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'Poetry is the most musical of literary forms. A poem unfurls like a melody, and a stanza of verse could snuggle comfortably onto a page of sheet music. A single line of verse can end on a lilting note of optimism, or a shadowed note of wistful melancholy. A poem is like a miniature operetta that someone whispers in your ear, and this understanding is central to The Plum in Mr. Blum’s Pudding. The majority of the piec- es in Tosh’s book could be characterized as love poems, however, for the most part, that’s not how they were conceived. “There are many layers in a poem, and poetry is a condensed form of writing that takes the reader into an inner world. I wanted these poems to take the reader to a specific place, but it wasn’t necessarily a personal place, and the love poems weren’t written with a muse in mind. Rather, I wanted to take the reader into a place of language, and was interested in playing with the form and characteristics of love songs; the songs from the great American songbook, particularly the lyrics of Cole Porter and Ira Gershwin, were a big influence on this book. When you listen to a great performance of a popular song it pulls you into a world of feeling, and when I hear a good love song I feel like I’m in love; this is a phenomenon of language.”'-- Kristine McKenna
'Tosh Berman's poetry collection The Plum in Mr. Blum's Pudding is full of unexpected associations, images, and jump-cuts. The poems are unfailingly charming, but they're also occasionally cut with poison, so that you're never certain what lurks around the next line break. The book is beautifully sequenced so each of the short pieces echoes off one another, creating a whole that's far more ineffable and mysterious than any individual verse. The writing is often masterful, but in an offhanded and understated way, refusing to call attention to its startling sleights of hand. It plays like an album of dislocated love songs, the meanings sometimes obscured, the yearning voices occasionally slipping into a foreign tongue -- but always seductive.'-- Jeff Jackson
'The fifteen minutes it took me to read this book transported me to a place that lingers. So I reread it three more times to reinforce that place. And placed the book on my coffee table to place that place in the place where I live.
'What kind of place? It is a heart on top of the head kind of place, with volcanoes and Glenn Gould, and the Sea of Japan making things sad and sticky and beautiful. It is a place where people die to the tune of a light pop tune. It is an innocent and a jaded place where sex skirts the edges. It is a place where pressed pants paint a poem with enviable off-handedness. A place with plenty of space and the stars above twinkling into cocktails. A place with a light touch that you know still wants to grope. So watch it!'-- Eddie Watkins
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Gallery
The very young Tosh
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Further
The Wonderful World of TamTam Books
'The Plum in Mr. Blum's Pudding' @ goodreads
american rive gauche: an interview with tosh berman
Tosh Berman's Soundcloud stuff
PODCAST #34: Tosh Berman, "Sparks-Tastic"
'Tosh Berman on the band Sparks and the meaning of being a fan'
Tosh Berman interviewed
Notes from Friends of Fantômas
'Tosh Berman is into a much cooler Paris than most people ever see'
'TOSH BERMAN ON HIS FATHER'
Buy 'The Plum in Mr. Blum's Pudding'
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Extras
Tosh Berman talks about Georges Perec's"AN ATTEMPT AT EXHAUSTING A PLACE IN PARIS"
Tosh Berman talks about Raymond Roussell's "NEW IMPRESSIONS OF AFRICA"
Tosh Berman talks about "MICK ROCK EXPOSED: The Faces of Rock 'N' Roll" and "BOLAN: The Rise and Fall of a 20th Century Superstar"
Tosh Berman talks about "MUJI: MUJI IS GOOD FOR YOU"
Tosh Berman talks about James Schuyler's "Other Flowers: Uncollected Poems"
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The original 1980 cover
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Music
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Interview
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Tosh Berman: [The Plum in Mr Blum's Pudding] was written during a combination of despair and adventure. I was in a situation where my mother-in-law was dying and I had to be in Japan to support [my wife] Lun*na [Menoh]. I had pretty much given up my life in Los Angeles to live in Japan, and not only that, but live in [Mojo-Ko,] a very small town. I didn't know the language or the culture that well. The only thing I knew about Japan was Kurosawa films, Mishima's novels, and the Japanese group, Sadistic Mika Band. I didn't even know how to use chop sticks!
