Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
SMYRC and flirt
The SMYRC show was so amazing, there’s something about performing for a group of queer youth in a space dedicated to their support and community that made it so healing for me, having lacked that support as a youth myself. JDX, Meg Day and Annah. all rocked the house as per usual. I feel so honored and amazed to share the stage with folx who inspire and rock me down to my socks every time. Really hope to perform in that space again and Portland just gave us so much love. I'd like to come up here and just chill for a week sometime and get to know the city a little better. Also there's a whole lotta hotness - physical, mental and political - in this city that I wouldn't mind gettin' to know better.
And since I brought it up one thing that was learned tonight is that while we may be fabulous poets/writers/performers/artists/singers we are quite the hazy group when it comes to people flirting with us. Okay maybe I should claim that and say “I” instead of “We” but #1 we’re a collective so I think my faults should be our faults and #2 I don’t think I’m the only one in this collective who has this problem but I've been told to own my issues so "I" was flirted with by this really cute person at the show tonight and didn't realize it until later.
Remember folks, direct is best. I.E. 'Hey wanna come back to my place so i can slam you against the wall?' or "Hey wanna make out?' Either one, or any in between.
Gotta be up in 6 hours to start the road trip back to the Bay so I'm gonna sign off. Can't wait for the show at La Pena on the 24th. If you don't know about it you better ask somebody...or y'know look in the sidebar of this blog, either way.
xoxo
Na'amen
And since I brought it up one thing that was learned tonight is that while we may be fabulous poets/writers/performers/artists/singers we are quite the hazy group when it comes to people flirting with us. Okay maybe I should claim that and say “I” instead of “We” but #1 we’re a collective so I think my faults should be our faults and #2 I don’t think I’m the only one in this collective who has this problem but I've been told to own my issues so "I" was flirted with by this really cute person at the show tonight and didn't realize it until later.
Remember folks, direct is best. I.E. 'Hey wanna come back to my place so i can slam you against the wall?' or "Hey wanna make out?' Either one, or any in between.
Gotta be up in 6 hours to start the road trip back to the Bay so I'm gonna sign off. Can't wait for the show at La Pena on the 24th. If you don't know about it you better ask somebody...or y'know look in the sidebar of this blog, either way.
xoxo
Na'amen
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
portland is sunnier at night
hello, blog. hello, world.
it's afternoon in portland now, and the weather has turned coffin-like. it's like the tan i was so grateful for in vitamin-d-abundant hawaii has been literally sucked off my skin like the sanderson sisters sucking the life out of children from flying vacuum cleaners in Hocus Pocus. oh, bette midler. oh, depression.
last night's show was pretty great. i felt really off for most of the night & i still haven't quite figured out what triggered that, but after a full night's sleep & my first shower in five days (isn't touring sexy?), i feel pretty good about everything. except the weather. i'm not going to get over it, friends, it's just fucking depressing to be alive here. i can't handle it. everything is the color of the sidewalk.
back to the show. jdx totally turned folks out last night! she opened the show with her incredible monologue & really set the energy. we had a great turnout - i was totally surprised - and hecka folks came through! filled up all the chairs! sat on the floor! loved up on In Other Words!
then annah pulled everybody close with her fucking amazing music -- followed shortly by a local poet powerhouse, Franciszka Fierce, who totally blew me away with her deconstructionist lyric & almost-poetry-voice-but-not-quite-so-it-was-super-sexy cadence. it was really hot to see a page poet own the stage like that & i really wish everybody in oakland could see her perform (maybe you can? youtube? i know she has a blog, Detail Collector, google it) so that there were some fresh ideas of how to really inhabit a space fully without the gimick or gusto that "spoken word" often brings. yo mills poets, this means you. us.
naamen followed me & totally charmed everybody! omg! i was kinda sitting in the audience parta the time so that i could take photos of folks & the people behind me were all freakin in love with him every time he came up!
the goosebump part of the night for me was finally collabbing with annah on our dead mom sonnets thing. haunting & great & really vulnerable shit happened & i don't really remember most of it. thankfully annah has a recording in case i never get the guts to do it again :)
that said, i had hecka UCSD people come out last night! can you believe that? ok, by hecka i really mean two, but that's pretty hecka for a city that isn't san diego. i love those folks! ali came out & so did kate, which was so kickass. afterwards they took us to dinner in this old repurposed elementary school (restaurant, bars, movie theaters & community pool, all in an old elementary school) -- SO COOL. it was great to sit with folks and hear about portland & what folks have started doing since college. annah tried to pry dirt out of them, but there's admittedly not a whole lot to unearth -- after 12 hours of "Secrets Don't Make Friends," what could you possibly want to know?
