A Fiery Flying Roule:

previs

i was about to speak to me art was in its shopfront making artisanal empathy register today politicians kept happening upon events aberrant in real world

posed for drone’s eye view travellers obnoxious to motive powers spoil air for nothing implants destroy conscience nothing cares about seasons

fire uneconomical for ants secretly told by a corpse probably as space too full for time at mercy of signs embedded in frame

bare turtles in cowshed act only on order of drones speed acquisition of stealth seek phones to fulfil wider persistent surveillance requirements removed from atom’s clutches

you are invisible go visible same colour as ground died on let dead vote my home my enemy panopticon stares back

weather events happen without emotion splice mocapped opacities follow screams into future complete suites of ammunition i is half here a heavier god

KADRI GOPALNATH (1949-2019)

0:30 sec into the video: 14min?? Well that's long. Let's see how far we get into the video. At 1:10 mins : My God!! Changanassery B Harikumar's fingers must be made of.. steel, maybe? What speed and yet such clarity! 

2:30 mins : Concern for Shri Harikumar's neck crosses the mind. Sprain much? 

3:35 mins : Things start to heat up with the tabla. Catch Padmashree Dr Gopalnath Kadri's attention jerk, to catch the motif 

4:11 mins : Shri Kadri grins at the twist of the patterns and power modulation

4:16 mins : Pandit Rajendra Nakod's speed relay begins 

5:00 mins : Goodness Gracious! That speed for that long with a single hand.. 

5:13 mins : If we thought it was heated up till here, start noticing the knowing grins and camaraderie between Shri Harikumar, Dr Kadri, & the Pandit; as Pt Nakod turns up the heat 

5:35 mins : It makes one smile to watch Shri Harikumar genuinely delight and enjoy in Pt Nakod's playing 

6:00 mins : Shri Kadri's forehead creases up in pressure in sync with the tabla's pressure-increasing sprint 

6:18 mins : Grins all around at the magic again! 

6:47 mins : That finish and those hand raises!! Whistle-worthy indeed 

7:05 mins : The man has barely had a few seconds to catch his breath, and is back again gamely answering the volley thrown by Shri Harikumar, who knows not what simple is 

7:25 mins : Educational pointer - Watch Pt Nakod take keen note of Shri Kadri's thaalam - a foreign time-keeping technique for Hindustani musicians. 

7:44 mins : Dr Kadri's limbs can't help but participate in the action. They bob and gyrate. 

8:27 mins : The phrase that fades out to perfection 

8:29 mins : Fun grooves segment begins 

9:15 mins : Q&A 

10:40 mins : Waves 

10:48 mins : Catch the sign that Shri Harikumar gives Pt Nakod to trigger the high tide 

11:00 mins : Wah wah wah! If my jaws were dropping wide open earlier, they now have nowhere further to drop 

11:30 mins : More grins among the musicians in that pure, unadulterated joy of that music 

12:00 mins : Interestingly fresh take on the classic Adi thala mohra with Pt Nakod's single-hand finishes 

12:45 mins : The river of percussion music that flows must surely only be Saraswati 

13:20 mins : Grins on my face cannot be wiped off as this magnificent climax arises ---- 

[ letter from a friend in response to an email announcing the book ]

This is happily the only full-sized book that made it across the country with me on my travels [...] to the SE. We hit the road now on our bikes from New Orleans and are headed West to Lafayette, then East and South in Florida. 

A FIERY FLYING ROULE is pleased to announce the emergence of A FIERY FLYING ROULE in book form, thanks to the diligent collaborative efforts of Station Hill Press & Publication Studio Hudson.

[ specs: 250 pp. | printed in color | 6" x 9"  | 1lb | $36 ]

These 25 pamphlets first emerged during the Occupy episode earlier this decade, back in the days when patriarchal combovers quivering with nationalist pride seemed the least of our worries. Each pamphlet includes a heterogeneous assembly of poems, quotations, diagrams, and photographs from a range of legislators of the unacknowledged world. The volume is rounded out by a 60-pp. "Epistle to the Reader" in which the project as a whole is situated in space and time alongside reflections on various forms (such as "the people's mic," "the foldy," etc.). At root these pamphlets make a case for "the olds" over and against the relentless pummeling of "the news"; this archival edition seeks to transmit that premise into a future as yet unimagined. 

Copies available direct from the Publication Studio website (which also includes several sample pages), & a handful remain in Small Press Distribution's inventory. All proceeds in excess of production costs will go to decarceration efforts hither and yon. 

Contributor copies will get sent out as quickly as I can gather your addresses: drop me a line! Plus I would look forward to bartering if you like that sort of thing; let me know and we will make it so. I'm also eager to get the book in libraries, if you have access to those levers. & I would be happy to send a PDF to reviewers &/or teachers interested in spreading the word in as many shapes and forms as possible....