I went to a little memorial/tribute gathering for Lee Ballard, last week. We went around the room sharing some of Lee's poems and memories. I thought it was nice that his loved ones could hold onto his chapbooks and renew some sort of connection with him, every time they read his words.





Here's one of Lee's pieces that I read:


TOUGH AUDIENCE


Some nights it does not pay,
I said it does not pay
to stand and deliver poems
because out there, out there, in front
there sit so many stones. I hunt
for one reacting face and find
back there, on the last row, one mind,
one receptive keen wit
who laughs at the wrong time.

~~~~Lee Ballard


I didn't know him too well, but it makes you think about what kind of impression you leave on the people around you...even people who you don't really know, all that well. It reminds you to appreciate the people that you interact with, while alive.

To everyone who is taking the time to read this: we are fortunate to know each other a little bit, even if it's only through this webpage.

To everyone who I actually get to see: it's very cool, that we occasionally run into each other!

happinesstogo  and campana  showed up and we talked Jack Evans into trying to meet up with us on Monday night for MamaJavas open reading. Even if we're the only ones there, we should be able to keep each other entertained.

Since there were too many people, at the beginning of the evening, we had to hold the laundro-fest outside. The acoustics would have been great inside, but I think it actually worked out better to have it in the parking lot. It can get very hot and stuffy inside a laundromat and the night air was nice and comfortable. The one drawback was that Rocky was planning on doing a "cooking segment" with his fifteen minutes and he was planning on using the dryer, as his oven (he needed to melt some chocolate for the dish he had planned to prepare). I would have LOVED to see that!!!

Other than that, the show was great fun. It was incredibly eclectic and there was an impressive array of talent. We had some strong musicians, nationally recognized performers, and some writers who have been published around the world. I was fortunate to witness the event and proud to be a part of it all.



As for my own setlist:


Gravesite Reservations
Barracuda
On The Absence of Racism In Ancient Greece (because of all the washing machine segregation taking place inside, between the white shirts and the colored socks)
haiku about Luke Skywalker, Dick Cheney, and Light Rail
Vacancy
Why Rodney is not Allowed Back at the Willow House
Uninvited Guest
haiku about Crucifixes, Freight Train Operators, and Hogwarts
Ash to Ash to Dust to Stone
The Astronaut (or monk)









( more pics FOLDED and put AWAY in the drawer )

I've uploaded the first batch of pics from the infamous Laundromat Show.

But first, here is a message from my friend who organized the event.


The Laundry Mat Show was a blast. Everyone was great. The whole point of this shindig was to turn people on to new ideas. I've personally seen all the performers and was inspired by them all. I wanted to bring them together to share what I've seen and felt, so that maybe they'll support each other. Last Night I was shown how to make an orgami crane by Beck the 12yr old Origami God, and it was a pure moment of innocence. we all need to feel this in our hectic lives. I am truly proud of everyone. You all did a fantastic job.


Take care and support the local arts and shops,
-Rocky






( the rest of the pics folded under the cut, so they don't get bleached )

I saw Jon Sands at Words In The Alley. I liked hearing some of his pieces about New York.
It was like traveling without going anywhere and I am lazy enough to appreciate that sort of thing.




Anyway, as I was heading down there, I got a call from Jack Evans to ask if I would come and read a piece at a tribute for Lee Ballard.
He apologized for the late notice, but he's been sick (he said he tried to go to that Bookman's event, but didn't feel well enough.)

It's Thursday night at Copper Star coffee, in case any of you knew Lee. I don't know who else Jack has invited to read.

As read at a laundromat show:





Barracuda

If Sarah Palin drowns
in an earmarked pet-project cauldron filled
with a mixture of freshly-drilled Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge oil and polar bear blood
then she was not a witch

Even if it was real, Global Warming
could never thaw her heart.
She knows
that you can put lipstick
on a seventeen year old girl
who has been deprived of comprehensive Sex
Education, but your NRA lobbyist
will only have nine months
to arrange the shotgun wedding

Those go-go boots helped pray away my gay
and made the creationism of her bridge to nowhere
into a 398 million dollar catwalk Worth
Every Penny.
