Today the post-
woman brought
me a walking
frame. I couldn't 
keep up with it.

wednesday newstrip

Musician Post Malone is on tour in Australia & has been spotted swanning around in his pyjamas · still ‘searching’: Hamas yet to track down dozens of hostages · New Zealand's upcoming government to scrap law curbing tobacco sales · overwhelming majority of Australians support a First Nations voice despite referendum defeat, Australian National University survey finds · Indian army digs by hand to free 41 trapped tunnel workers · Nasa reacts to reports about an asteroid hitting Earth in 2024 · Elongated Muskrat preaches peace: "Those who are intent on murder must be neutralized. Then the propaganda must stop. They're just training people to be murderers."

wednesday newstrip

How did Israel know there was a ‘bunker’ under the Al-Shifa Hospital? Because they built it 40 years ago when they controlled Gaza · Texas woman convicted of killing pro cyclist 'Mo' Wilson sentenced to 90 years in prison · baking sorted: yoghurt is the secret to a moist, fluffy, tangy bake · SpaceX launches its giant new rocket but a pair of explosions ends the second test flight · digital curator Giulia Carla Rossi: ‘there is a misconception that if something is on the internet it will last for ever’ · Taylor Swift fan dies at concert in sweltering Rio de Janeiro heat · Eyad Al-Zaeem told Reuters he lost his aunt, her children & her grandchildren in the air strike in Khan Younis, & that all had evacuated from north Gaza on Israeli army orders only to die where the army told them they could be safe.

wednesday newstrip

Gaza health authorities said on Friday that at least 11,078 Palestinians, including 4,506 children, have died since Israel launched its retaliation for the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas · will rise in COVID cases spark the return of masks? · is a US senator's blocking of hundreds of military appointments as an abortion protest threatening America's national security? · U.K. supermarket chain axes almost all self-service tills after backlash from shoppers · Israel is bombing hospitals in Gaza with Israeli doctors’ approval · the moment I knew: I learned he had a new girlfriend & flew across the world to win him back · Iceland evacuates town as concerns rise a volcano may erupt · a self-driving pram? The new technology that will change the way we live.

Today the post-
woman brought
me a brochure
from Monsanto

that claims the
use of genetically-
modified crops
will break the cycle 

of poetry that is
endemic in some
third world 
countries. Should

that happen, I 
can see the entire
world becoming a
much poorer place.

wednesday newstrip

Adobe is selling artificially generated, realistic images of the Israel-Hamas war which have been used across the internet without any indication they are fake · T.®ump reacts to his sons' testimony in fraud trial: 'So sad to see them persecuted' · Israel has called up 360,000 reservists as it goes to war with Hamas. But Benjamin Netanyahu's son is not one of them · how is decaf coffee made? & is it really caffeine-free? · Australian trade minister hopeful lobster, beef sanctions to end by Christmas after Prime Minister Albumen Overeasy completes trip to China · inside Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc, the alleged doomsday cult under investigation in the Philippines · Al Pacino, 83, ordered to pay $30k a month in child support to 29-year-old girlfriend.

John / Geraets Zooms / in on me

at https://johngeraets.com/countertop/.

The poems I read at the beginning are both from 100 Titles From Tom Beckett. They can be found on line at:

#7 Omniscient Narrators get it on in the Bois - Offcourse
#8 de Boulogne - Scud

Now out from Otoliths

Otoliths has just released karl kempton’s portraiture: oceano dunes to tide line.

karl kempton
portraiture: oceano dunes to tide line
full color
157 pages
ISBN: 978-0-6455483-0-3
$US34.95
Direct URL: https://www.lulu.com/shop/karl-kempton/portraiture-oceano-dunes-to-tide-line/paperback/product-m2d5wdv.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Until midnight this Friday, Lulu have a 20% discount running. Promo code: PREVIEW20. Promo codes for future weeks can be found each Monday at the Lulu Press Facebook page.

portraiture: oceano dunes to tide line, volume 11 of discourses, is a collection of photographed forms and objects presented as individual portraits from the oceano dunes to oceano beach tideline on the southern portion of california’s central coast. the discourses series documents poetically and photographically kempton’s insights into his local environment.

