Recent Performances

“Nameless, Unreasoning, Unjustified Verbiage” – a poetry video by Charise Sowells Malouf

She – a performance series to the music of Hauschka

Influx Blinklists

Ancient Performances
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I’m in the process of trying to dig up decent video and audio footage of readings and performances, new and old.  If you should have any, would you be so kind as to let me know?  Thanks!

Here are a few for your viewing pleasure.  Like what you see?  Click on the YouTube button while a video is running, or click here to go directly to my YouTube channel.  Enjoy!

Also, you can click here to see a full list of my featured readings, and here to see a summary of my non-reading performance.

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RECENT PERFORMANCES

Full Performance at the 11th Annual Davis Jazz & Beat Festival 

with
Keith Cary on cello
Heath Proskin on bass

Introduction by Dr. Andy Jones (2:00)

Recorded live at
The 11th Annual Davis Jazz & Beat Festival
John Natsoulas Center For The Arts
Davis, CA
October 13, 2018

videography by Charles Smith
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Mud Song

A new(ish) version, and much better than the one I’d had up here before.

Recorded live at The Lost Door
San Francisco, CA
January 19, 2013

videography by Eisaku Tokuyama
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nameless, unreasoning, unjustified clarity (excerpt)

I read a selection from “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified clarity”, a poem that lives on a 14-foot möbius strip.  With no beginning or end, this piece is potentially endless; I read about seven feet of it here in 10 minutes or so.  Prepare yourself for quite a ride.  Accompanied by the awesome Michael S. Johnson on improv keyboard.

Recorded live at The Lost Door
San Francisco, CA
January 19, 2013

videography by Eisaku Tokuyama
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Corporate Set at Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts

Here I offer advice on how to deal with the corporate oligarchy in three spoken word pieces at Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts, Round 9

The Beat Museum
San Francisco
October 14, 2010

P.S. the second piece is a good version of “DIY” from the Fresh Words page.

videography by John Rhodes
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The Food in My Beard

Yes, I am reading from a very high pulpit, in the back room of the Swift Hibernian Lounge in New York.  This surreal video was taken from just below, and offers an excellent rendition of my homage to the food chain, “The Food in My Beard”.

Swift Hibernian Lounge
New York NY
April 17, 2012

This poem is one of the Ecstatic Odes.

videography by Leigh Loranger
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I Want A Poetry

Mediocre video of a good performance of this cute little diatribe.

From the Poem Dome fundraiser at
Kaleidoscope SF
April 23, 2010

P.S. – You can find the text for this piece on my page in Esque #3: Revolutionesque

videography by Evan Karp

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Laundry

Reading on San Francisco Poetry Podcast TV
Hosted by John Rhodes and Clara Hsu
April 7, 2010

This poem is one of the Ecstatic Odes.

videography by John Rhodes
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“Nameless, Unreasoning, Unjustified Verbiage”
– a video poem by Charise Sowells Malouf

Art and Performance by Richard Loranger
Film and Music by Charise “Lake Lady” Sowells of Unabashed Productions
Shot at Nomadic Press
June 4, 2016

I perform sections of “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified clarity”, written on a 14-foot long mobius strip, amidst (and playing with) my exhibition of text art called Parallax Poems at Nomadic Press in Fruitvale, Oakland, California. This video splices many short soundbytes together, effectively rearranging and reinventing the piece much like the Blinklists do to themselves.

You can see another, longer excerpt above.

Nameless, Unreasoning, Unjustified Verbiage from Unabashed Productions on Vimeo.
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SHE

Here are three pieces from a series that I work on intermittently, putting words to pieces by the contemporary German composer Hauschka, aka Volker Bertelmann.  I’d been listening to him avidly for a few years, and realized that with the music on one album in particular, I always had similar imagery running through my head of a woman going through her days.  So I started writing it down, and here are the results so far.

She #1:  She

Written and performed to “Alexanderplatz” from the album Foreign Landscapes by Hauschka.

Recorded live at The Lost Door
San Francisco, CA
January 19, 2013

videography by Eisaku Tokuyama
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She #2:  The Life in Her House

Written and performed to “Iron Shoes” from the album Foreign Landscapes by Hauschka.

Recorded live in a quiet farmhouse
Lewisberry, PA
June 19, 2014

videography by Nieves Saah
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She #3:  Winter

Written and performed to “Mount Hood” from the album Foreign Landscapes by Hauschka.

Recorded live in a quiet farmhouse
Lewisberry, PA
June 19, 2014

videography by Nieves Saah
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BLINKLIST READINGS

In 1990, We Press released a strange chapbook of mine titled Influx Blinklists, documenting a form of writing I did briefly that led to the development of the text art pieces that I later also called blinklists. A reading was done at the Boulder Art Center in July of that year to introduce the work, comprising three multi-voice pieces, two of which were accompanied by music. Since the pieces were meant, among other things, to explore and celebrate the plasticity of words (a deft brush with language poetry, perhaps?), somehow the idea of crowdspeak seemed most appropriate for the event.

Here are the three pieces, taken from an old VHS tape and sadly blurry, but with good audio. So dive in and see what you think.

Influx Blinklist reading – part 1

BACstairs Performance series
Boulder Art Center
Boulder, CO
July 26, 1990

Readers: Richard Loranger and Chris Funkhouser
Musician: Angela Coon

Videography unknown
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Influx Blinklist reading – part 2

BACstairs Performance series
Boulder Art Center
Boulder, CO
July 26, 1990

Readers: Richard Loranger and Chris Funkhouser
Musician: Steven Taylor

Videography unknown
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Influx Blinklist reading – part 3

BACstairs Performance series
Boulder Art Center
Boulder, CO
July 26, 1990

Readers/ranters: Richard Loranger, Chris Funkhouser, Darrin Daniel, Victoria Wieners, Angela Coon, George __________, Janey Bittner, Steven Taylor

Videography unknown
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LONG-AGO PERFORMANCES

Here are a scattering of old videos of poems rescued from VHS.  Mostly they’re filmed recitations in various spaces and settings, rather than documented poetry readings, as you’ll see by clicking on any one of ’em.

November

Filmed behind a house on Lawrence Street in Ann Arbor, MI
December, 1990

Videography by John Roberds
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Ecstatic Riddle

Filmed in a parking lot in downtown Ann Arbor, MI
December, 1990

Videography by John Roberds
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Still Life with Pomegranate

Filmed in an old kitchen on Lawrence Street in Ann Arbor, MI
to Ann Lukens Weise making tea
December, 1990

Videography by John Roberds
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The Gift  (missing two lines)

Filmed in my room on Pine Street in Boulder, CO
January, 1991

Somehow two lines got cut from this video, and it’s almost completely black (on purpose), but it’s odd enough to post anyway.  The missing lines come after the word “fray,” and before “the world crowds in…”  Here’s how that part of the poem would read:

“And you a moment parted from the fray.
Then there comes a period of pain
where you begin to function once again,
the world crowds in…”

I did the mystical videography on this piece.
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and more to come… 

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