I Crave the Stillness of Rooms

I crave the stillness of rooms
full of smoke, after the party,
when all the guests have gone.
That’s when the poem is born.
Late at night, sitting at a desk
in the city, or outside of one,
the poet remembers those rooms
full of smoke. He lives in them,
a world of his own making.
He conjures the odor of ash,
the yellowed lampshade, [...]

Hard-Boiled, Yiddish Style

What do you get when you throw three million Jews into an Israel-size fingernail clipping of property on the coast of Alaska? Well, for starters, you get a war between Jews and Tlingit, the native Alaskaners. Then you get four hundred pages of snappy dialogue, noodle kugel, and Jewish detectives hungover on Slivovitz panning the streets for a murdered [...]

I love The Klezmatics

La musica che piange e ride allo stesso tempo. La grande musica dei Klezmatics arriva a Roma. A Villa Ada il 6 luglio 2007 il loro concerto non sarà certo dimenticato facilmente. Dei loro dischi non ce n’è uno che non meriti profondi plausi. Il loro ultimo Wonder Wheel ha vinto il Grammy Award 2007 [...]

The Poetics of Independence

Last night Patti Smith rocked the Auditorium in Rome. Sitting next to me was an eight year-old boy with glasses watching who could be his grandma tear the strings off her feedback-droning Stratocaster, on her knees in a pool of sweat. On her chest an oversized white t-shirt with “LOVE” scribbled by hand beneath the [...]