Auricular festivities

A note from Tony Torn reminds me that tomorrow night's the next Auricular Hour:

The Marshall Auricular Hour music and literary series returns to Downtown Marshall NC, with a reading by Local Poets Laura Hope Gill, Rose McLarney, and Local Novelist Ed Krause on Tuesday November 17th at 7pm, at The FBI, 68 North Main Street in Marshall. The performance will be followed by a reception and book signing down the street at Lapland Bookshop & Arts, 147 North Main St, Marshall. Refreshments provided by Zuma Coffee.

THE MARSHALL AURICULAR HOUR marks the partnership of three cultural destinations in Marshall, North Carolina, thirty minutes from Downtown Asheville. The FBI (The French Broad Institute of Time and The River) is an arts venue and residency program founded by poet Lee Ann Brown and actor/director Tony Torn. Lapland Bookshop & Arts offers new and gently used books and select handcrafts in a storybook cottage setting. Zuma Coffee is Marshall’s meeting place for Coffee, Tea and Fresh Baked Goods.

Laura Hope-Gill is the Executive Director of the Asheville Wordfest Media Outreach Project, a poetry project which includes an annual festival as well as public access television, public radio, and internet presentation of poetry. Her book The Soul Tree: Poems and Photographs of the Southern Appalachians, which is a collaboration with photographer John Fletcher, is currently available from Grateful Steps Press. She offers classes and one-on-one support in creativity and poetry [at] the The Healing Seed (www.thehealingseed.com).

Rose McLarney works for the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, and is completing her MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College, as well as a collection about changing landscapes. She is WNC Native living in Madison County, NC.

Ed Krause is the author of two novels published by Parkway Publishers, Our Kinfolks and Our Next of Kin, both set in the mountains of Western North Carolina. He has been practicing law in Western North Carolina since 1973. Ed will be reading selections from his upcoming third novel.

Missed all of the summer Hours, so I'm glad this one's not in conflict with anything else I have to do. And I'm in town. Don't know Ed's books, but I do enjoy Laura's and Rose's work; they've both been Wordplay guests, of course, Rose as recently as November 1st, and Laura was a co-host in the '06-'07 season. Should be well worth the drive down the river.

Pastures of Plenty ...

no more. Josh Harkinson takes a look at the condition of California's Central Valley, hard hit by both climate change and the Great Recession, over at Mother Jones. Not good times in the Golden State. Do give it a read.

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Photo: Dead cows left on the side of the road next to a dairy, by the well-named Ken Light, from the article.

Steve Kimock: Further Adventures

Before this March, it had been over three years since Steve Kimock had hit the road to tour with his own band. Fortunately for those of us who lurk in this part of the world, he closed out the last tour of the Steve Kimock Band in 2006 with a series of gigs in North Carolina, one in Asheville, and the last, a few days later, in Carrboro, only three and a half hours east by interstate. As I mentioned in a post at the time, they were excellent shows.

Since then there have been many sit-ins and one-off gigs, jams and shows in various repeated configurations, more shows, up until the death of horn player Martin Fierro, integral to Zero's sound, with his old band Zero than any time since 1998, and lots of good playing. Very little of it, though, occurred in the context of Kimock's own material, which is, for me, where he best displays his gift for the architecture of sound.

The most interesting of his various recurrent gigs, for me at least, Grateful Dead fan that I am (or was; I have to admit that I've put their work aside for the last few years; so much music to explore, so little time), have been his performances with various former members of that band. He was an integral part of the Rhythm Devils during their tour in the summer and fall of 2006, along with Micky Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mike Gordon, and during the summer and fall of 2007 he toured with Ratdog, Bob Weir's band, filling in for Mark Karan, who was undergoing treatment for cancer. He toured again with Hart in 2008.

Hart appreciated Kimock's strengths as a player, of course; they've played together in various configurations through the years. The context of the Devils, though, with its emphasis on percussion, didn't often give him room to stretch out.

