in that I got a good night’s sleep and just had a cup of good strong tea and a bowl of oatmeal.

So this is what normal people do. Interesting…not sure I’m in favor, exactly, but I do dimly remember this.

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I have a couple of poetic irons in the fire — don’t want to say too much right now, but if you keep a good thought out there for me, especially on one of them, I’d be much obliged.

One is a fait accompli of which I’m unjustly proud that I hope to be able to mention in a day or so; the other, much larger one, will take a while, I think, to come to fruition.

I know — not much to go on, but I do have a few superstitions, and not talking about good stuff too early is one of them.

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I just cut a long section of this post that I’d posted earlier because I realized that I’d just written a Zero Point Zero column. You can read it over at Gotpoetry.com.

 
The Zero Point Zero Regular Column!

Very much more than Nothing!

This was a fantastic night — LOVED what came of this, especially for the first time.

Faro’s committed to being here for them as often as possible. He rocked the place tonight, and is really becoming adept at catching what people are doing in their poems and filling in behind them beautifully.

Guess what? We’re going to make it a monthly event…so you’ve got until November 27 to get your stuff cooked and ready to rock.

Bring instruments! (We coulda used some percussion tonight, for instance…) Bring your own musicianship!

This is what we want out of this reading: energy and joy and fun and chances and risks!!! It was all there for the taking tonight…

The Schedule for the next few weeks:

October 16: Melissa Guillet
October 23: Laura Moran
October 30: The Klute

November starts the new format:

November 6: New Poem night — new to you or new to us, but NOT the stuff you’ve read before
November 13: Theme night — bring at least one poem to the reading that connects, somehow, to the word “ring” (your interpretation)
November 20: Feature TBA
November 27: Poetry w/Music night

Come!!! Come!!!

I referred to this briefly last week, but I’m going to reiterate it now for the locals:

We’re really trying to bring the Gotpoetry Live reading to a new level, and it’s kind of do or die for us — John and Ryk and I are reaching a point of frustration with the event because we feel it’s stagnating, and are actively looking at the next few months to determine its future — as in, we may close it down. I think October and November’s results will tell all.

If you can find it in your schedules to be there sometime over the next few weeks we’d appreciate it. Even occasional appearances would be good. We miss the variety of voices and the joy of your presence. That’s not designed to be flattery; it’s the truth.

This week we’ve got poetry + music night, next week is Melissa Guillet, then comes Laura Moran and The Klute.

November sees a new format, with a feature only once a month — I’ll post it in the next day or two.

Please come, if not tonight, then when you can. Thanks.

if you’re interested in purchasing either the new Duende CD/chapbook “Americanized,” or the first CD/book “Jim’s Fall,” drop me a comment here with email address and I’ll send you info for the exchange of monies and good product. All replies screened, of course…

There are currently limited numbers of “Jim’s Fall” left — will be printing and burning more.

Both CD/Book sets are 12 bucks, which includes shipping. I can do Paypal as well as good old checks, cash, and money orders.

thanks.

Tonight at Gotpoetry Live we’ve got a special night — no feature, but a night where there will be musicians available to play with you on your poetry if you wish.

Faro’s coming in with bass, I’ll have guitar and amp, and if you’ve got your own stuff bring it.

Start time is 7:30 sharp. 2.00 cover.

Reflections Cafe, 8 Governor St, Providence, RI.

I got a decent night’s sleep last night, so being up this early isn’t about insomnia for a change…

Saturday night’s show was really, really wonderful. Faro and I ran through the set at his house before heading into town — a fairly ragged runthrough, but I knew we’d be OK. Got into Providence where dealing with the lack of parking made me crazy enough to be on edge right up to showtime.

On the bill:

Night started with a magicican named Kai (sp uncertain) who did some decent if somewhat generic close up work. Note to magicians: try not to spend a lot of time out on the street beforehand doing the same tricks you’re going to do in the show. (As a side note, years ago I did a reading with a close-up magician who performed tricks to go with specific poems. It was fun…wouldn’t mind revisiting that again some time.)

Chris Johnson, Yunus Kados, and another guy (whose name I know but cannot for the life of me recall right now but who can sing, Goddammit) were “Spitting Images” who did various multi voice pieces that worked well in the context of the longer sets. They did their own set later in the night but kicked a couple to warm the crowd up before us.

Then, us. Crowd, I have to say, was loaded in our favor — hell, Faro’s family was half the room — but it still went over well. We did the entire “Americanized” album, and I do think it hangs together well as a set. It’s going to be hard to go back to doing the 30 minute set thing, when having the luxury of an hour to play with made it easy to just settle into that groove and go with it. Still, we’ve got so much material now…the gigs coming up will be interesting, and of course we get to do the full set again in December at Storytellers in Worcester.

We got (ok, I hinted for and got) an encore so Faro could solo a bit on the bass, then he dropped it directly into “Snakes on a Plane” which I did off mike and VERY LOUDLY in the crowd just to unwind us all a bit after the heaviness of closing with “Where Do You Live?” The poem, which I admit to having been embarrassed about for a while, works well as a relatively light and upbeat piece with Faro’s music. (Relatively upbeat is odd, as the poem’s about dealing with suicidal ideation and coming to grips with it.) It was fun. Weird to me — people are starting to recognize our stuff from the music alone. I noticed at the Cantab too, where we opened with “Snakes,” that the opening chords get an immediate response.

After us, Chris and Company retook the stage for a couple of things, and we took a break. Sold merch in decent quantities, although we’re still slightly in the hole from production; that will change.

Chris did some stuff with Chris Wood, director of the theater and a fine sax player. Somewhere in there he did a duet with Marlon Carey, and then Spitting Images did their longer set with lots of stuff about manhood redefined. Nice stuff.

