Wu

What's your Wu-Tang name? I'm "the Smilin' Prophet." My wife's "The Scratchin' Assassin."

Looking for Lenny at Rolling Stone

Looking for Lenny article at Rolling Stone.

Joe Brainard and Looking for Lenny Trailer

Joe Brainard's Collected Writings. Out soon!

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Looking for Lenny trailer here.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Mr. Lenny Bruce!

I was fifteen-years-old when I was first confronted by the work of Lenny Bruce. This came via the Christian Slater movie Pump up the Volume. Slater's character starts a pirate radio station in his parents' suburban home basement in Phoenix, Arizona. From a sleepy-ass community, "Happy Harry Hard-on," as Slater's character called himself, stirs trouble when he realizes the power he possesses over the airwaves. Songs by Bad Brains, The Pixies, and The Jesus and Mary Chain blast nightly as Happy Harry Hard-on stirs his classmates toward a social revolution. Inspired by Bruce, the thoughtful loner, Mark(Slater's character), inspires others to think for themselves and to take the future into their own hands. At the end of the movie, Mark...

Lenny Bruce fascinated me immediately. I watched documentaries and read bios, preparing for the revolution I was going to help ignite in El Centro, California. My band of misfits united! I rented the Dustin Hoffman flick, Lenny, from Video 2000, and paid dearly in late fees and scowls from the owner at the counter. Bruce tackled racism, class, and other institutions in ways that no one had done before him. Reading about this dude inspired me to pick up the pen and play music, to think more closely about how humor could be used to combat social problems. In short, it was an education that was so removed from high school textbooks, yet evaluated the power structures that were glorified within them, that I was immediately intoxicated and grew ten feet a day as I ingested this stuff.

I mention this now, because one of my oldest friends has recently completed Looking for Lenny, a documentary project about the legacy of Lenny Bruce that he's (and his associates) been working on over the last few years. I remember the initial stages of the project: biographies and papers everywhere in his (Matt Amar) small room in Banker's Hill, San Diego, just a few blocks from San Diego's The Casbah. That's where it began. And now it's available on demand and Netflix. Luminaries in the film include Paul Krassner, Lewis Black, Sandra Bernhard, Robin Williams, and others.

Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company's How I Got That Story Featured

Voice of San Diego has launched a new series about the arts called "Arts Embedded." Check out the story here. Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company has recently been featured. Check out the series in four parts: 1), 2), 3), 4).

Here's a little song from Stephin Merritt's Obscurities that I've been playing over and over again. I love how the song washes out at the end.

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Two poetry collections that I'm looking forward to this spring:

Javier O. Huerta's American Copia
Eduardo C. Corral's Slow Lightening

Do yourself a favor and acquire them as well.

News

Please click the link to read my second post over at Mo`olelo. Also, please visit Letras Latinas to see the interview I did there. Thanks LL! October's going to be fantastic! Poet, Luivette Resto, and Cumbia Machin on stage at the 10th Ave Theater!

2012 began with an incredible opportunity to visitEl Salvador with a group of students and teachers. The trip was organized by my two colleagues, Julio Delgado and Patrick Holder. Julio and Patrick have been traveling with students to different regions inCentral Americaover the last five years, immersing kids in the spirit of service learning while experiencing the rich and vibrant cultural offerings that these countries provide. I must also add the following: Julio, my co-worker and friend, is Salvadoran, and he experienced the chaos that afflicted his country firsthand during the 80s. The stories that he’s shared with me over the years has been a rigorous and humbling education. As a master community-organizer, and with the infectious energy to fuel it, the insights and experiences he provided us on this trip were astounding.

from a Notebook

"Sometimes I think my tongue is a desert praying for rain!"

-Benjamin Alire Saenz

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"If you draw a tree the way it really looks, no one will believe you."

-Joe Brainard

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Telephone Booth 32439

if you hit a poet
& he doesn't hit you back
leave town immediately
take out life insurance
get a new identity
unite with transvestites
sleep with unlisted numbers!

-Pedro Pietri

Dia de la Mujer Celebration--Jury Exhibition

Casa Familiar's THE FRONT announces 5th Annual Dia de la Mujer Celebration--Jury Exhibition. Click here for guidelines!

Patti As Blaise Cendrars

Photo by Judy Linn