{{Infobox musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Musicians --> | Name = Will Dockery | Img = Shadowville-Speedway1.jpg | Background = solo_singer | Birth_name = Will Dockery | Born = {{birth date and age|1958|5|7}} | Origin = [[LaGrange, Georgia]] | Instrument = [[singer|Vocals]] | Genre = [[Rock music|Rock]], [[folk rock]], [[word jazz]], [[art rock]], [[noise rock]], [[experimental rock]] | Occupation = [[Singer-songwriter]], [[pizza delivery]] and [[advertising]], [[poet]], [[minicomic]] creator | Years_active = 1983–present | Label = [[Independant]] | Associated_acts = [[Shadowville All-Stars]], [[Henry F. Conley]] | URL = [http://www.myspace.com/shadowvilleallstars/ Shadowville All-Stars]
}}
Will Dockery is an [[American]] [[poet]], [[minicomic]] [[artist]] and [[singer-songwriter]].
==Early Years==
The son of [http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/Image:Kelly_H_Dockery.jpg Kelly H. Dockery], a [[World War II]] and [[Korean War]] veteran, later a Howard [[bus]] and [[taxicab]] driver, and [[Mildred Whitley]], William Abraham Dockery was born in [[LaGrange, Georgia]] on [[May 7, 1958]], where he would visit frequently during childhood, being the home of his [[maternal]] grandparents. He lived in [[Columbus, Georgia]], forty miles south of LaGrange, and both areas meld into the [[alternate universe]] of [[Shadowville]] in his various works of art.
He started playing music in 1961, when he got his first guitar. This early phase in music was cut short, though, when he smashed the guitar over his father's head, who was napping. He remembers he was emulating a scene he'd seen on an episode of the television series [[Bonanza]] or another of the [[western]]s popular in that era. [[Hank Williams]] was an early hero, especially after watching ''[[Your Cheatin' Heart]]'', the 1964 film of Hank Williams' life story with [[George Hamilton]] playing Williams.
He attended [[Waverly Terrace Elementary]] school, where he won first prize in kindergarden in a school-wide competition for a crayon drawing of a [[witch]], obviously influenced by his early exposure to [[comic book]]s and [[film noir]], which everything on [[television]] resembled in the pre-color era of the 1960s.
The next year, in May of 1965, his family moved to the east side of Columbus, where he attended [[Edgewood Elementary]] school. There, he wrote his first [[poetry]], influenced by reading [[Edgar Allen Poe]] and combining that with ideas influenced by popular music such as [[The Beatles]]. Also during this time he created hundreds of hand made, unpublished [[minicomic]]s, which included over 500 issues of the adventure [[serial]] [[Uncle Jim]], ''Uncle Jim Comics and Stories'' had a spinoff [[comic strip]] called [[Tonight Show Starring Uncle Jim]], which filled many episodes in which [[guest host]]s filled in for Uncle Jim in a parody of [[Johnny Carson]]'s television series of the time. In May of 1970 Dockery made his return to music, performing a cover of the [[Tiny Tim]] song ''[[Tiptoe Through the Tulips]]''.
==Discography==
* ''[[Bag of Groceries]]'' (1982) material written and recorded with Jim Pontius and P.D. Wilson. * ''[[Shadowville All-Stars]][http://www.myspace.com/ shadowvilleallstars](2006-07) material written with [[Dennis Beck]] and [[Brian Mallard]], including ''God's Toybox'', ''Dream Tears'' and others. * ''[[Dockery-Conley]]'' [http://www.myspace.com/willdockery] (1998-2008) material written with [[Henry F. Conley]], including ''Ozone Stigmata'', ''Fadeaway Encounter'' and others. * ''[[Shadowville Speedway ep]]'' A five song sampler [[compact disc]] released June 11 2008, 1.) Shadowville Speedway 2.) Twilight Girl 3.) Fadeaway Encounter 4.) Ragpicker Joe 5.) Surgeon General. All songs written by Will Dockery and Henry Conley.