Rebekah Weikel: You’ve said The Plum acted as a journal of sorts...
Tosh Berman: Yes. Some of the pieces were originally written in Los Angeles, but then I went on to completely re-write them in Japan, and add additional poems. I wanted the book to become a kind of journal, where all the work pertains to the period and experience. I had always written poetry, but very bad poetry. Through the combination of not really being able to talk to anyone – this was pre-internet – and not hearing English on a day-to-day basis, this book is what came. It was everything I observed at that time, filtered through my experiences.
I always had a “collection” in mind. I’ve never written a poem to stand alone. I’ve always written poetry intending each poem for part of a collection. Like music, I am very much an albums-orientated person; I don’t like individual songs that much. I think a book of poems should have a beginning, a middle, and an end… but as Jean-Luc Godard once said: “Not necessary in that order!”
Rebekah Weikel: In an email you sent to me about the book, you said you felt very isolated during your stay in Japan.
Tosh Berman: Yes. It’s always hard when you’re in a new country, especially when you don’t speak the language. But I think, too, it was just a very sad time considering the circumstances of Lun*na’s mother being ill. We were based in Mojo-Ko, a suburb of sorts outside Kitakyushu. Mojo-Ko was a port town that was once an important and large shipping area before World War II. Very close to Korea. There was often consistent travel between Moji-Ko and Busan with respects to its merchants, but after the war, the area lost their shipping business and became a somewhat exotic area outside Kitakyushu. So, after moving [from Los Angeles] to this somewhat desolated area, I didn’t hear from anyone aside from a few letters from my mother in Los Angeles. It was almost as if I died, and I wasn’t in anyone’s mind or hearts anymore. I felt abandoned and I wasn’t sure where life was leading me or how long I’d be in Japan. It dawned on me that my life or past in the United States might be left a memory. It was with this in mind that I started to write and put together The Plum In Mr. Blum’s Pudding. I wanted to produce something I could be remembered by.
I often felt like an alien. I was the only foreigner in the area, and I remember children would either stare or draw a picture of me to show off to their parents or friends. When I walked around Moji-Ko, which was on a consistent basis, I felt very much like “The Man Who Fell To Earth.”
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Book
Tosh Berman The Plum in Mr. Blum’s Pudding
Penny-Ante Editions
'The Plum in Mr. Blum’s Pudding is Los Angeles native Tosh Berman’s first printed collection of poetry. In 1989, Berman left the United States behind, moving to Japan after learning his wife’s (artist Lun*na Menoh) mother was ill in Kitakyushu. The Plum in Mr. Blum’s Pudding was penned while both rapt and lost by this transition. Gracefully toiling between the quirky and earnest, these poems describe the liminal space of the foreigner caught between the strange and the familiar. The result is surreal and unclassifiable, a book of love poems overshadowed by isolation and underscored with curiosity and lust.
'Originally published in 1990 by “Cole Swift & Sons” (Japan) as a small hardcover edition of two hundred copies, this new edition acts to preserve this work and features an introduction by art critic and curator Kristine McKenna and an afterword by Ruth Bernstein.'-- Penny-Ante Editions
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Excerpts
A CALLOW YOUTH IN LOVE
When I was a little girl
I played with my curls
Never noticing car accidents
Can cause such beautiful casualties
And if I was a boy
Who had a mind
I wouldn’t mind standing in a field
Of land mines
THE GREAT
MUSEUMS OF THE
WORLD
I wake up to see
The greatest work of art
She is beautiful
All the curators of the world agree
The Sea of Japan
Is 405,000 square miles long
My love
Fills up the sea
The hard vegetation & dry rocks
Bow down to the greatest love
Ever found
The great museums of the world
Will be burned down
The ceilings are too tall
& the rooms are too wide
We need a small room
To appreciate great art
Stations made of stone
Is too cold
Flesh is the only way to go
So why don’t we burn down
The great museums of the world ?
