William Stobb

Running errands around town the other day, I realized how voyeuristic my interest in all the North African / Middle Eastern unrest is.  I had been listening to more news than usual, just wanting to keep up on the latest from Egypt and now Libya.  The Libyan situation was so tense at the moment that Minnesota Public Radio had given its broadcast over to the BBC, which was reporting exclusively on Libya for that full hour.  As I listened, I realized that I was enjoying the coverage, much as I might enjoy a documentary.  I recalled that very morning, when I had said to my daughter "the world is really interesting right now," and we had discussed a number of news stories that had captivated our attention.  Then, even while I was listening and reflecting on my own distance from the events, I realized that I was tracking another thought at the same time: I'd been all over town that day, and had noticed for the first time that a strange number of spas have op...

This amazing essay on Dylan's use of... sampling... pastiche... influence... plagiarism.  On Harper's , here .  Incredible piece, even for a writer of Jonathan Lethem's genius.   "The surrealists believed that objects in the world possess a certain but unspecifiable intensity that had been dulled by everyday use and utility. They meant to reanimate this dormant intensity, to bring their minds once again into close contact with the matter that made up their world. André Breton's maxim “Beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table” is an expression of the belief that simply placing objects in an unexpected context reinvigorates their mysterious qualities." My own new book, Artifact Eleven , is a mash-up of histories, geographies, geologies, journals... all oriented toward the Nevada desert.  The large-scale land artist Michael Heizer was a huge influence on this project, and I've used his own language in two ...

The Pump House Reading Series--February 2011--"Poetry Lost and Found" with Karl Garson Karl Garson kicked off the final season of the Pump House Reading Series last night with a meditation on poetry's relationship to song.  Joined by vocalist Katie Bakalars and pianist Larry Price, Garson's hour-long show offered an alternative to the Pump House's usual format of featured reading followed by open mic.  Garson, looking resplendant in a full-on tuxedo, sought the connection between contemporary poetry and "songs of the heart," lyrical jazz of the mid-twentieth century.  When that connection was tangible, the performance was more than enjoyable--it was an example of something poetry readings should do more often: explore an artistic vision, use the whole stage, incorporate visual media and song, and generally think outside the box.  As the script meandered through stories of war and romance, the evening's main thread sometimes vanis...