BOOKS Brenda Iijima, Eugene Marten MUSIC JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN SMALL PRESS Subpress Collective BOOG CITY POETRY Alan Semerdjian, Elizabeth Treadwell A COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER FROM A GROUP OF ARTISTS AND WRITERS BASED IN AND AROUND NEW YORK CITY’S EAST VILLAGE ISSUE 17 JUNE 2004 FREE BOOG CITY Interview: Anne Waldman Poet, Performer, Educator on Naropa, Buddhism, and Gender BY GREG FUCHS she works hard at her writing. to know Waldman. nne Waldman—an inspirational, nurturing, Although Waldman made the scene on the I have visited her and revolutionary force in American eve of the summer of love, she is pre-rock-n-roll. at her house in Apoetry for four decades—still inspires She conjures up the fire and brimstone spirit the West Village, audiences to curse, tremble, and weep. that influenced early rockers like Esquerita more photographed her, When he’s done, he declares, ‘That’s a Waldman has written many books, than her 1960s contemporaries. The earth and talked to her published more by other authors with Lewis quakes and walls shake when Waldman is on about poetry. She good song,’ and heads back to his seat. Nicolaus Czarnecki photo Warsh through their press Angel Hair, directed stage. She is witness to the love and hate that is beautiful and the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church through humans wield. She testifies like a holy-rolling busy but still has its inaugural years, collaborated with visual preacher channeling the primal energy of one time to engage with artists like George Schneeman, and, with who has returned from the other side yet lived colleagues and Allen Ginsberg, started The Jack Kerouac to tell of the horrors they have seen. students. Inspired School for Disembodied Poetics at the then Naropa is coming upon its 30th anniversary. by Naropa’s Greg Greg Fuchs photo Naropa Institute now University in Boulder, New York Times Magazine editor Paul Tough anniversary I Colo. Recently she has organized Poetry Is missed this crucial detail in his February review decided to ask her a few questions. seems amazing that we have survived so far in News with Ammiel Alacaly to address the rise of Sam Kashner’s When I Was Cool: My Life the Late Capitalist period. of terrorism and warfare worldwide. At the Jack Kerouac School. I have not read When is the anniversary of the Jack The rock-n-roll cliché “you don’t play it, you Kashner’s memoir, but many reviews suggest Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics When, how, and with who did you live it” accounts for the many early passings that his demystification of Beat idols, including at Naropa University? start the school? Explain the origin of the of terrific artists, musicians, and poets of Waldman, though somewhat historically The 30th anniversary of the entire Naropa name. Waldman’s generation. It also explains why misplaced, emboldens square lovers of good University, which includes the Kerouac School, Naropa itself—the larger container—started those more hip to lifestyle than to life do not poems like a neo-conservative rant against runs this summer through all of the next with the Tibetan Buddhist lama Trungpa seem to possess the same aliveness as she the liberal bias in the media—mean-spirited, academic year. We invite anyone who has Rinpoche, a handful of his Buddhist students, a does in their poems today. Waldman works it; misguided, unresearched, and untrue. ever been a student or faculty or visitor to think gaggle of poets, artists, theatre folk, dancers, she works the territory, but, more importantly, During the past several months I have gotten kindly on us—visit, celebrate, send support. It Please see FUCHS page 4 What the Purple One Taught Me in 1984 BY ROGER HITTS only a passing knowledge of what went down in our own state Orange. Purple Rain became the ubiquitous soundtrack for at y the year 1984 we were still growing out of our short at Hitsville, U.S.A., and James Brown was more likely to conjure least one year of college—it blasted from every beat-up LeSabre pants musically. Understand, growing up in Flint, Mich., up images of the kid sitting next to you in Moral Ethics class than cruising down So. High Street, every frat house window, and Bwe were rock-n-roll boneheads fed a steady diet of local the Godfather of Soul. every dormitory on campus. heroes like The Nooge, Seger, and that Funky Railroad. Artistes But nothing could have prepared us for what came across Many of the aforementioned bands did amazing things like Iggy Pop were to be scorned, not celebrated. the reviewer’s desk in June 1984. There was a purple man who