Interview with Poet Ivy Page

More news: my interview with poet Ivy Page is up at Late Night Library ! Please consider checking it out. Ivy's debut collection, Any Other Branch was published by Salmon Poetry and debuted at AWP Boston.

New Essay at RadiusLit.org

Here's my latest essay for Radiuslit.org. I loved writing about this poem. Check it out at:

http://www.radiuslit.org/2013/04/25/going-up-going-down-getting-stuck-between-floors-in-melissa-culbertson%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98elevator-love-song%E2%80%99/

For the Love of Books! Five Titles I Can't Stop Thinking About

Read what you will, but read passionately! When I select my reading materials it is either by chance or recommendation. Sometimes I browse bookstore and library shelves, open to page one and attempt the traditional 'does-it-pull-me-in' strategy. Here's five books I love that kept me thinking .


My absolute favorite book last year was Angela Sloan by James Whorton, Jr. (Free Press, New York, 2011. Paperback. $14.00). Incredibly fun yet at times a poignant coming-of-age novel about a teenager who suddenly finds herself on her own when her retired CIA officer dad disappears at the onset of the Watergate scandal. A mad-cap adventure filled with quirky, memorable characters. All bookstores should carry James Whorton, Jr. If this text is ever adapted for film I hope they do it right.
A favorite quote: ""I worry about you stealing things, Betty," I said. "That's not how we do it here! Get caught, and it causes me all kinds of problems. Now you're stealing potato sticks. The whole can costs twenty-seven cents! You're an illegal alien. Just pay for the can!""
What to eat: biscuits with sausage gravy.



Another fiction title that kept me engaged and curious was Meg Wolitzer's The Uncoupling (Riverhead Books, New York, 2011. Paperback. $15.00). A new drama teacher is hired at Eleanor Roosevelt High School and soon after rehearsals of the school play begin, relationships between couples throughout the community begin to change as women young and old begin to lose their sexual desire and want for intimacy. A great novel that looks at the value and meaning of love and sex.
A favorite quote: "They lived in a time in which it was tremendously difficult, as parents, to let children endure any pain. If you sensed their despair, you took it on as your own."
What to eat: carrots and hummus.


News Clips & Ego Trips: The Best of Next...Magazine, 1994-1998, edited by G. Murray Thomas (Write Bloody Publishing, Long Beach, CA, 2011. $17.00) is a wonderfully energetic look at the Southern California poetry scene in the 1990's provided by Next...Magazine. This historic catalog provides numerous articles, commentary, and interviews with Patricia Smith, Jeffrey McDaniel, Regie Cabico and many others. [Full disclosure: the editor of Radiuslit.org, of which I do occasional writings, is featured many times over in this incredible text. But that's not why I included it in my best books; it's a best book. Period.]
A favorite quote: "We are all more the same than we are different. Yet, simultaneously, there is a deep and important difference between people -- that of individual identity. Each person is unique. Each person is an individual spirit, and is therefore important."
What to eat: Alpha-bits cereal and beer.


Every time I run into a reader I ask them if they read John Irving's latest book, In One Person (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2012). What I loved about this text besides Billy Abbott, Miss Frost, and Billy's best friend, Elaine (let's face it-- there are many memorable characters) is the way Irving navigates the reader through questions of sexual identity in the 1950's to the startling, heartbreaking tragedies of all those that passed during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980's and early 90's; the story of Tom Atkins is unforgettable.   Beautiful, sad, funny, truthful, satiric, and at times, quirky. In One Person stayed with me many months later.
A favorite quote: "I'd managed to meet Miss Frost only because Richard recognized the absurdity of a small-town thirteen-year-old boy not having a library card."
What to eat:  More like what to drink. Whatever you do, leave the beer cans under the old chair.


I love art. And I love the characters in Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang. And there really is nothing I can say without allowing the book to speak for itself. It's incredibly fun, sad, and borders absurdity. The text alternates between performance art (a christmas carol, 1977 is one of my favorites) and the current realities of the Fangs' lives, particularly Annie and Buster (Child A and Child B, respectively) who eventually go in search of their missing parents.   If you like Wes Anderson films, you'll love Wilson's text.
A favorite quote:
 A & B,
We have art to make in North Carolina. We'll be back in a few days. Don't go into our room.
Love,
Caleb & Camille
What to eat: "Free goddamn chicken sandwiches."

Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman, Guggenheim Exhibit, Summer 2012

Note: The following post is one that I began over the summer, put aside for a while by other responsibilities. Hence, you'll notice the use of present tense.