==Minicomics==
[[Image:Demon-House-Theatre.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Demon House Theatre minicomic by Will Dockery]]
*[[Uncle Jim's Comics and Stories]] (1969-1970) unpublished minicomic. *Various unpublished [[comic strips]] including [[Splut]], [[Virtue Peak]], [[Vulture's Beak]], [[The Assemblers]] and [[Tonight Show Starring Uncle Jim]] (1967-1970) *[[Terror Time]] (1970-1974) unpublished [[horror anthology]] minicomic. *[[Le Glass Dildo]] (1978) mixture of minicomic and poetry. *[[The Torchbearers]] (1979-1980) *[[Shaman Newspaper]] (1984-1996) minicomic anthology *[[Demon House Theatre]] (1985-1988) *[[River Mutants]] (1985-1988)
==Poetry Chapbooks==
*[[Red Zeros]] -Summer 1983 *[[Topaz Cube]] -Summer 1984 *[[Blood Skeleton]] -Summer 1984 *[[Green Ringlets]] -1989 *[[felt]] -1990 [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.zines/msg/ c2c6b40a56757929?hl=en alt.zines review from January 7 1996] <blockquote>felt, 50c postpaid. [[Minicomic]], eight pages. [[William Dockery]], P.O. Box xxxx, [[Phenix City, Alabama]] 36868. On the back cover of this tome is written the words, "Second Printing." I was going to joke that with Dockery, this means my copy is not only the second printing but the second copy. However, this damn thing is actually very well written. Maybe he did actually print more than one copy in the first printing, and sold out! felt begins poorly, but picks up at the top of page four. Then things really get going at the bottom of page four, and the lines roll on through thunderous poetic crescendoes right to the end. There are amazing images here; [[Tatumville]] park, the memory of Tracy, the father who's "a grey cat," even a lake of disappearing paths. I highly recommend this chapbook on two counts, as a stunning book of poems and as a sample of the best the comics small press has to offer. -[[Andrew Roller]], January 7 1996 in [[alt.zines]]</blockquote> *[[Criticism of Will Dockery| To The Magic Store]] -1993 *[[April Bullets]] -1995 *[[Secret Madrigals]][http://www.angelfire.com/al2/willdockerypoems/] -1997 *[[Hard Return]] -1998 *[[Opera Positions]] -1998 *[[Sea Weed Fox]] -1999 *[[White Irony]] -2000
==Video appearances==
Dockery was a part of [[documentary]] [[film-maker]] [[Truman Bentley, Jr.]]'s multi-part [[video cassette]] observation of the poets, artists and [[oddball]]s of [[Columbus, Georgia]] from the years 1996-2000. These have not been transferred to [[DVD]] and are at present out-of-print. Various peformances of Will Dockery are available on [[YouTube]], including
*Ozone Stigmata, written with Henry Conley. *Truck Stop Woman, written with Henry Conley. *Last Dream Today, written with Brian Mallard. *The Ride/Combat Zone, written with Dennis Beck.
==Hangouts== - [[Majestic Diner]] ([[Atlanta]], [[Georgia]]) - [[Ken's Tavern]] ([[Atlanta]], [[Georgia]]) - [[Dinglewood Pharmacy]] ([[Columbus, Georgia]]) - The [[Alley]] behind [[Rhino's on Broad]] ([[Columbus, Georgia]]) - [[SoHo Bar and Grill]] ([[Columbus, Georgia]])
==Later Years==
Will Dockery currently resides in western central [[Georgia]], pursuing his lifelong passions for art, music, poetry and [[performance art]], recently appearing with Henry Conley and Gene Woolfolk at [[Pat's Place]] in [[Americus, Georgia]] June 14, 2008.
A new collection of songs written with Henry F. Conley, ''Shadowville Speedway Blues'' was released on [[compact disc]] on April 18, 2009.
==See Also==
*[[List of minicomics creators]] *[[Parnello's Pizza]] *[[Minicomic co-ops]] *[[Shadowville All-Stars]] *[[Criticism of Will Dockery]], Critique by [[Rick Howe]]
The songs and poetry of Will Dockery, Henry Conley, Sandy Madaris and Gene Woolfolk Jr. and interpretations of standards from various music genres. Our "collective conciousness" = "pack rat".
Glad to see you doing something productive on Usenet, Barbie, since you can't seem to finish that sestina you promised to post here last year... heh.
