It’s Raining Calories
July 13, 2009
Found one from January and decided it was horribly over-done. Here’s the remix.
Today was a day of
belly rumbles and then
peppered ham on baguette.
Romaine crunch
and twin-picks:
mayo / mustard.
Hot sweet peppers,
cheese and oil.
Spices.
Mouth stuffed
talking to Jeff
on the phone.
I had stumbled
out of numbing,
spirit and darkness.
Philadelphia’s deep clogs;
it wasn’t the first.
The intake.
Coffee today.
Two packages
of ramen noodles.
Cooked in oil peanuts,
sprinkled ginger
and chili.
Half a bar of Belgian,
dark finger-length 73%
mild and chewy.
I read, contemplated
rich, encrusted cake.
But I didn’t because I knew.
Glass jar orange juice,
previously-frozen
without pulp or menace.
NPP Reading July 24!!
July 11, 2009
Friday, July 24th 7:00PM
Benefit Poetry Reading and Open Mic
with the New Philadelphia Poets
On Friday, July 24th, 7:00-9:00 pm, the New Philadelphia Poets will hold a reading to benefit Philadelphia’s 32-year-old, all-volunteer, collectively-run Wooden Shoe Books (508 S. 5th St. Philadelphia, PA 19147). The evening will include readings by Sarah Heady, Patrick Lucy, Debrah Morkun, Jamie Townsend, Angel Hogan, Marion Bell, Greg Bem and Carlos Soto Román.
The featured readers will be followed by an open mic session. Audience members are encouraged to bring their own poems, stories, voices, instruments…anything they’d like to share! There will be a $5 suggested donation at the door, as well as drinks and appetizers for a small price. All proceeds will go directly to the Wooden Shoe’s “Moving Fund” campaign.
The Wooden Shoe is an all-volunteer collectively-run Infoshop located in Philadelphia, PA that seeks to embody the principles of anarchism and other movements for social justice. We strive to provide our local community with radical and non-traditional sources of written, digital, and spoken information. We wish to be an empowering resource for activism, organizing, art, self-education, dialogue, community-building, and the anti-capitalist struggle.
Stop War on Iran says: Clarity needed
July 10, 2009
From the Philly Activists list-serv.
Why the U.S. anti-war movement should stand firmly against any military attack, sanctions or demonization of Iran.
U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden’s new public threat against Iran underlines the dangers of a new war in the Middle East and the desperate need for political clarity within the anti-war movement concerning Iran.
With his June 6 comments on ABC’s This Week, Biden opened the door to a military attack when he said that the U.S. would not stand in the way of an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, calling such an attack is Israel’s “sovereign right.” Israel, he said, was “free to do what it needed to do.”
The Geneva Conventions call it a war crime even to threaten to attack another state. This is not just rhetoric. Only with U.S. satellite, radar and the use of air space over U.S.-occupied Iraq could the Israeli bombing raid take place. Biden should be denounced as a war criminal for making such a reckless and dangerous encouragement of unprovoked war against Iran.
A U.S.-funded Israeli attack would immediately unleash a wider war. It would have catastrophic results for the whole Middle East and the Iranian people, even beyond what has already been done to the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine.
Biden’s new threat comes during a full corporate media offensive against Iran. Its timing should serve as an alert to the entire progressive and anti-war movement. U.S. aircraft carriers, destroyers, nuclear submarines, jet aircraft and drones clog the seas that wash up on Iranian shores.
Subversion, media lies target Tehran
In this dangerous war climate the entire U.S. and Western corporate media is again demonizing the Iranian government. It is using the media and well-funded, subversive organizations in a massive effort of destabilization and sabotage. Too often in the past this same combination of phony “human rights” organizations, who are given endless coverage in a corporate media frenzy, have helped to create a war climate through demonization, frauds and fabricated charges. This has happened before every U.S. attack or invasion, along with a concerted campaign of psychological warfare and internal destabilization in the target country.
One such organization leading this effort is the newly formed “United 4 Iran,” a fraudulent “left cover” for organizations funded by the U.S. government and big corporations. It is designed to use “human rights” and “democracy” to justify U.S. threats to attack Iran. This group has called phony “human rights” internationally coordinated protests for July 25.
United 4 Iran is a front for organizations awash in money from the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA cover organization for intervention, subversion, covert action in countries around the world. These same groups are supported by funds from Rockefeller, Soros, and Mellon foundations.
It is telling that United 4 Iran makes NO mention of the U.S. wars currently ripping apart the entire region. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops along with an army of private military contractors and mercenaries have created havoc in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan. U.S. funds and equipment have supported Israeli occupation and war on Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. Nor does this group mention the decades of U.S. military encirclement, sanctions, sabotage, attempted and actual coups against the people of Iran.
If these organizations were genuinely concerned with democracy, human rights and respect for elections why have they not called emergency actions in defense and support of the democratic elections in Gaza? In Gaza there was a democratic election overseen by Western international monitors. Hamas won overwhelmingly. The U.S. funded Israeli response was blockade and starvation against an entire people. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli bombardment.
