The Webmistress in Chi-town!

So I spent all of last week in Chicago. I visited old friends, drank, walked through neighborhoods full of memories, made new friends, drank, danced, ate good food, drank, enjoyed the hospitality of my cousin, Mickey and the company of my favorite poet, Billy.

But Tuesday night was spent at the Trace - and if it's Tuesday at Trace....it's gotta be Safe Smiles. Those PolyRhythmic guys really know how to put on a show! Drew was the DJ, Zeeshan took the money, Billy hosted and that gorgeous redhead Annie bartended . Now I know I am probably a little bias when it comes to Mr. Tuggle, but he was ON that night! He opened with one of my favs, "Chasing the Dancer" (you know - "Brown skinned earth boys love girls with crazy curves") and closed with Prince's "Joy in Repetition", which was my FIRST time hearing it live! In between there was a phenomenal open mic with several poets including Andi Kauth, Emily Rose, Drew Perfillio and Elizabeth (whose last name escapes me - probably because of the tequila). There were a couple of really funny comics as well, however, their names have also been forgotten (again - the tequila), but they were funny!

And then there was the feature, Nick Fox. Nick's poetry was amazing! In between poems, Nick read passages from Vonnegut and talked about several books from his sporadic book club. He even had a chronological list of his favorite books since childhood, many of which I read! Meeting Nick had to be the highlight of the night. He is a gifted writer, with a great sense of humor and a quick smile. By the way, he's also a huge Sox fan, which is why he knew so many Cubs jokes!

This was only my fourth or fifth time at Safe Smiles, but I can honestly say it was THE BEST!

xoxo

Return of the Dread-I

My first trip back to Austin since a scintillating [thank you Charles Elik] NPS and a good promo for Mental Graffiti. I featured at the Austin Slam, its home venue, Ego's, where Mental Graffiti made its semifinal stand at Austin '06. Andy Buck, Emily- forget her last name, but she was my fave [What is it with me and women named "Emily" lately!?] and Tony Jackson were the deserved finalists, but the whole slam and Haiku challenge were a blast. The set...

"The Invocation"
"Negroampliphobia..."
"Concrete Lion"
"Sandcastle Haiku"
"Rough Draft"
I sacked the slam with "Chasing the Dancer"
and closed the night with "Bush Doctor" version 2.0

I went with "the hits", no O.P.P., no new or page stuff mainly because nobody there had ever seen more that 1 or 2 pieces by me. Waaayyyy cool. And several performance poetry newbies, including one who bought Flawed Glory!

YAAaawwwnnn... early morning train to Dallas...

Once more with feeling...

Another rocking night on Market Street. Fingersnaps Salon, the spot. Just like "battling" Saul Williams in Vancouver a couple years ago, the show was up against the return of Second Sundays: The SF City Slam. Q has some diehards though and and intimate crowd made it so worth it. DJ Lamont adding to the ambiance made for a wicked open mic and spiced up my set, caught on tape (or som'n digital).

3/18, San Francisco:
"Bush Doctor"
"Karmadelic"
"The Invocation"
"Concrete Lion"
"Excuse Me Mister"/"Downpressor Man"
untitled ['Arch of the back' joint']
"Rough Draft"
"Joy In Repetition" featuring Q
"Chasing the Dancer"

After another sparking week by the Bay, it's on to Texas and home. The vibe hunter ever searching...

BrOakland Blues

Once again, the padawan Q's droid is making it hard to adequately edit this shit. Props to the Webmistress for trying to handle it.

It's all funny now because it came off with such daring that only the Bay Area tribe of Knights could accomplish. Despite being tossed out of their regular room with the threat of the venue being shut down by Oakland Police [YIKE!], Nazelah and Dahled found another suitable room, the next door storefront. Kind of stuffy and bare, sitting on the floor along a long room wall was interesting, especially with a gathering of the Bay's best performance poets.

This Friday evening, 3/16 was not only my first Oakland feature but also Bay Area regional qualifier for the National Poetry Slam. Q stole the open slam and, I believe, qualified for the BrOakland final. Sacramento- including Ashley, Supernova & Marc Marcell on tour from Atlanta- took two bouts from San Jose- Chris Bundy and Big Nate- to put themselves on the in-list for NPS '07 in Austin.

As of press time, there is still some confusion by this author of the winner of the 3-way bout between Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland- BrOakland, as Oakland/Hot Water Cornbread did not show. Update pending. Participating poets from both sides of the Bay Bridge included Kim Johnson, Mona Webb, Mack Dennis, Dahled and Lucky 7

I was the sacrificial poet for the slam with "Rough Draft"; I did two sets one between bout 2 and 3 and a short closer. Set one: "Concrete Lion", untitled ['Arch of the Back' joint] and "The Invocation" by request [!]. Second set: "Bush Doctor", untitled [Sandcastle 'haiku'], "Chasing The Dancer", untitled ['Battle verse' haiku].

