Cage's 4.33'

All the versions of Cage's 4.33' I've, er ..., heard have been for solo piano, perhaps because Cage was a pianist himself. I've sometimes wondered what a full orchestral version would sound like. Now I know; the BBC Symphony has done it. And, so, here it is for your delectation:



(A tip of the hat to Ryan Wasoba at Crawdaddy)

The Disturbances of Climate Change, Part 543

Some yard-care guys are mowing the grass at the rental house next door. In February. In Asheville, NC, latitude 35.600N, longitude -82.554W, elevation 2,133 feet, 650 meters. Not quite right. Just sayin'.


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The photo: my yard's first daffodils for this year, opened just yesterday.

Mad Hatter's Review

Issue 12 is now online, and it's pretty amazing. One of the great things about web mags is they don't have to be little; they can offer much more content than traditional hardcopy literary periodicals. And that's true in spades at Mad Hatter's. I've been browsing through it for the past two weeks and don't think I've come anywhere close to the end of it.

Mad Hatter's is the brainchild of new Ashevillian Carol Novack, a.k.a. Loopdeeloopy Lala, the author of Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2010), who's appeared ... er, performed? a couple of times already on Wordplay*, and will no doubt return. In addition to the Review, she also curates the Mad Hat's readings, the first two of which were hosted by the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.

Not limited by paper page counts and formats, online mags like Mad Hatter's can offer a wonderful range of content. This issue of the journal features poetry, digital fiction, reviews, stories, creative non- fiction, drama (in audio format, yet), music, and much more - including, even, one of the pieces on Charles Olson I've been working on for the past year. Altogether, aside from the editors, there are one hundred thirty-nine (yes, if I'm counting correctly) contributors.

Oh, did I mention that its graphics are truly remarkable? The image at the top of this post, Tree, by Gene Tanta, appears on the home page of the Columns section - and there's a virtual gallery's worth of such fascinating, hallucinatory images over at the site. Anyway, do give it a look.

* One of Carol's shows is now up on the ibiblio archive: August 1, 2010, which I also rebroadcast this past Sunday, since I had to be taping downtown at airtime.

Wordplay: A classic with Holly Iglesias

Thursday last week I left the mountains for a road trip to Charlotte and Tarboro, and got back into Asheville only late Sunday, so I just had time to grab the recording of a classic Wordplay show before airtime. That show, originally broadcast in October of 2010, featured Holly Iglesias. Holly spent her college years in New Orleans, and went from there into an adventurous life that took her far from the intellectual and spiritual confines of the American psyche. The show focuses on her years in New Orleans and beyond, and the work that grew out of her experience of that larger world. You'll find the stream from AshevilleFM right here, and the archived show already at ibiblio.

Last month Holly got word that she'd received an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship for 2011. The UNCA website offered this account of her plans:

In accepting the NEA award, Iglesias described the fellowship as "a kiss, an embrace, a dare… and the mandate to keep writing." She says she will use the funding to support and expand the work she is best known for, prose poems based on historical events. "Because the work is its own reward, the NEA fellowship is icing (thick butter cream) on a three-layer chocolate cake," says Iglesias. "The poems have been graced upon me; they come and go. My job continues to be staying awake and opening the door when they arrive."

Congratulations, Holly - and do plan to visit the studio again for another show!