last night was another Acentos crew appearance, this time for RL and his Lyric Lounge. a deep trek into brooklyn was required but what the hey- these are the things you do while on the path to, er, something.
this will have been my first reading since Amherst last month. i’ve had a few scheduled but i had to back out of em cuz of the gout. if you are keeping score at home- the right knee is still swollen, the left knee is still tender, my right big toe joint is getting worse and myleft elbow is trying to get into the act. end medical report.
anytime i have to perform with the crew, i get excited. if we are performing for some college gig or such, i know i have to dig deep and find some new nuance to the poem, some crevice that i havent really explored. one way to do this is just to change lines around to match current events or make it more familiar to the crowd you are addressing. the first way is a cop out i’ve resorted to on occasion but anytime you violate the page version of your poem, it should be towards improving said text and not just to help calm you own stage fears. the second way is a little more fun and makes you dig a lil deeper- “how can i stay true to every word i’ve sweated over but still make it interesting to these new folks?”
this time around, it was the challenge of putting together some new hotness and for the first time in a long time, i had the joy of rookie writing with me. rookie writing is that sheer joy of jumping on stage with a poem that is fresh off the griddle, some shit that is going to affect the Dow Jones, current PGA stats and the ratings for Charmed all in one fell swoop. of course the poem is raw. of course it needs edits. of course its only the first step… but how soon is now?
so i came up with two new pieces, reworked a blog entry and started on the beginning of a fourth piece, was able to get some critique from ms raina, made a few edits, and got them printed out on the quick. i know for a fact that these pieces are only scratching at some deeper truth and that i need to work on em but… EF IT! i wanted to come up with some hotness and here it was.
strangely enough, the performance of the poems came through very well. could i actually be on the road to being a good stage reader? maybe. then again, the mic on stage wasnt working well (forcing my voice to fill the room on its own) and i didnt want to awkwardly climb up to the stage (so i stayed at ground level and had my leg movement come under serious resistance thus making my voice shoulder more of the performance burden)
a damn fine start, i would say. my compatriots dazzled as well in their own inimitable style. the free brownies were off the hook. i realized that ordering a non-alcoholic drink from a fine waitress can be flirting gold.
tomorrow, i am off to see the doc and hopefully get some more releif for my joints which better be in order for (cue the shameless plug!) my january 24th feature at bar13. a feature set that now, i am feeling more and more optimistic about as i get to writing some new shit.
love ya like tourists love mapquest