Easter

This year for Lent I set myself the task of keeping a blog. The "rules" that I set up for myself were that I must post at least every other day. Even though I failed to do this on two occasions, I do not think that I have failed. The goal of this Lenten commitment was to see whether I enjoyed blogging. I have found that I do, and intend to keep at it. In fact, I will probably continue at a similar rate. This Lenten experiment has given me 33 posts and inspiration for many more. Tommorow, I hope to begin a new series of posts. Until then, happy Easter!

Jabberwocky

I have been rather congested lately, so I haven't been able to record another poem for you all. So once more I have a poem by someone else, but read by me. This one I have blogged about before. This is pretty close to the performance I gave at the Poetry Out Loud competition. the one that got me second place. I am going to change my schedule to posting poems on Saturdays because I won't really have access to a decent computer on Wednesday for a while. You won't see anything this Saturday, but next Saturday I should have a poem for you all. Hopefully my allergies will have cleared up and I can record one of my own poems.

Homework

There are two reasons that this post is short. One of them is because I don't have any ideas, the other is because of the title.

Tragedy...

Just kidding!

I am getting a beret from a friend of mine, so all is well. Hope to see many of you at the slam tonight.

YAY POETRY!

Beret

Many of you that know me, know me by my beret I have hat for years now, and wear it always to church and poetry events. I will also occasionally wear it other places. That is where the trouble lies. The beret is currently out of my possesion. I put it in my pocket it Target to listen to the Bose headphones (amazing by the way) I realized later that it was not in my pocket. When I went back, the store had just closed. They let me check the lost and found, but it was not there. It opens tommorow at eight, so I am planning on calling to see if the cleaning crew picked it up.

I have been close to losing it before. But if I do not get it back, then I will see if someplace in Tucson will sell me one. It will not be the same one that was with me for so many years, but it will be a beret. I think I look pretty damn good in a beret, and people have come to expect it of me. How could I ever call myself, the Dashing French Pilgrim without a beret?

I don't know where I would buy a beret in Tucson, but presumably it is possible. It is a somewhat common hat. I'm thinking a costume store would be my best bet. But I want to be a real, wool beret, and not a fake costume one. I will wait to research until I am sure I have lost my original one though.

Teacher

This Wednesday I have a recording for you, but it not one of my poems. This is me reading the poem, "What Teachers Make" by Taylor Mali. This poem, was what got me into slam poetry. That combined with the teacherly subject, makes this poem one of my favorites. In order to get the last few lines I have to explain, a bit though.

If you've got this
Then you follow this,
And if anyone tries to judge you, based on what you make,
You give them this!

On the first "this" the poet points to his head. The second this, the poet points to his heart. And the third this, the poet gives a good 'ol fashioned middle finger. Got it? Good. Here's me doing the poem. If you are interested, in hearing how Taylow Mali does it, search his name or the poem name on YouTube, and there are a few recordings.

Deathmatch

This post is linked to on the left. Below is Lindsay's email about Saturday's event. I hope to see as many of you there as possible:

Hey y'all,

This weekend the Ocotillo Slam brings you the poetic stylings of the inimitable Kim Johnson! Kim's gift for wordplay and dirty haiku made her a huge hit last year, and if you missed her that time, don't make the same mistake again!

Kim will be giving a poetry workshop on Saturday afternoon, 3:00 pm at Bentley's focusing on haiku. The workshop costs $5 and is well worth it! If there's a good turnout to the workshop or a few haikusters eager to share their stuff, we will have a Haiku Death Match before the slam to see who can REALLY walk the walk (in 17 syllables or less!).

Saturday, March 15, 2008
Bentley's House of Coffee and Tea
1730 E Speedway, Tucson

6:30 Sign-up
7:00 Featured poet KIM JOHNSON & Haiku Death Match
8:00 The Coronation Slam hosted by MICKEY RANDLEMAN--Watch your favorite local poets and newcomers battle it out for fame, glory, $50 and the Crown of Golden Laurel Leaves!

All ages
Suggested donation $5

Poets, this IS a qualifying event for Team Tucson 2008, and the day of reckoning is drawing nigh, so get your points in while you can! For more info on qualifying check out http://poetryslam.com/forum/index.php?topic=3799.0

See you Saturday,
Lindsay

Dream

I was playing around on the Apple website, and created the computer of my dreams. Observe its supreme awesomeness:

Two 3.2Ghz processors
32 Gigabytes of RAM
4 Terabytes of harddrive space
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 1.5 GB
2 30" widescreen HD monitors
2 Super Drives (both capable of playing, and burning CDs and DVDs with Dual-Layer support)
Airport Extreme card for connecting to Wi-Fi networks
Wireless Mighty Mouse
Wireless Keyboard
iWork '08 (Apple Office Suite)
Final Cut Express 4 (professional video editor)
Logic Express 8 (professional audio editor)
HP Photosmart C7280 All-In-One Printer, Scanner, Copier
AppleCare Protection Plan (extended warranty and support)

This computer could run ten, high end, next generation games at the same time, without blinking. This computer is overkill incarnate. Computers won't need this sort of power for years. This computer could take over the world, three times over, while rendering an entire computer animated feature film, in the time it takes to check your email. This is the Mac Pro. It will not simply blow your mind, it will twist it in so many ways you will be convinced that you are a pineapple ballerina. Fortunately this computer probably has the power to examine the complicated processes of the human brain and figure out how to straighten you out again. But there is one reason I have not already ordered this beautifully terrifying machine. Click the link below and look at the column on the right. You'll see what I mean.

Mac Pro

Okay

Considering we were a doing this for the first time, we actually did pretty good at that mock trial team. The first round we went against UHS, so we really had no chance. That's one of those college prep highschools, and those people have some crazy drive. Then we went up against St. Gregory's and actually did pretty decent. Then we went against Cholla. They did rather badly, and we probably beat them, but didn't perform nearly as well as we had in the previous rounds. But I was a witness, and I rocked it. The guy who cross examined me had no idea, and ended up sounding like an idiot. So, overall a good day.

But, it did have one unfortunate downfall. There was an open mic that I wanted to go to, the Tucson Premiere Open Mic. They hold them every second and fourth Saturday of the month. I am definitely planning on going to the one on the 29th of this month. I couldn't go to the one today, because this whole mock trial thing took most of the day. But unless something major happens I should be at the one at the end of the month. Click on the link above for show specifics.

Impending

I woke up at about 3:00 this morning on my own. Normally I would have
gone back to sleep, but then I looked at the clock, and realized what
day it is.

It's Friday. I have a mock trial competition tomorrow.
Am I really as ready as I could be? Did I work hard enough? I realized
I didn't know the answer to that question. I hope to be able to work on
it this morning a bit.

I suppose I won't really know until tomorrow. Our teacher seems to have confidence in us, so that at least is reassuring.

Girlfriend

I realized that all of the poems I have posted so far have had a common theme. So I decided to post this one, which follows that theme. Next week I will post something different, but for now here is another poem. If you scroll down you can listen to all of my poems in one playlist. Or you can click on the link on the left.

Edit: The poem that was originally here is an older version that is not as good. The newer version can be found here

Recordings

There is a link to this post on the left. This is a playlist of all my poems I have recorded thus far. I will make new posts for each new posting of a poem, but will update this playlist so all my poetry can be accessed on a single page. Some of the poems on this list may have objectionable content and language. Be warned.

Money

I hate money. I like the things that money gets you, I just don't like money. The endlessly complicated systems of money exchange are enough to make one's head spin. We should just go back to a bartering system