She knows that if Alaskans
weren't meant to be pale, they would live
somewhere other than Alaska, someplace that gets
exposed to more than 5 hours of daylight
during winter months.
So installing that tanning bed
in the Governor's office was a task from God

John McCain is the only dinosaur she believes in
she understands that presidential elections are glorified
beauty pageants and not having any answers for important
questions makes you a Maverick.
She emphasizes
Homeland Security and vows to protect America's
prosperity, like a clever Yahoo e-mail password
she will fight Alaskan Gray Wolves over there
chasing and shooting them from the safety of helicopters
so we won't have to fight them over here

And Sarah Palin knows that if books
weren't meant to be burned, they would be made
of something other than paper
a flame-retardant material able to withstand
the friction of contradictory ideas, the heat
of dissent.
She knows that if books weren't meant
to be burned, they would not contain
such flammable ideas

That was honestly a show, unlike any other show that ever was or will be, amen.

60 or 70 people showed up to witness the freakshow.

There will certainly be lots of pics and recaps to come, but here is a taste.




Crazy ideas come from crazy people.
Here are the co-conspirators who put this thing together.



pancho= Rocky
banana= Morgan

So I thought we'd be keeping Sunday's laundromat show on the down low
because I half expect it to get shut down, by owners or fire marshall.




So I was surprised to look through this week's edition of the Phoenix New Times and see that this laundromat show
is listed as their Top Pick for Sunday's recommended events. ha! So much, for not drawing too much attention to it!
They even used my snazzy little S. Krueger pic on their website:

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/events/the-laundromat-show-899746/

Bar Soap

How about a floor show with your fluff ’n’ fold?

By Jose Gonzalez

Time to do some laundry. Groan, right? Rocky Yazzie of Phoenix experimental rockers Skinwalkers and Morgan Halas of The Lucky Sperms will gladly oblige anyone who thinks doing laundry is a drag.

The twosome has assembled a motley crew of musicians, poets, and entertainers for The Laundromat Show on Sunday, October 5. Call it a multitasking mini-festival, as folks who thought they'd just be tossing a load or two in the spin cycle will be hearing music by Porches, Ray Reeves, and Andrew Jemsek, as well as poetry by Aaron Johnson, Shawnte Orion, Barry Graham, and Rahim. There will also be some breakdancing and fun-guided tutorials, such as origami taught by Beck the 12-Year Old Origami God.

--------------------------------------

So apparently word of mouth has been strong on this. My friend who set it up (Rocky) has been getting calls from other bands trying to get in on the show, but he's had to turn them away because the bill is full.
Oh, and a local underground television show (Television Noir) wants to come and film it.
Righteous.

So I got a call at work, last month. It was one of my musician friends, "Dude, DUDE. I need a favor. You've got to play a show with us."
I am already in, even though I have no idea what it will be. He always has these crazy ideas, but he's so excited about them, that it becomes infectious. So I ask what he has in mind, this time.

"We just got back from the laundromat. That place has INCREDIBLE acoustics, so we decided that we need to do a show there!"

Now, I'm definitely IN. This sounds absolutely ridiculous, but it would certainly be a great story to tell, after the fact.
He said that he was going to approach some diverse people and put together an eclectic mix of acts, doing short 15-minute spin cycle sets.

Apparently, other people also found his enthusiasm to be infectious, because here is what he has put together for this Sunday's guerrilla-style art-takeover of a downtown laundromat.


6:​​30-​​Morga​n (​​lucky​ sperm​s - acoustic songs in French)​​
6:​​45-​​Paul the poet
7:​​00-​​Beck!​​ da 12 yr old ORIGA​MI GOD!
