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dateline: Chicago, August 2005
High summer. High tech. High imaging. High theory. Check out this month's Newswire...
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| in the greater sphere... |
Illume:
poetry video, front and center
"Illume: An Alchemy of Text and Image" is coming on Saturday, 17 September, from 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM at the Gene Siskel Film Center, on north State Street, in Chicago's Loop district.
Instigated by Gerard Wozek and Mary Russell of Robert Morris College, the program signals a return of critical and creative energy to the genre of poetry video. It also connects Chicago's zeitgeist with film and literary communities further afield.
Chicago's own investment in the poetry video genre is significant, early, and historical, owing to the years of annual poetry video festivals presented by the Guild Complex, produced by Kurt Heintz and Jean Howard in the 1990s with Quraysh Ali Lansana and Larry Winfield. But even these festivals happened well after original poetry video works were being rendered in Chicago. The early festivals dug into local history to showcase such local pioneers as Chet Long and Arturo Cubacub, who had produced poetry in artistic video form long in advance of series such as Bob Holman's United States of Poetry. That said, Holman himself previewed segments of his PBS series at the fourth such Guild festival, advancing Chicago as an auspicious site for exhibiting and developing poetry for television.
After the 1990s, however, poetry video activity experienced a lull in the US as the Internet attracted the talents of many people who once invested themselves solely in video works. The only other festival besides Chicago's to regularly convene on the genre, held annually in San Francisco, folded after a run of over twenty years. Since the end of the Guild Complex's run of festivals, no major event punctuated the relative drought of poetry video presentations in Chicago except for Geoconference 2, presented by e-poets.net at the Center Portion arts space in 2001.
Meanwhile, other parties in Vancouver (2000), Riga (2001), and Berlin (2002) came to the genre, and began curating and presenting new poetry videos in festival format. So the genre of poetry video was not been asleep everywhere, just in America for the most part. New works created by Americans in these intervening years were sometimes "discovered" abroad for lack of local venues. The Illume program marks the end of Chicago's (and by extension, of the US's) hiatus from the discourse on poetry video.
In the intervening years, the genre has changed as a reflection of the new media that video producers and poets use. While the Internet drew some talent away from the form, it has nevertheless given artists much more powerful, verbally-intimate technology for rendering their art. New visualizations and interactions between image, text, and sound happen in current works that were impractical a decade ago. Illume will enable the audience to appreciate poetry video's evolution in the last decade by offering older and recent poetry videos together.
Illume also promises to restore some of the open critical dialogue that was present in the original poetry video festivals held in Chicago, by posing the screening as a conversation with the audience. Videomakers and poets will hold a forum on poetry video as part of the screening, and the audience will be encouraged to participate. Russell, a veteran director, and Wozek, her veteran comrade in poetry, will be joined by Vancouver videopoetry pioneer Heather Haley, along with other artists from Chicago.
| in e-lit' and new media poetry... |
the latest from Triplopia:
Noise
In physics, it is a disturbance that obscures the clarity of a signal; in computer science, it is meaningless data; to our ears, it is a sound of any kind, from music to the faint sound of breath, from static to oral poetry, from rhythm to tone, and all the sounds in between. This summer, Triplopia invites you to listen closely as the e-journal takes on Noise.
The current issue of Triplopia Spotlights award-winning poet, musician and screenwriter, Joy Harjo, in a discussion on the fusion of oral and written poetry, the responsibility of the poet, and the way music penetrates us all.
Enjoy more from Joy Harjo in the Feature section, where she explores American Indian mythology with her prose poem, "The Crow and the Snake." Also in features, Norman Ball discusses poetic voice in his essay, "Authentic Voice: A Catalog of Discontents," and the gifted Brian F. Laule explores a loss of the senses in his short story, "The Eyes that Jewel Our Heads."
In the Poets section, discover the various ways in which poets utilize sound as we welcome original and innovative poetry from Arlene Ang, David Benson, John Bryan, Robert Klein Engler, Laurie Mazzaferro, Damon McLaughlin, Barbara Taylor, and Andrena Zawinski.
In Triplopia's Reviews, Tania Van Schalkywk delves into both the beauty and the horror of noise as she interviews several successful writers in this issue's TripPicks. Uncle Flatboot evaluates poetry websites which contain "unexpected brilliance" -- read along as Tryst, The Alsop Review, and Slow Trains Literary Journal fall under the watchful gaze of Paul Sonntag. And, Triplopia editor Gene Justice analyzes the relationship of audience and text throughout the poetry of Catherine Daly and Bobbie Lurie.
