Geraldine Halsey and Alan Halsey's reading last at Moe's Bookstore in
Berkeley (CA) did not disappoint. Geraldine has a great
reading voice - particularly in reviving the body & voice behind the Ghost
of Mary Queen of Scots (imprisoned in Escafeld/Sheffield for 14 years - a
fact apparently ignored these days by the locals). Geraldine really 'rolls'
with it with lots of curious, inflected surprises along the way.
Alan is equally, but different, in his historical 'made present
'investigations, including a rather wonderful account of Guttenberg's ghost,
the printed book confronting the digital virtal mode - using Google to
search, and an automatic translation device to get at G's history, mostly in
German. Guttenberg's original name apparently translates into English as
"Goose Flesh", and Guttenberg translates into "Good Mountain." Alan combines
a wonderful sense of serious, research, intellection and imaginative passion
to make the work quite present, compelling.
This transparency and dialog between past and present I find quite rich -
perhaps influenced but different than the Olson take. Maybe because English
history is so much longer and with more depth than chez here - these folks
(tho their English neighbors might ignore their works) are genuinely infused
- tho not at all oblivious to contemporary ironies, borderline flarfy
(Blair, Google et al).
- SPD carries their West House Books imprint - quite beautifully produced.
They will be coming to NY/St. Marks sometime soon
Stephen Vincent
http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
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