7:​​15-​​Andre​w and his accor​dian (​​Haunt​ed Colog​ne)​​
7:​​30-​​Rocky ​(​​aka-​​Chef DUNG)​​ 15 min meal tutor​ial
7:​​45-​​Shawn​te (my slot)
8:​​00-​​Jane Hilto​n rapes​ the fiddl​e (I think this must be Jane? http://waywardfiddler.com)
8:​​15-​​Aaron​ Johns​on just fux it up
8:​​30-​​Kevin​ Patte​rson might​ get hurt spinn​ing plate​s
8:​​45-​Dogo ​Barry​ Graha​m (the_urban_monk )
9:​​00-​​Ben (​​Porch​es)​​
9:​​15-​​Mr.​​ Frip wears​ his sungl​asses​ at night​
9:​​30-​​Quart​er Inch Crown​ 
9:​​45-​​Rahie​m the human​ beatb​ox

The Washh​ouse
South​east corne​r of 7th St. & Portl​and (​​1 stree​t north​ of Roose​velt)​

Since I read plenty of my own work as last week's feature, I brought some pieces by other poets to share at last night's Words In The Alley. This one seemed especially timely.

It was written by Charles Bernstein and the original version appeared in Harper's Magazine .
I just rearranged the beginning, a little bit.

Poetry Bailout Will Restore Confidence of Readers

Cultural leaders have come together to announce a massive poetry buyout: leveraged and unsecured poems, poetry derivatives, delinquent poems, and subprime poems will be removed from circulation in the biggest poetry bailout since the Victorian era. We believe the plan is a comprehensive approach to relieving the stresses on our literary institutions and markets. These debt-ridden poems threaten to infect other areas of the literary sector and ultimately to topple our culture industry.

Let there be no mistake: the fundamentals of our poetry are sound. The problem is not poetry but poems. The crisis has been precipitated by the escalation of poetry debt—poems that circulate in the market at an economic loss due to their difficulty, incompetence, or irrelevance.

Illiquid poetry assets are choking off the flow of imagination that is so vital to our literature. When the literary system works as it should, poetry and poetry assets flow to and from readers and writers to create a productive part of the cultural field. As toxic poetry assets block the system, the poisoning of literary markets has the potential to damage our cultural institutions irreparably.

As we know, lax composition practices since the advent of modernism led to irresponsible poets and irresponsible readers. Simply put, too many poets composed works they could not justify. We are seeing the impact on poetry, with a massive loss of confidence on the part of readers. What began as a subprime poetry problem on essentially unregulated poetry websites has spread to other, more stable, literary magazines and presses and contributed to excess poetry inventories that have pushed down the value of responsible poems.

The risks poets have taken have been too great; the aesthetic negligence has been profound. The age of decadence must come to an end with the imposition of oversight and regulation on poetry composition and publishing practices.

We are convinced that once we have removed these troubled and distressed poems from circulation, our cultural sector will stabilize and readers will regain confidence in American literature. We estimate that for the buyout to be successful, we will need to remove from circulation all poems written after 1904.

This will be a fresh start, a new dawn of a new day. Without these illiquid poems threatening to overwhelm readers, we will be able to create a literary culture with a solid aesthetic foundation.


It was great to see Ed Mabrey come out, last night.
I've only seen him once before, but he is solid.



Aaron Johnson helped him out on a piece that had to do with Robert Johnson.
Righteous.

There was a call for "Garden Poems" a few years ago, so I wrote this:



The Abortionist’s Garden


Neighbors kept such vivid gardens
praising the glory of life, through roses
and hyacinths whose every bloom
consummated the embrace
of sun and earth

She only ever watered
in the dark of night
a suspicious assortment of plantings
that always seemed peculiar
in spite of the familiar scent of Sage
Parsley and Ginger

But Tansy, Pennyroyal, Savin
Artemisia and Queen Anne’s Lace
would cause the bleeding
that can make a miscarriage of an abortion

Leaving Black Cohosh and Evening Primrose
to temper the womb, until Angelica
or Cotton Root Bark force enough contractions
to exile the unwelcome embryo



(from recent issue of Gloom Cupboard)

...but I still had to try to make one of these.

The Bookman's event turned out to be fun.
I think a lot of people were glued to the on-again presidential debates, so it was a small (ahem...I mean intimate) crowd.
