The website for the Chinese Poetry Conference at Simmons scheduled for October is fully up and running.

Tony Leung steals the show in Zhang Yimou's newly released film "Hero". Leung plays master calligrapher and swordsman Broken Sword who when faced with an opportunity to assassinate the emperor, chooses the path of compassion and non-violence, and incurs the wrath of his lover, Flying Snow, played by Maggie Cheung. Donnie Yen, son of local Boston Tai Chi master Bow Sim Mark, plays a 3rd assassin, Sky, in a smaller role. Jet Li as "Nameless" narrates most of the story. Zhang Ziyi, who has just been cast to play Sayuri in Memoirs of a Geisha, plays a minor role, as Moon, a student of Broken Sword. The fight scenes in this film are breathtaking - Nameless attacking Sky in a rain shower, Moon fighting Snow in a field of yellow leaves which turn red when Moon is killed. Broken Sword is the most emotionally complex and spiritually attained character in the narrative, with Nameless a close second. Tan Dun composed the score which is interpreted by Itzhak Perlman. Echoes here in the imagery and music of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The martial arts are likened here to music and calligraphy/language. One unforgettable scene - when the teacher and students at the calligraphy school in Zhao continue to practice drawing characters in sand while thousands of arrows launched by the archers of Qin rain down around them.

Farewell to Boston reading on September 18, 7:30 p.m. at Wordsworth. Thanks to Jim, for hosting. If you'd like to come and read a few poems, email me. So far Chris Rizzo, Ruth Lepson, and Jim will be reading.

Just received final performance dates in Chicago for my poem "Recipe for Paper". Hedwig Dances will be choreographing the piece on November 4, 5, and 6 and I will fly to Chicago to attend the rehearsals and the performances. Also just added, thanks to Chuck Stebelton, a reading at Myopic Books on Sunday, November 7.

We ran around shopping for gifts and sweets for Japanese tea this afternoon and ended up taking a break from running errands to take in "The Exorcist" at Boston Common. Stellan Skarsgaard plays a young Lancaster Merrin investigating an archaeological site in Africa where he encounters the devil and rediscovers his faith in God. This movie was not shown to critics for review pre-release. But the reviews I've read had been rather negative. My one big criticism about the movie - so why is it that it's the female who's always possessed by the devil? Females and small children?

Busy here with preparations for Japanese tea this weekend...

Kort is back from a week long retreat at the Lama Foundationin the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. He lived in a "yurt" with a skylight for a week, studied tea and ate vegetarian communal meals. Lama has a rule that the maximum retreat you can take at Lama is 7 years. So some friends of Kort have made a long-term commitment to Lama and have actually started building a house on the land which in 5 years time they will have to give up. The tea community is apparently alive and thriving in Naropa where the tea house is now being run by 2 young tea practitioners named Mike and Aaron. Lama is pretty rustic as far as retreats go - outhouses, outdoor (and indoor) showers, all manner of wild critters running around. I would like to take a retreat with Kort and some point, but I'm so citified.

Fashionistas:

SECOND TIME AROUND is having a 70 % off Midnight Madness Sale

Wednesday, August 25th-Harvard Square location
Thursday, August 26th-Newbury St. location
4:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m.

All spring and summer items will be 70%* off
"BRAND NEW" items (great labels) just arrived from a local boutique.
All new fall arrivals up to 10% off
We are staying open late to make space on the racks for incoming fall merchandise.
Stay up a little later and take advantage of 70% off savings on our already incredible prices.
Buy Prada, Gucci, Chanel, Armani,Theory, BCBG, Milly, Rebecca Taylor
Diesel,Replay, etc. for 70% off already low prices!
www.secondtimearound.net

My favorite people at Zone Zero are taking submissions for a on-line image gallery project on grafica pop. Submit.

Today I finished the first draft of an article on Asian American poet and editor Victoria Chang. For those of you who don't already know Victoria, she is the brains behind the new anthology Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation.

