Mar
13
2008
Linkage Mar 13 2008
A few interesting links that I’ve stumbled across lately.
- Confessions of an Open Mic Host. My latest article for SEE Magazine, detailing some fond and not too fond memories from my years behind the mic. Oh, and before I forget, here’s the last one I did (which I didn’t link to previously): Pizza, Martinis And Chai, Oh My!
- All Glory to the Hypnotoad! Yes! Supreme glory to the hypnotoad! For all you Futurama freaks out there.
- Hollywood Elsewhere: The Didn’t See ‘Em Factor Great rant about seeing movies and, more importantly, not seeing them.
- Widescreen, High Resolution Wallpaper (Free). A magnificent source for super-high quality wallpapers.
- A List Apart: On Creativity. Fantastic piece by Andy Rutledge on creativity and what it is and isn’t. It’s design centric, but applicable to all “creatives”.
- Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks! Back in the early 80’s, my buddy Scott and I were totally crazy for these books (and D & D as well, but that’s a different story). Two dice, a character sheet, and hours of fun. I just bought the 25th Anniversary edition of the first book, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.
- Parking Garage – Beyond the Limit. Hilarious “extreme” video of a guy scaling a parking garage.
Scott
Holy f’ing flashback Mike…
# Mar 14 2008 · 12:31
Adam Snider
Nice SEE piece, Mike. I kind of wish I’d been around to see some of the more “interesting” disasters you mention. Dude pulls a hamburger out of his pocket? I wish I’d seen that.
# Mar 14 2008 · 15:40
Mike Gravel
Scott: Yep. Serious flashback. I totally LOVED those books.
Adam: The hamburger incident is somewhat legendary, as is the guy who did it: Trace Willan.
# Mar 14 2008 · 18:59
heavymetalpetal
wow, no doubt in all the readings you’ve attended you’ve seen some pretty crazy things… as have i for sure. i’ve got to say though… if readings were only back-to-back moments of brilliance and beautiful poems… i’m not sure i’d care for them. i think poets need a non-judgemental place to experiment and grow. though i am happy to note that even in my early teen poet days, i’ve never written a piece that described the state of my “soul” in any manner, i have however written many a sex-drenched confessional, and enjoyed many poems of this kind written by my collegues. i have also been noted to give a emotionally-charged, long-winded and unwelcome speech from time-to-time, which i feel like i might be doing right this minute. but beyond that, i’ve got to say i love all the missteps, the quiet poems, the first public read – they are to me are like photographs or fingerprints of people… how can there be anything wrong with an expression of oneself? well, i suppose the answer to that would be that there are bad poems. i’m not a saint. but i try and recognize where that bad poem is coming from, because i too have written bad poems. haven’t we all? oh lordy… look out i am about to quote atwood! (as if that would make me a authority on anything besides cliche) but she wrote this about some of the early 1960’s she readings attended, when the coffee houses had mandatory Chianti-bottle candleholders:
“Another thing was—how can I put this? It was borne in on me that some of these people—even the published ones, even the respected ones—weren’t very good. Some were wonderful at times, but uneven; others were insufferably mannerist; others were clearly there mostly to pick up women, or men. Could it be that getting through the door into the swarming poetic anthill wasn’t necessarily a guarantee of anything? What then was the true Certificate of Approval? How would you ever know whether you’d made the grade or not, and what was the grade, anyway? If some of these people were deluded about their talents—and it was clear they were—was it possible that I might be as well? And come to think of it, what was “good?” And who determined that, and what litmus paper did they use?”
maybe i have said all of this before but this all reminds me for some reason of the first poetry-type group that I was ever affiliated with…. i must have been 14 or so and I saw a poster in the arts building at the u of a for the “four corners society” a feminist writing group that met every sat morning at orlando books to share their poetry (and i think the idea was to start some kind of small revolution too.) I did not know what “feminist” meant so I asked a friend and she told me “feminists are women who believe in equal rights and do not wear lipstick.” so i made sure not to wear my lipgloss to the meetings. Anyway, here I was, 14 or maybe even younger barging in on all these hip university feminists, reading all my amateurish, angsty, boy obsessed poems to them every weekend and never once did they make me feel uncomfortable or unwanted. it wasn’t till maybe 5 years later when i thought back to that time, how they must of humored me. but i truly think if it wasn’t for them, if it wasn’t for the certain mentors like dean mackenzie, if it wasn’t for you and the raving poets, if it wasn’t for the stroll, i don’t think i would ever wrote a poem i thought was halfway decent. every time i hear what i think is a bad poem i try and remind myself of that. every time i write a bad poem and read it, i hope people are forgiving and even try to find something to like about it. as a poet, i hope i always have a place to fuck up, a place to suck, a place to try. if any group of people are going to get picked on it’s the poets. one back-pocket cheeseburger, impossible tortured “soul” at time.
anyway mike, i’m glad it has always been you… hosting all one billion of the readings you’ve hosted…no one, NO ONE, can host a reading (and bring some alluring mystique) like you can, poetry would not live the way it does in this city without a few key folks and you are of course one of them. thank you.
# Apr 01 2008 · 11:55
Mike Gravel
Hey Mandie,
Thanks for the comment and the kind words. I love the Raving Poets because it is a place where one can try things out in a safe environment. The RP’s are never stuffy, never pretentious. Therein is the beauty of the scene. I’m proud of what we’ve done and continue to do.
# Apr 02 2008 · 09:50