Poetry Scores to premiere live score of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel"

Poetry Scores will premiere "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" 9 p.m. Friday, May 23 at the Schlafly Tap Room, 2121 Locust. A band of Poetry Scores regulars will perform 10 new scores of the 10 parts of the poem by Josephine Miles, with a different woman reading each of the 10 pieces of poetry before the songs.

The premiere will be followed at 10 p.m. by the duet Ann Hirschfeld and Mark Buckheit, and then at 11 p.m. by Dugout Canoe, a local all-star old-time music group. The show is free and open to the public.

The band performing "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" will be Nick Barbieri (drums, guitar, vocals), Mark Buckheit (guitars, vocals), Heidi Dean (keyboards, vocals), Eileen Gannon (harp), Adam Long (cello) and Tracy Swigert (guitar, vocals).

They will perform new poetry scores of Josephine Miles' poetry by Nick Barbieri, Mark Buckheit, Mike Burgett, Heidi Dean, Robert Goetz, Ann Hirschfeld, Chris King/David Melson, Michael Martin, Tracy Swigert and Joe Thebeau.

The women reading the 10 parts of the poem before the songs will be Beth Barbieri, Gina Dill-Thebeau, Catherine Eiler, Yaphett El-Amin, Kimberley Hughes, Julie Malone, Mali Newman, Nicky Rainey, Stefene Russell and Nina Thompson.

"Ten Dreamers in a Motel" was published in Josephine Miles' 1955 book Prefabrications, a prescient registry of changes in the American built landscape and how that changed the way people construct their own reality (and dreams).

"Ten Dreamers" may be the first poem published where the motor hotel -- the motel -- is the defining organizing principle. The poem peeks briefly into ten separate sets of lives, brought together momentarily by the accident of a shared stopping space along the road. We're introduced to these ten sets of lives through brilliant flashes of poetic language, like headlights through motel curtains, with the abrupt symbolism and concentrated emotional power of dreams.

Josephine Miles (1911-1985) was a major American poet from California who has never quite been recognized as such. She was the first tenured woman professor in the English Department at the University of California - Berkeley, but her poetry was under-appreciated by the male-dominated literary establishment of her time. Her work, best represented in Collected Poems (University of Illinois Press, 1983), is ripe for rediscovery.

Download the poem.

Josephine Miles
Photo by William Stafford

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PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT "TEN DREAMERS"

Josephine Miles scored by Mark Buckheit and Shana Norton
Josephine Miles scored by Mike Burgett and Cindy Royal
Josephine Miles scored by Heidi Dean and Robin Street-Morris
Josephine Miles scored by Joe Thebeau and Carrie M. Becker
Josephine Miles scored by Michael Martin and Julie Malone

Josephine Miles scored by Ann Hirschfeld and Sarah Giannobile

 

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Motel image borrowed from Beautiful Buildings

 

Free local screening to celebrate film festival appearace in Rio

Movie still and poster by V. Elly Smith

Poetry Scores will co-host a free screening of its 2013 movie "Go South for Animal Index" at 7 p.m. Friday, May 16 at Nebula, 3407 So. Jefferson at Cherokee, to celebrate the movie's screening that same day at the 2014 International Uranium Film Festival, which is being held at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Preservationist and architectural historian Michael R. Allen will co-host and emcee the St. Louis screening. The event is free, but please sign up at Brown Paper Tickets if you plan to attend so organizers can estimate attendance. Nebula is a smoke-free environment. Limited complimentary drinks will be provided, though the public is welcome to bring their own drinks.

Michael R. Allen
 

Michael R. Allen is part of the movie's large ensemble cast that includes many well-known St. Louisans, including former fire chief Sherman George, international burlesque stars Lola van Ella and Kyla Webb, musician Tory Z Starbuck, writer Thomas Crone, African-dance impresario Mama Lisa Gage, and the late George Malich in his final screen performance.

Doors for the free St. Louis screening are 6:30 p.m. The program will start at 7 p.m. with brief remarks by Michael R. Allen, followed by a brief  (6:33) micro-documentary about the making of "Go South" produced by Thomas Crone and directed by Andy Alton.

After the documentary, Stefene Russell will read her poem, "Go South for Animal Index," which spawned the movie. Poetry Scores first set her poem about the Bomb to post-punk rock music and then shot and edited a feature silent film to that score.

Stefene Russell

After the reading, Michael R. Allen will interview Norbert Suchanek, co-founder of the International Uranium Film Festival, in Rio de Janeiro via Skype. "Go South" will have screened earlier that day at the Modern in Rio and Norbert can talk about how the movie was received and how the festival is going overall.

Norbert Suchanek

After the interview, at about 7:30 p.m., we will screen "Go South for Animal Index," a 90-minute feature.

"Go South for Animal Index" was directed by Chris King and edited by Dan Cross. The silent movie was shot and edited to a post-punk rock score of Stefene Russell's poem co-produced by Matt Fuller and Chris King. It was produced by Poetry Scores, an all-volunteer international arts organization based in St. Louis that translates poetry into any and all other media.

Chris King directs and Dan Cross shoots a scene from "Go South"

For more information, contact Chris King at brodog@hotmail.com.

To sign up and let organizers you know you plan to come, visit Brown Paper Tickets.

Follows news about the screening on this blog or on the Facebook event page.

Josephine Miles scored by Ann Hirschfeld and Sarah Giannobile

"Into the thunder and silence of the unfolding"
by Sarah Giannobile (after Josephine Miles)

Poetry Scores' Spring 2014 project in our home city of St. Louis is devoted to "Ten Dreamers in a Motel."

This poem by Josephine Miles (1911-1985) was published in her 1955 book Prefabrications, a prescient registry of changes in the American built landscape and how that changed the way people construct their own reality (and dreams).

SOHA Studio + Gallery hosted a one-night-only Poetry Scores art invitational based on "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" Friday, April 25 at the gallery, 4915 Macklind Ave. Julie Malone and Kat Dunne of SOHA commissioned ten women artists to each make visual art in response to one of the poem's ten numbered sections.

