Dark Matter

is going on right now at the Hotel Vernon. I left before the end of the second round with no qualms. It’s not the poetry was bad; in fact, I heard one duet that I thought was pretty damn good, and we all know how much I hate multi-voice work. (Cantab, by the way. Any of you bringing poems about Iraq, prepare to be schooled.) it’s just that the atmosphere and the process of the slam is not where I’m at anymore, and I don’t feel it. I keep trying, but it’s wearying to me to keep trying. I don’t have time to be weary of it. There’s too much of my own work to be done.

I’ll be attending the regional on Sunday at Jumpin’ Juice and Java, and I’ll stay to the end for the sake of the team. My weariness isn’t (and shouldn’t) be interpreted as ill-will towards those who still love it. I’ll attend and support them as the mood strikes because the slam family is still one of the best families I’ve every known, and I still think it’s the single best thing that’s ever come out of the slam — not the poetry, not the fame and the profile, not the awareness and the energy. The family. The network, the connections. That’s the gold that’s come from the slam. I hope you’ll still invite me around from time to time.

But I’m glad I’m not going to Nationals. The team thing isn’t working for me any more. The dynamic of the team slam isn’t interesting to me, and a full week of it is too much.

I am looking forward to Charlotte in December, though. I think the IWPS is where it’s at, after having seen both several times. Less cliquey, more variety, etc.

Y’know, it’s been a while since I posted about any gigs, so…

I know these are a ways off but it helps to plan ahead.

Sept. 9, 2008: Faro and I will be on the beautiful island of Nantucket for a show at the Umass Field Research Station, in a gorgeous room overlooking the ocean. I’ve been here before, but it’s a first for Duende and we look forward to a great time with the usual enthusiastic crowd that attends this unique venue. Afternoon show on a Sunday with Melissa Guillet as a co-feature. Take the ferry out and come have a great time.

Sept. 30, 2008: I’ll be doing one of my increasingly rare solo poetry features at one of my favorite venues, the Newark Arts Alliance in Newark, Delaware. I’ll be in town for a work gig, so it seemed like a natural to book a feature there even without the Bass Player of Extraordinariness. The good folks at the reading were glad to oblige, for which I thank them.

More details — you know, times, dollars involved, dress code, etc. — as it all approaches. But save the dates now, you slackers…um, I mean, you beloved and wonderful people!

We have the Manchester Slam Team!!! They will showing off their stuff at

Reflections Cafe
8 Governor Street
(corner of Wickenden & Governor)
sign up at 7:30
$2

Ryk will be hosting…come down and support the reading! You know you want to…

I’m SO glad the Mayans and Aztecs had all those extraterrestrial aliens to help them with their pyramids and buildings and the Nazca Lines and the astronomical calculations. God knows those benighted savages couldn’t possibly have done it on their own…Even the fucking Egyptians needed help.

Stonehenge, though? Those guys were SMART, I guess. I mean, why else would the dramatic television recreation of the construction and meaning of Stonehenge be filled with reenactments of the Celtic ancestors working so damn hard to drag and raise stones according to their astronomical labors, and the ones about the structures built in the Americas always include statements like, “no one knows how the Mayans were able to calculate the movements of stars so far in advance, although experts are still working on possible theories. One theory suggests that they had help…”

I’d lay odds that when it comes down to it, the aliens are pretty much white guys in the minds of these filmmakers. Maybe they even have hardhats, laptops, and Starbucks’ cups in their beneficent hands, or they’re tapping away on their Blackberries to the mothership while the dusky chumps in front of them cower in wonder and invent Quetzalcoatl to explain it all.

I’m exaggerating, but I detect a touch of racism here.

It says something to me that so far, my favorite of the three is the one by Common. I’ll need more listens of all three to be sure, and I suspect that the Fahey album will end up getting the most rotation eventually, but still.

You’d think Against Me would have impressed this old punk more…it’s got a great beat, you can jump to it, yes, but it just feels so, overall, surprisingly bloodless. I’m bored with anthems that are designed to stir energy and action through sheer intellectualization. (Hence, my dislike of so much slam work.) Tell me a story, please. (Although I do like “The Ocean.”)

Watching the VH1 tribute again now…and no apologies for the tears in my eyes.