In 1994, I joined the Don't Look Now Jug Band. I still play and sing with them, though more rarely. It was always a "big band" with eight to twelve people. A smaller side group, the Fireflies, plays more often these days. I had a small solo art exhibit at Rabbles Coffee House in St. Clair Shores. My friendship with Jacques Karamanoukian was underway. I started getting up to Ann Arbor again to visit and to exhibit at Galerie Jacques. This was a time of experimentation. It was another good year for me and for THE POETIC EXPRESS.
In SURREAL THEATRE the "eccentric observer" series continues this year. It starts at strip number 18 and goes to strip number 46. Scenes visited include a dream, a pencil sharpening, the house of crazy gambling, the cemetery, and the forest. In Number 3 there are a lot of good jokes on the "Bird-Brained Legislature".
Number 6's Dedications Issue, the 8th, includes poems for a comic team, a musician and a Surrealist. The musician is jazz artist Sonny Sharrock who died in May. The poem's called Strewn. The comedians are the Keystone Cops of silent movies, a rowdy bunch, immersed in forward motion and devious slapstick. For them, I wrote Remake. The Surrealist is Benjamin Peret, poet. True poetry is life's blood to Surrealism. My style in spilled words is inspired by Peret. I think it's the best of these three poems.
Number 12's 8th annual Emotional Digest Issue includes Respect/Dignity, hunger and ennui/Boredom.
Personal Favorites: I like elevated from Number 3. The wild "calligraphy" in this one took awhile to do. Number 7's two weeks in New York is a good imaginary portrait of my actual visit. Other favorites include Number 11's anti-symphony, and Number 13's found objects.
No SURREAL THEATRE special favorites this time. They're all of a consistent enough quality, I think.