NOTES

Incomprehensible Things – twenty-four new poems. Pleasant Butter – republication of a 1972 book long out-of-print.

NOTE February 14th. 2012. Alastair Johnston of Poltroon Press recently found a box of unbound sheets of Logbook (1976) and Nicht Wahr, Rosie? (1980), putting both books back in print while stock lasts. Details on the Poltroon Press News Page

This entry is temporarily pinned: updated entries continue below.

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Hungerik Dajn Ketsele Lin Jaldati Jiddische Lieder
Vanite des Vanite tout est Vanite Le Taximen Djossou Francois EP
San San Boys Pierre Tchana (feat. Poly-Rythmo) EP
Four Instruments – 1975 Cantilene Chamber Players Morton Feldman
Mo Awie Meyo K. Frimpong & His Cubano Fiestas EP
Java Plus Prince Buster The Message Dubwise
Give Her Banana Tony Johnson and His Carousel Band Jamaica Before Ska

Direct download: econ.mp3

…..uh….. well there’s an elephant around somewhere…..

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Tabouret (Claude Royet-Journoud and Alain Cressan) Privately printed
VIII Stepping Poems & other pieces (Fergal Gaynor) Miami University Press
Typographical Tourists: Tale of Tramping Printers (edited by Alastair M. Johnston) Poltroon Press
Everything Else (Darrell Gray & G.P.Skratz) Poltroon Press
… (Essays by Alastair Johnston) Poltroon Press
Life of Crime (Pat Nolan & Steve Lavoie, for the Black Bart Poetry Society) Poltroon Press
Anemones
Kuchela (Trinidad & Tobago)
Maria Dolores Salsa Habanero (Mexico)
Sriracha Super Hot Chilli Sauce (Thailand)
Pierde Almas Mezcal (Oaxaca)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Eddie Woods has an interesting batch of his photographs on his site: including this of piero heliczer outside Ins and Outs Bookstore in Amsterdam in 1980.
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photo copyright © eddie woods 1980, 2012

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Whenever I need a prose-shot I turn to Tom Leonard’s journal. Read the entries for February 6th and January 27th.

Amused by Les Coleman’s witty sentences and drawings in Afterthunks I drifted to its publisher, Boekie Woekie in Amsterdam and their interesting list. Which reminded me I’d never linked to the excellent Coracle Press (whose Journal I also enjoy).

link

27’10.554″ for percussion Amadinda Percussion Group John Cage – Works for Percussion vol. 4
Abusua De Frank Baby Don’t Play Me Wayo

Direct download: writhm.mp3

pictures here.

Thinking of the bankruptcy of Kodak I was reminded of this paragraph from Mark Twain’s King Leopold’s Soliloquy: A Defense of His Congo Rule – and if you’re as ignorant of Leopold and his fiefdom as I was it’s worth a little research.

The kodak has been a sore calamity to us. The most powerful enemy that has confronted us, indeed. In the early years we had no trouble in getting the press to “expose” the tales of the mutilations as slanders, lies, inventions of busy-body American missionaries and exasperated foreigners who found the “open door” of the Berlin-Congo charter closed against them when they innocently went out there to trade; and by the press’s help we got the Christian nations everywhere to turn an irritated and unbelieving ear to those tales and say hard things about the tellers of them. Yes, all things went harmoniously and pleasantly in those good days, and I was looked up to as the benefactor of a down-trodden and friendless people. Then all of a sudden came the crash! That is to say, the incorruptible kodak — and all the harmony went to hell! The only witness I have encountered in my long experience that I couldn’t bribe. Every Yankee missionary and every interrupted trader sent home and got one; and now — oh, well, the pictures get sneaked around everywhere, in spite of all we can do to ferret them out and suppress them. Ten thousand pulpits and ten thousand presses are saying the good word for me all the time and placidly and convincingly denying the mutilations. Then that trivial little kodak, that a child can carry in its pocket, gets up, uttering never a word, and knocks them dumb!

I couldn’t sleep, so after doing some odds and ends I went out, before 6am. for a short walk. Still dark, no traffic yet on the main road beside the sea. As I reached the kerb, two foxes trotted by, following the white line in the centre of the roadway. They noticed me and the smaller flashed off into the dark towards the beach. The larger paused, regarded me calmly, then just continued to trot westward along the crown of the empty road, looking healthy, tail raised, seeming almost white and ghostly under the yellow sodium lamps.

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Different Sides Leonard Cohen Old Ideas
Cry Me A River Dexter Gordon Dexter Blows Hot and Cool
Kr. Kemajoran Netty dan Achmad Zaelani Kroncong: Early Indonesian Pop Music Vol. 1
Chirracahaua Tony Kinsey Trio with Joe Harriott Tony Kinsey Trio with Joe Harriott
Liberte? Orchestre de la BCB BCB 7801
Round Lights Thelonious Monk Thelonious Alone in San Francisco
Sandy Beach Johnny Hackworth’s Caribbean Sound West Indies Funk 3

Direct download: swish.mp3

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Taking A Chance On Love Hollywood Saxophone Quartet Hollywood Saxophone Quartet
Bob & Ray
Ahlam al-Rimal Marie Jubran 1907 – 1956
A Donde Vas Adalides
Likambo Ya Ngana Franco et l’O.K.Jazz Editions Populaires EP 78
Late Nightshift Winston Groovy Nightshift

Direct download: eltham.mp3

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Second-hand Book Fair, Lewes.

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Happy birthday, Lisa

Two Pianos Morton Feldman The Ecstasy of the Moment (disc 1)
Stardust Charlie Christian Quartet Electric (after hours in Minneapolis)
Yep-roc-heresay Slim Gaillard Harlem Ain’t What It Used To Be
Prisoner of Love Teddy Wilson & His Orchesta feat. Lena Horne Harlem Ain’t What It Used To Be
Colimaçons Joëlle Léandre/Eric Watson Palimpseste
Ma Mere l’Oye 5. Le Jardin Feerique (Ravel) Alfons & Aloys Kontarsky Piano Music for Four Hands – Debussy & Ravel CD 1
Slow Down Woman J.B. Lenoir Vietnam Blues

Direct download: sust.mp3

I’ve emailed you the links for Christmas and New Year but, as you asked, I’ve put a few random Brighton & Hove shots up on Flickr.

David Ball’s new book (60pp) of poems is available here. Full disclosure: I did the cover.

His earlier books include We Just Wanted to Tell You (with Anselm Hollo), London 1963; New Topoi, Buffalo 1972; The Mutant Daughter, Buffalo 1976; The Garbage Poems, Providence RI 1976 (a few out-of-print copies available from Burning Deck); and Darkness Moves: An Henri Michaux Anthology, 1927-1984 (available here)

NOTE: the first half-dozen or so people to contact the author directly by email (dballATsmith.edu) will receive a copy from him at a discount of 20% ($2).