E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

Spielberg's Munich isn't as good as some claim, but it is still a very good film. Rather than read the film in terms of its "deep message" I want to refer to its surface pleasures, in this instance, its visual texture, which, in terms of mise-en-scene, film stock, and lighting, evokes classic early 70s police procedural dramas, like Fred Zinneman's late masterpiece, The Day Of The Jackal . Spielberg would have many reasons for wanting to pay homage to this director, not least because he made the liberal classic High Noon , which, in terms of burying political comment beneath a Hollywood-genre form, prefigures much of Spielberg's own recent filmography. The Jackal - arguably the greatest assassination thriller ever made (a riveting sub-genre including The Manchurian Candidate , The Dead Zone , and In The Line of Fire ) - features the wonderful sad-faced French actor Michael Lonsdale (also known for being Drax in Bond) as the ever-determined flic Lebel (p...

Poet Lisa King, a member of the 1993 National Championship Slam Team and an individual Boston Slam Champion has passed away at her home in Sommerville, MA. She was 45 and will be sadly missed. The performance poetry community is in shock. The initial report was that she had died from heart failure sometime over the course of the recent blizzard in the Northeast (USA). Lisa had also been coping with a debilitating back injury for several years.

On Friday, February 24, the largest single gathering of famous and popular British and Irish poets for one recording session occured - with readings for an Oxfam CD, and a Talking Book for the blind. The event was conceived and planned by me, with the support of Martin Penny and Su Lycett of Oxfam, and help on the day from New York writer Thaddeus Rutkowski . The day was mostly a huge success - from mad-genius John Hegley (pictured here) bringing along his tuba-playing partner, to legends Al Alvarez , Dannie Abse and Alan Brownjohn reuniting after decades, to young rising stars like Nick Laird , Owen Sheers , Annie Freud and Patience Agbabi performing their fresh new work. The assembled poets agreed it was the most impressive single gathering of poets in one room for a recording in British poetry's history. The 52 poets in attendance - including Wendy Cope , George Szirtes , Pam Ayres , Eric Ormsby , Jo Shapcott , Jamie McKendrick , Helen Farish , David Harsent , Sophie Hann...

It was on February 24, 2003, that Salt (Cambridge, UK) published the printed version of Nthposition's oft-imitated, never-bettered "100 Poets Against The War" series of electronic anthologies - making it the fastest ever poetry book, in terms of conception, to writing, to editing, to publishing (less than a month). It was described as "the 21st century's most controversial and talked about e-book". Val Stevenson 's www.nthposition.com pioneered the use of the Internet for copy-left publishing, and political activism, and the whole world took notice, with The Times reporting 250,000 downloads of our e-books in 3 weeks alone. The Guardian described it as "a remarkable anthology" and The Times said it was "a new lease of life for protest poetry". The books are still available for download at Nthposition, or at www.amazon.com from Salt. Three years later, the illegal war's consequences are still being felt, and Tony Blair's sp...

So my anagram wasn't very good. But this electronic book, The Holy Tango of Literature , by Francis Heaney , who may be pictured here to the right (unless this is someone else with the same name) now making its way across the Internet, just may revive interest in poetry, and linguistic wit. It is certainly, to my mind, the most brilliant light verse written by an American since Ogden Nash . The link is here: http://www.yarnivore.com/francis/Holy_Tango.htm The idea is simple, take an anagram of a poet or playwright's name, and turn it in to the title of a work they never wrote, and then write one in their style. In terms of constraints and wordplay-complexity, it renders all former forms of literary spoof tame dull stuff. For instance, Heaney gives us: ELVES ENACT LAWS WALLACE STEVENS Call the roll for the majority whip, The wispy one, and bid him vote On autumn leaves' numismatic worth. Let committees dawdle in the glen As they are wont to do, and let their aides Weave flow...

POETS FOR OXFAM 2006 WINTER READING Peter Porter Liane Strauss Esther Morgan Owen Sheers Jane Yeh Thaddeus Rutkowski & Myra Schneider 91 Marylebone High Street, London W1 (near Baker Street tube) Tuesday, February 21, 2006 7-10 pm Admission free - all donations gratefully accepted All proceeds to Oxfam