music and translations

I decided to at least try making this a real blog where I chat/blather about things I'm interested in and if anybody in our poetry group is interested, well they can read and comment.

I came across Nick Cave and the Bad Seed's new album, "Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!" recently at the library. Since I am such a big Bob Dylan fan, I am always excited to hear new singer-songwriters. Nick Cave takes Dylan and one-ups him in the sinister and sexy department, which may not be everybody's cup of tea, but he certainly has his literary hat in these 11 songs. And his band, the Bad Seeds, turn out some wonderful sounding songs, from the barnyard stomp of the title song to the trippy keyboards on the 2nd-to-last song and the steady roll of the album closer. I was surprised at first by the variety of sounds, from punk to pastoral pop to the aforementioned stomp, but I read that Cave got his chops in a punk band, so we know where that comes from and he has also written a western (set in his homeland Australia) called the Proposition (worth seeing if you have the stomach from some grisly parts). Anyways, I thought I would pass that along.

Also came across a Poetry site which collects translations from all around the world. It is aptly titled "Words without borders" and you can find translations from Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Far East. Pretty exciting to have this sort of exposure. A really great opportunity to explore other lands without having to leave your computer screen. The address is:

http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/

happy reading and writing.

Poetry on the down low

Well, after a promising start it looks like our poets have been spending time working on their own stuff (and living their own lives, b/c, well, that takes up the most of our time and, frankly, we need it to be good writers). It would be really great if we could get more people to come out and share their own poems and work on creating some new ones. It doesn't take me a whole lot of work to put together a program, so it's not wasting that much work time for me (don't tell my boss, though). I am just hoping to make this a regular thing at the library and it's been hard to get people to come out.

If you have changes/suggestions in how the programs are presented/organized, or the times/days they are presented or even where they are presented (we could have it off-site in a coffee shop, if you want), please post them here or email me (andy.schuck@westland.lib.mi.us) or call (734.326.6123) or just stop by and give me a shout.

I really want to keep this going, though we may have to go on a hiatus for a little while and start back up in the spring when everybody has written their great work and then has cabin fever. I'm looking forward to reading/hearing what you've got when you get here.