PennSound: Keith Waldrop (original) (raw)

Photo © 2009 Charles Bernstein/PennSound

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Art International Radio, operating at ARTonAIR.org, November 5, 2009

Program 1: Full Reading of Selected Poems

1. Introduction (0:54): MP3

from A Windmill Near Calvary (1968)
2. Conversion (2:10): MP3from Windfall Losses (1977)
3. To Rosmarie in Bad Kissingen (2:05): MP3from The Garden of Effort (1975)
4. A Hatful of Flood (7:35): MP3from The Ruins of Providence (1983)
5. The Ruins of Providence (1:30): MP3from A Ceremony Somewhere Else (1984)
6. How to Tell Distances (2:24): MP3from Hegel's Family (1989)
7. Six Further Studies (5:27): MP3from The Locality Principle (1995)
8. Indefinite Inscriptions (0:47): MP3
9. Theme (0:17): MP3from The House Seen From Nowhere (2002)
10. Whether in the Body (1:18): MP3

Complete Recording (25:51): MP3

Program 2: Conversation with Charles Bernstein (30:13): MP3

  1. Introduction (0:59): MP3
  2. on his earliest experiences with poetry (2:46): MP3
  3. on how Christianity figures into his work (3:47): MP3
  4. on going into the army (1:20): MP3
  5. on the fictional memoir (1:27): MP3
  6. on his literary affiliations and affinities (6:52): MP3
  7. on The Locality Principle (2:36): MP3
  8. on his interest in collage (7:51): MP3
  9. on his translations (2:02): MP3

Transcript of conversation at Jacket2

Light While There is Light, for Keith Waldrop, Brown University, October 31–November 1, 2023

Over the course of two days, an extended community of admirers and friends celebrated Keith Waldrop’s contributions to world literature. For details and video recordings of the five sessions honoring Keith Waldrop, visit: Brown Univeristy's Writers Online [external link].

The Late Recordings, 2021–2022

Recorded by Rosmarie Waldrop, for Brown University's Writers Online.

  1. Poem from Memory (20:55): MP3
  2. The Chances of Magic (32:00): MP3
  3. Elegy (22:45): MP3
  4. A Windmill Near Cavalry (1:21:59): MP3
  5. The Garden of Effort (1:03:43): MP3
  6. Windfall Losses (1:03:03): MP3
  7. The Ruins of Providence p.11–44 (38:21): MP3
  8. The Ruins of Providence p.44–end (36:00): MP3
  9. A Ceremony Somewhere Else p.1–52 (40:41): MP3
  10. A Ceremony Somewhere Else (25:03): p.52–end MP3
  11. Hegel's Family p.1–13 (35:11): MP3
  12. Hegel's Family p.13–33 (49:34): MP3
  13. Hegel's Family p.33–45 (37:45): MP3
  14. Hegel's Family p.45–55 (27:35): MP3
  15. Hegel's Family p.55–end (45:47): MP3
  16. The Locality Principle p.1–85 (1:11:09): MP3
  17. The Locality Principle p.85–end (17:20): MP3
  18. Analogies of Escape (52:30): MP3
  19. The Silhouette of the Bridge I & II (30:48): MP3
  20. The Silhouette of the Bridge III & IV (57:50): MP3
  21. Haunt I: Indication (36:18): MP3
  22. Haunt II: Between the Straits (11:27): MP3
  23. Haunt III: Potential Random (38:27): MP3
  24. Semiramis if I Remember p.1–51 (32:47): MP3
  25. Semiramis if I Remember p.51–78 (26:49): MP3
  26. Semiramis if I Remember p.81–end (27:56): MP3
  27. The House Seen from Nowhere p.13–93 (1:07:49): MP3
  28. The House Seen from Nowhere p.93–166 (53:55): MP3
  29. The House Seen from Nowhere p.167–end (35:15): MP3
  30. Transcendental Studies: Shipwreck in Haven (37:00): MP3
  31. Transcendental Studies: Falling in Love (1:07:23): MP3
  32. Transcendental Studies: The Plummet of Vitruvius pt. 1 (18:10): MP3
  33. Transcendental Studies: The Plummet of Vitruvius pt. 2 (49:39): MP3
  34. Transcendental Studies: Stone Angels (10:18): MP3
  35. The Real Subject p.1–36 (54:39): MP3
  36. The Real Subject p.37–end (35:04): MP3