Ratdog proved a more congenial context. In fact, Kimock sometimes transformed that band's sound. Weir said that he found himself astonished five or six times every show, and if you listen to the shows, you'll hear why.

In the summer of 2008, the Mickey Hart Band included more players on strings and keys, and proved a fine context for Kimock's style of extended playing. Their July shows are still worth a listen.

Curiously, before working with these post-Dead bands, Kimock had little relation to the Dead's material. He wasn't a Deadhead; he had his own work to do. And when he helped form Zero, it wasn't to play Dead material. The Zero songbook was much less rooted in Appalachian Americana, more bluesy, and their playing, initially driven by the guitars of Kimock and Quicksilver Messenger Service veteran John Cipollina, sounded very little like the Dead's, even if both groups explored the boundaries of small band improvisation.

During Mark Karan's convalescence, Blair Jackson interviewed him and relayed this recollection at Dead.net:

Kimock's been playing the Dead material now for years, and has played with almost every band that's emerged from the Dead family, from Missing Man Formation, The Other Ones, Phil Lesh and Friends, to the current incarnations of the Rhythm Devils and Ratdog. He may not have been so well versed in the material initially; Mark Karan said awhile back that Kimock often got credit for his work when they were both in The Other Ones.

That tour with The Other Ones went down in 1998. By the next year and the 1999 incarnation of Phil Lesh and Friends, though, there's no disputing that Kimock's playing on Dead classics was magisterial and magnificent. Listen, for instance, to the version of the Dead standard "Terrapin Station" from 10/23/1999 (but give yourself plenty of time, since it's forty-five minutes long - and worth every minute. If you're too busy for the whole song, hang in through the twelve minute mark for an extra-tasty ensemble transition ). The jamming is sharp and tight, and offers a richer development of the song's motifs, especially the later, Terrapin-proper, ones, than any other version I know - including, even, any ever played by the Dead. Paul Barrere (of Little Feat) plays wonderful counterpoint to Kimock's "anti-gravity guitar"- that's Phil's description - and Bill Payne (also of Little Feat) complements the guitars with powerful and tasteful playing on keys.

Still, the material in which Steve Kimock is most at home is his own, and the tour with his new band, Crazy Engine, featuring Melvin Seals on keys, Trevor Exter on bass and vocals, and John Morgan Kimock (Steve's son) on drums, gives those of us who are his fans new cause to rejoice as we prepare for transport on the waves of sound Kimock generates with his guitar.


Steve Kimock and Crazy Engine play the Orange Peel Thursday, November 12. Doors at 8:00, show at 9:00 PM. Tickets are $15 in advance, $17 at the door.

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The video features a Crazy Engine version of Kimock's composition "A New Africa" from July 25.

At last, something to do for Halloween!

So many options for Halloween here in the Paris of the South -- dinners, parties, dances -- I'm in a quandary. It used to be so simple: there was the Freakers Ball, a Halloween party we counter-culture types threw for ourselves at various spots around the city, after it became too large to fit in anyone's home. Costumes, rock 'n' roll, lots of dancing ... that kind of party.

But that was then. By the late 80s, there were so many of us, and we were so various, and in various conditions of life (e.g. kids! wow!), that no one event could accommodate us all. And it's been that way since. Could there ever be something that would bring us all together again?

I think I've found it! Let's party with these folks:

Pastor Marc Grizzard claims the King James version of the Bible is the only true word of God, and that all other versions are "satanic" and "perversions" of God's word.

On Halloween night, Grizzard and the 14 members of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church will set fire to other versions of the scripture, as well as music and books by Christian authors.

“We are burning books that we believe to be Satanic,” Pastor Grizzard said.

“I believe the King James version is God’s preserved, inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God… for English-speaking people."

All other religious or Christian texts are sacreligious, the pastor insists. The list of books being burned will include works written by "a lot of different authors who we consider heretics, such as Billy Graham, Rick Warren… the list goes on and on,” Pastor Grizzard said.