Featured artwork includes visual noise from the lenses of Ola Badola, Jeff Crouch, Jake Levin, Stephen Gibson, Jamie Gil, Manolis Kanakis, Lucretious, Carlos Paes and Julie Taylor.
Finally, the Yawp's neighbor has almost driven him to sustain his brain in a vat of beer. Find out why in this edition's Barbaric Yawp.
The theme of the autumn edition of Triplopia is "Heat." Show the editors a little smoke and fire by submitting artwork, prose and poetry by September 1st. See the current issue for guidelines.
sources: Gene Justice and Tara A. Eliott
2006 Slamdance Film Festival call for entries: "Calling Anything That Moves"
If it isn't already a poetry video, your own work of visual literature nevertheless has a venue waiting for it. The 12th Annual Slamdance Film Festival, scheduled to take place, 19 thru 27 January, 2006 in Park City, Utah, officially launched its call for entries on 6 July. "We are currently accepting short and feature film submissions in all genres for the 2006 edition of the festival," Sarah Diamond, Director of Programming announced. Slamdance will screen about 100 films in total.
Slamdance is a highly competitive juried venue. The 2005 festival received over 2,800 submissions from all over the world. Fewer than 24 features in the narrative and documentary feature categories combined will make it into the main competition, which is strictly devoted to films without domestic theatrical distribution, from first-time feature directors, working with relatively low budgets. Slamdance has remained true to its founding mandate that it is a festival, "For Filmmakers, By Filmmakers," meaning that the programming team is comprised of filmmakers, many who are Slamdance alumni.
Entry forms and application information are available through the Slamdance website. All film selections will be posted on the 2006 festival page during the second week of December. Presenting sponsors of the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival are Kodak and fox21. Additional sponsors will be announced as they are confirmed.
Deadlines...
Early Deadline: August 29, 2005
Final Deadline: October 17, 2005
Short Films under 40 minutes: October 11, 2005
Slamdance's industry and creative credentials are impressive. It has successfully established year-round ventures including the Screenplay Competition, Best Of Screenings in the U.S., Festival events in China and Poland, the Anarchy Online Film competition, the Dirty Dozen DVD Series (currently in its 7th volume), and short film productions dubbed "$99 Specials." Slamdance films have won Spirit Awards, the Palm d'Or at Cannes, and even an Oscar. Alumni include Memento and Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan ('99 award-winner Following); the Russo Brothers ('97 entry Pieces) and Monster's Ball and Neverland director Marc Forster ('96 Audience Award winner for Loungers). Participation in the Slamdance Film Festival helped to discover these filmmakers and to propel them into their next feature productions.
| calls for papers... |
a call for writing on VJ Theory: a philosophy and cultural theory of VJ'ing and realtime interaction
VJs occupy a unique niche among artists, as they function between stage and screen. They have to wrangle technology that is new, often unstable, and rarely assembled in the configurations they choose. A VJ's tools are often patched into solutions well outside than their intended use. And that's just the tech side. On top of this, they're obliged to entertain large paying audiences, to generate video art as counterpoint to live music or as aesthetic substance unto itself, and to know when not to upstage the front act. Their hacked-together systems must perform with theatrical and musical finesse. VJ's are drawn into very real, immediate dialectics between image and sound, between theater and cinema, between art theory and the hard pragmatism of stagecraft.
During the AVITUK05 VJ'ing and live audio visual art festival, there was a fantastic level of debate based on both the theory and practice of VJ'ing and realtime interactive installations and the questions those practices raise. Paul Mumford and Lara Houston have been organizing Narrative Lab, a program of lectures, screenings, performances and projects as a major strand since of AVITUK since 2003. The group has sought to encourage debate, spark new work arising from theory, and facilitate collaboration examining the territories of narrative. Over the last two years the Narrative Lab has hosted lectures on hypertextuality, meta narratives, psychogeography, screen aesthetics, structuralism, process methodologies and various production techniques.
These theoretical debates have now expanded across many of the other sessions. What became apparent was the lack of written texts which attempt to deal with these questions which involves everybody's practice. (And therein is a parallel with spoken word which, as a recently popularized form, has just begun to build a body of critical discourse from experienced practitioners.) With this in mind the Narrative Lab proposes to gather a collection of articles and essays which begins to deal with these new media debates.
