North of the Vortex

Sunday, October 28, 2007

New Podcasts

Sat, 13 October 2007

"Song for my Father" by Dale Credico, "My Father in the Store Commanding 'Buy'" by Joe Green, "Gondar Avenue" by Tim Smith, "Richie Halloran" by Joe Green, "Arnold Gates" by Tim Smith, "Peggy LaRue" by Tim Smith, "Go Tell the Achyans" by Joe Green, "Going to Goodland" by Tim Smith.

Brought to you by Mr. Clean, Camel Cigarettes, Beechnut Gum, Salem Cigarettes and the folks at Chevrolet!

With an appearance by Roy Rogers!

Direct download: Into_The_Past.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 6:50 PM

Sat, 6 October 2007

A Salute to Francis Muir

A salute to Francis Muir – blithe spirit. Here’s a little bit about him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Muir

and here it’s possible to read about his asteroid. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=95802

“Don't forget to include a reference to my Godfather, Dean of Balliol, and he after whom I was named: Francis Fortescue Urquhart.. Google or wiki will prolly set you straight.”

Direct download: A_Salute_to_Francis_Muir.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 6:41 PM

Thu, 4 October 2007

The JD Salutes Sputnik!

"Famous Monsters" by Joe Green "One Step Beyond and Back" by Dale Credico "Immortality" by Tim Smith "Once There Was Childermas Gazelles" by Joe Green "The Wild One" by Dale Credico

Beautiful …That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly remold again and ever again, the face of this soiled world. Drum-Taps. Reconciliation Walt Whitman

Direct download: The_JD_Salutes_Sputnik.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:19 PM

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

More Podcasts

Tue, 28 August 2007

A Visit to the Minnesota State Fair.

Epiphany Diner. Haunted Mansion. Hot dog or Corn Dog? Confronting Patriot Radio.

Bucky Beaver? Prostate Cancer. At the Marines exhibit. Poet Laureate for Minnesota. The DFL Stance. Hungry again. Corn Fritters. University of Minnesota’s Great English Majors. Persist despite injury. At the Chapel. Let’s eat. Dipping Dots. The Great Machine. They don’t eat corn in Germany! Minnesota Zydeco! We meet a fellow student. At the Quilt center! Creative Activities. Lefse Bakery. “She always has to go.” Colleges and Lions. Jesse Ventura! Pickle Shirt. A question at the Mensa Exhibit.

A Strange Scene! The Parades! Ronald McDonald Confronted. Finger or Thumbs Down? Appalling Uniforms. The Mounties! Polka Spotlight. Al Franken Speaks! We cheer! Al remembers Dwight Eisenhower. Joe Lieberman’s Teeth. Petting a Piglet. Future Farmers of America. A Musical Interlude. Sheep bleating. Final Thoughts. On the Bus. Bus driver yells at kid who has hand out window. We overhear a guy who sounds just like the Rainman. He discusses Minnesota wrestlers of the sixties. Mad Dog. The Baron. All nice guys. “My aunt went out on a date with the Crusher.” Cindy Lou the Dog. Listen to this guy. Perfect!!!!!!!!

Direct download: A_Visit_to_the_Minnesota_State_Fair.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 10:04 AM

Sun, 26 August 2007

The Ballade of Little Noddy

The time: 1992. The place: Smoking room of Cray Research. Time to Completion (est) about three hours over three days. Ah, the mojo was with me then!

Direct download: Little_Noddy_The_Ballad.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 12:32 PM

Mon, 20 August 2007

DarkSource--St. Paul--The First Five Episodes

We all have to make a living-- even we poor poets. Here are five episodes of workday life from my office: DarkSource, St. Paul.

We write policies and procedures for our government here in Minnesota.

Goldy is our receptionist/switchboard operator. We are located on the corner of Selby and Western in St. Paul in the Blair Arcade. Drop in sometime. We won't be there but Goldy will. Just tell her what you want so she can forget it!

Direct download: DarkSource_St.Paul_Episodes_One_Through_Five.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 5:40 PM

Fri, 20 July 2007

The Limerick Odyssey

Books 12 through 24.

Direct download: odyssey1.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:03 PM

Sat, 19 May 2007

The Mighty Jim -- A Tribute to James Joyce

Includes "The Mighty Jim" and "A Christmas Story,"

Direct download: The_Mighty_Jim3.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 12:22 AM

Wed, 16 May 2007

The Limerick Iliad: Books One Through Four

Homer's Iliad translated into limericks by Tim Smith and Joe Green. The first four books.

