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Poetry Slam - Moved Indoors
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
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On Sunday, the Poetry Slam, moved indoors, into the old used bookstore on Baker, the room is full. I'm late and so have to sit close to the front beside an older hippy. Carpet Vest guy isn't here, perhaps it's too far from his home under the bridge, or, as likely he's picked up with winter approaching and found himself better digs.
The standard readers, with an emphasis tonight on the older readers. Beside me the older hippy gets on the sign-up sheet, he'll be reading, not poetry, but a chapter from his upcoming book on his life in a commune...
When he gets up and begins reading it's clear it's not what should be read here, much like an agricultural report or dry biographical details of someone you have no interest in whatsoever. He's reading to us from Chapter 73 of his untitled Opus, in which he details the commune experience, "100 elders and 200 children, we worked 3 days on, 3 days off, except for the summer solstice....we talked about the Vedas and the Upanishads...we took turns minding the children..."
After about 5 minutes the host/mediator gently tries to cut him off...it's only supposed to be 3 minutes. "Almost done..." he barks, he's got to get this read....after another minute the bell rings, and he barks again "I'M NOT DONE YET!" as if he's paid for the time, and then, swearing at the hostess, the audience in general, he's lost his temper and he's as much swearing at himself for tipping his hand, all of this, and he storms out of the crowded bookstore. Your classic bad sport, your older hippie-asshole who's mastered the theory of some spiritual practice or another, but not the application, and if this reading was intended to reach or convert any new disciples it failed miserably. His was a heartfelt entitlement and arrogance, the first example I've seen at one of these readings.
It will be an interesting winter...
Haruki Murakami - First Person Singular
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
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I liked this, he's an easy style of telling you stories that "happened to him", "First Person Singular", easy to read, and always with a little twist.
Chuck Palahniuk - Rant
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
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I'm not a fan, particularly, of his style of writing, and this took a bit of getting into, but there's some intriguing ideas in it well tied together. He's a feverish imagination, and he grooms you to accept his fantastical narrative by providing you numerous rabbit holes (conspiracies, forteana, etc) to research and verify first.
I can see why he has a cult following. Good.
The Dentist
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
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I'd almost forgotten, missed it, but - an appointment with the dentist. A cleaning, long, long overdue.
How bad can it be, given everything else I've been through?
Pretty fucking bad. 2 Hours in the chair, alternately clutching my fists, the water jets, high pitched whine, vibration, not so much pain as immense discomfort. Little flashes of pain, where the water travels up a nerve or hits something just right. After an hour of this I'm done, but she isn't. Now for the manual tooth-scraping of plaque, build-up, tarter, and this for another hour, and I'm so done, past done, it's exhausting this, hours of edge-of-your seat discomfort, brightened only by the "I knew it" flashes of pain, fucking hell, she's battling every surviving tooth in my mouth. At the two-hour mark my time is up, she estimates another hour to go - fucking bloody hell, then brightly suggests an appointment the next day - and it's "NONONO", I need fucking time to recover, go home, watch "Marathon Man" and "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Brazil", realize how lucky I have it, only, only, I'm not feeling so lucky...
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