Poetry Scores also has commissioned ten musical scores to the ten numbered parts of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel." That score will be performed live 9 p.m. Friday May, 23 at The Tap Room, 2121 Locust, with ten women reading the ten numbered parts of the poem in between the songs. This free show will be followed by Ann Hirschfeld and Mark Buckheit (10 p.m.) and Dugout Canoe (11 p.m.).

Here is a demo of Ann Hirschfeld's poetry score of the 10th and final numbered section of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel," paired with Sarah Giannobile's visual adaptation of the same passage of poetry.

Free music

"Durable Darkness" (3:05) demo
(Josephine Miles, Ann Hirschfeld)
Click to open mp3 in new tab to keep reading blog.

Performed and recorded by Ann Hirschfeld

Poetry (c) 1955 Josephine Miles
Music (c) 2013 Ann Hirschfeld

This recording may be freely shared for non-commercial uses. For any other usage, contact Poetry Scores at brodog@hotmail.com and we will connect you with the composer and the poet's estate.

Independent music is played by Ann Hirschfeld
Photo by Cindy Petracek

Ann Hirschfeld is a versatile veteran of the St. Louis independent rock music scene. She grew up playing in adolescent bands with the likes of Carl Pandolfi and Michael Martin. She was co-leader of Plaid Cattle, a stalwart of the Cicero's Basement Bar scene of the late '80s and early '90s. Now she plays in The Deciders and a duet with Mark Buckheit and has emerged as a primary songwriter force for Poetry Scores. In November 2013 she led the Snow White All Stars in the live premiere of her poetry score to Anne Sexton's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (recording forthcoming later this year). She also has a song on the second Poetry Scores Hawaii project, devoted to Beat poet Albert Saijo (forthcoming in 2015, paired with a national juried art exhibition in the Art Department at the University of Hawaii - Hilo).

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Here is the part of the poem Ann and Sarah translated into their respective media:


from "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" by Josephine Miles

10.

 

Midway stayed at a court between there and here
Where woodsmoke rose up straight into the sky,
Cabin by cabin the suppers cooking
Far as the eye could see, the courts unfolding
Durable darkness.

It was the tent and citadel of the many stars,
It was the rampart of the loud highway
And we slept there, waking
Into the thunder and silence of the unfolding
Durable journey.

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"Ten Dreamers in a Motel" was published in Josephine Miles' 1955 book Prefabrications, which is included in her Collected Poems (University of Illinois Press, 1983).

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Ann Hirschfeld leads the live premiere of her score of Anne Sexton's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
Part 1 (poetry score starts at 5:10)
Part 2

Ann Hirschfeld in The Deciders Deluxe covering Guided By Voices

Ann Hirschfeld's awesome song "Ghost"

Ann Hirschfeld in Plaid Cattle on Critical Mass (1993)
(First song Ann leads is "Sense of Humor" at 5:57.)

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Josephine Miles
Photo by William Stafford

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ALSO FROM "TEN DREAMERS IN A MOTEL"

Josephine Miles scored by Mark Buckheit and Shana Norton
Josephine Miles scored by Mike Burgett and Cindy Royal
Josephine Miles scored by Heidi Dean and Robin Street-Morris

Josephine Miles scored by Joe Thebeau and Carrie M. Becker
Josephine Miles scored by Michael Martin and Julie Malone

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Read @PoetryScores on Twitter.

Josephine Miles scored by Mike Burgett and Cindy Royal

 

"Mica Moraine" by Cindy Royal 

(after Josephine Miles)

mixed media

Poetry Scores' Spring 2014 project in our home city of St. Louis is devoted to "Ten Dreamers in a Motel."

This poem by Josephine Miles (1911-1985) was published in her 1955 book Prefabrications, a prescient registry of changes in the American built landscape and how that changed the way people construct their own reality (and dreams).

SOHA Studio + Gallery will host a one-night-only Poetry Scores art invitational based on "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" 6-10 p.m. Friday, April 25 at the gallery, 4915 Macklind Ave. Julie Malone and Kat Dunne of SOHA commissioned ten women artists to each make visual art in response to one of the poem's ten numbered sections.

Poetry Scores also has commissioned ten musical scores to the ten numbered parts of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel." That score will be performed live 9 p.m. Friday May, 23 at The Tap Room, 2121 Locust, with ten women reading the ten numbered parts of the poem in between the songs. This free show will be followed by Ann Hirschfeld and Mark Buckheit (10 p.m.) and Dugout Canoe (11 p.m.).

Here is a demo of Mike Burgett's poetry score of the 5th numbered section of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel," paired with Cindy Royal's' visual adaptation of the same passage of poetry.






"Moraine" demo (2:22)
(Josephine Miles, Mike Burgett)
Performed and recorded by Mike Burgett

Poetry (c) 1955 Josephine Miles
Music (c) 2013 Mike Burgett

This recording may be freely shared for non-commercial uses. For any other usage, contact Poetry Scores at brodog@hotmail.com and we will connect you with the composer and the poet's estate.

Mike Burgett,
Snow White mirror selfie
(after Anne Sexton)

Mike Burgett has been the voice and songwriting power behind some of St. Louis' greatest quirky pop, as co-frontman of Aviation Club, which evolved into The Lettuce Heads -- a marvel of pop songcraft and ensemble rock musicianship that somehow survived from the early 1990s to the present day in its original quartet. The second Lettuce Heads record, long available only in coterie bootlegs but finally released as For Promotional Use Only, remains one of the most fantastic rock records almost nobody has heard. Mike is now an active contributing songwriter with Poetry Scores, most recently in its ongoing poetry score of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. He also has a song on the second Poetry Scores Hawaii project, devoted to Beat poet Albert Saijo (forthcoming in 2015, paired with a national juried art exhibition in the Art Department at the University of Hawaii - Hilo).

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Here is the part of the poem Mike and Cindy translated into their respective media:


from "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" by Josephine Miles


5.


Carombed out of town in a comedy-chase fashion,
Police oblique to our path, and statues
Wheeled over, through Harlem, and all more wasteful as we went,
And ended up at this tourist cabin,
Its outlook, so it was said, restful.

