Guy stuff.

My Acentos Roundup

Of the "blogs of note" on the right, there's a group of them that I think of as my Acentos roundup, even if some of them aren't technically Acentos regulars or, in Nina's case, I haven't even officially met yet. It's more that Acentos is like my second home and these are the people I associate with it. Not coincidentally, all but two use Blogger and several of them - mine included - have Oscar Bermeo's fingerprints on them somewhere. Or should I call him, Oscar de la Palabra? During any given week a regular voyeur might notice thematic similarities…

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Pumpkin Seeds: 2/9/2004

1. Yesterday's Grammy show was the first one I can remember that I actually thoroughly enjoyed, despite some of the more obvious sympathy awards for Warren Zevon and Luther Vandross. Beyoncé is officially a diva, going toe-to-toe with Prince in the opening number and managing to outshine him on his own songs. (I am curious what the Jehovah's Witnesses in Minneapolis thought of his relatively tame performance, though.) Janet Jackson was smart to skip the show; she's apologized more than enough. Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake both made strong cases for successful transitions from teeny-bop pop fads to talented artists…

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As a kid, I was a big fan of GI Joe. I vaguely remember in the 70s having a couple of the big 12" dolls and the jeep. I think at least one of them even had "real" facial hair. In the 80s, I really got into them when the 3-3/4" action figures came out - Snake Eyes, Grunt, Scarlet, Stalker and Cobra Commander, who you could only get via a mail-in promotion. We shoplifted a bunch of them from the old Caldor's in Pelham every time we went, hiding them in our socks with the cardboard backing that had…

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Pumpkin Seeds: 2/2/04

1. Gonna have you nekkid, by the end of this song! What do Janet Jackson's right breast and Adam Vinatieri's game-winning field goal have in common? My daughter India made me miss them both! Super Bowl XXXVIII turned out to be an even better game than I expected, despite the hated Patriots winning it. Tom Brady and Jake Delhomme both deserve the "going to Disneyland" commercial. Also loved that both teams came out as a group, eschewing individual introductions. Be nice to see that become the norm. The halftime show was actually pretty hot, especially Kid Rock who needs to…

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It wasn’t just the scene that had changed

When I asked for suggestions for non-political topics last week, I got some great feedback. Three of the suggestions were actually closely related so I figure what better way to end the week than with some exhibitionistic introspection?

“…your first experiences with poetry/performing/and your growing pains in the scene.”

“How has becoming a father changed your perspective on life, if at all?”

“What are you doing now post louder arts?”

First, some quick background. I stumbled onto the poetry scene by accident in the summer of 1997, after three years of the Nuyorican Poets Café being a fun Friday night out and first-date spot. The first half of 1997 was without question the worst period of my life – emotionally and psychologically – with broken relationships, miscarriages, bad decisions and extreme self-doubts. In other words, perfect fodder for bad poetry. The first time I read in the Wednesday night Slam Open at the Café – July 16th, 1997 – my reasons had nothing to do with poetry. I had just completed an acting workshop and had written a screenplay that I’d converted to the stage, and really wanted to mount it at the Café – so I wanted to get to know the people in charge. I only had four poems, loosely defined, including a contemplation of suicide, a lost love piece, an old attempt at a rap song, and a rant that was really just an essay with random line breaks.

It must have been destiny because I won my first Friday night slam a month later, and qualified for the Finals two months after that when I won the semi-final against some pretty strong competition. My play was quickly forgotten and I dove headfirst into poetry and the scene itself, writing and reading like a man possessed, and getting caught up in the never-ending drama that follows self-destructive creative types like the paparazzi stalks J-Lo.

Where the first half of 1997 was full of personal disasters, the second half was classic road to self-destruction. I was a lightning rod for controversy, known for dissing people on and off stage, usually by name, and for drinking way too much way too often. At one point, Keith Roach pulled me aside for a lecture that included the infamous warning: “Broken hearts are bad for business.” By the end of the year, I’d witnessed much incestuous drama, had been at the center of a lot of it, and somehow ended up as the host of the Open Room after the Friday night slam. To be honest, I think it was partly Keith’s way of keeping a leash on me.

Three significant things happened in 1998: Salomé and I reconciled and got married that summer; I made the Nuyorican team and we won the Nationals; I added a slam format to my Monday night reading at 13 and shortly thereafter was banned from the Nuyorican.

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Pumpkin Seeds: 1/29/04

1. For those influenced by endorsements, especially those from political types, what does it say about the endorsee when they were the endorser's second choice? ie: these guys tripping over themselves to get on the Kerry bandwagon after their man Gephardt stumbled out of the gate and took himself out of the race. I mean, everyone's entitled to change their minds but it certainly doesn't reflect well on either party. Interestingly, Gephardt himself is saying he'll wait until after the Missouri primary before endorsing someone, letting the people of his state tell him who to support instead of the other…

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Give me a talk show!

I really should have my own talk show. Radio or TV, I don't care which! I first mentioned the following possibility on December 10, 2003: The real New Hampshire winner is a former New York mayor Politically speaking, a Bush-Giuliani ticket would solve a lot of problems...Assume John Kerry and John Edwards make up the Democratic ticket, playing on the same populist themes that are serving them well in the current campaign. Set up against Bush-Cheney, the election becomes a war for turnout of the bases, with many in the political middle written off. Put Giuliani in the mix and…

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