A RESPITE

. . . Sometimes you just need to do something else--

After a long day of meetings of the English department down in Altoona, I headed over to poet Cecil Giscombe's house, where he was hosting a little do --

And at the heart of the do was this ensemble, headed up by Paul Youngquist.

Paul is a scholar of British Romanticism and science fiction (look at the Amiri Baraka special issue of AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW for a great essay by Paul on Amiri 's relationship to the genre) . . . and a substantial talent on jazz guitar.

I don't know how many of the scholars who came to Penn State for the conference on Black Romanticism that Paul organized last year have ever heard him wield the Fender guitar that you see him working here, but I've noted over the years how often the poetry bone is connected to the jazz bone.

So, among a pack of poets, neophyte novelists and earnest essayists, Paul and company kept the music coming.

By the way, the man you see on tenor sax in this second photo is Barry Kernfeld, author of the three volume NEW GROVE DICTIONARY OF JAZZ.