THE PLUM IN
MR.BLUM’S
PUDDING
The Negro River runs through Colombia
And Brazil
Its length is 1,400 miles
& runs into the Amazon River
Which is 3,988 miles in length
& runs through Peru and Brazil
...... And if you take my hand
We will float down the Negro River
Flowers die & fade into a summer day
In one moment
I will build a monument in Peru
Tall as time & wide as space
I’ll call it “ Frank Sinatra ”
There are hidden trumpets
In the dark jungle
The only sound of life
Is life itself
Strangling on java juice
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p.s. Hey. This weekend, the blog is very happy and proud, or as happy and proud as a internet site can be, to form a launching pad for the long awaited republication of the great Tosh Berman's legendary, too long o.o.p., glorious book 'The Plum in Mr. Blum's Pudding'. Please use the next days to get to know it, and then click where it says 'Buy' if you know what's good for you, and I know guys do. Thanks. And thank you, Tosh, for letting this place toot its horn on your behalf! Otherwise, I will issue a forewarning that you're likely to see at least a couple of rerun posts next week. Between the recovery time re: my pesky broken ribs and my recent traveling and a looming work deadline, the time I normally have to make posts has been badly mutilated. So, assuming oldies are in the blog's immediate future, I apologize for that backwardness in advance. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. I appreciate the hugs. The news I feared was indeed bad news, but it's not life-threatening or anything like that. It just sucks for me, and I have to suck it up, and I will. Basically, I was informed that I have to move out of the Recollects where I've lived for the vast majority of the time I've lived in France. And that probably doesn't sound like more than a hassle, but it's kind of traumatic for me as well as presenting a complicated process that I really dread. So, yeah. Oh, I knew nothing about MA's stint at Chatelet, shit. I'll watch my local listings more attentively. ** Kier, Hi, K, you managed to pop in! That's very cool! You sound you're having a bunch of fun and that even more fun is awaiting you, and hopefully that larger fun is now underway. Nina Beier is Danish, but I think she lives in Berlin? I've been working on the eBook thing for a bit, and right under you guys's noses in fact. I haven't decorated for Xmas since I've been over here. It's weird. Part of it is that my place, my room, is crammed with a big mess of stuff, and so any decorations would just look like green and red junk. I like the idea of decorating, though. Be really, really careful with the iciness. Don't end up like me. Walk slowly and with heavy, carefully planted feet. I do like board games even though I never play them for unknown reasons. I haven't even played a video game in, like, years, which is bizarre. My yesterday was mostly a la the day before, i.e. largely spent working on the theater piece. It's a lot of work. Jesus. I also got my bad news about my living situation, and that freaked me out for the most of the day. The best thing by far was that I saw and hung out with Zac who, like me, has been hold up in his pad working under a heavy deadline, in his case assembling a very rough, initial edit of our film before we start working together on the actual editing. And we saw Gisele, and that was cool too. Coffee, walking around, and blab. Then I came back and worked some more before hitting the hay. Another uncolorful day. Now I have a whole weekend to try to squeeze in a bit or two of fun, and I'll try, and I imagine you won't even have to try to have fun, which is awesome. Tell me. Love, me. ** David Ehrenstein, Noel Coward wrote a song about Nina Beier? That's cool and technical impossible, ha ha. Don't agree with you about 'GR', but you know that already. And Pynchon and Gadsdis are just apples and oranges to me. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh! So thrilled to give the blog over to your masterwork! Yeah, 'wow' or 'holy shit' or 'what?!' are indicators of 'genius' for me too. I'm with you on 'genius' re: Sparks and Scott Walker. Morrissey, not sure. Bowie, mm, once in a while. Strange that there hasn't been a Scott Walker lyrics book. Huh. It's a no brainer of an idea. ** Kevin Killian, Kevin! Mr. Killian! A total joy to see you inside here! Well, the eBook thing is a novel in my mind, but, when I say the word 'novel', what probably springs to your mind is not precisely what it's going to be, although I am in the middle of an actual novel with a capitol N that I hope to get back into finishing enthusiastically as soon as I finish the theater piece text. Ah, what a coincidence, since I literally can not think of you without the word genius covering your name and your being with a very bright light. Big love from me. ** Jebus, Hi there, J! 