Also on the pastor's list of heretical authors — Mother Teresa, according to a full list that was previously available at the Amazing Grace Baptist Church's Web site. The Church's Web site — which is no longer available — calls the event 'Burning Perversions of God's Word,' and urges parishioners to "come celebrate Halloween by burning Satan's bibles."

Yeah, that sounds like great fun! And it's just up the road in Canton!

Gary Farber over at Amygdala has all the details, and managed to capture some of the now-missing website, so do check his post out.

See you there! And, er, you might not want to wear that cool Devil costume. Really.

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( A tip o' the hat to Political Animal Steve Benen)

Cool Radio

Not one but two programs airing tonight, one on AshevilleFM, the other on WCQS, will repay your attention, dear Reader - especially if you're interested in photography and/or music as those two arts are practiced in the great small city of Asheville, NC, USA, third planet from the Sun.

At 6:00PM, photographers Rob Amberg and Tim Barnwell sit down for an interview with David Hurand, long-time host of WCQS' "Conversations". Both these fine lens masters actually focus (if you will) their work beyond the city, in the rural countryside and within the small communities that have persisted there, despite all the pressures otherwise, for many decades, in some cases since the mountains were first settled. Both have new books coming out. It should be a fascinating conversation.

At 8:00, AshevilleFM's Jonathan Price welcomes the world-class musicians of Free Planet Radio to his program "Tenor to Tabla". I had the pleasure of recording the session with Free Planet, so I know that he'll be featuring the rehearsal of two songs and his own insightful interview. Who knows, though, what else Jonathan will throw into the mix? He promises "plenty of non-Western nuggets from my own collection", so it's bound to be worth a listen.

Not sure how long the Amberg/Barnwell show will be archived, and AshevilleFM's archive is not yet up (though I'll try to make sure this one gets uploaded somewhere as soon as possible), so you might just need to tune in, either on the FM dial (WCQS still has a terrestrial signal, at 88.1, but also provides an internet stream), or on your trusty computer (that's the high-bandwidth stream; if you need low-bandwidth, click here).

Enjoy!

CA Conrad visits UNCA

Tomorrow. He'll be reading in the Glasshouse, in Ramsey Library, building #4 on the linked map, at 7:30, and says he's bringing advance copies of his new book, Advanced Elvis Course. He's a poet of real verve and spirit, and has a genuine ear for measure underneath it all. Definitely worth catching, even on a Wednesday night.

New old shows

Now up on the Wordplay Archive at ibiblio, shows from the fall of 2007 (all links in the show dates are to the .mp3 audio files):

September 2, 2007 featured Thomas Rain Crowe, and includes recordings of Crowe with his band, The Boatrockers.

September 9, 2007 featured poet Joanna Cooper.

September 16, 2007 featured a reading by Glenis Redmond at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.

September 23, 2007 brought Steve Godwin into the studio, and Steve, Sebastian and I talked over poems we enjoyed, from recent work by Van Jordan (Sebastian) to an HD piece from 1921 (me). Music included tracks from Neil Young and Steve Kimock.

September 30, 2007 highlighted the work of poet Audrey Hope Rinehart.

October 21, 2007 found then-Marshall poet Rose McLarney in the studio for her annual* near-birthday reading of new work.

Enjoy, and thanks for listening.


*which means she'll soon be back.

A view of Re-Viewing

Brian Lampkin, one of the presenters at this weekend's conference, already has a report up on Facebook that presents his view of the proceedings:

Conferences are like most poetry readings: all the good stuff happens outside the confines of the event itself, but wouldn't happen without the event itself. And like really good poetry readings, it wasn't the case this weekend. Further, a BMC conference could easily fall into the idealized nostalgia of confirmed history, but that also was, largely, avoided. In fact, the idealization (the idol-ization?) of BMC was often the the topic within the stated topic.

There's much more, so if you're on Facebook, do check it out.

