Songs Our Teachers Learn Us on youtube

selling

time

&

taste

'The politics of time' from Songs Our Teachers Learn Us, or, Lessons To Be Taught sequence

Notes on writing reading and face to facEBook performance part six

& parts one, two, three, four, five

Bob Cobbing was dismissive when the word 'fun' was used to cajole him into doing a gig. Pre-emptive rejoinders such as "It'll be fun", could guarantee his turning down an invitation to read.

In /new fairy tales/psychopoetic landscapes/old superlatives/ use of word 'beauty' in poetics is examined through Climb A Free Wheeler dictionary of hyperbole. This writers forum chapbook has strapline 'Interrogate the lexicon and sophisticated spin-patter of modern marketing'. Visual barcode one component of cover montage - a completely non-functional poetic that delighted Bob Cobbing when collaborating first Writers Forum colour cover with new kitchen-top printer. (Cobbing's first and last full colour artist's book with our tongue our drils and quadras followed in December, 2001).

At Climb A Free Wheeler performative readings audiences were invited to shout one letter after another from alphabet (at Klinker gigs 'X' and 'Z' were favourites). Superlatives beginning with said letter were shouted back to hearers.

In London performance after Hugh Metcalfe's poetics-avant pub cabaret Klinker - multiple, if heterogeneous, poetry arts bubbles and place venues have sprung up in university rooms; pub-function rooms; free, open public spaces; civic halls and centres; theatres, cinemas; bookshops, galleries, restaurants; commercial, industrial, institutional arts buildings; people's homes; poetry hegemonized places of worship - all proliferate in capital and cities elsewhere.

There are (post)modern examples of poetry and poets selling and being sold with superlatives 'amazing', 'beautiful', 'collectable', 'fun', 'gorgeous', 'genius', 'magical', 'talented', 'witchy'. ('quirky' was added in biro to writer's file copy, a ...Wheeler entered category 'Q', 21/5/03).

Present writer finds himself internalizing and newly re-encoding same words he once deconstructed as hyperbolic superlatives. 'Gorgeous' and 'sparkling' just two new ones. In modernist '50ies 'Mad Men' era of 'hidden persuaders' and through '60ies, '70ies, '80ies, - 20th century hyperbole was decoded for Climb A Free Wheeler in random combination. Intention being to deconstruct overused superlatives through sound. To decode words used and encoded for selling news items, popular fiction, advertising, arts' celebrities and their products.

...Wheeler was published and first performed before poets and artists began using MySpace, before Facebook, before use of vid-embedded blogspot bubbles like this one of present writer, egnep (EGNEP). Before the ltle bk of txt msgs (Michael O'Mara Books, 2000) found online currency @Twitter in Web 2.0's visual web association#.

Facebook Mick takes his social media 'friends' and 'followers' seriously. Michael (socialized 'Mike') Weller even encourages reconstruction of superlatives - subverting his own deconstructions as if they are passé shadow readings beyond decent retrofitting.

'Find funny', 'Funny furious'
(two 'F' category entries in Climb a Free Wheeler, Writers Forum, 2001)

(hand-written back cover statement 'I claim my free Weller!' collaged by Bob Cobbing, June 2001)















Finished notes planned for inclusion in Songs Our Teachers Learn Us, or, Lessons To Be Taught sequence.

Notes on writing reading and face to facEBook performance part five

& parts one, two, three, four, six

When using google blogspot as 'workshop' to draft Beat generation Ballads (Veer Books, 2011) couple years ago the present writer was considering what happened to two ambitious twentieth century visual arts bookwork projects planned for '70ies publication - The William S. Burroughs Scrapbook and The Someday Funnies.

'The Someday Funnies' became penultimate beat generation ballad track in hard copy Veer book with Mr Weller unaware (2010) that Someday Funnies had at last found publisher. Until an email from its author Michel Choquette turned up in his hotmail junk folder. The writer deleted mail - then retrieved it - to discover Abrams were publishing Choquette's book with same $100-per- contributor rate 2011 as recessional early Seventies. An editorial cost austerity cycle. Talk about fucking politics of time. With actual 'ballad' remaining unrevised, updates to beat generation ballads 'acknowledgements' from Michel were forwarded to Stephen Mooney and Will Rowe at Veer as ...Ballads was being delivered to the printer.

Abrams' contributors complimentary copy of The Someday Funnies arrived this week with cushioned packaging and other pieces of mail performance art - including promo from publisher.

Abrams' online plug 'n' puff here. Artie Romero's review here. Michel Choquette interview 'n' North American launch hosted by Stephanie and Andrea here. After singing "1973 what does it want with me" here wishing Christmas book gifts would crash break spine does sound hypocritical, I admit. Yet cartoonist Bill Griffith is on first page of 'works' in curious naming poetic. Someday Funnies as 'beat generation ballad' performance goes on.


Think Mick go facEBook page 'n like it.

Notes on writing reading and face to facEBook performance part four

& parts one, two, three, five, six

An ideology of privatization and marketisation has arguably replaced sense of common purpose public service in arts mainstream and 'alternative' slipstreams. Revival generation poets puff up new generation poets, sketching out emergent canon formations - encoded towards positive internalization of 'experimental', 'fun', 'brilliant', 'cool', 'free-to-use'.

Sidestep volunteering 'internships' and collective 'stakeholdings' with revolutionary collaborators fighting with poets for democracy and a workers' government. In recent conversation with young digital arts practitioner the present writer was told how volunteering had finally led him to paid work. In the twentieth century, I replied, being paid for work was deeply internalized by everyone. "What," the young practitioner exclaimed, "Was everyone a Marxist?"

Join. Decline. Like. Dislike. Yes. No. Maybe. Positive negative procrastination encoded on facEBook.