E-Verse Radio

“On the Corner” by Ernest Hilbert

Edinburgh’s oldest literary journal and released three times a year, The Edinburgh Review has been transforming the critical landscape since 1802. Issue 133 features poetry by Paul Muldoon, Ernest Hilbert, Jen Hadfield, David Wheatley and many more!

“Guns ‘N Roses” by Austin MacRae

Austin MacRae’s poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, 32 Poems, Birmingham Poetry Review, Stone Canoe, and The Cortland Review.

Top Five Far-Fetched Infidelity Excuses

When famous folks get caught in “compromising positions,” they often explain that nothing is what it seems to be, or that their actions weren’t really improper for some reason. Here are five notorious ones they’ve tried on us recently. Do they really think we’re that dumb? Wait, don’t answer.

“Song” by Frank O’Hara

O’Hara was at the heart of a vibrant artistic circle that embraced fellow New York School poets John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler, as well as experimental painters such as Willem de Kooning, Larry Rivers, and Jasper Johns. Their achievements are movingly celebrated in many of his poems, while at the same time he paid loving tribute to popular idols such as James Dean and Lana Turner.

“Wind Loss” by Chis Bullard

“the Golden Oldies / station played Steve Miller.”

“Get Away” by Yuck

“A well-rounded Nineties indie rock mixtape. Yuck’s self-titled debut album has a comforting, familiar sound, but the appeal isn’t limited to nostalgia–Blumberg and his bandmates have a talent for penning memorable hooks and gorgeous harmonies on par with the best work of the bands that inspired them.” – Rolling Stone

The Future is Almost Here! Top Five Near-Futures, Hollywood Edition

It’s 2012 (can you believe it?) and the future is upon us! Nineteen Eighty-Four, Space 1999, 2001: A Space Odyssey, its sequel, 2010, the late 20th-century World War III predicted in Star Trek, all are more-or-less distant memories, and none came to pass. But some of the past’s futures are still in the future! Let’s check on them and see if we’re on schedule.

Top Five Things Disappearing from the Real World Only to Live On Virtually

Not to mention tablets, pads, and notebooks. Watch out, mice! You’re next!

Quincy R. Lehr and Paul Siegell Enter the Studio to Record Tracks for Legendary Misbehavior LP

“You can’t make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you’re doing is recording it.” – Art Buchwald

“Paper Memories” by Theo Putzu

Special Mention at VISIONARIA 2010 – Piombino – Italy
Special Jury Prize at BOLZANO SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2010 – Bolzano – Italy
Special Jury Prize at Festival CinemaZERO 2010 – Trento – Italy
Nomination for “BEST EDITING” at GRAND OFF 2010 – Warsaw – Poland
Best Short Film at CORTO CORTO MON AMOUR 2010 – Cinisi – Italy
Best Short Film at CORTI CIRCUITI 2010 – Calderara di Reno – Italy
Special Jury Prize at MIGLIO D’ORO FILM FESTIVAL 2010 – Portici – Italy
Best Short Film at FESTIVAL CORTO XX 2010 – Roma – Italy
Best International Short Film at FESTIVAL PONTINO DEL CORTOMETRAGGIO 2011 – Latina – Italy
Nomination for “BEST DRAMA SHORTFILM” at Festival STOKE YOUR FIRE 2011- Stoke-on-Trent – UK
Special Mention at Festival VISIONI ITALIANE 2011 – Bologna, Italy
Best Editing at FESTIVAL A CORTO DI IDEE 2011 – Ravello, Italy.
Best Short Film at FESTIVAL SCHERMI IRREGOLARI 2011 – Bagno a Ripoli, Italy
Best Actor at SOLOFRA FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Solofra, Italy
Audience Awards at DISPOSABLE FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – San Francisco, USA
Best Short Film at PARMA VIDEO FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Parma, Italy
Special Jury Prize at CESATE SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Cesate, Italy
Best Experimental Short Film at FILM VIDEO MONTECATINI 2011 – Montecatini, Italy
Second Prize at FESTIVAL INVENTA UN FILM 2011 – Lenola, Italy
Best cinematography at FESTIVAL INVENTA UN FILM 2011 – Lenola, Italy
Best Editing at FESTIVAL INVENTA UN FILM 2011 – Lenola, Italy
Special Mention at SCREENGRAB NEW MEDIA ARTS AWARD 2011 – Townsville, Australia.
Jury prize at TRANI FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Trani, Italy.
Special Mention at SCIACCA FILM FEST 2011 – Sciacca, Italy.
Best ShortFilm/New Technologies at UNDERGROUND CISTERNA FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Cisterna, Italy.
Best Cinematography at UNDERGROUND CISTERNA FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Cisterna, Italy.
Best Screenplay at UNDERGROUND CISTERNA FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Cisterna, Italy.
Best Short film at WORDLESS FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Acquaviva delle Fonti, Italy.
Best Foreign Short Film at CORTOLOVERE 2011 – Lovere, Italy.
Best experimental Short Film at I’VE SEEN FILMS 2011 – Milan, Italy.
Best Short Film at NOVARA FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Novara, Italy.
Best Short Film at MESTRE FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Mestre, Italy.
Third prize at FESTIVAL CORTODINO 2011 – Torre Annunziata, Italy.
Best Cinematography at SEMANA DE CINE EXPERIMENTAL DE MADRID 2011 – Madrid, Spain.
Best experimental Short Film at TIRANA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Tirana, Albania.
Online award “experimental” at TIRANA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2011 – Tirana, Albania.
Best Short Film at CORTIAMO 2011 – Alcamo, Italy.

