Tuesday February 28, 2006 - 6:30AM

So i can't sleep... no big deal, but check it, right... so i'm in this outdoor hot tub at this hotel in Nth. Adams Massachussetts, and there's a blizzard going on and amongst the 7 or so folks on the hot tob are these three gay dudes from brooklyn, who are basically all the "Jack" character from Will&Grace. their names are stephan, tyler and fred (did you all know anyone still named fred?) and they couldn't tell us why they were in Nth Adams for the weekend, but they're the most hilarious thing since well... Will&Grace.

i had a performance of my one man concert MASQUERADE at MASS Moca, a really fly contemporary art museum designed out of a series of old factory buildings. i even had drinks at a bar called Mohawk (i'm not even kidding). by the way, check out my new publicity-option photos at www.peterdressel.com/clients/roger. i'll be using some of these for my book cover series of photos (feel free to weigh in on which you like).

meanwhile back in nyc, there is too much work to do and too many rehearsals to attend but i can't really whine about any of this because it's all good and we can afford to replace one of our laptops this week, so hooray for me! i've been reading The Ethical Slut, which i think folks should read whether or not they're interested in a polyamorous lifestyle. i think that even for folks committed to monogamy, there are some interesting discussions about the "shame" of sex and sexuality and the myths of modern romance, that would help most of us to think about critically. i'm not saying... i'm just saying...

for real, go get it. it's in any barnes and noble or borders or whateverrrrrrrrr

later...

Tuesday february 21, 2006 - 5:40PM

So Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, poet extraordinaire, countryman and fly-ass human being, has loaned marty and i a laptop until we buy laptops of our own. so life is spared for the moment.

in the meantime, i'm looking at folks faces in the streets of williamsburg to see if they look like they been in my house. i don't know what that looks like but i swear i'll know the look when i see it.

the police have been "on it!" they call marty back and follow up on their investigation every coupla days. i'm glad i wasn't home when they came. they woulda been on some "Ma'am, yer crackhead boyfriend sold yr laptops. that's all their is to it - case closed!" this way, we get the single white woman treatment. it's great!!!

for the first time this slam season, we had three women make it to the final round of the slam. Lynne Procope (who won it), Emily Kagan (who came in third) and a rare and amazing sight, Rachel mcKibbens... drunk!!! You've seen nothing like it. It included her throwing a full bottle of water at me on stage while i hosted and shouting out obscenities at folks in the open mic. it was wonderful!!

okay. i'm going to a public house to drink beverages and talk about poems - not necessarily in that order...

Monday February 13, 2006 - 4:26PM

i'm stealing some time at a computer in the high school i teach after-school at (martin luther king, jr. high). my apartment was broken into on friday and i lost three laptops. who burglarizes from a fourth-floor walk-up?! marty also lost her passport. it's more the violation than the laptops but now of course i have to start planning the "Replace our Laptops" poetry reading. stay tuned for that.

other than that, i'm fine i guess. my students are pissed at me. they say yusef komunyakaa is whack and they can't understand why i'm making them not only read his poems, but research his essays and his life... i'm loving it. they're really steamed at me so i know they're engaged and they'll thank me for it... or i'll bring a bat and get all Joe Clark - Stand By Me on they asses!

i should go teach the ONE after-school student i have today...

Thursday February 9, 2006 - 4:45PM

There are any number of ways to begin this entry, like "...so two ferrets are shooting heroin in the forest" or i could say "...and then we all got H's tattooed on our chests" or i could say "...so when the gay Republican gentleman started telling Talaam and Life about where homo meets hip-hop" and still none of my last three weeks would make any sense to you, let alone the last week in oakland. suffice to say Nazelah and Daled have worked into their wedding voes the phrase "Lord, bless our pimp-hand and keep it strong!"... and it's probably my fault.

meanwhile i've started the teaching job at satellite academy. day to day teaching is hard. i actually have to correct homework tonight! HOMEWORK!! ladies and gentlemen! and i have to ask students to not sleep in my class, like they don't know the only person allowed to sleep through high school is me and i'm done with high school. it's already been done and therefore it's cliche! i also have to shift my lesson plans to try to get them a little more involved early on, because i have them right after lunch and of course all they want to do is sleep really.

hmmmm... none of this though explains why the thirty-something or maybe forty something year old woman dancing with the twenty-something year old young man in Clinton, SC two weeks ago, said "...Boy, git up off yer mother-in-law!" while she continues to freak him back. i kid you not this happened. the redneck bar fight that ensued afterwards was its own circus.

these days i'm reading Natalie Angier's "Woman - an intimate geography" (i'm hearing the snickers already and y'all need to stop). Natalie Angier is a science writer and feminist and it is a fascinating study of the woman's body in relationship to herself, her world and feminist and non-feminist thought. it is a study at once scientific and socio-cultural and what it allows us in terms of understanding the woman's body and the issues that beset it in the concert of public and private consumption, cannot be overstated. check it out. besides, i'm also reading brenda shaughnessy's "interior with sudden joy" again, and that keeps my weird-game pimp-hand strong.

my computer isn't working these days, so you can check in for more entries but i have no idea when next i'll have both access and time to do this, but there's mad stuff to talk about! i love y'all like i made you myself...

peace!