“LANDLINE” — AN EMAIL BULLETIN BY JAY BABCOCK No. 0019 WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 10, 2021 1. LIVE FROM MALLARD’S CROSSING I interviewed David Berman in 1999 by phone for what turned out to be a very small piece in RayGun magazine ahead of the publication of his collection of poems, Actual Air. I was exploring an the old hard drive recently and came across the raw transcript of our conversation, which was as full of David’s bright sparks as I remembered it to be. Discussed: shaving, corporate housing parks, stand-up and poetry, Charles Wright, Denis Johnson, Flipside poetry, Geto Boys, carpet as lawn, Jackson C. Frank, James Michener, Jewel, Jorie Graham, rudeness in Louisville, Michael Burkard, Patrick Nagel, and so on. I prefer to remember David, who I never met, this way: riffing non-stop, chuckling, interested in everything, even (especially!) Mallard’s Crossing.
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