Michael J McDowell at William Stafford Birthday Celebration at Linfield College

Michael J McDowell

Michael J McDowell was one of the featured poets at the 2012 William Stafford Birthday Celebration in Nicholson Library at Linfield College.

In 2002 along with Bill Siverly, McDowell co-founded and co-edits Windfall A Journal of Poetry of Place.  Windfall is published twice a year.  In 2012 it will be ten years old.

Current Issue

He has published fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in such publications as Penny Dreadful, the Pawn Review, the South Carolina Review , and Confluences.  His poetry is mostly about “a sense of place.” and can be found in Windfall.   He writes nature and landscape prose and his prose has appeared in the anthologies The Ecocriticism Reader (Univ. of Georgia Press, 1996), Reading the Earth (Univ. of Idaho Press, 1998), and Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment (Routledge 2001). He teaches poetry writing, creative writing and nonfiction writing at Portland Community College

His most recent book is The Hundred-Year House available from Windfall Press .

                                                      8 minutes
Michael McDowell talks about Stafford, reads a Stafford poem, then reads his own poems. The one hour Meadowlake Studios Encounter of the 2012 William Stafford Birthday Celebration at Linfield College will air on McMinnville Community Media. 

Bill Siverly at 2012 William Stafford Birthday Celebration Linfield College

Bill Siverly was one of the featured poets at the 2012 William Stafford Birthday Celebration in the Nicholson Library at Linfield College.

Latest Issue

Bill is Co-Editor along with Michael J. McDowell of Windfall A Journal of Poetry of Place  A journal began in 2002, publishing twice a year.  In 2012 Windfall will ten.  

Clearwater Way

He has published three books of poetry: Parzival, (1981), a journey from Lewiston, Idaho to San Francisco, Ireland, and Portland; Phoenix Fire (1987) consisting mostly of anti-nuclear political poems; and  The Turn  (2000), which tells of travels in Europe, mostly in Germany, before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. His book Clearwater Way  from Traprock Books (2009).  The Turn and Clearwater Way are available through Windfall Press.

                                               9 minutes, 30 seconds
In keeping with the Stafford Celebration tradition Bill talks about Stafford, reads a Stafford poem and then on of his own.   The one hour Meadowlake Studios Encounter show of the Stafford Celebration will air on McMinnville Community Media.

Challenges of field videography

The last song in the Dante Zapata Trio's set is Broken written by Dante.  Three of us on the video crew, two cameras, two mics.  Audio through Sony 170 is not what it is best at.  The speakers were on opposite sides of the stage and there was no audio board we could plug into.  We put the two mics in the center by the center camera.  The B-Roll camera got switched off a couple of times, easy to do, when moving around.  Editing was a struggle.  The blow out on the right we could not fix.  
It is the uniqueness and challenge each field session presents which keeps me trying and working to get better.  I keep going back to Videomaker to take advantage of their terrific site.

Dante Zapata Trio "Your Little Spell"

Another song from the Dante Zapata Trio "Your little spell" written by Dante Zapata.  This was a live performance. 

The 30 minute video of all the tunes the Trio did is showing on McMinnville Community Media  Sunday 5:30pm; Monday 8:00pm;
Tuesday 10:30am, and Friday 6:30 pm.

This is a young group. I'm looking forward to their writing more songs

Barbara Drake at William Stafford Poetry reading

Barbara Drake, poet and Linfield College professor emeritus, hosts the William Stafford Birthday Celebration.   She talks about Stafford, reads one of his poems and reads one of her own.  Our Meadowlake Studios Encounter of the event will be on McMinnville Community Media.   

In 2010 when Barbara Drake book Driving One Hundred, Part 1 came out, we filmed her reading.  Driving One Hundred, Part 2  We have to do part 1 and 2 due to Youtube 15 minute limit.

William Stafford Birthday Celebration

Bill Stafford

    Every year for the past several years in January all across Oregon Friends of William Stafford hold poetry readings.  We filmed our third Stafford poetry event at Nicholson Library on the Linfield College Campus.  A one hour TV show we will take to McMinnville Community Media tomorrow.  I like the Stafford Celebration readings because I get to hear different folks read Stafford's poems and their own work. 

    Here in Yamhill County the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County has sponsored the Paper Gardens Writing Contest for children and adults.  This is its 19th year.  William Stafford was the first judge of Paper Gardens.

    Next I'll edit the individual poet readings.  A one hour show is okay for Community Media TV, they are desperate for local content, and we are happy to be able to provide it.  But shorter individual poet readings is much better for the internet.

Music Video inspiration

Sar Gorh the Owl

I've been editing and posting our music video of Dante Zapata Trio.  Today I found inspiration to do better.   Final Cut Producer, Andy Coon's blog is a find for the struggling videographer.  The music video that Coon's worked on Tom Maxwell & the Minor Drag "Jacob Marley" is wonderful.  I would upload a clip of the video, but it is on vimeo which does not want to load to this blog.