Bronx

Poet bios are some of the most annoyingly pretentious things ever, entertainingly similar to "the bigger the car, the smaller the dick" theory. I'm talking about the ones provided for intros at shows, not what people put in their books or on their websites. Long lists of chapbooks, CDs, shows, slam teams, features, etc. B-O-R-I-N-G! It's one thing when the host snatches your bio from somewhere and decides to read the laundry list themselves but when you provide the epic bio, I'm immediately inclined to tune you out. Let your damn poetry speak for you. A few years back, I…

So the great blackout of '03 is fading into history and, while an interesting experience (and assuming the worst is really over), I can't complain. The lights went out at my job at 4:13pm, just as I was in the initial stages of wrapping up the loose ends on everything I'm juggling before I leave for vacation. The first 20 minutes or so was low-key confusion as the longer the lights stayed off, the more people started to worry that "something" had happened. With my office being walking distance to the former World Trade Center, and many of my co-workers…