I’m looking for features for August and September right now, if anyone’s interested in hooking up for one. Pay is 50 bucks and all the merch you can sell in a really nice all-ages cafe in a beautiful section of Providence.

I’ve got a couple of people I’m waiting to hear from right now, so you’ll need to be a little flexible, but the current openings are:

August 1, 8, 15, 22

September 5, 19

Those are Tuesday nights, by the way. Hit me up, tell me where I can see/hear your work, and we’ll talk.

If you’ve talked to me recently and we’ve still not set a date, you get priority.

— Great feature by ted_badger last night. Love some of the newer stuff, especially the multi-part piece.

— Old face from the past showed up: Deb Powers. She’s planning to get down here more in the future…

— Ralph’s: silly insanity as usual.

More later. Still no internet access at the house, so I’m at the Hut.

Well, let’s see.

I didn’t sleep much Thursday night after sleeping through a headache for several hours, then got up early yesterday, cleaned up a bunch of old correspondence, showered, ate breakfast, pressed my suit, went to Boston, had four great interviews, came back to Framingham, stopped at the old workplace to see folks, went out for drinks, stood people to a couple of rounds, went out for dinner, stood people to more drinks, drove to Worcester, hit the Hut, hung out a bit, went to Ralph’s, drank some more with a bunch of people, was loud and crazy, went home, ate some more, talked on the phone, lay down, couldn’t sleep (this after 6-8 Maker’s Marks), got up and wrote crap, dozed off around 4, woke up at 9, tossed and turned, dozed off, and just woke up again feeling just fine.

Went to the shelf to get my meds and realized I had forgotten to take any of them yesterday. First time in ages.

Ah, mania. How I love and curse thee at once. You break my bank account, show me a good time, and leave me terrified at the end.

(Yeah, I know. I shouldn’t have been driving like that. Trust me, I’m pissed at myself. No lectures, k?)

I have a job interview today for a position in Boston. The position involves managing a nationwide construction company’s college intern/recent graduate site manager training program, pays very well, is an employee owned firm, and includes partial subsidization of travel. I could take the train in every day if I desired. There’s some travel involved, although not much as their offices are based in Boston, Providence, and NYC. I’d be spending a decent chunk of time in NYC, which pleases me.

I hate the idea of moving back into corporate life, but I’m tired of trying to make this consulting business work. I need some stimulus from outside the world of poetry. I never wanted to be a fulltime poet, as I think I’d end up writing mostly about poetry that way.

Wish me luck.

The new Zero Point Zero column is up!

The Zero Point Zero Regular Column!

It’s better than poetry!

also: i’m headed here tonight — if you can make it, c’mon down:

A Reading & Book Signing
At the Uxbridge Public Library

Catholic (Surviving Abuse & Other Dead End Roads)
The Poems
By Skip Shea

Thursday, June 15
6:30 to 8 PM

“Catholic: Surviving Abuse and Other Dead End Roads” is a collection of poetry performed in the stage production of the same name, a one-man theatrical memoir by Skip Shea. The show has been performed at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York and weekly in February at Jimmy Tingle’s OFF BROADWAY Theater in Somerville.

The collection of poems traces a life of tragedy, from enduring sexual abuse at the hands of priests at St. Mary’s Parish in the Diocese of Worcester, Mass., to the death of his sixteen-year-old daughter Shawna. A life filled with substance abuse, mental illness and suicide attempts, Shea’s poetry takes us through despair to find hope and healing.

The Uxbridge Public Library is located at 15 North Main Street (across the Street fron the Town Common) in Uxbridge.
(508) 278-8624

“Catholic: Surviving Abuse and Other Dead End Roads” is published by Katherine James Books.

The Friends of the Library will be serving light refreshments and there will be a brief question and answer period at the end of the reading.

For questions please email director@uxbridgelibrary.org

Gotpoetry Live was excellent tonight — a double feature showcasing two very different styles in honor of Pridefest RI.

J*me rocked his usual stuff — the great Janis Joplin poem, and a relatively new one about his time in Turkey, among others — while Zilla McCue kept us snickering with her stories of “whore-pumps” and the joys of being “homo-riffic.” Packed house and a great open contributed to the atmosphere.

If you’re local and you haven’t made it yet, get down here. If you’re touring, let me know and maybe we can set you up.

That is all for now…

Tonight at Gotpoetry Live, Reflections Cafe, 8 Governor Street in Providence, we help celebrate RI Pridefest with a double feature of Zilla McCue and J*me. Bring yourself down! Show starts at 7:30, signup for the open is around 7.

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I think I can officially declare the Online School course dead. No one signed up.

A quick note addressed to all of you who said, here or in e-mail or in person, that you were going to sign up and didn’t: I don’t care that you didn’t, but I care deeply that you told me one thing and then never told me otherwise when you changed your mind.

It makes it hard to plan. When you’re only filling 6 slots and it’s the first time out for the course, to think you’ve got even a couple of slots already full makes a difference in how you plan and market and hustle.

All I’m doing these days is hustling for work. I have to budget my time among all the activities. When you think something’s at least somewhat under control, you tend to slack off and not follow up enough. Bad on my part, I know; human nature, I guess.

Anyway…so much for that experiment. I think I’m not made for this independent life. I’ve got a job opportunity in Boston right now, and I think I’m going to go for it.

so I think the tattoo is even more a necessity now.

Body modification occasionally feels like the best way forward.

I recall that when Roger Bonair-Agard cut his dreads, I saw him at a show we were doing in NYC and asked him why. He said that the hair “locked up a lot of energy” he felt he needed to release. I understood it implicitly.

So I’m keeping the long hair, will probably grow it longer, and I definitely am on the hunt for the next tat.

Keep it or lose it? I’ve been thinking about going back to the damn-near-shaved look I always sported before this.

I will have to think about this one for a long, long time…

http://www.nysun.com/article/34252

Anyone know the Irish singer/songwriter Damien Dempsey? I saw him on Saturday night and was pretty impressed.

What and where?

I have two small ones: the word “poet” on my right shoulder, the word “mestizo” on my left.

Any thoughts? I’m partial to words in monochrome, lower case, in Courier. Needs to be relatively work safe, too — I have no objections to people knowing I have tattoos, but when you’re working for yourself in the corporate world, you need to be somewhat careful.

you really get behind on your friends’ list.

I know that’s an obvious statement, but it’s a little overwhelming — so you can assume I’ve missed the last week or so of all your posts, and I can’t possibly catch up…sorry. Anything critical I should know, hit me up backchannel.

off to an irish festival today with friends.

no one has signed up for the online course, and the dead line is tomorrow. i will likely have to cancel it. i’m sad about that.