Confessions of a lapsed but rededicated practicer

 At the Joni Mitchell song night at a local poetry venue I played Carey and He Played Real Good For Free, and one of my own songs: Love Makes You Free.

The following night I went to the Hideaway Cafe which by the way GAVE AWAY CHOCOLATE COOKIE SAMPLES.  Mickel Rae Driscoll who runs the open mic kindly asked if I was wanting to play.  I was having nervous night and dreaded the idea, but as a discipline I went up anyway. I did Carey this time from memory and  Love Makes You Free which I feel confident about and that went well I thought.

Anyway, back to my epiphany --- the acts I enjoyed the most, not only had authenticity but a very connected rhythmic structure. I knew right then, I had to go home and break out my metronome and get to work on smoothing out my guitar work and coordinating it with the voice. No more sliding by on this, because lack of preparedness makes me nervous!

Earthquake? Tree Sculptures?

I was minding my own business yesterday, sitting at my desk/worktable dabbing a brush at a painting. And I heard this rattle. First I yelled at the cat. Then I thought there must be a large squirrel or two in the attic. Then I noticed the desk itself was in motion and I looked over at the back of my computer stand and the cords were swaying as if a strong wind was blowing past them.... I was sure a huge truck must be backing slowly in to the house without realizing it, so I ran outside to stop them before they knocked it off the foundation.

 It was a beautiful bright day. The mailman was talking special delivery with the neighbors, no trucks in sight anywhere. "Did you notice anything odd, just now," I asked. "I think I heard a large truck go by," the mailman said, handing me the mail as he does everyday.  hmmm. Of course, an earthquake (5.9 on the Richter Scale) had occurred just then, its epi-center in Mineral, VA. Today, I asked him, "How bout that large truck we heard yesterday?" He just laughed. "And to think it came all the way from Virginia!" he said. You just never know.

The photo shows a giant tree-trunk sculpture called Smoke Jumper by Joseph Wheelwright which stands outside of the Katonah Museum of Art. Mr. Wheelwright does amazing things with natural materials. Somehow this giant "ent-like" tree man looks like the earth shifted under his feet, and he has momentarily lost his footing.  (Though as a smoke jumper, maybe he is walking between the flames or just touching down to earth.  Still, he's perfect for an all natural earthquake post.) Five of these giants will remain on display at the museum until May of 2012. Remember the Ents? They were tree people from the Lord of the Rings. Anyway be sure to visit Joe Wheelwright's website and check out his amazing work. (http://joewheelwright.com)

Just back from the National Poetry Slam in Cambridge, MA

  What a great week at the National Poetry Slam which was in Cambridge/Boston this year. I heard some fine performances, brought home interesting points of view to ponder and a slew of photos of the architecture on the MIT campus.

  Congratulations to Slam Nuba from Denver, the winning team in the finals. And thank you PSI for all the unsung work you do. And thank you Zork & Sweetie (of Bed vLog fame) and Jonathan Harris, my teammates at nationals, for making this wonderful field trip happen!!!

  Though I have dabbled in performance poetry for many years, even being an alternate ten years ago, this is the first time I have actually gone to the National Slam as a competing poet.

  Slammers are a crazy weird and wonderful family really. As an old grandma type, they were very kind to me. I like the tee-shirt design this year too.

For poems, I did Alternate Theories on Wednesday night at the Democracy Center, and Blood Brothers, an old saw from my 1998 chapbook Inverse Origami on Thursday night at the Cantab. I am glad to be back - I missed Henry Cort, my guitar. It was all poetry this week, and for logistical reasons Henry stayed at home.

Open mics - two fabulous acoustic venues

1) Michel Rae Driscoll, a wonderful warm, country singer-songwriter, runs a Thursday open mic at the Hideaway Cafe in Newtown. There were quite a few folks I knew there. Every one was very supportive. On July 14, I only played one song. It went over way better than I had expected.

