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23 Feb 2010

Diary of a Billsticker – Baltimore, USA

By Phantom Billstickers

This poster run happened on Waitangi Day weekend. The Phantom crew did the run on the Sunday morning in temperatures of 18 degrees Fahrenheit (32 is freezing). We carried posters by Jay Clarkson, Sandra Bell, Michele Leggott, Janet Frame and others. I always try to have a Janet Frame poetry poster nearby.

We attracted lots of good attention and made some strong contacts within the Baltimore poetry scene. Nothing seems to break the ice like putting up poetry posters. People always seem to relate to a poem. Discussion always opens up.

Baltimore, Maryland is a very creative city. It seems to be just bursting at the seams with artistic activity. To my mind, this is because the city is very nicely worn in and not completely taken over by shopping malls and franchise store operations. The city has a very bohemian feel (this feeling seems to have always been good for poetry) and this encourages people, young and old, to ‘have a go.’ It’s like the texture of the city gives people permission to move in creative ways. Shop rentals are probably quite reasonable in Baltimore and there is a great independent bookstore called Atomic Books. Atomic Books has a wide selection of fanzines that are put out by enthusiastic people from throughout the USA. They break the format of the publishing houses in exciting ways.

But everyone seems to know Baltimore these days because of the TV show “The Wire.” This show has captured attention spans throughout the world as being a true story of what can go wrong within cities. We have the same kind of thing happening within New Zealand cities. It is a cruel and vicious set-up full of hurt, hypocrisy and dismay. Alan Duff writes about it so well.

In time out of mind, H.L. Mencken lived and worked in ‘Charm City’ and worked for The Baltimore Sun. Here was another who saw what was going on in society and chose to write about it rather than turning away. The notion of “Not Turning Away” is a Buddhist concept.

But what I saw in Charm City that really knocked me out was a Presidential motorcade. Barack Obama was in the city on the Friday, talking to local business owners. Local business owners (not the banks) are the engine room of the economy, we all know this.

For Mr Obama’s splendid motorcade they had closed off one side of the I-95 which is the interstate into Baltimore. We were travelling the other way. The first thing we knew, here comes twenty motorcycle cops riding two abreast. A hundred yards back there are the first of twenty black Chevrolet Suburban vans carrying aides and secret service men, no doubt. It is all a very regal and disciplined scenario. Next comes five or ten black limousines, these are probably Cadillacs or Lincolns with extra sheets of steel built into their body shells. They are each flying the Stars and Stripes from the front guards. After that, we have more Chevy Suburbans and a fire truck and an ambulance. At the end are more motorcycle cops and there are a couple of helicopters (‘Marine One’ – the Presidential chopper) in the air.

It all reminded me of seeing Queen Elizabeth II in Stuart Street, Dunedin many years ago.

The last thing I wish to say about Baltimore is that the city features in a song by Bob Dylan. That’s enough of a recommendation to a place for me. In the song “Trying to Get to Heaven” he states that “Miss Mary-Jane has a place in Baltimore.”

When I first heard that song, I knew I had to go and I’m extremely glad I did.

Keep the Faith,

Jim Wilson
17d

18 Feb 2010

Diary of a Billsticker – Manhanttan, USA

By Phantom Billstickers

This small poster run of about fifty posters happened after a Phantom Billstickers delegation met with the good people from the Poetry Society of America. From memory, most of the posters were of Brian Turner’s fine poem “Keep it Up.” I just found it good fun to be out with a staple gun.

Manhattan, New York City, what do we know of it? Two members of “Bailter Space” live in Manhattan. Bailter Space is New Zealand’s finest band of its genre and I really don’t know if there is another band anywhere that fits into that genre. Bailter Space created it and did it so well.

Of course, many fine writers and artists of all types came from or lived in New York City. New York City is where artists gravitate to and it lifts them up. There are too many names to list. I think everyone knows that this is a very creative town. It gave us the Ramones, Delmore Schwarz, William Burroughs, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. But if you really got into a list, then it would never stop.