Went to the window,
Pushed aside the curtains and there saw
That countryside we longed for: rocks,
Steep slopes of rocks, rubble and rusk of rocks.
What is it? and you said, moraine.

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"Ten Dreamers in a Motel" was published in Josephine Miles' 1955 book Prefabrications, which is included in her Collected Poems (University of Illinois Press, 1983).

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Mike Burgett in The Lettuce Heads on Confluence City

Mike Burgett with The Lettuce Heads scoring Stefene Russell's "Las Vegas Dace"

Mike Burgett noodling around that K. Curtis Lyle liked for a score of his poetry

Mike Burgett in the nowadays Lettuce Heads live at Stone Spiral Coffeehouse

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ALSO FROM "TEN DREAMERS IN A MOTEL"

Josephine Miles scored by Mark Buckheit and Shana Norton
Josephine Miles scored by Heidi Dean and Robin Street-Morris

Josephine Miles scored by Joe Thebeau and Carrie M. Becker
Josephine Miles scored by Michael Martin and Julie Malone

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Read @PoetryScores on Twitter.

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"Mica Moraine" by Cindy Royal 

(after Josephine Miles)

mixed media

Josephine Miles scored by Mark Buckheit and Shana Norton

 

"Concern" by Shana Norton
(after Josephine Miles)
transparency film, fabric

Poetry Scores' Spring 2014 project in our home city of St. Louis is devoted to "Ten Dreamers in a Motel."

This poem by Josephine Miles (1911-1985) was published in her 1955 book Prefabrications, a prescient registry of changes in the American built landscape and how that changed the way people construct their own reality (and dreams).

SOHA Studio + Gallery will host a one-night-only Poetry Scores art invitational based on "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" 6-10 p.m. Friday, April 25 at the gallery, 4915 Macklind Ave. Julie Malone and Kat Dunne of SOHA commissioned ten women artists to each make visual art in response to one of the poem's ten numbered sections.

Poetry Scores also has commissioned ten musical scores to the ten numbered parts of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel." That live score will be presented 9 p.m. Friday May, 23 at The Tap Room, 2121 Locust, with ten women reading the ten numbered parts of the poem in between the songs. This free show is followed by Ann Hirschfeld and Mark Buckheit (10 p.m.) and Dugout Canoe (11 p.m.).

Here is a demo of Mark Buckheit's poetry score of the 3rd numbered section of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel," paired with Shana Norton' visual adaptation of the same passage of poetry.


Free mp3




"Dreamer #3" demo (2:59)
(Josephine Miles, Mark Buckheit)
Performed and recorded by Mark Buckheit

Poetry (c) 1955 Josephine Miles
Music (c) 2014 Mark Buckheit

This recording may be freely shared for non-commercial uses. For any other usage, contact Poetry Scores at brodog@hotmail.com and we will connect you with the composer and the poet's estate.

Mark Buckheit

Mark Buckheit is a veteran of St. Louis' independent rock music scene whose work would be much better known had he been luckier or better suited temperamentally for putting himself forward. He was a co-frontman for Three Foot Thick, an inventive folk/rock band that was present at the birth of St. Louis' twang scene but strangely overlooked. Mark sings "Cole Porter Kind of Day," Three Foot Thick's contribution to Rick Wood's seminal Out of the Gate compilation (1990), and it still holds up on that tape next to the earliest and best work of Uncle Tupelo and Chicken Truck (The Bottle Rockets). Mark now plays in The Deciders, in a duet with Ann Hirschfeld, and in the Poetry Scores house band Three Fried Men.

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Here is the part of the poem Mark and Shana translated into their respective medium:


from "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" by Josephine Miles


3.



One day we started out
To pick up driftwood. I was interested
In a housing project there, I had heard a lecture
Illuminating the beach like lightning.
It was my concern
To raise on the shingle rows of boards
On which the great foundations could be built.

Rather, I found the shanties were up already,
And indeed down already, every one
Empty to the tide as if just then
They had been lived in but would live no more.
I turned round.
If I had been looking south I looked north
East west I turned.


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"Ten Dreamers in a Motel" was published in Josephine Miles' 1955 book Prefabrications, which is included in her Collected Poems (University of Illinois Press, 1983).

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Mark Buckheit in Three Foot Thick on Critical Mass

Mark Buckheit in Three Foot Thick on the Archive of St. Louis Punk

Mark Buckheit on Three Fried Men's poetry score of Wayne Kaumualii Westlake

Mark Buckheit on Three Fried Men's musical adaptation of a Jonathan Borofsky sculpture


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ALSO FROM "TEN DREAMERS IN A MOTEL"

Josephine Miles scored by Heidi Dean and Robin Street-Morris

Josephine Miles scored by Joe Thebeau and Carrie M. Becker

Josephine Miles scored by Michael Martin and Julie Malone

*

Read @PoetryScores on Twitter.

Josephine Miles scored by Heidi Dean and Robin Street-Morris

 

"Lampless Bastions" by Robin Street-Morris,
(after Josephine Miles), 2014.
Watercolor and pastel on 300lb incised hot press paper.
12" x 20" (30 x 51cm).

Poetry Scores' Spring 2014 project in our home city of St. Louis is devoted to "Ten Dreamers in a Motel."

This poem by Josephine Miles (1911-1985) was published in her 1955 book Prefabrications, a prescient registry of changes in the American built landscape and how that changed the way people construct their own reality (and dreams).

SOHA Studio + Gallery will host a one-night-only Poetry Scores art invitational based on "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" 6-10 p.m. Friday, April 25 at the gallery, 4915 Macklind Ave. Julie Malone and Kat Dunne of SOHA commissioned ten women artists to each make visual art in response to one of the poem's ten numbered sections.

Poetry Scores also has commissioned ten musical scores to the ten numbered parts of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel." That live score will be presented 9 p.m. Friday May, 23 at The Tap Room, 2121 Locust, with ten women reading the ten numbered parts of the poem in between the songs. This free show is followed by Ann Hirschfeld and Mark Buckheit (10 p.m.) and Dugout Canoe (11 p.m.).

