I will spend the New Year at home with my family. No exciting parties- the kids are watching Shrek 2 on TV and eating popcorn. I was thinking of writing about Jim Carroll (the poet, diarist, rock singer) last night, but realized it would take multiple posts and an amount of work I’m unwilling to commit at the moment to do the man justice. I had the pleasure of seeing him give a reading at a local college in the mid-’90s. He was excellent. Among his own work, Jim read a poem by Nicholas Christopher, which sent chills and silence through the room. The poem is called “Terminus.” I posted it below. I think besides Jim’s own “Eight Fragments for Kurt Cobain,” this was the best reading that night. The poem is about the things humans do and have done since the beginning of time. I post it now, at the end of the year, in an attempt to make us think about this long history we have of doing horrible things to one another. Let’s try to change individually. Continue reading “Terminus”
Elektra: Assassin – comic book love
The Zeppelin post put me in mind of my thirteen-year-old days. I read the Elektra: Assassin graphic novel, which collected all eight issues written by Frank Miller and painted by Bill Sienkiewicz, until the spine broke and the pages fell out all over the inside of my locker. I had never seen a comic drawn or written like it before.
Elektra is the daughter of a Greek ambassador who is assassinated. She is trained in childhood by a master assassin / kung-fu guy. We get a brief glimpse into her background and psychosis. Now she is planning to assassinate the President, Ken Wind, who appears to be an anti-christ-like figure. He is referred to as “The Beast.” Continue reading “Elektra: Assassin – comic book love”