Browsing the journals section at the Harvard Bookstore this afternoon, I came across a new publication called Daylight Magazine. The current issue features photographs taken by Iraqi civilians. Based out of North Carolina and New York, the magazine is affiliated with the Daylight Community Arts Foundation who's current projects include working with members of the Akwasasne Mohawk Reservation to establish a darkroom and bring photographic equipment and education to local residents. A similar Daylight project is also underway in Appalachia where the foundation hopes to aid in the empowerment of this marginalized community through self-representative documentation. In addition to these domestic projects, Daylight Community Arts Foundation is providing cameras to Buddhist monks in retreat in Laos and Vietnam so that these individuals can share their experience with others.

In the remainders section I came across "The Cosmos Poems", a collection of Frederick Seidel's poetry inspired by the paintings of Anselm Kiefer. Looking through the book, I was less excited by the poems and more excited about the paintings, although this book showed a limited range of Kiefer's body of work. Both copies the bookstore had were pretty badly mangled, so I had to pass. Now that I am looking at on-line reviews of the work, I'm somewhat glad I passed. But the most interesting thing about the collection to me is that the work was commissioned by the National Museum of Natural History. What a wonderful gig that would be writing poems for artwork in museums! Someone please ask me!

"The Cosmos Poems" certainly was beautifully designed (published by FSG), but better examples of books bringing together text and image are 2 books I recently picked up - Douglas Messerli and John Baldessari's "Bow Down", published by an Italian press, and Duane Michals' 1978 "Homage to Cavafy", images and texts that accompany poems by Constantin Cavafy. Michals' has also published an homage to Walt Whitman called, what else, "Salute, Walt Whitman".

Went to a matinee show of "Garden State" this afternoon. Great soundtrack including the Shins and Paul Simon. Some very beautiful visual moments including a scene when Andrew puts on a handmade shirt made by a guest at his mother's funeral which matches the wallpaper in the newly redone hallway. I did think that parts of the script were underwritten - the scene between Andrew and his father is put off for so much of the movie that when it finally does happen, the expectation has been built up and something about the exchange seemed less than credible to me. Call it my own coming of age brand of cynicism - can one's parents ever see us for who we are, let alone listen to what we have to say in a way that feels satisfactory to us or transformative? The ending also felt a bit abrupt and unfinished, though I'm usually a mush heart for girl gets boy.

At my friend's house tonite, I met a woman who's real life story is beyond any fiction. E. was kidnapped a week and a half ago by her 57 year old married neighbor who lives in her condo complex. She was held hostage, literally tied up for about 4 days. As she was walking out her front door one morning, he pepper sprayed her in the eyes and drugged her and kept her in his apartment and didn't feed her or give her water. The man is in jail, but bail has been set at $100,000 which means that if he can put up a bond for $10,000, just 10% of the total sum, he walks. This man befriended himself to E., who is a 1st generation Taiwanese immigrant. When she had just finished school and was out of work, he talked her into starting a business with her with a 50-50 profit split. In the mean time, he insinuated his way into her life - taking on the role of father figure while attempting to seduce this poor girl. He would not only ask her about her dating life, but her sexual life. He would also ask about her sexy good looking Asian girlfriends and ask for her to bring them around. E. being of a different culture, reacted by trying to stay open - after all, this is America and he is American, and god knows what sort of boundaries they keep or don't keep. When she tried to create some distance between them, he must have sensed himself being rejected and retaliated with abducting her, trying to talk her into working together with him again, and accusing her of using him to get business. Apparently, there were other wacked out incidents before E, but according to the detective involved, there was "not enough evidence to convict him". In a panic, E sold her condo in one week for way under what it's worth, feeling that she needed to move out of the neighborhood pronto. The condo was unloaded by a friend of hers who is a realtor, but realtor's have other priorities like commissions, friends or not. So she is taking a huge loss on the property and selling it for half of what it's worth if she's unable to stop the deal. The doctors and social workers and other people she has had to interact with have not had the patience, or the skills to listen to her story or answer her questions - it is not a case of her not having facility with the language so much as a lack of willingness on the end of the receiver to really listen. In very few cases also have interpreter services been provided. She is in desperate need of an advocate but will not approach the Asian resources available to her in Chinatown, b/c the Chinese community in Boston is so very small, she knows people who works at these agencies, and she does not want them to know, and her story must be so exhausting to tell and retell again. Her life has been so disrupted by this monster sociopathic sexual predator. I don't think I've ever been so angry for someone. Fucking fetishizing asshole bastard. I hope they lock him up for the rest of his life and throw away the key.