Here is a demo of Heidi Dean's poetry score of the 6th numbered section of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel," paired with Robin Street-Morris' visual adaptation of the same passage of poetry.

 

"Lampless Bastions" by Robin Street-Morris,
(after Josephine Miles), 2014.
Watercolor and pastel on 300lb incised hot press paper.
12" x 20" (30 x 51cm).

Free mp3

"When we came back" (2:06)
(Josephine Miles, Heidi Dean)
Performed and recorded by Heidi Dean
(Open link in new tab to keep reading blog.)

Poetry (c) 1955 Josephine Miles
Music (c) 2014 Heidi Dean

This recording may be freely shared for non-commercial uses. For any other usage, contact Poetry Scores at brodog@hotmail.com and we will connect you with the composer and the poet's estate.

Heidi Dean,
grooving on new bifocals

Heidi Dean could be considered a founding member of Poetry Scores. She played a primary role in the Po Sco house band, Three Fried Men, before it evolved into an arts organization; has some important vocal pieces on the first poetry score, Crossing America by Leo Connellan; sings harmony on the subsequent scores Blind Cat Black, Go South for Animal Index and The Sydney Highrise Variations; performed on the premiere of Ann Hirschfeld's score of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Anne Sexton; and is now composing part of the score to Ten Dreamers in a Motel and performing in its premiere. Parenthood has sidetracked music in Heidi's life, for now, but perhaps she still has copies of her 2005 record with The Honeyshakers, which has more of her eloquent songwriting. "When we came back" is both her first poetry score and her first composition on piano.

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Here is the part of the poem Heidi and Robin translated into their respective medium:


from "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" by Josephine Miles


6.


When we came back all the underpasses were flooded,
Highway 40 blocked off
And six inches of water at the supermarket.
So it was necessary to go round by the byroads.

So it was that we came to our street from a different view,
Saw our neighborhood from aside and below,
Stacked up the hill our houses in their shrub,
Their windows empty as an evening sky.

And so it was we saw that they dwelt without us,
Endured merrily as bastions against our presence,
Persons of note and self in the rainy evening,
Lampless and starless.


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"Ten Dreamers in a Motel" was published in Josephine Miles' 1955 book Prefabrications, which is included in her Collected Poems (University of Illinois Press, 1983).

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Heidi Dean sings on Three Fried Men's prose score of Sam Blowsnake's autobiography

Heidi Dean sings on Three Fried Men's hieroglyphic score of creepy ancient Egyptian stuff

Photos: Heidi Dean overdubs on Nashville Highrise Variations


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ALSO FROM "TEN DREAMERS IN A MOTEL"

Josephine Miles scored by Joe Thebeau and Carrie M. Becker

Josephine Miles scored by Michael Martin and Julie Malone

*

Read @PoetryScores on Twitter.

Josephine Miles scored by Michael Martin and Julie Malone

 

"Do Not Despair" by Julie Malone
(after Josephine Miles)
Oil on Panel, 16" x 25.5

Poetry Scores' Spring 2014 project in our home city of St. Louis is devoted to "Ten Dreamers in a Motel."

This poem by Josephine Miles (1911-1985) was published in her 1955 book Prefabrications, a prescient registry of changes in the American built landscape and how that changed the way people construct their own reality (and dreams).

SOHA Studio + Gallery will host a one-night-only Poetry Scores art invitational based on "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" 6-10 p.m. Friday, April 25 at the gallery, 4915 Macklind Ave. Julie Malone and Kat Dunne of SOHA commissioned ten women artists to each make visual art in response to one of the poem's ten numbered sections.

Poetry Scores also has commissioned ten musical scores to the ten numbered parts of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel." That live score will be presented 9 p.m. Friday May, 23 at The Tap Room, 2121 Locust, with ten women reading the ten numbered parts of the poem in between the songs. This free show is followed by Ann Hirschfeld and Mark Buckheit (10 p.m.) and Dugout Canoe (11 p.m.).

Here is a demo of Michael Martin's poetry score of the 9th numbered section of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel," paired with Julie Malone's visual adaptation of the same passage of poetry.

 

"Do Not Despair" by Julie Malone
(after Josephine Miles)
Oil on Panel, 16" x 25.5

Free mp3

"Fast in darkness" (3:09)
(Josephine Miles, Michael Martin)
Performed and recorded by Michael Martin
(Open link in new window to keep reading blog.)

Poetry (c) 1955 Josephine Miles
Music (c) 2013 Michael Martin

This recording may be freely shared for non-commercial uses. For any other usage, contact Poetry Scores at brodog@hotmail.com and we will connect you with the composer and the poet's estate.

Michael Martin
Photo from Mark Buckheit
"Scenes from a MAMJam"

Michael Martin has been everywhere in St. Louis' independent rock music scene, though most people probably didn't notice him because his most public work has been behind the scenes, as a supporting musician and producer. He was a founding member of the Painkillers (arguably St. Louis' greatest post-punk band), played in and produced Bob's Reuter's band Kamikaze Cowboy (which made arguably St. Louis' best rock record, Down in America) and is now an integral member of Karate Bikini and The Deciders. He also is a busy and influential producer in his Broom Factory studio. This demo of "Fast in Darkness" is his first poetry score and instantly the best pop song Poetry Scores has published.

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Here is the part of the poem Michael and Julie translated into their respective medium:


from "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" by Josephine Miles

 9.

I said to my iron class, I am desperate, desperate,
You must learn and you will not.
Each by each I looked to into the light and said
You are fast in darkness.

Each to each I said I am desperate, desperate.
Then one rose from his seat and sat beside me,
Touching my hand and saying, out of his daylight,
Do not despair.

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"Ten Dreamers in a Motel" was published in Josephine Miles' 1955 book Prefabrications, which is included in her Collected Poems (University of Illinois Press, 1983).