'That "ineffable" it', good one, yep, that's it. Yes, you have described my personal definition of what would constitute genius kind of to the 'T'. Dude, so nice, so smart. Thank you! No, the eBook is separate from the novel I've been working on, but they are related because they're both going to be parts of a cycle of novels that I plan to be working on for the next while. How and what are you doing, man? ** Sypha, Hi. Well, you know full well that I really don't like the anti-natalist thing at all. But, from what little Ligotti I've read, and it was earlier work, I didn't find that viewpoint to be an oppressive thing in the work itself. I'm glad you haven't forgotten about Cat Band Day because I remain excited about it, and patient too, of course. It will be amazing and a huge boon whenever you're ready to deliver. Thank you, James! ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T! Nice to see you back too. Don't miss your stop, or I mean I hope you didn't, and do come back asap. ** Tomkendall, Hi, Tom. I'm okay, yeah, thanks. I actually was going to ask you the other day if you wanted to do a blog post about that project, so, yes, I would be very into that, if you want to. Me too re: being blown away by 300,000,000. Killer! Thanks, Tom. Love, me. ** Cal Graves, Hi. Yeah, true about seeing bands, but, seriously, Iceland is so amazing that it didn't even matter at all. And I think probably all the bands there are based in Reykjavik where we were only stationed for a couple of days. Yeah, I like the word 'genius' just 'cos it signals an extreme liking of something really fast. But I'm from LA where laziness re: wordage in conversation is almost an art form or something, ha ha. Things went not good with the scary news, but I'll live, and what can you do? Your question today is extremely easy to answer because I have an intense fear of outer space, of being there, of space walks, and everything to do with space. So, even before I was there, I would die of a heart attack from fear. I'm pretty sure I literally would. So I wouldn't have a choice about my death. I would already be a corpse floating in space before I was even forcefully ejected into space. ** Keaton, Hi. I want one of her rug pieces. Those are my favorites. I thought Picasso was in Paris. Okay, good to know. Psychoanalytic theory: I don't think I like it either, do I? Like who constitutes that pov? I'm spacing out. ** Jeffrey Coleman, Hi, Jeff! I do seem to be back. And you're back. Nice coincidence. If Misanthrope was really, really hungry, and if the only food was d.l.s, I wonder who he would eat first? Hm, I'm going to ask him, if he's here today. I'm a vegetarian who can't digest meat anymore, so everyone would be spared in my regard. Yeah, they have snow and ice. At least in the winter. We got pummeled by it for a couple of days. Interesting. I mean your question about reading the Cycle. Well, ideally, I wrote it so that they would ideally be read in order. But I also wrote it so you could read them in any order just so long as you know that their order is very important and carefully planned out. So, that, whatever order you read them in, I would want you to know that the order in which they appeared is the order that they should take in your head once you've read them all. I guess I'm saying, yeah, you can read them in whatever order you like, sure. Thanks for wanting to. Don't know Jane Weaver. I'll get all over that. Thanks! I do know a little of Lars Pederson's work, but I haven't heard that new thing, and I didn't even know it was extant, so thank you again! Cool, man, sweet, you rule, take care! ** Steevee, Hi. Well, yeah, nothing wrong with commenting on stuff like the Cosby thing, obviously, It's just the ... my mom used to use this term 'ambulance chasers'. I guess it's the ambulance chasing types that get on my nerves. I don't think the new Wiseman has opened in France, but I'll check. I'm a little out of it re: movie releases at the moment. Curious to hear your thoughts on 'Instellar'. I have no passion to see it. Nolan's films generally leave me very wanting. ** Misanthrope, There you are. Okay, if you were really, really hungry, and there was no food at all other than a bunch of d.l.s, which d.l. would you eat first? Outrage is like the Facebook news feed equivalent of an orgasm or something. Right, LPS is a really big boy, isn't he? ** Right. Spend your weekend with Tosh, if you don't mind. That would be my ideal plan for you guys if I was into making your plans. I'll see you right back here on Monday.