Some remarks about some things
notes, investigations, digressions galore
Ted Burke
- Location
- San Diego, California,
- Birthday
- July 15
- Title
- Bookseller, writer, musician
- Bio
- Bookseller, musician, writer and poet living and working in San Diego, California. His writing has appeared in the San Diego Reader, Kicks, San Diego Door, Roadwork, Revolt in Style,and City Works.His poems have been included in the anthologies Small Rain: 8 poets from San Diego (1996,DG Wills Books),Ocean Hiway: eight poets in San Diego (1981,Wild Mustard Press) , and is the author of many chapbooks, including Hand Grenade, Open Every Window,No One Home and City Times,limited editions published by his own Old House Press.
MY RECENT POSTS
- Dolly wants to kill you
May 29, 2012 11:15PM - Fuhgeddaboutit - Oy vey! -
Salon.com
May 28, 2012 06:29PM - You can say that again, but
louder
May 27, 2012 10:35AM - On Longwindness
May 25, 2012 10:07PM - A poem about baseball in
Detroit, yay!
May 25, 2012 10:39AM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “Rand was smitten by
Monroe's persona no less than
any other
star struck kid and
p…”
March 08, 2012 06:46PM - “@George Hoffman:
Actually, Mailer didn't refer
to himself
as
"Aquarius"…”
January 01, 2012 07:12PM - “Mailer's meditation on
violence and evil will not be
every
one's idea of a good
n…”
January 01, 2012 07:07PM - “@Miguella: His
contradictions were what made
his brilliance
exasperating; I
sup…”
December 17, 2011 10:40AM - “Thanks wendy. It's not
that I'm against subjecting a
work to
critical
examination…”
August 14, 2011 06:44PM
Ted Burke's Links
- New list
- Salon
- New York Times
- Slate.com
- The Nation
- Like it or not
MARCH 2, 2012 10:13AM
A pointless encounter with Davy Jones
I met Davy Jones and Micky
Dolnez during the 70s in the men's room of the main stage
area of the Sacramento State Fair, where they were performing as
the Monkees with their songwriters Boyce and Hart. I noticed Dolnez
teasing his Fro in the mirror while Davy Jones washed
his… Read full post »
MARCH 1, 2012 8:48PM
ANDREW BREITBART
My condolences go out to late conservative
agitator AndrewBreitbart’s family and
friends for theirloss, but he was, in truth, a hyped up and
generally unlikeable sociopath whohad enough media savvy to know
how to make a living and keep his name in thepapers by being a
vindictive and ugly litt… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 28, 2012 4:13PM
Essays I Haven't Written
Poetry is about
saying it as it seems. Saying it "likeit is" assumes the Romantic
trap of thinking that the final state ofthings can be deigned by
the poet’s sense of what cannot be accurately
orconcisely phrased. The permanent significance some poets attempt
to capture isan illusion: word meanings… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 27, 2012 2:38AM
Essays I Haven't Written
Poetry is about saying it as it seems.
Saying it "likeit is" assumes the Romantic trap of thinking that
the final state ofthings can be deigned by the
poet’s sense of what cannot be accurately
orconcisely phrased. The permanent significance some poets attempt
to capture isan illusion: word meanings… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 25, 2012 10:48AM
Vowel Movement
“Movementâ€, a poem by Wyn Cooper
, is that frustratingspecies of poem that starts off
wellenough, full of promise and intrigue, that chokes to a close.
It begins as a smooth ride with effortless transitions
betweenspeeds suddenly becomes a lurching,jerking collapse.
