Brian Ang

Brian Ang

1.      1. Lyn Hejinian and Barrett Watten eds., Poetics Journal 10:“Knowledge”

I flew into Detroit on March 24 to present at the University of Windsor’s symposium on Ron Silliman’s the Alphabet, March 25-26, and took a taxi straight to the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit to hear Alli Warren and K. Lorraine Graham read.  The rest of the long weekend was spent hanging out with Barrett at the symposium and staying at his house.  It was great to dialogically experience the symposium together, and on the last day, he gave me a tour of Detroitand hard-to-find copies of Poetics Journal and THIS, and Carla Harryman gave me her Adorno’s Noise and a DVD of one of her musical collaboration performances.  I appreciate aggressively discussing things with Barrett.

2.      2. Dan Thomas-Glass ed., With + Stand 5

Dan had his habitual spraypainting party on April 2 to assemble his free DIY journal.  We had a barbecue and hung out.  Contributing labor to an artistic and communal project like With + Stand is something I’m thrilled to do.

3.33. Mathew Timmons, The New Poetics

I hosted a reading for Mathew, paired with Tom Comitta, in my Oakland apartment on May 29.  Mathew led the audience in a group performance of Hugo Ball’s zaum poem, “Gadji beri bimba.”  Mathew and Tom, who had not met before their reading, have since developed their own collaborations, which is affirming to me as the organizer, having intuited that they would have something to say to each other.

4.      4. Joshua Clover, Fragment on the Machine

I attended the “Can Art and Politics Be Thought?” conference in Los Angeles from June 4-5.  Joshua presented and gave me this occasional chapbook.  It’s enjoyable to do activities with my former teacher as comrades rather than through the subordination inherent in pedagogy.  I also gave a reading at the Poetic Research Bureau during that trip: Ara Shirinyan gave me his Make Now Press catalogue, Joseph Mosconi gave me his Galvanized Iron on the Citizens’ Band and copies of his journal Area Sneaks, and we drank Laphroaig scotch into the night.  I’m very impressed by Joseph’s works’ concepts and realizations.

5.      5. Danielle LaFrance, Reg Johanson, Roger Farr, Patrick Morrison, Aaron Vidaver, and Louis Cabri,6 problems for the durruti free skool

I attended the Durruti Free Skool in Berkeley from August 12-14.  The group from Vancouver distributed this occasional polemical pamphlet.  It was great to catch up with Roger and Aaron, who I had bonded with at Durruti’s predecessor, the 95 cent skool, the year prior, and especially exciting to find that Roger and I had been thinking in consonant trajectories about semiotics.  We had a long spontaneous night of partying including unexpectedly at Chris Nealon’s Berkeley sublet and ending with riotous dancing to X at satisfyingly maximum volume in my apartment.