John Craun and Joseph Bradshaw present FUCKTOWN ORCHESTRA this Saturday at the Thank Tank
What follows is an email I received yesterday from John Craun, poet, carpenter, and one half of HAWN [slightly edited]; Joseph Bradshaw is moving to Chicago:
Hi Nate!
Hope you’re doing well here on the other side of the holidays. 2015! Besides looking forward to the new Congress and Senate, I’ve been making some recordings and working on a new performance in collaboration with Joseph Bradshaw (you’ve met him). We’re going to debut and retire it this Saturday, so I wanted to invite you. Also, I could use some help promoting, so am asking if you might make mention on Room 220.
[EVENT: John Craun and Joseph Bradshaw present FUCKTOWN ORCHESTRA at 10 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 10, at the Thank Tank (2433 St. Claude Ave.)]
Here’s the skinny: Joseph is probably my favorite of the poets I know. His first book, In The Common Dream of George Oppen, was published by Shearsman Books. It was “serious” poetry and took him four or five agonized years to write, and garnered just acclaim. Since then he’s taken truly weird turns. Much of his work of the last couple years has been raunchy and juvenile and obsessively scatalogical.
I’m attaching a recent video piece published by the Continental Review [below]. For the show, we’re using text-to-speech translations of several of his poems, and setting them to music. Or playing music into and around them. Anyway, Joseph Bradshaw Conducts The Fucktown Orchestra. I’m excited.
Here’s a link to our last few rehearsals. Musical references are—probably equally—Throbbing Gristle, The Residents, Bruck Haack and Nintendo.
Party time … Ten or so. After the galleries close.
Let me know if you need any more info.
Breast wishes,
John
