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Hi Jesse enjoyed your reminiscence and do agree that where choice is available you don't have to listen or watch etc. But what happens when the choices disappear?? Because, in a very general sense, there is a pressure against that. It's fine if you're a university linked avanty or neo-Marxist, rank hath its privilege, but in the peopled world outside the groves, in the market culture of pseudo-freedom, the push is otherwise. After, the difficult roots of modernism were very much invovlved in a reaction to the cultural corrosion of the market. On 31 January 2018 at 01:44, jesse <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Well said, Jamie. To you and everyone else: please adjust your reading of > the piece accordingly, since I don't wish to have another listen (and look) > at the breast-feeding anthem. I think breast-feeding in the open air is > fine, btw. You don't have to look if you don't choose too. > > Drew Milne said it correctly too when he mentioned music hall > entertainment and McGonagall and Ivor Cutler livening up poetry at the more > popular level. I see (in my digest before me) a mention of visual and sound > poetries as perhaps the other extreme of the range of which we are > speaking. That all seems to be fine. The difference is, Drew, the > outrage. That's the elephant in the room of all the arts (and the > humanities) now, rightly or wrongly, or, as Peter says, 'why does it have > to be one or the other?' People listen for it and miss it if it's not > there. The big question is the type and quality of the rage expressed. > > Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2018 02:27:04 +0000 > From: Jamie McKendrick <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: Rebecca Watts > > Jesse, Rebecca Watts is the one who wrote the review not the one in the > video. Just saying. > Jamie > > -----Original Message----- From: BRITISH-IRISH-POETS automatic digest > system > Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2018 9:00 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: BRITISH-IRISH-POETS Digest - 29 Jan 2018 to 30 Jan 2018 (#2018-34) > > There are 43 messages totaling 3962 lines in this issue. > > Topics of the day: > > 1. Rebecca Watts (39) > 2. My review of The Magic Door by Chris Torrance > 3. "a man speaking to men" > 4. Wouldn't we > 5. Review copies - Green/Segal CD > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2018 10:52:15 +0900 > From: jesse <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Rebecca Watts > > Caught the Guardian and the PN Review on Watts and the others and I can't > help but remember my reading for the Stone Soup series hosted by the late > Jack Powers. It was--what--1988 or so, and my reading happened to be the > warm-up act of the first 'Poetry Slam' ever to be held in Boston. I'd > never > seen one before; neither had I ever met Patricia Smith, her sig. other at > the time, and the kind of crowd that turned up to participate. Of course, > I > was a guest judge. I had just read for the Boston Poetry Society at the > Longfellow House and was riding high from that gig so that sustained me > through what appeared to be an evening of bad acting and patter from > would-be stand-up comics with a heavy dose of self-justified, > finger-pointing rage. All of the contestants were victims of something, and > if they weren't they were people expressing contrition and concern for > victims. Or they were brand new beginners just as good--or almost as > good--as everyone else. There were some 'poet poets' among the contestants, > but they did not fare so well. Patricia Smith threw lightning bolts at the > audience that night and they screamed and applauded. I recognized the M & > M-type guys and gals, trying to follow Patricia Smith into the ionosphere > of > her rage but they lacked what she had plenty of--charisma, talent, genuine > hurt--even if they talked about needle tracks and being on the mean streets > of Bean town as genuinely as they could. There was a heckler who kept > shouting--the only difference between you and me, guy, is just a couple of > staples and some paper! Later I saw him get up and do his 'funny dance' as > a slam contestant and call it 'a pome'. After the slam was finished, there > was an open mike where things bounced along in the same manner. By that > time I was having drinks with a 'Video Poet'--first time to meet one--who > turned out to be a full-time Jungian therapist. She got my address and > sent > me some of her video performances which I duly watched on a friend's video > player. I recall one part where she was noisily breathing through a > snorkel > in a posh-looking hotel lobby and taking breath so hard that it rattled the > safety ball in its plastic yoke. She then moved on to read the Tarot for a > few guests who leaned forward to catch the words she said through her > snorkel and to appreciate her silver leotards. > > There have always been poets 'of the people' of various degrees of > sophistication. Rebecca Watts riffing about breastfeeding on a rap-style > video is ok, I think. We don't have to watch it. We don't have to call it > anything or we can call it sentimental in the worst possible way. She has > a > point to make, though: there are victims involved and she's throwing her > own > kind of lightning bolts. > > ------------------------------ >