Dark Matter

Just some notes to plan by…

Tuesday, Nov. 27: It’s the second of our “Music and Poetry Nights” at Gotpoetry Live in Providence, where we put together music with poetry. Faro’s stopping by as house bassist for the night, and folks are welcome to bring other instruments as well. The last one kicked butt.

Thursday, Nov. 29th: Duende will be the feature at the Kelly Square Slam Club, AKA the Hotel Vernon, AKA the Ship, in Kelly Square in Worcester. Bobby Gibbs runs this new and growing reading, and the Vernon’s got the coldest beer in Worcester. Come pay us stripper style, as is the custom here — toss money at us, or tuck it into Faro’s belt (mine’s too necessary to loosen enough to put money in).

Friday, Dec. 14: We’ll be featuring at Storytellers at the Village Arts Club in Worcester, doing the second full performance of “Americanized.” Come see the album in its entirety! Come see Faro do “Carol of the Bells” on the bass, solo, with all the parts!

Love to see you…c’mon down.

for several days.

Every year, I get to read indignant letters about Thanksgiving on my various mailing lists and friends’ lists from my liberal and lefty friends regarding their disdain for the holiday because of the American genocide. I only hear about that disdain and concern then, of course, because November (and to some extent October, for Columbus Day) are the official designated months for Caring About The Native Plight, which is usually framed within some sort of reference to Sandy Creek, Wounded Knee, and a host of other historical tragedies. In tone, these letters and posts sound kinda like they’re lamenting the extinction of the dodo bird, except of course the dodo bird is actually extinct.

I also receive letters in my inbox from folks who exhort me to buy nothing today, consuming oil resources and cash money on electronic communications over boxes filled with heavy metals and toxins to urge me to save the environment through righteous non-consumption.

It’s cold in the Northeast today. I hope they have their heat off — all the way off.

I’m sorry if this comes off as mean-spirited and reactionary (trust me, o lefty brothers and sisters, I’m still Down For The Cause even if I call you occasionally on your inconsistencies). But flavor of the month bullshit makes me angry. It makes me sad and bitter.

It makes me crazy.

As a person with significant Native background, I just wanted to say that I had a great time yesterday among friends. In my eyes, what something is now may no longer reflect how it started. That’s how I treat Thanksgiving.

I know there were some folks on my friends’ list who posted about the Native genocide as a reason to not celebrate the holiday. That’s fine. I understand the impulse and honor the outrage — trust me when I say that I share it.

But I’m just curious as to the nature of outrage as I question why no one responded at all to my post a day or two ago about a current bit of Native oppression along the Texas/Mexico border:

http://radioactiveart.livejournal.com/659075.html

It’s not just about the past. It’s about the here and now, too.

With respect,
T

it’s dark

have a happy
be grateful
go back to bed
imagine the eyes
sleeping nearby

still dark

nerak_g is sitting next to me working on her setlist for tonight at Gotpoetry Live.

Don’t let her hard work go to waste! Come to Reflections Cafe tonight in Providence tonight for the show!!

Maybe Paul Simon will lend me his turkey suit.

The show was incredible.

I posted the setlist in my previous post, so I won’t include this here; go there if you want to see it.

In general: band was TIGHT, tighter than I’ve ever seen them. Even the relatively simple arrangements of songs from “Darkness” sparkled, and the complex work of the “Born To Run” and especially the “E Street Shuffle” songs were handled beautifully.

Sound at the Garden was perfect.

Spare stage set up, no obstructed views, big screens for closeups (of course).

Bruce, Nils and Steve traded lots of hot guitar leads and duels, more than I’ve ever seen. Nils did a lot of slide work, even jumping onto a pedal steel for one song. Bruce’s blues solo at the beginning of “Kitty’s Back” was extended and amazing by anyone’s standards; in later years he hasn’t showcased his lead ability as much as he can, but old Bruce fans know what he’s capable of — pre E-Street, he played in a hard metal band called Steel Mill and had a nickname of “Alvin Lee by the sea.” He showed off that blues-rock prowess last night in ways I’d never seen, with less of his sometimes dissonant and chaotic style that I think has led a lot of conventional rock guitar aficionados to overlook his skill.

The Big Man (Clarence Clemons on sax for the uninitiated) moves slower than he used to due to a pair of hip replacements, but sounded undiminished and in fine form.

The new material was perfect — “Magic” in particular was great, as was “Gypsy Biker,” and “Girls in their Summer Clothes” was the right opener for the extended encore.

A non-stop 2 and 1/2 hour show with minimal stage patter (no Bruce storytelling, which I really didn’t miss, as much as I like it when he does it usually).

Emotionally, it drilled me. Hard. The old stuff made me tear up with joy, and new stuff was terrific. Loved his treatment of “Reason to Believe” from “Nebraska” which included a John Lee Hooker/Canned Heat simmer from the band under his vocals and harmonica; he spoke/sang the last verse thru the distorted bullet mike for the harp which lent a Tom Waits flavor to it. And local boy Peter Wolf joined in for “Tenth Avenue Freezeout” clad head to toe in black leather, waving a bottle of red wine.

