** Original copies of this rarity. Factory sealed. Few copies available ** A pioneer of performance poetry—one of the leading cultural trends of the nineties—John Giorno has fashioned a signature style of intense, highly amplified, repetitive verse, with subtle shifts of phrasing, volume, and pitch to alter time and sense. Giorno has also been crucial to expanding the range of avant-garde poetry and music via new media technologies - and this compilation, also including five John Cage's tracks, recorded 1975-1980 at various locations in NYC, is no less.
"I don't know which one is Sugar, Alcohol,or Meat, but the writers pictured on the cover are ready for a cosy evening of Poetry Roulette. Set your MP3 player to shuffle and see what pops up. Some you win, some you lose, but unlike a real gambling establishment you win more than you lose. One turn you get Patti Smith.....lose.....the next you get Kathy Acker.....a win.
I suppose, if one was to assign each poet one of the three coping mechanisms for modern livin', John Ashbery, bottom right, would be Alcohol, as he looks like an alcoholic;Giorno would be Sugar,because there's far too much of it;and lastly, Burroughs would be the Meat, for obvious reasons, as thats what he writes about. The meat on your fork and where it came from and where it's going.
The modern epidemic of crypto veganism is, of course very concerned with the subject of Meat,but in a very different way to the Burroughsian slant.For the modern 'Vegan', in inverted commas, seem to be more concerned with moral oneupmanship,than actually giving a shit about animals in general,outside of the cute and cuddly pet angle. The latest thing is how they are, in fact, saving the planet. Not eating meat means less cows farting out greenhouse gases, means more room for the blight of Soya crops for Human consumption.....which is virtually organic tarmacing,and doesn't recognise the mass extinction problem that the globe faces;and they still drive,fly,buy tofu in plastic packages,and fart more because of their veggie diet.
So the Vegan's Naked Lunch,is the moment that they realise whats on the end of their fork,and the facts that they are Iron deficient,B12 lacking, essential Amino Acid less Extinction enabling fellow polluters,who are desperate to justify their,admittedly, free choice to be on a higher plane,looking down on vegetarians, omnivores (humans), and Carnivores (their animal chums),and proclaim this at every opportunity and puff out their chests with pride and superiority. Then they don't understand why they get such bad press?
As a shunned Vegetarian/Flexitarian,i have no problem with Veganism,just do it quietly and stop kidding yourselves that you're now saving the planet.....we should all be sooooo grateful,Thank you all.
PS we're DOOOOMED anyway." Die or D.I.Y
| A1 | Extract From "External Niceties" | ||
| A2 | I Resign Myself To Being Here | ||
| A3-I | Alex & Gretchen Corazzo | ||
| A3-II | The 6th Patriach Of Zen Buddhism | ||
| A3-III | Once I Was Visiting My Aunt Marge | ||
| A3-IV | Dorothy Invited Me | ||
| A3-V | One Of Suzuki's Books | ||
| A4 | Good Night Irene | ||
| A5-I | I Am Goya | ||
| A5-II | Song Of Moscow Ancient Church Bells | ||
| B1 | New York City Hard Times Blues | ||
| B2 | Setenta Y Cinco Abriles | ||
| B3 | In The Bathtub | ||
| B4 | I Was Traveling Wth The Intolerable Kid On The Nova Lark (From Nova Express) | ||
| B5 | Translucent Boy, An Excellent Time, & For Neal Cassidy | ||
| B6 | O Yeh - Don't Die | ||
| B7 | To Jack Kerouac | ||
| C1 | Six Months In Brooklyn | ||
| C2 | Parade | ||
| C3 | Coffee | ||
| C4 | 3 Subway Poems (From "Temporary Worker") | ||
| C5 | Whalefeathers | ||
| C6 | Rap It Up | ||
| C7 | C.I.A. Dope Calypso | ||
| C8 | Lady Tactics | ||
| C9 | Litany | ||
| C10 | I Can't Stand It | ||
| C11 | Rene Ricard Famous At 20 | ||
| D1 | Chicks | ||
| D2 | Nice Young Mormons | ||
| D3 | I Was Walking Down The Street (One Of The Fairytales The Whores Of Montmartre Tell Each Other To Put Each Other To Sleep After A Hard Nights Work In "The Adult Life Of Toulouse Lautrec") | ||
| D4 | Lorna & Vicki | ||
| D5 | So Fine, With Chassler | ||
| D6 | Who Needs Exercise | ||
| D7 | New Born Sleep | ||
| D8 | What You Should Know To Be A Poet | ||
| D9 | Eggs | ||
| D10 | Message From Confucius | ||
| D11 | Canal Street | ||
| D12 | Wall As | ||
| D13 | Viking Log (Part 2) | ||
| D14 | Zzzzz |