YEAH YEAH YEAH

We were four years old and we went to the store and we ate coconut cake which was so yummy and then had another.

We were four years old and we listened to the Beatles and they sang YEAH YEAH YEAH and we screamed YEAH YEAH YEAH to the Beatles.

Now someone says The Beatles, Big Deal and they pass by the store and don’t stop and there’s a coconut on the ground and it’s dying and we’re melting.

BRAZIL

Someone called me from Brazil, he didn’t mean to, 

and he just talked away. I tried to talk to him, too, 

but I didn’t understand anything he was saying, and I told him 

that and then I told him other things and then someone from Brazil 

answered me and probably told me that he didn’t understand 

me either and kept talking and told me other things too. When he stopped

talking I didn’t tell him that I didn’t understand what he was saying 

but instead told him about this song I had heard that I couldn’t 

get out of my mind, and all about my neighbor who always says hello 

to her husband before she gets into the house, and how to spell 

rhododendron after I told him how beautiful they were and that 

they were in my yard.  He didn’t say anything for a minute after I stopped 

talking, but then he started again, and told me all sorts of things, I am guessing

       they were about how life in Brazil was for him lately, how hard it was to stay 

in love in Brazil, and how there are no rhododendrons in Brazil. We both

laughed at the same time and then we both said GOODBYE to each other 

at the same time and then we both hung up. I missed him like you 

miss an old friend, and realized he probably would never call again, and so 

I looked up Brazil in the dictionary and discovered that Brazil was named 

after Brazilwood, that Brazil was once run by a man named Pedro, 

that you can find Toucans and Jaguars in Brazil for they are plentiful, and 

the waterfalls there are deep and lush, and will make you feel at home 

right away, if you ever decide that enough is enough, and go there 

and leave everything else except a small beige suitcase, behind.

I see warm, beautiful temperatures in store for me

mornings filled with chocolate and coconut

in the ice cream

and strawberry and lime

in the donuts

old department stores

and RX pharmacies

in the blinding sun

in a way to walk home

but not really walking

and poppyseeds

you can hardly see

but I see

I see poppyseeds

more than anything

in store for me

HOW TO TELL TIME: a little golden book review

I learned how to read time 
by reading How To Tell Time.

The cover was black and there 
was a golden Gruen Watch

in the center. The Gruen Watch 
had hands you could turn 

as long as you want until they fell off. 
They didn’t have to fall off but sometimes 

they did. The best thing to do with 
How To Tell Time was to walk around 

the clock and see all the interesting things 
you could see. You could see five 

little pictures of one little boy and one little 
picture of one little girl as they had various 
adventures around the clock. 

If you walk clockwise, you see the little boy 
wakes up and  puts on a yellow shirt and looks 
at his sundial and it is something o’clock and 

his tabby kitten purrs under the shade 
of the sundial. Then you see the little boy 

puts on a white shirt and ties his shoe 
while sitting on the world and a red 

and white striped candle burns down slowly 
and regularly. Then the little boy changes into 

a red shirt and reads a book in front of his desk 
without moving his lips until he puts on a green shirt 

and this time a blue cap so that he can run and run 
in the sun until he is so hot that he takes off all his clothes 

and jumps in the water and smiles because he is naked 
and timeless in the water is it the beach is it a lake is it a 
pool is it a stream is it a pond is it a swamp? Well, there is 

a little girl playing  with a bucket in the sand wearing pink 
and so it is a beach. There is a little star next to her. 
The star is lightyears away from me now. 

Don’t be sad Me! Look! Then there is a little boy again 
in a yellow shirt looking at his sundial and his tabby cat 
is purring again and soon he will put on a white shirt again 
and tie his shoe,

again. Did I mention he is wearing blue pants?

MAY I...

May I present to you a book of unbridled delight?

It's Yu Jian's FLASH CARDS. Here it is:

 http://ronpadgett.com/Flash_Cards.htm

Don't mind that Ron Padgett, the translator, doesn't speak Chinese. Or that Yu Jian, the poet, doesn't speak English. Just mind the fact that the two of them met in Sweden in 2002, and walked down the street giggling and carrying on and enjoying themselves immensely, and that now they have this wonderful book for you.

UNLESS THEY ARE REALLY WONDERFUL GRANDCHILDREN

Someday her grandchildren will not understand her when she tells them that once upon a time she made a blueberry smoothie with her bicycle.

IT'S FUN NOT TO TITLE THINGS

I like when you tell me you’re a midwife on the lawn

where the dogs run away like Egyptian pharaohs. 

There are two minutes of sun left to drink the earth. 

The clocks are counting slightly backwards. 

I would like to be born this time 

if you can possibly help.

It's probably not a great idea to design a book cover before you write a book, but that's what I am doing. And I designed it for all the wrong reasons: I was feeling inept in my design work, it was really muggy that night, and I found a beautiful poster in beautiful colors advertising The Thin Man way back when. I also found some wonderful process photos for Grant Wood's American Gothic, and I threw a little bit of that in there too. Which reminds me: did you know that painting is only two and a half feet tall? Finally, the "F" in there is for "fake" - but I might throw it away and put "F" in there for fabulous, because the design isn't, but everyone in it, is.

PLEASE NOTE

If you search for the word "kerfuffle", one of the first links that you will discover will tell you the following:

QUAFLE PORVER!

