I remember Joe Brainard

over at his site my buddy Tom Beckett is on a Brainard bender.

I live every day with two small works by Joe B. in the bathroom is a gouache of a male torso I bought many years ago at the A Different Light bookstore in Silverlake (which no longer exists). & right beside me at I pound on these keys every day is this:


pansy 

here's the story: when the Kent State University Libraries was abt to throw out its card catalog I went thru all the cards in Special Collections. I pulld ones of living writers who I felt mite want to help a library. we sent the cards to the individual writers asking them to sign them. when they were returnd we slippd them into paperweights. at a Friends of the Libraries dinner we exhibitd them with an auction sheet.

novelist Alicia Metcalf Miller & her husband bought many of the Beats & displayd them in a guest bathroom. I bought this one as well as Sondheim's & a great one in which Ray Johnson signd his name backward. Samuel M. Steward wrote a line in Greek & X. J. Kennedy drew a picture of himself nude descending a staircase.

last I heard a great many of these priceless items were still in storage in Special Collections. I don't know how much they cost now but if you're interestd you mite call (330-672-2270) & see what's still available.