It's Medal Day at the MacDowell Colony this Sunday. This year's MacDowell Medal goes to Fluxus/video artist Nam June Paik.

Here is a collage poem composed from comments (mostly from teens and middle-aged mothers) from the Bulletin Board at the William Hung fan site. The typos are lifted directly from the site.

WILLIAM HUNG FOREVER!

Don't let people tell you
can't sing, look at Bob Dylan,

Lou Reed, Jim Morrison
none of them great singers,

i’d love to sit down
and talk to you about

computers – it was
love at first site

i cried when you didn’t
make it to the finals

i was obsessed
i hope i am not scaring you!

hola amigo quiero ser
your only latin lover

i no the song by heart

when i saw you
on American Idle

i laughed until i cried

you will be a very good singer one day
dancing... i don't know about

an experience; a way of life bottled
into one small Asian male

They call him

HONG KONG RICKY MARTIN
THE HUNG
HUNG HIMSELF
No. 32716

The Asians in America Project (AIA), a national clearinghouse for APA news and information, is launching a "magazine-style" section on its website. It will be a forum for the community, to voice your opinions, share your thoughts, and showcase your work and talents.

We are considering editorials, articles, reviews, letters, art, photography, fiction, poetry, comic strips and anything else that can be displayed on a website.

The only criteria being that the material be of interest to the Asians Pacific American community.

All accepted submissions will include credits and weblinks back to the authors and creators.

AIA currently receives 2500-5000 page hits a day.
Please send all submissions to: forum@asiansinamerica.org

Sincerely,
Ramon Gil
The Asians in America Project
http://www.asiansinamerica.org

I am browsing through a copy of "American Weddings", a very attractively designed poetry mag edited by Boston poets Michael Carr and Dorothea Lasky. 35 pages of poetry and art staple bound together with a disturbing yet comic image of Liza Minnelli's wedding party, with guests MJ and Elizabeth Taylor gracing the cover. Hand stamping decorates the interior covers and the translucent blue end pages are simplified sheet music for a tune called "Richard n' Sandy" by Charles Nolan. Poetry worth mentioning in this compilation - Michael Peters' "Non-Aural Variations for a Notated Score: Tape 2 (who also contributed artwork for this edition, including the mag's endpiece "Cesarean". Also poems by Michael County and Laura Solomon and the editors.

For information, contact american_weddings@yahoo.com

The painter Leon Golub just passed away.

Lightening the load:

assorted clothing

microwave

small desk lamp

2 drawer unfinished wood desk (bottom drawer holds hanging files)

2 decorative embroidered silk throw pillows

Fender stratocaster with soft carrying case

3 in 1 fax/copier/printer unit with extra toner cartridge

scanner and scanner software

Prices and/or bartering negotiable. Email if interested.

Recipe for tofu scramble:

1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. firm tofu, drained and crumbled
1 tomato, diced
1 tsp. turmierc
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
2 green onions minced

Heat oil in skillet. Add onion and garlic and sautee until onions are transparent. Add the tofu, turmeric, and garlic salt and saute for 5 minutes. Add green onions during the last minute of cooking.

As far as I can tell, the turmeric doesn't add any extra taste or flavor so much as it creates the illusion of eating something that more closely resembles the yellow of a scrambled egg.