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Michael Martin in Karate Bikini Live on KDHX

Michael Martin in Kamikaze Cowboy Down in America

The Painkillers on Euclid Records

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ALSO FROM "TEN DREAMERS IN A MOTEL"

Josephine Miles scored by Joe Thebeau and Carrie M. Becker

*

Read @PoetryScores on Twitter.

Josephine Miles scored by Joe Thebeau and Carrie M. Becker

 

"Stanza 8 in Miniature" by Carrie M. Becker (after Josephine Miles),
1/6th scale diorama / miniature shadow box

Poetry Scores' Spring 2014 project in our home city of St. Louis is devoted to "Ten Dreamers in a Motel."

This poem by Josephine Miles (1911-1985) was published in her 1955 book Prefabrications, a prescient - perhaps prophetic - registry of changes in the American built landscape and how that changed the way people construct their own reality (and dream worlds).

SOHA Studio + Gallery will host a one-night-only Poetry Scores art invitational based on "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" 6-10 p.m. Friday, April 25 at the gallery, 4915 Macklind Ave. Julie Malone and Kat Dunne of SOHA commissioned ten women artists to each make visual art to one of the poem's ten numbered sections.

Poetry Scores also has commissioned ten musical scores to the ten numbered parts of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel." That live score will be presented 9 p.m. Friday May, 23 at The Tap Room, 2121 Locust, followed by Ann Hirschfeld and Mark Buckheit (10 p.m.) and Dugout Canoe (11 p.m.). Ten women will read the ten numbered parts of the poem in between the songs. It's a free show.

Here is Joe Thebeau's score of the 8th numbered section of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel," paired with Carrie M. Becker's visual adaptation of the same passage of poetry.

"Stanza 8 in Miniature" by Carrie M. Becker (after Josephine Miles),
1/6th scale diorama / miniature shadow box

 Free mp3

"This weariness"
(Josephine Miles, Joe Thebeau)
(4:05)

Performed and recorded by Joe Thebeau

Poetry (c) 1955 Josephine Miles
Music (c) 2013 Joe Thebeau

Joe Thebeau
from a Finn's Motel video shoot
 

This recording may be freely shared for non-commercial uses. For any other usage, contact Poetry Scores at brodog@hotmail.com and we will connect you with the composer and the poet's estate.

*

Here is the part of the poem Joe and Carrie translated into their respective medium:


from "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" by Josephine Miles


8.

I went to consult a psychiatrist on this morning,
A nervous woman, whose curly-headed four-year-old child
Played in the room, sitting staunchly
On a great medical scales.

I defended myself thus. It looks as if
All this weariness came from too much work,
But rather I think it a problem of person,
Friend or foe, fortune of parent or pardon.

The nervous psychiatrist ran her hand through her hair
And glanced at her watch. Have you taken a trip lately,
It would do you good, and take your mother with you,
She needs it more than you do.

Then I laughed to hear my own prescription
Given to myself with such good humor
In the gray weariness. But then she said also,
Take with you also my curly-headed four-year-old child.

 *

"Ten Dreamers in a Motel" was published in Josephine Miles' 1955 book Prefabrications, which is included in her Collected Poems (University of Illinois Press, 1983).

*

Joe Thebeau of Finn's Motel live on KDHX (four songs)

Finn's Motel on MySpace

The Finn's Motel record Escape Velocity is available at many online music portals.


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Read @PoetryScores on Twitter.

SOHA hosts Poetry Scores art invitational Friday, April 25

Robin Street-Morris, "Lampless Bastions"
(after Josephine Miles)

SOHA Studio + Gallery will host a one-night-only Poetry Scores art invitational 6-10 p.m. Friday, April 25 at the gallery, 4915 Macklind Ave.

SOHA asked ten women artists to respond to the poem “Ten Dreamers in a Motel” by Josephine Miles. The participating artists are:

Carrie M. Becker

Sarah Giannobile 

Kat Kissick 

Belinda Lee

Julie Malone

Shana Norton

Carmelita Nunez 

Robin Street-Morris

Cindy Royal

Kelsey Viola Wiskirchen

In a classic Poetry Scores art invitational, visual artists are asked to respond to the same poem and title the work after a quote from the poem, then arrange the works according to where in the flow of the poem the language used for the title appears. For this invitational, each of the ten artists was assigned one of the poem's ten numbered parts.

Professionally mounted, original works of art will be exhibited and for sale in a variety of sizes and formats. Proceeds from sales will be split evenly between the artist, SOHA, and Poetry Scores, a St. Louis-based international arts organization that translates poetry into other media.

For more information on the art invitational, visit www.sohastudioandgallery.com or call Julie Malone (314-497-5202) or Kat Dunne (314-780-5151). Look around here at www.Poetryscores.blogspot.com for more information on Poetry Scores.

Image: Robin Street-Morris' contribution to the show "Lampless Bastions," after Josephine Miles,
2014. Watercolor and pastel on 300lb incised hot press paper. 12" x 20" (30 x 51cm).

NOTES

“Ten Dreamers in a Motel" is from Josephine Miles' 1955 collection Prefabrications. As its title brilliantly suggests, Prefabrications is about changes in the built environment of America, circa mid-20th century, and how that affected the mental and emotional constructions people place upon the world and the people in it.

"Ten Dreamers" may be the first poem ever where the motor hotel -- the motel -- is the defining organizing principle. The poem peeks briefly into ten separate sets of lives, brought together momentarily by nothing more than the accident of a shared stopping space along the road. We're introduced to these ten sets of lives through brilliant flashes of poetic language, like headlights through motel curtains, with the abrupt symbolism and concentrated emotional power of dreams. Download the poem.

Josephine Miles (1911-1985) was a major American poet from California who has never quite been recognized as such. She was the first tenured woman professor in the English department at the University of California - Berkeley, but her poetry suffered in the male-dominated literary establishment of her time. Her work, best represented in Collected Poems (University of Illinois Press), is ripe for rediscovery.

Poetry Scores also has commissioned ten musical scores to the ten numbered parts of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel." That live score will be presented 9 p.m. Friday May, 23 at The Tap Room, 2121 Locust, followed by Ann Hirschfeld and Mark Buckheit (10 p.m.) and Dugout Canoe (11 p.m.). It's a free show.

