Author: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

WKRP Talk about a one-two punch!  I was out in Cincinnati yesterday for my job and, as I'm heading into my first meeting, I get a text message from Salomé that India didn't make it into the NEST program. BODY BLOW! I wasn't completely surprised, though I'd been holding on to the slimmest of hopes that maybe she'd snag their final spot in a last-second decision by the board to push the boundaries of the program by accepting a less-than-perfect applicant, spurred on by an impassioned speech by the social worker who was initially convinced she was a shoo-in. (Too much Boston Public…

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…

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…

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,…

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…