Running to Catch Up

That's a misleading title as I plan for this to be a very lazy Sunday. I may wander out to a museum this afternoon and get myself a Sunday roast dinner, but that's about as far as my ambitions run at present. I often have the thought of how little time I have in London this trip nipping at my thoughts, but that only makes it more grand to luxuriate in idleness. I have been busy nonetheless and it will take a while for me to get caught up on writing about all my adventures. Among  things done:

I got a poem published (yes, me!). Some print copies of Chronogram should have arrived by the time I return, but you can read "Lullaby" online (albeit in a rather unexpectedly awkward layout).

I played a theremin!

I visited the wax head of Jeremy Bentham!

I saw a giant fox!

I've been to plays, museums and galleries!

Pubs!

Hanging out with friends and laughing -- and a whole lot more. I love this city, and the truth about London is that you never know what might lie around any corner. Such as naked people on bikes...

And Away We Go --

This is how hot it's been: Kipper lying on his back in front of the fan, feet in the air. Undignified. I hope it's not like this in England, but the truth is the last couple of years it has been ungodly hot. I am taking one sweater along just in case (Manchester might be chilly at least at night) but I doubt I'll use it much. Here's the vague schedule:

Land in Manchester, stay for a couple of days where I will lunch with a friend and see THE FALL! Then it's off to Great Dunmow to visit friends, then London where I'll idle for some time seeing museums, plays, concerts and of course, many friends as well as attending the Great Writing Conference. Next I'll be off to Littlehampton and the shore. A first for me (as is actually being *in* Manchester as opposed to passing through), then I'll head up to Derby and the Alt-Fiction conference which ought to be great fun. After that I'm staying with my friend Adele in Leiceister before flying back from Manchester. Whew! It's going to be fun -- and far more relaxing than it sounds because I won't be doing any work but writing.

I'll set up the Twitter feed for a bit until I'm somewhere that I can post actual coverage of the trip. We'll see if--like Robert--I end up with any LaCroix, sweetie darling (doubtful but I just wanted to say that).

Madness & Montemartini

I am madly flailing today, so here's someone else's video at the Montemartini museum, which gives a nice sense of the unique place. I promise to get my pictures, video and adventures up soon!

At last, Mr Hitchcock

Last night Peg and I headed off in the direction of MassMoCA to catch Robyn Hitchcock and Joe Boyd perform their show Chinese White Bicycles, which links together readings from Boyd's memoir in the music business in the 60s and Hitchcock's performance of the songs from the artists including Dylan, the Incredible String Band, the Move, Fairport Convention and yes, Syd Barrett. Many of you know how much I adore Mr Hitchcock, but I've never had a chance to see him live because he always seems to be touring here when I'm in another country, and touring elsewhere when I come back. So squees a-plenty when I got tickets for this.

We stopped off at the Man of Kent pub for lunch then, on a whim, stopped at the Clark Art Institute where I have never managed to go. We caught the final day of the Dürer exhibit, which was delightful, then explored the rest of the museum which ended up having unexpected delights like Bouguereau's Nymphs and Satyr, Turner's Rockets and Blue Lights (Close at Hand) to Warn Steamboats of Shoal Water, and Monets, Degas and Singer Sargent, including his Fumée d'Ambre Gris.

By the time we got to MassMoCA, the exhibits had closed (I was hoping they'd keep them open a bit later because of the concert), so we wandered around the rolled up sidewalks of North Adams and then tried out the new rib place (good!) before wandering back and taking up our seats. It was not a sold out show, which amazed me, but what do I know.

