Nymphéas

Nymphéas

Nymphéas

Pour John & Wayne

The sun has set too fast today.
Can a water lily show me the way?
An impression by Claude Monet
Let Giverny bridge Albany.
Wet paint into wet paint
Emphasizes your qualities.
The perception of your movements
Belongs to les effets de soir.
Your blue shadow is a landscape
Your reflection a guide.
Like a painting by Claude Monet
“Impression, Sunrise”
Impression, soleil levant

N.P
Bay Ridge -Sunday, October 26, 2008
Bass: Michael Bisio
Photo/Voice/Text: Nicole Peyrafitte
Recorded Live at Justin’s in Albany N.Y by Sten Isachsen -Bender Studio-November 20, 2008

Preview Recording & Thanksgiving

Preview Recording & Thanksgiving


Drawing Y.K.

Wow! my last post was over a week ago and I didn’t get a chance to write anything since then. So let’s go back in time a little bit:

The gig with Mike Bisio at Justin’s in Albany N.Y was a lot of fun and we couldn’t have had a better audience. If you were there: thank you so much for your undivided attention. Pierre Joris produced a live recording of the concert and and it looks like we might have enough material to cut a live album; Sten Isachen from Bender Studio in Delmar, NY did a great job recording us.

Michael Bisio & Nicole Peyrafitte

If you wish you had been there or want to listen to our very first song of the night, you can! Click to hear arrivé ici (though be aware that this is a very rough and not yet “mastered” mix). Arrivé ici or Come here is a poem by Pierre Joris from “hjr” published by OtherWind Press. Do not hesitate to let me know what you think.

Monday I rushed back from Albany to make sure to get an organic turkey from the Park Slope Food Coop and get all the my Thanksgiving food shopping done as Tuesday and Wednesday were going to be taken up by work. Below you can see the photo reportage —mostly photographed by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte— of the preparation, but first let me give you our collaborative family menu:

Pumpkin & Passilla Chili Potage topped w/ crema, cilantro & chopped fresh jalapeño
Served with Marge’s Corn Bread
Stuffed Turkey *My Way*
This stuffing is closer to the one for French Dinde de Noêl or X-mas Turkey. Ingredients are ground pork, shitake mushrooms, onions, celery & carrot (very little), garlic, parsley, brandy, lots of freshly ground pepper, salt — and finish with eggs to bind. The turkey was in a brine for 48 hours.
Mashed Potatoes
Haricots Verts (Joseph Mastantuono & YK)
Oyster Dressing (Joseph Mastantuono & YK)
Roasted Celeriac, Carrots & Shallots with bits of Bacon
Simple Cranberry Sauce
Orange & Shallot Gravy

Plum Tort (Dawn Clements)
Mousse au Chocolat (Joseph Mastantuono & YK)
Sweet Potato Pie
Cranberry & Orange & Peanut Butter Pie

Also, I wanted to forward an interesting op-ed New York Times ( I swear it was in the *real* New York Times!) article that has us thinking of a totally different menu for next year. Cocorico!
read on:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/opinion/26davis.html?_r=1&em

Back from Albany (Capital City of New York State!)

Back from Albany (Capital City of New York State!)

Mike Bisio and I whipped cream at Justin’s on Thursday night. We had a big, wonderful and most of all very attentive crowd. The best audience I ever had at Justin’s so far. We mostly performed originals, contemporary poems with only a dash of French songs and jazz standards. Mike played two incredibly moving solos, one was John Coltrane’s Alabama & the second was a piece he created on September 11th, 2001 – as he was in the studio that day. By the way Mike Bisio will be playing next Saturday, 9/20 at The Clean Feed Fest at the Living Theatre with Basso Continuo : Stephen Gauci, Nate Wooley, Ken Filiano and Mike Bisio. Starts at 9pm. I will be there!