*

When I first was introduced karl kempton’s work he was doing a series of visual poems called “runes.” The runes were highly textural in nature, and amazing because they were so carefully created on a typewriter. I see the same care in these new works, although since they are photographs the care is in karl’s perceptive eye defining these stunning images. For these portraits of how the sea paints the shore are also runes in the sense that they have the magical quality that some people ascribe to runes - certainly they have the ability to change how one perceives the world. The images captured here transcend mere visual poetry or photography and their simplicity / complexity invites us to contemplate the ineffable.

— K.S. Ernst

*

Most pieces in Karl Kempton's beautiful and intriguing collection of untitled photographs are close-ups of tiny things solely or mostly made of sand by the wind. They are frozen in their unfinished gestures, which communicate with us. I mean they are in the process of starting a new, more abstract and ideogrammatic life, morphing from nameless constellations into barely recognizable quasi-symbols of trees, birds, flowers and human shapes, especially faces — in our imagination. At the same time, a simultaneously strong impression of their uniqueness and material vulnerability remains with us and contribute to the effect of seeing them animated. They have anima. The intensity and ambiguity of the images also calls into mind Henri Michaux’s memorable ink blots. But in Portraiture, background and foreground, "canvas" and composition are written by the same undulation of the sand dunes. So a third, concurrent impression might be that there is no separation at all.

— Márton Koppány

karl kempton (b. july 1, 1943, chicago) lives with ruth, his beloved wife, in oceano, california. he is a poet, visual poet, editor, publisher, writer, photographer, curator, archaeo-astronomer, and environmental activist. they are retired micro-green growers of sprouts and wheatgrass using biodynamic additives. their daughter, amy franceschini, a widely respected and influential international artist, is the founder of futurefamers.

his lexical and visual poems and photography have been widely published nationally and internationally with over 45 print and over 15 web titles. He is considered the architect of the chumash heritage national marine sanctuary currently in designation process protecting over 7,000 square miles of marine environments and oceanographic features along the southern portion of the central coast of california.

wednesday newstrip

Israel is killing almost 1,000 children a week in Gaza. Can that be called self-defence? · Maine mass killing suspect had mental health issues, purchased guns legally, authorities say · Australia’s free trade deal with EU collapses as both sides accuse the other of being unwilling to compromise · a Korean man has died after choking on a ‘live octopus’ dish, going into cardiac arrest after a tentacle became lodged in his throat · journalists in Lebanon were 'explicitly targeted' in deadly strike near Israeli Border, report says · ex cyclone Lola brings more rain for North Island of New Zealand, yachts damaged in Auckland, roads flood in Northland, Coromandel · Israeli ground operation pushes deeper into Gaza. They’re calling them “ground incursions” — sounds much nicer than “ground invasions.”

one from the past

periphery / to carry around

Melbourne, Australia 8 July 2011
nzepc video project

the Otoliths cover images: a compilation

I have put together a compilation of all the images used on the covers of Otoliths. It's called Threescore and Ten, & is available as a free PDF viewable on screen or downloadable from Sandy Press with the direct URL of
https://www.sandy-press.com/blog/threescore-and-ten-the-images-of-the-covers-from-otoliths-may-2006-to-august-2023/

Well worth a look!

wednesday newstrip

Supercharge your kale juice: fermentation ramps up antioxidant & anti-inflammatory powers · Marjorie Taylor Greene received $10K from McCarthy ahead of vote to keep him as speaker · officials say at least 189 bodies were found decaying at Colorado funeral home · granny flats could be the answer to Australia's housing crisis · a Perth nurse who engaged in a threesome with two vulnerable patients & gave them tips on how to self-harm has been banned from practicing for five years · US rejects UN resolution to condemn violence against civilians in Israel-Gaza war · City of Sydney's first Aboriginal councillor calls for public statue overhaul, amid 'truth-telling' push following referendum defeat · Sydney Opera House marks half a century on the harbor.

wednesday newstrip

From selling deodorant to running the country: New Zealand votes in a new Prime Minister, center-right Christopher Luxon, who will work in a coalition with an even further right party, ACT (Association of Consumers & Taxpayers) New Zealand · a driver in the UK thought using double-sided tape & autumn leaves to obscure a number plate was the perfect way to avoid speed camera fines. They were wrong · Microsoft officially owns Call of Duty as Activision Blizzard takeover is complete · thousands turn out for pro-Palestinian rallies in Melbourne, Sydney, & Adelaide · Indigenous Australians call for ‘week of silence’ after referendum failure · Elon Musk congratulates National’s Luxon on N. Z. election win. “Congratulations & thank goodness!” Seems like he still has trouble with Jacinda Ardern.