Quick break; the show then closed with Red Planet, an interesting duo (one guy on drums/triggering devices/iPod/spoken word and the other on processed guitar/keyboards/loops/singing/spoken word) who are remotely like a more twisted Soul Coughing/Mike Doughty, but slightly less melodic, if that makes any sense.

Night ended with an informal jam session with Faro joining Red Planet on bass and Chris Lawton (our producer) jumping in on guitar. Fun.

Overall, a very nice start and it showed us what we suspected: that “Americanized” as a whole set works well live, keeps moving, and offers a great cross section of what we do.

Yesterday I was in a not atypical post show funk — slept late and kept to myself, watching football and baseball and NASCAR with much switching between channels during commercials. Went to bed pretty early, adn now I’m here…

Again, thanks to all who came out on Saturday night…it was a big night for us and it meant a lot to see you in the audience.

Well, it’s over.

I have tried six times now to write a review of last night’s show, and I haven’t been able to. It went fine, but I’m kind of in a funk right now and can’t focus.

Thanks to all who came out — and I do mean that; folks who were there for Duende filled the house. Special thanks to Lea, Victor, Alex, Heather, Bobby, Dave, Eric, Skip, Anna…it was great to see you.

I’m gone now. Let someone else talk about it.

I really, really am embarrassed by self-promotion. I’m not good at it, and I always feel that I’m taking up too much time I should be using to write. I’m also afraid that I’m bothering people.

I know it comes with the territory, though; I also know that since it’s not just me on stage these days, it’s two of us, so it’s not just self-promotion, and I also feel strongly that the work is good and I’m proud of it.

So…everything below here is promo for the Saturday show, and a couple of plugs for things you might want to look at for you own work. If you hate this stuff, this would be a good time to look away….

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So then.

Saturday night…it all comes together.

CDs are burned. I’m off to print the books shortly. We rehearse this afternoon, probably tomorrow or Saturday too.

And then…this.

Saturday Night, October 6th, at the Perishable Theater on Empire Street in Providence, RI at 6:00, it’s the second night of the Spoken Word Festival (really, you should see all the work, but we’re only there on Saturday).

Duende presents the premiere of “Americanized” and releases the new CD and chapbook set.

We’re starting off the evening, sometime between 6 and 7 (come for 6, there will be short openers).

Admission: 5 measly bucks.

Come. We want to fill the house. And Christopher Johnson, Marlon Carey, and Red Planet are also on the bill, so it’s gonna be a great night.

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Duende’s getting some Internet airplay on two sites that are also worth your attention and consideration if you want to get your own stuff out there. They are both actively looking for material, so send stuff in.

“Sing Before Seven” is a featured poem right now on:

http://www.virtualpoetryreading.com

and we’ve got other stuff in rotation on:

http://www.eadonsplace.com

That last station is run by old slam friends Linda DiFeterici and Keith Roach, by the way, and it has a killer playlist that runs the gamut from Steven Vincent Benet to Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Great tunes, too.

There’s also an interview with yours truly in the Eadon’s Place schedule right now, so check it out.

OK…off to the printer…See you.

(Oh, did I mention I’m going to see Bruce on November 19th at the Garden, thanks to drgeorge ? I am, and i’m incredibly grateful.)

— told the crowd that we’re thinking of ending Gotpoetry Live. needless to say, we got a lot of sudden offers of help to keep it running. ( “don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” )

for now, we’re going forward with it, cautiously. we will be cutting back on features to focus on building some funds and working on the quality of the open mike, so it’ll be just one a month starting in November. drop me a line if you’re coming through and we’ll see if it fits.

— i’m exhausted. built the final layout of the book and Faro designed the CD label this afternoon. i have freelance work to do but i’m going to bed early and getting up to work on it all.

— stopped on the way home to pick up some hair gel and splurged slightly on myself: picked up the new Springsteen album on the day of release. i’ve done this for every Bruce album since “The River” in 1980, so it’s an unbroken streak for 27 years running. i hadn’t planned to do it this time what with money so tight, but i’m glad i did — i’m playing it now. terrific. the Professor’s playing piano again, not keyboards, and Clarence is back in force; also the glockenspiel is in effect. writing is superb, reflecting the growth he’s evidenced over the last couple of releases and the impact of the Seeger Sessions.

(and for you Bruce haters out there: don’t. Bruce has kept me alive, literally, at various points of my life. i needed this, and i’m not going to entertain arguments about it, him, his work, or anything else right now. life has been hard, and this is important to me as it has been since the first time i saw him play. he’s been a constant through punk, through all my phases and through my general disenchantment with corporate rock — proof that the absolute prejudices i hold against things are as foolish as any absolute enchantment i hold, because it’s not that i don’t see some bad shit in his repertoire — i do — or love everything he does unconditionally — i don’t — but i always have faith that the good stuff’s still there. i feel rewarded and blessed tonight.)

— while we’re on the subject, the song i’m listening to right now, “the devil’s arcade,” is an amazing anti war song. AMAZING.

— i heard a radio interview this afternoon that explained to me beautifully why i hate the idea behind pandora and pretty much dislike iPods: it spoke of the difference between “convenient music” and “inconvenient music” and the idea that you no longer need be surprised by anything on the radio. i like surprises, even the ones that are occasionally unpleasant, when it comes to music. i tried pandora and gave it up almost immediately because i could be damn near guaranteed i’d like anything it offered me. it was boring, even if i’d never heard the individual songs before, because there were so few surprises in the offerings.

gimme that radio dial, let me twist it up and piss myself off. i need that sometimes.

(i think sometimes of the slam world as a place without surprises, too. maybe that’s my problem.)

night all.

that thirty years later, long after punk rock blew apart my notions of rock and roll and how it should be, Faro and I have recorded a concept album.