Why the movement must reject anti-Iran provocations
How we respond to these actions is a crucial question for the movement. Are we for another brutal U.S. war or against it?
It is profoundly disturbing that United for Peace and Justice UFPJ and other anti-war organizations have chosen to add their endorsement to these actions targeting the Iranian government. These anti-war groups should be in the forefront of opposing current U.S. wars and threats of wider war.
Stop War On Iran urges them and other honest anti-war forces to reconsider their endorsement of the anti-Iran actions.
Anti-war activists in the United States, while demanding an end to the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, have an additional responsibility to oppose any military moves by the Pentagon or its allies against Iran and to oppose any moves by the former colonial powers to weaken Iran’s sovereignty.
Why U.S. imperialism targets Iran
The U.S. imperialist wars through out the region are an effort by U.S. corporations to gain strategic domination of the vast oil and energy resources.
Since its 1979 revolution, Iran’s independence has been a thorn in the side of corporate billionaires in the U.S. and Britain and of the U.S.-funded Israeli settler state. When the Iranian people overthrew the brutal U.S.-backed shah dictatorship they finally regained control of their rich oil and gas resources. In 30 years time Iran developed industrially and vastly improved the educational and health level of the entire population.
Any intervention by the imperialist powers in Iran and any weakening of Iranian sovereignty will only diminish the rights of women, workers, and the access to democratic institutions there, just as it has happened in the rest of the region. Any intervention by the imperialists in Iran’s internal struggles is aimed either at aiding the side the imperialists see as more conciliatory to their plans, or to exacerbate the internal conflict in order to compromise and weaken the Iranian government.
U.S. wars don’t bring democracy
U.S. wars and occupations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan have never brought democracy or human rights. They have brought only oppressive military dictatorships, massive refugee crises, torture and millions of deaths.
Also, we cannot forget that it is U.S. troops, military equipment, and bases that keep corrupt feudal anti-woman monarchies in power in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, as well as the brutal dictatorship in Egypt.
The hypocrisy of U.S. politicians is staggering, as they condemn the actions of the Iranian government while sweeping their own crimes under the rug. Iran’s elections and disputes are an internal matter, to be resolved by the Iranian people and not the governments of imperialist countries with agendas of dominating Iran and a track record of using internal issues to justify military invasion.
Money for jobs and benefits, not for more war
In this time of global capitalist crisis, when millions are unemployed and millions more facing evictions and foreclosures, we must demand that the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on current U.S. wars and the trillions that would criminally wasted in a new war be spent for jobs, health care and housing for poor and working people in the U.S. and around the world.
We urge your endorsement and support of these simple demands.
1. We oppose military aggression by the U.S., Britain, or Israel against Iran.
2. We oppose economic, diplomatic or other sanctions against Iran whatever their excuse.
3. We demand an end to subversion, de-stabilization, covert actions instigated by the U.S. and its military or spy agencies directed at Iran.
<I endorse these 3 demands> LINK
We urge you NOT to march in the anti-Iran event, which is designed to give humanitarian cover to U.S. threats of war against Iran. Instead, come out AGAINST current U.S. wars and the threats of a new war on the following week in a National Day of Coordinated Actions on Saturday, August 1.
Contact Stop War On Iran if you are interested in organizing or supporting an action opposing U.S. threats on Iran on Saturday, August 1.
<LINK>
In NYC join us at Times Square, 42nd & 7th Ave at 1pm, August 1 for a march to the Israeli Mission.
STOP WAR ON IRAN
55 W. 17th St. 5th Fl., NY NY 10011
www.StopWarOnIran.org 212.633.6646
Down the Road
July 8, 2009
IN(VISIBLE) KEEPSAKES
Come witness the birth of a poem, the burial of another, and the wedding of word, music, and image, as the New Philadelphia Poets locate a collective tongue in the city of brotherly love. Featuring poetic fortunes, imbibements and prizes, In(visible) Keepsakes is an ecstatic celebration of language and community.
WHEN: Friday, September 4th, 6:00-8:00 pm
WHERE: Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (the life’s work of artist Isaiah Zagar, featured in the recent film In a Dream )
HOW MUCH: $5 (includes refreshments)–buy tickets here, or at the door.
This will be part of Philadelphia’s Fringe Festival.
IN(VISIBLE) KEEPSAKES
Come witness the birth of a poem, the burial of another, and the wedding of word, music, and image, as the New Philadelphia Poets locate a collective tongue in the city of brotherly love. Featuring poetic fortunes, imbibements and prizes, In(visible) Keepsakes is an ecstatic celebration of language and community.
WHEN: Friday, September 4th, 6:00-8:00 pm
WHERE: Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (the life’s work of artist Isaiah Zagar, featured in the recent film In a Dream )
HOW MUCH: $5 (includes refreshments)–buy tickets here, or at the door.
The following is a video from the evening, and following the video, the website’s official description.
The goal of Moles Not Molar is to put writers and artists pursuing exciting, innovative and experimental textual projects into contact and dialogue with each other and their diverse audiences, creating exposure and engagement across regional and generic lines.