"This translation fulfills an unnameable need" T.S Eliot

Direct download: The_Limerick_Iliad.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 6:02 PM

Fri, 11 May 2007

The second episode of the Sir Douglas Falstaff Poetry Reading Showdown.

Distinguished jazz poet and roustabout Dale Credico reads "Babylon" by Robert Graves.

Direct download: Babylon.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 10:13 PM

Sun, 6 May 2007

The first entry in the Sir Douglas Falstaff Great Poetry Readings contest.
Read by its author, Timothy Smith, twenty one years ago in the cabin at Owl Oak. Sailor Dreams.

Direct download: SailorDreams.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 11:14 PM

Sun, 29 April 2007

A Simple Desultory Philippic

William Butler Yeats comments on Ron Silliman's deep thoughts anent scrunchies.

The Flop Eared Mule brings you the first episode of "Dueling Poets."
Ron Silliman and Kent Johnson duel over a poet's clinamen! Yes! Shocking!

A Simple Pirate Song by Tim Smith

More about bums...

Direct download: SimpleDesultory.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 8:43 PM

Friday, April 27, 2007

Poet Ed Dorn sat writing "Abhorrences"
And the bastard persisted despite the assurances
Of posthumous poets who said "We don't like it a bit."
Ed Dorn kept writing. Said, "I don't give a shit."

He pissed off the gnarly and eluded the snobby
And he wittily titled his last book "Chemo Sabe."
And they all got together and demanded an answer.
So Ed Dorn lay down and then died of cancer.

So, farewell and adieu to the poor poet, Ed
Whose poems were better than whatever he said.
And, if he came back, he would wish he were dead.

Podcasts available at http://thejeunessedoree.libsyn.com/

The Diamond at the End of Time

A la carrera on the run again and the Federales
On my tail and I don’t mean the Federales but
True hounds of Hell but I WAS in Mexico.
“Much madness is divinest sense” and it was
Me that said that though Shakespeare would never admit it
Following me around all the fucking time with his little notebook
And the Parker pen I gave him I mean he deserved it
Even though he took what the Hellhounds were after yeah
He had mojo and so there I was outside a little cantina
In Night of the Iguana country Senor Carrera to the Mexicans
And waiting..for what… but when you are looking
For the Diamond at the End of Time it might not matter
That Hellhounds are on your trail you are drunk again.
Rock Drill. It does not cohere. On the third lunation.

They keep watch on the hilltops.
The moon was big and yellow and bleary so I was
Feeling fine and it was Midsummer and I was thinking
About Shakespeare take and take motherfucker
And the moon was big and you think I’m running again
The Black Zorro and then the moon winks at you
And you are someplace else and that’s how it happens
Back in time or somewhen or somewhere. Man, I was
Just back from London 1590 or so I never checked
Exactly and it is so strange everyone you see there
On London bridge as you smell the stench everyone is dead
And you can’t get that experience except by going
To a Republican convention but the stench is from the river.

I never thought Death had undone so many.
Another fine line of mine stolen but here I was
A black man in a white hat with a white feather and a silver suit
But they never gave me a glance onliest thing wrong
Was my bootheels were too low They knew how to dress then
And there it was The Globe Theatre. Show out. Around Five o’clock
In the Afternoon as it always is at time like these
When you are flung backward in time and you know
The little guy with the devil beard the ink stained
Wretch squatting outside the theatre trying to write something
With a goddamn quill as the Producer screams at him and he
Acts like he’s someplace else his lips moving writing writing
Is the Bard himself. Mr William Shakespeare blotting
The Hell out of his lines and there is a tide in the affairs of men.

You got to catch it at the sticking point. It’s like this
And I explained it to Shakespeare after I helped him out
With what to do when the bad guys got the the drop
On the hero. You gotta have a distraction I told him
Christ don’t you know that and the bad guys look away
And the hero grabs the sword and it’s best if you have
A chandelier to swing from as he cries “Sa-thump whoreson
Hound taste cold steel!” and it’s in his plays someplace
So I went right up to him and took his hat.
He jumped up. Shakespeare my man I said. Give me back
My hat and I am not your man he said and then when he looked
At me cried Amoor and I gave him back his hat and smiled
And said Yeah Love gets you into trouble I know
You got Dark Lady problems. But I ain’t here for that!

