In 1916,
Hugo Ball would fulfill his own
dadaist manifesto by reciting his own nonsense poetry at the
Cabaret Voltaire (not that
Cabaret Voltaire), while wearing a
Cubist costume or a
cylinder with the number 13 covering his face. Ball's poem,
Gadji Beri Bimba, inspired the Talking Heads song,
I Zimbra, but his most famous poem is
Karawane, a pioneering example of
sound poetry. Karawane has more conventional
avant-garde versions on YouTube, but none is more surreal than the
recitation from memory by Marie Osmond (yes, that
Marie Osmond) from a
1980s broadcast of
Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
posted by jonp72
on Mar 9, 2009 -
21 comments