jambandbootleg [Paperback]

Paul Siegell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2009

You're at your computer. Tickets are a tense, electrifying few seconds from going on sale. Eyeing the time, you're hitting "Refresh," and elsewhere, all your friends are doing the exact same thing. That's Paul Siegell's jambandbootleg. A widespread, high-spirited head rush. Desperation, fretfulness--all out life-leaping. "The party starts in the parking lot," indeed. With poems shaped like a guitar, the American flag, even a Golgi apparatus, Paul's monumental artworks could easily transform into posters. His is a poetry of exploration, heart and astonishment. Simply put: read Paul Siegell's music. Read it as if listening to the bangingest bootleg.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Paul Siegell is ecstasy in the present tense... Siegell's poems bend the jamband scene into enthused reveries."  --Relix Magazine

"...countless wildly inventive descriptions of peak emotional states. Siegell's sense of awe just keeps on coming." --RATTLE

"Every one of the 50+ pieces jumps with energy and spinning thought, not only due to word choice, but shape." --Gently Read Literature

"Read the Book!" --Surrender to the Flow

"Behold! Blend pinches of the Beats and Phish with a big bowl of Fantastic Originality unlike any poet I've ever known wave a burning match over it, inhale deeply. The astonishing dream that fills your head that's Paul Siegell." --CHARLES McNAIR, Author of Land 'O Goshen and Book Editor at Paste Magazine

"For centuries, people have tried to take words and turn them into music. What Paul Siegell does in his collection of poetry, jambandbootleg, is take music and turn it back into words. And he does it exceptionally well, capturing both the excitement of concert-going and the poetic essence of the improvisational music scene." --MARC BROWNSTEIN, bass player of The Disco Biscuits and Younger Brother

"Paul Siegell is the Bill Graham of our time. Yet in a twist of concert promotion, Paul is the headliner, and deserves to be. All the other bands, their different ambiances, they're the opening acts. But all the time we're waiting there, shuffling from stone to stone, anticipating that disembodied voice, the elongated 'And now, the one you've all been waiting for, PAUL SIEGELL...' Thousands of us. We rise." --MARK YOUNG, author of Pelican Dreaming: Poems 1959-2008 (Meritage Press, 2008)

From the Author

Poems from this book first appeared in 5AM, BlazeVOX, E Pluribus Unum: An Anthology of Diverse Voices, Kulture Vulture, MiPOesias, Moria, New Pony: A Horse Less Anthology, Otoliths, PFS Post, Pinstripe Fedora, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Press 1, Rattle, Sawbuck, Shampoo, Siren, Softblow, Sous Rature, Surrender to the Flow, Three Rivers Review, Umbrella and wordplay. Many thanks to the editors.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 122 pages
• Publisher: A-Head Publishing; 1st edition (July 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 098162832X
• ISBN-13: 978-0981628325
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,633,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"MOST A-MY HEROES EXIST AS MYTHS, SO I CHEER FOR MY FRIENDS INSTEAD"
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Paul Siegell is the author of three books of poetry: WILD LIFE RIFLE FIRE (Otoliths, 2010), JAMBANDBOOTLEG (A-Head, 2009) and POEMERGENCY ROOM (Otoliths, 2008).

Born on Long Island, educated in Pittsburgh, employed in Orlando, Atlanta and now Philadelphia, Paul is a senior editor at Painted Bride Quarterly and has contributed to the American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Rattle, and many other fine journals. He has also been featured in Paste and Relix Magazines, the Philadelphia City Paper, Surrender to the Flow, and elsewhere exciting.

Kindly find more of Paul's work at ReVeLeR @ eYeLeVeL (http://paulsiegell.blogspot.com).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Idea and Word Artistry of Poet Paul Siegell, July 4, 2009

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: jambandbootleg (Paperback)

Paul Siegell bounces onto the stage of contemporary American poetry as a fresh
flash of colorful originality. He plays with letters that compose words/thoughts,
punctuation imagery derived from the computer keyboard, takes those at times
strange but fresh products and patterns them into vocabulary pixilated images,
creating artworks of each page of this current treasure trove of poems titled
jambandbootleg. The result is a thoroughly entertaining poetic experience that
in reality is only the costume imposed on the brilliant thoughts and poems that
continue to pour from the mind of Paul Siegell!

