Saturday, November 6, 2010

Virtual Reading #4 (& Questions)

For your listening pleasure: a couple of new recordings of poems from the “Kitchen Poems” section of The Spring Ghazals.  “French Toast” was one of the first few poems written in the entire manuscript, while “Greek Salad” was the last poem written for this section.  The poem “Fondue,” which appeared in an earlier virtual reading is also embedded in the player in case you missed it the first time around or simply would like to hear it again.  Don’t forget: there’s a discussion of my poem “Fondue” by writer Aaron Wilson on his Soulless Machine blog.  You can read Mr Wilson’s post about it here, & you can also see a video I made as background for the reading.

Speaking of backgrounds for readings: I’m tossing around the idea of creating musical settings as background for some of the poems from The Spring Ghazals & then recording the complete package to issue as a cd.  While I realize the readership here is a pretty select sample, I’d be curious if such an item would interest people, either in concept or in actuality.   Or would a cd of “just poetry” be more your cup of tea?  Since Lulu also produces cds, I’m thinking eventually I could make this into a one-stop shopping experience.

Of course, as you will hear, I know I need to invest in a pop filter before I go any further; using our condensor mic I just can’t keep the “p’s” from distorting & still keep the rest of the levels normal.  But that’s a relatively inexpensive item—around $20.  But I also noticed this page has a pretty ingenious homemade design which (per the article) can be built for $5.50.

A gentle reminder: you have less than 10 days to get The Spring Ghazals from Lulu.com at 15% off the $12 cover price.  The discount comes out of Lulu’s pocket, by the way!  Simply enter code LEAF305 at checkout.  You can purchase The Spring Ghazals here.

If you have a moment, please do weigh in on the cd idea; I’m tossing around various musical ideas related to the poems as we begin planning this week for next summer’s fine arts extravaganza in McCall! 

I’d also be interested in any suggestions about topics readers would like me to address here.

Hope you have a wonderful day.

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good notion, John. I've had a go at recording readings of poems to musical settings, but I used outsourced stuff - Brian Eno and Jonsi (of Sigur Rose). So go for it!

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  2. Hi Dick: I think it will(would) be a pretty big endeavor, but I'm open to it.

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