Author: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

This author has written 2011 articles
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Shaking off the rust

Nuyorican Performing your poetry onstage isn't like riding a bike at all, unless you're talking about the part where your foot keeps slipping off the pedal and it bloodies your shin. I used to hate that! When I decided last week to hit the Nuyorican for last night's slam, I figured it'd be a fun, low-pressure show where I'd be able to comfortably continue my slow return to writing and performing. When a wave of nausea and jangling nerves hit me around 5:15pm, I was tempted to change my mind and go have a drink instead. Nevertheless, I stuck to my plan, walking…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Old New York Love Story

Old New York Love Story I like the vibe in this place The bartender, my mother-in-law if she were a bartender, dresses for the crowd in a shiny black bustier and tight black polyester capris long copper-dyed hair pulled back into a poofy ponytail she flirts like Pollock attacking a canvas, seemingly random until the end of the night when she counts her tips her artistic genius revealed. She's an undegreed psychiatrist dispensing advice and self-medication ethical enough to ensure no one overdoses, savvy enough to ensure their return. She sings along to Shakira hips shimmying to 50 Cent, her…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Objectivity is for cowards…

Countdown Keith Olbermann Special Comment on Libby Pardon Keith Olbermann on Bush, Cheney: "Which is the ventriloquist and which is the dummy is now irrelevant." As cable news talking heads go, Olbermann's always been one of the more interesting ones, but in a time where the Daily Show typically offers the most incisive news coverage on TV, his "Special Comment" here is a refreshingly impassioned but level-headed statement that is as much a call for Bush and Cheney to resign as it is a "wake the fuck up, people" call to Americans of all political persuasions, including the apolitical. Objective…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Poetry Slam, Ratatouille and Flashbacks

Talk To Me Poetry Slam Roger and I were joking on Monday about his first chapbook (Of Revolutionaries and Romance I believe it was called), the existence of which he denies and if Lynne ever wanted to really get at him, she'd pull from the vault and sell reprints on Ebay. Preparing for tomorrow night's slam at the Nuyorican, I opened my old poetry archive folder that has stuff of mine from 1997-1998, my first season on the slam scene, a lot of which was read once or twice and retired, deservedly so. Most of it didn't even make my own first chapbook,…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Flashback: Why I Slam…

[Going through the archives trying to figure out what to read tomorrow at the Nuyorican and I came across this little ditty, a typically belligerent, sophomoric effort from that crazy Summer of 1998! Backstory here.] Why I Slam... Hi my name is Guy and I’m not an alcoholic I just drink a lot. Can you spare some change? Drinking is an expensive habit that poetry just doesn’t support begging the question...Why? Why poetry? I pondered over this one humid summer night halfway through my second draft of a cold pint of inspiration reflecting on that first poem way back when…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Last night, at the slam…

Who Wrote This? Last night was a lot of fun. Purposeful emphasis there, as the stage was set for everything to go awry and derail my fledgling return to writing and publicly reading poetry as the show was unexpectedly moved to the upstairs lounge because of construction on the main floor and I've never liked that space.  Bad feng shiu and all that. But all was good as I signed up for the open slam -- 17 Love Poems with No Despair SLAM! -- read my new poem -- Mariah @ the Dive Bar -- and made the second round. Of course, I…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Mariah @ the Dive Bar

Mariah @ the Dive Bar When I promised tolove you foreverand ever, long timelike no one elseand assorted otherexaggerations...I lied.I was drunk.So were youof course—it's what we do—so this should be a mootpoint but sober nowI feel the need to clarifysome things.That nightMariah playing onthe jukebox in thatdive bar we bothlove a bit too muchwe bought intothe lyrics believingwe did, in fact,belong together.We probably definitelymost likely don't butdamn if she didn't make itseem possible, especiallywhen the songchangedand you lip-synchedthe chorus...for a split secondI believed I just mightalways be your baby.In the harsh light of daywe're completely totallyutterly wrongfor each other…

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