We are to ma/
… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 24, 2012 9:45PM
Vowel Movement
“Movementâ€, a poem by Wyn Cooper
, is that frustratingspecies of poem that starts off
wellenough, full of promise and intrigue, that chokes badly
towards a conclusion. A smooth ride with effortless
transitions betweenspeeds suddenly becomes a lurching,jerking
ran. We are to/… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 19, 2012 3:37PM
Nolan Finley is a big fat meanie
Nolan Finley is editorial page editor for my home town newspaper,
The Detroit News, and he writes an opinion column that reflects the
terse bluntness of someone who does not give a righteous rat's ass
about the welfare of others. He is a seriously constipated White
Guy who
prefers his anger… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 19, 2012 3:37PM
Nolan Finley is a big fat meanie
Nolan Finley is editorial page editor for my home town newspaper,
The Detroit News, and he writes an opinion column that reflects the
terse bluntness of someone who does not give a righteous rat's ass
about the welfare of others. He is a seriously constipated White
Guy who
prefers his anger… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 17, 2012 1:16PM
Eddie Van Halen Shreds
FEBRUARY 16, 2012 1:23PM
Pound Cake
While discussing the aching , seemingly
inexpressible pain and confusion that profound states of love and
infatuation can create within a soul, poet Robert Pinsky
brings up the touchy subject of Ezra Pound. Pinsky, to be sure,
qualifies his praise for the late bard appropriately, stating
emphat/… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 16, 2012 1:23PM
Pound Cake
While discussing the aching , seemingly
inexpressible pain and confusion that profound states of love and
infatuation can create within a soul, poet Robert Pinsky
brings up the touchy subject of Ezra Pound. Pinsky, to be sure,
qualifies his praise for the late bard appropriately, stating
emphat/… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 16, 2012 10:38AM
Eddie Van Halen Shreds
FEBRUARY 13, 2012 12:06AM
A goddamned shame
To be sure,
after the shock of Whitney Houston's death wanesa bit and we can
again feel the chill in the air and the heat emanating fromthe desk
lamp, a professional sourpuss or two will attempt a cultural
postmortem on the event, excoriating media commentaries and fan
reaction alike forreducing the… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 12, 2012 6:29PM
A goddamned shame
To be sure, after the shock of Whitney Houston's death wanesa bit and we can again feel the chill in the air and the heat emanating fromthe desk lamp, a professional sourpuss or two will attempt a cultural postmortem on the event, excoriating media commentaries and fan reaction alike forreducing the… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 11, 2012 1:15PM
The shiny lights of the season
FEBRUARY 11, 2012 10:41AM
Leonard Cohen’s Old Ideas, and the genius of his lyrics. - Slate Magazine
Leonard Cohen’s Old
Ideas, and the genius of his lyrics. - Slate Magazine:
Jan Swafford essentially argues in her Slate
article that Leonard Cohen is a better lyricist than Bob Dylan, or
anyone else for that matter who has bothered to compose rhyme to
melody. A broad premise , typical for/… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 10, 2012 1:17PM
The facts are what they are
Little or nothing comes of losing one's cool in the manner of letting the grip of rage tighten around your neck and shoulders and so create the headache that is no less than a battering ram or giant mallet that smashes the last restraint of propriety and frees one to vent… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 10, 2012 10:24AM
Chair
I
wastold to have a seat while the managers finished their discussion
in the otherroom, but I looked hard and long at the chair they
offered me, a kitchen chairwith a vinyl covered cushion that was
tan colored and creased in an ineptmachine tooled method to make
the surface appear like… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 10, 2012 12:46AM
There
There is nothing else to do. All you get in return is a bag
full of candy wrappers and wads of chewing gum scraped from under
school desks. Neither one of us thought of saying a prayer should
the elevator cord snap suddenly and send us to a horrible,
flattening death,… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 10, 2012 12:44AM
Red Pennies
There's nothing but red
pennies on the table top, tarnished copper coins that have
travelled the length of the city with once being drawn out by
fumbling fingers seeking bus fare, or that last two pennies offered
in a purchase to round out the change to some even,
coin-less
denomination.
FEBRUARY 9, 2012 6:13PM
A higher power with no sense of irony
I heard during a lecture that Thomas Pynchon
had writtensomewhere that God is the original conspiracy theory; I
haven't found thesource of the quote, but the saying appears in
many places around the Internet,and it seems that the sentiment has
resonated loudly with quite a few. Whetherthere is an all… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 6, 2012 10:36AM
Samuel Beckett goes to the drug store in Oakland
There are not enough words in the dictionary to get across those areas of emotion that, while lacking the full force and heat of feelings that have bubbled up like lava from some formerly dormant crater none the less make your week a series of textured anxieties. The magazine stands you
… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 4, 2012 10:45AM
Sad Sack Generation
Laura Miller, Salon's sharp book critic, had a column in the Open.Salon blog a while back on her blog at Open Salon about the current crop of sad young literary writers. Progressing to the point where our inner lives are the principle subject matter for the middlebrow " serious nov/…
FEBRUARY 3, 2012 1:21AM
Muddy Waters
If you haven't already, check out the obscure Muddy Waters Woodstock Album. The album is
a revelation, as it has Waters stepping a few steps back from the
rocking , Chicago style back beat, raw and blistering in a fashion
only genius can achieve, and here taking up a swing…
FEBRUARY 2, 2012 3:53PM
Spielberg
It is interesting to consider which of Spielberg's are his best,
but the irony is that the director is really little else than
jittery hack without a real idea, emotion or camera move in his
style who just happens to have a brilliant
technical command of film making techniques.
There's no… Read full post »
Verbal Remedy AKA Denise
John Hughes
Dorinda D.
Paul Levinson
Joan Walsh
Karen Templer
Salon.com