So Much To Say...

...and not nearly enough time to say any of it. I think this calls for some random observations....

1) 28 Days Later was one of the stupidest movies I have ever seen. I was watching it the other day with Juan and couldn't manage to shut my mouth for more than thirty seconds at a time. First off, what was motivating these pseudo-zombies to infect other people? In most zombie movies, it's a need to feed on humans....but these zombies didn't do that. In fact, the goal for the survivors was to wait until the zombie-things starved, which didn't make any sense at all. If they don't eat humans, couldn't they have just walked into a supermarket and nuked a hot-pocket like any normal person would?

And how the hell did every other person in all of England manage to get infected blood into their bodies? What, were they mixing the shit into Kool-Aid?!?! And then, motherfucka, in the first scene in the movie, gets covered in blood, is stepping all over glass with bare-feet and nothing happens to him.

And when it comes to finding a safe place to hide, where do they go?....a convenience store! What?!?! Is this the best you could do, hole up in a convenience store with nothing but baseball bats for weapons. How about going to the armory? I mean, I realize this is England, and there aren't too many guns floating around....but at the very least you could pick up a chainsaw, or a garden weasel, or....I don't know...SOMETHING OTHER THAN A BASEBALL BAT!!!

And the worst part of the movie, aside from the fact that it made NO FUCKING SENSE WHATSOEVER, were the lame-ass, ultra-pretentious wannabe-artsy scenes of these post-apocalyptic mofos frolicking in fields of daisies and poppies and shit! What the hell was that?!?! And how did the zombies attack people? Eating Flesh? Nope. Ripping them limb from limb? Nope. They just hopped on people all twitchy-like and started slapping them! What the hell was that all about? Is that all it took to be cast in the role of a zombie....

Director: "okay, so what we need you to do is run around all twitchy-like and when you catch them, just thrash around and slap them.

Potential Twitchy Wussy Zombie: "Ummmm, you want me to slap people? Ummm....maybe I'm not understanding this? Is this supposed to be a comedy?

Director: "No."

PTWZ: "Am I a gay Zombie?"

Etc, Etc, Etc...

....Okay, I need to stop, I could go on with this forever...I didn't mind the movie....I'm not saying that it didn't totally suck, but being able to make fun of it for two hours almost made the whole thing worthwhile....There...Rant Completed....

2)I went to Louder Than Words last night, which really was fun. I hadn't realized how long it had been since I actually hung out with more than one or two friends at a time. RAC and Keith Roach were the special guests, and it felt like some punches were definitely being pulled. Last night, when I was sitting there watching the show, I realized that Louder Than Words is basically just a more formal version of what usually goes on at Acentos after everyone leaves and just a handful of us are left over. We all sit around Guy, and he'll just do his thing....running down the whole history of the scene and hashing it all its major debates. And the thing that I was thinking last night was this: Slam succeeded in drawing an audience to poetry because it focused on accessibility and made poetry something relavant and germane to people's lives. The problem was when poets started writing specifically to pander to that kind of sensibility. Just drawing in the audience became an end in itself, and those lofty ideals that supposedly justified the slam were eventually thrown to the dumpster like trash (and this assumes that those ideals ever existed in the first place).

The thing that I was wondering last night was whether something like Louder Than Words can appeal to anyone outside of the most grizzled vets and poetry dorks of the scene. I think that the concept is great, but I feel like it needs more of a gimmick to work....something to get people to fill the seats. Whether that would involve some form of competition, facilitating greater audience interaction, or just advertising LTW as a forum for group orgies is a question better left to Guy and the folks who organize the series. Based on the turn-out, I feel like something has to change in order to allow Guy to do what he wants to do with this project. Bassey and Omar are joining LTW, so it'll be interesting to see how they influence the show in the coming months.

Afterwards, I wandered down to the Spring Lounge with Eric and Diane, and met up with Oscar, Juan, Eliel, Roger, Marty, Lynne, Abena, Jayme, Danny, assorted drunken Irishmen, and other people whose presence alcohol has completely managed to erase from my memory. It was nice to get to talk to Marty, and Abena, and Jayme. At readings you never really get the opportunity to have in depth conversations, just little thirty second sound bites between poems...not nearly enough time to have any real substantial conversations. I feel a little more inspired after last night, and I'm trying to write some new stuff more my feature at Bar 13 next Monday. I spent the day today walking around Brooklyn, taking pictures, and writing poems. I'm trying to put together some ideas for a new series of Brooklyn Poems...possibly a multi-media project involving photographs and poems that those photographs have managed to inspire. Ain't nothing like summertime in New York to get the creative juices flowing....

3)There's been some crazy drama in my life lately...some of it seemingly out of left field. It's amazing how the most innocent gesture can be construed as something completely different from what you intend it as when someone already has a preconceive notion of what they think you're all about. For as long as I've dealt with drama, I still don't understand not confronting someone if you have a problem with them. The alternative is just sitting on those feelings and having them come out at the most inappropriate of times. If I ever have a problem with someone, rest assured that you'll be put on notice with a quickness. Beyond preventing future drama and keeping simple differences from escalating into major schisms, I think that you have a responsibility to anyone that you would refer to as a friend to let them know if they're pissing you off. If you don't do that, how can you ever expect them to know that they're doing something that might jeopardize the friendship. You can blame someone for failing to live up to your standards for friendship, but if you never give that person the opportunity to mend their ways then, regardless of how fucked up their behavior may have been, it was you who gave up on the friendship...

4) My mom is such a rebel! Apparently she's decided that she's going to find a way to stay for my feature. I'd write more, but you never know how many spies they have at the school board whose job it is to monitor my blog, in the event that my mother tries to (gasp) take a day off from work. So moms and pops should be in the house Monday night.....figuratively and literally....apparently they're going to need to crash at my place that night. Will moms and pops be persuaded to hit up Res after the feature? C'mon out Monday night to Bar 13 to find out!

5)I got my cable hooked up the other day, and for someone who's never had digital cable, can I just say that there are waaaaay too many channels on TV....and I don't even get the premium channels. By the time I go through all of the options and narrow the list of things I wouldn't mind watching to 2 or 3 an hour has already gone by and I end up having to go through the list all over again. I've already spent hours at a time just sorting through the channel guide....I think I'm just gonna start leaving the TV on channel 51....the E Network.....or, as I like to call it...."Poor Man's Porn." Seriously, that channel has more T and A than the champagne room at a Bill Clinton fundraiser. While she's been a crush of mine for a while, I'll say right here that I would spend the rest of my life as Brooke Burke's all-purpose man servant if the opportunity presented itself. My Crush of the decade: Brooke Burke . She, in my opinion, is quite possibly the most beautiful woman in the world. The prototype for my perfect woman....just check the link...she's so beautiful it hurts to look at her. Digital cable will be my undoing. When they indict me for attempting to assassinate the president, rest assured that my steadfast response will be that Brooke Burke told me to do it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.....

6) This is completely surreal for me....I apologize for the self-indulgence...Check me out!....right betwen Beau Sia and Hal Sirowitz on the index....somebody pinch me!....LOL

7)Ummm...there is no number seven...the pictures of Brooke have rendered me speechless...MCS