E-Verser Cynthia Reports from the Front Lines of the No Pants Subway Ride

E-Verse correspondent Cynthia sends in some photos from the 2012 No Pants Subway Ride, NYC edition.

“Flatirons” by David Yezzi

David Yezzi’s books of poetry are Sad Is Eros and The Hidden Model. His libretto for a chamber opera by David Conte, Firebird Motel, received its world premiere in 2003 and was released on CD by Arsis in 2007. His poems and criticism have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, New York Times Book Review, Wall Street Journal, New Republic, The Best American Poetry 2006, and elsewhere. He is executive editor of the New Criterion.

“Earth: Time Lapse View from Space, Flyover, NASA, ISS” by Michael König

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of expeditions 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011, who to my knowledge shot these pictures at an altitude of around 350 km.

“You Play Dean and I’ll Play Sal”: Jack Kerouac Writes to Marlon Brando Urging Him to Make a Movie of On the Road

Thanks to Andrew for sending this one in.

“At the Edge of the Parking Lot” by Chris Bullard

“Christopher Bullard’s poems deal with the Big Themes: aging, mortality, death, loss of height and loss of hair. But don’t despair: these poems will leave you with a bigger dose of mordancy than you can fit in a shot glass, beauty alongside terror.” – Moira Egan

“Art of Money Getting or, Golden Rules for Making Money” by P. T. Barnum, 1880

Although he denied having ever said it, the famous (and, one suspects, quite honest), quote “There’s a sucker born every minute” is attributed to Barnum, one of the great American entertainment businessmen. He knew how to make money (though was clearly less adept at titling books), and we now read his advice book for free!

“Bedroom Eyes” by Dum Dum Girls

Write about what you know. That’s what they say. But that’s a lot easier said than done when what you know is very, very difficult to bear. That was the challenge Dum Dum Girls’ leader Dee Dee faced when writing the songs for the band’s moving second album Only in Dreams. “The first record was basically the first songs I’d ever written,” says Dee Dee, “and I was thinking nostalgically about being a teenager. This record, it was pretty much impossible not to write about very recent, very real things.”

“A Year in New York” by Andrew Clancy

“Living in New York I’d grab my Canon 7D, or S95, and shoot footage of what was going on around me. It seemed like a never ending project and you could stay filming life in New York for a long time. But eventually I put my camera down and started to edit. Here’s the end result, it’s a bit rough and ready but that’s life in the Big Apple I guess.”

You’re Still Wearing Pants on the Subway? Come On! Join the No Pants Subway Ride 2012

Welcome Cynthia, E-Verse’s latest member. Cynthia keeps sane by doing crazy things. Her new column, Boulibaisse, like the original peasant soup, is made up of all things geek, absurd, oddly entertaining, and the occasional cooking recipe that is caught in her net and simmered into something mentally fortifying and hopefully enjoyable.

“Disappearing Act” by Eleanor Ross Taylor

Of her work, Adrienne Rich has said, “speak of the underground life of women, the Southern white Protestant woman in particular, the woman-writer, the woman in the family, coping, hoarding, preserving, observing, keeping up appearances, seeing through the myths and hypocrisies, nursing the sick, conspiring with sister- women, possessed of a will to survive and to see others survive.”

Top Five Singing Drummers

Thanks to David Yezzi for kicking this one off.

“Range” by Ernest Hilbert

Edinburgh’s oldest literary journal and released three times a year, The Edinburgh Review has been transforming the critical landscape since 1802. Issue 133 features poetry by Paul Muldoon, Ernest Hilbert, Jen Hadfield, David Wheatley and many more!