naamen, jdx & i stayed with kate last night - so sweet of her & her sweetie kit! - and had, hands-down, the best sleep of the tour thus far. well, maybe seconded only by the comfy bed at the Klick, but still. that couch was killer-comfy. thank god for kate & her generosity.
her cat, beatrix, however, is another matter :) evil kitty!
this morning we woke up late, thank god, and were thrilled to finally be able to take showers. so jdx goes into the bathroom and comes out after turning the water on and off a few times & says "This is really embarassing, but i can't figure out how to turn the shower on." so naamen gets up & goes in teh bathroom & i hear the water go on and off a few more times. then they both come out. "meg, you wanna give it a try?" so i climbed out of my sleeping bag & put on pants & shuffled to the bathroom. i couldn't figure it out either. wtf! eventually we found the pull-thing to make the bath into a shower, but damn, talk about a humbling moment for some grad students.
at red & black cafe now, having a laptop orgy over vegan bagels with tempeh bacon & tufrutti cream cheese. delish! they have kombucha on tap here & we all screamed aunti kiala's name when we saw it :)
missing you all dearly, but super excited about tonight's benefit show at SMYRC! headed home tomorrow, can't wait to reunite myself with the sun. xoxo
it's afternoon in portland now, and the weather has turned coffin-like. it's like the tan i was so grateful for in vitamin-d-abundant hawaii has been literally sucked off my skin like the sanderson sisters sucking the life out of children from flying vacuum cleaners in Hocus Pocus. oh, bette midler. oh, depression.
last night's show was pretty great. i felt really off for most of the night & i still haven't quite figured out what triggered that, but after a full night's sleep & my first shower in five days (isn't touring sexy?), i feel pretty good about everything. except the weather. i'm not going to get over it, friends, it's just fucking depressing to be alive here. i can't handle it. everything is the color of the sidewalk.
back to the show. jdx totally turned folks out last night! she opened the show with her incredible monologue & really set the energy. we had a great turnout - i was totally surprised - and hecka folks came through! filled up all the chairs! sat on the floor! loved up on In Other Words!
then annah pulled everybody close with her fucking amazing music -- followed shortly by a local poet powerhouse, Franciszka Fierce, who totally blew me away with her deconstructionist lyric & almost-poetry-voice-but-not-quite-so-it-was-super-sexy cadence. it was really hot to see a page poet own the stage like that & i really wish everybody in oakland could see her perform (maybe you can? youtube? i know she has a blog, Detail Collector, google it) so that there were some fresh ideas of how to really inhabit a space fully without the gimick or gusto that "spoken word" often brings. yo mills poets, this means you. us.
naamen followed me & totally charmed everybody! omg! i was kinda sitting in the audience parta the time so that i could take photos of folks & the people behind me were all freakin in love with him every time he came up!
the goosebump part of the night for me was finally collabbing with annah on our dead mom sonnets thing. haunting & great & really vulnerable shit happened & i don't really remember most of it. thankfully annah has a recording in case i never get the guts to do it again :)
that said, i had hecka UCSD people come out last night! can you believe that? ok, by hecka i really mean two, but that's pretty hecka for a city that isn't san diego. i love those folks! ali came out & so did kate, which was so kickass. afterwards they took us to dinner in this old repurposed elementary school (restaurant, bars, movie theaters & community pool, all in an old elementary school) -- SO COOL. it was great to sit with folks and hear about portland & what folks have started doing since college. annah tried to pry dirt out of them, but there's admittedly not a whole lot to unearth -- after 12 hours of "Secrets Don't Make Friends," what could you possibly want to know?
naamen, jdx & i stayed with kate last night - so sweet of her & her sweetie kit! - and had, hands-down, the best sleep of the tour thus far. well, maybe seconded only by the comfy bed at the Klick, but still. that couch was killer-comfy. thank god for kate & her generosity.
her cat, beatrix, however, is another matter :) evil kitty!
this morning we woke up late, thank god, and were thrilled to finally be able to take showers. so jdx goes into the bathroom and comes out after turning the water on and off a few times & says "This is really embarassing, but i can't figure out how to turn the shower on." so naamen gets up & goes in teh bathroom & i hear the water go on and off a few more times. then they both come out. "meg, you wanna give it a try?" so i climbed out of my sleeping bag & put on pants & shuffled to the bathroom. i couldn't figure it out either. wtf! eventually we found the pull-thing to make the bath into a shower, but damn, talk about a humbling moment for some grad students.