Reading with Rosmarie Waldrop at the Kelly Writers House, November 4, 2009

  1. Introduction by Jessica Lowenthal (3:48): MP3
  2. Sarah Dowling Introduces Rosmarie Waldrop (2:58): MP3
  3. Rosmarie Waldrop: Lawn of Excluded Middle (from Curves to the Apple) (7:57): MP3
  4. Rosmarie Waldrop: Time Ravel (7:54): MP3
  5. Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop read "Light Travels" (4:22): MP3
  6. Sarah Dowling Introduces Keith Waldrop (1:35): MP3
  7. Keith Waldrop Reads from The Real Subject: Queries and Conjectures of Jacob Delafon, with Sample Poems (23:58): MP3, YouTube [excerpt]

Complete reading (52:42): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, October 17, 2009

Complete Reading (47:48): MP3

Reading for Poems for the Millennium Vol. III, Harvard University, March 30, 2009

  1. from John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale (5:58): MP3
  2. from Charles Baudelaire, To the Reader (3:35): MP3
  3. from Charles Baudelaire, The Bad Glazier (7:17): MP3
  4. from Charles Baudelaire, The Dog and the Flask (1:26): MP3
  5. from Charles Baudelaire, Invitation to the Voyage (7:38): MP3

Complete reading (1:59:24): MP3, MOV

Reading from his translations of Charles Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil (Wesleyan), November 23, 2006

  1. Benediction (4:49): MP3
  2. The Life Before (1:02): MP3
  3. Don Juan in Hell (1:35): MP3
  4. Giantess (1:11): MP3
  5. Carrion (2:45): MP3
  6. Posthumous Remorse (1:10): MP3
  7. Invitation to the Voyage (2:09): MP3
  8. Spleen (1:23): MP3
  9. Danse Macabre (4:35): MP3
  10. A Voyage to Cythera (4:16): MP3
  11. To Her Too Merry (1:47): MP3

Recorded and edited by Steve Evans.

Reading for the Burning Deck 40th Anniversary Celebration, Providence, May 2001

  1. Introduction (1:37): MP3
  2. Island Fire by John Hawkes (2:13): MP3
  3. introduction to Elegy (0:59): MP3
  4. Elegy I (1:47): MP3
  5. Elegy II (2:01): MP3
  6. Elegy III (3:24): MP3
  7. Elegy IV (2:02): MP3
  8. Elegy V (1:41): MP3
  9. Elegy VI (1:23): MP3
  10. Elegy VII (2:24): MP3
  11. Elegy VIII (2:32): MP3

Reading with Rosmarie Waldrop

  1. Light Travels (3:47): MP3

71 Elmgrove Ave, 2000

Directed by Robert Arellano.

71 Elmgrove Avenue (filmed in 2000) premiered January 2001 at Myopic Books on Wayland Square, where Keith read the soundtrack live, and was never screened again until October 31, 2023 at the memorial for Keith, Light While There is Light.

That's book-collector/seller Kristin Sollenberger playing herself outside the store, along with George Monteiro. Keith wrote: "George is briefly in my Structure of the World, the man who comes out of what seems to be a doctor's or dentist's office with his hands over his face. I'm not absolutely sure I remember this correctly, so it may be someone else, but I think I'm right."

Several Brown graduate students, along with faculty Sylvie Toux and Bob Arellano, the film's director, play the bookworms, but the real star is the Burning Deck printing press. Keith wrote: "The press is a Chandler & Price (made in Ohio) from around 1900. We started Burning Deck with a Chandler & Price, but not this one. This one we bought from Turkey Press when it moved from Providence to California. This kind of press, by the way, is a revised version of an earlier model called the Franklin Press—because Benjamin F himself appeared in a dream (posthumously) to the inventor and told him how to make a printing press. Unfortunately, the Franklin press, though it printed well, tended to smash printers' fingers, so was revised (perhaps more than once), and ended as the Chandler & Price platen press."

Nothing but Mush, 1996

Directed by Robert Arellano.

from havanarama on YouTube:
Keith and I wanted to make another film together, and the first thought that came up while we were rooting around for a premise was something a friend had told Keith: "The funniest thing in the world is a man with a beard eating spaghetti." Marcin Gizycki makes a cameo in the opening tracking-shot, along with Irene & Ray Jordan and several MFA students, plus keep an eye out for Paol Keineg coddling Mrs. Butterworth.