I know I was grinning like an idiot when they came out, Hitchcock in purple trousers and his purple glasses and one of those wild shirts. From the start, Boyd's low-key delivery of pivotal moments from White Bicycles where his personal history and rock history collided (meeting Dylan at breakfast with a young woman he'd hoped to bed) meshed well with Hitchcock's music, "setting the scene" as he said because like jelly it had to be. Boyd deflated some long-repeated mythologies -- he was there when Dylan went electric and no, Peter Seeger did not have an axe -- and Hitchcock infused familiar songs with renewed meaning. I haven't heard "Masters of War" in so long; it's easy to forget just how powerful it is. "Mr Tambourine Man" was magic and The Move's "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" a delight.  In between typical Hitchcock banter both with the audience and with Boyd: "Interesting is a word with a lot of "i"s in it... okay, it starts off with two, but the more you look at it, it grows extras..."

Boyd had a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes stories, connecting the reborn Fairport Convention to their reawakening at The Band's Music from Big Pink, then relating how the guys from Los Lobos said they would have remained a bad heavy metal band had they not listened to Fairport and turned to their own folk music for inspiration. I don't know the Incredible String Band that well, but I loved Hitchcock's rendition of "Chinese White" and laughed at Boyd's story about how leaving the band alone in New York for three days while he flew out for business in LA ended up leading to their joining Scientology (and perhaps consequently derailing their career).

Boyd had been the owner of the influential UFO club, that really gave the big boost to the then unknown Pink Floyd. If you only know the post-Syd Floyd (as most people seem to do) you're missing out. The genius that was Syd Barrett! Boyd read his encomium to Barrett which appeared in the program for a tribute concert the two worked on. It brought tears to many eyes, including Hitchcock's and then he performed "Bike" which is a just about perfect song, and delighted everyone.

They signed copies of the book afterward, so I actually got extra squee. Joe Boyd liked my Ganesh scarf and I asked Robyn to sign my Moleskine, so now I can take a little inspiration with me everywhere. Happy sigh. Looking forward to reading the book, too!

Whirlwind Travel

NYC on Thursday to see Lynda Barry and Maira Kalman and today I'm off to Connecticut for the final party at the Aloha Alcohula. So, in haste with the hope of more later:

My route: drive down to Poughkeepsie, Metro North to Grand Central, arriving after everyone's already stopped waltzing. Then off to the Met Museum. Many things to see there: the Stieglitz, Steichen and Strand exhibit, especially Stieglitz's photographs of Georgia O'Keefe (even bought the postcard set), loved Katrin Sigurdardottir's installations, and of course, I'm always a sucker for Rothko:

Afterward I had a lovely sushi dinner and then headed over to the 92nd St Y for the talk: Lynda Barry is just so utterly amazing. She said she was really nervous and so what was best was to do something really frightening (though she said it would be even better to eat a hotdog, but --) so she sang a song to the tune of "Coal Miner's Daughter" that explained her family (Norwegian and Filipino) and her difficulties growing up. I can't capture her madcap and inventive conversation. She talked about everything from trying to find tears for great art and instead finding them when she met Jeff Keane of Family Circus, because that comic had given her such hope as a child, a way to imagine a happy family through that little circle. Or her Filipino grandmother who told the most horrifying descriptions of the woman who was really a vampire who took her legs off and crawled across your ceiling and used her long tongue to suck your blood because you leave your clothes on the floor! Her new book Picture This: The Near-Sighted Monkey Book is a companion piece to her incredibly inspiring What it is, but aimed at drawing rather than writing. She describes it as like Highlights but for any age and so if you were stuck in JiffyLube waiting for your car, you could pick it up and be less tense and really enjoy yourself. For her, the power of drawing is plain: after working on Cruddy for ten years on a computer, she was overwhelmed by the awesome power of the Delete Key. Once she started using a brush to write the letters, she finished it in nine months.

Maira Kalman is quite amazing too: though more reserved than Barry, she was equally inspiring and surprising. Her work shows the power of just keeping your eyes and mind open (what Russell Hoban calls "being a friend with your head"). Everything from a hilarious letter from Proust, a dead Swiss writer in the snow on a newspaper wrapping a parcel, the three hole punch at the Pentagon that puts holes in the paper on which top secret documents written: all of it can blend together in your head and come out interesting art. She even played the clip from WC Fields in The Man in the Flying Trapeze where they make fun of a pseudo-Gertrude Stein-ish piece.

