JOHN BRANDI ~

Winter sunrise —

summer mountains turn gold

on the hanging scroll

Who are you?

the mirror

            never stops

Eight a.m.

the eyes of the housefly

already on me

You lead

I'll follow

            butterfly

Turning the compost

and into it

my shadow

No wine

I let the moon

fill my glass

A bath under the stars

all burdens

             to the breeze

New robe

way too large

for these bones

Pink sunrise

—bush cherry

in full bloom

All morning

wander the cosmos

without leaving the garden

Endless ambition

the petals

scatter

Inflation

too poor to leave

too poor to stay

__________________

John Brandi

from The Rain Sweeps Through

Empty Bowl, 2023

STORIES OF THE BODY MILITANT ~

 

R E A D    M E

   Europa 2024

RANDY KEHLER ~

 

Mr. Kehler and his wife, Betsy Corner, outside their home in Colrain, Mass., in the late 1980s. They had refused to pay federal taxes on the property in protest against military spending, which led the I.R.S. to seize the house. Credit...via Greenfield Recorder

R A N D Y   K E H L E R

Gordon Randall Kehler was born on July 16, 1944, in Bronxville, N.Y. ~

d. July 21, 2024 at his home in Shelburne Falls, Mass.

THE DOUBLE LIFE OF BOB DYLAN ~

 

   Little, Brown

THE VILLAGE VOICE ~

 

R E A D    M E

    PublicAffairs 2024

Walter Murch (CINEMA) ~

 

Jul 25, 2024

Walter Murch, the Oscar-winning film editor and sound designer, talks about his work on The Conversation, Francis Ford Coppola's Coppola’s thriller about our surveillance society. The Palme d’Or-winning film, 50 this year, is a film that continues to grow in relevance and stature. Gene Hackman has rarely been better than he is in this conspiracy thriller, playing surveillance expert Harry Caul. A solitary, intensely private individual, Harry strives for an ethical approach to his work, even as he struggles with pangs of guilt for his past mistakes. His obsession with latest job – he believes he may have discovered a murder plot – makes him increasingly paranoid. Coppola wrings every last drop of tension from his lean screenplay while an impressive supporting cast and David Shire’s celebrated score contribute to a sense of unease. Released at the height of the Watergate Scandal in the US, the film now feels prophetic in its portrait of an all-pervasive surveillance culture.

Summer Colors

 Summer Colors

~ a hummingbird visits ~buildings, stone & firewood built by Bob ~ flowers by Bob & Susan

Green River, July 2024

all photos by sea

EDNA O' BRIEN ~

 

E D N A   O' B R I E N

b. 1930, Tuamgraney, a rural hamlet in County Clare, Ireland

THE CHANTELS ~

 

NATASHA TRETHEWEY ~

 

R E A D   M E

The 2022 Windham Campbell Lecture

Yale 2024

JIM GORDON, DRUMMER ~

 

RE A D   M E

Diversion Books, 2024

BYTHER SMITH ~

 

THE DISTORTED HISTORY OF THE CASSETTE TAPE ~

 

R E A D   M E

The University of

North Carolina Press

2023

JOHN MAYALL GOODBYE ~

 

J O H N   M A Y A L L

born in Macclesfield, England, just outside Manchester, on Nov. 29, 1933 ~ (2024)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvU5X5NTcM4

REPEAT (HENRY NILSSON) ~

 

JOAN ACOCELLA ~

 

R E A D    M E

Acocella was lost to us early in 2024 —

read this collection of diverse portraits,

essays, mind-sweeps, whatever you wish to call them —

even one on Gianni Rodari — and

know what we have lost.

Farrar Straus Giroux

2024

HELEN HUMPHREYS ADDRESSES THOREAU ~

 

R E A D   M E

Farrar Straus Giroux

2024

EVGENIA ARBUGAEVA ~STORIES FROM THE ARCTIC ~

 

R E A D    M E

   Thames & Hudson

2023

FRANTZ FANON ~

 

T H E   R E B E L ' S   C L I N I C

Adam Shatz

Farrar, 2024

HAPPY TRAUM ~

 

H A P P Y   T R A U M

b. Bronx, NY 1938 ~ 2024

Happy Traum, left, in performance with his younger brother, Artie, at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village in 1970. The brothers performed at the Newport Folk Festival, toured the world and released five albums.Credit...

Sherry Rayn Barnett/Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty Images