[contextly_auto_sidebar] HE was born before Elvis, had his songs covered by everyone from Judy Collins to the Pixies, and managed five decades of brilliant work in a field that tends to see only bright flares. Leonard Cohen is known as a more-or-less rock musician to most of us, but he started out as a poet, publishing books for a decade before his debut LP. The other day I met Cohen's son, … [Read more...]
The Literary Courtney Barnett
[contextly_auto_sidebar] I CAN remember only a few times I've heard a song and immediately known I was hearing a major talent, someone I'd be paying attention to for years to come. The Smiths, Liz Phair, Pavement, Thelonious Monk, and Glenn Gould have all struck me that way. Time will tell if she really belongs in their company, but the Aussie singer-songwriter knocked me out with her song … [Read more...]
Richard Wilbur, American Poet, 1921-2017
[contextly_auto_sidebar] JUST a quick post to note the death of the great poet and translator Richard Wilbur. Until two days ago, when he passed away at 96, I would have called him America's finest living poet. Like most kids, I studied some poetry in high school and college -- Eliot, Auden, Yeats, Langston Hughes, Bishop, etc. I even, in my very early 20s, fell hard for a few poets in … [Read more...]
The Late, Great Derek Walcott
[contextly_auto_sidebar] Folks, This week CultureCrash guest columnist Lawrence Christon looks at the legacy of the Saint Lucia-born, US-residing poet Derek Walcott, who died March 17. I share Christon's fondness for DW's verse, and was pleased enough to meet the poet once or twice at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Inst in CT, which I covered in the mid-'90s. It’s been nearly a month since … [Read more...]
Lit Crawl L.A./ North Hollywood
[contextly_auto_sidebar] THE other night I ventured out to Los Angeles's North Hollywood neighborhood for the latest installment of Lit Crawl L.A. This annual night out has been going since 2013, but for various reasons I've missed it every time, even though NoHo is one of my favorite L.A. 'hoods. The idea of Lit Crawl is to arrange readings, conversations, rants, and various kinds of … [Read more...]