La-La & Lu-Lu-- comix for the ages!

BOING! Let's talk classic
La-La & Lu-Lu:
check it out right here:
http://www.braintumorcomix.com/2013/09/la-la-lu-lu-19.html

That wacky La-La & Lu-Lu comic strip, judged by serious pontificators to be
more than 5X better than TUNA-Vision and/or wild 'gators.

"Brain Tumor Comix-- breaking ever new ground
in fresh & tasty black & white!" --Jorma Eppu

Iris G Poets Romp at Red Rose Commons



Barnes & Noble, Red Rose Commons

　

Lancaster Poetry Exchange
Presents Poets of Iris G. Press

Lancaster Poetry Exchange is presenting a special reading
by select Poets of Iris G. Press, February 27, 2013, 7:30 pm
at Barnes & Noble, Red Rose Commons, 1700 Fruitville Pike,
Lancaster, PA 17601, (717) 290-8171.
Performers include Marty Esworthy, Rebecca Gonzalez and Jeff Rath.


Marty Esworthy, a Megaera award-winning poet, editor emeritus of Steel Point Quarterly, is founder of the Almost Uptown Poetry Cartel.
He’s been published in Haggard & Halloo, text_TOWER, Literary Chaos, Fledgling Rag, The Fox Chase Review. Recent Esworthy collections include hard reality, Pacobooks, 2004, 26 Javanese Proverbs, Iris G. Press, 2006 and The Object Stares Back, Uh-Oh!, T&T Press, 2009.



Rebecca Gonzalez is a Pushcart nominee and the 2008 R.E. Foundation Award winner for Outstanding Poetry. Some of her poems will be appearing in the upcoming CD anthology, Live at the Corner of Poetry and Main: Celebrating Five Years of Annapolis Poetry. She is the author of, Sonata for Rain, published by Iris G. Press. Her second and upcoming book is titled, Aerial Descending.



Jeff Rath is the author of three collections of poetry. Rath won the 2007 R.E. Foundation Award for Outstanding Poetry, and is a Pushcart Prize nominee. His new book is Film Noir, published in 2011 by Iris G. Press. Rath has published two other books: The Waiting Room at the End of the World, in 2007, and In the Shooting Gallery of the Heart, 2009, both published by Iris G Press.

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Coming up at Midtown Scholar Poetry Thursdays

Open mics and featured performers: at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore,
1302 North Third Street, Harrisburg, PA 17102, (717) 236.1680.


February 21 — Open poetry Reading

February 28 --Le Hinton and MaDonna Awotwi

March 7-- Open mic

March 14 — Feature, Carla Christopher

March 21 — Feature, Richard James

March 28 — Feature, Barbara DeCesare

April 4 — Open mic

April 11 — Feature, Michael Hoover

April 18 -- TBA

April 25 -- Open mic

May 2 -- Feature, Kerry Shawn Keys

　

—————————————–
Also… word has it that, after a winter of some trials and tribulation, renowned cartel member, Maria James-Thiaw is getting a manuscript together. A new collection to be published later this Spring by PostDada Press.
.

Solidarity with the indigenous world: Surrealism in 2012!

Surrealism in 2012: Toward the World of the Fifth Sun
January 6-February 19, 2012, GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, Pa
Opening Reception: First Friday January 6, 2012 5:30-7:30pm

Happy new year! As we roar into the Winter Solstice of Year 2012, beginning
of the 14th baktun (cycle) in the Maya long count calendar, and the fifth
rebirth of our Sun, scores of surrealist artists and writers from around the
globe have sent their works for a long-awaited exhibition honoring this theme,
in keeping with that movement´s principle of “poetry made by all” and solidarity
with the indigenous world. Yowsa!

There is no doubting the astronomical and mythopoetic
genius of the people who created this spectacular and historic marker.
http://www.goggleworks.org/Exhibitions/

This gathering of creative forces in Eastern Pennsylvania represents the
first collective manifestation of the ongoing surrealist movement in that part
of the United States. It is a rare opportunity to experience the stimulating
atmosphere of authentic surreality apart from the academicism or media
distortion so often identified with that word. It is also a good setting, right
at the beginning of the storied year, smack in the middle of the Eastern
seaboard, to stir one's ideas re the meaning of a world bound for
important, mayhaps, startling, changes in the “World of the Fifth Sun!”