at red & black cafe now, having a laptop orgy over vegan bagels with tempeh bacon & tufrutti cream cheese. delish! they have kombucha on tap here & we all screamed aunti kiala's name when we saw it :)
missing you all dearly, but super excited about tonight's benefit show at SMYRC! headed home tomorrow, can't wait to reunite myself with the sun. xoxo
Marry Me Portland! And I'll Totes Have Your Babies!!!!
I know that the fantastic half-octopus/half-umbrella poet Meg Day does not like Portlandia but I'm kinda stoked, then again I like the cold and the grey deep in my cold, shriveled heart. I was totally on the hyper-crazy-annoying-nervous tip for most of yesterday because I was freaking out over the show. I eventually left Meg Day and JDX there doing actual work and wandered around the city of Portland for half an hour in the grey wind and that helped calm my nerves pretty well.
Then we got to the bookstore and I began to freak out even more. The space though was so f-ing amazing! It reminds me of A Room of Ones Own in Madison, WI the only other feminist bookstore I've been to. Now I want to start one in the Bay because I think it's so ridiculous that we don't have one. The space was so fantastic, just the ambient political energy that was there calmed the recurrence of stomach butterflies somewhat and Annah's tincture helped even more.
Once the performance was going I still felt jumpy but it started to transmute into this great anticipation after seeing the fantastic energy of MegDay, Annah., JDX & Franciszka Fierce. The audience seemed super into it and gave us amazing support.
Interruption! @ The Red & Black Cafe
JDX - Is pollinate me about what I think it's about?
Annah. - *nods*
MegDay - Wait. What's "pollinate me" mean?
Everyone - *silence*
MegDay - What's "pollinate me" mean?
JDX - *taking off her glasses and placing the tip between her lips* I could show you Meg Day.
Now back to the regularly scheduled blog post.
The last thing I have to say is that the danger of performing with such powerful, earth-shaking, genital-quivering (you can see that JDX's...unique take on language is spreading, in fact we're all picking up vernacular and tone from each other) artists such the one's I'm touring with is that you start to pick up their performance rhythm so there was a point last night when I was performing my pieces in total Meg Day voice.
Then it was off to the Kennedy School for garden burgers and tater tots, a late night trip for allergy medication (the place we stayed had a cat, JDX is allergic to pussy - she made me keep this in the blog post) then we slept while trying to keep Beatrix the witch-cat from eating us alive.
lates,
Na'amen
Then we got to the bookstore and I began to freak out even more. The space though was so f-ing amazing! It reminds me of A Room of Ones Own in Madison, WI the only other feminist bookstore I've been to. Now I want to start one in the Bay because I think it's so ridiculous that we don't have one. The space was so fantastic, just the ambient political energy that was there calmed the recurrence of stomach butterflies somewhat and Annah's tincture helped even more.
Once the performance was going I still felt jumpy but it started to transmute into this great anticipation after seeing the fantastic energy of MegDay, Annah., JDX & Franciszka Fierce. The audience seemed super into it and gave us amazing support.
Interruption! @ The Red & Black Cafe
JDX - Is pollinate me about what I think it's about?
Annah. - *nods*
MegDay - Wait. What's "pollinate me" mean?
Everyone - *silence*
MegDay - What's "pollinate me" mean?
JDX - *taking off her glasses and placing the tip between her lips* I could show you Meg Day.
Now back to the regularly scheduled blog post.
The last thing I have to say is that the danger of performing with such powerful, earth-shaking, genital-quivering (you can see that JDX's...unique take on language is spreading, in fact we're all picking up vernacular and tone from each other) artists such the one's I'm touring with is that you start to pick up their performance rhythm so there was a point last night when I was performing my pieces in total Meg Day voice.
Then it was off to the Kennedy School for garden burgers and tater tots, a late night trip for allergy medication (the place we stayed had a cat, JDX is allergic to pussy - she made me keep this in the blog post) then we slept while trying to keep Beatrix the witch-cat from eating us alive.
lates,
Na'amen
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
& for the record
naamen never licked my neck in that bar in klickitat.
that was jdx trying to lick the bartender's neck. xo
that was jdx trying to lick the bartender's neck. xo
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
