Paul Blackburn died 45 years ago today…

…just 44 years old. He had been a major presence in my first years in New York City, as mentor & gentle commentator on my early poems. Here, for the occasion, a poem I wrote a few years later on another 13 September, thinking of Paul, New York and trying to be unusually (for me) O’Hara-ish (published in An American Suite):   THE DAY PAUL BLACKBURN DIED   for Frank … Read more Paul Blackburn died 45 years ago today…

PJ & NP: On The Road Again…

…SAN FRANCISCO, OAKLAND, MINNEAPOLIS, PRINCETON, NYC, SETE, MARSEILLES, BARJOLS, AIX-EN-PROVENCE, PARIS… Our next four months are filled with truly exciting performances, readings, screenings, collaborations, book launches, art shows & we sure are looking forward to see you here or there. Meanwhile, thank you for your support & happy spring — keep in touch! Nicole & Pierre SAN-FRANCISCO Wednesday, March 18  7PM Breathturn Into Timestead: The Collected Later Poetry of Paul Celan with poet-translator Pierre … Read more PJ & NP: On The Road Again…

Help Save New York Public Library!

  The campaign to save some of New York City’s most popular and beloved libraries needs your help. Can you make a donation now to save NYPL? Donate to Save NYPL There is an extraordinary new groundswell of opposition to the New York Public Library’s expensive, misguided plan to sell branch libraries including the Mid-Manhattan, gut the 42nd Street research stacks, and exile much of the world-famous public research collection to New … Read more Help Save New York Public Library!

Misleading appeal just sent by NYPL

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! The NYPL has just sent out their annual email asking that people sign a letter to the Mayor  asking him to support the library system.  Buried in the middle of this letter is a misleadingly-worded pledge of support for the Central LIbrary Plan that would demolish the research stacks in the 42nd Street Library, send 1.5 million books to New Jersey, and sell the Mid-Manhattan LIbrary. … Read more Misleading appeal just sent by NYPL

More on The New York Public Library

The latest message from the Committee to Save the New York Public Library: Dear friends, The new issue of the New Criterion magazine contains a feature article titled “Philanthropic Tyranny at the NYPL” slamming the proposed Central Library Plan.  Money quote (quite literally): “It is conspicuous that the guiding figure of the project was Marshall Rose, the chairman emeritus of the library and perhaps New York’s wealthiest real estate magnate. … Read more More on The New York Public Library

Narrows Signage

On our walk this morning along the Narrows twixt 69th Street wharf & the Verrazano bridge, this flotsam spotted. You read it without reading it & it seems funny that a ROAD WORK sign somehow winds up on the rocks in the New York Harbor Narrows. You snap it with your iPhone & upload it at home. You look at it closely & what you thought read ROAD WORK … Read more Narrows Signage

Resistance that Sticks

Via  The Electronic Intifada, the opening paras of the following piece by Abraham Greenhouse, a longtime Palestine solidarity and BDS activist based in New York City. Posting on Face Book yesterday on the Egyptian journalist arrested for modifying the anti-Muslin hate-advertisement seen below, brought in a lot of commentary, some of it puzzling. Yes, these activist stickers are “illegal” as they deface the private property of those who paid to … Read more Resistance that Sticks

David Weiss (21 June 1946 – 27 April 2012)…

… was with Peter Fischli (born 8 June 1952) the artist collab often shortened to Fischli/Weiss; the artist duo had been collaborating since 1979 & produced some of the most important contemporary Swiss art . Below one of their hilarious machines, in a work called DER LAUF DER DINGE, which can be englished as “In the Course of Things.”

NYC Premiere of Nicole Peyrafitte’s New Multi-Media Performance!

Monday Evolving Series LES Gallery 1st floor @ Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center 107 Suffolk Street (between Delancey & Rivington)  Tickets:  $11 per set / $16 for 2 / $20 all night  Students/Seniors :  $8 per set / $12 for 2 / $18 all night  Monday April 23 CREATIVE SOUNDS OF DISSENSION 7.30 pm / NICOLE PEYRAFITTE “BI-VALVE” A new body of work that includes paintings & texts. 8.30 pm … Read more NYC Premiere of Nicole Peyrafitte’s New Multi-Media Performance!

Drone Economy for NYC?

This forwarded by friend John Maas, from the Beirut-based paper Al Akhbar English: New York to Host Israel’s Top Drone Lab  On December 19, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the establishment of a 2 million square foot engineering and applied sciences university campus in the heart of New York City. The New York-based Cornell University and the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology, were chosen to oversee the new institution. … Read more Drone Economy for NYC?