This remarkable show, curated by the legendary Joe Jablonski, features over
40 (count 'em!) Surrealist artists from far and wide. Surrealism in 2012 is a
stunning exhibition of the international surrealist movement from the 1960s
through today. It'll take your breath away!

For more information: Ring up 610-374-4600
http://www.surrealismin2012.org/

Don't pig out on these balto riffs!

balto riffs, misc

when i first moved to westminster MD I was loathe to drive into balt cos i had gotten lost there a coupla times driving from petersburg VA (Fort Lee) to Harrisburg on holidays & stuff.
But when i heard john Ciardi was speaking (not reading) at peabody, i took a chance.
I bravely drove down rt 83, luckily got off at the right exit [oddly, but for real, sartre loved him], & bam! I'm at mt Vernon place. It was so cool, giant obelisk, little bronze statues, & ciardi was fun. & i no longer feared the streets of baltimore.
holy scarlotti, it changed my life.

---------------------
CODA
Later subbing in Metuchen NJ I had some of his nieces & nephews in my classes & didn't embarass myself cos i knew how to say his name.
Ciardi (CHAR-DEE) was pretty famous in lit circles (Little did i know that my sicilian roots also gave me a subliminal advantage [YOU ARE HUNGRY FOR POPCORN]).
hw was lit/poetry editor , saturday review.
and that's the way you spell winsocki!
-----------------
BUCKLE DOWN, WINSOCKI From the Broadway Show "Best Foot Forward" (1941)
-0---------------------ooo----------------------------o--
DOS PASSOS. "More than 60 feet above his head, the brilliant skylights of Baltimore's George Peabody Library provided light for John Dos Passos."
http://baltimoreauthors.ubalt.edu/writers/johndospassos.htm

JOHN CIARDI. poetry editor of the magazine Saturday Review from 1956 to 1972. An outspoken poet and critic known for his sharp and witty images, Mr. Ciardi won praise for his verses, which spoke honestly to children, and for the 1959 poetry textbook ''How Does a Poem Mean?'' He was outspokenly critical of traditional poetry aimed at youngsters, which struck him as ''written by a sponge dipped in warm milk and sprinkled with sugar.''
His many collections of poems for adults, which ranged from war verses to love lyrics and occasional flights of fancy, also met with favorable reactions from critics, who praised him for his honesty.
''He is singularly unlike most American poets with their narrow lives and feuds,'' wrote the critic and poet Kenneth Rexroth. ''He is more like a very literate, gently appetitive, Italo-American airplane pilot, fond of deep simple things like his wife and kids, his friends and students, Dante's verse and good food and wine.'' --http://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/02/obituaries/john-ciardi-poet-essayist-and-translator-69.html

Mostly Me & Zuky in Vorobievi Gori,

looking for images.

Yeah,

lookin'

for images.

...

I mean

the tango

was replaced

by formal

waltz and the Aztec altar

by Christian detachment.

...So, like the film-maker

Andrei Tarkovsky, I always

carry a Polaroid camera with me.

Zuky, he prefers an Olympus FE-230.

We look and learn. (We think.)

City planting, an urban tree strategy

City planting, a photo by Plant Design Online on Flickr.

Urban trees experience a variety of stresses. Compaction, lack of water, and pollution are three examples. The surface grate in this photo protects the tree in several ways.

The large surface area allows rainwater to reach the roots. This is important for two reasons. Obviously, the plant requires water. Less obvious, salt and other damaging pollutants that splash up from the roadway can be washed away with copious water.

The surface grate is metal, and this will protect the young tree from surface compaction. In this way the roots will be able to obtain adequate oxygen from the naturally aerated soil.

Note that the grate was installed some distance from the actual soil surface. This will allow for expansion of the tree's roots, minimizing potential damage to the built environment.

Finally the grate is pedestrian and bicycle-friendly as well as visually pleasing. I think it's a great strategy for urban trees.
--from City Planting, Plant Design Online

city tree

city tree, a photo by zuky on Flickr.

two of my three favorite trees.
all paved over now. corporations
take no prisoners when feeding
and profiting by our inalienable
lust for motoring, for parking.
america needs impervious surfaces
except mebbe during the annual
spring floods.