I also wanted to note that on Wednesday my younger son Miles Joris-Peyrafitte had his first solo public appearance as a singer/songwriter at the famous Tess’ Lark Tavern open mike hosted by the rock goddess of Upstate New York: Mother Judge. Miles did very well: he also accompanied me on guitar on my song the Brooklyn Bridge & on a poem by his father, Pierre Joris. After that he played drums for his long time friend, the very talented Lindsey Rogowski.

One of the poems Mike Bisio and I performed on Thursday was by Mustafa Benfodil. I met Mustafa at the Festival “Voix de la Méditéranée” in Lodève and really liked his work. With his permission I would like to post the poem I translated and performed with Mike Bisio on Thursday. Voilà for now, enjoy this short, but intense poem and THANK YOU so much if you were in the audience on Thursday & always THANK YOU to the wonderful crew at Justin’s for their graciousness –and I know this week was very hard for them as their were dealing with the sudden loss of one of their very dear co-worker. Merci à tous!

Lune de miel à Baghdad
Nous nous sommes connus à Gaza
Nous nous sommes aimés à Ramallah
Nous nous sommes embrassés à Beyrouth
Nous nous sommes mariés à Alger
Nous nous sommes envolés à Baghdad
Nous sommes morts sous les bombes
Et nos coeurs ont fondé une ONG
Pour la protection des amours à haut risque
Et la continuation de la passion sous les tombes!

Honey moon in Baghdad
We met in Gaza
We loved in Ramallah
We kissed in Beirut
We wed in Algiers
We flew to Baghdad
We died under the bombs
& our hearts founded a NGO
for the protection of high risk love
& the continuation of passion under the tombs!

Poem by Mustafa Benfodil translated by Nicole Peyrafitte

Events 09/11 & 09/14

Events 09/11 & 09/14

Getting ready to go to Albany to see my family but also looking forward to gig with Mike Bisio the grand bassist & composer extraodinaire on Thursday Sept 11 @ Justin’s 9PM.

We will perform mostly originals, contemporary poetry and maybe our signature song or is it a dish? Pierre Joris posted two videos of Mike and I on his blog. Speaking of Pierre, he and I will be part of a celebration I am very much looking forward to:

At the Bowery Poetry Club, Sunday, September 14, 4:00 to 6:00PM

Jerome Rothenberg will be hosting a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Technicians of the Sacred, which brought a global range of oral & tribal poetry into focus & launched ethnopoetics as a new approach to poetry & performance. Joining him will be a group of active poets & performers including Charles Bernstein, Bob Holman, Pierre Joris, Charlie Morrow, Nicole Peyrafitte, Diane Rothenberg, Carolee Schneemann, & Cecilia Vicuña. (Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, between Houston & Bleecker, in NYC.)
Technicians of the Sacred: A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania, Second edition, Revised and Expanded


and for the new French edition, http://www.jose-corti.fr/titresmerveilleux/techniciensSacre.htm

Back in Brooklyn & processing French voyage

Back in Brooklyn & processing French voyage

Back in Brooklyn and processing summer material.
I plan to post more videos and pictures from the summer. Today, a clip of the closing performance at the “Voix de la Méditerranée” festival in Lodève. The clip is provided by Pierre Joris who recorded it with his tiny camera from the first row Sunday July 27th, thank you Pierre!
That evening I got to improvise several pieces by other poets and performers with wonderful musicians.
On percussion: Shadi. who is a marvelous Iranian musicians living in Marseilles right now . She plays many traditional instruments, do check out her myspace to find out more about her.

On guitar: Benoist Bouvot. Benoist’s work ranges from free jazz to theater & performance. When we started playing it was like we had always known each other: instant recognition of vocabulary AND his girlfriend turned out to be a close family acquaintance from Luchon (town where I was born and center of the world -if your didn’t know yet-). Click on the link to check out some of Benoist’s work.
The poem we are performing is by NaTYot from her book published by l’Harmattan: Erotik Mental Food. a collection of truly wonderful erotic poems.
Voilà for now and enjoy the clip!

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