The editors offer some suggested areas to address in contributed essays. Please feel free to suggest your own:
1- Narrative and hyper narrative
- The cultural position of narrative
- Meaning in narrative
- Narrative Structures
- New narrative
- Cognitive process and discourse\Narrative Practice
2- Ethics
- Copyright and "copyleft" (the creative commons open source software and gnu licensing)
- Cross cultural appropriation of imagery themes and content (sources for video and other visual assets and it's relation to the social)
- Commercial sponsorship and market flooding
3- Real time processing and the problem of the "now"
- Problem of the 'real' and the problem of the "now"
- Internet realtime data
4- Collaboration and rhizomic relations
- VJ-to-DJ Network collaborations
5- Philosophical and cultural perspectives including
- Phenomenology
- Language and the body
- Schizoanalysis
- Semiology
- Feminist analysis
- Deleuzian movement/Image
- Habermas and the relationships with cinema and theatre
6- Interaction
- Public/ work interaction (how much should the interaction be apparent to the user of an installation for example)
- the VJ and interaction
7- Software
- Open source and proprietary software
- Latest software developments and software in development
- Software and ideas led production of work
8- Aesthetics
- Moving wallpaper
- The problem of the formal time/movement image
- Control and the dispersal of control
- Crafting the image and its relations
- Abstract animation (e.g. Oscar Fischinger, Len Lye) and it's relation to reactive 3D modeling
The editors see this volume as paralleling the early anthologies of film criticism, such as 'Movies and Methods' by Bill Nichols, containing a broad range of analytical perspectives relating to the new medium. This is an invitation to submit a short synopsis, to propose an article or ideas to be published as a book. Please send it to the following e-mail address: vjtheory@yahoo.co.uk.
source: Paul Mumford
&NOW: the Lake Forest Literary Festival
The second iteration of &NOW: A Festival of Innovative Writing and Art, merged with the second annual Lake Forest Literary Festival (LFLF), will be held on April 5-7, 2006 at Lake Forest College, 30 miles north of Chicago.
This three-day festival will celebrate contemporary aesthetic practice in its most inventive forms: writing, visual, and multimedia art that is aware of its own institutional and extra-institutional history, that is as much about its form and materials-about language-as about subject matter.
&NOW/LFLF will bring together a range of writers and artists interested in exploring the possibilities of form and the limits of expression; writers and artists working to emphasize text as a medium and as an influence.
If traditional, mainstream art and literature are the equivalents of 19th Century still-life, innovative production might be the text scrawled on genetically engineered cells--works more interested in producing fantastic machines of art, rather than creating transparent windows to a world that no longer exists.
By bringing together innovative writers and artists, &NOW/LFLF will take stock of the "other" tradition-and perhaps offer a glimpse of where it is going.
&NOW / Lake Forest Literary Festival, convening April 5-7, 2006 at Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL. Proposal deadline: October 15, 2005. Click to the conference website for full info. Send all correspondence to: andnow@lakeforest.edu. The &NOW/LFLF organizing committee are Davis Schneiderman, Tom Denlinger, Bob Archambeau, Steve Tomasula, Christina Milletti, and Dimitri Anastasopoulos.
source: LFLF
| in Chicago's lit/arts community... |
Red Rover experiment #3: Feralness
The Red Rover Series are readings that play with reading, as form and as institution. The third installation is titled "Feralness" and features Emily Abendroth, Christian Nagler, and Amar Ravva. The Red Rover Series is curated bi-monthly by Amina Cain and Jennifer Karmin.
Emily Abendroth recently completed her M.A. in Creative Writing at Temple University where she teaches literature and poetry courses. She has been working of late on a series of pieces revolving around animal motion and other feral dangles.
Christian Nagler recently moved to San Francisco from Providence, Rhode Island. He is working on a novel and his work is forthcoming in "Encyclopedia."
Amar Ravva is a writer who lives and works in Los Angeles. His current project, a work in progress called American Canyon, is a strange brew of memoir, poetry, Californian and South Indian History, documentary, and compassion. Readers can interact with his multidisciplinary work on his website videopoetics.org.
