JOHN PIETARO
My blogs
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Industry | Arts |
| Occupation | Writer, Poet, Musician, Spoken Word Artist |
| Location | Brooklyn, NY, United States |
| Links | Audio Clip |
| Introduction | John Pietaro, writer, poet, journalist, cultural organizer. Columnist/Critic: NYC Jazz Record. DJ/co-host BENEATH THE UNDERGROUND radio (WFMU). Author: poetry collection: INNOCENT POSTCARDS: POETRY, CIPHERS, VERSE (Roadside Press 2024), A BLEEDING IN BLACK LEATHER (UnCollected Press, 2022), THE MERCER STANDS BURNING (Atmosphere Press 2020), chapbook SMOKE RINGS (2019), NIGHT PEOPLE AND OTHER TALES OF WORKING NEW YORK (2013), and a chapter for Harvey Pekar/Paul Buhle SDS: A GRAPHIC HISTORY (Hill&Wang 2007). Contributing Writer: Z, Peoples World, The Nation, The Wire, many others. Percussionist/Spoken Word Artist worked Amina Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Karl Berger, Fred Ho, Ras Moshe, many more. Front-man: THE RED MICROPHONE. Member: Authors Guild, Academy of American Poets, Jazz Journalists Association. |
| Interests | Fomenting Left awareness and activism, one essay, one poetry reading, one piece of music, one cultural awakening at a time |
| Favorite movies | Casablanca, Citizen Kane, the Sweet Smell of Success (also has a brilliant jazz score by Chico Hamilton), Laura, the Woman From Shanghai, Rope, the Maltese Falcon, Downtown 81. Good, dark horror films are always welcome: the Haunting, the Innocents, Psycho, the Shining, Session 9, more. |
| Favorite music | Improvisational music, modernist composition, jazz, songs of revolution, No Wave, punk rock, 1960s and '70s pop. The songs of the Beatles, Harry Nilsson, Phil Ochs are continuously important as are recordings of John Lennon, John Coltrane, King Crimson, Adrian Belew, Woody Guthrie, the Clash, Television, Blondie. Others who will always make a great impact on me are composers Hanns Eisler, Kurt Weill, Thelonious Monk, Erik Satie. Drummers Hal Blaine, Gene Krupa, Dave Tough, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Ed Blackwell, Bill Bruford, Clem Catini, Clem Burke, Earl Palmer, Carmine Appice. Jaime Muir! Boom, s-boom, b-tah, b-tah! Oh yeah, Mmmm hmmmm. |
| Favorite books | The list would go on far too long! Brecht, John Reed, Langston Hughes, William Burroughs, Amiri Baraka, Mike Gold, Jack Kerouac, Zora Neal Hursten, Franz Kafka, Joan Didion, Cornell Woolrich, Edna St Vincent Millay, Dashiell Hammet, Kenneth Fearing, Saul Bellow, members of the League of American Writers, history books of Howard Zinn and Paul Buhle. |