Photos: Art Mingling at the Spot Underground

Lifestyle Features

Till rust do us part

Could be verse: poetry ripped from the headlines

By JAMES PARKER | October 17, 2007

Lines upon learning that an artificial-intelligence researcher at the University of Maastricht, in the Netherlands, has predicted that, by 2050, robot-human marriage will be legal in the state of Massachusetts.

Love is a current, as Tesla knew, so how can I always be “on”?
Feeling ebbs, indifference drones, deep in my cyborg dugout.
I do my thing as laundry-folder and part-time orgasmatron,
But often and often I long for the day when they pull my fucking plug out.

| More

See more deals

view all

[ 05/25 ] Leigh and Melissa Present: Hamlette! @ 95 Empire

[ 05/25 ] "Wendy Richmond: Navigating the Personal Bubble," a multi-part video installation @ RISD Museum

[ 05/25 ] "A Natural Order," photographs by Lucas Foglia @ David Winton Bell Gallery

ARTICLES BY JAMES PARKER

GETTING TO KNOW PHILIP LARKIN WITH A NEW EDITION OF HIS POEMS | April 26, 2012
"A smash of glass and a rumble of boots/Electric trains and a ripped-up phonebooth/Paint-spattered walls and the cry of a tomcat/Lights going out, and a kick in the balls." These lines are not by Philip Larkin, of course — they're by Paul Weller.

BLACK SABBATH ARE BACK — IN PRINT AND ON FILM | November 14, 2011
The literature on Black Sabbath — already extensive — will continue to grow, as we try, try, try again to wrap our poor noggins around the irreducibly cosmic fact of this band.

REDISCOVERING METALLICA WITH A NEW BIO | August 26, 2011
Write the Lightning

REDISCOVERING METALLICA WITH A NEW BIO | August 24, 2011
That the biggest metal band in metal history should be called METALLICA — it's just so frigging metal .

REMEMBERING HÜSKER DÜ WITH TWO NEW BOOKS | June 09, 2011
"Readers of this book will be disappointed," declares Andrew Earles, rather sternly, in the introduction to his Hüsker Dü: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock (Voyageur Press), "if they hope to be rewarded with the gritty details of any band member's drug use."