Re-Viewing the schedule

Always looking to save you a click! Here's the schedule for Re-Viewing Black Mountain College, underway at UNCA (and other locations, including the old Black Mountain College campus) for the next three days:



Re-Viewing Black Mountain College
Event Schedule - Revised 10/5/09
All presentations except the Friday night reception and the Sunday afternoon BMC tour will take place at UNC Asheville

Admission: $10 per day or $15 for the weekend
UNCA faculty, staff + students free
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9 1:00- 3:00 - REGISTRATION AND RECEPTION

FRIDAY SESSION ONE 2:00-3:15
LOCATION: Highsmith Room 224 Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center – 16 years old and growing

A Discussion on the Activity of BMC Museum + Arts Center

Session Chair: Brian Butler

Connie Bostic (BMCM + AC)

Alice Sebrell (BMCM + AC)

Helen Wykle (UNC-Asheville)

FRIDAY SESSION 2 3:30-4:45 LOCATION: Highsmith Room 224 Educational Legacy

Session Chair: Katie Lee

The Influence of Black Mountain College on Post-Studio Fine Art Programs
Jennifer Rissler (San Francisco Art Institute)
The Influence of Black Mountain College on the China Central Academy of Art Summer Studio Program: Studio, Process and the Context of Location
Stephen Lane (Columbia University and the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing)

A Comparison of BMC and the European Graduate School in Switzerland (Artists in Community)
Sally Atkins (Appalachian State University)



LOCATION: Highsmith Room 223 Women of BMC
Session Chair: Connie Bostic

Hazel Larsen Archer: “Nothing was ever the same again”
Ann Dunn (UNC-Asheville) The Women of Black Mountain College: Searching for Lost Recognition
Melanie Heindl

The Wives of Black Mountain College
Marianne Woods (University of Texas, Permian Basin)



LOCATION: Highsmith Room 221/222 Chance Operations I

Session Chair: Brenda Coates
How to Make an Artist: The Teaching of Josef Albers and Ray Johnson’s Work
Julie Thomson (Coordinator of Public Programs, Whitney Museum of American Art)
Hermeneutic Ontology and the Black Mountain Poets
Nick Boone (Harding University)
Black Mountain College - An Oxford Education?
Siu Challons Lipton (Queens University)

FRIDAY SESSION 3 6:30-9:00
LOCATION: Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center 56 Broadway Asheville, NC 28801

Reception at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

6:30 - 8:00 Performance
Motion Sculpture Movement Installation: Attack Of The Killer Stripey Tubes!!!
Claire Elizabeth Barratt (Cilla Vee Life Arts)
8:00 - 8:20 Reading
Readings from Black Mountain Days
Michael Rumaker, BMC alumnus

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10 SATURDAY SESSION ONE 9:00-10:15 LOCATION: Highsmith Room 224 Chance Operations II
Session Chair: Sebastian Matthews

Decoding Black Mountain
Kate Dempsey

From BMC to NYC: A Novice Curator’s Notes on Ray Johnson’s Early Years (and the Influence of Place on His Creative Process)
Sebastian Matthews (BMC Museum + Arts Center)
Teaching Creative Writing and Literature After Olson
Jonas Williams (SUNY, Albany)
LOCATION: Highsmith Room 223 Avant-Garde BMC
Session Chair: Andrea Liu

Lou Harrison: Stranger in a Strange Land
Seamus McNerney (UNC-Asheville)
Black Mountain College and the Paradox of the Avant-Garde
Willoughby Parker (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) Black Mountain College: America’s Last Avant-Garde?
Kenneth Surin (Duke)

LOCATION: Highsmith Room 221/222 Chance Operations III
BMC and Designing Higher Education in the Arts
Frank Hursh (BMC Alumnus, La Universidad de las Artes Mexico, A.C., Querétaro, Qro. MEXICO)
SATURDAY SESSION TWO 10:30-11:45

LOCATION: Highsmith Room 221/222 Queer BMC
Session Chair: Jennifer Sorkin

(Lake) Eden and its Serpents: Martin Duberman's Black Mountain and Queer Historiography and Pedagogy
Jason Ezell (Lincoln Memorial University)

