As the cat
climbed over
the top of
the jamcloset
first the right
forefoot
carefully
then the hind
stepped down
into the pit of
the empty
flowerpot
Bob Kaufman
Would You Wear My Eyes?
My body is a torn mattress,
Disheveled throbbing place
For the comings and goings
Of loveless transients.
The whole of me
Is an unfinished room
Filled with dank breath
Escaping in gasps to nowhere.
Before completely objective mirrors
I have shot myself with my eyes,
But death refused my advances.
I have walked on my walls each night
Through strange landscapes in my head.
I have brushed my teeth with orange peel,
Iced with cold blood from the dripping faucets.
My face is covered with maps of dead nations;
My hair is littered with drying ragweed.
Bitter raisins drip haphazardly from my nostrils
While schools of glowing minnows swim from my mouth.
The nipples of my breasts are sun-browned cockleburrs;
Long forgotten Indian tribes fight battles on my chest
Unaware of the sunken ships rotting in my stomach.
My legs are charred remains of burned cypress trees;
My feet are covered with moss from bayous, flowing
across my floor.
I can�t go out anymore.
I shall sit on my ceiling
Would you wear my eyes?
| EVENTS |
There are many things going on here at UMASS, and in this area in general, that we think you should be informed of, if you would like to let us know of an event, just email us and hopefully we will be able to get it on the page in time.
ON CAMPUS HAPPENINGS
| FEB. 23 | Campus Center Auditorium | The movie "Cry Freedom" is being shown. 730pm |
| FEB. 24 | Augusta Savage Gallery | Corey Cokes, Champion of the National Poetry Slam will read. 7pm |
| FEB. 24 | Student Union Ballroom | RSO extravaganza! RSO's will take the stage ( and hide behind tables). NOON-6pm |
| FEB. 26 | Bowker Auditorium | RICHIE HAVENS IS PERFORMING FOR FREE! |
| FEB. 28 | Campus Center 917 | Barbara Smith, nationally aclaimed Black feminist and activist. The Truth Never Hurts: 30 years of writing about justice and social change. Free. 7pm. |
| MAR. 6 | Wesley church (on frat row) | Open Mic, sponsored by the UMASS POETRY SOCIETY, FREE, donations of food, money etc. accepted to help the needy. 8pm-12 |
| Wed.'s | Hillel House | Open Mic's. All Welcome. Free. 830-10pm |
| Weekdays | The Durfee Conservatory | This is a beautiful place to visit, even for a few minutes. Enjoy the flowers, plants, trees, a pond, some sculptures. Weekdays 830am-430pm |
Local Shows
The great thing about local shows is there is a good chance of seeing GOOD music for a low price and maybe seeing the band another time.
We are thinking about two things realting to local music.
1.) We would like to put on a show in April maybe in Van Meter, if you know anything about the frameworks of that, your feedback would be appreciated.
2.) We would like to start something this spring, we are not sure if this has been done or is even possible, but, we would like to have live bands playing somewhere on campus for maybe an hour during the day.
between classes, if you would be interested in this, or know someone we could contact that may be, that would be great.
| ART |
Art is an important part of all our lives, whether we realise this or not. This section will focus many different forms of art and help explain best the things we enjoy. What we tell you is only our opinion, we are by no means experts on art.
FluXus
One of the more interesting movements in art is and was the FLuXus movement. It started during the late 60's and was considered one of the most radical movements in art.
The only problem is, it is highly disregarded. I can not recommend looking into this subject enough. The following are some links to current FluXus InFluX artist and of some links that are more historical and explainatory.
click here! another link to a more historical page is this click here!
DaDa
The DaDa movement has parallels to the FluXus movement, though it was earlier. The DaDa Movement was spearheaded my Tristin Tzara, and was an anti-art movement. This movement, preceeded the Surrealist, and for a time co-existed. Here is a web site that goes it bit more in depth and gives suggested readings, an over view and the such. click here!
The Surrealists
click here!
| MUSIC |
this section will contain reviews of albums we, bands and information we can pass on. More or less just trying to inform people of the good music thats out there. If you would like to add to this, possibly with a review, rumor or a suggetion it is more than welcomed.
One of the things we would like to keep up on will be the 3 albums of the week. We will review 3 albums we think are necessary, also having freinds write as to get a variety of styles in here.
Album #1: John Frusciante: Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-shirt.
This Album by the then ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers Guitarist is severe. It has 27 songs on it 13 of which are untitled (that is the whole second side). This album weaves through time and space with a blindfold, steering on pure emotion. Mostly multiple layers of different guitars and singing, the composing involved in this album is phenomenal.
(I actually read that he was going to have it arranged for strings at one point but the cost was absurd). There are no restrictions on this album, it was recorded by John himself on his 8-track recorder. Yet, the advantages of this are unlimited. You don't hear that processed generic sound of a studio, and the clicks and cuts, of the stop and pause button, are still there,
giving it a genuine feel. This album is not neccesarily an easy listen. The listener may have a hard time digesting the vocals which are direct, and on the very edge of what is possible from a man like this. Some song are:
Been Insane which is a straight forward song with him singing and two guitars leading perfectly along (this is followed by a slower version of a couple of verses from the same song) , Ants. If you could imagine time lapse photography, and a group of ants eating a carcass on time lapse, this would be the perfect soundtrack, Running Away Into You, Which is a personal favorite of ours, has multiple layers of guitars acting
as rockets and race cars, the vocals are similarly arranged through pedals so they overlap and give this feeling of hesitation and repitition. Truly an amazing album.
