saw the Olson Now fete yesterday. nice to see a little energy in Boston. among participants were Charles Bernstein, Gerrit Lansing, Fanny Howe, William Corbett, Ed Sanders, Kenneth Irby, Donald Byrd. Ben Friedlander gave a terrific, lucid talk. he brought up Olson's sense of archive, that O abandoned the idea of book for this larger possibility, one that can include letters, lectures, audio, essays, notes. to me, that's powerful. Ben related the archive to the internet. he also said archives are collaborative. we see that collaboration in how editors deal with dead poets, what to collect and how to collect it, but a wider possibility than that exists. Ben also said there's still lots and lots of stuff in the archives that hasn't been published. one final point, presented with a laugh, was his thought that the worst of Olson came from Pound and WCW. Fanny Howe said "the very name Maximus made me turn and run" (but she came back). Maureen McClane said "Charles Olson was a great trauma to me". Olson had a commanding presence. I think Corbett quoted someone who experiecned O in class, he'd fire you up and you'd be flying, then you'd realize you didn't know where you were going. that actual lack of coherence, if that's the word, saves O from being something completely bullying and grim. O's thesis, after all, was find out for yourelf. ie, don't copy him, discover your own way. which is what I've got from Olson. for me, a slow process of letting go. O famously divorced from 2 papas himself. the process of detaching oneself from one's literary parents is a difficult but important one. think of all of O'Hara's children. oh, Ben mentioned an essay that Olson wrote for an Ed Sanders publication. O was unsatisfied with it, and wrote (not rewrote) the same essay everyday for a week. which indicates process. Sanders said he still had that essay (as well the Chivas (er, was it Chivas?) bottle that Olson emptied during the Berkeley reading). Sanders said he still had the mimeo machine and plates, maybe he'll publish that essay yet. when Joseph Torra stood to say a few words and read some Olson, he 1st pointed out that in this place where universities are born, not one tenured local prof was in the audience. which is a sad word about Boston. Fanny Howe said "Boston is dead for writers". Michael Franco, who'd been a student at Berkeley, referred to "Projective Verse" as a training manual for reading Duncan. Ed Sanders spoke of Olson's shamanism, and of shamanistic transmission. I think he called Olson "post-theistic". an architect (who helped design Mass MOCA) recounted a class with I A Richards. he wondered why Pound was all but ignored at the time and Richards answered "well there's Pound crests and Pound troughs and you're in a Pound trough". Olson seems to have hit a permanent trough, but his relevancy doesn't seem lessened. the sense of him as authority and pandit certainly gets in the way, and for those seeking straightforward lucidities, Olson is a nut. but there's still so much to work with with Olson. and think how that era had such excitement in poetry! the Beats had pop star cachet, and events like Berkeley and Vancouver brought crowds and energy. wtf has happened since? I introduced myself to Ben Friedlander and Kenneth Irby, which maxed out my social boldness. when Grenier left Tufts to teach at Franconia, he urged Irby to take his old job, which he did. my father and aunt both went to Tufts, if that somehow completes the picture. I hung aferwards with someone I'd met online. we tailed a group including Kenneth Irby to a parking garage. if Irby shows up missing, we can supply some leads. I didn't mench the movie made by Vincent Ferrini's nephew, Polis is This. a close to finished product, hoping to find a PBS home. NEA twice denied grants because it wouldn't play in Iowa. how would they know? Olson's an odd enough character to play anywhere, you ask me. it's great to see the video of him. his style sense: fabulous. I forget who/where mentioned (might've been Corbett) walking down the street with Olson in the summertime. Olson had his sweater wrapped around his head. Olson's smoking a little clay pipe, and not a few instances in which he appears to be drunk or otherwise impaired. his accent gets me. I've lived here all my life and of course I've been subjected to television normal but I'm pretty sure my accent aint no how as broad as O's nor can I recall my parents, equally Massachusettsistic, sounding so. Olson had enough foibles for sure, tho how about just sticking with the writing foibles or such as influences the writing itself. despite all foibles I find him endearing. there were at least 8 Gloucester residents in attendence (participating, I mean), which is kind of odd. when Grenier taught at Tufts, he chose to live in Gloucester to be near Olson, despite a somewhat inconvenient commute. an Olson walk occurs today, but not for me. in the movie, a few shots showed signs, I'm assuming temps, with lines from Olson's work. kinda cool. oh yeah, a mail man saying, you know that book Maximus, me and my friends, we're all thru it. referring to an Olson mention of kids running in the streets. anyway, a good event, a hint of vitality in this stiff ass educational hotbed. it was noted that essentially no young people attended. don't they know Olson took drugs??? you wonder how it is that Corbett couldn't get any of his students to attend. sup wid dat?