Then I took out my Parker pen and said This is for you
Yeah it’s a pen try it and he did. Who are you he said
A free black man from the seacoast of Bohemia I told
Him and he didn’t blink geography not being his strong suit
We gotta talk let’s go man and he just nodded We’ll go to the Mermaid
You interest me strangely and I could tell it had happened to him
Before the deer stealing son of a bitch because he had
A little smile as he picked up his quill. You won’t be needing
That anymore I said. You got a Parker pen there with endless ink
So don’t try that shit on me what do you know about the Diamond.
“What Diamond he said. That would be the Diamond at the end of Time.
Rock drill he said. Is Immortal Diamond he said.
Brother I said. He smiled. I said. Let’s be off to the Mermaid!
Fine Canary wine and and the lascivious pleasings of a lute!

Milton stole that line. Shakespeare would have but he was sweating it
Like you do when you meet a free black man from the 20th century
Giving you a fine Parker pen with endless ink and some
Of your best lines. We got drunk first of course. Ben Jonson
Came in. What a damn bore but we didn’t pay him no attention.
Ok I said you always callin people whoresons in your plays, Bill
Why don’t you just say motherfucker means the same thing
And he laughed and wrote it down and he admitted yes
He knew about the diamond and then the shadows seem to
Get more like real fucking scary shadows when he said
Alright I know Ezra Pound sent you he promised to come back
I tried not to act scared. When was this I asked and where.
Hsein he said Nova Vita. The Commonwealth.
That far shore at the Third Lunation. What the fuck does that mean

I asked as I melted into the air.

Fool-begged, foolish-compounded, folly-fallen footlings foison plenty
Of flickering Flibbertigibbets, fluxive flouting-stock flewed as
Flax-wenches, fleering and flap-mouthed flirt gills and flesh mongers
Full-gorged yet frustrate. Pajocks and pantaloons you scream but
No one hears as you melt. The crystal fretting (CF) is fracted.
A certain ontological void is created.The exterior envelope is palpated to
Effect a hiatus in the lattice-work. Dehiscence or fission de facto
Of course always implicated and a liminal porosity but anticipated invagination of light
delayed And the Da of Sa and the
Non-place of Vorstellung
Temporarily inhibited by glissement all glockenspiel causing
The CF to groin glutted by vacuum awaiting glissando. You get pretty fucking tense
So no wonder all you want is a Margarita and then another
And then another as you find yourself of all the Gin joints in the world in a Mexican

Cantina where you have to take your tequila straight and
You know what you have what all hell wants which includes
Mr Ezra Pound so you are outside of that cantina and it happens
Again. We go all darkling. You step out into darkness.
If I didn’t want to die I wouldn’t have lived and you know you are there
The Commonwealth. The far shore of the third lunation so, of course
There are black riders. There’s just about anything in the Commonwealth
All Stories All sweet days. This is where you grew up if you
Were a certain kind of Kid so I knew where I was Midsummer Nights Dream
Woods Near Athens. Musick. Alone of us Ben Jonson said
Shakespeare would put an ass’s head in Fairyland. And my black ass
Was there. Hell as they say could be Ilion Rome or any other town and
Even the woods behind Athens where right then two goblins got me
Ofays with SS insignia dragging me to a Castle a bleak wind rising.

Ah, bitter chill it was. Across the drawbridge. Stone and cold moon. Gargoyles.
And then into a room a lofty chamber triple arched the window
Candlelight, torchlight and they threw me down before the throne. Snarl
Of silver trumpet. They killed Keats! But no I see it is the Bard himself
Two goblin fuckers holding him and before me on the throne and stepping down
Mr Ezra Pound himself. Ezra, you're a scholar, what's the time of day?
I say since it’s important to confuse the motherfucker and maintain a high
And haughty style for that’s the way it’s written. You ready to be put in a cage?
Where is it he says? I want it and I will have it. It does not cohere
Which last I attribute to him being confused that a proud black man
Would have the Mojo. Which I did have which is why the hounds of Hell
Etcetera. Now you have to keep one step ahead of these evildoers so I
Took it out. You looking for this and I laughed to see him. Here’s the Mojo.
Here’s what you lookin for. Fix your poetry right up. Here it is.