Glad I made the trip down; fortunately Robert was able to give me a refuge halfway home from the train station as I got into Poughkeepsie about midnight. Of course he made me sleep on this:

Off to Connecticut today for my joint birthday party with Marko: it will apparently be the last party at the Aloha Alcohula before its make-over. Should be fun! I had my own make-over already:

It's actually purple not blue (note how washed out my eye color is), but nice and bright :-) Might wear my purple tiara, too.

A Dandy, Van and Rude Britannia

No time for anything but a quick recap in reverse time order: last night saw Dandy in the Underworld, the one man play at the Soho Theatre about Sebastian Horsley. It was quite good and alternately funny and sad, particularly with the fact of his death last week hanging over the production -- though Horsley was apparently delighted by the play based on his autobiography of the same name. With Soho likely to go the same way as Times Square as the forces of gentrification take hold, it's sad to think Horsley may be the last of the true eccentrics of the city. We stopped by his building which is just around the corner on Meard Street, still bearing its famous sign. Flowers, especially his beloved sunflowers, were gathered in remembrance, often with accompanying cards speaking to the fondness people had for his flamboyant life.

Saturday was the Rude Britannia exhibit at the Tate Britain, which was very fun, although as Brad said, it could have used a lot more cartoons. There was a lot of fun stuff along with the expected Gillrays and Hogarths, including GIANT versions of Viz pages, Roger Mellie offering the text for the art, an anvil hanging over a doorway and perhaps my fave, Eddie Adams' recreations of famous incendiary photojournalist shots with old age pensioners (think Ruby, napalm, the Viet Cong execution). Morbidly funny. I was surprised to see that the Ally Sloper offerings were courtesy of pal Roger Sabin. I texted him, "You're in the Tate!" Hee hee.

Friday night was the wonderful concert, another part of the Meltdown Festival curated by Richard Thompson. The opening band Clare and the Reasons were quite delightful. Headliner Van Dyke Parks came out to play the lovely Harry Nilsson song "He Needs Me" from the Popeye soundtrack, where Parks was musical arranger (and played the piano player on film). Thompson introduced Parks' solo set -- clearly they are old friends -- as being like "Mark Twain if he could sing". Lots of old friends apparently turned up for the show. Parks is a legend among musicians, but not well known to the general public. He has an unusual style and was quite jokey and relaxed. Hard to describe but wonderful to enjoy. Parks clearly felt gratified by the enthusiastic audience in the end, hopping out into the audience to shake hands and soak up the love. Wonderful!

Meanwhile the vuvuzelas fill London with their hum. Every pub is filled with flags -- mostly England flags, but considering the broad swath of people in this city, you'll find fans for every team cheering loudly. You can't help but be caught up in it enough to know who's doing well and what calls have been decried. Summer in England. Hope everyone had a great solstice yesterday and made the most of the longest day.

Double BitchBuzz: Tea and Fairy Tales

Busy week and I'm making good use of it! Two extra columns:

Fox's New Biscuit and Tea Tasting Guide

"I prefer a nice cup of tea to sex." - Boy George
What could need less thought than your tea and biscuit? Kettle on, package open, insert in mouth. Well, Fox's Biscuits wants you to reconsider everything and to get you to approach tea and biscuit combinations as if you were pairing wine with your dinner. I had my doubts, but I have to say I was won over.
Pearl Lowe hosted the tea party to launch Fox's new Biscuit and Tea Tasting guide, adding a touch of her particular style to the event, but it was the surprise appearance of notorious tea lover Boy George that really brought the point home: some people are just fanatical about tea. And why not? There's no indulgence quite as comforting as a big tea party. Add a little Buck Fizz if anyone feels like they're being deprived somehow...