“Barton Hollow” by The Civil Wars

“In some ways, music doesn’t get much more modest or minimalist than it is in the hands of The Civil Wars, a duo comprised of California-to-Nashville transplant Joy Williams and her Alabaman partner, John Paul White. They travel without a backup band, and on their first full-length album, Barton Hollow, the bare-bones live arrangements that fans hear on the road are fleshed out with just the barest of acoustic accoutrements. Each song is an intimate conversation, and no third wheels or dinner-party chatter are going to interrupt that gorgeous, haunting hush.” – From the band’s website

“High Heel” by Erica Dawson, in the Best of the Barefoot Muse

An anthology of the best poems that appeared in the online journal, The Barefoot Muse, 2005-2010, selected and arranged by Anna M. Evans, including poems by Mike Alexander Tiel Aisha Ansari Peter Austin Michael Battram Kendall A. Bell Kate Bernadette Benedict Kim Bridgford Chris Bullard Michael Cantor Catherine Chandler Edmund Conti Maryann Corbett Robert W. Crawford Erica Dawson Frank De Canio Jehanne Dubrow Robert Klein Engler Julie R. Enszer Annie Finch Carol Frith Ona Gritz Lois Marie Harrod Penny Harter Paul Hostovsky Juleigh Howard-Hobson A.M. Juster T.S. Kerrigan Deborah Kreuze David W. Landrum Quincy R. Lehr J. Patrick Lewis Diane Lockward Austin MacRae Laura Maffei James Scannell McCormick Susan McLean Rick Mullin Bruce W. Niedt Eric Norris Amber Norwood Chris O’Carroll Frank Osen Aaron Poochigian Ray Pospisil Jennifer Reeser David J. Rothman Marybeth Rua-Larsen E. Shaun Russell Paul Christian Stevens Clay Stockton Peter Swanson Gail White James S. Wilk.

“The Words That Maketh Murder” by P.J. Harvey

“What if I take my problem to the United Nations?”

Bethany’s Top Five Observations of Mine upon Viewing Birth of a Nation for the First Time

I recently saw Birth of a Nation, one of the most popular movies of all time (it was the most popular until the release of the similarly themed Gone With the Wind). It is often credited (erroneously) as being the first long (2-3 hours) movie with a cohesive plot. And wow, this is a hateful movie! Most of you already know about this film: the notorious D.W. Griffith movie that is known as a landmark in the history of film, but that is also terribly racist. It tells the story of the Civil War from the perspective of Southern mythmakers intent on glorifying the antebellum South, the idealism of the Civil War, and the creation of the Ku Klux Klan, an organization depicted as heroic. The popular conventions of the time are all in evidence: happy, child-like slaves who are well-treated by their Southern white masters, beautiful white women whose purity is imperiled by lustful blacks who are constant harping on the injustices committed against Southern whites in the form of war and Reconstruction, etc. One of the main villains (a “mulatto”) is named “Lynch.” Har de har har. All violence against blacks in the movie is committed by other blacks (for example, a faithful family servant embodying the “Uncle Tom” stereotype is tied to a tree and whipped . . . by other blacks, for the crime of helping the white protagonists), who are also shown numerous times complaining of (unfounded) victimization, while white characters are shown constantly proudly forgoing complaint for their sufferings, even as the entire movie is a complaint about wrongs allegedly committed against white southerners by blacks and other whites. Blacks are universally portrayed buffoonishly, incorporating the many elements of minstrel shows: pursed lips, eyes popping out, shuffling gait, an exaggerated accent (which is conveyed phonetically in the inter-titles). The KKK is portrayed as heroic, the “organization that saved the South from the anarchy of black rule,” as explained in the inter-titles. It’s formation is depicted in the film as being inspired when a Southern man sees some white children pretending to be a ghost to scare some black children (since blacks are so superstitious and gullible). This was a classic routine in minstrel shows. So that’s what the Klan allegedly does. They are hiding under sheets to merely scare freed slaves. So the slaves are scared not because they’re being threatened with torture and lynching, but just because of their own silly superstitions. Anyway, here are five observations.

“Dimming of the Day” by Alison Krauss

Wow. I mean, just, wow . . . .

“New Year’s Day” by U2, Live in ’83

Nothing changes . . .

Happy New Year from Everyone at E-Verse!

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

“On the Anniversary of a Natural Disaster” by Jennifer Reeser

Jennifer Reeser the author of An Alabaster Flask, Winterproof, and the Shakespearean series “Sonnets from the Dark Lady.”