Satchel pitching in Ponce de Leon Park against the Birmingham Black Barons
Threw the ball so motherfucking fast that it disappeared. And here it is Pound
But you don’t know nothing about it. Here’s the ball. Here’s the Mojo you want
But you don’t know nothin about it, do you? And Pound jumped back.
And the Nazi goblins jumped back. Whoa! Yes. Here it is and he couldn’t say nothing
But you know it is what it is when you see it. And Shakespeare was getting off of the floor as I told them all and threw the disappeared Satchel Paige ball up just a little
Smiling at them like the devil smiles looking Pound right in the eye thinking get
Up get up Shakespeare. Hsien. Rock Drill! You reading Frobenius, Benton, Del Mar
Aggassiz, Fenelolla knowing nothin about Ruth, Cool Papa Bell, The Splendid Splinter
Or the little guy sweating each pitch against class D minor league semi-pros, thinking
St. Louis Stars, Detroit Wolves, Kansas City Monarchs, Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords

Memphis Red Sox, Chicago American Giants, Kansas City Stars, Detroit Senators
Get up Shakespeare . Grover Cleveland Alexander sick and dying at Beaubier's Hotel
Get up your deer stealing fuck . All over all over. You never even went to a Yankees Game and you want the mojo? Here take it and I wound up and threw the ball at Pound
Ran at the goblins, faked, got their swords flipped one to the Swan Of Avon sword glittering in the torchlight cried I was born to this motherfuckers and of course
The torches guttered up with a goblin flame a hot wind from Hell blew into the chamber
And who should leap out from behind the arras but more coldly grinning Nazi shitheels
Saw Shakespeare cut down two of them howling Angels and Ministers of Grace defend Us! Ha Ha I laughed We gotta do it ourselves and the disappeared ball of course back
In my pocket mojo working Shakespeare and I back to back grinning as darkness surrounds us and what should we do against it but leap on the chandelier swing to the
Tower winding stairs kicking Pound on the head rush like happy ghosts up the dark
Stairs making it to the great door and shutting it just in time. All Hell pounding.

Remember this when you write Macbeth I panted. Knock Knock Knock on the gate
A great effect no don’t try to write it down and we were on the ramparts Hell’s Agents
Pounding at the door. That fuckers gonna break I warned him. The clouds blowing Across the moon darkness surrounds us and then I saw it the star the greeny star
Winking in the west low there right over the trees. I pointed to it as the door began breaking We can’t hold em off Shakespeare screamed. I looked round the ramparts Hey a Great place for some Prince’s fathers ghost to walk o nights I told him just trying to calm Him down . Look at that star. That greeny star. We going there. He was too scared. Look up I shouted at him for the wind was blowing now and shadows comin down From the moon. We’re gonna go there and my mojo will get us there. What the fuck are you talking about you crazy black bastard he screamed. I grabbed him took him to the edge of the ramparts 300 feet up and they had broken through the door. Jump I screamed Jump like Butch and Sundance! Whooped grabbed the Bard and we jumped into the dark!

All the Federales say, they could of had him any day.
They only let him slip away, out of kindness I suppose. I’m Pancho
I shouted and you my man are Lefty cause we floated away into that
Dark me waving at the goblins floating towards that greeny star
And I got the ball and threw it right up whoosh felt a little sick and
We were there I looked down the green diamond and of course
Remembering how I first walked into Connie Mack stadium with my Daddy
Seeing the diamond green and eternal always remember my Daddy said
We were at The Diamond at the End of Time! I knew right away.
We stood there in the stands. The Diamond at the End of Time shone below us. It was The fifth inning of the 1932 World Series. Number 3, Babe Ruth, was at bat. Charlie Root was pitching. The Babe pointed to center field. I shouted
That's the Babe and that's the Called Shot. Watch! And we watched as Root
hurled the fastball that Ruth hit high high and out of here to forever!.

The Called Shot -- the immortal moment of baseball. The Diamond at the End of Time.
We were alone in the stands except for a hunched seated figure not far way in a tan Raincoat I recognized him at once. It was God. He was God That’s God I told the
Bard Oh, shit the Bard said Its true. God's a Yankee fan. How the hell did he
Know about baseball The Babe headed for home and there was Lou Gehrig ready to shake his hand. The Iron Horse! Man this is great. I said Cool Papa Bell did that kind Of shit all the time. You never hear about it though. And Gehrig is at bat and hits another Home run! The thunder after the lightning! Then it happened all over again. Again the Babe raised his hand indicating strike two and again he stood out of the batter's box and Pointed a finger at center field and hit a tremendous smash 436 feet over the fence and Into a ticket booth at Waveland and Sheffield Avenues and again he rounded the field Holding up four fingers now and the Iron Horse was up to bat and again smashed the ball into Eternity. And then it all happened again What's s the matter with God I asked
And I knew God is trapped watching beauty over and over and over. It was 1932.