"Red Rover experiment #3: Feralness" is 7:00 PM, on Saturday, 13 August, at the SpareRoom, 2416 W North Avenue, Chicago (Bucktown). Click to spareroomchicago.org for more info on the venue. Suggested donation: $3. Coming 22 October, Experiment #4: "Hand-me-down," featuring ten Chicago writers reading their work together. For further info, e-mail the curators.
Wordslingers on 8 August:
Harrell & Tindall
Airing live on Sunday 8 August from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM, Wordslingers with host Michael Watson presents two Chicago poets:
Lorraine Harrell is a poet, playwright, journalist and essayist. She received an MFA in playwriting and anthropology from the University of Southern California, and is the recipient a 2005 Illinois Arts Council poetry fellowship and a 2005 Soul Mountain Retreat Writer's Residency Fellowship. She is also the recipient of a McDonald's Literary Achievement Award, (national winner in poetry), and a Mary Roberts Rhinehart grant. Harrell is a former Chicago Tribune writer for Tempo Woman. A winner in the Warner Bros., Lorimar TV Comedy Writer's Workshop, and the Los Angeles Theater Center Wordsmith Playwriting Fellowship. Ms. Harrell has written six stage plays, and recently completed her second collection of poetry, Crown Her with Sky, a poetic biography on the life of playwright/activist, Lorraine Hansberry. She is currently working on a new collection of poems, From the Raging Moon I Dance.
J.J. Tindall is an author, musician and recording artist. His poetry has appeared in various print and digital publications including the Electronic Literature Directory and the e-poets.net Book of Voices, among others. Since moving to Chicago in 1986 he has written and performed with a number of Chicago based bands and given poetry reading across the world. Most recently, his poem, 'A Galleon Fat With Sturgeon' selected for inclusion in the 2005 Festival Anthology. Tindall also keeps his own very active domain with fresh texts and recordings at jjtindall.com.
Tune in from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM (CDT) to WLUW, 88.7-FM, audible on the north side of Chicago. Internet listeners can click for the live program stream at wluw.org.
Nikki Patin at Links Hall, 2 thru 4 August
"Off Inside My Head" by Nikki Patin is an a cappella experience that blends music and poetry with theatre and politics, showcasing the powerful vocals of Chicago-born and-bred Nikki Patin. Each of the twenty pieces reflects the perspective of alternative existence inside America... what happens to you when you are a person of color in this country, when you are abused, when you are overweight, when you are an artist... when you are all of these things at once? "Off Inside My Head" is the story of the journey from victim to survivor, from young girl to warrior woman, from fate to destiny.
Nikki Patin has taught, performed and sung all over the country, most notably opening for Zapp!, of Roger and Zapp, at the Chicago Blues Museum, Patricia Smith and Alix Olson at the Congress Theatre, and for Jill Scott at the Metro. Named one of Chicago's "Six Most Fabulous 20-somethings" by Red Eye newspaper, Nikki Patin currently works with Center on Halsted as their Young Women's Program Coordinator. She was featured on the fourth season of HBO's Def Poetry Jam and designed, published and distributed a book of poems on body image, entitled "Phat Girl". Nikki is currently working on her debut album, due out later this year.
HBO Def Poet Nikki Patin debuts her a cappella one-woman show "Off Inside My Head", from 2 thru 4 September, 2005, at 8:00 PM, at Links Hall, 3435 N Sheffield, Chicago (Lakeview/Wrigleyville neighborhood). Tickets are $10-15, sliding scale, and cannot be purchased in advance.
5 September, get your smile on at The Hideout: the dollar store show
Dave Awl, Lisa Buscani and Christian TeBordo are participating in the August edition of the way-fun, high-concept phenomenon known as the Dollar Store Show. The concept: Each performer is given an item purchased at an actual dollar store, and then has to write a performance piece inspired by the item. It's hosted by Jonathan Messinger, books editor at Time Out Chicago, and co-hosted by comedian Sean Gardner.
The Dollar Store: "Smile", hosted by Jonathan Messinger, writer/raconteur of thisisgrand.org, and stand-up comedian Sean Gardner. Featuring monologuist Dave Awl, slam poet Lisa Buscani, crime writer Christian TeBordo, and "A Faulty Heart". Revuew is the first Friday of every month, currently Friday, 5 August at 7:00 PM. A mere $1 donation is recommended. At the Hideout, 1354 W Wabansia, Chicago, IL 60622 (Elston Corridor, near NW side). Phone 773-227-4433 or click to dollarstoreshow.com for details.
