By a campfire on Owl Creek, Dave reads an instructional guide to hitch-hiking about a November trip from South Carolina to Rhode Island with a series of tips including smiling, signs, watches, and going with the flow while Dan Funboy noodles on guitar.
Stick your thumb out for: Three Days and Eleven Dollars, Nov. 1991 – Postcard #58 (128k mp3, 10:20,10MB)
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While summertime camping alongside Owl Creek and charging the recorder with the rays of the sun, Dave reads a short story written while on the road with ole dead Grandpa called “So the Legends Go” – a portrait of life one morning in Navajo Nation in 1987 – accompanied by adolescent observations and musings. Accompanied by Dan Funboy on guitar and solar-powered vaporizer.
Hit the road to Arizona with Ole Gramps – Postcard #57 (128k mp3, 9:40, 9MB)
From Halfmoon Bay on Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island, Dave gives it up for zen poet hero Gary Snyder and recounts beat history from The Old Ways and logging culture from Myths and Texts plus poems about hitchhiking, girls, baths, clear-cuts and the Buddha – then finishes with original freeverse poetry about the transient experience called “Railyards Passing By.”
Hit the road to Hitch a Thousand Miles to See a Friend – Postcard #56 (128k mp3, 29:04, 26MB)
Continue reading Hitch a Thousand Miles to See a Friend – Postcard #56
Alongside raging Lynn Creek, Dave remarks about boulders which are indeed interesting as the sign pointed out, then reads a haibun about books and statues on a curly maple shelf, and poems about buying hardware and fruit in Bucerias, mysterious curves and clouds, and solace for weary delirious travellers, while Wm. Lenker sings the traditional folksong Moonshiner (Rye Whiskey).
Perch yourself atop a rock for: Chronicling Interesting Boulders – Postcard #55 (128k mp3, 16:35, 15MB)
Continue reading Chronicling Interesting Boulders – Postcard #55
From a skunk-scented perch along Mosquito Creek, Dave spiels about feverish dreams in a Mexican clinic, personal archeology, mirages about the Wonder Hotel, and reads verse about late trains, dammed rivers, watching ships, and men in white coats walking past.
Take your vitamins for: Post-apocalyptic Skunks and Fevers – Postcard #54 (128k mp3, 16:35, 15MB)
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Visiting the Woodshop on Steamboat Island amidst hayfever and national holidays, Dave and Wm. Lenker exchange spontaneous musical freeverse tales of Pennsylvania, Agana Harbour (Guam), Jericho Beach (Vancouver), and Lake Crescent (Washington) while wounded Samson howls along.
Weigh anchor for: Howling at Land and Sea – Postcard #53 (128k mp3, 17:51, 16MB)
From a Lougheed skyscraper comes an improvisational reading with guitars – first more ocean-inspired works from Tristan Corbière, Victor Hugo and Dave Olson into a freeform spoken word account of trip down the Pacific Coast highway to a haunted roadhouse with sequoias growing an inch a day.
Roust yerself for: Skyscraper Stories about Oceans and Forests – Postcard #52 (112k mp3, 19:46, 16MB)
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Starting at the Steamboat Island Woodshed, Dave rambles salty original freeverse with Wm. Lenker on banjo and traces personal poetic lineage winding through French impressionalist/symbolist and Brittany sea-coaster Tristan Corbière (prefaced by Victor Hugo).
Then – as sleet, slush and hail beats down on the Mosquito Creek studio skylight – rolls into the beat American 50s and 60s with John Sinclair‘s chronicle Brilliant Corners, Jack Kerouac riding trains from Atop an Underwood, and Gary Snyder arriving from sea from The Backcountry ~ fortified with jazz, joints and hot sake.
Hunker down for: Banjo Sea Shanties and Beat Train Rambles – Postcard #51 (28:10, 23MB, 112k mp3)
Continue reading Banjo Sea Shanties and Beat Train Rambles – Postcard #51
An aural montage of past new years’ evenings featuring Dave O reading from Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” next to crackling cabin woodstove on Pender Island (note scratching dog and someone with a stuffy nose), followed by a latenight freeverse message to Napoleon, a languid tale recorded in a garage about a bewildering New Years Eve in Japan, and finally a poetic nugget of memory and hope for the future.
Music:
Ohbijou, Steep
Okinawan folkmusic by unknown artist
Wm. Lenker of Steamboat Island – c/o Woodshed Music
Come for a visit with the Poetic Ghosts of New Years Past – Postcards #50 (.mp3, 22:25, 18MB)
Continue reading Poetic Ghosts of New Years Past – Postcard #50
Wrapping up the White Poppies for Remembrance series with a narrative late-night wander through Westminster, London, DaveO meanders past military monuments, victory squares, cenotaphs, palaces, royal parks, war museum, war chambers, riot fences, war protesters, churches, parliament and finishing at St. James park for a sitdown under a weeping willow to consider monarchy, individual rights and responsibilities, and the role of class division in waging war as London’s sirens, trains, and Big Ben fill the night.
Care for a stroll? Meandering Past Monuments of Remembrance – Postcards #49 (192k mp3, 34:19, 28MB)
Continue reading Meandering Past Monuments of Remembrance – Postcards #49