And now for “The Rising” — well, I had a hard time with that.

It’s a triggering song for me (interestingly, “Lonesome Day” didn’t get me as much — maybe because it was early in the set) because of its heavy association with 9/11, and even though it’s an uplifting song of healing, it brought up a lot of things, including an insulting and dismissive conversation some years ago with someone who couldn’t understand why that album meant so much to so many people. I sat down and I didn’t get to my feet until partway through the song because I thought I might not be able to stand, I was crying so hard. But I made it, which is after all the point.

After that, “The Last To Die” worked well to take me into anger from the sadness (“who’ll be the last to die from our mistake” indeed), and “Badlands” brought it all home and lifted me up again.

Catharsis — it’s what’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner sometimes.

Anything I wish I’d heard? Sure — nothing from “Devils and Dust;” no “Rosalita” and nothing from “The River.” But no complaints.

I needed this badly. Thanks again to drgeorge for taking me, and to you for bearing with me.

More later, but here’s the setlist for anyone who cares:

Radio Nowhere
Night
Lonesome Day
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason to Believe
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Candy’s Room
She’s the One
Livin’ in the Future
This Hard Land
4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
The E Street Shuffle
Working on the Highway
Devil’s Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands

encore:

Girls in Their Summer Clothes
Tenth Avenue Freezeout
Kitty’s Back
Born to Run
American Land

A transcendent show…easily the best Bruce show ever, and that’s saying a lot and puts it automatically in the running for the best concert ever (I still think my first Who concert with Keith Moon probably beats it, but that’s the only close contender). I cried through much of it, most notably through “The Rising” — triggering, cathartic.

Hearing three songs from “E Street Shuffle” was amazing, as was the “Night/Darkness/Candy’s Room/She’s
the One” sequence. “Kitty’s Back” was the clincher here — I’d never seen it live.

I have more to say, but will process later and get back to you.

Thanks, Skip…for everything.

I’ll be on my way to see my first Springsteen show in twenty years…

BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCE!

Just getting warmed up.

BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCE!

NOTE: This is finally getting some attention, so I’m bumping it up. Thanks to Andrew, Lea, Dave K, Skip, and Victor so far. I really need some more advice on it. Thanks.

I gotta say, this is turning into the weirdest piece I’ve ever worked on. It had turned into a full-on text experimentation piece before I backed up and got this. Nowhere near done, and doubt it’ll end up looking like this; just needed some reality checks before going on.

” In a 1971 magazine piece about women’s liberation, Mailer compared the dehumanization of technology to the effect of feminists, who he said were abolishing the “mystery, romance” and “blind, goat-kicking lust from sex.”
— from an Associated Press obituary of Norman Mailer, November 10, 2007

on the night
before Norman Mailer died
in a New York City hospital

a 17 year old boy
was dragged by a friend
to a poetry reading
in a bookstore 300 miles away

finding himself
for the first time in his life
in a room
where he was harmlessly outnumbered
and rendered apparently irrelevant
by
hundreds of women
of all kinds
openly being
all kinds of woman

all he could think of to do
was text a friend
a couple of times

first

they’re singing lesbo
songs

then
after more time
and more poems
had passed
norming
what is maler
he
typed

wtf
i feel mad weird
some of these girlz
r manlier
than me

did he really mean to say

i feel
mad    
romance
mad            
blind
goat-kicking lust

or

some of these girlz r    
abolishing the mystery

or

some of these girlz r mad

Norman Mailer died
a few hours later
unaware of all this
still pugnacious right down to his failed kidneys
he who once stabbed his wife
loathed feminism
boxed everything
typed incessantly

thumbs flying

a boy got up
and left a world
of women
behind
apparently
without hearing a thing

we are all of us
prone to mutter
when someone
is picking at our scars

I gotta clean this house.

I gotta go do an errand.

I gotta go clean puke outta my car. (Don’t ask.)

I gotta stop thinking about that text poem I posted a day or two ago and the fact that no one’s commented on it. I could use some help. Is it that bad??

I gotta lot to do, and most of all I gotta stop thinking about how psyched I am that I’m seeing Bruce Springsteen tomorrow night or nothing is gonna get done.

See you at the Asylum for Seren Divine tonight…

I picked this up off of Indymedia just now:

http://colorado.indymedia.org/node/291

If any of my friends (especially down in Texas) can shed any more light on this, I’d be appreciative. It’s a sore subject for me, as anyone who’s heard at least one of the poems on “Americanized” might guess; I have a longstanding interest in border access issues regarding Native folks. Thanks.

Don’t know if you saw this, but there’s a new Southwestern style restaurant opening on Shrewsbury Street tonight called “Mezcal.” (Original, I know.)

They’re advertising a “Tequila Parlor” with over 100 brands of tequila. (Thought that would get your attention.)

They are also having a “guacamole exhibition.” No word on if the guacamole will be sold framed or unframed.