E-Verse Radio

“‘Here’s to the winners,’ Frank Sinatra used to sing, belting out Joe Raposo’s lyrics as only a winner can. ‘Here’s to the winners all of us can be.’ Right, and if you believe that, have I got a bridge for you. One of the truths of human existence is that, to one degree or another, all of us are born losers — in the end, of course, everyone loses, even Michael Jordan and Donald Trump — and that coming to terms with disappointment, accepting the inevitability of it, is one of life’s inescapable challenges. Kris Kristofferson, not Raposo, got it right: ‘Nobody wins.’ This may be a core truth, but it’s usually ignored or scanted by historians and social scientists, for whom triumph is an irresistible story and who tend to write about losers only when they go down in spectacular flames: Napoleon at Waterloo, Hitler in the bunker, Sonny Liston flat on the mat. Yet though the losses and setbacks with which most of us are familiar rarely are dramatic, they are intensely human and have a lot to say about us as individuals and about the society in which we live. They are stories that deserve to be told.”

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Their quarrel sent them reeling from the house.
Anything, just get on the road and get away.
Driven out, they drove . . . miles into countryside,
confined and bickering, then cold, polite;
she read a book, or looked out at hillside pastures;
once, faraway life came close, and they stopped
in mist for muddy, slow cows at a crossing,
then, tilted, shuddering, a tractor came across;
coldly silent other hours of trees after trees
interspersed with straggling villages — then hot;
her voice pulsing, tempestuous, against the dash,
buffeted, blew up; then slammed her hand down, hard.
“You let it happen — you know you did.
And you make me the bad one — all the time!
I won’t stand for it another second.” And then,
irrationally, “Look at me, I’m talking to you!”
What half-faced her was mulish, scolded sullenness
– who gripped the wheel and to scare her drove faster,
scaring himself; he felt out of control, dangerous.
Downhill, the road darkened, dropped out of sight.
At the bottom, racing toward them, three lights,
and trees . . . . Remember this, remember this,
she thought, the last thing I will ever see.
Diner, tavern, café, whatever it was.
The car spun suddenly into the parking lot.
She grabbed at the key, threw it out. Shaken, they sat
– while their momentum went on raging down the road.
They knew they might have been killed — by each other,
had someone been up to just one more dare.

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1. Anne Perry (real name: Juliet Hulme, helped murder her friend’s mother; see the movie Heavenly Creatures)
2. John Gardner (accidentally killed his brother with some farm equipment)
3. Mary Lamb (killed her mother with a knife while insane)
4. Louis Althusser (strangled his wife while likely in a psychotic state)
5. William S. Burroughs (accidentally shot and killed his wife while drunk and playing William Tell game)

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“Geico Cavemen.”

Another:

“My 4-year-old niece has decided she will be Violet Parr (from The Incredibles). Which means her moms are Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, and my partner and I are Frozone and Edna Mode, respectively. She has recruited a 2-year-old friend of hers to be Dash, and declared that his parents will be Syndrome and another Edna (she likes Edna.) Her baby doll will be Jack Jack. How a 4-year-old got to be in charge of such a retinue is a question one might fairly ask, but there it is.“

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Maria Johnston reads the Irish poet Caitríona O’Reilly
James Rother gives us his Thumbnailer’s Guide to the Galaxy
Ernest Hilbert interviews the American poet Franz Wright

Jan Schreiber discusses the Functions of Poetry
James Wilson reads a poem by Yvor Winters

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061009/ap_en_bu/genre_bookstores;_ylt=AhWoom5ixTOUz.zA3jQr.W1xFb8C;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-

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“A weirdly magical experience may be had by wandering the canyons of Wall Street late at night. Bereft of human traffic, the streets occupied only by wisps of mist rising from manholes where the city breathes. The twisted geometry of the districts highways and byways eventually may lead you to the Pearl Dinner, open to Hopper like denizens hunched over their wee hour dreams.“

“One great thing about the Bowery Poetry Club (www.bowerypoetry.com) is that if you don’t like what you’re seeing something else will be on on very soon. Taylor Mead’s 6:30pm Friday shows are guaranteed, and, as Rosanna Rosannadanna mused, \’There’s always something.‘”

Another:

“The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is a great way to learn about NYC history. The only Louis Sullivan building in NYC is at the top of Crosby St at Bleecker. It was recently restored and is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. For the best bagel and schmear on the planet, go to Russ and Daughters on Houston St near 2nd Ave. They have an selection of smoked fish to die for, and will give you samples if you ask nicely. My favorite is the smoked sturgeon, but they have at least six different types of lox, smoked bluefish, smoked whitefish, smoked tuna, and lots of other deliciousness. See Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind at the KGB Bar on 4th St between 2nd Ave and the Bowery. 30 plays in 60 minutes http://www.nyneofuturists.org/showinformation.html.“

“I’d suggest going to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe: 236 East 3rd ST (between Aves B & C), New York, NY 10009, www.nuyorican.org/“

“Go to the Queens Museum to see the scale model of the entire city. Pretend you’re Robert Moses or Ratner and scream demonically, ‘Mine! Mine! Mine!’”

Top 10 out of the way tourista adventures (too many for just 5!)

1. The Cloisters, amazing medieval collections
2. Walk across Brooklyn Bridge, do it at sunset!
3. Brooklyn Museum & Botanic Garden (their Bonsai collection is world famous)
4. Raw Bar at Grand Central (verrrrrry NYC)
5. Rainbow Room, again verrrrrrrryyyyyy nyc
6. Coney Island, yeah it will be closed but so what?
7. Temple of Dendur at Metropolitan Museum, amazing room
8. The Morgan Library, Piano wing is lovely
9. The Frick Museum, Ahhhh Vermeers, Whistlers and Rembrandts in a home setting, my very favorite place
10. The Blue Note, need I say more?

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“The cider recipe is good. But skip the muslin, and stick your cinnamon sticks and whole cloves into a nice whole orange, which should be covered by the cooking, bubbling elixir. Dark rum to taste.”

“You forgot the Whiskey in the Hot Cider recipe.”

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[I hope you all got your bets in. - E]

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“Brothers Grimm and The Iceman Cometh, Eugene O’Neill.”

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1. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
2. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (first and no other)
3. Psycho
4. Fly (Cronenberg)
5. Exorcist