There’s just something about the place. It is just so compelling.

Keep the Faith,
Jim Wilson

15a

15 Dec 2009

Diary of a Billsticker – New Hampshire and Vermont, USA

By Phantom Billstickers

I’m from New Zealand so it’s possible I’ll get some of the towns and city names wrong that were covered on this poster run for NZ poetry posters.

We stayed in Perkinsville, Vermont and travelled out to:

In Vermont:
– Chester (Where there is a great bookstore called Misty Valley Books, the owner of which put us on to a fine local poet called Michael Palma)
– Weston
– Ludlow
– Windsor (Where I came across a general store selling NZ Swanndri bush shirts and a bloke who had actually heard the names ‘Dan Carter’ and ‘Richie McCaw’ – Kiwis abroad speak those names often)
– Bellows Falls
– Andover
– Springfield

In New Hampshire:
– Cornish
– White River Junction
– Hanover
– Lebanon

It was my sheer and extreme pleasure to be carrying with me Ben Brown poetry posters (The Door). I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think Ben of Lyttelton had spade-loads of raw talent. Every time I put a poem poster on a lamp-post or a notice board, I am aware that I have at least three effects: on the poet himself (I believe in him), on a potential audience (so nice to be reading a poem in the streets) and on myself (my blood flows).

The week following this poster run we had a great meeting with Alice Quinn from the Poetry Society of America. Whilst in Manhattan for that meeting, I managed to get a few Brian Turner and Sam Hunt poetry posters up. These are very fine NZ poets. Let’s take this to the world, eh? Or do what we can.

 

Keep the Faith,

 

Jim Wilson

15b

10 Nov 2009

NZ & US Poetry Takes on the World!

By Phantom Billstickers

An initiative by Phantom Billstickers* to provoke some thought, while putting some beauty back into the world’s streets, has seen POETRY POSTERS featuring poems by New Zealand and American poets plastered all over New Zealand as well as Sydney, Paris and several American cities including Nashville, Knoxville, Portland, Seattle, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Jim Wilson, founder of Phantom Billstickers, says “Some of the most beautiful, striking and intuitive poetry in the world has been created by Kiwis. Phantom Billstickers feels a responsibility to help New Zealand artists of all types to be heard at home and abroad, so we came up with the idea of the Poetry Posters. A different set of posters is rolled-out nationally each 4-6 weeks, and each poster in the set features a different poet’s poem. Simultaneous to the poster roll-outs in New Zealand, we’re making our way around the world, plastering poem posters as we go and exposing the international community to New Zealand and American poetry.”

The first poster was pasted-up in Auckland on 2 June 2009 at an event compeered by New Zealand’s inaugural Poet Laureate, Michele Leggott. This launched the first roll-out of Poetry Posters by NZ poets Tusiata Avia and James Milne (aka Lawrence Arabia) and US poets J.D. McCaleb and Michael White. For just over a month these posters were seen on all Phantom Billstickers’ sites in Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Gisborne, Napier, Palmerston North, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.

A second roll-out, this time launching in Wellington, began on 22 July and featured poetry by NZ poets Bill Direen, David Eggleton, Michele Leggott, Otis Mace and Frankie McMillan and US poet Josie McQuail.

The third roll-out launched in Christchurch on Janet Frame’s birthday on 28 August and featured, as well as a poster of Frame’s poem “The End”, poems by an all NZ line-up: Ben Brown, Hilaire Campbell, Geoff Cochrane, Rhian Gallagher, Gary McCormick, Campbell McKay, Pablo Nova, Jackie Steincamp and Nicholas Thomas.

The fourth New Zealand roll-out launches in Dunedin at 12pm on Monday 16 November at 468 George Street (by Obelisk), with Michele Leggott officiating. The featured NZ poets are Sandra Bell, Jay Clarkson, Sam Hunt and Brian Turner, while the American poets are Robert Pinsky (Massachusetts), Marcie Sims (Washington), and Joe Treceno (New York City).