Goddamn it I shouted He’s watching while the Nazis are taken over. Again
It happened. God stood up and looked over at us. He looked sad standing there Surrounded by empty Beer bottles. We went over. Me and Shakespeare.
He looked at me. Gimme the ball he said so I flipped it to him
He flipped it back to Shakespeare standing there grinning with his little devil beard.
God gave me a box of crackerjacks. Nice to have met you Dooley Shakespeare said
Tossed the ball up caught it and disappeared I really didn’t say everything I said
God said and later I remembered Yogi Berra had said that and the next thing
I knew I was outside of Wrigley Field It was 1932. Chicago.
God was not watching here. Hitler and all that and me just standing.
It, of course began to rain.
And I knew why I was the Black Lone Ranger.
Knew again why I was the Black Lone Ranger.
God gone. The Nazis closing in. And the white man had my mojo.

Finis.

Podcasts available at http://thejeunessedoree.libsyn.com/

Sat, 21 April 2007

The Great Train Journey

The Great Train Journey of Rashmi Prakash as told by Sir Douglas Falstaff!

Direct download: TheGreatTrainJourney.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 6:07 PM

Mon, 2 April 2007

Rambling Dale Credico

Rambling Dale Credico abuses some ducks, moans about robot women and reads three poems!

Direct download: RamblingDaleCredico.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 6:46 PM

Sun, 1 April 2007

Dale, Tim and Joe on the Midnight Train.

Direct download: Gamblers3.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:55 PM

Sat, 31 March 2007

Walk On The Wild Side

Shake that thang!

Direct download: Walkonthewildsided2.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 4:32 PM

Sun, 25 March 2007

Helen B Denis-- A Lost Poet

From the Introduction to her Book "Gardens of Eden" by Leslie Burton Blades author of "Fruit of the Forbidden Tree."

"Quite young and alone in a strange land, she found herself at the outbreak of the World War in the United States and facing the inexorable knowledge that her German relatives were plunged into the anguish and terror of that great disaster.

Disconsolate, her tongue condemning her to the suspicion and dislike of war inflamed people, she was forced to solitude to seek what comfort could be found in communion with nature.

She begins to write...without knowledge of the technique so highly developed in English poetry...

Such an impulse has prompted many a poet; but few there are who, lacking the irresistible urge of glowing genius, would have attempted poetry in a tongue the rudiments of which were scarcely familiar...Yet..the author bent herself mercilessly to the mastery of English...speaking in a strange tongue, without the knowledge our literary traditions, unacquainted with the trend of our present day poetry...

Dr. H. Spencer Lewis (on the flyleaf of the book jacket) remarks "The first poem is certainly symbolic and very beautiful." Dr Lewis is none other than Harvey Spencer Lewis F.R.C., Ph.D. (November 25, 1883 – August 2, 1939), a famous Rosicrucian author, occultist, and mystic.

These poems were also endorsed by Paul Swan -- the most beautiful man in the world.

This is the only recording of her poetry available.

Here -- at the Jeunesse Doree.

Direct download: exordioum1.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:52 PM

Mon, 12 March 2007

In Lunar Conversation

"In Lunar Conversation" read by Sir Douglas Falstaff.

Direct download: inlunarconversation.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:14 PM

Sun, 11 March 2007

Oh! Donna!

Direct download: Oh_Donna.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:37 PM

Sun, 11 March 2007

Soldiers in the rain...

Direct download: wearrytunef.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 6:36 PM

Sun, 11 March 2007

The Sinking of the Bismarck

The real story.

Direct download: sinkthebismarckf.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 5:22 PM

Sun, 11 March 2007

Poetry Baseball: Avalon Archers vs. 20th Century Limiteds

Poetry baseball as it is meant to be played!
The Avalon Archers versus the 20^th Century Limiteds

The Archers

Coach W. H. Auden, John Keats, John Donne, John Milton, William Wordsworth, Alfred, Lord Tennyson

20^th Century Limiteds

Coach Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg and Ron Silliman

Broadcast from Don Schaeffer Memorial Stadium on the Sunny Slopes of Parnassus!

Direct download: poetrybaseball.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 2:34 PM

Mon, 5 March 2007

Don Schaeffer Once More

Once more into the breach with Master Poet Donald Schaeffer.

