This ends here, tommorrow.
The past: Feb '11 may be a banner month for readings. End of January, at the slam, Sara Brickman comes up to me and says "Hey, wanna do a reading for First Friday at Theo Chocolates? It's part of a benefit for Northwest Network, which provides support for LGBT survivors of abuse. The theme is loosely on love and nonviolence.
Do you uh, have any poems like that?"
Set
Lightbulbs (for Mom)
Not Like a Gas Stove at All
Best of All Possible Outcomes
Story Problem
I read with Sara herself and Mary Lambert.
In a chocolate factory. With free samples. I wasn't sure how thematically connected I was, but it went well. Afterwards Roy and I went to see William Elliott Whitmore at El Corazon.
The next reading was Feb 7th, with Shane, at Poetrynight. We did the whole Ourobouros book, minimal banter, applause til the end. It went over well, but the evening was dampered by the news of Ken Warfel's passing.
On February 11th, Marty Stegner and I launched what will likely (possibly) be a Series entitled the Muxbo Symposium. There were banjos and slides of crying children and home-brewed beer (Pale Poet Pale Ale) and fake mustaches and I did a set alongside a prose piece by Steve Barker and poetry sets by Zac Fulton, Jay Steingold and Anna Wolff. Everyone had hella fun.
Set
Songs About Fucking Steve Albini
A Brief Thanks for the Diners that Understand
Paintings of Famous Satanists
Little Fear of Drowning
Actually, it was the Worst of Times
Neo Takes the Blue Pill
My titles are ridiculous. I know. It's part of the fun. Two of those were never-been-read-new. I wore a fake mustache the whole time. I will probalby not do that again.
Most recently, on Thursday the 24th, David K Wheeler released his book of poems Contingency Plans. I recruited Terra Leigh Bell, who finished up a chapbook (about damn time) just in time and we got a pretty good crew into Elliott Bay Books' basement. Dave's friends made pie. Our sets seemed to compliment eachother (you know, similar themes but not THE SAME, similar styles but not THE SAME, etc) and Heather and Sean (cousins) made it and Josh made it down from Lynnwood which I was surprised by. I read the following*:
Sea Lions
Cavities
Ways You've Addressed Being Homeschooled
Swansea-Cardiff Blues
Explorer
Pink Laces and Kierkegaard
Best of All Possible Outcomes
The home-schooling poem went over best, surprising, given it's specialized subject matter and the fact it was it's first outing. Afterwards the bunch of us headed to Oddfellows where Josie Beck (formerly Hammond) bonded with Brittany over St Louisness and Josh made fun of them both.
*I don't post this stuff just to be myopic; it's something I actually geek out about with regards to my friends' sets, or bands I like. "Hey, what are you gonna play tonight?" "I dunno, I still need to throw a set together."
like that.
