I notice that this list of fast changing neighborhoods includes downtown Tampa and the neighborhood just east of Logan Circle in DC.Suburbs that aren’t really suburbs.
It’s true… coffeeshops are good places to work. Science proves it.
Oh, coffee… what can’t you fix?
If you’re in Chicago tonight, you should really be going to this.
Weekend Reading – The Greats
Biblion & Black Poets
When my lady friend and I were visiting my sister and her youngest daughter in Lewes, Delaware (a favorite weekend getaway spot for Washingtonians) this past weekend, we wandered into downtown Lewes, I saw, catty corner from where we were waiting for niece and her friend to join us, Biblion: Used Books and Rare Finds.
I was so excited to see such a pleasant looking bookstore, the immediately ran to it in such a way that my friend and my sister were convinced that I had seen an old friend (or so they told me later; it would explain why they waited so long to look for me – they wanted to give me time to chat with my presumed friend).
Bibilion is not a particularly large nor widely stocked bookstore. They opt for clean lines and neatness over stacks upon piles of books up to the ceiling. But the selection is good and well curated. Most books tended to be priced at five dollars, which is, perhaps, on the high side, but well within the pale for a decent paperback in good condition.
I nearly purchased Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, but while looking through their small poetry section (it’s a mixture of poetry and drama and mostly contains editions of individual Shakespeare plays), I saw Black Poets, an anthology of African American poetry, edited by Dudley Randall.
My knowledge of the poets of the Harlem Renaissance is limited, but that being something I wanted to fix and since Black Poets has a nice selection from Harlem Renaissance and the book also being just $2.50, or half of what A Room of One’s Own or costs (and, indeed, half of what most every book I picked up cost), I bought it.
Inside were half a dozen poems by Frank Horne.
Haven’t heard of Frank Horne? Don’t feel too bad. Neither had I until that day.
In his non-poetic life, he was an optometrist, occasional adviser to FDR, and an official in the U.S. Housing Authority.
Letters Found Near a Suicide (selections from which – or rather ‘letters’ from it – are included in Black Poets) is, I gather, his most famous poem. And it’s very good. But all of his stuff was good, and more startling for being so completely unknown to me. The forms are a little old fashioned, but the way that they are used to convey and deeply political message is very well done.
Monday Morning Staff Meeting – Doggone It
Thursday Staff Meeting – I’m A One Book Kind Of Man
2012 Bloomsday Events: Washington, DC & Tampa Bay
Washington DC
What: 43 readers in all, diverse levels of knowledge/skill – group includes some top people.
When: BloomsdayDC is the 5th Annual Program of its kind sponsored by the Harvard Club of Washington, DC
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM: Reading from Part I of Ulysses at Politics & Prose (5015 Connecticut Avenue NW), Free-of-charge
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Reading from Part II of Ulysses at James Hobin’s Irish Restaurant (1 Dupont Circle), Free-of-charge
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Reading from Part III of Ulysses at Cosmos Club (2727 Mass Ave. NW) Attendance by advance reservation only, cost $35 per person (includes light food and drink), reservations at http://www.harvard-dc.org, not limited to members of Harvard Club
Where:
10:00 – 11:30 AM at Politics & Prose Bookstore – 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington DC
2:00 – 6:00 PM at James Hobin’s Irish Restaurant – 1 Dupont Circle, Washington DC
8:00 – 10:00 PM at Cosmos Club – 2727 Mass Ave. NW, Washington, DC
Bethesda
What: Motley mix of seasoned Joyce readers, residents of the greater Washington DC metropolitan area. Organised by brother and sister Deborah Sherer and Dr. David Sherer.
Where:
The Irish Inn at Glen Echo
6119 Tulane Avenue
Bethesda, Maryland 20812
When:
Bloomsday Reading
June 16, 2012
11:00 a.m. until 3:00
Reservations only: 301-229-6600
Tampa Bay
What: Bloomsday Tampa Bay is sponsored by the Tampa Bay Arts and Education Network, a non-profit organization that provides educational and cultural programming and events to enrich the lives of Tampa Bay residents.
Where: O’Brien’s Irish Pub & Family Restaurant
701 West Lumsden Road
Brandon
When: June 16th: 6-10pm
Danger On Peaks
Danger on Peaks is Gary Snyder’s most recent book of poetry. Recent being 2004.
It is also the book I purchased when Snyder read at the Folger Shakespeare Library as the final reader in 2011-2012 poetry season.
What do I think?
Danger on Peaks is good but not great. Not his best work. Not up to earlier works like Turtle Island (the first of his collections that I ever encountered).
His conversational, semi-narrative tone is still strong, but sometimes it can come close to touching on parody – the wilderness activist, living life (somewhat) off the grid – but fortunately does not actually cross over.
But there’s no question that too many lines (though fortunately, not many complete poems) miss their mark.
He’s at his best when he experiments with form, especially playing with Asian influenced forms and styles. When he does that, he gets furthest away from those aspects of his work that get too close to the ‘Gary Snyder, wilderness man nature poet, myth.’
When he indulges in the nature-loving equivalent to macho male posturing, he can write lines like this:\
I just finished a five page letter to the County Supervisors
dealing with a former supervisor,
now a paid lobbyist,
who has twisted the facts and gets paid for his lies. Do I
have to deal with this creep? I do.
I’m frankly over knee jerk criticisms of politicians. Even if you don’t share my belief that most are actually decent people, trying to do something useful (particularly at the local level), surely we can agree that just dropping a criticism of politicians and lobbyists “paid for [their] lies” is crude, knee jerk hackneyism.
But then, in another poem, he plays with something deeper about nature (and, as it typical of the better poems in this collection, also plays with form).
Saying, “this was me”
scat sign of time and mood and placelanguage us breath, claw, or tongue
Also, in that particular excerpt, kudos to Snyder for using the oxford comma!
Good stuff, that one.
Before I go, check out this article/interview with Snyder.
BAM!
Apparently, that’s what Books-A-Million is now calling itself (BAM – Books-A–Million).
But one opened in the spot where the old Borders used to be, next to Jo-Ann Fabrics in Columbia, Maryland.
I used to often go there when my better half would need to buy fabric next door, killing time in the cafe and reading some lit mag or what not. I was pretty sad when it left.
But I’m glad there’s another bookstore there, but it’s also a little creepy. The selection is a little smaller and a little less challenging. Less poetry and fewer books by lesser known poets. No literary journals. No classical music CDs. And no philosophy section. But things were generally in the same area of the store as they were when it was a Borders. A pale, platonic shadow of the departed place (even the bookshelves are similar, but not quite exactly what Borders had).
Nonetheless, I so glad it’s there. It’s never amiss to find a bookstore present where you thought there were none.
I actually used to use the L.A. Metro a good deal when I lived in Hollywood.
the coffee philosopher 