John Giorno, The Watchmen and the goddamned heat.

A little ways back when I was pondering whether or not to start a blog, I was hesitant because I had a feeling I would not have much of interest to report on a regular basis, and for the moment it seems my concerns were somewhat merited. It looks like I will be blogging in fits and starts. So be it.

Last week Anise had a much deserved week off for spring break. We spent a fair amount of time walking around the city. Took a few walks through Golden Gate park and one to Mt. Davidson, which is the highest point in the city, or so City Hikers or some similarly titled website tells me. Anise took a lot of photos of the flora and fauna. She knows a lot about flowers, plants and nature in general. I just think it's all very pretty. Here are a few pictures.

Last Thursday we went to see poet John Giorno read. I've been a fan of his stuff for a while and was pretty excited when I saw a flier for a reading here in SF. He's in his seventies now, and doesn't do a lot of readings. He’s a pretty fascinating guy who should probably be more well known than he is.

He was a friend/lover of Andy Warhol's in the early sixties, and starred in his film, Sleep. He never neatly fit into any school or style of poetry, but was on the fringes of the Beat, and, later on, the punk movements. He helped pioneer the concept of a multimedia poetry performance and recorded a lot of work in the eighties with the likes of Laurie Anderson and William Burroughs. Anyways, blah, blah, blah. It was cool to see him.




When he read his last poem he left the stage to strong applause, then came back up a few moments later to do an encore poem. I do believe that's the first poetry reading I've attended where the reader came back to read an encore poem. I think that was pretty rockstar of him. I think poetry readings in general should be more like rock shows, with all the good and bad that that statement possibly entails.

What else? I'm working on a few new poems, but working at a bit more of a leisurely pace than usual, and it feels nice to be taking a bit of a break.

I have a short story that I think would make a cool short film, so I'm working at turning it into a screenplay. When it’s finished I'm gonna see if a few of my friends wanna help me try and make something out of it. Nothing grand, just a silly little video to post on here and youtube.

I should be getting the proofs for my upcoming book in the mail sometime this week. Looking forward to seeing it. It’s due out late summer and will be my first full length book of new poetry since the last one I did w/sunnyoutside in 2006.

Finally got around to seeing the Watchmen movie. I thought it was as a good a movie as could be made from the source. Does that sound like I’m damning it with faint praise? I don’t mean it to. I actually really liked it and wouldn’t mind seeing it again while it’s still on the big screen.

It was 84 degrees today in San Francisco. That's pretty hot for this little city by the bay. My apartment feels like an oven and I'm sitting here sweating in my underwear. I don't have a fan or anything, cos who needs that shit in San Francisco, right? Sigh.