So last night I went to the monthly Open Mike night at Jackson’s Java hosted by Jonathan Rice of Iodine Poetry Journal, just to check it out and see what I thought. I took several pieces to read and figured I’d gauge the vibe and decide what to read by how things were going. Several people were working the Valentine’s Day thing, so I decided to go in a different direction. I read “Beer Goggles,” which is a piece that currently has found no love from any of the places that I’ve submitted it to, but is very popular whenever I perform it, which just goes to show that what works on the page may have little or no connection to what works in live performance. I also did a piece called “Better Home” from Returning the Favor, which I’m always a little nervous about performing live. It requires me to sing a couple of segments of the poem, and since I can’t carry a tune in a bucket I always feel like I’m taking the audience’s life into my hands when I perform the piece. But both pieces were very well-received, and I sold three books before the night was done, so that was great! I also swapped a book with Jessie for a copy of one of her chapbooks, which is good for both of us.
Here’s a video of “Better Home” that I recorded a few nights ago in my home office.
But I had a good time at the Open Mike and will definitely be back next month. Everyone was very welcoming, very supportive, and generally very good. I was concerned about the quality when I first arrived, because it’s hard to know going in what the level of suck will be at any open mike event, but there were only a few people all night that I thought couldn’t really write, and one of the best ways for them to improve is to be exposed to better writers. Several folks weren’t terribly good performers, but I might be a little bit of a snob there, with 20 years of theatre in my background. But most people were pretty good, and one girl in particular did a slam-style memorized piece that was just beautiful and made me wish I’d done video of the whole night so I could catch her performance.
She was one of only two people of color at the event, and it only reinforced the sense I’m developing about where poetry is sitting today. It seems like white people write their stuff down and read it out loud, while brown people tend to memorize their stuff and perform it. My friend Q is a member of the Charlotte Slam Team, and has been to the National Poetry Slam several times, and he’s one of the best poets I know. But I don’t know that he submits stuff to magazines and websites because I don’t know how much his stuff works in a written format. Watching him perform is fantastic, but if there’s no bridge between slam poetry and traditional written poetry, where is it all going to go? There are a lot of poetry events all around Charlotte every week, but they all seem to happen at clubs (and too late for me on school nights) that cater to a more typically African-American crowd. So I guess here’s my question – is performed poetry a “black thing” nowadays? Does that leave written poetry to be a “white thing?” And where does that leave people like me, white folks who are performers and writers? Is there a middle ground to bring the slam poets and the written poets together?
I hope all that doesn’t get me in John Mayer-esque trouble, but it’s kinda where my head is at with trying to figure out how to make poetry more vital to people’s everyday life.
So I’m a list guy. Not because I’m particularly organized, but because I’m not. I’m a scatterbrain, and I understand and frankly revel in this facet of my character. But because I also have a job, and a wife and other things that require me to actually sometimes finish a task, I became a list guy.
I’m also a whiteboard guy, but that’s just because sometimes I need to see the flow of information to understand how all the electrons are going to get from Point A to Point B in the stuff I design. The addition of a 4×8 whiteboard to the wall of my office is one of the greatest things to happen since I got the dual monitor setup. But I digress.
So since I’m a list guy, and since I have multiple aspects of my life, I’m a multiple list guy. And since I’m a technology geek, I use EverNote to manage my lists. I wrote really briefly about this yesterday, and the Doc made mention of it on his blog, so I figured I’d go a little more in-depth into why I think this free application is the best thing since sliced bread.
Basically EverNote is just a list of lists, and a way to manage them. But it is a living document that syncs between the application on my computer, my EverNote online account, so I can access it from any computer anywhere, and my phone, so I can access any of my lists even when I’m not near any computers.
I keep multiple lists at all times, for the different pieces of my life. One is a shopping list, which reminds me that I need to buy cotton balls. So I just open up the shopping list on the desktop and add cotton balls. Now when I get off work and go to the store, I can call up the shopping list using the app on my phone, and cotton balls will be added to the list. Easy-peasy, as they say. It’s not like it’s anything earth-shattering, but I’ve found it very useful to keep track of all my lists, and cut down on the number of annoying scraps of paper I’m carrying around. You can find it online here.
My newest scheme to actually get most of my work done, or at least be able to make some headway on my To-Do list each day (and really, if you don’t use Evernote for a to-do list that syncs between web, desktop and phone, I don’t know how you get anything done – ever) is to put things off. Well, thing, really. Namely, lunch.
You see, it might surprise the two people that ever come by here that I don’t know personally, but I’m a big fatass. And as a big fatass, I like to eat. So once I eat, especially in the winter months, I shift into my best impersonation of Fatassus Grizzliursus, or the sleepy-assed fat grizzy bear dude. So my productivity goes deep into the shitter after lunch. So this week, as I’ve been trying to play catch up after being home with Suzy for a week, I’ve been putting lunch off later and later. In addition to actually getting more work done, this has the added beneficial side effect of making the afternoon seem shorter, which is always a bonus.
The down side is that I’m not hungry early in the evening, which leads to eating a later dinner, which is not good for my other ongoing project – reducing the status of big fatass. I lost a few pounds last week when I wasn’t eating much, and now I’m just trying to inflict a little portion control on myself and get my gluttony under control. I also started lifting weights again, and I was so sore last week I could barely lift my hands to shoulder level. This week is a little better, so I’ll try to add a little more each week until I get back in a shape that isn’t completely round.
