Archive for March, 2010

Mississippi John Hurt

In many respects, Mississippi John Hurt seems the antithesis of the mythological bluesman.  According to Wikipedia, Hurt became a musician almost by accident, when a friend recruited him as an accompanist; when their record label went kaput, he spent the next few decades working as a sharecropper before he was rediscovered by folk revivalists in [...]

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Let That Be Your First Battlefield

Jim Berhle’s “24/7 Relentless Careerism” is fairly ancient in Internet Years — the original talk was way back in January, and the post went online at the beginning of this month.  Apparently a New York poet ranting cynical about the state of the American poetry scene is salacious enough for the Huffington Post, which features [...]

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She Blinded Me With Flatness

A quick science lesson: (“Science!”)

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Norway Will Rise Again

The great thing about a residency is how you get a chance to do all the things you never do, like floss. Maybe the South is all right, after all: I’m beginning to rethink my principled stand against writing contests.  Art and commerce have a long and troubled relationship, right?  Maybe I shouldn’t believe so [...]

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It’s Snowing in My Heart

Fayetteville got a foot of snow last weekend.  It started Saturday afternoon and continued most of Sunday; estimates range from six to fifteen inches, but it was piled more than a foot thick on the roof of the building across from mine.  On Monday, it was 50 degrees, and half what was on the ground [...]

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