I don't remember what drew me to her work, but one night I was working in my college library re-shelving art books. I stood beneath the fluorescent lighting in the stacks pausing now and then to flip through monographs and catalogs. And that's when I found Francesca Woodman by David Levi-Strauss et al; it was an extraordinary find. More than once did I check this book out of the library, studying her photographs, reading the essays. I cannot deny that her death was a curiosity to me- a talented woman so young creating work as early as age eleven that even then included advanced techniques in photography . However, I never felt that her photography made any connection to her death.  As a college student at Rhode Island School of Design, Woodman created the bulk of her work, mostly self-portraits. So many years later after my 'discovery' of this book, I had to see the Francesca Woodman retrospective at the Guggenheim.

I made myself wait. As excited as I was to be there, I made no rush to the third floor gallery, but traversed the funnel with ease, taking in the abstraction show; chatting quietly with my husband about a few of the works. I was disappointed Joan Mitchell was not represented. Unless I missed her, which I don't think so. I allowed anticipation within myself to build in order to fully take in the Woodman exhibit with as much focus as possible. When we entered the short hall into the gallery I forced myself to read the wall text before beginning a provocative journey.

The exhibit is curated chronologically, beginning with photographs taken while at RISD, including one year abroad in Italy, followed by her residency at the MacDowell Colony in  New Hampshire. The exhibit concludes with the New York photos. At first I was surprised by the size of her early pictures; I had only seen one of her photos on display at RISD 'cornered' with a Nan Goldin photograph during the Aaron Siskind show six or seven years ago. The photos are small, requiring attention. Here and now, I stop at each piece looking as carefully as possible, reading the pictures, sometimes eavesdropping on other viewers: "Hmmm."  "Interesting."  "Narcissistic." "Hmmm."

The exhibition catalog is a gorgeous tome featuring essays by the associate curator of photography at SFMOMA and catalogeditor, Corey Keller, curator of photography at the Guggenheim Jennifer Blessing, and associate professor of art history  at the University of California Berkley Julia Bryan-Wilson. In Corey Keller's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman" he explores as much as one can, her brief life as an artist from her upbringing through the New York years; the  but what I love about Keller's piece are the descriptive, near poetic, passages in regards to Woodman's photographs: 

Though she sometimes demurred that her sole motivation for appearing in her photographs was that of convenience, it appears to have been rather more a productive compulsion, albeit one she chose not to examine to closely. Despite her perpetual presence in the photographs, she is always on the verge of disappearance. her face is most often obscured from the camera; on the rare occasions when she fixes us squarely in her gaze, the effect is riveting but disquietingly unrevealing (178).

Bryan-Wilson's text, "Blurs: Toward a Provisional Historiography of Francesca Woodman looks at "some of the trends and patterns in the writing about Woodman... the text is not organized around close readings of her photographs, but rather attends to the thematics of interpretation that have surrounded her work since the critical literature began in 1986" (186).  The essay does not lend itself to biographical discussion, but considers the historical dialogue as told by other critics, feminist or otherwise, on Woodman as a female artist.  Finally Jennifer Blessing's text focuses on six untitled videos created by Woodman during her time at RISD, and "explore[s] the relationship between photography and video... the still and moving image" (197). All three of these essays will remain relevant and important in the study of Woodman and her work. Besides, they are simply a pleasure to read.

What always fascinated me about Francesca Woodman's art was the absence of face, or the blur or conceal of face in the majority of self-portraits, which suggests that her intentions were not narcissistic, but simply an exploration of the self in movement, meaning, and the pre-emptive opportunity to non-acquiesce to any one's gaze: You can look at my body, but I won't tell anyone if I'm pretty or not. I won't let you see me completely, try to read my eyes like you think you might know what I'm thinking. For me, her photographs are playful at times, disturbing at others, and even though she was aware of feminist discourse as discussed in Blessing's essay, I do not necessarily see her work as feminist. I see a young woman exploring her relationship within the frame of a natural and unnatural world. As much as I love her early work as a RISD student, through my experience at viewing this exhibit, reading the catalog and reflecting more on her pictures, I like the MacDowell Colony series the best; clothed and unclothed, her birch bark arms, her stance in patterned dresses that lean to mimic the trees, each picture untitled as they should be. 

