I’m nominally a fan of the Todd Solondz film of that name, but I really don’t feel the film honors the form in a specific enough way to please the formalist in me. And as an enthusiast for OULIPO and Oulipeans, my inner formalist is difficult to please in this respect. I have read, if not understood, George Perec’s Great Palindrome. My favorite English-language palindrome is by my old friend Peter Blegvad: “Peel’s foe, not a set animal, laminates a tone of sleep.” This even makes sense, if you allow “Peel” to equal “Peale,” as in Charles Willson Peale, the painter whose work “Exhuming The First American Mastadon” is the subject of one of the songs on Kew. Rhone., the Oulipo/surrealist-inflected album he created with John Greaves and Lisa Herman. Which you should buy immediately. (Although it appears to be no longer available at popular prices. Another crime against greatness.)This masterpiece, as indescribable and delightful a piece of wordsandmusic as has been concocted, is a Unique Artistic Object that has sustained many slings and arrows of circumstance in its obscure career, among the first of which, notes Wikipedia, was having the misfortune of being released on the same day, and on the same label, as the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind The Bollocks. The principal creators of the record have some pretty amusing stories of how Virgin’s then-hear Richard Branson didn’t quite get what the artists were going for, but all things being equal, he wasn’t the only one. Anyway, any excuse to plug this puppy, and 01/02/2010 is as good a one as any.
Palindromes
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Have you heard “Bob” by Weird Al Yankovic? Every line is a palindrome AND it rhymes!
I, man, am regal a German am I
Never odd or even
If I had a hi-fi
Madam, I’m Adam
Too hot to hoot
No lemons, no melon
Too bad I hid a boot
Lisa Bonet ate no basil
Warsaw was raw
Was it a car or a cat I saw?
Rise to vote, sir
Do geese see God?
“Do nine men interpret?” “Nine men,” I nod
Rats live on no evil star
Won’t lovers revolt now?
Race fast, safe car
Pa’s a sap
Ma is as selfless as I am
May a moody baby doom a yam?
Ah Satan sees Natasha
No devil lived on
Lonely Tylenol
Not a banana baton
No “x” in “Nixon”
O, stone, be not so
O Geronimo, no minor ego
“Naomi”, I moan
“A Toyota’s a Toyota”
A dog, a panic in a pagoda
Oh, no! Don Ho!
Nurse, I spy gypsies – run!
Senile felines
Now I see bees I won
UFO tofu
We panic in a pew
Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo
God! A red nugget! A fat egg under a dog!
Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog
@michaelgsmith: First thing I thought of when I started reading this post. It’s one of Weird Al’s cleverer songs, I think. I’m especially fond of “May a moody baby doom a yam.”
You can get Kew. Rhone. from Amazon UK at a non-ruinous price:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kew-Rhone-Greaves-Peter-Blegvad/dp/B0002SKT3S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1262542668&sr=8–1
Worth it, certainly.
For some strange reason the title of this site just reminded me of something from Last Tango In Paris…
Howdy Glenn…when’s the Monster Island Dance Party reunion? I’ve been waiting patiently since 1988 or so. Cheers, son.
F, brother of T.