i’m shutting down. see you in Charlotte.
for the folks not there, I have technology with me and will check in here and there.
bye!
EDIT AT 2:15 AM: Dammit. I can’t sleep. Grrrr…
Monthly Archives: January 2006
Huh.
I just turned down an offer from a headhunter to come in and interview for two potential positions, each making 60-80K.
In Bentonville, Arkansas.
For Wal-Mart. (Bentonville should have tipped you off.)
I’m pretty sure there were benefits, too…imagine that.
IWPS
I leave for Charlotte tomorrow in the late AM, get there mid-afternoon. Staying at poet central.
Looking forward to seeing all y’all.
you have no idea
| Definitely. You scored 38% Cold and 64% Level-Headed! |
| You can kill. But the question “Why would you?” arises.
Out of safety or cruelty? |
|
My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
|
| Link: The Can You Kill a Man? Test written by notmarkflynn on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test |
And based on the news today, this might come in handy.
well, i’ll be dipped in chocolate and licked
my last entry was on all-female cover bands.
what to my wondering eyes should appear but this on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/30/arts.zeppelin.reut/index.html
ALSO: Anyone notice that the Asylum website is apparently down?
notes:
1.
Roger Bonair-Agard was in top form tonight at his Hut feature.
2.
He reminded me that I need to get to NYC again soon.
3.
KEXP has a jazz program after my own heart…just heard Paul Motian Quartet. But the DJ is the quintessential jazz DJ…dark stoner voice, hushed delivery, etc.
4.
Love this new guitar. Strings starting to lose their new string twanginess. Now, it’s a matter of waiting for the top to open up, and then this baby’s gonna rule.
5.
Before leaving the Hut tonight, I turned Jeff onto a video that Sou and Bill and I saw on the web yesterday for an all-female AC/DC tribute band called Hell’s Belles. The lead guitarist, Adrian Conner, is insane and insanely good, transcending mere Angus imitation. Highly recommended.
I wasn’t aware of how many female tribute bands there are. Check out Cheap Chick, for instance…it’s astonishing how much the drummer really looks and sounds like Bun E. Carlos.
Hell’s Belles: http://www.hellsbelles.info/
Video clips under Media; Beating Round the Bush highly recommended.
Cheap Chick: http://www.cheapchick.com/
there is no chance like the present
imagine the hard-luck man, brown
from drink and tobacco, reaching for the pencil
to check off the keno numbers, then dropping
his dollars on the moment when the TV screen will show
his fate: lose or win, it’s a great moment while he’s waiting.
or picture the son of the same man, cracking the books
and studying for the physics exam, mind slipping toward
the tabs in the bottom of his sock drawer, calculating
what he can take, how long he’ll be flying, equations,
formulas, and what time can he spare from the one
before he must give time to the other? deciding, he falls
in love with the notion that luck is with him now and always.
for the next door neighbor, it’s all good. the cats
won’t eat her for at least a day yet. she lies on the floor
and luck holds the swinging door closed against their yowling needs.
in the moment before they push hard enough she is most beautiful,
face at peace, hands at rest, quite still inside at last.
there is no chance like the present. better still,
there is no chance except the present. the moment
of waiting. of all best worlds existing at once. of luck
being not a possibility, but a birthright. of life and death
and remission and subterfuge in the name of happiness.
of the dice coming up divine everytime.
retail therapy (guitar geekery ahead)
well…
recently bought a Powerbook because I felt I was going to need a good sturdy laptop for work.
today, i picked up another expensive item I’ve had on layaway for a while: a brand new Ibanez Artwood dreadnaught acoustic guitar.
Artwood is the high end of the Ibanez line — top notch woods and construction.
This one has a solid Engelmann spruce top, laminated maple back and sides (stunning quilted blond I might add), gloss finish, gold hardware, bound rosewood fretboard, understated bridge, soundhole, peghead, and fretboard inlay…the works.
Got a bright, balanced and punchy strummed sound, great bass sustain, and still retains nice clarity when fingerpicked. Sucker’s loud too.
This guitar is everything I usually dislike in a guitar: new, dreadnaught, maple, and kinda flashy (although not overly so). In fact, in all my years of playing and collecting, I’ve never owned a 6-string dread before (my twelve is a dread).
Proof, I guess, that you should always be sure to check your assumptions at the door when you are looking for something. I like this instrument, and actually started a song tonight — a good guitar gives you a song right away.
Big ticket items like this are probably not wise right now, but I figure on selling some of my others, and also…why not, while I’ve still got a comfortable cushion to work from? I can’t foresee another luxury purchase soon; gonna get the car a major tuneup and have done with it, but that’s utilitarian.
Call it emancipation with strings.
Rectory School update
Yesterday, at the behest of anselm23, I spent the day at the Rectory School in Pomfret CT doing my thing with the students.
The morning began with an assembly of 8th and 9th graders, where I:
— performed “Jabberwocky” for the first time in years
— scared the hell out of a room fulla semi-bored kids with “Punk” (“BOOM!”)
— embarrassed the hell out of a lovestruck couple in front of the student body (heh heh heh)
— answered a bunch of questions including “Do you like soccer?”
— and last but not least…demonstrated an impromptu head to head slam with Andrew (Mr. Watt), judged by audience applause. He won.
After that, it was on to combined classes of 7th, 8th and 9th grade students. I did more poems, put them through some analysis of them, talked about everything from punk (“do you like Rancid?”) to bipolar disorder to hip hop to the nature of cats.
Several of the classes had actually been assigned four of my poems on which to write brief papers. (Boy, that was interesting news…) The teacher had assigned four poems from “1 Spark:” “Cats,” Edward in the Office,” “Morning Departure,” and “Recovering a Dead Woman.”
If those of you who hear me regularly don’t recognize those titles…well, I NEVER read these poems out anymore. Having to reconnect with them on the spur of the moment was a trip. (I couldn’t even recall what “Morning Departure” was about until i opened the book and looked at it.)
I did those poems and answered questions. All in all…an excellent day.
A final cap on it…the teacher who assigned the poems showed me a couple of papers. One of them was really good. So I wrote the comments on it and signed them…I hope he is pleased.
Y’know, I could do a lot more of this.
Thanks, Andrew, for the opportunity.
His second favorite word is “faster”
i had a truly great day today with the kids at the Rectory School in Pomfret, CT, home of anselm23.
I’ll tell more about that later…
but right now, I have to tell about the sign I saw on a fundamentalist church on the way down.
It simply said:
” GOD’S FAVORITE WORD IS ‘COME’ ”
And I thought, “What a coincidence. Mine too.”
the cracks
it is never perfect,
that first kiss, that first
touch, that first glance
when you walk into a room
and notice each other for the first time.
everything is flawed.
somewhere in your past the earth is shattered,
or a wind is playing hard devil
with human life.
every first moment
holds your broken places in it,
and if you convince yourself
that it is instead perfect, you are certain
to be crushed someday;
and the same is true of the one
you are looking to with such hope.
we are all filled with error. we all grope toward
some kind of correction, hoping
the next body erases
the feel of the last from our hands.
it cannot happen.
grow past it, knowing
the cracks will never disappear.
only you can live in your past,
but anyone could be your future.
if a glance, a touch, a kiss
pleases you, accept it
the way you want
to be accepted:
as if this moment
was all anyone needed
to know you;
as if, right now,
this moment was all you need
to know them.
Here’s what I’m thinking of for the next Tattoo:
I’d like it in the middle of my back between the shoulder blades. The leg seems appropriate, but I’m not a fan of leg tattoos (on me).
Also: want it straight horizontal and monochrome blue/black. I think I’m gonna keep my ink to one color, just for the sake of being contrary.
Attention, poets going to IWPS: information of great necessity
Tattoo parlors in Charlotte:
Fu’s Custom Tattoos is a little over half a mile from the hotel and there are a couple of others within a couple of miles, based on my limited research.
Feel free to research others…
now, for no reason other than I like saying it:
(and I am saying it out loud as I type)
Godspeed! You Black Emperor
We return you now to your Silver Jews listening.
Dark Matter 