I helped out my friend Mei of the Chinese Culture Connection answering phones this afternoon at WGBH. I don't actually own a TV, but if I did, I'd watch a whole lot of PBS. Shows taped in the WGBH studios include Masterpiece Theater, Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, and Victory Gardens. The station aired excerpts this afternoon from a documentary on unusual buildings (i.e. the "Big Duck" in Long Island" and the corn palace in.. I think it's Minnesota), a John Denver performance, and footage from a Andre Rieu performance who is supposedly very popular with the old ladies.

I hung out with Mei's neighbor, a Chinese woman from the Phillipines who's eldest son is studying English (poetry) at a university in Rochester. "Maybe he'll end up like you," she says, with some amount of concern when I explained what I do (or rather don't do). These days it's harder to explain what I "do for a living" to people I'm meeting for the first time. Like at a dinner party last night, I had to explain the expression "artist in residence" which is NOT equal to school and/or being a student. To a degree, I have given up on explaining - like in the way when people sometimes ask me where I'm from, I have given up on rolling out the long history of where I have been on the way to Boston - Boston is, after all, a kind of home. It is interesting to me that lay people never think of identifying "poetry" with the term "artist". It's always expected that the artist's practice be some visual or performing art - which is a prejudice I've experienced also among the Taiwanese and their prioritization or ranking of the fine and performing arts above the literary arts.

In a 4 hour shift, I got about 4 phone calls in the studio where Julia Childs got her start. Call in and pledge some cash to WGBH - they do top quality programming and the world needs more of it.

Just back from a viewing of Takeshi Kitano's new movie "Zatoichi". I am not a fan of Kitano's work - I went to see "Brothers" a few years back with Kort and also went thru a horrible DVD experience of another Kitano flick which involved violent school children murdering one another for sport. "Zatoichi" is a samurai movie, the twist in this version being that Ichi is blind. The choreographed Broadway/tap dance number at the finale was a little too bizarro for my tastes. Also found the comic relief of the village "idiot" character, a screaming man in a diaper, a bit twisted. Kitano himself was not as insufferable as his usual thuggy yakuza character - of course, this was not a big speaking role. Lots of blood and flying body parts. If you like that kind of thing, you might just enjoy "Zatoichi".

A much better movie is "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle" which I saw on opening weekend but never sat down to blog about. The movie has been compared by critics to "Bill & Ted's Big Adventure" which starred Keanu Reeves who is also Asian but passes easily for white. Smart humor punctuated with the more than occasionally grotesque - self-referential allusions to John Cho's big role in "Better Luck Tomorrow" and to the director's previous effort "Dude, Where's My Car?" In the tradition of "Better Luck Tomorrow", the film looks at subverting the stereotypes of the Asian model minority. When Kumar is asked why he's blowing off medical school in light of perfect MCAT scores, he replies to the Dean of the medical school, "Just because you're hung like a moose, do you have to be a porn star?" Harold finally has the balls to stand up to his lameass co-workers and asks out the girl of his dreams, who is not in fact Asian, but Latina. The depiction of Asian women in the movie is curious to me - Cindy Kim is portrayed as nerdy (preppy and spectacled), persistant, and the "kind of girl that Korean American Harold will end up with", regardless of the kind of girl that he professes to actually want to be with. Cute animation with dancing hamburgers and John Cho looking somewhat Marc Anthony. I'm happy to see John Cho getting bigger roles besides roles in films such as "nightclub cleaner", "aide #3", and "parking valet" as cited in his filmography. He's a solid actor and I hope we will see more of him in the future. The movie made me laugh when I wasn't been grossed out, but the scenes in the parking lots and quickie mart where Harold and Kumar and an innocent Hindu clerk get victimized by a group of poser macho jocks and corrupt police officers made me cringe and recall growing up in Southern California.