My latest essay for RadiusLit.org reflects my emotions on the Newtown tragedy. This was a horrible, horrible incident, and I had mixed feelings on responding to it, but at the same time felt there was no other way. My heart goes out to the community. How we live in a world where this is possible is incomprehensible.

http://www.radiuslit.org/2012/12/15/crying-my-little-one-footsore-and-weary/

"What I Know": The Season Finale, and Final Episode of AMC's The Killing

Open: The Larsen household. Flashback to the Larsen weekend away. Mitch is packing, the boys are begging Rosie to come camping with them, but she says next time. Mitch instructs Rosie to go straight to Sterling's house after the dance.  Rosie watches her mother, glances about, smiling- she knows something we don't. She heads downstairs with backpack, staring at Stan, and walks out of the house. The last time she is seen at home. Here, she closes the door as she exits, this episode soon closes the door on her murder.

The election continues to unfold and the results are about to come in. Holder and Linden arrive at the Richmond party looking for Jamie. We left off last week with Jamie and Richmond at Jamie's grandfather's house. Jamie quickly wheels Darren out of the house saying he has a car to take him to the party.. The detectives and Gwen take off to hunt them down.  Jamie takes Darren to the campaign office. "I want to show you something." 

...

"Why did you lie?"
 Jamie claims his grandfather is a drunk and a liar, there's no need to believe anything he says. Darren asks Jamie

Jamie admits he planted the Indian bones at the waterfront so Darren would approve a casino on the waterfront. 

"What happened to the girl?"
"It was an accident!!"

...

Rosie, saying her goodbyes to the city, overhears the argument regarding the waterfront casino between Jamie, Chief Jackson and Ames. He turns out the light, and as he's walking away hears a cell phone ring- Rosie's phone. And finds her on the tenth floor, same room as the discussion. Rosie, startled and scared , cannot speak. Rosie drops her camera and Jamie is immediately suspicious. He hits Rosie, she  falls to the ground. He believes she's dead. "She was going to ruin everything. It was an accident." As we all know she was alive when the car went into the water. Jamie takes out a gun, which belongs to Darren.  Jamie continues to tell his side of the story. He thought she was dead, but wasn't. He couldn't let her live after coming so far in the campaign. He chased her through the woods until he reached her and slammed the flashlight on her head multiple times. "I was only thinking of you" he tells Darren. "Everything I've always done has been for you." Anger erupts when Darren tries to leave. Sarah, Holder and Gwen are running up the stairs and tell Jamie to drop the gun. In an amazing shot of who fired the gun, we see within seconds that Holder shoots Jamie after he raised his gun to fire at them. 

And there's forty-five minutes of programming left.

...

Next day: Jamie's gun was empty. But it doesn't matter, he was a murder suspect who raised his gun.
Back at the station they've got Michael Ames and Chief Jackson in custody. Examining Jamie's phone records they discover a call to Michael Ames at 3:37 AM and they recall the cab....

Richmond is in the campaign office. Gwen joins his side. He's waiting for the cleaners to take care of the glass and the carpets need replacing. Darren works on a speech for the press regarding Jamie's death. 

The camera pans as Richmond enters City Hall. The Mayor walks in recounting his past and mentions that he's from Pigeon Point, Jamie's home town. 'You have the makings of great leader Darren," and the Mayor exits the room. Darren visits his dead wife, Lily, and recognizes that it's 'time to move on.' Linden and Holder head down to the lake where the campaign car was pulled out of the water. Here's where it all began, but has yet to end. Jamie's story ends with a chase in the woods. His story doesn't end with Rosie in the trunk, drowning in the lake. Someone helped him. The detectives get back in the car and head to the Larsen's home.

When they arrive Terry is there, but Stan and Mitch are out. Linden glances around the garage and spots something. A busted tail light on Terry's car. Linden goes upstairs and finds Terry sitting on Rosie's bed. 

"You were there at the lake, weren't you? You picked him up from the ferry that night. Both of you were both going to the airport for that flight to Vegas. And that's when he got the call about a girl in the woods."

"Rosie was nine when I read her the story of the Monarch butterfly. She love it. It was like, like she believed the world could be hers. Everything in it."

"You ... . He was going to leave his wife for you wasn't he?... You were going to have everything."

Stan and Mitch enter the bedroom. They ask them to go downstairs. Terry begins to apologize and Linden tells her not to do this here. She's a wonderful actress and as this scene continues her performance is breathtakingly sad, harkening back the reception following Rosie's funeral when Ames and Terry  see each other; Terry leaves and we next see her in Rosie's bedroom crying, while a record plays.

