"I'm going to go back there someday"

Tonight (Thursday)
My brother Brian is the featured poet at the "The Ship" (Vernon Hotel, Kelley Square, Worcester, Ma.) starting at 8pm.

Tomorow (Friday)
I will be once again visiting WPI for their Friday Night Open Gaming (Octawedge, WPI, Worcester) starts at aprox 7pm.

Sunday
I will possibly go to Poets Asylum (Java Hut, Webster Square, Worcester, Ma.) starts between 7pm and 8pm. This week's feature is Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz.


I also need to find time this weekend to do:

• Laundry


• Visit Bank


• Christmas Shopping


• Practice Habitrail Named Klein


• Watch Dungeon & Dragons cartoon, DVD boxed set that chaoticgoodchic got me as an early Christmas Gift (she insisted that I open it early).



What's everyone elses plans?

It started on Friday when The IT dept. had an event in Boston. We went on a Duck Tour of the city & the river, then a tour of Fenway Park. Because of the event I was able to get home early.

Then Friday night I went to Phonix Rising Games to pick up a new game I had pre-ordered Cutthroat Caverns, and then I took it to Friday Night Open Gaming at WPI. It is a hack & slash game using cards instead of dice. We got in one game of it (It took 2 hours including teaching the rules) I also got in a game of Settlers.

I got home about 1 am and slept till 5:30am, when I had to get up to do a couple of loads of laundry.

After laundry I headed to Medford to help xuth move. There were roughly a dozen people there who helped with the move at one point or another. Some I know, some I barely know, and some I have never met before (I’m not going to even try listing names).

Once there was a full load on the rental truck, we went over to his new address about 2 miles away in Cambridge. We ate lunch, and then started unloading. At about 3:30 I decided had reached my limit and went to the MASSFILC filk circle which was about 3 blocks away from Xath’s new address.

The filk circle started slow, but ended up one of the largest housefilks I had been to. I am sure part of the reason was this MASSFILC meeting was their election of officers. Joe Kesselman stepped down as president and victorthecook was elected by acclaim. Also announced at the meeting happyfunpaul is the Interfilk guest at Conchord 2008.

I brought 1 new song and 1 new poem to perform at the filk circle. I ended up doing both early before the crowd arrived. The poem did a bit better than the song. Later in the evening someone played a seasonal song, and I thought of the perfect follower, but I didn’t have it prepared; so I went online, looked up the words, plugged my headset into the PC and listened to the recording (I have all my filk CD’s backed up on my PC). I then performed the song and it was not bad. A couple of people even joined in. This brings me up 8 song/poems I feel comfortable performing in circle.

Sunday I crashed, I had hoped to make some progress on my paintings, but I had misplaced some of my tools (I spotted them this morning as I was leaving the house.)

In some ways I feel like this weekend was practice for Pythonacon next weekend.

My youngest brother is living the Bohemian lifestyle.

He lives in a house in Boston (J.P.) with 7 other guys. Each one is a poet, musician, painter, or a combination of the above. A couple of them work at a gourmet food shop (Formaggio Kitchen) in Cambridge, some of the others work for local restaurants; so they have employers who will feed them when money is tight. On Friday nights they have performance/parties at their house.

Brian (my brother) is The Poet of the group. He has been doing poetry readings, and poetry slams for a little over a year now. Last Wednesday he won a place on the Cantab Lounge 2007 Poetry Slam team which will compete in the nationals in August. So far he has read his poems in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Nevada, Texas, and Vancouver B.C.

I was there to watch him compete Wednesday night. He warned me that one of his poems was about watching drug abuse destroy some of his friends. However his other poems, which touched on moments in his life that I was actually there, were much more significant to me.

Trudging through hip deep snow,
Every step faced with the question;
Do I go on, or give up and go back?

Snow slips into my borrowed boots,
Every step they threaten to slide off
Will they stay with me, or be lost under the snow?

I come across a cleared path
Every step feels effortless now
Inspiration rarely appears when I’m standing still.

Sunday I decided that I needed to deflate my ego a bit. I went to a local coffeehouse that runs a Poetry Slam. This was my 1st time slamming, and only the 3rd time I had read one of my poems in public.

I did hear 1 person say "wow" after I finished, but my scores were terrible.

On the other side of the coin: This Saturday my brother Brian is in the finals for a chance to represent Boston in the Individual World Poetry Slam 2007 in Vancouver, B.C.

The Finals are at the Middle East Nightclub in Cambridge if anyone is interested.

Saturday December 2nd. Doors are at 7. Showcase including Regie Gibson, Jme, Sou MacMillan, and Caroline Harvey starts at 8, and SLAM starts at 9pm. Tickets are $12

Read at your own risk.

( Having a broken leg sucks )