to our eggshell minds and managed to shake the Flint out of But ah, those college years—the birth of alternative radio, wore a purple suit and put out a purple album, a soundtrack us—no small feat. They paved the way for a lifetime of musical called college rock back then, and my ears, along with me for a movie that hadn’t even been released called Purple Rain. pleasure that continued with Hüsker Dü and the Jesus and Mary pals, pricked up to sounds a bit more rash at times, a bit more As stated before, we were all woefully ignorant when it came Chain riding up through the grunge era and our current love of subtle at others, but all fell into the challenging category while to black music—we knew of Prince through the video for “Little bands from The Stills to The Soundtrack of Our Lives. And yes, Journey, Foreigner, and Styx fell by the wayside. There were the Red Corvette,” which, truthfully, didn’t turn anyone’s head or we learned to appreciate our Midwestern Mitten man Iggy to first fumbling steps toward appreciating new, up-and-coming turn anyone onto the Minny musicologist. All we knew was that boot. But it was Prince who raised the stakes and challenged groups like the Psychedelic Furs and U2, then barreling straight he was dirty but he didn’t belong in the rock lexicon that to us us to not only look at Sly and the Family Stone as a profound ahead on into a brave new world of music. REM’s Murmur stretched from Rush to Millions of Dead Cops. musical statement for the first time in our goofy little lives, but of 1983 was a watershed, as was Gang of Four’s Songs of What a record! On from the get-go, Prince putting a opened the possibilities of what a song could be by structure, the Free. X gave us More Fun In The New World. By 1984, decidedly rock spin on “Let’s Go Crazy”—even ending it with texture, and emotion. being made editor of my college paper at Central Michigan a blistering guitar God break that gave us a reference point University gave me a once-in-lifetime opportunity to be a to our past musical idols—Michael Schenker would be proud. tastemaker for 17,000 people between the ages of 18 and 22, The absolutely charming “Take Me With U,” with a chorus that and I took the challenge seriously. I immediately hired myself as stuck in your head like a rivet to the Chevy’s our fathers built, Douglas Rothschild chief album reviewer. followed up. “When Doves Cry” was carried by a beat that Albany, N.Y. Sure, we made missteps along the way. Buddy Rich (the sounded like it didn’t come from any place on this world as friend, not the drummer) and I made the 150-mile trek to Detroit we knew it. “Purple Rain” was a genuine rock anthem, all nine Reichssicherheitshauptamt and to catch the hottest of new bands, Big Country. We thought they minutes of simmering, slow jam glory that could stand next to the WITH COURAGE WE CAN were the dizzying height of new music—even with a set list so canon of rock anthems. Finally, a new “Stairway to Heaven,” a LEARN FROM HISTORY sparse they played their eponymous FM hit Big Country twice new “Bohemian Rhapsody.” And best of all, the whole album in an hour. Big Country ran out of gas before they had even sounded great with Columbian Gold! It was black music as filled ’er up. filtered through our Midwestern Caucasian sensibility—which It’s no longer clear where we are. They say it’s a new century but i’m just not Still, we were making a snail’s progress toward building probably made sense, since Prince was a Midwesterner himself, sure. Between the lines in the papers once a better musical understanding and better record collections. around our age, and probably heard most of the same shit we written on an 8th grade level, i read And that was thanks in no small part to record labels that did growing up. quotes from the Government in Chief, “War Is finally realized there was gold in them thar hills of college I wrote enthusiastically about Purple Rain in the student Peace.” & from the statements made by the heads campuses and bombarded us with new releases from XTC, paper. I called the record “a major statement from an up-and- of his new Schutz Staffle i have come to Dream Syndicate, Eurythmics and, er, Kajagoogoo. We would coming artist who sounds like he still has plenty of musical understand that “Slavery Is Freedom.” sit around rapt listening to that first Violent Femmes record—we mountains left to climb.” In retrospect, I’m not sure he ever & his Minister of Peace informs me never heard anything like it, and 20 years on, still never climbed them or ever reached the heights of Purple Rain that our once so well scripted war against Eurasia is, despite appearances, have.