The ten composers are Nick Barbieri, Mark Buckheit, Mike Burgett, Heidi Dean, Robert Goetz, Ann Hirschfeld, Chris King & David Melson, Michael Martin, Tracy Swigert, Joe Thebeau. These songs will be performed Nick Barbieri, Mark Buckheit, Heidi Dean, Adam Long and Tracy Swigert, with ten women reading the ten parts of the poem before each of the ten songs.

Josephine Miles
 

 

Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro to screen "Go South for Animal Index"

 

Poetry Scores was excited to learn that our movie "Go South for Animal Index" has been accepted to screen at the 2014 Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It is one of 53 movies involving uranium that will screen May 14 to May 24 in the Cinemateque of Rio de Janeiro´s Modern Art Museum. It will be considered for a 2014 "Yellow Oscar" Award; winners will be announced at the awards ceremony May 24.

We owe this honor to Dan Cross, who edited our movie and is one of its directors of photography and cinematographers. Dan spotted the festival, went through the trouble of subtitling our movie so it would be eligible, submitted it, and managed the submissions process. A big thanks to Dan, who is a volunteer on our projects, like everyone else in Poetry Scores.

We hope to raise funds to send Stefene Russell to Rio for the screening. Stefene wrote the poem "Go South for Animal Index," which was set to post-punk rock music by Matt Fuller and Chris King. Chris then imagined and directed a silent zombie movie to that post-punk rock score, and our movie is the result. Stefene also provides voice on the score and plays a major part in the movie.

This will be "Go South for Animal Index"'s second appearance at an international film festival - it played November 2013 at the St. Louis International Film Festival - but its first screening overseas and Poetry Scores' first screening at an international film festival outside of the U.S.

Our first movie, "Blind Cat Black," has screened at independent public screenings in Istanbul and Cannakale, Turkey.

The Uranium Film Festival organizers asked for a director's statement, so we provided one, even though Poetry Scores' collective way of making movies doesn't square very well with the auteur notion of filmmaking by a director who gets sole credit for a film.

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"Go South for Animal Index"
Director's Statement

I directed "Go South for Animal Index," a cinematic fable of Los Alamos, with the St. Louis (Missouri, U.S.)-based arts collective Poetry Scores, which translates poetry into other media. Our movie started as a poem about the Bomb by Stefene Russell, who grew up downwind of the Nevada Test Site. We scored Stefene's poem for post-punk rock music, and then shot and edited a feature-length silent zombie movie to that post-punk rock score. Stefene's poem is really about the psychic burden of the Bomb's existence and encodes the Bomb's history from the infancy of nuclear physics to the present day. Our movie uses many of her poem's ideas, especially its Navajo cosmogony, but narrows the narrative to Los Alamos and adopts the primitive storytelling style of the fable. Our movie was shot on no budget and directed by an amateur. The editor, Dan Cross, assembled the 90-minute movie from director's notes that have the brevity of a folk tale, so the end visual result was a surprise to all of us. It reminds me somewhat of Michael Jackson's narrative videos, the American television classic "Gilligan's Island" (Gilligan's Alamos) and low-budget Turkish adaptations of "Star Wars."   -- Chris King

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Here are all the films selected for the 4th International Film Festival Rio de Janeiro.