Read more: http://home.bitchbuzz.com/foxs-new-biscuit-and-tea-tasting-guide.html#ixzz0qdBiGCcM

Joan Jonas's "The Juniper Tree" Exhibition

Joan Jonas ignites the resonant power of the fairy tale in her installation The Juniper Tree at the Tate Modern. What is it about the magic of "once upon a time" that seems so well suited to echo the tangled webs of female existence? Whatever it is, Jonas has harvested it for this piece, which memorializes a performance piece she has presented in various forms since its debut at the ICA in Philadelphia back in 1976, although like all her productions, she considers this to be a "work in progress" yet. While a static version of a performance piece may not sound ideal, as Jonas herself puts it, it captures "the shifting nature between performance, memory, and physical presence." Think of it as a 3-D scrapbook...

Read more: http://culture.bitchbuzz.com/joan-jonass-the-juniper-tree-exhibition.html#ixzz0qdBvG2QG

Check the two pieces out and be sure to retweet or post on Facebook if you want to help share them. The Jonas installation has inspired an idea for a play which I'm pecking away at while I work on ten other things (as usual). And no, Robert -- she's not related to the Jonas Brothers as far as I know.

Yesterday went to the new exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery, but I found it rather disappointing and uninspired. The only pieces I liked much were paintings by Sigrid Holmwood and Ged Quinn. I was hoping for more.

Off to the wild west today (Hanwell, that is). Fun!

BitchBuzz: Jane Austen Writes

My BB column this week revisits the Jane Austen exhibit at the Morgan which I enjoyed so much last week (and yes, the William Blake exhibit is still on for a few more weeks). It's such a delight to see Jane's own handwriting and little pieces of her life gathered together for this exhibit, which offers a good sense of the Regency period in which she lived:

Through March of next year, the Morgan Library & Museum in NYC features an excellent exhibit, "A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen's Life and Legacy" which contains her handwritten script of Lady Susan as well as many letters, mostly written to her beloved sister Cassandra, and other personal effects.

While it seems impossible that we don't know everything there is to know about Jane (which isn't as much as most fans would like), it's a revelation to see so much written in her own hand.

Sure, there's the fannish squee of being so close to something Jane herself touched (then again, I'm a medievalist who shed a tear upon seeing for the first time the one and only Beowulf manuscript), but it's also an intimate window on the world in which she lived: one where paper was so precious that she used up every bit of surface area in her letters by writing across her own lines with further perpendicular lines (known as "cross-hatching")...

As usual, you can read the rest at BB HQ. Please help spread the news be retweeting, sharing and linking here!

Bill, Lenny & Bob

I headed down Thursday to Bard for a talk about Blake's quiet years that promised to fill in the missing details. I had been surprised to hear about an event at Bard before the actual day of the event, a rarity. However, when I got there and found the room, I also found a note saying the lecture was delayed. I decided not to wait around and went to Robert's, where he was making a tasty dinner -- much better. If the lecture's any good, it'll be published, right?

The next morning we headed down to the Cloisters to get a little medieval. If you haven't been there, the museum located in the lovely Fort Tryon Park offers a nice little taste of the Middle Ages in Manhattan with artifacts, bits of chapels, tombs and other treasures. After having a good wander around the grounds, we headed over to the New Leaf Café, which Robert informed me was run by Bette Midler, but we didn't see her in the kitchen, but we were able to enjoy a really good lunch while supporting the New York Restoration Project.

We took the A train downtown in order to get to the Morgan. As we passed through the 42nd Street station, Robert helpfully pointed out the tubes that were part of the internet, which as we all know is a system of tubes. Quite knowledgeable my brother. Why the Morgan? Well, they're having a Blake exhibit which more than made up for the missed lecture. It had so much more than I expected, not just pages from his books, but letters, manuscripts and watercolors. Wonderful!

