A night of pink dust

Also: Links + a Comic-Con-necticut weekend

I’m about to hop in an ugly old car with Dean and head to New Haven, Conn., for IC3 (Indie Comics Creator Con). On Saturday I’ll be selling books and kissing babies from 10 a.m.-6 p.m., so if you see me, say hello!

These poems include brief mentions of scones, bugs, Ezra Pound and the dictionary.

pink dust

Fifty-eight years after Ron Padgett gave his first poetry reading at St. Marks Church in-the-Bowery, he returned to the very same spot to read from his two new books, the poetry collection Pink Dust and Dick, a memoir of his friendship with the late poet Dick Gallup. I was fortunate to be there Wednesday night surrounded by old punks and young pleasure-seekers. (Which am I? Both? Neither?)

Ron Padgett is 82 years old, wears white sneakers and has lived with his wife, Patricia, in the same East Village apartment for almost 60 years. Among his many achievements is founding The Poetry Project Newsletter in 1972, and on Wednesday each of us received a copy of the latest edition — its 279th.

The room was very short on chairs but had limitless free seltzer and wine. Padgett read from Dick for about 30 minutes then asked if he could take a break “so I can sit down for a minute and get in another mood.” He followed with about 30 more minutes of work from Pink Dust; the title refers to eraser shavings, but the poems sound so effortless I can’t imagine he does much erasing.

It would’ve been easy for me to skip this event and just watch TV and take a long shower instead, but I had a feeling it would recharge and inspire me, and I was right. Before coming home, I felt so wild that I bought a slice of cheap, late-night pizza, which turned out to be the only bad decision I made all day.

Ron Padgett reads at Wednesday’s Poetry Project event. His work is also featured in the 2016 Jim Jarmusch film “Paterson.” (Photo by Whitney Matheson)

links

• On Monday I wrote about seeing Michael Shannon & Friends perform R.E.M. songs. Michael Stipe showed up!

• This Tim Burton docuseries looks fantastic. (Hollywood Reporter)

• The Great Gatsby turns 100 this year, and “there are parts that feel so fresh and modern that they could have been written yesterday.” Sometimes I pick this up at the bookstore just so I can reread the final lines. (Vox)

• It’s also Flannery O’Connor’s centennial. (Garden & Gun)

• Hear a 47-minute podcast about the Prince documentary you’ll never see. (New York Times)

• Gillian Welch and David Rawlings still put on a damn good show. (Variety)

• Art Spiegelman talks about comics and the new documentary about him. (Hyperallergic)

• What exactly is the “new literalism plaguing today’s biggest movies”? (I think I had a way better time at the theater last year than this writer did.) (The New Yorker)

“People might think a glass of milk is innocuous. It’s not. It’s full of violence.”
— Allison McCulloch on why she includes “vegan alerts” in her movie reviews

Jon Hamm stars in a new TV series as a sexy thief, which sounds fine, though I’d rather see him as an old roadie or a centaur:

Hacks is back!

And of course I’ll watch the “documentary/fiction hybrid” film about Pavement:

I hear honking outside, which means it’s time to flee. Enjoy the weekend, and thank you for reading this far!

your old pleasure-seeker,
Vinnie Delpino
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