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, New York, December 12, 1992

  1. Introduction (0:41): MP3
  2. Waldrop talking about the first section of "A House Seen from Nowhere" (0:37): MP3
  3. The palmer worm (1:12): MP3
  4. Transparent like the air (1:27): MP3
  5. The idle wheel (0:49): MP3
  6. A slightly arched form (0:35): MP3
  7. A higher spin (0:50): MP3
  8. A turning road (2:30): MP3
  9. Cues to distance (1:03): MP3
  10. Waldrop talking about the second section of "A House Seen from Nowhere" (0:31): MP3
  11. "A bank of cloud across the sky..." (0:39): MP3
  12. "Ghastly misprint..." (0:50): MP3
  13. "Her hair is combed back..." (1:13): MP3
  14. "I am not tired..." (0:30): MP3
  15. "imagine this as the Chinese have imagined it..." (0:40): MP3
  16. "I need to know..." (0:38): MP3
  17. "The moment I saw her..." (0:17): MP3
  18. "The second death..." (0:09): MP3
  19. "There is a kind of lizard..." (0:30): MP3
  20. "The unknown quantity..." (0:08): MP3
  21. "The web of cracks in the sidewalk..." (0:07): MP3
  22. "What the spirit says..." (0:10): MP3
  23. Waldrop talking about the third section of "A House Seen from Nowhere" (0:45): MP3
  24. Epigraph from "The Tale of Genji" (0:11): MP3
  25. A House Seen from Nowhere: Part 3 (7:16): MP3

Victim of Providence, 1992

Directed by Robert Arellano.

from havanarama on YouTube:
On the Beast Side, a bus tunnel is the nose, a train tunnel is the stomach, and the Ladd Observatory is the monster's all-seeing eye. In front of the Burnside House and Blistein House, the poet Keith Waldrop reads parts of his story "The Master of the Providence Crucifixion," while in Swann Point Cemetery Sean Sullivan brings to life Lovecraft's letters, and Bob walks through a dyspeptic dream borne out of Louis' Family Restaurant. This vintage 1992 flick was created by Bob Arellano & Friends in Leslie Thornton's filmmaking workshop at Brown University's Department of MCM.

Reading for the Poetry Project, April 18, 1990

  1. Introduction (3:47): MP3
  2. Conversion (2:19): MP3
  3. To Rosemary in Bad Kissingen (2:49): MP3
  4. Around the block (2:00): MP3
  5. Progressing (1:40): MP3
  6. Intervals (5:27): MP3
  7. Water Marks (8:01): MP3
  8. A fantasy upon the last days of summer (3:49): MP3
  9. The quest for Mount Misery #10 (3:16): MP3
  10. Shipwreck in Haven: the sixth transcendental study (6:34): MP3

Segue Series Reading with Claude Royet-Journoud at the Ear Inn, New York, November 3, 1984

  1. La Notion d'Obstacle (Gallimard, 1978) (31:38): MP3
    Keith Waldrop reads from his translation, The Notion of Obstacle (Windsor: Awede Press, 1978).
    Note: Royet-Journoud placed a ticking clock on the podium, which can be heard in the recording.
  2. Les Objets Contiennent l'Infini (Gallimard, 1983), Book 3 (prose section) (2:54): MP3
    Waldrop reads from his translation, Objects Contain the Infinite (Windsor VT: Awede, 1995).

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, New York. May 5, 1979

Complete recording (17:46): MP3

Keith Waldrop recordings at Brown

External page: LINK

The Logical Structure of the World, Part 1

The Logical Structure of the World, Part I: My Experiences (1970's)takes its title from Rudolf Carnap, an astute and somewhat pompous philosopher of the Vienna School. Logic and the world both begin with 'my experiences.' Each sequence of this short film seems part of a narrative which never comes clear. Shot in the early seventies, mainly in Providence, it ends with a dance around Lovecraft's grave. So much for logic. So much for world. The soundscape that accompanies the film is a recording by Robert Ashley and Paul de Marinis of Ashley's composition set to a poem by John Barton Wolgamot — "In Sara, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Men and Women."

Keith Waldrop on PennSound Daily

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2022 Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop. Used with permission of Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop. Distributed by PennSound.