Wilson says he’s delighted to be launching the latest selection of poem posters in Dunedin, under the gaze of Robbie Burns’ statue. “Dunedin is a real hotbed of creativity,” he says, “and we’re certainly featuring an interesting selection of poets in this roll-out. Alongside some of New Zealand’s best, we’re honoured to have American poet Robert Pinsky submitting his poem “Samurai Song”. Pinsky is one of the foremost poets in the US – aside from being a prolific writer and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, from 1997 to 2000 he was the US Poet Laureate, and he currently teaches at Boston University and is poetry editor for Slate.”

* Phantom Billstickers has been giving New Zealand a good pasting for 27 years. Jim Wilson started the company in 1982 and has the rights to the leading poster sites in the country.

04 Nov 2009

Diary of a Billsticker – Seattle and Portland, USA

By Phantom Billstickers

I’m writing this on the eve of Guy Fawkes’s night and yet I did this poster run a month back in early October. I flew to Seattle and the shuttle bus driver became lost getting me to a Holiday Inn. That’s strange. She also managed to incur the wrath (held back, breathing changed) of several other passengers as she went past their stops. That’s weird. Why would a person do that? I felt incredibly diplomatic as a Kiwi and we always feel the need to patch things up. I did. That’s laborious.

What do we know about Seattle? Well, it’s very easy to tell that it’s a superlative gig town. There are thousands of posters on the lamp-posts for local bands and DJ’s. Mostly these are coloured A3 photocopies. As I was putting up NZ poetry posters (mainly Nicholas Thomas, Pablo Nova, Janet Frame), a cop went past and waved and smiled. I enjoyed that. There was some kind of action in Seattle to ban postering a few years back and this action failed. Good. There is a need for expression, more so now. I think the local poster company in Seattle is called Poster Giant and it looks to me like they do a good job of handling many campaigns simultaneously. That’s required. They obviously maintain the sites.

What do we know about America? Well, just this last weekend I was in Chicago postering. As I left Chicago I noted that the main local newspaper (The Tribune) was in bankruptcy. I was now flying to Philadelphia where the local newspaper there (The Inquirer) is also in serious difficulty. It feels to me like many people in America are now expressing themselves (and their music, theatres, businesses, issues) through alternative ways and this includes posters and fliers. The old reliable stalwarts. The corporate style media has obviously failed. This corporate type of media mainly became about share prices and ignored people. In business, when you cut costs, you also run the risk of cutting your own throat. Of course, the internet features in all of this, but I think the main reason the newspapers are in the ditch is because long ago they lost contact with the population. Mr Hugh Bris came around and arrogance then ruled. Television in America is strange too, everyone has such perfect teeth. Yet there are many good journalists out of work. That’s sad.

There’s something about Seattle and Portland both being highly creative cities. Portland especially is very bohemian and reminds me of Dunedin and also of Cuba Street in Wellington. I had a great time postering in Portland.

Microsoft is centred somewhere around Seattle. Nike is centred somewhere near Portland (in Beaverton). The greatest Rock guitarist of all time, James Marshall Hendrix, was born in Seattle. That says it all. Portland has the greatest bookstore in the world, Powell’s Books and my very favourite author, Thomas Pynchon, worked for Boeing in Seattle for two years in the early 1960s. This was whilst he worked on his breakthrough novel ‘V’. I’ll bet you’ve read it and understood it. Try ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’.

But it was in Seattle where Kurt Cobain came through the ranks and changed music at a time when it was dangerously boring. When music is dangerously boring it is also bad for people. Life becomes inhibiting. Here’s what Jim Carroll (who died about a month back) said in a poem about Kurt Cobain:

“And instead you were swamp crawling
Down, deeper
Until you tasted the Earth’s own blood
And chatted with the buzzing-eyed insects that
heroin breeds”
– Fragments for Kurt Cobain – Jim Carroll

And I’ll finish there. Wouldn’t you?

 

Keep the Faith,

Jim Wilson

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