Hundreds of people took their clothes off in the name of art in South Beach Florida yesterday. Monday. Spencer Tunick, a photographer and artist of the human form, last month let it be known he needed 600 volunteers to be part of his upcoming art installation at South Beach's Sagamore Hotel. Tunick has had no problem attracting participants and the 600 number for this event is actually rather small by his standards. Last year 18,000 took part in a Mexico shoot.
Tunick will unveil his work during Miami Beach's annual Art Basel festivities in December.
Here's my question. Tunick is coming to your community and need volunteers for his next photo shoot. Do you bare it all for art? See poll on sidebar to left.
The results were:
8 or 80% said you would take it off for art.
2 or 10% said No Way... Not in Public.
Thanks to all who voted.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Monday, October 08, 2007
Where's the Beef?
Wow.... That's some big beef jerky!Weekend is over. I succeeded in sending out more submissions as I had planed.
This morning, I was pleased to learn that a submission of a poem I wrote earlier this year but had never sent out till now has found a home! So there's the beef!
I'm reading Breakfast Served Any Time All Day- Essays on Poetry New and Selected by Donald Hall. There is some wonderful stuff in here. There are things in it that you feel as you read them you must have known because deep down they seem like truisms... yet at the same time they are new to you. I'll have more to say on some of these things later.
I have enjoyed the Indians / Yankees series. Some really exciting baseball. I have to say I'm pulling for the Indians in this series. Go Tribe!
Sunday, October 07, 2007
The go-between - Frieda Hughes - TimesOnline
Frieda Hughes commentary on The Flea by John Donne
from the Times Online
Saturday, October 06, 2007
7th Annual A. Poulin, Jr Poetry Prize
Passing along this information I received from Cecilia Woloch.
BOA EDITIONS, LTD.
SEVENTH ANNUAL A. POULIN, JR. POETRY PRIZE
Judge: Jean Valentine
The A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize is awarded to honor a poet's first book, while also honoring the late founder of BOA Editions, Ltd., a not-for-profit publishing house of
poetry and poetry in translation.
WINNER RECEIVES:
A $1,500 Honorarium, paid in March 2008, and book publication by BOA Editions, Ltd. in March, 2009, in The A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America Series.
ELIGIBILITY:
* Entrants must be a citizen or legal resident of the United States.
* Poets, who are at least 18 years of age, who have yet to publish a full-length-book collection of poetry.
* Translations are not eligible.
* Individual poems from the manuscript may have been published previously in magazines, journals, anthologies, chapbooks of 32 pages or less, or self-published books of 46 pages or less, but must be submitted in manuscript form. Published books in other genres do not disqualify contestants from entering this contest.
* Employees, volunteers and board members of BOA Editions, Ltd., or their partners or spouses, or their immediate families, or immediate family of the judge are not eligible.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES REQUIREMENTS:
Send one copy of the manuscript, our entry form, and the $25 entry fee, to BOA Editions, Ltd., between August 1, and November 30, 2007, at the address listed below. Make check or money orders payable to BOA Editions. Do not pay by cash or credit card.
MANUSCRIPT FORMAT:
* Minimum of 48 pages, maximum of 100 pages of poetry.
* At least 11pt. font.
* Name address and telephone number must appear on the title or cover page of the manuscript.
* Do not send artwork or photographs.
* Typed or word-processed on standard white paper, on one side of the page only.
* Paginated consecutively with a table of contents.
* Bound with a spring clip (no paperclips, please).
* Attach publications acknowledgments if any.
* Include a stamped, self-addressed postcard for notification of receipt of manuscript.
* Do not send by FedEx or UPS.
* Electronic and fax submissions will not be accepted.
* Neither late nor early manuscripts will be accepted.
* Contestants may submit the manuscript elsewhere simultaneously, but must notify BOA Editions immediately, by mail in an envelope (not by postcard or e-mail) if a manuscript is accepted by another publisher.
* Once submitted, manuscripts cannot be altered. Winner will be given the opportunity to revise before publication.
* Contestants may submit more than one manuscript, but a separate entry fee and entry form must accompany each manuscript.
* Manuscripts mailed from foreign countries risk not being received before final selections have been made.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES SUGGESTED:
* Send manuscript in a plain or padded envelope. Please no boxes.
* For notification of competition results, include a business-size SASE.
* Keep a copy of your manuscript, as manuscripts will not be returned.
* We advise that you send your manuscript by first class or priority mail.
ANSWERS TO FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
* The winner will be announced by March 1, 2008.
* Honorarium will be awarded within two weeks of a signed contract between the winner and BOA Editions.
* Winning manuscript will be published in March, 2009, in an original paperback edition in the A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America Series.
* The winner will retain full copyright of his or her work.
* The paper from all manuscripts will be recycled after the winner is announced.
BOA Editions assumes no responsibility for loss of manuscripts.
Send manuscripts, postmarked between August 1, and November 30, 2007, with entry fee, to:
BOA Editions, Ltd.
PO Box 40490
Rochester, NY 14604
BOA EDITIONS, LTD.
SEVENTH ANNUAL A. POULIN, JR. POETRY PRIZE
Judge: Jean Valentine
The A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize is awarded to honor a poet's first book, while also honoring the late founder of BOA Editions, Ltd., a not-for-profit publishing house of
poetry and poetry in translation.
WINNER RECEIVES:
A $1,500 Honorarium, paid in March 2008, and book publication by BOA Editions, Ltd. in March, 2009, in The A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America Series.