American Zen: A Gathering of Poets
224 pages, paper, perfect bound, 6x9
ISBN 0-933087-91-8, $15.00
Harmony Series, Bottom Dog Press
Edited by Ray McNiece and Larry Smith
Due out: September 15, 2004

From the Intro:

"Outside the Box, Inside the Circle"
In gathering this loose sanga of contemporary American poets, we discovered much about the nature of Zen Buddhist art and its impact on America and its poetry. Some of which we'll share here; much of which you will discover for yoursel fin your reading of these poems and personal Zen statements. Three main streams of the Zen outlook and aesthetic flow into the river of American poetry: the teachings and practice of Buddhism in America, the writings of older American Zen poets, and the translations of ancient Zen writings into English, typically by modern and contemporary poets...
- Larry Smith

So this diverse American sangha continues to sit and chant amid the frenetic activity of America... In general, America looks on poetry as it does Zen - as a useless, unnecessary waste of time; meanwhile it finds meaning in the superficial flash of televised samsara, looking for the new and improved, the bigger and better. And still we sit, write, and recite, wide open to a sky full of fiery flowerets comprising the jewel in the lotus. The stars shine from webs spun by Whitman's noiseless, patient spider. We sping forth these filaments, these breaths of light, gossamer stranders disappearing.
- Ray McNiece

Featured poets: Nin Andrews, David Budbill, Thomas Rain Crowe, Kathe Davis, Diane di Prima, Stanford Forrester, Tess Gallagher, Margaret Gibson, John Gilgun, Netta Gillespie, Sam Hamill, William Heyen, Jane Hirshfield, Holly Hughes, Mary Sue Koeppel, Mark Kuhar, Mac Lojowsky, Ray McNiece, Tom Montag, Shin Yu Pai, Paul Piper, Maj Ragain, David Ray, Seido Ray Ronci, Andrew Schelling, Paul Skyrm, Larry Smith, Tony Trigilio, Chase Twichell, and Anne Waldman

Book release reading: December 1, 2004 at the William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut featuring Margaret Gibson, Chase Twichell, Stanford Forrester and Shin Yu Pai.

Please come see me read in New York for the Kundiman Series:

September 22
Verlaine
110 Rivington Street
7:00 p.m.
with Eileen Tabios and Murat Nemet-Nejat

and upcoming in Philly

September 11
La Tazza
108 Chestnut Street
7:30
with Ish Klein

These will be my last big readings before exiting the East Coast.

also dates/details upcoming for University of Pittsburgh, the Chinese Poetry Conference at Simmons College and a book release/group reading at the University of Connecticut for American Zen: A Gathering of Poets edited by Larry Smith and Ray McNiece.

Geof Huth gave a great reading/PowerPoint lecture in Boston last Thursday. Favorite poems that I enjoyed in particular were his "ojojo" poem after Aram Saroyan, a rubber stamp poem on cell division, a 3 panel piece working with the visual symbol of the crucifix in different ways, and a visual poem called "seen side". Geof introduced the audience to several forms including the algebraic poem, the ambagram, the acemic, and the eye chart poem (which incidentally I have also been experimenting with in Nutritional Feed). I went absolutely crazy over the birches and snow poem, haven't seen/read anything that exciting in some time. Thank you, Geof, for a wonderful wonderful lecture!

Maudite, the organizer of the reading, will sadly be losing its space at Gallery 108.

