Commentaries - April 2011

The difference between 'late modernism' and 'post-modernism'

Ask an expert. Hmm. If you want to find a cogent explanation of the difference between late modernism and postmodernism, don't by any means go to TutorDaily.info. The site announces that it's "a place to ask questions about Learning and Teaching." Someone, presumably a student somewhere grappling with a paper assignment, posted this question: "What are the differences between Late Modernism and Post-Modernism?" And here is the response: "To put it simple, late modernism is the easiest form of modernism and post-modernism is a more fine sort of painting."

Kaleidoscope Reading Series report: Karen Llagas, Benjamin Bac Sierra, & Brian Teare

So as part of my assignment to myself, to check out readings somewhat outside my usual scene and report on them here, I went to the Kaleidoscope Reading Series on Thursday, March 24, at the Kaleidoscope Free Speech Zone. The readers that night were Karen Llagas, Benjamin Bac Sierra, and Brian Teare.

Here's where I admit to being shy. I'm not an especially brave person in social situations, especially not new ones. I always talk about how I sat in the back of the room at Small Press Traffic for like 3 years before I started talking to people instead of running out the back door when the reader announced their last 2 poems. And so here's where I also admit that Brian Teare was one reason I chose Kaleidoscope for my first assignment. At least I would know one person there! Plus I hadn't yet heard him read from his new book.  I invited my friend Barbara Joan Tiger Bass to go with, as we've been talking for a few months about some forms of cross-pollination, like maybe I would go with her to some readings I might not otherwise, and she would go with me to some readings she might not otherwise. Kaleidoscope seemed like a good first choice since neither of us had ever been.

Racial narcissism: Honesty, humor, and consequences

Hello, is this thing on? Test, test. Something must be wrong because no one, not a single e-soul, commented on my last post. I thought for sure my "No Change" poem would provoke at least 50 comments. Hey staff of Jacket2, I think this thing is broken. With all the money at UPENN,  I'd think you could afford to put a comment function in.

Oh well, if you'd like to comment, you can always comment via my Facebook (but you have to friend me first) or at my blog, where I will cross post.

One Facebook message I did receive about my last post said:

Radical artifice and other topics, 1991

Marjorie Perloff

Marjorie Perloff

We at PennSound have just segmented an interview with Marjorie Perloff conducted by Aldon Nielsen for the Incognito Lounge in Palo Alto, CA, November 12, 1991. Here are the clips:

[] introduction by A.L. Nielsen (0:51): MP3

[] work on Frank O'Hara (7:13): MP3

[] "The Futurist Moment, poetic movements, and marginalized works (7:47): MP3

[] "The Poetics of Indeterminacy" and John Cage (15:02): MP3

[] the avant-garde and post-modernism (7:57): MP3

[] L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets (7:42): MP3

And the complete interview (1:06:36): MP3. Here is the link to PennSound's Perloff page.