11:02 DE 1945. Brasil/Argentina, 2014, 31 min, Director Roberto Fernández
25 JAHRE TSCHERNOBYL, Germany/Ukraina, 27 min, Director Rainer Ludwigs
A WOMAN FROM FUKUSHIMA. Japan, 2014, 56 min, Director Yumiko Hayakawa.
A2-B-C. Japan, 2013, 71 min, Director Ian Thomas Ash.
AFTER ALL. Poland, 2013, 5 min, Director Bogna Kowalczyk.
ANOTHER CHERNOBYL. Ukraine, 2011, 56 min, Director Andrii Mykhailyk.
ATOMIC AFRICA. Germany, 80 min, Director Marcel Kolvenbach.
ATOMIC AUSTRALIA. Italy, 2006, 6 min, Director and Producer Ricardo Russo.
BEYOND THE CLOUD.France/Japan, 2013, 94 min, Director Keiko Courdy.
BEYOND THE WAVE. Germany/Japan, 2013, 83 min, Director Kyoko Miyake.
ETERNAL TEARS. Ukraine, 2011, 11 min, Director Kseniva Simonova.
EVOLUTION OF BEASTLINESS. Russia, 2014, 4 min, Director Collective Work Chidren’s “Detective”.
EXPLOSIONS BRING US CLOSER TOGETHER. USA, 2010, 2 min, Director Jonathan Johnson
FALLOUT . Australia, 2013, 86 min, Director Lawrence Johnston
FIGHT FOR THE ISLAND – PUNSU NO TAO. Taiwan/China, 2013, 65 min. Directors Kolas Yotaka, Chang, Jia-Wei
FINAL PICTURE. Germany, 2013, 92 min, Director Michael von Hohenberg
FLASHES OF HOPE: Hibakusha Traveling the World. Japan/Costa Rica, 2009, 61 min, Director Erika Bagnarello
FOUR STORIES ABOUT WATER. USA, 2012, 37 min, Directors Deborah Begel and David Lindblom.
FUKUSHAME. THE LOST JAPAN. Italy, 2013, 64 min, Director Alessandro Tesei
GO SOUTH FOR ANIMAL INDEX. USA, 2013, 90 min, Director Chris King
HIBAKUSHA. AT THE END OF THE WORLD.Japan, 2003, 116 min, Director Hitomi Kamanaka.
HOGAR, HOGAR. Spain, 2013, 17 min, Director Carlos Alonso Ojea
IN MY LIFETIME: The Nuclear World Project. USA, 2011, 109 min, Director Robert E. Frye
INHERITANCE. UK, 2013, 10 min, Director Margaret Cox
JOURNEY TO THE SAFEST PLACEE ON EARTH. Switzerland, 2013, 100 min, Director Edgar Hagen
KERN. Germany, 2013, 9 min, Director s Szu Ni Wen and Yichen Huang
LA FUGA B. Mexico, 2012, 2 min, Director Adrian Regnier Chavez
LA FUGA H. Mexico, 8 min, Director Adrian Regnier Chavez
MINING ON THE SWELL . USA, 2012, 18 min, Director and Producer Michael T. Searcy
NUCLEAR WASTE IN MY BACKYARD.Germany, 2012, 29 min, Director Irja Martens
NUCLEAR WINTER . Ireland, 2012, 5 min, Director Eimhin McNamara
POISON DUST. Armas DU radioativo em Irak. USA, 2005, 56 min, Director Sue Harris
RADIATION STORIES. India, 2010, 54 min, Director Amudhan R.P.
RARE EARTH. USA, 2014, 54 min, Director Elizabeth Knafo
REMOTE VIEWING. France, 2012, 5 min, Director and producer Cris Uberman
ROCK FLATS: LEGACY. USA, 2011, 23 min, Director Producer Scott Bison
SARDINIA’S DEADLY SECRET. Italy/Germany, 2012, 30 min, Director Birgit Hermes
SONG N°14. France, 2011, 5 min, Director Céline TROUILLET.
THE CLOUD HAS PASSED OVER US. Turkey, 2012, 15 min, Director Arif Karagulle.
THE HORSES OF FUKUSHIMA. Japan, 2013, 64 min, Director Yojyu Matsubayashi
THE NUCLEAR BOY SCOUT. UK, 2003, 24 min, Director Bindu Mathur.
THE RACE FOR URANIUM. France, 2009, 52 min, Director Patrick Forestier
THE UNIVERSITY OF NUCLEAR BOMBS. USA,2010, 55 min, Directors Mohamed Elsawi and Joshua King Ortis.
THE MYTH OF NUCLEAR DETERRENCE – IMAGE FILM by Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
TO DIG OR NOT TO DIG/THE BATTLE FOR GREENLAND. Norway, 2013, 8 min, Director Espen Rasmussen.
U - A STORY ABOUT URANIUM AND US. Canada, 2008, 9 min, Directors Shawn Arscott and Darlene Buckingham.
URANIUM: THE NAVAJO NUCLEAR LEGACY. USA,1997, 13 min, Directors and Producer Doug Brugge
WAKE UP. Australia, 12 min, Director Tony Barry
WARM – GLOW. Switzerland, 2013, 50 min, Director Marina Belobrovaja
WHEN THE DUST SETTLES ICBUW | ICBUW and IKV Pax Christi – Short Animation
WYHL? NAI HAEMMER GSAIT! - Der Widerstand gegen das Atomkraftwerk am Kaiserstuhl, Germany, 2013, 44 min, Director Goggo Gensch
YELLOW FEVER. The Uranium Legacy. USA, 56 min, Director Sophie Rousmaniere.
ZEITBOMBE. USA, 2010, 27 min, Director Edward Saint Pe’.

 

"Go South for Animal Index" to screen at SWIC in Belleville

Poetry Scores' movie Go South for Animal Index: a Fable of Los Alamos will screen 7 p.m. Friday, April 4 in the Liberal Arts Theater, Room LAC 1350, at Southwestern Illinois Community College (SWIC), 2500 Carlyle, Belleville, Illinois.

This SWIC faculty screening is free and open to the public.

Dan Cross, professor of film at SWIC, edited Go South for Animal Index and was one of its directors of photography and camera operators. He also directed many of the scenes he shot. He even makes an actor cameo as a uranium-mining Debased Cog, the movie's zombie-equivalents at the bottom of the atomic bomb effort.

"Dan joined our shoot as a zombie extra, but we soon realized we had the movie-making equivalent of atomic energy on our hands," says Chris King, director, a Granite City native. "He was shooting on every scene we could get him from that day on, and often left alone to direct the scenes he shot. Then, when we were done shooting, we just handed him all the footage, with some pretty spare editing instructions, and let him assemble the movie."

"The edit has taken nearly a year of work, but I was happy to do it because the of the quality of the material," Cross told the Belleville News-Democrat before the film's appearance in the 2013 St. Louis International Film Festival.

Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/2013/07/10/2689950/local-talent-shines-at-st-louis.html#storylink=cpy

Cross is sharing director credit with King on the next Poetry Scores movie, Jack Ruby's America, and will also direct photography on that movie and edit it.

Cross is an accomplished filmmaker in his own right, including the animated short Dive, which premiered at the St. Louis International Film Festival on the same bill as A: Anonymous by Daniel Bowers, widely recognized as the best independent feature film produced in St. Louis.

Go South for Animal Index, a 90-minute feature, will screen with a new short film by Stacy Singh, a SWIC colleague.

Following the screening, Cross and Singh will be joined by Chris King, director of Go South for Animal Index, to discuss their movies with the audience.

A Belleville people note: Chris King played in the band Enormous Richard, which was active in the early St. Louis alternative country scene with Belleville's own Uncle Tupelo. He also was close with Pops Farrar, father of the Farrar boys in Belleville, and produced a record for Pops, Memory Music: Songs and Stories from the Merchant Marine.

DIRECTIONS TO THE THEATER

Southwestern Illinois College is easily accessible by Metrolink. Just take the train east to the College Station stop. When you get off the train, walk straight across campus to the northwest corner, closest to Lowe's and you should see a sign for the film screening.  

If driving from the west, you can take 1-64 to the Greenmount Road exit (#16). Turn right on Greenmount and you'll come to Highway 161 in four miles. The college is at that intersection. The best place to park is the lot by the Liberal Arts Theater (the one closest to Lowe's, next to 161).  

If you go in the doors closest to that parking lot, the Liberal Arts Theater will be right inside those doors.  

The screening will start promptly at 7, so try to arrive early.  

For more information, email Dan Cross at dan.cross@swic.edu.

Dan Cross, directing and shooting a scene
from "Go South for Animal Index" in Cuba, Missouri.