Racism writ large

Australia votes No to Voice to Parliament, with all six states rejecting change.

Due in a great measure to the rantings of Mr Potato Head, aka Peter Dutton, aka Putrid Dustbin, the right-wing Opposition parties leader, who followed the DoNuts T.®ump playbook & turned a moral question — should the original inhabitants of the continent be recognized in the Constitution with the creation of a body that would have the ability to advise the Government on matters that related to their culture — into a political blitzkreig based on lies & misinformation.

The Referendum question was a simple one:

129 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice

In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:

there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice;
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
the Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.

recently, at Series Magritte

La Bonne Aventure



The clichés, which should
have been here in numbers, 
are nowhere to be seen. Have
fled, some further down the
seaside cliffs, some gone on
board that passenger liner
which is now full steam a-
head for the open sea, all
struck dumb by a sensory
perception of the androgy-
nous eroticism inherent in 
this oversized nose, at once
both phallic & feminine. Only
that synecdoche sycamore re-
mains, certain that, at some 
time soon, the equivalent of a
fig leaf might just be needed.

wednesday newstrip

Israel will want to examine very closely, over the next few months, its intelligence & military failures that allowed Hamas fighters to run rampant around southern Israel · Mum brutally mocked by thousands after posting ‘ridiculous’ babysitter advert which included among the conditions, if you have tattoos, get them removed · an Australian reality TV star has been busted offering sex to a woman at a Melbourne bar in exchange for drugs. “Turns out he only wanted coke from me” she said after he couldn’t perform because of ‘coke dick’ · a woman in the US has recalled her shock when she discovered she was experiencing a rare superfetation pregnancy – when you conceive while already pregnant · thousands dead as earthquake ‘turns Afghan villages to sand’ · the most popular dog’s name in Australia is Luna.

Today the post-
woman brought
me an aspidistra.

*

George Orwell
once told me 

I had to keep 
them flying. I'm 

trying, George, 
I'm really try-

ing. But it's very 
hard to do when 

there isn't that 
much wind about.

wednesday newstrip

Man hailed by T.®ump admin as a victim of #MeToo hysteria charged with dismembering his girlfriend · Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp doubts that DoNuts T.®ump will face trial in his state before the 2024 election · T.®ump may have violated terms of release during Glock stunt · yet another T.®ump ally loses bid to move Georgia case to federal court · it has been revealed that the husband of a controversial pro-T.®ump mayoral candidate for Franklin, Tennessee, who has built her campaign on her opposition to a Pride event in the city as harmful to children, once rocked American flag Speedos — & nothing else, save for a gold chain, glasses, & shoes — to a Pride event in Chicago · T.®ump's fraud defense so bad it is 'defying the very laws of physics' · first T.®ump co-defendant to plead guilty in Fulton County election interference case · DoNuts T.®ump calls for shoplifters to be shot.

Today the post-
woman brought
me a delicate blue
& white porcelain

vase. Ming, I thought 
as I gently flicked a
fingernail against the 
rim. Qing, it replied.

wednesday newstrip

Russian foreign minister attacks West as 'empire of lies' · Australia’s former top brothel still looking for a buyer after more than two months on the market · iPhone 15 launch buzz is off the hook with long retail lines for Apple’s new bauble · Chris Evans’ secret Marvel fears revealed: ’I was worried about making shitty movies’ · dog-walker cut to the bone in samurai sword road rage attack in New Zealand · Australia set to produce lowest amount of milk in 30 years · Report Merdeox retires — with a $220 million golden handshake.