Beyond the New York Intellectual: Jewish Refugees and Homosexuals at Black Mountain College, N.C.
Wendy Fergusson (Director, Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery)
"Like a Girl:" Gendered Sexual Difference at Black Mountain College and the Development of Postmodernism
Jonathan Katz (SUNY Buffalo)

LOCATION: Highsmith Room 224 Query and Pursuit in Artistic Practice and Erudition

Session Chair: Valerie George

Artist’s Panel

Jeremiah Barber (Artist, Chicago)

Terry Berlier (Artist, Stanford)

Erica Gangsei (Artist, San Francisco)

Christy Gast (Artist, Miami)

Valerie George (Artist, University of West Florida)
LOCATION: Highsmith Grotto Performance

Poet’s Panel/Lucipo Poetics Group

Session Chair: Sebastian Matthews

Jeff Davis (Poet, Scholar)

Joseph Donahue (Duke)

Thomas Meyer (The Jargon Society)

David Need (Duke)

Ted Pope (Poet)

LUNCH BREAK 11:45-1:15
SATURDAY SESSION THREE 1:15-2:30
LOCATION: Highsmith Room 221/222 Josef Albers

Session Chair: Kate Dempsey
Connecting the Dots: Color Theory and the Black Mountain College Legacy
Marcia R. Cohen (SCAD)
What Josef Albers Taught at Black Mountain College, and What Black Mountain College Taught Albers
Frederick A. Horowitz (Washtenaw College)
Aesthetic Pragmatism: Josef Albers’ Pedagogical Innovations at Black Mountain College
Mindy Tan (Purdue)
LOCATION: Highsmith Room 224 Black Mountain Poets

Session Chair: Nicholas Boone

Robert Creeley’s Buffalo
David Landrey (Buffalo State College)
Brian Lampkin (East Carolina University)
Charles Olson and the Ethics of Parataxis
Douglas Duhaime (University of Wisconsin)
LOCATION: Highsmith Grotto Performance/Demonstration
Awakening the Creative Imagination: How Art, Science, and Action Converge on Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Map
Mark Hanf & Marnie Muller
SATURDAY SESSION FOUR 2:45-4:00

LOCATION: Highsmith Room 224 M.C. Richards

Session Chair: Mary Emma Harris

The Ruse of Medusa: Black Mountain College and the French Obsession
Louly Konz (Warren Wilson College)
A Woman Alone: Examining M.C. Richards’ Legacy
Jenni Sorkin (Yale)
Reflections on the Influence of M.C. Richards’ Pottery, Poetry and Philosophy on Contemporary Art and Craft Education
Courtney Lee Weida (Adelphi University)
LOCATION: Highsmith Room 221/222 BMC's Legacy
Session Chair: Grace Campbell

Aftereffects: Buckminster Fuller and the Legacy of Black Mountain College
Eva Diaz (Pratt Institute)
I’m…Nix That….WE'RE Starting a College
Richard Liston (Sphere College)
“Alone Together”: On Merce Cunningham and the Question of Black Mountain College’s Artistic Legacy
Kate Markoski (Johns Hopkins)
LOCATION: Highsmith Grotto John Cage
Session Chair: Natalie Farr

Embodying the Collective: Theatre Piece No. 1 and the Estheticization of Experience
Anastasia Rygle
Theatre Piece Number 2: The Unimpededness of Cage’s Theater Piece Number 1 and the Interpenetration of Black Mountain College
Philip Schuessler (Stony Brook) Composing by Chance: The Asian Factor in John Cage’s Aesthetics
Holly E. Martin (Appalachian State University)
SATURDAY SESSION FIVE 4:15-5:30
LOCATION: Highsmith Room 224 BMC and Interdisciplinarity

Session Chair: Stephen Lane
Rauschenberg, Kline and Wolpe: Letters to Jack Tworkov, Black Mountain College and Beyond
Jason Andrew (Archivist and Curator, Estate of Jack Tworkov)