Emily Abendroth and Justin Audia have been co-curating this series out of various gallery and community spaces in Philadelphia since the Winter of 2004. To contact them, send an email to molesnotmolar@gmail.com.
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OUR NEXT & FINAL EVENT OF THE SEASON IS ON FRIDAY, MAY 22ND @ 7:30 PM.
All information is below.
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The Moles Not Molar
Reading & Performance Series
Consecrates Its Passage Into Summer Hibernation Via One Final Rowdy Sonic Celebration and Its Wild Gyrations of Poetic Spectacula!!!
on Friday, May 22nd, 2009
@ 7:30 PM
at the CRANE ARTS COMMUNITY SPACE
located inside The Crane Arts Building at 1400 N. American St.
(two blocks north of Girard Ave. between 2nd & 3rd streets)
Featuring
JENNIFER KARMIN (Poet; Chicago)
ISH KLEIN (Poet & Filmmaker; Philadelphia)
MATTHEW KLANE (Poet; Albany)
JENNIFER KARMIN’s text-sound epic, Aaaaaaaaaaalice, will be published by Flim Forum Press in 2009. She curates the Red Rover Series and is co-founder of the public art group Anti Gravity Surprise. Her multidisciplinary projects have been presented nationally at festivals, artist-run spaces, and on city streets. Karmin teaches creative writing to immigrants at Truman College and works as a Poet-in-Residence for the Chicago Public Schools. New poems are published in Cannot Exist, MoonLit, Otoliths, Come Together: Imagine Peace (Bottom Dog Press) and Not A Muse (Haven Books).
ISH KLEIN’s poems have been published in Bridge,The Canary, Gare du Nord, The Hat magazine, X-connect, Spork and Gut Cult. Her book, “Union!” came out April 2009 through the Canarium Press. Her films have screened all over the world and at Philadelphia’s ICA. You can see some of them on youtube by searching “ishkleinfilms.”
MATTHEW KLANE is founder and editor of Flim Forum Press. His new book is B_____ Meditations (Stockport Flats Press, 2008). Other recent work can be found in Absent, Otoliths, Open Letters Monthly and The New Chief Tongue. He currently lives and writes in Albany, New York. See: www.matthewklane.blogspot.com.
For directions please go to www.cranearts.com/visit_crane_arts.html
I am involver
July 6, 2009
Friday, July 24th
Benefit Poetry Reading
and Open Mic
with the New Philadelphia Poets
On Friday, July 24th, 7:00-9:00 pm, the New Philadelphia Poets will hold a reading to benefit Philadelphia’s 32-year-old, all-volunteer, collectively-run Wooden Shoe Books (508 S. 5th St. Philadelphia, PA 19147).
Formed in 2007, the New Philadelphia Poets are dedicated to creating new spaces for poetry in Philadelphia and supporting the city’s growing poetic community. They have previously been featured at Robin’s Bookstore, Germ Books + Gallery, Brickbat Books, and the BLAM! poetry series. Their alchemical performance piece In(visible) Keepsakes will be featured in the 2009 Philly Fringe Festival.
The reading will be followed by an open mic session. Audience members are encouraged to bring their own poems, stories, voices, instruments…anything they’d like to share! There will be a $5 suggested donation at the door, as well as drinks and appetizers for a small price. All proceeds will go directly to the Wooden Shoe’s “Moving Fund” campaign.
The Wooden Shoe is an all-volunteer collectively-run Infoshop located in Philadelphia, PA that seeks to embody the principles of anarchism and other movements for social justice. We strive to provide our local community with radical and non-traditional sources of written, digital, and spoken information. We wish to be an empowering resource for activism, organizing, art, self-education, dialogue, community-building, and the anti-capitalist struggle.
Please visit www.newphiladelphiapoets.com and www.woodenshoebooks.com for more information.
Behold, Sweet Uploaded Videos!
July 4, 2009
Cruise over to the PAPP Youtube page and you’ll see a ton of newly-uploaded, albeit dated, videos from live events around town. I just found out I can indeed upload large files despite my mooching off another connection somewhere nearby. Here’s one particularly fond memory of a collaboration with Dan Schall, performed and recorded at the beginning of June.
In other news, people are yelling down in the street beneath my house. And in other, other news, tomorrow I’m going to be meeting up with some poets and handing out broadsides of my work (I’m going to refrain from posting my broadside until I’ve got videos and pictures from the event as it goes down tomorrow).
Jeffrey Michael Harp
June 30, 2009
Cute, sexy, sweet and funny: an evolutionary riddle
June 30, 2009
Dan Dennett on TED.com
Three Games
June 29, 2009
In the midst of taking a break from David Foster Wallace, house-hunting, side-work, writing, and blog updates, I checked out a few games via Indy Gamer. All are highly recommended, entirely free, and artistically impacting.
Judith, a game about control and isolation.
Gutter, a game about the limits of naturalism.
The Graveyard, a game about colorless cycles.