-- "...The songs and poetry of Will Dockery, Henry Conley, Sandy Madaris and Gene Woolfolk Jr. and interpretations of standards from various music genres. Our "collective consciousness" = "pack rat." -Dockery, Conley, Madaris & Woolfolk: Pack Rat Show
''[[To The Magic Store]]'', just released by [[William Dockery]], is a publication of modest proportions, consisting of a cover illustration followed by seven pages of [[poetry]]. At that, there is something aesthetically effective about this simple ''[[minicomic|minibook]]'' design. Having issued a series of similar books over the last several years, the author undoubtedly has aquired a certain [[proficicency]] with them.
It is probably a question, since one is not sure how else to explain it, of /fitting/ or /filling/ - yet not overfilling - a book of this size with an appropriate amount of material, such that one might experience in it a satisfying ampleness, notwithstanding the smallness of its format; at the same time expression must reach completion in the allotted number of pages, and not leave the impression of having been aborted, or that necessary articulations were left out. Judicious resort to [[ellipsis]] may indeed be helpful in this regard only providing it does not signify impoverishment. [Which is not the same thing, really.]
It is indicitive that the book proceeds at what seems, at once, a comfortable, unhurried pace; at the same time it is more than the negligible sort of labor which one might expect in the everyday course of things to have done in fifteen minutes or so.
In style and temperment, William Dockery's poetry is a little like that of [[John Berryman]] - cf., ''[[The Dreamsongs]]''. A basically sensitive but slightly discombobulated awareness wending its way through hazes of intoxication; the neighborhood [[milieu]]. [''..when I was staying/ at the boarding house/ across from the park,/ I hated those bells/ and I hated that place./ At the same time I loved it.''
In essence the theme is search for self.
Now, self, in the way in which a poet like William Dockery understands it, is essentially a myth; in other words, a kind of story in which self is revealed and delinated to itself. In fact self cannot appear except through the mediation of external places and people. But the important thing is that these must be interpreted as having transcendental implications which might not be apparent at the level of [[quotidean]] experience. So this is what is meant by the poet entering his neighborhood or social milieu in search of self.
[[Myth]] of origin [how self first learns to recognize itself]; golden age, debacle. These are some of the typical mythic components in life. To keep this on a simple, general level. Of course much subtler comprehensions are also possible. For example, a typical mythification involves a division of life into periods. When I lived on such-and-such street, life had a certain quality; I had these experiences, was aquainted with these people, et cetera. Then I moved somewhere else and it wasn't the same; a period of life came to an end. Thus life may be seen as a succession of / periods/ of greater or shorter duration; each more or less distinguished by objective referents [dates, addresses, names of people], each revealing distinctive [[mythological]] demensions as well.
In To The Magic Store the poet is viewing such a period retrospectively. It is a [[Proustian]] /rememberance of things past/ in a way; things are remembered together with their psychological associations, producing a sensation of mythological awareness. [It is not necessary to spell it out with elaborate detail. The point is simply to intuit how a set of associated names and images creates the effect of milieu or era.]
Viewed retrospectively, there is of course an emphasis on [[dissolution]]. People drift away, some die, and eventually the milieu dissolves. The tone of the book is predominantly one of loss and mourning. In one case the poet later revisits one of his main friends - the ''speed junkie'' musician Hugo - and finds ''he'd been burned in a terrible disaster,/ in a wheelchair and speechless.''
With its emphasis on the downside of the cycle, To The Magic Store corresponds [mythically speaking] with a decline and fall - maybe not of a /golden age/, since more or less there is only one full-blown golden age in a lifetime, but of some lesser epicycle which never the less exhibits analogous phases of flourishing and decline.
Curiously enough, there is no ''magic store'' explicitly mentioned in this book. Given the preoccupation with loss and mortality, a suitable title might have been ''[[To The Cemetery]]''. Indeed, the climactic verses tell of taking a girl to a graveyard - ''to see the grave of the guy who died./ We sat there in this graveyard park,/ with a six- pack of beer./ he looked fragile/ as she drunkenly cried./ She looked open/ to my sensibility...''
