we love
is the first question
if there’s a second one
I think this day
is too beautiful to ask it
the trees are blossoming
white, pink, yellow
crocus and daffodil
the air just smells good
despite the city
despite the world and
its newspaper news
I’m not really interested
in answers
I just like the question
why we love
which invites the
inevitable response
how could we not
okay, there’s the second question
impossible to resist
like going for a walk
on a day like today
so many people smiling
as though paying attention
to the smallest things
is everything
Saludos!
Mark
My goal these days is to seriously work on two poems of my own and two translations every day, which may not sound like a lot but it really is a lot of work. My goal is to finish typing all the poems from the June 2007-February 2008 moleskin and then using our two weeks in Maine (end of July) to do some serious revision on those as well as on the Hinojosa project. Then we come back to Brooklyn for a bit, off to New Hampshire to Dick Merryman's and then down to Virginia for a few days at Nimrod. Then we hit the Staunton Music Festival where Dennis Tobenski's song cycle for seven of my poems premieres. In between all this, I've got to plan out two new courses for the fall. Yikes.
Have I spelled this out before? Maybe. That would mean reading my own blog!
Meanwhile, while Jesse was out on Fire Island, he made this great film parody, Gwen Hirsch which really gets at the whole of the ALL experience. It really is a hoot but it also gets at how seriously awful and misleading the whole of ALL and the NYU Child Study Center were about what was supposed to be a ground-breaking program but became nothing more than a disaster. What they did to the kids (and the parents) was practically criminal and I warn anyone against having anything to do with them. Or at least go in with your eyes wide open and know that what I've heard from other folks in the field, those guys have the reputation of being full of themselves and have no regard for the kids they pretend to care about.
On a different note, a poem from Celia Cruz:
the evolution of complexity
for Alan MacGowan
why we love
is the first question
if there’s a second one
I think this day
is too beautiful to ask it
the trees are blossoming
white, pink, yellow
crocus and daffodil
the air just smells good
despite the city
despite the world and
its newspaper news
I’m not really interested
in answers
I just like the question
why we love
which invites the
inevitable response
how could we not
okay, there’s the second question
impossible to resist
like going for a walk
on a day like today
so many people smiling
as though paying attention
to the smallest things
is everything
Saludos!
Mark
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