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In the midst of what I believe is only a mildly interesting discussion about 'marketing' (marketing?! poets on a poetics list talking about marketing!? the world really did change, didn't it? and TB (the NL strain) hasn't caught hold yet??), I find this carping at and quasi-public tale-telling about one particular individual -- Nicholas Johnson -- how shall I put it: unseemly. Has he done anything that is politically, ideologically, poetically, (even) critically beyond the pale? If so, take it up with him in the first instance, or at least in a forum where he has the opportunity to respond. If he hasn't, then these tales amount to instances of ?delicate (I think not) ?over-refined (what a prospect!) sensibilities having been offended. (And I think, maybe this is part of the problem.) NJ is not getting rich. His stock in reputation is not soaring. Nonetheless, he has organized a significant number of readings by poets, some of them from overseas, and many of whom I would (have) like(d) to hear. He's done this, decentred from the capital (and 'ivory triangle' even). He has organized tours for these readers. He has produced publications to complement the readings. He is a poet himself (which many of 'you' have published). He has done some of the good recent work 'for poetry' in our arena. So, if he writes blurbs you can't stand, or treads on budgetary toes, I think he deserves to be addressed directly (which I know you have or may have done). I think of this forum as (delightfully) quasi-public. I am not inclined, in this enclosure, to whisper/joke/swap stories as if I was at a pub/at a party with men and women who are in front of me and known to me, as if in 'face time'. ----- Flame off, as they say. A couple of very brief points about readings. - It's always been like this. - Hooray for cris and all the hybridization, media cross-over and gen(d)r/e-bending we can muster! - It's absurd to blame the audience*s* for non-attendance. You are not supposed to know who they all are anyway, so how would you address them with such a rebuke? Should we take out regular ads in Time Out/the national papers castigating the British public for not hearing the SubVoice? Neither, in attending SubVoicive -- often, if intermittently -- have I been deemed to have joined (or been asked to join) a club which threatens expulsion for habitual non-attendance in the articles of its constitution -- have I? - The labourer is worthy of her hire. If attendances will not pay a reading fee, and the reading series can still be justified as public, then subsidy should be obtained and readers should be paid. If not, the activity should be considered private/collective and open (by tacit agreement or advertisement). ----- long live the revolution! Paul Macartney is *not* a member of the avant-garde love and love and John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > John Cayley / Wellsweep Press http://www.demon.co.uk/eastfield/ 1 Grove End House 150 Highgate Road London NW5 1PD UK Tel & Fax: (+44 171) 267 3525 Email: [log in to unmask] < - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%