Monday, November 15, 2004

Day 3 ½ ish
1:44AM

“Upon this mic I will build my church…”

So begins the ‘Still Waters’ open mic at the Mecca Night Club in Milwaukee, and so I tried to offer communion, to catch the spirit along with the audience, to represent for who we am page, performance et al.

I called a few of you all over the course of the night because I know that much of what I saw, you all would not believe. I called you so you would not blame me for being too under the influence of other substances; to say to you “this is what is happening right now – yes, there is a 300 pound woman in a leather mini-skirt and knee high stiletto boots looking at herself in the mirror and dancing. yes, there is a woman in a black and white sweat suit doing a sort of stripper dance where she managed to move her butt-cheeks independently of each other. yes, of course her cell phone is clipped onto her bosom.”

My set tonight was good. My voice was hurting a bit, but I didn’t forget anything. Folks rellay got into my set, and responded in that way that black folk and church are an interactive experience, and that feels good, even if it isn’t a measure of the quality of the work. It is a measure of what it’s making folks feel right then and that’s important too. Many of the poetry folk apologized for the hip-hop krunk after party taking place, but it was so real, so absolutely representative of an entire segment of our society, that it was beautiful and I enjoyed it. The song “That’s a bad bitch…” is remarkable, especially the line that says “you don’t have to have bad credit to be a bad bitch” and “I want a bitch with no kids or only one baby-daddy…”

Eventually Wax posits a huge existentialist question… “ So suppose you get in an accident, right; and you lose your dick; and they can give you another man’s dick as a transplant, would ya want it?”

Wax can’t get past the idea that he’d be holding another man’s penis. I’m like “yeah I’d want the new dick. it’s not another man’s dick. it’s my dick now!!” Wax is disturbed by this. Wax says he wont even wash it, because he’d be washing another man’s dick. “I’d rather die, have them pull the plug than have to hold another man’s dick…” says Wax. What would you all decide, louderARTISTS?

Meanwhile, Dasha is hooking me up with Jack Daniels and Miller Genuine Draft. Tiffany Miller picks me up from the hotel and takes me back at the end of the evening. There are gigs every night this week, and the surreality shows no sign of abating.

I’ve managed to memorize a new poem today and did ‘1986’ for the first time off-book tonight. My plan is to memorize a new one each day, so that most of my show is memorized by the time I get back.

“I love black women
like fish love swimmin’”
Taste Emcees

This is a line I heard tonight. Thank you, Jesus. I also heard a magnificent rendition of Strange Fruit by Sister Monica. Thank you, Jesus… again.

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