Even though music takes half the time and focus of this project, I find myself talking about it hardly at all, which is probably unfair here “Where Music and Words Meet.” So, today I’m going to talk more about music. If that’s not your interest, I’m still going to ask you to keep reading, as … Continue reading Jimi Hendrix 2018
Today’s piece uses my own words to present some images regarding American musician and songwriter Jimi Hendrix. Just like William Carlos Williams meditation on a small plant last time, I pretty much follow the famous Imagist rules: direct treatment of the thing, no unnecessary words, and musical phrasing instead of mechanical metrical feet. Each one … Continue reading For the American Hendrix
We are over half-way through Black History month and I’ve mostly spoken obliquely about it. I think that’s my nature. As poet I’m often doomed to reader response that they just don’t get it, and that bothers me, because in my mind I’m intending to link disparate things because I think that’s powerful. But in … Continue reading Heartened
I started out this January trying to translate Rimbaud, and it’s only as the month is ending that I’ve finally got something to present. Why was this such a struggle? Well, some of it’s me. I’m having a harder time this winter keeping up this project, and by focusing recently on translation I’ve only made … Continue reading Rimbaud’s Eternity
Continuing our review of the Top Ten most liked and listened to pieces this past season here at the Parlando Project, here are the next three. My son likes to needle me by asking what old dead white men I’m presenting today on the blog. What could be my defense? I could respond that many … Continue reading Fall 2019 Parlando Top Ten, numbers 7-5
It’s perhaps my favorite scene in D. A. Pennebaker’s Bob Dylan documentary Don’t Look Back. Pennebaker has setup this narrative as Dylan tours England in 1965, introduced with shots of British music newspapers touting the teen-aged Donovan as Dylan’s rival. My well-remembered scene is shot in Dylan’s Savoy hotel room, where boffins can pick out … Continue reading Brancusi’s Golden Bird
Here’s something I’ve noted in the years I’ve been doing this: these quarterly Top 10 lists advantage pieces posted earlier in the season since they have more weeks to accumulate listens and likes. So it was quite an achievement for D. H. Lawrence’s “A Winter’s Tale” posted near the end of February to make it … Continue reading The Most Popular Parlando Project audio piece this past spring is…
Despite Orrick Johns’ lack of poetic fame, our curious audience seems to be responding to “Ollendorf’s Wife.” Are you forgiving my unilateral revision of Johns’ 1917 words? OK, here’s another rule breaker. The same day that I recorded the acoustic version of“Ollendorf’s Wife” I also recorded this folk-rock performance with bass, drums, organ, and electric … Continue reading Ollendorf’s Wife ‘Bout Changes and Things
Continuing on with our countdown of the most liked and listened to audio pieces during this past summer here at the Parlando Project, today we’ll look at the pieces that came in 7 through 5 as we move up the list to the most popular piece. 7. The Hunter. Maybe, with Internet audiences, it’s the … Continue reading Summer 2018 Parlando Top Ten, Part Two
As long-time readers here will know, the Parlando Project likes to vary what it does. Loud, immediate and approximate rock’n’roll, string quartets, folkie and electronica tinges combine with words that I look around for—different stories each time, most of them not mine. Are we now going to vary from Bronze Age Chinese poetry collected to … Continue reading Sincerely, M. Cohen
