Guest Post: Anthony Madrid’s Ongoing Planisphere Notebook 2
ONGOING PLANISPHERE NOTEBOOK
Anthony Madrid
4. Some Common Objections to Ashbery—Answered
OBJECTIONS
(a) Doesn’t all this allegory and code on the subject of poetry-writing itself get a bit wearisome after a while? I mean, it’s not like he’s saying anything bold. And it’s every other poem.
(b) The persona of this book—gentle, quirky, finicky, likable, 100% harmless in every way—don’t you ever get sick of the coyness of all that, the self-satisfaction?
(c) Aren’t seventy or eighty percent of these diction oddities just a bunch of honors dorm humor?
[p. 129] A stupor like sheep’s nostrils
chases the ground. Day arrives with a thwack
and is left to sit all day.[p. 134] I’ll have a mustard coke.
Petal & Mop
The predictably yawn-inducing results (by which I mean I predicted the top six in my sleep—check my dream journal if you don’t believe me—& the reason I was asleep is that I had been listening to the top six) are in for the 37th (or, I insist, 38th) Village Voice Pazz & Jop music poll. Here’s my ballot:
Albums |
||
| 1 | Sonic Youth, The Eternal | Points: 15 |
| 2 | Mastodon, Crack the Skye | Points: 15 |
| 3 | Brad Paisley, American Saturday Night | Points: 10 |
| 4 | Raekwon, Only Built for Cuban Linx, pt. 2 | Points: 10 |
| 5 | Baroness, Blue Record | Points: 10 |
| 6 | The-Dream, Love vs. Money | Points: 10 |
| 7 | Converge, Axe to Fall | Points: 10 |
| 8 | Fever Ray, Fever Ray | Points: 10 |
| 9 | Deer Tick, Born on Flag Day | Points: 5 |
| 10 | Grizzly Collective, Veckatimest Post Pavilion | Points: 5 |
Singles |
||
| 1 | Taylor Swift, “Love Story” | |
| 2 | Girls, “Lust for Life” | |
| 3 | DJ Quik & Kurupt, “9x outta 10″ | |
| 4 | Maxwell, “Pretty Wings” | |
| 5 | Lady GaGa, “Just Dance” | |
| 6 | Shuttle, “Tunnel [High Rankin Remix]“ | |
| 7 | Neko Case, “People Got a Lotta Nerve” | |
| 8 | Mew, “Beach” | |
| 9 | Kelly Clarkson, “I Do Not Hook Up” | |
| 10 | Modest Mouse, “Satellite Skin” | |
And some of my comments here (note that I provide the tag line). As usual, this list doesn’t reflect my current thinking about