I felt bad for some of the people there, who had just heard me do some of the material at my other feature. a few days earlier.
But they didn't seem to mind and I enjoyed it.

I normally try to space my readings out a bit more, so that's why I was hesitant to "volunteer."
But the main reason that I was happy to do it, was to help Bob.
It's cool that he's approached to put together things like this so it makes me want to help him out, if I am able.

Nikki is also cool, so it was good to see that she made it back out of New Mexico. Miouo and Jose had good sets and kept me entertained. I've never seen Jose before, so it was nice to meet him and his entourage.

Ink


I wanted to write you a note this morning
leave it on your pillow
before I left for work
but I couldn’t find my red pen

It would have said that you have no reason
to be jealous it would have been a proclamation
of loyalty it would have tried
to convince you of my devotion

But I couldn’t find my red pen
and I could never scribble in this notebook
with any other hue


(from the new issue of Gloom Cupboard)

I brought my two kids to see my feature last night. That was cool.

Jack Evans, Miouo, Aaron Johnson and Tom came out to see me, so that was cool.
Jack asked if I would be interested in an event that he was putting together for Lee Ballard.

I also tried out one of the pieces that I will be doing Friday, so look out Bookman's.

Come to my feature at next week's Words In The Alley
...or I will visit you in your dreams.






Tuesday Sept 23rd
Words In The Alley: Feral Poetry
open mic starts at 7pm
FREE


A Shot of Java
7003 N. 58th Avenue Glendale, AZ 85301
(in the alley behind Old Pizza Roma)
623-847-2423
parking lot located off of 57th Drive

I uploaded some new audio clips to my myspace page.

They are for "The Abortionist's Garden"
and a group of haiku.


They were recorded in a coffeehouse sometime last year.

My wife says that it's not a good idea to wear sandals
around kids who are wearing cleats.

I've been fascinated with a show on the Discovery channel called Nextworld.
Some of the current technological breakthroughs are amazing and scary, but it's also interesting
to look back at what people expected our modern society to accomplish.


Here are some good ones that were listed on their website:

• "The actual building of roads devoted to motor cars is not for the near future, in spite of many rumors to that effect."
  - Harper's Weekly, 1902

• "By the turn of this century, we will live in a paperless society."
  - General Motors chairman Roger Smith, 1986

• "Automobiles will start to decline almost as soon as the last shot is fired in World War II. The name of Igor Sikorsky will be as well known as Henry Ford's, for his helicopter will all but replace the horseless carriage as the new means of popular transportation. Instead of a car in every garage, there will be a helicopter.... These 'copters' will be so safe and will cost so little to produce that small models will be made for teenage youngsters. These tiny 'copters, when school lets out, will fill the sky as the bicycles of our youth filled the prewar roads."
  - Harry Bruno, aviation publicist, 1943

( even more of these under the cut )

• "Two years from now, 'spam' will be solved."
  - Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, 2004

• "Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality in 10 years."
  - Alex Lewyt, president of vacuum cleaner company Lewyt Corp., 1955

• "Fooling around with alternating current is just a waste of time. Nobody will use it, ever."
  - Inventor Thomas Edison, 1889

• "The coming of the wireless era will make war impossible, because it will make war ridiculous."
  - Radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi, 1912

I'll have three poems appearing in an upcoming U.K. journal.

Ink
Shards
The Abortionist's Garden


I've had pieces published in places like India and New Zealand and the first journal that ever published one of my pieces was from Alaska (which is obviously foreign territory, if you paid any attention to the recent Republican convention), but I've never before placed anything in the U.K.
So that makes me happy.

I went to the Tuesday poetry reading at Shot Of Java (where I will be featuring later this month: Sept. 23rd).

I've seen people borrow quotes or phrases within poems, but this time I saw a guy use part of an old Bill Hicks routine and try to pass it off as his own witty between-poem banter. Sad.




That reminds me to post the rest of those Glendale pics, from back when my friend was visiting.




( the rest of the pics buried here )