Date: April 10, 2010
Location: 3033 Guilford
Text: Wallace Stevens, “The Emperor Of Ice-Cream”
[Unfortunately, we did not record audio at this first session, which is too bad. There was a trombone, a guitar, a moisturizer, and a piano. You should have been there: I should have recorded it. Our dismay at having missed this one, however, has led us to make many more recordings of the Stevens.]
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month’s newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Collaborators: Stephen Edwards (piano, moisturizer), Richard Goldberg (vox), Patrick Kennedy (trombone, vox), Daniel Schwartz (guitar, moisturizer), Dara Weinberg (dir)
||8ve: the parallel octave chorus 