Thursday February 24, 2005 - Chicago 11:55PM - Central Time
1.
Last Nihgt i taped for HBO's Def Poetry Jam. i think it went well, though it makes me a little nuts how much the cult of fame affects us. we immediately think ourselves important, or on the verge of greatness or just more worthy on the ctrength of a potential 15 minutes of airtime at midnight on a Friday. Still, it is always an excellent room to perform for. The producers know exactly what they're doing, in terms of the set up of the room, how they get the crowd amped up for the performers, so that by the time you get on the stage, the crowd's energy is a vitalizing kind of force, so that you have almost no choice but to deliver a high quality/energy performance. Even so, too much of the work that makes it to the taping, is, in my estimation, bad poetry - poorly crafted work (even if you choose not to look at it as poetry). Not that it shouldn't exist, but this is a show that professes to present the best of the country's spoken word poetry. Not so - anyway, enough of the hateration. if you are so inclined as to check out the upcoming season of Def Poetry Jam, these are the performers you should look out for (at least out of those that i had a chance to hear); Dennis Kim, Marty McConnell, Kevin Coval, Caroline Harvey, Geoff Trenchard, Willie Perdomo, Michael Cirelli, Rachel McKibbens, Ishle-Yi Park... i can't remember anything else right now...
***
So i decide tonight that since i'm in Chicago and i can't seem to get hold of either Quraysh or Kendra (and Kendra called just 3 minutes ago, but i've already returned to the house), that i'd have a date with myself. I figured i'd take me and go pub-crawling. I showed up on time and everything wearing a pink t-shirt and camouflage pants - a little strange, but whatever... I am intersting date. i seem to like to talk a lot and pay attention to just about any sporting event taking place on a bar's television screens. i like straight vodka, but couldn't seem to hold it together long enough to make the pub crawl last any longer than three pubs, before i needed to get a late night omelette with steak fries from Clark's Diner on Belmont. If i could have held out for another hour, i would have been still in Wicker Park when Kendra called and Kendra could have joined us and made the date a threesome. Probably just as well though, i have to perform for high school students in Joilet (a suburb about 2 hours away) tomorrow, so i should probably get some rest, especially since after the Def Pietry taping last night, there was much foolishness at the hotel bar involving all the out of town poets losing their minds.
This is not a tour. There are enough performances but only one city. One city does not a tour make...
1.
Last Nihgt i taped for HBO's Def Poetry Jam. i think it went well, though it makes me a little nuts how much the cult of fame affects us. we immediately think ourselves important, or on the verge of greatness or just more worthy on the ctrength of a potential 15 minutes of airtime at midnight on a Friday. Still, it is always an excellent room to perform for. The producers know exactly what they're doing, in terms of the set up of the room, how they get the crowd amped up for the performers, so that by the time you get on the stage, the crowd's energy is a vitalizing kind of force, so that you have almost no choice but to deliver a high quality/energy performance. Even so, too much of the work that makes it to the taping, is, in my estimation, bad poetry - poorly crafted work (even if you choose not to look at it as poetry). Not that it shouldn't exist, but this is a show that professes to present the best of the country's spoken word poetry. Not so - anyway, enough of the hateration. if you are so inclined as to check out the upcoming season of Def Poetry Jam, these are the performers you should look out for (at least out of those that i had a chance to hear); Dennis Kim, Marty McConnell, Kevin Coval, Caroline Harvey, Geoff Trenchard, Willie Perdomo, Michael Cirelli, Rachel McKibbens, Ishle-Yi Park... i can't remember anything else right now...
***
So i decide tonight that since i'm in Chicago and i can't seem to get hold of either Quraysh or Kendra (and Kendra called just 3 minutes ago, but i've already returned to the house), that i'd have a date with myself. I figured i'd take me and go pub-crawling. I showed up on time and everything wearing a pink t-shirt and camouflage pants - a little strange, but whatever... I am intersting date. i seem to like to talk a lot and pay attention to just about any sporting event taking place on a bar's television screens. i like straight vodka, but couldn't seem to hold it together long enough to make the pub crawl last any longer than three pubs, before i needed to get a late night omelette with steak fries from Clark's Diner on Belmont. If i could have held out for another hour, i would have been still in Wicker Park when Kendra called and Kendra could have joined us and made the date a threesome. Probably just as well though, i have to perform for high school students in Joilet (a suburb about 2 hours away) tomorrow, so i should probably get some rest, especially since after the Def Pietry taping last night, there was much foolishness at the hotel bar involving all the out of town poets losing their minds.
This is not a tour. There are enough performances but only one city. One city does not a tour make...
1 Comments:
next time you are one block from my house, you should call my ass. i know i ain't in cave canem, but hey...i will one day make an iranian/guatemalan version of cave canem, and i still will call your ass.
karimi
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