Chopped socky. Chip chapintzi. Chellof farkle. Gohrnea, futed burgin Pruney ulney. Yenyai umerhus.

MY ABUSIVE BASKETBALL COACH MADE ME A BETTER MAN

He taught me how to fix a jib

and tell a joke in French. And

let’s us not forget that day in Spring -

all the ‘i’s before ‘e’s - friend, believe, die

Those he taught, too - 

Seize, weird, vein - would wait for another day;

yesterday he said would be tomorrow; 

today brandished iron

in the form of a chair

hear it comes sailing

what I thought was me

was just me versus

 my open arms

UNFAMILIAR PICTURES OF VERY FAMILIAR PEOPLE, pg. 3

Marilyn Monroe, a beautiful woman, closes her eyes and buttons her coat of wool. There is no reason to know it is on the beach, but that’s how good an actress she was: she closed her eyes as one does on the beach. Here is Marilyn: she appears to be on the beach.

THE THIRD ANNUAL CRISPIES AWARDS: 1st place

2012 would be the last year of NICE PRICE BOOKS, and we will miss it forever. Beyond and besides the extraordinary selections (an entire vinyl recording of Eastern Airline jingles? Abba's Does Your Mother Know / Kisses of Fire? Forty Singing Seamen and Other Poems?) it was, truly and sincerely, as close as our little town will ever get to producing the bastard child of CHEERS and HIGH FIDELITY.

Yes, everybody did know your name here, and they still do, but they cannot be found here. Or elsewhere. Nice Price, we never thought we would have to miss you, but now we do, and we do.

THE CRISPIES are an annual appreciation of 10 of the most wonderful things discovered over the course of the previous year, having been produced or created any time at all.

THE THIRD ANNUAL CRISPIES AWARDS: 2nd place

God Bless The Carrack Museum in Durham, NC in general, and God Bless The Carrack for their INVENTORY AND OBSERVATIONS opening, from one Iris Gottlie, made possible through the beauty of a zero-commission gallery such as the Carrack. This event just stretching beyond 2012, but I give myself a pass on the calendar since the work from the very amazing Iris Gottlie surely began in 2012 and beyond (before), and the work itself was pretty timeless and warm on a cold winter night.

Spend as much time as you can with Iris' work. It's the sort of stuff that makes you say "I could do that" but no sir in fact you can't. Few can. Iris can. So I suppose God Bless Iris, too. I can't wait to see what's next, both on the windy streets of Parrish, and via the nimble-finger brain work of she.


THE CRISPIES are an annual appreciation of 10 of the most wonderful things discovered over the course of the previous year, having been produced or created any time at all.

THE THIRD ANNUAL CRISPIES AWARDS: 3rd place

My favorite voices in the world are Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Brian Wilson, Blossom Dearie, Sarah Vaughn, Paolo Conti, Keely Smith. But wait! Aren't all these people either super old or dead? I guess that's true, but there's one who's neither and that's Faye Hunter. Not only is she not dead or old, but she is in fine form, looking continental, and back again, finally, in the studio.

Some of you might remember her from her days as the bass player and backbone vocalist of Let's Active, the super-wonderful krinkly-haired trio from Winston-Salem in the early 80's, or perhaps her later work with the Wygals or Chris Stamey. If you do, you will certainly agree that her voice was the perfect counterpoint, punctuation mark, or total enrichment feel to virtually every song she graced during those days. Trying to imagine some of those songs without Faye is like trying to imagine the Beatles' BECAUSE without background vocals. Don't even try it! It will make you hurt and there is no point.

And like the Beatles, most people have the good sense not to cover these songs. And when they do, they rarely, if ever, deviate from the signature vocals that she used during way-back-when. Smart, because they are hard to top.

Sadly, Faye was woefully, no, criminally under represented on these albums, particularly as a lead vocalist. There are a few fine exceptions, though, like ROOM WITH A VIEW from AFOOT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es4jpWlioTo

Which is a kind of beautiful combo of the forgotten psychedelic masterpiece AN ELECTRIC STORM by WHITE NOISE and...Bridget Bardot singing with Serge Gainsbourg? Kind of, yes. Also, not, and also, kind of, very, great.

My favorite example, though, of her work (particularly for its brevity-to-impact value) is from the same era's LEADER OF MEN. A great punch tune, a stop-start bass guitar heart, fantastically cat scratch (real cats) guitar solo, but what do you remember? Probably the one word vocal that Faye adds to the mix: MEN. It comes and goes like a freight train when you are standing still. Awfully hard to forget, and it's just one little syllable.

http://grooveshark.com/s/Leader+Of+Men/1LIp6Q?src=5

In 2012 Faye went back into the studio to do a double vocal with UK singer Amanda Thompson for LET'S PRETEND WE'RE SPIES. Thirty years later, it's clear that the girl still has the goods.

https://soundcloud.com/amanda-2-1/lets-pretend-were-spies-feat

In the meantime, she has picked up her bass again, and is contemplating new work in the studio and possibly live, all of which bodes well for those who miss her voice and for those who will hear her for the first time now. In other words, everybody. This is the good music news of 2012 and beyond. Keep an eye out for her. If you find her, it will make you happy.

And did I mention her art? See above. More good news abounds.






THE CRISPIES are an annual appreciation of 10 of the most wonderful things discovered over the course of the previous year, having been produced or created any time at all.