MORE ON GO SOUTH

Go South for Animal Index was produced by Poetry Scores, an all-volunteer international arts organization dedicated to translating poetry into other media, based in St. Louis, but with outposts in Hilo (Hawaii), Los Angeles, Nashville and Istanbul.

The movie was directed by Chris King and edited by Dan Cross, based on a poem by Stefene Russell. Poetry Scores previously scored Stefene's poem to post-punk rock, and this movie was written, shot and edited to that score. So Go South can be considered a 90-minute silent movie with a rock & roll soundtrack.

Shot on location in St. Louis and Cuba, Missouri, Go South for Animal Index follows four related storylines: the development of the nuclear bomb on a secret military base; the nuclear-waste-related illness of a tribal girl living nearby; the travels of the widow and daughter of a nuclear scientist who dies on the base; and the drafting into military service of a vendor of stuffed animals. The quartet of stories intersects dramatically in the context of the first successful test of the atomic bomb.

Cinema St. Louis writes: "Setting Stefene Russell’s poem to an exceptional rock-music score and eschewing spoken dialogue, Go South for Animal Index freely mixes zombies, experimental elements, and silent-film tropes in a bold genre mash-up. The large ensemble cast includes many well-known St. Louisans: poet Russell; former fire chief Sherman George; international burlesque stars Lola van Ella and Kyla Webb; African-dance impresario Mama Lisa Gage; architectural historian and preservationist Michael R. Allen; and the late George Malich in his final big screen performance."

REACTIONS TO GO SOUTH

Go South premiered at the 2013 St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase. Here were some reactions:

"Go South for Animal Index is a beautiful visual poem." - Chris Clark, artistic director, Cinema St. Louis

"Heck of a good movie." - Joe Edwards, manager of Chuck Berry and owner of Blueberry Hill

"Go South for Animal Index reminds us of Nietzsche's admonition: ‘Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.’” – Michael A. Wolff, dean and professor of Law, Saint Louis University School of Law; former chief justice, Missouri Supreme Court

“This poedocudrama kept us all reaching back to refresh our memories of local, national and world histories.” – Mama Lisa Gage, arts organizer, choreographer, dancer

"Go South for Animal Index is an instrument of a higher power.” – Ellen Sheire, Jungian analyst

OTHER MEDIA ON GO SOUTH

A brief (6:33) documentary on the making of Go South for Animal Index, produced by Thomas Crone and directed by Andy Alton

A feature story on Go South for Animal Index from The Alton Telegraph

The original musical score to Go South for Animal Index, produced by Matt Fuller and Chris King (the soundtrack to the movie has additional music by Tory Z Starbuck and Middle Sleep)

"The form of the object" : Carl Pandolfi scores Wittgenstein

A form of an object (in Carl Pandolfi's kitchen)
 

Poetry Scores is at the very beginning of a very long process of scoring Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophical prose poem Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921).

Soon enough we'll create an index page where the entire score can be followed in sequence, but for now we'll post finished mixes as they arrive, in or out of order.

Next up: "The form of the object" by Carl Pandolfi, which sets to music Proposition 2.013 through Proposition 2.0141 of the Tractatus.


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free mp3

"The form of the object"
(Wittgenstein, Ogden, Ramsey, Pandolfi)
Carl Pandolfi

Produced and recorded by Carl Pandolfi in St. Louis.

Carl Pandolfi plays piano, keyboards, electric guitar, electric bass, drums, harmonica and sings all vocals.

 

Executive producer: Chris King for Poetry Scores

Music (c) 2014 Carl Pandolfi

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We are scoring the first English translation of the Tractatus that C. K. Ogden commissioned and published and took credit for, but F. P. Ramsey actually performed, with benefit of Wittgenstein's corrections, delivered personally, mouth to ear, as Wittgenstein liked to do poetry (philosophy). Their translation is in the public domain and posted on Project Gutenberg, but here is the part Carl scored in "Form of the object."

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from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

by Ludwig Wittgenstein

translated from German
by C. K. Ogden and F. P. Ramsey

 

2.013        Every thing is, as it were, in a space of possible atomic facts. I can think of this space as empty, but not of the thing without the space.

2.0131      A special object must lie in infinite space. (A point in space is an argument place.)

                 A speck in a visual field need not be red, but it must have a colour ; it has, so to speak, a colour space round it. A tone must have a pitch, the object of the sense of touch a hardness, etc.

2.014        Objects contain the possibility of all states of affairs.

2.0141      The possibility of its occurrence in atomic facts is the form of the object.

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This has some amazing stuff in it. "I can think of this space as empty, but not of the thing without the space." -- that's one of those noggin knucklers that pretty cleanly divides people who take an interest in philosophical problems from those who do not.

I love the idea of a "colour space round" objects. And I love Ogden and Ramsey's British spelling of "color" and "around". I'm reminded of my first close British friend calling me when he lived in St. Louis. "Shall I come round?"

And what could be more fun than to sing, "(A point in space is an argument place.)"? That's how my print edition of the Ogden/Ramsey translation reads. The Project Gutenberg transcription of that translation that I gave to Carl reads, "(A point in space is a place for an argument.)" That's what Carl sings. That's some stunning language, either way you spot the rhyme.


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Carl Pandolfi

 

This is the third and final song in what I think of as Carl Pandolfi's "Atomic Facts Suite," though we'll hear more from him in songs he is writing with Mike Burgett, one of his bandmates in The Lettuce Heads, one of St. Louis' greatest-ever rock bands. He also played in another band that fits that description, The Painkillers. Carl has a terrific solo record, What Kind of Life, and is on SoundCloud. He also teaches music at The College School. 

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The Ogden/Ramsey translation of the Tractatus is in the public domain. The music is (c) 2014 by Carl Pandolfi. Free sharing of this mp3 is welcome and encouraged, but please consult Poetry Scores for production-quality audio and composer permission before making any commercial use. Thanks!

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PREVIOUSLY ON "SCORING THE TRACTATUS"

Carl Pandolfi scores the title of Wittgenstein's "Tractatus"

"Atomic facts" : Pandolfi scores Wittgenstein

"In the nature of the object" : Pandolfi scores Wittgenstein

Project announcement