...

Flashback: Terry waiting in the car while Jamie and Michael argue over Rosie, and Terry overhears Michael say he's not leaving his wife. Terry gets out of the car -we see expensive shoes reminding us of her profession, reminding of the shoes from season one- and Terry gets into the campaign car, puts it in neutral and the car rolls into the lake. She doesn't know it's Rosie. A heartless gesture for unrequited love as Rosie's screams sink into the water.

 And now, here we see her again. 

"I didn't know. I didn't know it was Rosie."

But when did she know? When did she realize the result of actions was the killing of her own niece? And does this even matter knowing that Terry has the ability to murder?

Linden and Holder separate Stan from Terry as he lunges after her; Holder reminds him the boys are downstairs. Linden holds onto to Terry, and the look on Sarah's face is one of pity as we see her hand reach and caress Terry ever so slightly on her back. Terry runs to Mitch, holds her, screaming and crying that she didn't know. Surprisingly, Mitch lifts her arms in a loose hold around her sister, possibly accepting the anguish rippling through Terry's body. 

...

Following the commercial break we're back at the station. Holder enters their office, Linden sitting in the dark. She asks for a cigarette, but he's all out. Terry declined a lawyer and is being transported to county in a couple of hours. An officer drops off the Rosie Larsen film. Sarah exits to watch the footage: "What I know" a film by Rosie Larsen. The world is vast... I know I want to see it all. ...Just like you wanted to Mom... I don't know where I'm going, but I'll let you know when I get there.  I know Tommy and Denny Mom and Dad I love you! The film includes family shots, seagulls flying freely above the waterfront symbolic of her impending freedom, yet flying toward heavenly skies forshadowing the outcome of her destination.

...

Linden and Holder get the call. A body was found and their first up. Linden gets out of the car, perhaps contemplating whether to stay on the job. or say good bye. She's leaving. "Keep in touch. You're my ride, you know." Sarah watches Holder pull away as she looks over at the Larsen's old place. She walks the neighborhood sidewalks, walks away from the job, we think free from the psychology of her own past, her experience as a detective, and since the show has not been renewed, walks off the set.

Chief Jackson enters for a meeting along with Michael Ames. Gwen looks on as Darren closes the door on her. She is shocked at what is happening.  He's just as bad as everyone else.

...

Stan wakes up that morning to find Mitch packing up Rosie's room. He joins her on the floor, and helps. Later, Stan drives the family to their new home. It's wonderful to see that Mitch has made concessions if not come to understand the need for the whole family to move on from Rosie's demise. There are many touching moments in the scenes with the Larsen family: Stan lingering over Belko's locker if only for a moment; Terry arriving and Mitch feeling the guilt of her last moments with Rosie. The finale was directed by Patty Jenkins, who also directed the pilot. An incredibly powerful season finale with outstanding performances.

...

I began this entry the night of the finale, but life brought larger things into play, taking precedence  over completing this entry. As time continued and the summer became increasingly busy, I let things go for a bit. You might wonder, why bother posting this now? Well, endings are required for new beginnings; in order for me to continue with other writings on my blog, I had to conclude this one, even though it feels incomplete. With that said, we'll see if a Season Three comes to fruition since Netflix and AMC are in talks. 

Donnie or Marie. I Love. It. AMC's The Killing

So who's it gonna be? Donnie or Marie? 


Last week's episode leads us to believe that either Gwen or Jamie is responsible for the Larsen murder. They know the Mayor doctored the photo of Richmond passing through the toll may episodes ago, but Sarah offers to 'drop it' and pursue the Richmond campaign in the Larsen case if the Mayor agrees to call off the 'dogs' waiting to arrest her and Holder. They hole up in Holder's car and review the evidence from the night Rosie was killed. They discover that Gwen canceled her dinner plans that night and her where abouts were unknown. Jamie, on the other hand, "went to the City Hall gym at 4:37 AM. Security guard didn't let him in; didn't have his key card" (Holder). Sarah goes to City Hall to inquire about key card replacements, but a Mr. Kimberg (sp?) says that the list of key card holders was deleted from his hard drive on Monday, October 8th, the Monday following the Larsen murder. However, a new card was issued to Gwen. Now the assumption is the card found on the 10th floor belonged to Gwen, but Holder and Linden head back to the casino to retrieve the security disks that provides video of passengers on the elevator headed to that floor (which later reveal Jamie riding up in the elevator). After a brief, unpleasant verbal exchange with Chief Jackson, a photograph on the wall catches Sarah's eye. The picture includes Gwen standing with Chief Jackson  and her father, a the ribbon cutting ceremony for the casino. The detectives now have a solid connection between Gwen and the casino, but Linden asks the remaining questions, "What is her connection to Ames?" The answer may lead them to the next link: the Waterfront Project. Now, cut to the voting booths. Gwen takes Richmond outside to wait for the car and give a shielded interpretation of her own goodwill and work for the campaign: "I tried so hard for you. We came so far, Darren." When the limosine arrives Gwen makes a quick exit and says, "I'll see you at the next stop." Her transition from grasping Darren's hand and releasing it is emotionally suspect. With these latest allegations and investigations by Linden and Holder it is too easy to read into both Gwen and Jamie a lingering guilt.