Nazelah, always the quality MC made everything go smooth once we got the room situation.

It's been a minute...

I'm on Q's weird computer... forgive the typos...

Caught up in being at home was not good for the keeping up with the journal, but hey, it's still better than before right? The only thing that really illustrates my bad habit is that I thought I put up a setlist from Fingersnaps Salon in San Francisco from February 11th. And damned if I know where I shoved that piece of paper. Ouch.

FEAR OF A DREAD PLANET!!! Before the caravan could ride back out of the Big Windy, the business of our regional qualifier for the National Poetry Slam had to be handled. Since Mental Graffiti would already be an odds on fave, along with Green Mill, I figured I could help level the playing field and give my padawan learner Andi's Palatine team a fighting chance. With polyrhythmatician Drew Perfilio and Emily Rose- host of the Chicago Poetry Center's Lip Reading. The slam was held at Durty Nellies in P'tine so we hoped for a little home field advantage. The results were #1 Mental Graffiti/Chicago; #1 Green Mill/ Chicago; #3 Normal, IL; #4 Palatine, IL.

Mental Graffiti featured Death From Below, Tim Cook and Mike McGee[!] from San Jose; Green Mill Had Joel Chamara and Molly Meacham along with two of this years upcoming finalists, Prince [?] and Tristan; Normal featured Robbie Q. Telfer and Aaron Enskatt. Five Def Poets, One NPS and IWPS champion, eleven NPS veterens! Along with feature Jamie Kilstein! It was competitive and a good time was had. I get to feature at a similar even tonight in Oakland.

The tour is progressing with a rocking night out doors in San Jose and a second place finish in the Berkeley Slam. Isaac Miller of the CalSlam team on the way to the collegiate national slam took first and put the money n his team coffer. I dropped "Rough Draft" and "Concrete Lion" on them.

Following weekend sets on both sides of the Bay, I make my solo debut in Texas! www.myspace.com/fearofadreadplanet

The San Jose reading was as follows:
"The Invocation"
"Negroampliphobia or Fear of a Black Rock"
"Chasing The Dancer"
"Concrete Lion"
"Marvel Girl"
"Rough Draft"

North by Northwest, Abriviated

Due to my own dumbassery, I had to drop my last 3 readings in Vancouver, Bellingham, WA and Corvallis, OR. *sigh*... I really looked forward to all of those, especially after Seattle, last week.

Seattle 2/13:
The Invocation
Chasing the Dancer [NEVER got the reaction I got before that night! :P]
Marvel Girl
Rough Draft
Negroampliphobia
Joy In Repetition
Concrete Lion

The slam was the single best I've seen on the west coast to date... Seattle will be coming for that ass, as usual, at NPS

Amtrak calls...
Next week the battle of Palatine! [www.palatineslam.com]

Setlists

Oakland 2/2 brOakland Slam
"Bush Doctor"
[open mic]
"Negroampliphobia or Fear of a Black Rock"
[sacrificial poet]

Berkeley 2/7 Berzerkeley Slam
"Concrete Lion"
"The Invocation"
"Rough Draft"
"Negroampliphobia or Fear..."
"Joy in Repetition"

Chico,CA 2/8 Chico Poetree Slam
"Chasing The Dancer"
"The Invocation"
"Marvel Girl"
"Concrete Lion"
"Bush Doctor"
"One For The Troubadors"
"Rough Draft"
"Karmadelic"

www.myspace.com/fearofadreadplanet

72 hours or so...

I had just enough time to come down from Berkeley, shaken into new surroundings by bus ride to Chico for a slam [www.myspace.com/chicopoetreeslam] in an art gallerey. Master Tazoo was in Vancouver, post I.W.P.S., and left the reading in the capable hands of Ulyses- young tag team partner in a similar vein of Andi and I- wjo was hosting for his first time. The Thursday night slam included an impressive foursome of college/H.S. aged students. The Chico scene, which also pushed Eric "Big Poppa E" Ott along the slam scene is youth centered with regular representation in Brave New Voices, the National youth slam. These young ones I encountered have very mature sound and style and can choose to take performance poetry in any direction they like.

The set itself was much fun. No mic in a gallerey with a nice, flat echo is the shit. A half hour to stretch a little bit the night after a 15 minute blitz was cool, especially with the chance to do some page stuff like "Marvel Girl" or flip it for the b-kids a la "Karmadelic"

I think it's with the coming generation of spoken artists that I get the most gratification. I like showing them something that I never had anyone present o me when I was their age. Take it and run kids!