A Website of the Radical Imagination
Rudolph Wurlitzer’s novels have moved a generation of writers and rockers. He’s carried his themes and dreams along the “celluoid trail,” writing screenplays for memorable movies such as “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” “Little Buddha,” “Walker” and “Candy Mountain.” His latest novel, “The Drop Edge of Yonder,” is a book (as per Patti Smith) … Read more
Revolutionary Letter #71 For Bella Akhmadulina Note: In her great poem, “I Swear,” written for her forerunner, the poet Marian Tsvetaeva, Bella Akhmadulina vows to “kill Yelabung,” the town in which Tsvetaeva hanged herself in 1941. Akhmadulina addresses the town as if it were some kind of malevolent entity or demon. A life for a … Read more
it was an invention of the late great great joel oppenheimer who invented a lot of things but let other guys take credit for them cause he didn’t wanna get involved in office work the lazy bum he just wanted to sit in the lions head (or the cedars or dillons or mcsorleys) and invent … Read more
Carmelita Estrellita has a dozen songs in the new “First of the Year: 2010”. Here’s a snap-shot of her life and times and five bonus tracks. Puff Peace I arrived in Charlottesville having been homeless for the previous 10 of my 22 years, if you don’t count never feeling at home at home in the … Read more
Clearing My Desk I’m sorry I was sick on the road at the gym on retreat meeting a deadline buying socks freaked out watching baseball painting grieving when you came to town I was too broke tired busy discouraged dirty unhinged ecstatic embarrassed sad desperate to answer yr letter in which you asked me for … Read more
Mother Lion The tawny, long-necked lady talking on a rhinestone studded cell phone who drove her caddy into a cab which knocked into the back of my car where my son slept in his plastic seat, now gestures, graceful as an antelope, apologizing to the taxi’s beefy passenger while we all stand in freezing drizzle … Read more
Yes, we can! This election shifts the exhausted, greedy tone of our time, makes the country stron- ger, able again to change. He looks nice onscreen, far better than that crone, Hillary. Shoots hoops like a Celtic. Blacks and women vote in droves; teens high on hope wear his silkscreened face. Icon already. A profile … Read more