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Me, in a green "Freed Between the Lines." hoodie.
Written by June 1, 2004

Pumpkin Seeds: Entertainment Edition

Personal Article

1. The Day After Tomorrow is a stereotypical NYC slam poem: good intentions; overt but shallow politics; a handful of clever moments. New York City flooded; an environment-hating, Dick Cheney-lookalike VP; and American refugees fleeing across the Mexican border are the main highlights of what is basically a special effects exhibition that borrows liberally from the same formula that birthed Independence Day, minus the semi-coherent script. Overall, a guilty pleasure. Hopefully they’ll be able to add a disclaimer to the DVD that “no careers were harmed in the making of this motion picture” as I like Dennis Quaid and am rooting for Jake Gyllenhaal.

2. I have to wonder if environmental and political groups that have latched on to Tomorrow actually saw it before deciding to center an awareness campaign around it. It’s kind of like dressing George W. Bush in a flight suit and landing him on an aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego to declare Mission Accomplished…in Iraq!

3. The preview for I, Robot looks hot. The robots are the freakiest things since that alien stepped out into the alleyway in Signs.

4. White Chicks. Why Keenan? Why?

5. The WB’s Superstar USA is just wrong. In a good way. I have newfound respect for Vitamin C. Rosa is my pick for the “winner,” though I wouldn’t be upset if JoJo beat her out. I just hope they do something for the decent-to-good singers they misled along the way.

6. I’ve seen Billy Hung and, Mario, you’re no Billy Hung.

7. In NYC’s battle of the free daily newspapers, amNEW YORK vs. Metro, it’s not even close. Metro is 90% AP articles, and the original stuff is often poorly written and many times not even local! Also, their pseudo-hipster slant and purposeful lack of an official editorial position on anything is both boring and lazy. amNEW YORK is a quick, clean read with an obvious native feel throughout.

8. nycSLAMS is a collaborative webzine focused on New York City’s spoken word poetry scene, featuring interviews, reviews and original poetry from the scene’s best poets, venues and events.

9. That last one doesn’t currently exist but it might by the fall. Interested?

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Written by

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is the Chief Content Officer for LibraryPass, and former publisher & marketing director for Writer’s Digest. Previously, he was also project lead for the Panorama Project; director, content strategy & audience development for Library Journal & School Library Journal; and founding director of programming & business development for the original Digital Book World.

6 comments

  • Anonymous has written:

    only if I’m able to write honestly

  • Anonymous has written:

    actually slash that.Why be anchored by the slam scene?
    It’s an inherently limiting conversation
    and do you really want to continue the
    same conversation that you’ve been having for the
    last ** years?
    Read through your archives for inspiration on
    what you SHOULD be writing about 🙂

    be bold and mighty forces (me)
    will come to your aid 😉

  • Guy LeCharles Gonzalez has written:

    NOTE: Calling it the “spoken word poetry scene” was purposeful in not limiting it to the slam scene. I chose not to say “performance poetry” since I don’t buy the theory that simply reading a poem aloud constitutes a performance.

  • Matthew Charles Siegel has written:

    Guy,

    I’d be down for something like that. I want to get started on some new projects, and I’m leaning back towards the more overtly political. Not being involved over the last year has been killing me. I was talking to Juan last night, and trying to come up with some ideas. I was saying that I think that Louder Than Words was on the right track, but the format was a little off. You should do what I know you really want to do in your heart and make it unabashedly political. Embrace the opportunity to script the show. Tell poets what kind of stuff you’d like to hear. Let them prepare. It may not be as spontaneous as you’d like it to be, but it’d make for one hell of an interesting show. Poetry may not engender debate to the extent that you like, but throw in some politics and current events and tie that in to the relevance of poetry, and I think you may have something. Regardless, I’d love to be involved in anything you work on. And I’ll be expecting a comfy bureaucratic job once you’re the mayor ;-)…..MCS

  • Anonymous has written:

    You know. I gotta say. I enjoyed “Day After Tomorrow!” Of course I went into knowing that the writing was going to be trash. LA getting destroyed by tornadoes was fun enough for me. And i mean really, how many other Hollywood movies are gonna deal with global warming? I ask you. So what there were MAJOR plot holes? Them going after our over consumptive society was enough to make, at least, my week!

    Now of course if you want to see it again, in confidence of course, get ahold of me.

  • MuffinGal has written:

    I am glad that I am not the only person that is wondering “WHY KEENAN?!” Screw White Chicks. They should have called it Wack Chicks.

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