FEATURING THE VOLUME 11 ANTHEM: “IT’S ELEVEN!!!” BY DAVID V BRITTON
On top of creating our Volume 11 Anthem, NYC musician David V Britton recently released his first album, Qualia. Have yourself a listen here ————>
by Sierra Zenetzis
Counting the Omer during Covid:
Day 10 – Tiferet in Gevurah – balance within judgment
Hans Arp writes about a tightrope walker who shines like a star
Blooms like a flower. I think balance in judgment must look like that:
At once earthly and transcendent, a burst or an explosion held back
from happening while delicate feet place toes over the trembling wire.
I don’t judge myself or the world like that: it’s good/bad, all/nothing
Amos Oz writes that fanatics see things in those stark terms: ”it’s
All so simple,” he says. “The zealot loves you until that love tilts
Into hatred and then you must be completely destroyed: killing
You protects the life of all that matters.” As for balance –
I don’t have any. I fall down routinely, except that now with covid
I don’t dare get hurt. I have to hang on, not see a doctor or dentist.
I floss madly, try to make myself exercise, although frankly
I’m getting tired of caring about washing my hands I want to feel
My face. What keep me in check? Discernment? No. Fear.
Stephanie Barbe Hammer ("she" "her" "hers") is a former Los Angelina who lives for the moment in rural Washington State. She teaches at Edmonds Community College, Hugo House and Inlandia and is working on 2 novels and 3 poetry collections, when she isn’t trying to clean the house and stay on top of the laundry.
Claire is a Paris based artist who’s been exploring her work through pen drawings sewed together, on top of analog pictures.
“my newest film about feeling trapped in the confines of your room during an overwhelming time, feeling overwhelmed by what you're supposed to feel in quarantine... how to make everything go away by creating the illusion of a 'party' -- a frantic, unfamiliar space in the midst of a personal space”
“I’m cool 666 and I’ve been quarantined in the east village for 24 years. I do graff but I keep getting locked up from it, so I now I look for my graff on the internet. It’s everywhere and everything.”
New Media is an indie-rock four-piece from Los Angeles. Their sound incorporates the melodic noise and fuzz of the classic indie and alternative era with an emphasis on abstract lyrics, exploratory guitar interplay, and a classic, but the forward-thinking approach to songwriting, with the influence and atmosphere of post-punk, psychedelia, folk-rock, shoegaze, and more finding their way in the mix that could only come from four Millenials with an eclectic record collection and unprecedented digital access to decades of different styles and strains of music.
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by Jesse Lewis
Mothers Against Train Track Deaths
Red-brick-turned-gray that I
(and several hundreds of others)
call home goes by the name
Row Estate
(a beheadment of her actual name
[Crow Estate]
which was later set in stone by
the criminal defacement of the
welcome sign at the head of the road).
It wasn’t uncommon to hear her called
Death Row
(a name I thought was fitting
considering that
no one really left the estate,
unless they died).
Despite all her names,
(traded between neighbours on
rare occasions of interaction),
people tended not to address her
as anything when they didn’t have to.
(don’t get me wrong,
she was far from nothing
[in fact, she was one of
countless sore thumbs across
London’s leafy suburbs,
treated with apathy and an
indirect want
for the erasure of both
the buildings themselves,
and the types of people they
expected
to find there).
To them, our use was only to
inhabit the buildings
(which acted as soundproofing
between them
and the train tracks).
This was largely accepted
(until, of course, the body of a boy
[dead]
was found on the tracks
[with a red brushstroke tail
{one of the officers said it reminded him
of a painting his wife owned}
spewing),
even after the MATTD
(Mothers Against Train Track Deaths
[which garnered 12 members)
was formed.
I’d like to see
the day when it’s all razed to
the ground
(something you might find surprising,
and a little alarming,
[although, something in which i
strongly believe in).
I’d like to see myself
(and several hundreds of others)
expelled and fleeing
(I’m not sure whether this is because I
think so,
or whether it is because I’m
told so),
I’d like them to publish
our words in an edition of
Penguin Modern Classics
(although I’d settle for the print of
Oxford World’s Classics),
I’d like a double-page spread
somewhere within
Time Magazine
(or the Financial Times
[or maybe, I don’t know,
Country Life magazine).
Please excuse my language
(I’m on warm milk and laxatives
[I’ve read too much of the Metro
{even though I can’t afford a train ticket
{{i jumped the barriers last time and
they caught me cus they said i look sleazy
{{{its not my fault theres a low barrier to entry
{{{{i have sum issues id like to raise at
the next council meeting
{{{{{i have a court restraining order against my
local conservative councillor Keith Richards).
-Give me truth or give me aspirin.
Miki Derdun is a young poet and songwriter based in London.