Video Review: j/j hastain

I did this video review for Horsless Press' OPEN Review section.

If you have never checked out OPEN reviews, it is a wonderful new space for ongoing dialogue between poets. Instead of the traditional review, OPEN encourages the intimacy of the letter format, so that writers can discuss their personal engagement and experiences with the poem. They also encourage NOTES showing how a reader travels in the text. Thanks to Jen Tynes and Michael Sikkema for opening up this new space for interchanges and exchanges.

OPEN REVIEWS at Horseless Press

From the site:

We are interested in reviews that overtly, intimately, intensely, and interestingly engage in conversation with authors and their texts. We are interested in reviews that can stand alone. Reviews submitted for O P E N should be written as open notes (250-500 words) or letters (500+ words) to the author(s) of the reviewed text. Open notes and letters that address the text itself or some animal, vegetable, mineral, character, or characteristic of the text are also interesting to us. We are excited by reviews of events and multimedia reviews. Notes and letters will be published here on an occasional basis.



I decided to experiment with my first video review of a book in tribute to j/j hastain's book,  "new forms and meditations for the pressurized libertine monk" (Scrambler Books, 2012). I filmed this at our Tao Farm, and then tried to do the voiceover in one take to adhere to the idea of having a dialogue as to what arose for me in reading the book. I had a few notes on hand. But in the spirit of meditating on the lyrics, I also wanted to be spontaneous and open the book to any page and let the shape of my review be built upon what came to the surface. Hope you enjoy, and be sure to check out j/j hastain's work.