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 FEVER PITCH: Continuing their collaborative effort to bring poetry to the people, Borders Books and the Voice and Range Artists Registry are offering another installment of their community literary arts series, as they have done every second Saturday for more than a year. This Saturday's reading celebrates the publication of a new anthology of contemporary Arizona poetry from the University of Arizona Press. Entitled Fever Dreams, the worthy endeavor showcases the talents of four familiar names: Jon Anderson, Alison Deming, James Cervantes and Leilani Wright, who will read from their contributed works.
MOVING MOUNTAINS: A friend who recently attended a workshop on children's book publishing in New York reported glumly that the conference opened with the words, "The big boom is over. Publishing is on the decline, and the competition is fierce." Gulp.
...Just the press for Baylor, one of southern Arizona's finest storytellers for imparting a sense of place and regional wonder, with a willingness to enlighten as well as entertain. Her author's note begins: "These tales go back to the beginning of tribal memory, but they are a part of the present, too. In the southwest, several tribes are fighting legal battles even now for control of their own shrines and sacred mountains, trying (usually with little success) to keep mines and ski lodges and land developers away from the homes of their gods." But the best way, bar none, to hear Baylor's tales is from the good-humored author herself, who visits Coyote's Voice Books from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 10, for a free reading and booksigning. Chana will also join the signing. Coyote's Voice is in the Broadway Village Center, on Broadway just west of Country Club Road. Call 327-6560 for information. Editor's note: Our [insert MAD LIB here] expert on pop-culture, James DiGiovanna, emailed this late-breaking addition to this week's column. Because he often has good ideas for which he is seldom credited, we wanted to go out of our way to mention his name here: James DiGiovanna. He wrote this next blurb. Laugh uproariously and exalt his name. Thank you. ALL-CONSUMING READ: In our salad days, my friend Cindy and I used to like to put on 3D glasses and go to the supermarket. Surrounded by brightly colored packages, we had no need of the vulgar narcotic distractions that so appealed to our fellow young adults. Treating the supermarket as psychedelic art is not just a pastime for Paul Lukas, he's made a career out of it. Hunting deep within the shelves, Lukas has discovered not one but four different brands of sauerkraut juice; microwavable pork rinds; the ominously titled "Student Food"; and the misspelled "Coors Artic Ice Beer." All this was in support of his zine, "Beer Frame: the Journal of Inconspicuous Consumption." For the book version, Inconspicuous Consumption (paper, $12.95), Lukas collected 105 of his best articles about products seldom noticed or appreciated.
Other objects hold their pleasure in the form of their packaging, such as the box of cat food with the "burst" copy reading "New Package Design!" The only thing new about the package was this very burst. Still others are treasured by Lukas for their huh? value, such as musk-flavored Life Savers or Thirsty Dog! beverage for canines. Lukas closes with a section on questionable services and organizations. For those wishing to impress the local militias, there's Firefox Enterprises, which, with a minimal amount of paperwork, will sell you everything from detonator cords to a 100-pound drum of magnesium. Or, if you're just in the market for genetically enhanced pork, Lukas tells you how to contact the Pig Improvement Company, Inc., whose scientists have produced the PIC 405 boar, a synthetic bacon machine of highest order. There's something a little sad about the fact that shopping has become America's favorite leisure activity, but I guess if we're trapped in a post-capitalist consumer society the best we can do is follow Lukas' advice and treat the corporate wastelands of our industrial decline as playgrounds and art galleries beyond the scope of shrinking government entitlements and endowments. DUE CREDIT: Dear Weekly readers: Mistakenly, in writing about Allen Ginsberg and his appearance at the Tucson Poetry Festival in 1992, I took credit for printing a hand-printed broadside by him, titled "Personals Ad." While this broadside did come out from Chax Press, it was printed by Lisa Bowden, who at that time was doing most of the typesetting and printing for Chax. She deserves full credit for the Ginsberg broadside. Sincerely, Charles Alexander Chax Press
OOPS! The crack staff that puts the TW online has
informed us that last week's web addresses were misprinted. The
correct addresses, regarding Greek mythology and Xena: Warrior
Princess, respectively, are as follows: http://www.webcom.com/shownet/medea/bulfinch/welcome.html;
and http://plaza.interport.net/logomanc/XENA/index.html.
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The collection, which includes new works by nearly 40 poets currently
living and writing in 
Meanwhile, back at the book store, the selection can be
somewhat grim. Stories of substance, new and old alike, are often
conspicuously absent. Welcome, then, a special reissue of The
Way to Make Perfect Mountains, subtitled "Native
American Legends of Sacred Mountains as told by Byrd Baylor."
The 60-page book, illustrated with spare, pen-and-ink drawings
by local Tohono O'odham artist Leonard F. Chana, has been
resurrected from its long out-of-print status by Cinco Puntos
Press, a small press out of El Paso that prides itself on
"crossing borders": linguistic, political and cultural.
Much of the writing is a first-person account of the fetish value
of these commodities. Who wouldn't want a Brannock Device (that
thing they have in shoe stores to check your shoe size)? As Lukas
notes, even though you have no use for one, its weight, asymmetrical
shape and smoothly sliding parts make it a pleasure to pick up
and hold.