2) Chris Elliot, an accomplished singer-songwriter and guitarist with a great voice, runs Tuesday Night Open Mic, a great open mic at 59 Bank Street, in New Milford. I had more callouss by this time (July 19) so I played two songs.  Everyone was so supportive. I always do better than I think I am going to. (I found out later I won the open mic gift certificate. a nice surprise)

Every time I stop playing for a while it feels like I have forgotten everything. I didn't even have callouses when I started up again in the beginning of the month. Though I feel I have forgotten, I haven't. And though I seem to dread the act of performing now, once I start, I just enjoy it so much, and I get such great comments.

In the old days, my forte as a singer-songwriter had been putting emotion and eccentric personality in the music. I used to be very  comfortable and confident. I knew I had meaningful tales to share and people seemed to really get something out of it.

But in classical singing, technique is king.  You are conforming to an ideal of interpretation in a long line of those that came before you and you are always being judged against this ideal.

Anyway I ended up with 15 years of singer-songwriting confidence drained out of me, by my decade in classical just by being out there and working professionally in a highly politicized arena where all participants and much of the audience is constantly judging, holding to some mythical perfection. Acoustic/Folk Open mics are different. You offer a song, sing it with heart and it is appreciated for what it is, no matter how old or odd you are.

I've gone back to my first performance art, and I'm loving it.

Do you drive with a phone in your hand? STOP IT!

I was followed today by a large man in LARGE silver Ford Truck - the kind that sits way up high - a 150 or something like that. And he had a phone in his right hand and was clearly thumb typing as he drove. Frankly I was terrified. I have twice been rear-ended - once by  a huge red pickup and once by a guy hurtling along around 40mph in a magenta jeep, while talking on his phone. IF you drive with a phone in hand ask yourself - is this message so important that it's worth a life? OR worth a life of pain for someone ELSE, after getting serious neck injury when you hit them????  Or worth a huge lawsuit and losing your license?   Frankly there is NO MESSAGE THAT IS THAT IMPORTANT. So put down your damn phone and drive.

Paintings: Spacious No 1 & 2

Though I have put up Spacious No 3 - I had not written about Spacious 1 & 2 yet. With the caveat that the color is a little off in these photos, here they are:

--- Spacious No. 1 ---

....

--- Spacious No. 2 ---

Both of the these paintings had more garish beginnings than is apparent here.  They both hung for years in the house before I finally knew what to do with them...  Spacious No 1 on the left, had green and purple clouds that looked for all the world like intestines. And that is what bothered me about it.  Spacious No 2 had a garish sunset, and I do mean garish.  Ultimately I went for a sense of spaciousness over jumpy colors that I didn't think worked well.....

The link to a post on Spacious No 3: http://puzzleddragon.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/painting-spacious-no-3/

In era of caller-ID, are phone polls valid?

In our house, we don't pickup calls that say "Political Call" "Unknown caller"  "no name" or any variant of customer, services, marketing or anything that isn't someone's name or a company we know is local.

We do not pick up, so our opinion is never counted in the know-it-all polls from Quinipiac and other groups who officiously announce what Connecticut Voters want. 

I am guessing the era of caller ID we are not alone in this foible. Frankly no one that I know picks up the phone unless they know who is on the other end.  I think it's just a handful of the foolish and/or technically challenged  who actually answer pollsters' calls.

I wonder if  the polls are often wrong - I mean how would we know?. Of course would equal numbers of opposing view holders exist in the group that refuses to pickup or in the group that consistently answers?  I think it is possible that the people MOST likely to vote are LEAST likely to pickup calls from unknown groups, and are also most unlikely to answer questions strangers pose, if they did pick up!  SO - In the era of  caller ID and cell phones -  is the classic telephone  opinion poll  an acurrate measure of public opinion?

And I am so sick of hearing politicians proclaim that this or that is not what "The American People" want. As if we were all alike. As if they really knew -

Governor Malloy, you are doing a great job. Thank you. Glad I voted for you.