Last night I went to a local Tweetup, which was an interesting mix of web types, artsy types and elected officials. Everyone was nice, and I met a few people that were actually interesting, but it was a lot of people in a small space, which I don’t do well with at all. I left early, but enjoyed it. Unfortunately I likely won’t go back due to the level of discomfort that environments like that leave me in.
What I haven’t talked a lot about here, is at all, is that I really don’t do well in loud, crowded environments. When I was in college, I worked summers at the local amusement park’s amphitheatre, running spotlight for the bands that came through. I loved the gig, had a blast, saw some great concerts, but the cost was part of my hearing. Because of the way the intercoms were rigged, I lost part of the hearing in my left ear. I don’t hear the higher registers very well, and it’s a situation that’s exacerbated in noisy situations. My right ear is fine, so if you’re around me in a noisy room or at a loud concert, you’ll notice that I try to put you on my right side. I also try to do that at crowded restaurants, because otherwise I’m not going to be able to hear some of the conversation, and I hate to feel left out or that I’m ignoring someone.
This is pretty easy to deal with in a group of lighting people, because better than half my compatriots have some level of hearing loss. It’s just a matter of us lining up our “good ears” and having a pleasant evening. Since we all understand that it’s not a personal slight, but a physical malady, no offense is ever taken. But around folks with normal hearing, especially if you aren’t profoundly deaf and have none of the speech markers that go along with that, people think you’re just not paying attention, or worse, lying about it. Or women don’t understand why you’re leaning in so close when they talk, and think you’re getting in their personal space. It’s not any of that, it’s just that I can’t hear you. It’s embarrassing, and it’s a lengthy explanation when the inevitable “what happened” comes along, and that’s also embarrassing because it boils down to “I was young and stupid and thought that ear protection was for pussies so now I can’t hear out of one ear.”
So there are certain environments that I just avoid, and last night’s Tweetup, although pleasant for the company, was one of the environments that I’ll probably pass on in the future. So now you know why I don’t go to Haufbrauhaus, no matter how much I like the food or company, and why I can’t handle some other places or types of events.
Suzy’s improving every day – thanks to everyone who has emailed, called, visited or sent well wishes!
Yeah, that’s what I’m running around like lately. Despite the feminist nature of my wife, and the irrefutable fact that I hold true that men and women should be treated as equals, I seriously live in the Cleaver household. I go to work, bring the paycheck home each week, and when I come home I sit down in the den watching TV, while Suzy cooks dinner and brings it to me. She then sits with me while we eat, and then she cleans up. It’s not the most 21st-century of partnerships, but she takes care of everything in the house, and I go to work. It works for us, so don’t judge until you take a few minutes to think about how really fair the arrangement is. Suzy doesn’t work outside the home unless she wants to do a show. So her job is to keep the house. I go to work, and pick up a fair amount of work on the side, and in exchange for that I don’t have to clean up shit around the house.
Until my wife gets sick and can’t clean up. So now I’m living like most of my friends do – working a full-time job and cleaning house when I get home each night. And let me tell you, this shit gets old fast. Tonight I have a Honey-do list half a page long just to stay on top of things, and if Bonnie hadn’t stayed with us last weekend I don’t think it would have been possible at all. Having someone to do laundry while I was doing dishes let me get ahead, and I’ve managed to (barely) stay there. So my writing time is pretty limited, because when I get home I’m dealing with feeding the two of us, then cleaning up after dinner, then laundry, then at some point I need to make a run to Target to refill a prescription and pick up a couple of things, then maybe late tonight I can sit still long enough to scribble a little. And I understand that this is how single people, or people with working spouses, live all the time, so I’m not asking for sympathy. It’s just an adjustment for me, and I figure that about the time I get used to this, she’ll be healthy again and things will start to get back to normal.
In unrelated news, check out Jessie Carty’s blog for my video of Gingham, which is available in Returning the Favor. I’ve pretty much decided to wait until I sell down to about 10 copies, then order another 30 copies. They come packaged in 15-copy units, so that just seems to make sense to me. Unless there’s another monthly deal at Lulu that makes it more reasonable to buy more copies. But nothing right now, because I don’t have anything in the immediate future that will put me in a position to sell many copies, and I don’t need to have them sitting on the shelf.
Also, Red Dirt Review submissions are open until Monday, so send me an email with some good stuff in there. Bam Bam and Dr. Chako will both be featured in this inaugural issue, so join the cool kids!
Seems like that’s what adulthood (ick) is all about, right? Questions that you don’t really have an answer for. At least, that’s what a blog is for, anyway. So my current conundrum is book copies. I have 25 copies left of the original print run of Returning the Favor, which I’m pretty happy about. I’ve given a bunch away as Christmas gifts, given a few away in trade at book shows, and sold enough to recoup about 75% of the total printing and ISBN registration costs. I have one reading scheduled for April, and not a lot else in the way of readings coming up. Since I don’t sell more than five or so copies of the book per reading, I think I’m good for a while, but I don’t know how many copies I should keep on hand. What do you guys think? Does anybody out there have any idea how many copies of a book I should keep around? Lulu does a pretty good job of filling orders quickly, so it’s not like I can’t go out and get more with two weeks’ notice.
And while you’re giving me the benefit of your countless wisdom, my poem Deployed has been published over at Camroc Press Review. Check it out. The whole publishing thing is kinda funny. When I first started this escapade, I vaguely dreamed that if I could write one poem per week and maybe in my wildest dreams get one published each month, then I’d have 52 poems and 12 publications under my belt at the end of a year. So far this year I’ve had four poems accepted in the first five weeks of the year, and I’ve churned out way more than one poem per week. So I’m really happy with how that’s going, now I need to see where, if anywhere, it takes me.
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