The Clock Strikes Back
Not the one the governor took; the one I lost this morning. I roll over in the dim light all smiley, thinking, “Ah, it’s still rainy and I love waking up before my alarm,” only to realize it was 8:40. 8:40?! WTF?1?!? Apparently I inadvertently reset my alarm to 12am when I sprang forward Sunday. Meh.
The Chatterbox reading in Indy last night was smoky and jazzy. I did not read; I went mostly to support jkerschb, who was on the bill with Jason Ammerman, who will be down here on Friday for the Book Release & Spoken Word Showcase (see below). There was stand-up bass accompaniment that by turns was stellar and distracting, but overall it was a good improv collaboration.
I will be featuring at the Chatterbox next month along with some other poet named Tony, so I wanted to scope the scene, too. Good crowd! I also learned that my accompanist will be Kyle Quass, with whom I jammed, like, 10 years ago, back when I played percussion more regularly and he had very long hair, so I’m psyched for that li’l reunion. I may try to hook up with him beforehand to see if we can plan out a piece or two.
Saturday night viewing of The Dub Room Special with violi was truly wonderful, and confirmed two things for me: Ruth Underwood is by far my favorite Zappa collaborator of all time (such mallet work!), and I think she (circa 1974) looks a lot like d_c_m.
______________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK:
Wednesday, April 5 @ 8p
The Metacafé (103 W. Chicago Rd., Sturgis, MI)
Friday, April 7 @ 7p
SPOKEN WORD SHOWCASE & BOOK RELEASE READING: Boxcar Books (310 S. Washington, Bloomington, IN) also featuring Nick Moore, Jason Bredle, and Jason Ammerman. Hosted by Eric Rensberger.
______________________________________________________________
Driving home in the heavy rain last night, I picked up a hitchhiker. It had not yet become a Storm of Biblical Proportions, but nearly so, and he looked like a safe bet: no bags, fully clothed, walking in a more or less residential area. I’m an excellent judge of hitchers, and -- be warned, y’all who hitch -- if I get a bad vibe when you open the door, I’ll leave you standing there eating my dust. It’s true! I’m a Good Samaritan, not a door mat -- or a target.
Anyway, he had no idea ultimately where he was going, unfortunately, other than “this little trailer park ... well, it’s not really a park, just a few trailers. Does that sound familiar?” Dude, we’re in Indiana!
So we drove down Arlington Road, didn’t see it -- hell, couldn’t see much of anything by that point -- then pulled into a Speedway so he could ask around. The power had gone out there, though, and so I think he got bad directions (not quite sure how that worked but there you go; some people tend not to think or speak clearly in the dark).
Drove deeper into Ellettsville in a torrential downpour and really felt good about having picked this guy up. After wending our way in and around various smallish trailer-park-looking places along east 46, I finally said, “Look, I don’t want to dump you out in the rain, but...,” when suddenly, as I was turning around for about the fifth time, he spots a couple of trailers way off the main drag, says, “Hey, those look like trailers!” and I let him out. He then disappeared over giant puddles under no streetlights, into the howling wind: Robert, just moved here from Vermont to get away from the nasty East Coast weather. Hope you enjoy your first spring in Tornado Alley, and I hope you found your tornado magnet trailer!
______________________________________________________________
arielblue clued me in to NaPoWriMo, the li’l poetry-writing sibling of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The idea is to write a poem a day -- not a stretch for some of you, I’m sure, but I’ve been so busy with the book and the readings and the other stuff that I haven’t been focused much on writing new poems lately. When I’ve worked on new pieces, it’s been to workshop poems or to transcribe to ’puter typescripts I made last fall during my own, self-induced NaPoWriMo. Those have been leaking out slowly but surely, and they are legion!
Anyway, I’m going to try to participate in NaNoWriMo, though I foresee at least a day or two (like Sunday) where I’ll have to double-up; and I’m not likely to post many of them (maybe the top three?), but if you write pomes, I encourage you to take part as well.
______________________________________________________________
Tonight I'm catching the last show of Voices of a People's History, which was organized partly by (and also co-features) my good friend tanah. Break a leg tonight!