But then, as the poem concludes:
:I can still remember :her laughing at my poetry :didn't feel so good to me :after I'd been up all night :pouring out my feelings. :I thought she was interesting, :she turned out :she was just a little female fool. :Was not able to put all the components :of my life in place... :my mythology was incomplete.
But the title might have a different and more [[Proustian]] meaning. The mythology of self, unfulfilled in initial experience [where to be sure such mythologies inevitably represent inconclusive aspirations], might be prolonged through acts of memory; where by poetic ''magic'' they may be perfected and ternalized - notwithstanding their preliminary frustration in mere circumstances.
Perhaps this might shed some light on the [[mystic]] quality of a poem like [[The Ballad of James Collier]]. A line like ''I hope some of them are left'' is perhaps best taken at face value, that is, in its natural sense. Other parts of the poem allude to ghostly reunions - perhaps in some [[transcendental]] world where the past continues as a permanent reality - ''In tiny detail.'' -[[Rick Howe]], [[Topical Studies]] #5, [[January 1 1993]]. Used by permission.
-- "...The songs and poetry of Will Dockery, Henry Conley, Sandy Madaris and Gene Woolfolk Jr. and interpretations of standards from various music genres. Our "collective consciousness" = "pack rat." -Dockery, Conley, Madaris & Woolfolk: Pack Rat Show
Oh yeah, it is worth mentioning that this piece was written by the late Rick Howe, who I wish had made it to Usenet before his too-soon death:
"...According to Will Dockery and The Wrong Place Saloon, small press comics publisher Rick Howe died on October 20, 2007. It took quite awhile for the news to get out.Those of us who knew and admired him were stunned when we learned of his passing.
Rick was a writer, musician, cartoonist and critic who was active in self-publishing for many years. He published and contributed to many comics and zines. We loved the guy.
That's Rick's music, just him practicing on a home cassette recorder, that you hear in the background of this video.
> ''[[To The Magic Store]]'', just released by [[William Dockery]], is a > publication of modest proportions, consisting of a cover illustration > followed by seven pages of [[poetry]]. At that, there is something > aesthetically effective about this simple ''[[minicomic|minibook]]'' > design. Having issued a series of similar books over the last several > years, the author undoubtedly has aquired a certain > [[proficicency]] with them.
> It is probably a question, since one is not sure how else to explain > it, of /fitting/ or /filling/ - yet not overfilling - a book of this > size with an > appropriate amount of material, such that one might experience in it a > satisfying ampleness, notwithstanding the smallness of its format; at > the > same time expression must reach completion in the allotted number of > pages, and not leave the impression of having been aborted, or that > necessary > articulations were left out. Judicious resort to [[ellipsis]] may > indeed be helpful in this regard only providing it does not signify > impoverishment. > [Which is not the same thing, really.]
> It is indicitive that the book proceeds at what seems, at once, a > comfortable, unhurried pace; at the same time it is more than the > negligible sort of labor which one might expect in the everyday course > of things to have done in fifteen minutes or so.
> In style and temperment, William Dockery's poetry is a little like > that of [[John Berryman]] - cf., ''[[The Dreamsongs]]''. A basically > sensitive but slightly > discombobulated awareness wending its way through hazes of > intoxication; the neighborhood [[milieu]]. [''..when I was staying/ at > the boarding house/ across > from the park,/ I hated those bells/ and I hated that place./ At the > same time I loved it.''
> In essence the theme is search for self.
> Now, self, in the way in which a poet like William Dockery understands > it, is essentially a myth; in other words, a kind of story in which > self is > revealed and delinated to itself. In fact self cannot appear except > through the mediation of external places and people. But the important > thing is that > these must be interpreted as having transcendental implications which > might not be apparent at the level of [[quotidean]] experience. So > this is what is > meant by the poet entering his neighborhood or social milieu in search > of self.
> [[Myth]] of origin [how self first learns to recognize itself]; golden > age, debacle. These are some of the typical mythic components in life. > To keep > this on a simple, general level. Of course much subtler comprehensions > are also possible. For example, a typical mythification involves a > division of > life into periods. When I lived on such-and-such street, life had a > certain quality; I had these experiences, was aquainted with these > people, et > cetera. Then I moved somewhere else and it wasn't the same; a period > of life came to an end. Thus life may be seen as a succession of / > periods/ of greater or shorter duration; each more or less > distinguished by objective referents [dates, addresses, names of > people], each revealing distinctive [[mythological]] demensions as > well.
