Open Mic Host Chris Ellis has NEW Venue at RIVER BISTRO

Chris Ellis who hosted the fabulously popular Open Mic at 59 Bank Street - has moved his operation to THURSDAY nights at the River Bistro (next to Boardman Bridge on Route 7 a couple miles north of Big Y) in New Milford.

He's teamed up with a co-host Al Burgasser and the whole thing runs very smoothly, from 7-11pm. It started June 5th, and is acquiring a broad following of talented, skilled musicians and even a few poets! Prepare to tap your feet and smile!!! If you are a player come out and be heard. It's a supportive listening musical community that makes you feel welcome. It's a great place to try out your new songs.

 At the Bistro, you can get a drink or a great meal or both. Personally I like a small salad with their home-brewed coffee. (The Oreo Cookie Pie looks pretty appealing though!)

*** Feel free to "like" the event's  Facebook page  if you are a FBKer.  Or just visit the brand new website Chris is building at http://www.thursdayopenmic.com/  ***

The view of the river from the River Bistro parking lot. NICE!

i'm on an Open Mic binge

Things changed a bit at home and I am on a binge of getting out hearing live music and open mic singing! Yay! Before this I was on a binge of staying home and watching reruns. The change was brought about because my caree's meds were rescheduled while she was briefly in a rehab facility recently. She is doing well on the new regime! Partly I am spurred by the thought that things could change again at any time and I should get up and get out while I can...Also in the extremes of cold and heat I am less inclined to venure out. So while conditions and weather are favorable - I have been checking out various open mics -

• the Tuesday Open Mic at the Hideaway Kitchen Bar in Ridgefield hosted by Fred Ball, 
• the brand new Thursday Open Mic at River Bistro hosted by Chris Ellis (former of Tuesday Open Mic at 59 Bank), 
• the open mic at the new Town Crier in Beacon NY hosted by Don Lowe, and the 
• Wednesday Night open mic at the All-American Valley General Store (not sure of the hosts name) in Seymour.

People have been so kind! Great audiences and some fantastic music.

I've also heard recent and wonderful performances by Don Lowe at the "Grovin' in New Fairfield" series,

Shannon McMahn at Kolekolo World Coffee in Middletown,

 Two Dollar Hat at Vivo in Danbury,

and of course the wonderous Pears at Fast Eddies in New Milford. No photo for that. Sorry.

Poet Guss Stepp

I've been thinking about Poet Guss Stepp who died in 2007. I always have wondered how his name came to be spelled that way, but I guess I am never going to know that now. I didn't know him well but admired his work. He always had a great smile and something engaging to read at his featured readings and at open mics. He sent poems to me when I was editor of Bent Pin Quarterly and subsequently died before he could see his work online in Bent Pin. Today I thought I would collect and offer some links.

Guss Stepp on Wednesday Night Poetry's archive:

http://wedpoetrypast.wordpress.com/tag/guss-stepp/

Guss Stepp passing noted on Stamford Writes:

http://www.stamfordwrites.org/tw/tiki-view_articles.php?find=&topic=&type=&offset=30&sort_mode=publishDate_desc

Guss Stepp's work in Bent Pin Quarterly:

        1)  Existance

        2) The Blues is

        3) Looking For Vincient

        4) The Ghosts Of Halloween

More numerous indeed...

Just stopping by with a brief post, and tipping my metaphorical hat to this blog that I have been ignoring for a while now....    In the last year I have found many near at a hand who are closet unbelievers... May we all raise our hands and be counted....

Seeing beauty in the universe

This is a video I particularly liked from YouTube, though as a naturalist I might quibble with the term spirituality. I take that to mean that feeling of being in the moment, a part of,  feeling in unison with what is around you. If you click through and watch this on YouTube itself, you can read the text the videographer has put up alongside it.

Don Lowe - Singer Songwriter - Brand New Cadillac

Another song I am liking a lot these days

 

Pigeon holes and Platitudes

People love platitudes. I'm fond of a few myself. Just check the memes floating around Facebook and other social networks. Platitudes and pigeonholes make us relax. Reality, not so much.

In general people prefer that disturbing realities fold their wings neatly, then duck politely into a sturdy square box with a lid, out of sight - a box that keeps its contents in check - so things can't pop out and flop around in plain sight. Otherwise people might start questioning their faith in a happy world where a good-guy god reigns and where everyone who needs soon has.

We reach for platitudes for comfort.. Nonsense like: "Everything happens for a reason. Everything works out for the best."  Tell that to an antelope being torn apart by hyenas. The messy truth is this: the living world runs on death. Hamburgers, salmon steak and chicken wings have all been ripped untimely from beasts who weren't through with them yet. Don't let the grocery store's neat Styrofoam trays and pristine shrink wrap fool you. Life eats other life in order to continue. Purportedly this is the invention of a gentle loving god.

People too end in unseemly ways. They get blown up, burnt to cinders, have limbs severed, are mangled inside car wrecks,  beaten to death, starve in slow bony collapse, ache with suicidal despair, have their bleeding guts poured out on indifferent ground before laughing witnesses.

It's just easier for the more comfortable branches of the human race not to think about it much. We stuff this information into a little square pigeonhole and we paste a few decorator platitudes on top of it.

This enables us to buy expensive designer sneakers and iPhones for our kids without guilt. It enables us to live as extravagantly as possible believing we deserve it all, or to happily enjoy whatever small pleasures we can find while rationalizing away the world's ubiquitous cruelty and inequity.

This philosophical slight of hand makes it possible to have lunch once in a while. And after all, if you have lunch - you might as well savor every bite....

Bon appetite.

-- Mad Mar (Mistryel) Walker
originally written April 9, 2002 & updated in 2013.