See previous entry.

I guess I’ll do a full entry when I get back…

but hey Worcester-ites: Bobby Gibbs placed 19th over all. Wheeeee!

i saw some people I knew.

I drank alcohol.

I hear there’s a poetry thing around here somewhere. I’m a go look.

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…

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.

I leave for Charlotte tomorrow in the late AM, get there mid-afternoon. Staying at poet central.

Looking forward to seeing all y’all.

Definitely. You scored 38% Cold and 64% Level-Headed!

You can kill. But the question “Why would you?” arises. Out of safety or cruelty?

And based on the news today, this might come in handy.

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?

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/

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.

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.

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.”