Direct download: donpoemsandmusic.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:22 PM

Mon, 5 February 2007

Ken Wolman Reads

his great poetry.

Direct download: KenWolman.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:10 PM

Fri, 22 December 2006

Joe Green Live at Boston University(R)

Recovered!

Direct download: Joe_Green_Live_at_Boston_University.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 5:48 PM

Fri, 22 December 2006

A Jeunesse Doree Christmas--Stave the First

A Dale Credico Christmas. A Poem on Dale's Loss by William Butler Yeats. A Loneliest Christmas. The Lawn Jockey Christmas Carol by Tim Smith. "Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh" a Hannukah poem by Don Schaeffer and "Don's Dreidel" composed and performed by Joseph Green.

Direct download: JDChristmas_Stave1.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 1:34 PM

Fri, 22 December 2006

A Jeunesse Doree Christmas--Stave the Second

Christmas spectaculars by Tammy Turner Peaden and Mike Antonelli and two trifles by Joseph Green.

Direct download: JDChristmas_Stave2.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 1:30 PM

Fri, 22 December 2006

A Jeunesse Doree Christmas--Stave the Third

Joe Green tells us how -- on a Christmas long ago -- his sainted mother gave up drinking gin and Tim Smith descants on a California Christmas.

Direct download: JDChristmas_Stave3.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 1:23 PM

Fri, 22 December 2006

A Jeunesse Doree Christmas--Stave the Fourth

Poems and Song of Joe Green and Tim Smith. Don't miss Tim's "A Sad But Merry Christmas" in which he cries wassail to the great spirits of the JD!

Direct download: JDChristmas_Stave4.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 1:19 PM

Fri, 17 November 2006

Letters to Denny

Letters sent to my Uncle Denny during WW2. All from 1945. He never answered. Found in his cabin after his death a few years ago. Worlds and worlds -- all lost. Here.

Direct download: Letters_to_Denny.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 3:12 PM

Thu, 16 November 2006

Therapy at Parapark

Discovered today in the old trunk in the attic of the Jeunesse Doree studios!
The time: 1986. The place: the Owl Oak cabin in Owl Oak woods in Carmel, California.

Yes, I was up in the attic looking for letters to my Uncle Denny sent to him during WW2 (soon to be a major podcast) and found the old tape. Tim Smith as Samson Shillitoe performing on the Parapark Therapy hour. You must hear this and just when you think it's over, it ain't. Listen to the immortal flamenco stylings of Tim Smith back when (as he has said) he could really play. Is Immortal Diamond.

Direct download: Therapy_at_Parapark.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:00 PM

Wed, 15 November 2006

The Jeunesse Doree at the Movies

At last! For the first time ever! The Lost Poems of Robert Mitchum!

"Out of the Past"

"On Location"

"At Schwabs with Archerd"

and much much more!

"Picture of Brando in The Wild One" Dale Credico

"The Defiant Ones" and "LA Song" Rin Tin Tin

"What Frank Knew" Tammy Turner Peaden

"The Stand In" Tim Smith

"My Brooklyn -- the Movie" Joe Green

"Movie About Murder" Don Schaeffer

A Short Ending --Voices of the Stars

The Kindness of Movies -- Jean Marie Green, Johanna, Joe.

Direct download: The_JD_At_the_Movies.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:53 PM

Mon, 30 October 2006

A visit with my mother. This summer. Concertina stylings by Joe Green.

Direct download: A_Visit.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 3:37 PM

Sat, 14 October 2006

Halloween with the Jeunesse Doree

Eldritch songs, poems and tales from Jewelmoon, Johanna, Dale Credico, Thomas Lovell Beddoes, Tammy Turner Peaden, Baron Donald Schaeffer, Tim Smith, Joe Green, Sir Valentine Ravenscar, Basil Firth and others. Tu Mani Martini is your host.

Direct download: AJDHalloween.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:20 PM

Wed, 27 September 2006

Autumn with the Jeunesse Doree

Direct download: Autumn_with_the_Jeunesse_Doree.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 10:12 PM

Wed, 27 September 2006

The Magic of Don Schaeffer

Direct download: The_Magic_of_Don_Schaeffer.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 8:51 PM

Wed, 6 September 2006

Well Met by Moonlight

A song and two poems. Tim Smith -- lyrics. Tim Smith --guitar.