After checking with Gwen's canceled dinner with Council woman Yitanis, she tells the detectives that Gwen uses sex to maintain control over the Richmond campaign. We also learn that Michael Ames' wife is actually the owner and controller over the Ames company. We than encounter a grand twist. As the title of this episode suggests Jamie is not left out from speculation: Jamie helped push through Ames' contract for the Waterfront Project. Holder and Linden go back to the campaign office to speak with Jamie and learn that Richmond was unaware of Jamie's intent to sway one of the Mayor's backers by helping Ames out with expediting the contract.
This idea also surfaces: "What if Gwen and Jamie did it together?"


Linden and Holder head to the yacht club valet and find the campaign car was driven by Gwen Eaton  to the club. This is the car Rosie Larsen's body was found in.


Meanwhile, Mitch is home on Halloween night and in many ways her arrival is more of a disruption and is mostly welcomed by her youngest son, Denny. Terry is less then thrilled, and Tommy, her oldest son remains angry at her abandonment and subsequent return. Mitch seems to expect everyone in the household to continue living as if she never left. When Mitch brings Denny home from school he asks his Aunt Terry to make him a grilled cheese sandwich. Mitch offers to do it, but Denny like the way Aunt Terry makes them. Terry reassures her that they'll be happy to have her back cooking after all the grilled cheese sandwiches they've been eating lately. This slight jab of truth and anger brings out this exchange between characters:


"You know, I found a new place to live not to far from here." (Terry)
"This yours?" Mitch holds up a bra.
"Oh, yeah, I just put some of my stuff in twith the laundry. So I guess you guy's will be busy moving soon so I better get my ass in gear."
"Moving?"
"I thought that since you were back-"
"What house? What are you talking about."
'I'm sorry, I thought that you knew. I found out by accident. You should just talk to Stan about it."
"Yeah, yeah I will.'
"Don't be mad at him. We all did the best we could while you were gone. It was hard. Stan, the boys, they needed-'
'What, Terry? They needed what? You have no right to judge me... you don't know what it's like, you don't have a family you don't have children. It's like, what do you know about any of this?'
'What I know is, I've been working my ass off to keep this family together while you were trying to 'find' yourself on some vision quest. You still had so much, Mitch, And you walked out. You walked out."


Later, Mitch confronts Stan about the house, realizing she should have trusted him that their money didn't go toward illegal activity, but into a home with a backyard. Stan sees this new home as a fresh start for the family, but Mitch sees it another way:
".... I came back to be here. With you and the boys... I don't want to leave this, I don't want to leave her behind."
Stan comes clean with his feelings:
"You know there's no moving on. As long as we're here, in this house... Yeah, I think we should move on. You don't have a right to look at me like that. What I've been through these last few weeks... you're the one who left. The boys, the boys needed you. I needed you and you walked out. I was the one who stayed."


Mitch is entitled to believe that the role of mother gave her the right to leave (just as Sarah's role as mother allowed her to say goodbye to Jack) that she loved her daughter more than Stan simply because she's blood and technically Stan was her step-father. His anger toward Mitch is more than warranted as her decision to leave the family was of her own accord.


So who killed Rosie Larsen? Tonight is the big reveal, the season finale of AMC's The Killing, and unfortunately, the last episode. This program has been incredibly sustainable through great writing, storytelling, and acting; it's a terrible shame that a smart, literary drama was not renewed another season. My post on the finale will publish tomorrow night (6/18 after 9PM). I hope to continue posting occasional writings on the show, specifically criticisms in relation to family, politics and feminism.  I've always viewed The Killing as a good, compelling read.


What's for dinner: grilled cheese sandwich with the crusts cut off.