Of course, the main event was seeing Leonard Cohen at Madison Square Garden. The sold out show featured most of his hits which pleased the crowd (full of an awful lot of balding heads we could see from our vantage point up near the top), but the energy and exuberance of Cohen and his band really impressed me. Although 75, he was dancing and skipping on and off stage during the 8pm show which lasted until 11.30. He seemed truly joyful, telling the audience, "I don’t know when we’ll be passing through here again, so I want to tell you that it is our intention to give you everything we’ve got tonight” -- and they did. Fantastic band all around, including his frequent collaborator, Sharon Robinson and an amazing Spanish guitarist. Everyone got a turn in the spotlight, but the crowd was there to see Cohen and he gave them everything, turning songs like "I'm Your Man" from intimate love songs to an offering to the thousands assembled. You can find videos for many of the songs like "So Long, Marianne", "Tower of Song", my fave "Famous Blue Raincoat" and the perennial fave, "Hallelujah" but I am so glad I was actually there. Some nights are just magical -- and this was one.

Of course getting back was less than magical -- not only was there a rail replacement bus for the A train uptown, but it was pouring and we had to drive back to Hudson. But we kept each other awake, listening to Peter Cook until we finally made it back to Robert's about 3.30am. Totally worth it.

A Taste of My Weekend

It's my long long day, so I'm not sure I'll get around to writing up all my adventures of the weekend, but here's a little taste of what I did and saw. An absolutely amazing concert!

Curse of the Demon

Day two of the horror class consisted of a full-on run through the 40s and 50s. While I talked about a lot of things, I concentrated on showing two films -- not something I plan to do everyday, but as I was giving short shrift to the time period anyway, it only seemed fair. For me, this meant Val Lewton and his protégé, Jacques Tourneur.

First up was Cat People, the Lewton-produced/Tourneur-directed classic starring Simone Simon as a Serbian woman haunted by her people's past. Because we start out with a reading focusing on the psychological development of "the Other" it's a good one. Well, it's a good film anyway, with Lewton's classic eye for light and shadow. At the center of it Simon's Irena represses her sexuality out of fear that it will unleash a beast in her, foretold by her homeland's folktales. The students had plenty to say about the subtle workings of Lewton's film and picked up on the skillful uses of sound particularly in the stalking scenes.

After a lunch break (which I forgot yesterday, no wonder they looked so wan by the end), I talked about the 50s SF horror films for a bit then started up Night of the Demon (AKA Curse of the Demon). Based on M. R. James' "Casting the Runes" it tells the tale of a Crowley-esque occultist sparring with scientific sceptics via supernatural means.

You may know it as the source of the line, "It's in the trees! It's coming!" in Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love". My students, I fear, will always know it as the dvd that suddenly stopped playing ONE MINUTE before the end of the film. Howls of disappointment. I did find a link to a YouTube video that shows the very end, so I emailed that to them, but --

Ah, teaching!

A Jam-Packed Spring Break

Spring break is meant to give a little breather mid-semester, but somehow it always ends up packed with things I can't do during the semester proper. Things were off with a bang on Tuesday as I interviewed Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie about Lost Girls for the Angela Carter conference in Northampton this June. Thank you, Pádraig, for hooking me up!

How was it? In a word: brilliant!

They were both so terrific: friendly and expansive. We chatted quite comfortably, which is amazing considering how nervous I was before hand (about getting the questions out, about the tech side failing (Skype + GarageBand + wireless), and oh, I don't know what -- sounding like an idiot, I guess. I will try to put up some snippets when I get a minute to edit them out of the raw recording. A lot of it was specific to my project, but some will be of interest to all. The Bumper Book of Magic is coming along, and so is Melinda's autobiography -- that's an exciting project that builds from her early life in San Francisco, surrounded by the Beats and as one of the folks in the nascent underground comix movement.