{ekg}: the moment to its crisis
28 August
{ekg} presents "the moment to its crisis", a birthing session of engaging solo work. Performance poet and multi-artist Robert Karimi has teamed up with a similarly gifted creative partner, Anida Yoeu Esguerra, for a new project called {ekg} which stands for for "eclectic kaos group." The partnership has every sign of being a vigorous hybrid of both artists' constituent energies, bringing their charisma, political conscience, originality, and media savvy to bear on the creation and curation of new interdisciplinary language artworks. Their stated mission? To host, "... critically acclaimed performers from across the nation as they birth new solo work, fresh before your eyes like a good warm loaf of bread."
{ekg} is a one-night show, 29 August, 2005 at 7:00 PM, at The Breadline Theater, 1802 W Berenice, Chicago (Ravenswood neighborhood). Closest CTA station is on the Brown Line at Irving Park, three short blocks north of the theater; also near the 11 Lincoln and 80 Irving Park bus routes. Click to breadline.org for a full introduction to the host venue.
Discrete Series for 12 August:
Stebelton & Snyder
The Discrete Series at 3030 presents poets Chuck Stebelton (Milwaukee), who is himself the host of the Myopic Poetry series, and Rick Snyder (Los Angeles). The program is on Friday, 12 August at 9:00 PM. The 3030 arts space is at 3030 W Cortland Avenue, in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood. $5 suggested donation. The Discrete Series presents an event of poetry or text-driven performance on the second Friday of each month. For more information about this or upcoming events, e-mail the producer. Guests may bring their own beverages to the reading if they wish.
Tara Betts: New York City in sight
New York is in Tara Betts' sights by month's end, but not before she pitches a few more poems to Chicago audiences. Here's what's in store for August.
Monday, 8 August: Tara Betts, Mental Graffiti's prodigal daughter and member of its first two slam teams, returns for a special goodbye feature before her journey to New York City. Come to Funky Buddha Lounge at 728 W. Grand Avenue (near the Grand blue line el stop). The open mic begins at 8:00 PM, doors open at 7:30 PM.
Friday, 12 August: Kristiana Colón, one of Louder Than a Bomb's finest, is celebrating her debut on the fifth season of Def Poetry with a reading from Chicago poets including Tara Betts, Kevin Coval, Malik Yusef, and others. The celebration starts at 8:00 PM at the Hilton in the Marquette Room, located at 720 S Michigan Avenue (south Loop). Also visit kristianacolon.com.
Alice George at Molly's, 8 August
Molly Malone's Open Mic with your hosts Nina Corwin and Al DeGenova invites you to be part of one of the most highly respected open mics in the Chicago area, as they present award-winning poet, educator, and Rhino magazine editor Alice George.
Alice George's poetry and collaborative work have appeared in such magazines as Diagram, Sentence, Denver Quarterly, Another Chicago Magazine, Quarter After Eight, New Orleans Review, American Literary Review, and Spoon River Poetry Review. Alice is an instructor at Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development, and is on the Arts-in-Education Roster for the Illinois Arts Council, for whom she has also served as a panel member. A five-time recipient of Ragdale Foundation Fellowships, Alice was awarded an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry in 2005. She has been the co-editor of Rhino since 1996.
At Molly Malone's Irish Pub, 7652 Madison Street, Forest Park, IL (near west suburbs). Phone 708-366-8073. Recommended donations are, "$5 if you can, $3 if you can't." Program schedule: 7:00 PM, open mic sign-up begins; 7:00 to 7:30, open mic; 8:45, featured reader Alice George; 9:15, open mic continues if necessary. Poetry/fiction is at Molly's is the second Monday of every month.
Homolatté for August 2005
Check out Chicago's weekly LGBT/Q coffeehouse for the latest in queer music and spoken word. This months' beat for Homolatté includes:
August 3rd: Robert McDonald / Gene Skala
August 10th: Jackie Strano / Shar Rednour
August 17th: Nedra Johnson / Carrie Cheron with special guest Amy Steinberg
August 24th: Ronit Bezalel / Lazy Sunday
August 31st: Outmusic open mic w/ Lars Von Keitz
Homolatté queer words and music, Wednesday evenings at 7:30 PM at Marrakech Expresso, 4747 N Damen Avenue (just south of Lawrence Avenue, Ravenswood neighborhood), Chicago. Phone 773-271-4541. Admission is free, though the host, Scott Free, invites guests to donate $5; all collections go the featured artists and only the artists. Full program listing is available at homolatte.com.
