University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 33, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 18, 2004 Page: 4 of 8
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Page 4 Wednesday, February 18, 2004 University Press
Poet
Continued from page 3
poems.” he says. “That’s what I
find people respond to the
best.”
No matter if he thinks
whether the audience is getting
the message, he knows he’s done
something right when his
friends, gathered around and
hanging out, bottles of wine on
hand, start making requests for
one of his most recent phonetic
concoctions.
With influences ranging
from the romantic, nature-lov-
ing William Wordsworth to out-
law “gonzo-joumalist” Hunter
S. Thompson, Ryan finds inspi-
ration in the one poet who made
everything “click” when it
comes to poetry, Phil Blayland.
He was “one of my biggest
influences with getting into
poetry,” he says. “His poem
‘Further Notice’ just did it for
me.”
Blayland, an American
Buddhist monk, began a
Buddhist school in San
Francisco and, to this day, still
runs it. Ryan thinks of San
Francisco as his poetic Mecca, a
journey needed to be made.
With every facet of artistic
display, it seems as if every great
idea has been exploited. The
number of new artists and
untapped ideas and points of
view that come with them
become smaller every day. The
poetic movement changes as a
different wave of styles come
and go with the times, and the
current batch is growing farther
from the traditional techniques
that once were the foundation
of poetry.
“It seems like modern poet-
ry nowadays has diverted from
classical poetry that is taught in
basic literature classes to a more
dark, humorous poetry. It can be
very cynical at times. A lot of
poets try to be “revolutionar-
ies,” and its kind of hard to truly
be that way in any art form
because its all been done
already.”
Ryan sums it up best when
he pinpoints the key to finding
the last pure idea..
“You need to find your own
voice,” he says. “The words and
jokes can get old, but you must
present them in a way that is
fresh and new.”
As for Ryan’s future (he is a
Lamar senior now), he wants to
start a workshop at the studio as
soon as he finishes school. After
that, he wants to get his MFA in
creative writing and do his doc-
toral dissertation over 20th-cen-
tury counter-culture literature,
which will include the young
poets and writers Ryan enjoys
reading.
As for a career in poetry?
“It’s not really a hobby. In
any kind of art — poetry, writ-
ing, painting — it needs to be a
lifestyle rather than a hobby if
you want to flourish in it,” he
says.
As he says in his poem
“Past the Neon Palm Trees”:
Throw down your dollar,
Or enough cents to make
one,
And buy a lottery ticket.
With the right combination
You can crack into that safe
dream
You know the one
about moving out, quitting
your job
And living your art with the
lesbian
You are falling in love with.
Got news?
Call the news desk and ask for Guiseppe.
It’s his job to know.
880-8101
♦ LIT DISTINGUISHED LECTURE SERIES
Author Hoffman to speak March 16
Peter Hoffmann, author of one of
the best known books on hydrogen fuel
cells, will be the second speaker in
Lamar Institute of Technology’s distin-
guished lecture series March 16 in the
auditorium of the Beeson Building on
the LIT campus.
Hoffmann is a former Washington
and foreign correspondent for a busi-
ness/technology news service, McGraw-
Hill World News. From the late 1960s to
the early 1980s, he was stationed in
Bonn, Germany, from where he also
covered what was then communist
Central Europe. He also worked in
Milan, Italy.
His articles on hydrogen energy
have appeared in Business Week, The
Washington Post, the Friends of the
Earth magazine Not Man Apart,
Germany’s GEO, Great Britain’s
Financial Times European Energy
Report, Italy’s Ambiente, and McGraw-
Hill’s Chemical Engineering and
Chemical Week.
Hoffmann contributed the “hydro-
gen” entry to the 1986 New Book of
Knowledge, a Grolier encyclopedia for
young people. His 1981 book “The
Forever Fuel - The Story of Hydrogen”
(Westview Press) was called “the book
on the subject” by Kirkus Review.
An extensively updated and
revised version, “Tomorrow’s Energy:
Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects
for a Cleaner Planet,” was published in
September 2001 by MIT Press and a
soft-cover version came out in 2002.
A New Scientist review said, “It
clearly expounds the key issues sur-
rounding hydrogen energy.”
Chemical & Engineering News
said, “Peter Hoffmann discusses hydro-
gen and fuel cells as a key technology
that is driving forward a hydrogen
economy - with clarity and a lighV
touch.”
Translated versions will be pub-
lished in Mainland China, Korea and
Italy.
Hoffmann has been editor and
publisher of the Hydrogen and Fuel
Cell Letter.
Hoffmann is a resident of Rhinecliff,
N.Y.
The lecture will be open to the pub-
lic. No admission or reservations are
required.
For more information, call 880-
2292.
Sketch mocking Quebeckers causes furor in Canada
The Associated Press
TORONTO — Canadian politi-
cians are denouncing “The Late Show
with Conan O’Brien” over a sketch in
which a cigar-chomping sock puppet
hurled insults at French Canadians.
The NBC show came to Toronto
last week with the help of $750,000 in
Canadian taxpayers’ money, a trip that
Canadian promoters hoped would
help rebuild the city’s tourist industry
after an outbreak of severe acute res-
piratory syndrome last year.
In the pre-taped skit that aired
Thursday night, Triumph the Insult
Comic Dog confronted visitors to
Quebec City’s Winter Carnival.
When one couple confirmed they
were French Canadian separatists, the
grouchy puppet said, “Listen closely.
Hear that? It’s the sound of no one
giving a,” followed by an expletive
bleep.
“You’re in North America, learn
the language!” he hollered at another.
Triumph asked a rotund man if he
was a separatist, then suggested he
might want to separate himself from
doughnuts for a while. The skit also
replaced street signs with insulting
replicas, including one that mocked
Canadian singer Celine Dion.
Mauril Belanger, the deputy gov-
ernment house leader, told the House
of Commons Friday that the govern-
ment was not amused. He said Ottawa
completely dissociated itself from the
material.
Alexa McDonough, a member of
Parliament for the New Democratic
Party, said the sketch was “vile and
vicious” and amounted to hate-mon-
gering. McDonough said the govern-
ment should demand its money back.
DIVERSE:
Composed of distinct
or unlike elements
or qualities
The UP consistently
attracts one of the
most diversified staffs,
both ethnically and
culturally, of any
organization on cam-
pus. Major editors
have included whites,
blacks, Hispanics and
Asians. Some coun-
tries represented by
staffs over the years
include, in addition to
the United States,
Canada, Mexico,
Brazil, Ecuador,
Sweden, England,
Spain, France,
Germany, Australia,
Vietnam, Taiwan,
Mainland China,
Japan, India, Pakistan,
Iran, Scotland, Ireland,
Zimbabwe and
Thailand.
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Gurski, Patrick. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 33, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 18, 2004, newspaper, February 18, 2004; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500791/m1/4/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Lamar University.