ELIGIBILITY:
* Entrants must be a citizen or legal resident of the United States.
* Poets, who are at least 18 years of age, who have yet to publish a full-length-book collection of poetry.
* Translations are not eligible.
* Individual poems from the manuscript may have been published previously in magazines, journals, anthologies, chapbooks of 32 pages or less, or self-published books of 46 pages or less, but must be submitted in manuscript form. Published books in other genres do not disqualify contestants from entering this contest.
* Employees, volunteers and board members of BOA Editions, Ltd., or their partners or spouses, or their immediate families, or immediate family of the judge are not eligible.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES REQUIREMENTS:
Send one copy of the manuscript, our entry form, and the $25 entry fee, to BOA Editions, Ltd., between August 1, and November 30, 2007, at the address listed below. Make check or money orders payable to BOA Editions. Do not pay by cash or credit card.
MANUSCRIPT FORMAT:
* Minimum of 48 pages, maximum of 100 pages of poetry.
* At least 11pt. font.
* Name address and telephone number must appear on the title or cover page of the manuscript.
* Do not send artwork or photographs.
* Typed or word-processed on standard white paper, on one side of the page only.
* Paginated consecutively with a table of contents.
* Bound with a spring clip (no paperclips, please).
* Attach publications acknowledgments if any.
* Include a stamped, self-addressed postcard for notification of receipt of manuscript.
* Do not send by FedEx or UPS.
* Electronic and fax submissions will not be accepted.
* Neither late nor early manuscripts will be accepted.
* Contestants may submit the manuscript elsewhere simultaneously, but must notify BOA Editions immediately, by mail in an envelope (not by postcard or e-mail) if a manuscript is accepted by another publisher.
* Once submitted, manuscripts cannot be altered. Winner will be given the opportunity to revise before publication.
* Contestants may submit more than one manuscript, but a separate entry fee and entry form must accompany each manuscript.
* Manuscripts mailed from foreign countries risk not being received before final selections have been made.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES SUGGESTED:
* Send manuscript in a plain or padded envelope. Please no boxes.
* For notification of competition results, include a business-size SASE.
* Keep a copy of your manuscript, as manuscripts will not be returned.
* We advise that you send your manuscript by first class or priority mail.
ANSWERS TO FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
* The winner will be announced by March 1, 2008.
* Honorarium will be awarded within two weeks of a signed contract between the winner and BOA Editions.
* Winning manuscript will be published in March, 2009, in an original paperback edition in the A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America Series.
* The winner will retain full copyright of his or her work.
* The paper from all manuscripts will be recycled after the winner is announced.
BOA Editions assumes no responsibility for loss of manuscripts.
Send manuscripts, postmarked between August 1, and November 30, 2007, with entry fee, to:
BOA Editions, Ltd.
PO Box 40490
Rochester, NY 14604
Picked up three interesting books at the Library yesterday. They are:
- Breakfast Served Any Time of Day - by Donald Hall
- Your Own Sylvia - by Stephanie Hemphill
- Otherwise - New and Selected Poems - by Jane Kenyon
Another writer / poet friend of mine has started a blog - Scot Isom - you can check it out here.
Wow... Poet season baseball has been really incredible so far. Even without my Giants, I have been enjoying some exciting games. The Indians / Yankees series has been super! Go Tribe! What a nail bitter last night!
Friday, October 05, 2007
Journal Jottings This Week
From my journal this week:
- As if coded in some way the birds / converse clearly aware of the time / to the exact minute in spite of / the human element of relativity.
- One cannot pluck notion / from the tangled presence / of central air against the popular / theory of tidal pull.
- Free admission flourishes / where depressed economics / wrapped itself around disinterest.
- World hunger beware, her dimpled / diplomacy will restore world peace / to its proper priority.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Mind Policing in America
In spite of the Constitutionally protected freedom of speech, mind policing in America has been going on for a long time. This week, we celebrate Banned Books week. Each year libraries remind us that even today there are those who are vigilant in exercising their discretionary view of what you and I should be able to read.
Who are these mind police? Often they are simply mothers and other busybodies who for the most part are afraid of what might happen if one of their children, or God forbid, you or I happen to read something they disapprove of. Some of the books they target for reasons that seem quite silly on the surface. Still, their assault on this protected liberty (freedom of expression) is not silly at all. Here is a statical overview between 2000 - 2005.
- Most Challenged Books of 21st Century (2000-2005)
- Initiator of challenges 2000-2005
- Types of Challenges 2000-2005
In another stroke of irony, it's the 50th anniversary of the legal action surrounding poet Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." The publisher of Ginsberg's poet was put on trial contending the work contained obscene language, but a San Francisco Municipal Court judge ruled that Allen Ginsberg's Beat-era poem was not obscene. Still, half a century later, a New York listener-supported radio station WBAI decided not to air the poem because program director Bernard White fears that the FCC will fine the station $325,000 for every one of Ginsberg's dirty-word bombs. This concern was based upon recent actions by the FCC in numerous other imposition of fines to broadcast outlets. Instead, WBAI will include a reading of the poem in a special online-only program called "Howl Against Censorship." It will be posted on www.pacifica.org, the Internet home of the Berkeley-based Pacifica Foundation, because online sites do not fall under the FCC's purview.
Half a century later and the battle over such censorship continues in America. In fact, in many ways the issue is even greater today and the Government has sought library records of individuals under the Patriots Act to see what we are reading, so they can make subjective decisions if we might be terrorists or who knows whatever else they may fear we are?
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