Direct download: tim.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:10 PM

Sat, 10 June 2006

The Silence of Men

The Silence of Men. The Silence of Men. The Silence of Men.
What is it? It's the silence that ensues (according to a certain poet who has written what is, perhaps, the worst poem ever -- a poem that features a waltzing penis) when men can no longer speak of sex or violence.

In this broadcast Marty and I try to break through The Silence of Men.

I don't think we succeed.

But we try. Dammit, we try.

Direct download: The_Silence_of_Men_1.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 6:01 PM

Fri, 19 May 2006

Bob Marcacci Live from Beijing!

Bob reads at a birthday party on April 6th, 2006 for Alex Jorgensen at 13 Club in Beijing, China, which featured a number of poets and musicians.

Direct download: maracacci2.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:53 PM

Thu, 18 May 2006

The Great Flood

Being a true account of my trip to Dartmouth through the Great Flood (greatest downpour of rain on those granite hills in 70 years) to meet my translator. Includes a jaunt to Detrroit, my mechanical incompetence, dining at Big Boy's, a tribute to Tim Smith, a brief account of the great conference, literary chit chat beneath paintings of men and dogs chasing foxes, a reading of my poem by myself and my great translator and a moving account of my arm wrestling a Russian poet as I recite "Paradise Lost."

Direct download: The_Great_Flood.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 3:46 PM

Sat, 6 May 2006

Trifles from Joe Green

Direct download: Trifles.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 10:34 PM

Sat, 6 May 2006

Diner, Harvest, Horses, Shiny Stones

Poems from the third day of the Dale Credico festival!

Direct download: Diner_Harvest_Horses_Shiny_Stones.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 5:33 PM

Sat, 6 May 2006

Noire for Celia

Dale Credico -- the rain, the city...

Direct download: Noire_for_Celia.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 12:42 PM

Fri, 5 May 2006

Dale Credico Live!

Dale Credico, blithe spirit, performs two poems!

Direct download: Dale_Credico_Live.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:50 PM

Mon, 1 May 2006

Six More by Don Schaeffer

Six more by Don!

Direct download: Six_More_by_Don.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:09 PM

Sun, 30 April 2006

It has been six years since Rinty died at the pound in Brighton Beach.
And now, for the first time, audio of his selected poems is available to the general public. He would have wanted it this way. Of course, all sorts of problems remain. His assertion that he killed JFK still questionable. His assertion that he was the greatest Hamlet of the twentieth century not accepted by all.

But what is beyond question is that in these poems he gives us a glimpse into an extraordinary dog -- a spirit who, in these querulous times, can, perhaps, lead us to an understanding of what it really means to live and to hope.

The very last minutes of this reading should be listened to with especial attention by those of you who are not quite convinced that the myth of the eternal return of a spirit, destined to again and again, bark at the dark until the darkness yields, is merely the embodiment of a vain hope.

See! They return!

Direct download: The_Dark_Bark.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 11:54 AM

Fri, 28 April 2006

Did you miss the Flarf festival? Here is an account exactly (well, almost) transcribed then recited. The temptation to overlay it all with various news from the suffering world resisted. At least.

Direct download: Flarfhell.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:28 PM

Thu, 27 April 2006

The Transgressive Poet

You can change your life. Here's how I did -- following the advice of Kent Johnson (yes, to younger poets but what the hell) to stop blogging and engaging in the usual reindeer games and do something to show that they know life is short, to defy the pezzonovantes of poesy and to live, to live!

Thanks to "The Black Robes" for the music!

Direct download: The_Transgressive_Poet.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:50 AM

Wed, 26 April 2006

The Sense of an Ending

This podcast -- by special request -- combines two transcendent moments in World Poetry: the return of the Lonliest Ranger and Kent Johnson's Descent from Heaven in his Swan Boat with what has been described by one fellow as "The Greatest Poetry Reading I Have Ever Heard."

Ah, well. The Exorcism is deleted. Why include it? The Pezzonovantes have been dealt the final blow and, of course, they can't know this. Please don't tell them.

The Collector's Edition.

Direct download: The_Sense_of_an_Ending.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:09 PM

Sat, 22 April 2006

The Devil in Kent Johnson -- Part Two

The Exorcism continues and then...transcendence! And more.

Perhaps the greatest Vision ere podcast.