There is a running theme in this particular collection of poems that differs from
his prior well received volume POEMERGENCY ROOM: as the title suggests these
poems pay homage to the field of music experience, and that of jazz music in
particular. State a theme, proceed to a riff, call in all manner of ideas to
participate in the jam session, and in the meantime make the poems reveal as
much personal emotion as any fine jazz or soul themes have created.

Not infrequently SIegell uses the words `jam' and `phish' and while most are
familiar with the verb `jam', not so many are aware of the references to `phish'.
Look up the word on Wikipedia and find that `Phish is an American rock band
noted for its musical improvisation, extended jam sessions, exploration of
music between genres, and dedicated fan base'. Extend the investigation
further and be reminded that `phishing' in computer society is the `criminally
fraudulent procedure of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as
usernames, passwords' etc., and you begin to get an idea of how far ranging is
Siegell's sense of humor and of poetic construction he has chosen for this new
release.

Dotted through this line of pattern are poems that are serious, about serious
matters, and dealt with in a format that steps from the `gimmickry' that flows
through the pages of the rest of the book. Example: in *Pass/Fail*:

`In his head: Friday 1963 America; pop's
teaching experience of 21: only a veteran
of marriage to mother for exactly five days -
October 25 & the Selective Service has him

standing on a line in his underwear and
lower Manhattan's 100 Whitehall Street -
plus, at front a-this line he's on: a bunch a-
bodies getting' blood siphoned into vials.' The poem goes on to tell the story
of this universally embarrassing and painful experience of the draft.

Then Siegell is off and running in his `SETS I, II, and III' that capture all the allure
and fizzy excitement of the spontaneity of an on stage musical extravaganza,
finding ways of placing words and symbols on the page that send sparks flying
while he still maintains a message in the trappings of his designs. And yet for
all this wild hilarity of his building of poems he still pauses for moments of
visual and mental rest as in the tender *cargo*:

`we rely on pocket
to carry the matters
our hands
just don't need to, or
simply choose
not yet to employ,
keeping them free
to be hands.

our hands know us: they're
close
to most all we fashion an effect on
& we dig them into pockets
(when it gets cold -)

just hands? but
mine haven't
always looked like
they do now -

& you see:
as part of their job
won't always either.'

It is this striking combination of wildly creative visualization of thoughts on
paper that explore the same luster as the performing arts coupled with the
moments of tender respite that makes this most immediate collection of Paul
Siegell's mastery of poetic concepts important and engaging. Siegell is a wild
madman, a verbal musician as imposing as a rock star, who just happens to also
go behind the curtain of his raucous stage and share some wonderfully personal
sides that wrap an arm around the audience he continues to entertain. Grady Harp, July 09 First published in O&S Summer 2009

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exhilirating!, August 25, 2009

By 

Shelley Griffin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: jambandbootleg (Paperback)

Exhilarating... to put it mildly. The author has a "booming" voice that is unlike any I have ever read before. At times you feel you are next to him- hearing him, however, looking through the eyes of a child. He takes poetry to a new level... the next level!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jammin' to Jambandbootleg, August 5, 2009

By 

Melissa D. Mcewen "Missy" (Bloomfield, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: jambandbootleg (Paperback)

After reading Paul Siegell's Jambandbootleg, I kept flipping through it, amazed at the energy and the creativity that fill these pages. Finishing the book is like lingering on the fairground long after a concert that you've been saving up for, dying to see, is through and you're left astounded at what you've just witnessed.

I kept flipping through it, half expecting the words, like in a flip book, to depict a boy or girl dancing -- a hidden bonus like playing a record backwards and hearing a subliminal message (I'm sure if any one could pull that off, Paul Siegell could!). I wasn't ready for the book to end. Inside I shouted "Encore," so I went back and reread "JAM>" which is one of my favorite poems in Paul Siegell's new book.

Jambandbootleg is the ticket stub souvenir of the greatest show on earth!