contents and discontents

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Tuesday
July 15, 2003

typing exp!osion

working from a card catalog of titles they invented as well as audience suggestions,
Typing Explosion creates spontaneous collaborative poetry on the fly using electric typewriters.
sarah, arne, steven and i caught them at an unadvertised performance in a courtyard
at Harborview Hospital. it was an eerie feeling walking into what we were told was a special
show for mental patients, especially when we opened the door and saw an institutional
record player spinning One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-esque calmative music.
The performers, recalling a McCarthy era typing pool, say nothing as they go through
a choreographed ritual of typing, stamping, horn-hornking, and bell-ringing to signify
completion of various stages of their self-documenting poetic process. i only wish i'd stuck
with my original suggested title "Guided Measles" instead of switching to "Wake & Bake."