The SWR Symphony Orchestra and Freiburg under Arturo Tamayo.All images: SWR.de; ARD-Foto If there is one occasion of contemporary experimental music I would love to be able to attend one of these years, it is the fabled annual Donaueschingen Music Festival — though it doesn’t look likely that I’ll be around Donaueschingen in the middle [...]
Entries from October 31st, 2006
Bush Moves Toward Martial Law
October 30th, 2006 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
A friend drew my attention to the following piece of reporting. It doesn’t surprise me, and it wouldn’t surprise me exceedingly if Bush & Co. would make use of it at some point in the downturn of their fortunes. But even if a slightly gentler & more law-abiding Dem crew gets voted in in November [...]
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This Compost
October 29th, 2006 · 3 Comments · Uncategorized
Spending whatever little free reading time is left after substracting the time spent at University work and the time spent working on the more or less daily writing and that spent on the various contracted literary editorial and translation projects, rereading Jed Rasula’s This Compost, Ecological Imperatives in American Poetry, published in 2002 by Georgia [...]
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Elias Khoury on Orhan Pamuk
October 27th, 2006 · No Comments · Uncategorized
A fascinating piece on Orhan Pamuk in Al Ahram, the Cairo-based English-language weekly. Below, the opening paragraphs. You can read the whole piece here. Elias Khoury is a Lebanese novelist who is Editor-in-Chief of the weekly literary supplement of the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar , and teaches Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies each spring at New [...]
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Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006
October 25th, 2006 · No Comments · Uncategorized
Reporters Without Borders has released its 2006 classification of how well countries are doing in terms of Freedom of expression. I can’t say that I believe 100% in such measures, though overall the index looks like reasonable sociological guess work based on responses to a questionnaire. “ The index measures the state of press freedom [...]
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Nicole Peyrafitte at Justin's
October 24th, 2006 · No Comments · Uncategorized
Photo Al Brooks NICOLE PEYRAFITTE with George Muscatello on Guitar Mike Bisio on Bass at JUSTIN’S 301 Lark Street Albany 518 – 436-7008 FRIDAY OCTOBER 27 2006 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.$5 cover (it is always a good idea to make reservation if you plan to have dinner) * * *If you cannot be there, [...]
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Pastior Prize & Interview
October 23rd, 2006 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
Rosmarie Waldrop & Oskar Pastior Oskar Pastior (see my post of 6 October 2006) was posthumously awarded the Büchner Prize this past weekend. On the occasion the German paper Die Welt reprinted an interview with Pastior which you can read in full here. Below, a few excerpts, all too rapidly translated by yours truly: WELT.de: [...]
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My French Mexico City Blues
October 19th, 2006 · No Comments · Uncategorized
Just found out that my translation into French of Mexico City Blues by Ti’ Jean (a.k.a Jack) Kerouac was republished this past summer in Points : Poésie, a prestiguous new collection by Le Seuil (their website is completely disfunctional though they were supposed to have up a “new and improved” one by the “rentrée,” i.e. [...]
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Good News for the Living Theatre
October 19th, 2006 · No Comments · Uncategorized
Leaving town for a few days, so may not be able to blog until Monday. This morning, quickly, wanted to draw your attention to something that took more than 20 years of hard work to achieve: the Living Theatre’s new digs. Here’s Judith Malina and Hanon Reznikov’s happy post about this. I am particularly thrilled [...]
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Michail Ryklin on Russia post-Politkovskaya
October 18th, 2006 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
Last week I posted on the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, suggesting that this was a very bad sign for Freedom (of Speech and of everything else) in Putin’s Russia, forcing the citizens and the media into an ever more siberian self-censorship. Meanwhile signandsight has published the translation of an interview with Russian philosopher, [...]
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0-The University of California Book of North African Literature
1-Exile is My Trade: A Habib Tengour Reader edited & translated by Pierre Joris
2-Pierre Joris: Cartographies of the In-Between edited by Peter Cockelbergh
3-Paul Celan: The Meridian Final Version—Drafts—Materials
Justifying the Margins (Essays)