Restraining Subjectivity at Black Mountain College: Charles Olson and Cy Twombly’s Ecology of writing and Painting
Joshua S. Hoeynck (Washington University, St. Louis)
Interdisciplinarity: Black Mountain College’s Anomaly
Andrea Liu (Critic, NY)

LOCATION: Highsmith Room 221/222 Form and Content

Session Chair: Cynthia Canejo
Max Dehn: An Artist among Mathematicians and a Mathematician among Artists
David Peifer (UNC-Asheville)
Black Mountain, Modernism and Progressive Form
Patrick McHenry (University of Florida)
Black Mountain College: Form as the Creator of Content
Mary Emma Harris (Scholar, NY)
LOCATION: Highsmith Grotto Performance
The Polygons: a Performance
Vincent Wrenn (Artist, Asheville)
5:30-6:45 LOCATION: Highsmith Pinnacle
Reception Pieces of Random Light, an Interactive Collage
Caprice Hamlin-Krout (Artist, Asheville)

SATURDAY 7:00
LOCATION: Highsmith Alumni Hall Welcome

Connie Bostic (Board Chair, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center)

Jane Fernandes (Provost, UNC-Asheville)
Keynote Address

Dorothea Rockburne:"All of Nature is Written in Numbers" -Max Dehn


SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11 SUNDAY SESSION ONE 9:00-10:15
LOCATION: Highsmith Room 224 John Dewey

Session Chair: Brian Butler

'Education by Association': Dewey on Black Mountain College
Michael Kelly (UNC-Charlotte)
The Prospect of an Ideal Liberal Arts College Curriculum: Reconstructing the Dewey-Hutchins Debate
Shane Ralston (Penn State University, Hazleton)
How was ‘creativity’ defined at Black Mountain College?
Seymour Simmons (Winthrop University)

LOCATION: Highsmith Room 221/222 Political BMC

Session Chair: Jason Andrew
Between Realism and Abstraction: Rethinking the Shahn/Motherwell Debate
Ken Betsalel (UNC-Asheville)
“Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement,” John Chamberlain’s “American Tableau, 1984”and the Reagan War Machine”
Thomas M. Murphy (Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)
Charles Olson’s Administrative Poetics: From the Office of War Information to Black Mountain College
Lisa Siraganian (Southern Methodist)
LOCATION: Owen TBA Workshop (From 9:00 to 12:00) Centering the Erotic Play of Paradox: Embodying the Legacy of M.C. Richards Through “Clay Color and Word”
Katherine McIver (Artist, Asheville)
SUNDAY SESSION TWO 10:30-11:45

LOCATION: Highsmith Room 221/222 Community

Session Chair: Louly Konz
The Role of the Black Mountain Review in Creating a Poetic Community
Rachel Stella (Critic, Paris)
Trains and Thinking: Evidence of a Collective Moment
Natalie M. Farr (College of Santa Fe)
Creating a Creative Community
Elizabeth Ross (Central Piedmont Community College)
LOCATION: Highsmith Room 224 Architecture and BMC
Session Chair: Douglas Duhaime

The Weaver and the Architect: Reconstructing the Modern Shelter
Kirsten Dahlquist (University of South Florida)
From Bauhaus to Black Mountain: constructus interruptus
John McClain (UNC-Asheville)

SUNDAY 2:00
Tour of Black Mountain College’s Lake Eden Campus
Connie Bostic (BMCM + AC)
Alice Sebrell (BMCM + AC)

With help from BMC Alumnus
Michael Rumaker

Today: Re-Viewing Black Mountain College

So much on offer here; check the schedule.

I'll be reading Saturday morning at 10:30 at The Grotto, which is somewhere in the Highsmith Center; joining me to read and talk about the Black Mountain College poets will be David Need, Ted Pope, and Thomas Meyer ... and perhaps a surprise guest. We'll see.

Do catch some of the festivities if you're in the neighborhood.