Direct download: TheDevilinKentJohnson2.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 3:16 PM

Sat, 22 April 2006

The Devil in Kent Johnson-- Part One

Exorcism on a wet afternoon. Join me as I travel to Castle Dracula on the express invitation of Andrei Codresceau and am trapped into witnessing the Exorcism of Kent Johnson by Franz Wright, Charles Bernstein, Rob Silliman, the Flarf Gang, Louise Gluck, Ted Kooser and other great Pezzonovantes, Poobahs and Bonzes of American poetry. Appearances by Jim Behlre and Curtis Faville and many others!

WARNING: This podcast contains some of the most frightening conversations ever heard.

Direct download: DevilinKentJohnson.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 3:04 PM

Sat, 22 April 2006

Kent Johnson Comes Back!

AMerica's most beloved poet returns with a new poem -- Thirty Three Rules of Poetry for Poets Twenty Three and Under -- and with many new epigrams.

Epigrams for Josh Corey, Stephanie Young, Galway Kinnell, Ryan Daley, George Bowering, Bob Perlman, Joe Amato, Daniel Borzutzky and others.

Recorded on the same Radio Shack tape Kent received for Christmas in 1978 or thereabouts!

Direct download: Kent_Johnson_Comes_Back.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 2:54 PM

Sun, 16 April 2006

Inferno Stave 1--Yet Again

By special request etc. great engines etc. this the First Stave of the Inferno is forthwith published yet again.

Direct download: Inferno--Stave_the_First.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 6:59 PM

Sun, 16 April 2006

The Battle -- Yet Again

By special request of those who depend on not seeing these and having them simply downloaded by great engines. This -- The Battle -- is republished.

Direct download: The_Battle.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 6:54 PM

Sat, 15 April 2006

Kent Johnson: A Jeunesse Doree Book Club Discussion

Join Joe Green and Marty Brennan as they stroll, as if strolling through a wood near Athens in the great tradition of Flute, Snout, Plato and Parminides, and discuss Kent Johnson's new book, his character, his probable ethnicity, his probable sexual procilivities and the direction he should take in his art.

Discussion also includes:
Annette Funicello
The theft by Walt Disney of a painting by Marty
The power of the legs of women
The mysterious book of Genta.

Direct download: Kent_Johnson--A_JD_Book_Club_Discussion.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 1:01 PM

Thu, 13 April 2006

Marty-- Stave Four

A leap from a balcony, An unfortunate fall.

The mysteries of the Book of Genta.

Direct download: Marty_Stave4.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:54 PM

Wed, 12 April 2006

Epigramititis: Kent Johnson

Kent Johnson awkwardly discourses and clumsily reads twelve and Â½ new epigrams, to be included in the expanded edition of his recent booke of satirical trifles and incongruous pictures, Epigramititis: 118 Living American Poets [BlazeVox, 2006]. The second edition will be titled Epigramititis: 168 Living American Poets (also issued by BlazeVox and to weigh-in nigh 400 pages). The epigrammed writers honored on this recording are, in order of appearance, Jesse Glass, Noah Eli Gordon, Jonathan Mayhew, Jane Hirschfield, Cole Swensen, Katie Degentesh, Paul Hoover, Joshua Clover, Mark Doty, Tony Tost, Mark Weiss, and Joe Green.

Go here for the book: http://www.blazevox.org/bk-kj.htm

Direct download: Kent_Johnson-1.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 12:01 PM

Sun, 9 April 2006

Inferno__Stave 2

The Descent into Hell. A word of caution to the troops. I am met by Dante -- but not that Dante. A problem with boneless breast of roast duck and seabirds loud with Dawn. Ron Siiliman in Hell. Poets in the Ninth Circle -- the most pitiful scene ever narrated. Up again to the bright world. Marty Brennan on Damnation. A plea for Mercy for All. And so home.

Direct download: Inferno2.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:25 PM

Fri, 7 April 2006

More poetry from Tammy Turner Peaden

Direct download: MoreBlue.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 10:58 PM

Fri, 7 April 2006

In his first broadcast of the Spring, Marty takes a break from recounting near death experiences of years gone by to tell us a simple tale of a frisbee, a janitor and an unfortunate fall.

Direct download: MartytheThird.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 10:26 PM

Fri, 7 April 2006

Inferno--Stave the First

Into the Poetry Inferno

Direct download: Inferno--Stave_the_First.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 10:02 AM

Tue, 4 April 2006

Tammy Turner Peaden was a medic in Vietnam for three years -- part of the time in the Aushau Valley during the Tet Offensive. Tammy talks about Vietnam. Reads some poems about the same.
Exact.

Direct download: BlueandNam.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:24 PM