> In To The Magic Store the poet is viewing such a period > retrospectively. It is a [[Proustian]] /rememberance of things past/ > in a way; things are remembered together with their psychological > associations, producing a sensation of > mythological awareness. [It is not necessary to spell it out with > elaborate detail. The point is simply to intuit how a set of > associated names and images creates the effect of milieu or era.]
> Viewed retrospectively, there is of course an emphasis on > [[dissolution]]. People drift away, some die, and eventually the > milieu dissolves. The tone > of the book is predominantly one of loss and mourning. In one case > the poet later revisits one of his main friends - the ''speed junkie'' > musician > Hugo - and finds ''he'd been burned in a terrible disaster,/ in a > wheelchair and speechless.''
> With its emphasis on the downside of the cycle, To The Magic Store > corresponds [mythically speaking] with a decline and fall - maybe not > of a /golden age/, since more or less there is only one full-blown > golden age in a lifetime, but of some lesser epicycle which never the > less exhibits analogous phases of flourishing and decline.
> Curiously enough, there is no ''magic store'' explicitly mentioned in > this book. Given the preoccupation with loss and mortality, a suitable > title might have been ''[[To The Cemetery]]''. Indeed, the climactic > verses tell of taking a girl to a graveyard - ''to see the grave of > the guy who died./ We sat there in this graveyard park,/ with a six- > pack of beer./ he looked fragile/ as she drunkenly cried./ She looked > open/ to my sensibility...''
> But then, as the poem concludes:
> :I can still remember > :her laughing at my poetry > :didn't feel so good to me > :after I'd been up all night > :pouring out my feelings. > :I thought she was interesting, > :she turned out > :she was just a little female fool. > :Was not able to put all the components > :of my life in place... > :my mythology was incomplete.
> But the title might have a different and more [[Proustian]] meaning. > The mythology of self, unfulfilled in initial experience [where to be > sure such mythologies inevitably represent inconclusive aspirations], > might be prolonged through acts of memory; where by poetic ''magic'' > they may be perfected and ternalized - notwithstanding their > preliminary frustration in mere circumstances.
> Perhaps this might shed some light on the [[mystic]] quality of a poem > like [[The Ballad of James Collier]]. A line like ''I hope some of > them are left'' is perhaps best taken at face value, that is, in its > natural sense. Other parts of the poem allude to ghostly reunions - > perhaps in some [[transcendental]] world where the past continues as a > permanent reality - ''In tiny detail.'' -[[Rick Howe]], [[Topical > Studies]] #5, [[January 1 1993]]. Used by permission.
> -- > "...The songs and poetry of Will Dockery, Henry Conley, Sandy Madaris > and Gene Woolfolk Jr. and interpretations of standards from various > music genres. Our "collective consciousness" = "pack rat." -Dockery, > Conley, Madaris & Woolfolk: Pack Rat Show
On Jun 29, 10:20 pm, Barbara's Cat <c...@XSPAMscientist.com> wrote:
> Will Dockery quacked:
> :I can still remember > :her laughing at my poetry > :didn't feel so good to me > :after I'd been up all night > :pouring out my feelings. > :I thought she was interesting, > :she turned out > :she was just a little female fool.
> Please, Goober, your repeated thanks are unnecessary.
"G&tSP" wrote: >Barbara's Cat wrote: > > Will Dockery wrote:
> > :I can still remember > > :her laughing at my poetry > > :didn't feel so good to me > > :after I'd been up all night > > :pouring out my feelings. > > :I thought she was interesting, > > :she turned out > > :she was just a little female fool.
> > Please, your repeated thanks are unnecessary.
> Are you sure it was written about you?
No, that poem was written back in the 1980s, many years before I met Barbie.
Forgetting the fact that you're too stupid to cut and paste without removing the actual code from the site first, that was the most ignorant, belittled, pathetically morose and self-absorbed tripe I have ever seen since Donald Trump.
|