ESS offers two August audio production workshops
The Experimental Sound Studio (ESS) is offering two workshops this month. This is a great opportunity to get acquainted with our brand new Pro Tools version 6.9 system. Pro Tools is considered the top audio production software for film, video, and audio arts.
Introduction to the Digital Audio Workstation:
conducted by Pete Wenger
Saturday & Sunday, 20 August & 21 August 2005, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
$60/$50 for students and ESS members
For people who are digital novices, or just need a brush-up, and would like to learn how to get started using a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). This workshop explains how to set up a DAW as a project studio, or as a component of an existing analog studio. In-depth presentation of digital audio principles & terminology. Introduces standard DAW components as well as the ProTools software interface and the elements of a "Session". You'll learn how to: create a session in ProTools, navigate the Edit and Mix windows, import digital audio into a session, create audio regions, perform basic edit and mix functions, create simple automation with volume & pan graphs, and create a stereo file from your mix. Limited to six students.
Advanced Digital Audio Workstation :
conducted by Lou Mallozzi
Saturday & Sunday, 27 August & 28 August 2005, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
$60/$50 for students and ESS members
This workshop takes a detailed look at the creative use of the digital audio workstation (DAW) in the production of sound works. We will dissect music, audio art, installation, and cinema soundtracks produced on the ESS Pro Tools system, investigating the software’s attributes for each project. This will include plug-ins, advanced mixing techniques, signal path routes, alternative outputs, synchronizing to video for soundtrack production, and more. An excellent workshop for people with basic DAW knowledge who want to unlock the system’s creative potential, or for more advanced folks who want to consider alternative approaches to production. Class is limited to five.
All workshops are held at ESS, 406 N Aberdeen, Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60622. Space is limited so you must register in advance by calling ESS at 312-850-9362. Or click to the ESS website for more info.
| and finally... |
links we like
Another few links that should give you something fresh to ponder...
Poetry radio anyone? If you're near Tampa Bay, Florida, why not listening to Lizz Straight's weekly program every Saturday night from 11:00 PM to midnignt EST, WMNF-FM, 88.5 for the live show. Archived shows are available through wmnf.org. Just go to the Listen link or the Archives link, which ever you need. You can track more about Lizz at blackonblackrhyme.com and apspuhuru.org.
Living closer to New York? Then audition Ken Goldsmith's program on WFMU-FM, with a discussion on 99 years on the history of sound art, if you have three hours to spare. Goldsmith contributes to the encyclopaedic Ubu Web.
On the opposite coast, there's Melissa Green, who has helped put together Musica Fest in Seattle... On the new media literature tip, click to The Hyperliterature Exchange in the UK... Rain Taxi has its summer 2005 edition ready now.
And from Canada, see poetics.ca, with fresh texts by Roy MacSkimming, Adam Seelig, and an essay by Rob McLennan, "The Trouble with Normal: Breathing Fire II, Pissing Ice and the State of Canadian Poetry." See also: The Word Lounge, in Toronto.
And finally, some backstory on the origins of the blog. Did you know that the fellow who actually coined the term "weblog" was once a Chicagoan? Jorn Barger maintained one of the first websites of its kind from right here in Chicago in the mid-1990s, from a humble Ukrainian Village apartment using a very modest vintage Macintosh and a simple dial-up account. Describing Barger is possibly best done in relative terms. Jorn Barger is to cyberculture what Thax Douglas is spoken word. Both men are oblique, brainy, and absolutely one-of-a-kind. To this column's astonishment, though, came the following link to Wired magazine describing Barger's plight. The follow-up on Barger has since proven more positive. Barger's blog, robot wisdom, is alive and well again, as Barger has taken a more stable living situation. A salute to Jorn Barger, cyberarts pioneer. Be well, good friend. And we promise never again to tip-toe all over your typewritten manuscripts, even if we're only in stocking feet.
Once again, thanks for reading our monthly update, and thanks also to those who keep it supplied with news, announcements, leads, commentary, and the healthy buzz that keeps us on the forefront.
- Kurt Heintz, founder
e-poets network, Chicago
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