We are back from a long weekend in the nation's capital, Washington DC. Quick tour of the major memorials and museums. Saturday to the Vietnam and Lincoln Memorials and the Freer Museum of Asian Art. Saw some interesting Japanese painted screens and thangka paintings - one piece in particular where Buddhas would be in a mandala, seed syllables instead. On Sunday morning we started with the International Spy Museum located near Chinatown. The Spy Museum was an interesting experience, a cross between say a Universal Studios tour and a trip to the Museum of Science. We were first "briefed" in a small theater where moments before we were instructed to choose an alternative spy identity based on several different choices. Once in the museum, we were confronted with glass cases of spy gear throughout the ages (objects like eyeglasses with a secret compartment for hiding cyanide tablets and guns embedded in rings), videos, interactive computer kiosks, and crowds and crowds of people. The difficulty with making a museum 100% interactive are the problems that you run into with flow. Learned a bit about Mata Hari, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington who all had interesting ties to spying. From the Spy Museum to dim sum in Chinatown which did not feel like much of a Chinatown at all except for the signage on storefronts and the obligatory and ornate Chinese gate marking the boundary. Over then to the Hirshhorn Collection which is a great place for modern sculpture. The building is circular, similar to the Guggenheim in New York, but no winding path from top to bottom. At the Hirshhorn, a wonderful show of color photography by Gabriel Orozco. I am not usually a fan of color photography and am not really terribly interested in what's being done, but Orozco's images had a poetic quality about them that drew me in and genuinely engaged me. The Hirshhorn has a strong collection of video art which was exciting to see installed in various spaces. "The Way Things Go" by Fischli and Weiss was on view - interesting to see young children sit quietly thru the 20 + minutes footage of chemical reactions and Rube Goldberesque invention. On from the Hirshhorn to a very quick visit to the Air and Science Museum and a quick stopover at the Phillips where exhibitions of Aaron Siskind and August Sander's photography. The Siskind works were very similar to the pieces that were on view at the Boston MFA last year - abstracted close-ups of driftwood, seaweed and paint peeling displayed alongside some of Siskind's contemporaries who influenced his work - Pollock and Kline. The Phillips is touted as the nation's first modern art museum. On Monday, the National Gallery Museum which may well have the finest collection of Rothkos outside of the Menil Collection in Houston. The strength of the National Gallery's contemporary collections definitely seemed to be painting - works by Lewitt, Johns, Pollock, Twombly, Albers, Nauman, Rauschenberg, Richter, and many many others. A decent collection of sculptural works, lots of David Smith. The security guards at the National were the surliest of any I've run into. From the National on to the Sackler where we just missed the closing of a huge show of Buddhas from China excavated from under a soccer field.

Things that I learned this weekend - I do not like French cooking, way too buttery. DC is a great city, clean, open, very European and cosmopolitan in feel. Lots of mixed race couples. All of the subway stops look the same.

One last exhibitions we caught this morning at the Provisions Library in Dupont Circle which is highly recommended - the artwork of Yun-Fei Ji, a Chinese born brush painter working in Brooklyn. This exhibition: "Empty City" - works expressing the horrors of the Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze Valley. At first glance, Ji's paintings appear very traditional, landscape in ink - but upon closer examination, images blended with very contemporary content - Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution, the villagers displaced by resettlement, pollution..

Highlights of the weekend - visiting my old roommate Natasha Klauss from B.U. days and her miniature doberman pinscher, Doggie. AND running into an old student/docent of mine from the Dallas Museum of Art who we bumped into in Dupont Circle. All signs point to Dallas, indeed. Madeleine left the Museum to be able to pursue her yoga study and practice and she is now a teacher of yoga teachers at the Priya (means "freedom) Yoga Studio in Lakewood. If I haven't already mentioned, the 2 things I plan on pursuing in Dallas are chef school and yoga teacher certification,(and well also maybe a PhD in Aesthetic Studies at UTD, who knows.) Bumping into old friends in foreign parts, too auspicious to dismiss.

A busy busy weekend. On Friday, Kort received his Master's degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine with a specialization in Chinese herbal and Japanese acupuncture. Many wonderful commencement speakers - Rich Mandell, an acudetox specialist who also teaches acupuncture thru a special program in Africa which helps teach these techniques to local healthcare workers to alleviate the suffering of AIDS patients. As part of his address, Rich surprised the audience with a fantastic bassoon solo of Bach's cello suites. Dr. Carlyle Miller of the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine read from Frost's "Mending Wall" and talked about the juncture of Western medicine and alternative therapy. The student speaker, Josh Summer gave an irreverent speech, lampooning several faculty members, inspiring the grads in a sing along of a Jackson Browne tune, and closed out with an imitation of Ali G. A good time was had by all.

