Rita Dove at Purdue University

Last night we had the pleasure of hearing and seeing Rita Dove at Purdue University. (The picture is awfully dark -- my bad.) Our good friend Karl, who is a student at Purdue, invited us for the evening and it was fantastic. Dove, who I studied back in "Women Writing Poetry" in the English department at USU, is a very accomplished poet, and was actually the U.S. Poet Laureate for a couple of years in the '90s. Last night she read from her new book, Sonata Mullatica, which is a book of poems (including a farcical play somewhere in the middle) that tells the story of George Bridgewater, a mullato violinist to whom Beethoven dedicated a violin sonata. Dove has a wonderful reading voice and stage presence and the reading was just lovely. One of her most interesting comments was about learning to play music and learning to write -- they're very similar, in that one must learn very good technique in order to play/write so that it looks effortless. Very interesting.

We spent a bit of time with Karl in Lafayette, then (thanks to Karl) listened to Neko Case's new album Middle Cyclone on the drive home. I highly recommend the album. The song "This Tornade Loves You" is incredible.

Finally, here's a very cute kitty, keeping me company while I read Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer: