I was forced to rearrange my room after an unfortunate shelf collapse.

I moved the desk over to face the window and rebuilt the shelves more strongly and with a different weight bearing configuration.

The desk facing the window is neat. Having natural light to write by is comforting.

I don’t seem to have SAD (thank God — that would suck on top of everything else) but natural light is soothing and gives a different perspective. Granted, my view is of the next house, but still.

What a small change it can take to make a difference.

If you’re looking for a new Holiday celebration, look no farther!

Even if it doesn’t help, it’ll be fun!

http://www.globalorgasm.org/

I especially like the line about “as much privacy as you choose.”

If you haven’t yet read ocvictor‘s essay on MFA programs, performance poetry, and assorted other topics, you should. It’s over at GotPoetry.com.

Here, I’ll make it easy for you.

http://www.gotpoetry.com/News/article/sid=3559.html

In other news, I’ll be at the Zodiac Cafe reading today around noon. Lord Buckley will likely be joining me. See you there.

Before I run off for a while.

stole this from quixote82 and caolinnshouse:

The Band Name Game
Come up with your own names for these styles of bands. Then add a band style to the list, and invent a band name for it…

Slayer-style Metal Band: Ashflesh
Grindcore Band: Faceplant
Alt-Country Indie Band: Hooker’s Ball
Noise/No Wave Band: Blurk
Christian Industrial Band: Empty Tomb Alliance
Female-fronted airy Mazzy Star-style Band: Loch Eyrie
Roadhouse Retro/Blues-Rock Band: Pedaldown

Spent time tonight rehearsing with Faro on new stuff.

We now have four poem/music pieces beyond the “Jim’s Fall” suite:

— Getting Ahead
— Snakes on a Plane (which I’ve grown to actually like with music behind it)
— I Need A Guitar Right Now (Or Something Like It)
— Revisiting Roses and Violets

We’ve also got a couple more in progress — “Lighter” and “Cante Jondo For The Left Side.” Plus, I’ll be trying to write some work to go with his music, a reversal of our usual practice.

We’ll try and get an MP3 of some of this up on one or both of our Myspaces soon.

With the exception of “SOAP” these are all older poems (although certainly “Jim’s Fall” qualifies as recent work). This is cool, but I’d like to get some even newer stuff done as well.

Again, this is the most satisfying work I’ve done in ages.

I should mention three things:

1. Faro plays the last two on classical guitar. Which he learned a month ago. I have no adequate words for this.

2. We’re actively looking for shakedown features in the new year — colleges, venues, etc. Hit me, people.

3. I think this little duo project needs a name. We thought about just calling it “Jim’s Fall” but that seems reductionist. Any thoughts? Serious replies wanted, especially if you’ve seen us; humorous responses will likely be chuckled over and then summarily discarded.

I dare you:

1. A twenty line poem without any words of more that one syllable.

2. A twenty line poem without the word “the” in it.

3, A ten line poem that, when read forward and backward, provides two different poems.

Betcha can’t do it. (For the record, I’ve done all three at various points.)

I deliberately stayed away from the laptop all day. Didja miss me?

I went to an open mike in Fall River tonight — VERY FOLKIE. Very. A few high points: Faro on solo bass; a 16 year old Dylaneseque kid named Matt Borillo who is already good, not gonna-be-good; the band Low Anthem, who’ll be playing the Java Hut in January. We shall go see them, we shall.

Faro persuaded me to do something, so the two of us did “Getting Ahead” and “Snakes On A Plane.” It went over well enough that I got approached for a feature there afterwards. Cool.

More later, if anything raises its ugly head and wants to be let out.

ITunes just delivered me “Stairway To Heaven” (yes, the Zep version–no cracks) followed by “Pope” by Prince.

Hmmmm.

And it just flipped into “The Immigrant Song.” Is it possible that Shuffle is telling me to get the Led out?

And how does Prince fit into that?

I just had a vision of Prince doing “Stairway.” With that pistolero microphone and the Pegasus guitar.

As if to reinforce the Freakiness Factor…I am now listening to The Pixies’ “There Goes My Gun.”

Hmmmm. Again.

ETA: pinata has posted that Prince is performing at the Super Bowl halftime. Let’s take bets: What songs will he be performing? I suggest we choose three.

I’ll start: “Darling Nikki,” “Housequake,” “Head.” Gotta go with the classics in order to make sure the crowd knows them.

Your turn.

AND, for the record: I took the MBTI test that’s going around as a meme…it said I was an INTP, which is what’s it’s said everytime I’ve taken it in the last 15 years. It also said I’m a “Loser” and they’re wrong…I prefer to think of myself as “success-challenged.”

I’m home and in the process of sorting out clothes and receipts from the trip.

Denver was a cool city, what little I saw of it. The conference room where I did the training had two full walls of windows and was on the 35th floor of a downtown building — I had a full view of the Rockies for the entire session, and it was hard to concentrate. Gotta get back some time and spend a few hours or more with friends like oni_express.

The taxcicab conversation I alluded to earlier was with a distinguished and learned gentleman from Ethiopia who’d been in the country since 1972. We discussed the world situation, the conflicts between Islam and the West, and the state of race relations in the US and how they’ve changed in his view. We were stuck in traffic for a bit so we could really talk. I love getting drivers with whom you can have a great conversation. Our best discussion was about his (and my) concerns that the overlooked variable in Iraq is the Kurdish situation — how Kurdish autonomy and the PKK werre viewed as a threat by Tukey, Iran, and others, and have the potential to be a slow burning fuse to ignite a far more widespread conflict.

Flights were uneventful, even if connections were a bit hurried. I did a lot of fast walking on already tired feet.

More later, gang — I’ve got paperwork to do if I want to get paid on time. 🙂