Jan 9 — Alveraz Ricardez
Jan 16 — Melissa Guillet
Jan 23 — Ken Arkind
Jan 30 — Marc Marcel

Feb 6 — Michael Brown
Feb 13 — HOLD
Feb 20 — 200 Proof Poetry
Feb 27 — Jane Cassady

March 6 — Seren Divine
March 13 — Sou Macmillan
March 20 — Ducky
March 27 — Valerie Lawson

April 3 — Joe Gouveia
April 10 — Eric Darby
April 17 — HOLD
April 24 — Adam Rubenstein

May 8 — Stone and Plank Poetry Group
May 15 — Phil Hasouris
May 22 — triple bill: Jamie Kilstein, Andrea Gibson, Katie Wirsig

More dates to follow. C’mon out!

And if you’re touring in the spring, or we’ve talked about a date, get in touch…

yellow
alarm clock
grey
notebook
pink
monkey
blue red and white
extra memory
this is my desk
my desk where
bad ideas come to die
desk where good ideas
don’t come much at all
anymore

blind moment and
i slip off the chair
and hit the floor
(i think it’s the floor
it’s underfoot)
but there’s no thump
just pure slump

nothing’s gonna punish me
but someone’s gonna run away
unless i power myself up
and back in the saddle
back in the seat for another try

to stare at yellow time
fog paper waiting
ape pale red pointing
flag memory

black pen
i forgot to mention black pen
biggest pain on the desk

hang onto the wood under my ass
and close the door

I recorded one of my own songs today, hoping to feel confident enough to put it on Myspace…however, I broke two nails on my picking hand on Saturday. Since I don’t use picks of any sort, that translates to a pretty muted treble sound on those strings. I tried to compensate but I’m just not satisfied with the results, so it’ll have to wait a bit till they’re back to normal — not terribly long, as I like the sound of fingertip behind the nail on the string, as opposed to just nails. I find that too bright for my tastes, and Blondie sounds bright enough as it is.

I am looking forward to posting the song — as I’ve said many times in the past, I think you have to scare yourself artistically from time to time, and I can’t think of anything scarier than posting both my guitar playing and my singing voice online for public view.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I went to the Asylum last night to see Bobby Miller, the feature, who unfortunately couldn’t make it, so Dave Mac filled in and did well, as usual.

I have very little interest in reading in the open these days, or even in listening to it. It’s definitely an age thing — the interests and topics of most of the readers no longer hold me much.

I know I’ve talked about this before, so I won’t belabor it — but i’m getting too old for this scene, and it hurts.

I’ve been thinking about starting an over-30 slam in Worcester, but as always, it’s more speculation than intention. We’ll see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyone read Harry Frankfurt’s books “On Bullshit” and “On Truth”? Curious for opinions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for the news: C’mon, folks. Heads pop off during hangings all the time. Grow up — your squeamishness seems a small price to pay for justice, eh? I mean, hell…they did it to Nicholas Berg and Daniel Pearl, after all.

as a friend and maintainer of my social responsibilities.

I headed down to ARTSWorcester tonight to participate in what had been billed as a night of collaborative work — poets working with painters, musicians and poets, painters and musicians, etc.

When I got there, there were no apparent musicians, a lot of painters, and NO poets. They didn’t even have my name on the performers’ list.

So I left after about half an hour.

I went over to Guitar Center and hung out for a bit, playing my (I call it “mine” even though I don’t and will likely never own it) Gibson J-45. The J-45 is hands down my favorite guitar from any of the big makers; its thump and woody sound fit well with my style of playing. Someday, maybe.

Then, I headed down to West Warwick RI to watch Faro play in the classic rock band “Hidden Drive.” These guys are getting to know me and I’m pretty popular with them; I wrote a poem a while ago about seeing them play (“Friday Night At the Wood River Inn”) and they’ve got it up on their website. We had a good time. There’s something very satisfying to me about completely familiar rock songs performed well by guys (and women) for the sheer joy of it, not out of any expectation of getting famous or anything.

Now, I’m home, getting ready for bed…Exciting, huh? Hope yours was as wonderful. 😉

I’ve uploaded a new file to Myspace — this is a recording of my old poem “I Need a Guitar Right Now (Or Something Like It)” with Faro on classical guitar. Enjoy!

http://www.myspace.com/poetrybytonybrown

If you have literally done nothing during the course of a day, are thinking about nothing in particular, and the evening promises a similar lack of substance, then why the hell do you feel compelled to write about that?

Answer: I want someone to love me anyway.

We had an excellent feature tonight at Gotpoetry: Alveraz Ricardez, a poet/screenwriter from LA who is travelling across the country. He’s doing readings and filming a documentary on the state of poetry in the US.

Alverez is a relatively recent entrant into the poetic ranks, but he’s a VERY strong writer. His reading style is quiet but intense, and (befitting a screenwriter) he has a great sense of how to structure a feature — he interwove a variety of stand alone poems with an ongoing series of works in the form of letters to a woman named Helen, with the speaker relating his disquieting experiences in a foreign land. The images were deep and evocative while not revealing so much of the narrative of events that you were ever completely sure of what was going on — why he was there, why he couldn’t come home, etc.

I like this type of feature — it’s a good example of the type of work you WON’T see at many slam venues.

The room itself was full and quiet throughout the reading.

Alveraz is a pretty consistent contributor to our forums on Gotpoetry.com under the screen name “hot_mud.” I’ve always liked his work, but I have even greater respect for it now. If he’s near you, go see him — his next gig’s at the Cornelia Street Cafe in NYC this week (a wonderful venue).

The gig tonight went well, although I have to say I’m glad Faro and I have been rehearsing — due to time and audience concerns (it was late and the crowd was tired) we completely shifted the set at the last minute.

For the first time, we didn’t do “Jim’s Fall” at all. Instead, we did:

Getting Ahead
Snakes on a Plane
I Need A Guitar
Julie
Revisiting Roses and Violets

So — the first two with Faro on bass, the last three with him playing the guitar.

We were both pleased with the results — it’s freeing to know we’ve got enough stuff down to allow us to change up a bit to respond to things changing.

I’ll be mixing and posting another Duende piece in the next day or two.

The open mike was also excellent, as were Bob Hoeppner and Victoria Munoz, the other two features.

And once again, happy fifth anniversary to Community Voices!

I guess when they say it takes time, they really mean it. But it’s finally there — yes, “Snakes on a Plane” in all its glory, complete with Faro.

It’s at:

http://www.myspace.com/poetrybytonybrown

Anyway — once again, Duende is at Jester’s Cafe tonight in Westfield MA as part of their 5th anniversary celebration.

And tomorrow night, the first Gotpoetry Live show of the new year with Alveraz Ricardez, who’ll also be filiming for his documentary on poetry in the US.

Come out to two hot events!