It's funny how everything connects. Wednesday I headed off to Connecticut to see an exhibit at the Beinecke with the Queen of Everything and Elena. The exhibit featured books on alchemy. Thanks to the Joey Zone for mentioning the exhibit in the first place -- it was well worth the trip (and yes, we won't mention Garmin's unfortunate insistence on trying to get us to go across a bridge that was out).

It was an excellent exhibit, with a wide variety of volumes spread across two floors and following the influence of the alchemists up to the present day. The QoE has written about the food already, so I'll be lazy. It's been years since I have been in New Haven, so it was interesting to re-orient myself again.

The food was good, of course! Even better when we got back to Elena's for a little zubrowka, of course! Bialistock this time, which I didn't like as much as the classic Bison Grass -- but all Bison Power is good! I brought some good cheeses, too (mmmm, tilsit!). It was hard to believe that we could talk ourselves into a meal later, but Mavi was indeed delicious. Oh my, that duck l'orange was like BUTTAH!

On Thursday, Elena and I went to the Wadsworth Atheneum to see the Ballet Russes exhibit, featuring costumes as well as design sketches and paintings from artists as varied as Cocteau, Picasso, Gris, Miro, and Ernst. One of the featured ballets of course was the Rite of Spring; its premiere plays a pivotal role in Lost Girls. It was quite wonderful. I loved all the costumes and sets. They also showed DVDs of clips from recent productions based on Diaghilev's ballets. I bought a print of Leon Bakst's painting of Nijinsky as the Faun.

Then we were off for more food (of course!) so we had lunch at Lena's which was very tasty. I had pizza but I was very tempted by the split pea soup. Elena had one of the other soups with sausage and potato that looked very good. On a whim, we stopped at A. C. Petersen's for ice cream, though I must say I hardly needed it (but mint chocolate chip and hot fudge sauce -- how could I say no?).

Then I had to say good bye to my little buddy Shaq and to Elena and hit the road back to Albany, already late enough to hit traffic in both Hartford and Springfield, but hey -- I wasn't in a hurry. It was still spring break!

To the Beach

Off we go to the beach house today (because Susan's palatial home isn't quite enough luxury for our indolence). Yesterday was our visit to the North Carolina Museum of Natural History where we saw lots of critters and things -- lots o' snakes, giant bugs and a good number of skinks and salamanders -- although sadly we found the butterfly refuge closed -- waah!

On the road soon to Pine Knoll Shores...

Opening: LitGraphic

[I'm working backward from today which is the first day I've had any time to write.]

We headed out bright and early (well, for a Friday, i.e. my non-teaching day) to hit the road for Massachusetts and the LitGraphic exhibit at the Norman Rockwell Museum. We had our press credentials in hand and a wide open freeway before us. No bats, though; and our only stimulant was Gene's travel mug of unleaded coffee. But the passes got us into the unopened exhibit for a free preview and press schmooze.

It's quite a good collection -- a real nice mix with a few classics (Ditko, Eisner, Masereel and Ward) as well as a variety of newer artists like Marc Hempel, Sue Coe and Lauren Weinstein, as well as the guest artists in attendance that day: Peter Kuper, Howard Cruse and Dave Sim. (The freebies were nice, too including the book of the new traveling exhibit for Rockwell's art).

We were welcomed and told us a bit about the exhibit, then Peter Kuper gave a little talk discussing his own work and World War 3, as well as life in Oaxaca at present. Howard Cruse spoke about his work in Stuck Rubber Baby and his drawing techniques. I would tell you what Dave Sim had to say, but I don't want to be accused of devouring his light.

The museum also provided a very nice lunch and we happened to sit with both Kuper and Cruse, which gave us a chance to chat a little with them and some of the other journalists there. In fact, we ended up talking with Howard for some time. I'm hatching a scheme to get him to campus for a grad class I'll be teaching in about a year.

I'll be writing this up in more detail for publication, so more soon. The exhibit runs through May with a lot of events planned. See the schedule and check it out. Like you need an excuse to go to the beautiful Berkshires?