learning xml, reading Creeley, and today listened to my first White Stripes. I used to take interest in latestness, but perhaps that is a young person's sport. at any rate, I don't keep up, admitted, tho I'm still a pretty good cultural sponge without trying. so I'm late to the WS party but must weigh in. I like the sense of sound in WS, weird sounds, precise ones. that's a poetic sensibility behind the music. I am utterly taken with the drums. Meg maintains a solid beat with a clattery ambiance. and the drums are kept forward, to secure visceral lift. Phish is great but their sound balance leans heavily towards guitar, tho drums, bass, and piano are just as solid as Trey's feature. "We Are Going to be Friends" is an oddly sweet, folkie song. Jack has a voice of character. the strangled effects of his full-throated rock singing is not to my taste, less interesting, but it is his, at least. for shouty rock singers I'll take Steve Marriott (Small Faces, Humble Pie) who is really good (supposedly Jimmy Page saw Marriott as model for the singer Page wanted for Zep) or, heaven help me, one of the singers for AC/DC. my favourite song, of what I have met, is "My Doorbell". lush piano chords, heavy handed drumming, and splashing cymbals. I've played it at least 20 times today. so what are we going to do about poetry? is the game up or what??? I don't need to be saved tho my blood's in the water. I have voiced my persistence, independent of fair reader. this music here is light, and I think of Creeley's earnest interest, that transcended all that politically-inspired commitment to metered process. he was not quite a garage band, but he kept his instrumentation pretty austere, maybe moreso than Zukofsky, say, who wielded some plump classicism amidst his paring down. Lorine Niedecker. I'm a 1000 page poem guy, yet these practiced essentials are learning nodes for me. I wrote something at work... two things, actually, that I have not looked at. nor have you. poetry is not a social context for me. if you take Creeley free from his connections, well, it is an experiment in essence.

That's Where Dr Bedford Ended Up

died young
is just
a thing
local theatre
production
Bob was not
much better
prepared