"It's like listening to The Beatles without earmuffs!" -Sean Connery in Goldfinger.

"In my opinion Will Dockery is easily one of the most authentic American poets around. A real coffeehouse poet who is not scared of mingling some real American elements such as country music into his
poetry. Whileas you just try to appear as European as possible with all your sucking up to 80 year old European surrealists." -M.H.Benders

"You want to talk to me? Go ahead and talk." -Humphery Bogart.

*** All Shadowville musicians! I need your help in
collaborating with a famed Dutch poet, to videotape my version of his song/poem for the Netherlands audience! If interested, meet up at SoHo [late Mondays] Coach's Corner [Tuesdays] and/or Del Ranch [Mondays & Thursdays]... when we get it nailed down, I'll pop on the mask and hat and do the Zorro thing!:

M.H. Benders: "Hey Dockery, what about you reading some of my Dutch poems in front of a live coffeehouse audience and videotaping it? I'd really like to make this sort of cross cultural art. I will put it on
my website which is viewed by a lot of Dutch people every day. I wrote a new poem called 'The Autograph of Zorro'. I have both an english and a Dutch version. It would be fantastic if you could read it to a
poetry club dressed as Zorro, preferaably in both the english and the Dutch version. Make someone videotape it and you can send me the
cassette and I will convert it to an internet video. I will promote this video in whole Holland and you'll sure be a known name to the dutch poetry crowd. Let me know how we continue."

Dockery: "I think this could be interesting. I saw a short video clip of yours last Winter on one of the newsgroups that reminded me of the
video films I made with Truman Bentley in the years 1996-99, and the idea of the reading of "The Autograph Of Zorro" brings back thoughts
of all those hours of footage. I'm thinking of a video for "The Autograph Of Zorro" that would use not only me reading the English translation of "The Autograph Of Zorro", backed by my jazz musician
friends, Henry, Grumpy, Follicle, et al... but..."

M. H. Benders: "That's great. It sounds like a really interesting project. I will promote the video over my website which has about 80.000 visitors a year, enough to give your name a decent boost into
recognition by dutch people. It's nice that these sort of cross-cultural initiatives can develop over the internet. So much negativity floating around that it's good sometimes something positive
happens."

Dockery: "Also various bits by other Shadowville poets and regulars. Basically, just bring the camera and record what happens. The reading
of "Autograph Of Zorro" could serve as the promo for a further video surrounding the readings. Over the course of a month of so, if it
clicks right, we could have several alternative versions of the poem, in both English and Dutch... So, that's the basics, with extra shots
of audience members and other poets, et cetera. I send you all the results, and you can use the one[s] most appropriate."

M. H. Benders: "Thanks for showing an interest in the cross cultural project I am planning. You can arrange the reading events in everyway
that you see fit, I trust your artistic vision. When you have taped the events you can send the tape. It would be nice, I think, to have some real American elements mixed with it like Country Music (I have
always been a great country music fan) but you can also use jazz if you want. I will make sure the video is digitalised and shown on different locations on the Dutch internet. Then, in the future, we can
also try it the other way around."

Listen to the first version of Zorro by Will Dockery and his band!