Here is the Oath for (taken by) Traditional Chinese Medical Practitioners:

When people come to me with a serious disease and ask for help, I will not concern myself with whether they are esteemed or dishonorable, wealthy or poor, elderly or young, beautiful or ugly. My care shall be safe and not swayed by whether they are my dearest family members or my adversaries, my good friends or strangers, foolish or wise.

In my mind's eye each patient is on the same level, degree and class, and shall be treated as close as family. My care shall never be self-serving nor motivated by what brings good or bad fortune nor by that which is pleasing or upsetting. My protection and care shall be preceisely what is necessary; no more no less, without deference to my own safety and life. I will know in my heart that my good deeds are sincere and not a game. I will show courage, but caution. I will actively explore and broaden my knowledge, but stand firmly on the principles of which I am certain.

CONGRATULATIONS, KORT!!!

Rest in peace, Henri.

A yummy chutney recipe via Cirrelda Snider-Bryan via Larry Goodell via the Yogi cookbook...

2 c. fresh parsley w/ stems cut off
quarter cup chopped fresh ginger
4 green chile peppers or jalapeños
1 and one half teaspoons salt
2-3 teaspoons sugar
juice of 1 lemon or lime
...blend.

Michael Smoler's blog!

On the way home this morning, I walked down Keenan Street and passed a house where a hearse from the Giragosian Funeral Parler was parked with a gurney and several people out on the sidewalk.

Further up the street, the peaches on our neighbor's tree are ripe and ready for picking.

It's been a little crazy last few days going back and forth between the Back Bay and Watertown but I've been enjoying housesitting for my friend W. He has a beautiful condo with a roof top deck and a view of the entire city. At night the moonlight shines down into the master bedroom casting its light into the exact corner where a reading chair has been carefully placed. And off to the right, there is a perfect view of the John Hancock Observatory which casts its strange glow across the Boston skyline.

Caught some great readings yesterday on the last day of the Poetry Massacre - Matvei Yankelevich, Aaron Kiely, Noah Eli Gordon, Michael Carr, and Michael County. "Poets write poems and readers write readings," read Matvei. A comic monologue interspersed with poems, 2 of which related to the anti-reading Ugly Duckling did hear a few months ago, "I didn't work hard enough so I didn't get paid any money" and a portrait poem of Christopher Rizzo. Aaron's poems were both political and tender, always wonderful to hear and see him read his work. Michael County closed the weekend with a reading of John Wiener's "Drinking Lonely Wine".

Sad to say, missed all of the readings on Saturday between house/child-sitting for a friend in the Back Bay and going to a graduation party for Kort at his classmates Adam and Theresa's house. Kort graduates this Friday from the New England School of Acupuncture with his graduate degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and the weekend kicked off a series of events for outgoing grads. What a long 3 years it's been! Had a great time seeing Kort hanging out in his element with people who are socially engaged and committed to positive and healthy living - yoga teachers, therapists, acupuncture practitioners - a very solid group. Spent some of the night talking to the partner of one of the grads who makes his living teaching bagpipes at local prepschools like Exeter and Andover and who's father, Ulys Yates, a poet, hung out with W.H. Auden in Paris for many years and had his poems read and critiqued by Auden after they first met in a sidewalk cafe. The statistics say that upon graduation, only 1/3rd of acupuncture grads practice and stay in the profession -- I think this graduating group beats those odds - talking to all the folks who are launching practices and finding a way to pursue their work - it will be very interesting to see where this group ends up. Our friends John Churchill and Nicole Trudel are staying in the area and starting their healing practice at Inner Strength Yoga studio in Watertown where John currently teaches yoga and has started seeing acupuncture clients. Highly recommended!