Fond memories and kind regards to two deceased storymakers: Vancouver Canucks broadcaster and legendary gent Jim Robson, gone at 91 years old & Alex Caldiero Utah (via Siciliy to Manhattan) post-beat Dada-ist poet of Utah Valley (Community) college/uni.
With my memories of AM radio transmissions and Howl performances ~ and the feeling of coming home when your split between worlds
With special greetings to Larry Harper at Dark Star, hellos for Ron Lindley, Jason Lee in Hokkaido, and John Biehler in PoMo, and special appearance by dinosaur and beard puller Ichiro Stanley oh and Trent Harris, Ken Sanders, Ed Abbey and sentimental cliches about compressing carbon to make diamonds
Further
approx 1 million tributes from social posts to interviews to full page ads in Vancouver Sun for Jim Robson. in lieu of a barrage here’s my pal John Biehler on a flight next to gentleman Robson (photo by John obv)
Poet Alex Caldiero dies; writer-in-residence at UVU mixed sounds with words (SL Tribune)
(Ken) Sanders, in an email Tuesday, said “the sonosopher was one of a kind. With his passing is the extinction of an entire species, but unlike the great auk or giant dodo, this one is up close and personal.”
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He was the subject of a 2020 documentary, “The Sonosopher,” and appeared in other movies — most notably in Utah filmmaker Trent Harris’ “Plan 10 From Outer Space” (1995).
Harris said radio reporter Scott Carrier introduced him to Caldiero in the early 1990s, and Harris proposed shooting a video of Caldiero reciting one of his poems.
When Harris met Caldiero in Salt Lake City’s Avenues and turned on the camera, he said, the poet “started sticking feathers and a clock in his mouth, making all kinds of weird noises. I just knew at that second that we would be friends forever.”
In “Plan 10 From Outer Space,” a science-fiction sendup with beehive-headed aliens and other Latter-day Saint themes, Harris cast Caldiero as the main character’s father, “a mad Mormon poet,” Harris said.
“He was profound and surprising and funny, and he knew everything,” Harris said. “If I ever had a question about about Frank Zappa or Dante or pyramids or bees or whatever, I would just go to Alex, and he’d tell me stuff I’ve never even considered.”
note to self: there is a post about Trent Harris, filmmaker and classic Rubin and Ed somewhere in the archive to finish up, maybe
Larry reciting Alex's poem to him in final hours
"I want to go where the sound goes after the bell stops ringing."
