Yesterday I watched the Transatlantic Howl Reading online here:

http://arts.internet2.edu/howl.html

I saw Joanne Kyger and Anne Waldman and Anne Carson
and the readers from England
and Pulitzer Prize Finalist ALICE NOTLEY! in Paris
and Ken Mikolowski and Amiri Baraka and Steven Taylor.
What a lovely voice Alice Notley has!
She swayed as she read the footnote to Howl and
"Holy Magnanimity!"
I saw most of the webcast and Anne Waldman
finished with Blake's "priests in black gowns
walking their rounds/ binding with briars
my joys and desires."
And Bob Rosenthal read the "Wichita Vortex Sutra"
and said, "Allen was a very bright chartreuse"
which is a brilliant yellow green color
(and reminds me of the word chanteuse
which is what Annie Hall was when she sang
It Had To Be You in the nightclub)...
And the Londoners teepeed themselves while chanting
"Leave my bones alone!"
And how stylish & chic Alice looked
& how warm Anne Waldman was.
I wish I could have been there.
Despite the wonderful technology, I think it was Great
in the flesh.

*

In other literary news...
Linguistic Philosopher Jacques Derrida
died at the age of 74.
Here is an article in the Times called
What Derrida Really Meant:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/opinion/14taylor.html