love lion

(excerpts on a review of a collaborative performance of poetry and piano)

In this way, one might understand his playing of music to be capable of standing on its own, but choosing (with the same kind of intentionality behind McClure’s conception of poetry) to interact with outside impulses which may inspire a new response or direction. The image here is of a kind of playful rippling which, moment to moment, refuses stagnation but rather continues in an organic fashion to play off the impulses of those elements which interacts with its otherwise purist course. The simultaneous performance of both poetry and music by the two artists seems to express an understanding of both mediums through each one’s individual essence and mode of operation in counter to one another (in other words, seen more clearly and known more fully through contrast to a different form of expression) as well as through one another (for example, in being more aware of a kind of depth of sound in the spoken words and rhythm of poetry or seeing imagery in the intricate melodies of the piano) that would not be experienced in the same way if performed in isolation. I feel that this expression of depth and intensity of experience through the use of both mediums simultaneously is explained by McClure when he said “we’re here to wake people up.” How? By opening their minds to both the complexities of the mediums in their process of expression and to the sensual depths of that which is expressed through them. In the very act of performing alongside one another, with the intention of co-inspiring and guiding one another rhythmically (and through other means of sensual guidance – visually, even physically), the artists present the essences of their art forms as bodies through which to express ideas and meaning.

It is as if the art forms interact with one another in performance much like bodies might exist and interact in nature. There were moments where the music and words seemed to be fully aware of one another and they seemed to linger in a kind of rhythmic embrace. This embrace and awareness was played out either with an intensity of emotion or with a sense of stability and structure which added strength to the moment in the kind of security born from the consistency that comes from any lingering interplay between bodies in nature.


In this way, the listener must be open to the complexity of sensual impulses being presented so as to absorb the whole impact and power of the words and music as they play off of and through one another. The best way that I can explain this mode of experiencing the performance would be to liken it to sitting on a bench on top of a mountain or on a beach in which the landscape extends beyond the greatest horizontal width of one’s visual field. In order to fully consume the experience of seeing this landscape, one must see through a kind of extended periphery, both hazy and general, yet still focused on the subject of what is being seen, aware of its more textural qualities (color, light, line; ect) and complexity of meaning.

opening my legs to open your mind.

Below is the conclusion of a speech I gave on Bohemianism and free love. Ive never been more brave in front of people I don't know. ha.

At Allegheny, as a liberal arts college, we are free to make love to words, concepts and ideas. When we recognize this liberty, and each time we take advantage of it, when we cease to passively participate in higher education ala’ missionary position but instead choose to climb on top, we can each be called a little bohemian. And in this way, I am cigarette-in-bed satisfied to have been able to pleasure you all by disrobing the very essentials of the Bohemian lifestyle exemplified by their attitude towards sexuality, To be Bohemian is to exist full-bodied, sensually, experimentally, free. A walking revolution.

Maybe you were already familiar with the idea, and went through the motions with me like an ex-lover you just can’t shake in the hopes of feeling something new or because you don’t have a choice. Maybe this was your (*pause*) first time, and you fumbled with the details a bit. My 6-8 minutes may label me a tease in your eyes. Still, I hope that by opening my legs, and enveloping you in my intimate

body of information,

I was able to open your minds to a concept who’s focus on a sensual, experimental and liberated means of experiencing life may be more at play around you than you had once thought.

i remember back in the day when the best thing about a dvd was that you didn't have to rewind.

sometimes i forget that i live in a world of contexts. i feel as though I'm living in some sweet tasting intoxicant smoke bubble that no one can see into, and I certainly choose not to see out of. i forget that the world operates in contexts, in pasts and presents and futures and i want to deny it all but it all just comes back to me like bathing in a pool of liquid photographs that keep their shape no matter how much you slosh around, no matter how joyful or violent the underwater horseplay. im playing chicken with myself in a surrealist pool of destiny where my senses erotically mingle with my memories, where my laughter is both muffled and amplified in its ability to shoot through the water medium. i am not drowning. nor floating. but im certainly not aware of anything happening outside of this space. Jacquelyn: life operates in contexts, contexts are complicated, complications are confusing. i dont really know if it matters at the moment. not if the very essential things feel right. right? i like how things are both comfortable and safe and volatile and free. but amidst all this choosing to not think about it, to not take things to seriously, to remove myself from this external context that complicates things like a victorian corset, hot but hard, right but restricting, controlling but willingly?
despite it all, i cant stop pondering the both subtle and drastic differences between me and we. in the mere flip side of a letter a lost world turned upside down or a world centered but always on the move? and what is the nature of this movement?

negation.

There will come a point when all Control will cease to exist
And the lives of the righteous
will turn upside-down
And the lives of the "poor decision makers"
right-side up
And all the animals without moral standing
will be scattered - this way and that
to fill up the spaces in between until there is no definable
Direction - anymore.
And the world will cave in on itself.
A self-implosion sparked by the clashes
of lost beings
living the wrong life
like jagged pieces of metal
against flint.

Our generation isn't afraid of death. i.e. seeing multitudinous pictures of many sent home in coffins or piles of bodies. Rather, being an information-driven people, we are interested/driven to act when we feel we are lied to or we are being swindled.
Our concern lies in the Conspiracy versus the Atrocity.

self-creating

As a counter to self-destruction and feelings of powerlessness.
Artistic creation is a medium to define and understand ones self. (but it has certain limitations and is therefore not entirely "free")

Sylvia Plath wrote before her suicide of the indifference of the world.

When creation is also a cry for help, it is actually subversive to self-creation.
(it is self-destruction.)