An interesting little blog called WeelittleBeasties has given my poem “Mouse” a home. Happy to see it in such a nest of mouse lovers. The owners of the beasties site would have probably loved to have been standing with me in Idabashi Station, Tokyo, recently when a heavy rain outside inspired a group of rats to enter the station through the drain pipes and play on and under the train tracks in a rather kittenish way. I pointed them out to a middle-aged lady standing near me and she told me that these near-foot-long specimens were small compared to the rats in Nagano. The train arrived and the rats looked up and merely ducked as the heavy wheels rolled over them and the train obscured their games from our view. Cute!

On a different note: Rod Summers sent me his remix of electronic and acoustic sounds and sound poetry titled Tacky’s Gothic Snowdrop. He and Munich audio whiz Tom Winter recorded the material way back in 1976 “with seven guests in a wooden-roomed floor in a room in Maastricht.” The material has been mastered and remastered, and finally digitally well-done. The result is an interesting exploration of ambient sound. Rod Summers and Tom Winter are well known for their audio work and have produced a whole series under the VEC logo. In addition, Rod is the captain of the Paradise Police unit of Sound Poets, which includes myself and other luminaries from Europe, South America, the U.S. and other Realms of Being.

For a catalogue of VEC productions, write to:

Rod Summers/VEC
Cantecleerstraat 40
NL-6217 BX MAASTRICHT
The Netherlands