D and I took off to Knickerbockers, one of those cavernously industrial places where the hip gather to stand on concrete for hours and watch musicians perform, to see St. Vincent and Jolie Holland. We are not the hip (see environmental concerns, the whole, various series on gaming, and the fascination with science and linguistics). St. Vincent was fantastic. Did about forty-five minutes of material and kicked it hard, as if there were scorpions on the tips of her boots that were intent on staying on her boots and she was as intent, if not more so, in getting the scorpions off her boots. She reminded us of a Andrew Bird performed by PJ Harvey, with a bit of Rasputina thrown in for lyrics (and hotness). She's a goddess on the guitar, with passages that reminded me of watching old King Crimson footage where the fret fingers are climbing up and down the neck like amped up lemurs scampering up and down banyan trees. Jolie Holland was not so pyrotechnic, but her voice. Oh, my. Three chords and the luck of the gene pool. She slurred, howled, moaned. And she hit the three songs we wanted to hear: California, Old Fashioned Morphine, and (yes, oh, yes) Tom of Bedlam.
While talking about the show with M on Friday, we also touched on Elizabeth Bishop. I was mentioning that having a particular lens for interpretation--ecocrit, ecopoetry for me--brings out particular aspects of the work that aren't necessarily the first thing one engages with the piece. I've been reading Geography III for, oh, the tenth time. This time, I'm struck by the way the natural world inhabits these odd poems. By odd, here, I mean stunning and marvelous. It's easy, if you're only thinking of "The Art of Losing," to overlook a piece like "The Moose." Here, the very human culture confronts non-human nature. Both are clearly delineated, but the figure of the moose remains Other. The humans are changed by the encounter, but it's not clear how. The moose remains itself. Just a quick gloss. I love being able to walk four feet from my office to have these conversation.
In other nature news, the snow has begun to fall again. Though this time it won't stick around quite as long since it's not coming with a blue norther. Enjoy your weekend. I suggest looking through the AWP schedule to see what sexy bits are there for you as you negotiate people far more hip than thou.
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