Album #2: Beck: One Foot in the Grave.
After Beck came off the "Loser" wave which propelled his name into MTV children's eyes everywhere and before the entrance of the ubiquitous "Odelay," Beck released an album of folk songs which cuts away the hip-hop beats, the samples, the mindless flow of "Loser" and leaves the listener with a pure dose of reality. Beck's blues and folk influences can be traced after just the first song "HE'S A MIGHTY GOOD LEADER" which is a page out of Mississippi John Hurt's book. "FOURTEEN RIVER FOURTEEN FLOODS" feels as though Beck is sitting on a wooden chair in a small room with no furniture all by himself. He stamps his foot on the floor and sings over his guitar: "All my life I been talkin' fast; taking all the things that I shoulda let pass." Beck is taking traditional blues and folk and updating it. But this album is not just 16 replica's of classic blues songs; it is a collection that provide an excellent taste of Beck's style which allows for a better appreciation of the complexities of Odelay. Beck's lyrics stand out, for instance from the confessional I GET LONESOME: "I get thoughts and dirty socks piled in the corner. I get lonesome." Put simply, what makes Beck's songwriting in this album so strong is that he takes his experiences and feelings and "makes them new" without ever being excessive. In these songs one sees a picture of the world through his precise vision. In "ASSHOLE," which was covered by Tom Petty for the soundtrack to the movie "She's the One," he says: "Called her name, she looks the same as you: question marks stretched across her skin. She dangles carrots, makes you feel embarressed to be the fool you know you are." No holds barred, clothes on the floor kind of music, Beck is letting us in on what many men have had to go through and so understand: "She'll do anything (3X), to make you feel like an asshole."
This album is strongly recommended to the ODELAY Beck fans out there. If you consider yourself a serious fan it is imperitive that you get a copy of it. Beck is not just a flashy hip-hop pop-star, selling himself cheaply, if you think that: get "One Foot in the Grave," and you will see that whatever success Beck has gained, he has had to pay a sacrifice to get there.
Album #3: Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde
The 1966 album "Blonde on Blonde" marked a milestone in the career of Bob Dylan. Everything that was the "old" Dylan had changed. But that was not it, Dylan was constantly changing even from the 1965 release of "Highway 61 Revisited", only hints of the "old" Dylan could be found on "Blonde on Blonde". This two record set (now on one disk) begins with the best known song on the record Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, or as everyone knows as "that everybody must get stoned song". Pledging My Time
is the next track which sets a major theme of "Blonde on Blonde", that is: basic blues. Both acoustic and electric are seen in Pledging My time, Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (which is obviously a song about former first lady Jacki-O), as well as Temporary Like Achilles. Some other truely great songs from this album also include Visions of Johanna
, Just Like a Woman, I Want You, and my personal favorite songSad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands which is a song about Dylan's first wife. The music is for the most part pretty simple, but the beauty of these songs are the lyrics and the interactions with the music. Finally, I will leave you with a couple of my favorite lyics from this album, first from Temporary Like Achilles "I'm tryin' to read your poetry, but I'm helpless like a rich man's child", and the first line from Visions of Johanna "Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet; we sit here stranded but were all tring our best to deny it"
Written by Aaron Saunders
| LITERATURE |
Here will suggest some readings we have thought to be helpful and entertaining. This includes poetry, novels, short stories, and the like.
There are an endless amount of ways to go when it comes to reading, everyone and thier sister has a book published, and it just becomes hard to know what is trash and what could possibly be your personal bible. >
| HUMOR |
This section will probably contain a few cheesy jokes and mostly a bunch of links and explainations of them.
Here is one suggested by the infamous MIKE LYNCH. It is what it says, stick figures dying in many simple and funny ways. For Stick Figure Death Scenes! click here!
| INTERESTS |
This is a Section of Hobbies, Occurences, Inquiries, Fun Facts, Sports, and anything else.
One of the first things we'd like to address is obscure Baseball players from the mid and late 80's like Bo Diaz, Marty Barrett, Ed Orsulak, any good ones you can think of feel free to send em to us, and they'll get posted.
One of our other challenges is to try and name all the patriots Quarterbacks from the 80's on. We already have a list of about 15 including: Drew Bledsoe, Tom Tupa, Scott Zolak, Hugh Millen, Steve Grogan, Jay Barker, and many more. If you can think of any more to add to this list of timeless atheletes just let us know.
| GUESTBOOK |
Here is our guestbook. You can sign this with suggestions to the page, or anything you think we would like to know. Thanks for the feedback. If you would like some more info or would like to be on the mailing list Email us!
Read My Guestbook! | Sign My Guestbook!