Author Archives: Oscar Bermeo

Practice What You Preach

One of the things I’ve been trying to improve on is my on-page performance which quite frankly, sucks. Memorized work goes along more smoothly for me but that is because I’ve studied the hell out of the poem and know all the nooks and crannies of the piece. Originally, I was under the impression that whoever reads from the top of their head was some kind of poetry god that could do all kinds of amazing things. I have three poems totally memorized and can fake enough of ‘Leticia’ to get by and they all make for real good performances but after seeing so many people rock the mic with paper in hand I realized that I have to step up that part of my poetic repertoire.

Seeing Jeff McDaniel was what really won me over to the page side of the debate and I try to picture him when I practice my page work. The workshops I have been attending and facilitating have also helped me get the best out of my voice when the paper is there. The rough part is trying not to take too many pause when the line breaks and imagining the author’s intent and then mimicking that with your tempo and tone. It should be pretty easy when you are doing your own work but there are a couple of stumbling blocks. (New poets, take notes) Always read with clearly legible work. If it’s printed, make sure you use a large type (for me 14 point works well) Write it in a book or tape the page inside a book. (The weight of the book will keep your hand from shaking.) Highlight or underline major points in the poem. Hold the book or page in front of the mic so that you are reading at the crowd instead of directing your voice to the page.

I’ve tried all these tips and still haven’t been able to translate that into my performance… until yesterday at the Asian American Writers Workshop. I go to support Jayme, who is reading on the Open Mic, and when I get there two of the organizers recognize me from 13 and ask if I’ll read. No problem. Then they ask if I mind going first. No problem. The host is almost saying my name in the intro when he remembers that the house rules are that if you’re not Asian you have to read an Asian poem first. Marc (one of the organizers) and I are frantically looking for a book and come up with one that is all Jesus poems. Why, in a workshop that is chockfull of books, we can only find THIS one is beyond me but that’s the situation. Now we have to find a suitable poem and I know enough to find one that is about a minute long (epics don’t work because the crowd gets bored and the reader gets bored/haiku and five line poems make it seem like you don’t care) I find the right length poem and hit the mic.

Reading that sucker like a pro. Clear diction and good flow. “Dear Anne…” it starts and I am doing great until I get to the part where the author compares his fascination with Jesus and his homoerotic fantasies. I just keep plowing through and finish the poem as if my life counted on it. Finish up and then hit the crowd with the “Ceviche” poem. Performed it well and got a good off stage reaction but little response from the crowd while actually doing it.

Afterwards some people ask Jayme if I was gay or not as their gay-dar said that I was straight but my passoinate reading of the homoerotic Jesus poem (Yes, the poem said the word ‘homoerotic’) left them confused.

Careful what you wish for…

The Friday Five

1. What drinking water do you prefer — tap, bottle, purifier, etc.?

tap… ima new york kid. hot summer days meant drinking it straight from the hydrant!

2. What are your favorite flavor of chips?

recently had some crab flavored ones from utz that shot straight up to #1 on my list but i cant seem to find them so i’ll say bar-b-q

3. Of all the things you can cook, what dish do you like the most?

penne with chicken in a tomato basil sauce with a ceasar salad and garlic bread

4. How do you have your eggs?

over easy preferably with some candain bacon

5. Who was the last person who cooked you a meal? How did it turn out?

my family for my sister-in-laws birthday… off the hook!

The Red Pill Please

caught the matrix reloaded at a 10pm showing at the whiteston last night. if you are from the bronx, you knw thw whitestone to be THE most ghetto multiplex in the bX and if you are not– know you now.

the movie was off the meat rack and the review is pretty simple– if you liked the first one, you’ll love the second one (mimicing my x2 review)

the universe that the wachowski brother’s is amazing and the mythos that they are adding to americana can not be easily dismissed and may well be the fairy tales of future generations. i have a ton of questions and opinions when it comes to this movie and would love to see it again to catch the nuances.

my one beef with the whole experience is that there was this group of kids that insisted on talking throughout the whole movie and during one of the climatic fight sequences i had a grown woman behind me yelling ‘ooohh’ at every punch and kick. for real, every fuckin punch and kick. i always believe this to be the same people that are amazed at salt. by the end of the scene i turned around and said ‘this is where you yell oohhh’ and also had some comments for the teenagers that were blabbing.

i just wished people would watch the movie instead of saying ‘did you see that!’ every other second

*minor spoiler* at the end of the credits is a trailer for ‘matrix:revolutions’ only stick around if you are a big fan because it aint all that

Straight from the Boogie Down

“That mofo must be lying! All the shows can’t be that good!” Well, this mofo aint lying because the last Acentos was a 4 out of five stars affair.

The positives: first and foremost, Emanuel Xavier rocked the house. His set was well thought, well paced and extremely well written. The crowd was into him throughout and he never let them down. Providing the perfect blend of English, Spanish, slang and poetry would be one of the quintessential Acentos features. Really hard to pin this one down as THE quintessential features as it is so hard to pin down what exactly it is to be Latino but it was sure up there.

My hosting was very smooth this time around and I was able to conversate without be condescending or sounding forced. The little convos that I had with the crowd between open micers were chill and even though I was plugging the feature, CD and other venues it all seemed like fun.

The Open Mic is a double-edged sword. We are attracting ten plus readers for every show and have had to limit the mic at times. (Make no mistake, your Open Mic will make or break your venue because there is no such thing as a guaranteed feature and the Open Mic is where you will eventually cultivate new talent.) The quality of the mic is a bit less than what I would want. At this point of the game, I would want to see some serious forward movement in regard to some of our regulars work and will have to start suggesting some workshops or even may have to facilitate something in order to get them more on track. I have been lucky enough to have an almost 50/50 mix of nervous awkward readers and then more sure accustomed readers. Don’t get it twisted, that is not my ratio of bad and good poets because I have heard some damn good things from some shaky people and utter crap from some arrogant mofos. The lady quotient is rising to three out of the twelve and I can just see it getting better.

Attendance wise, the show is staying at a steady rate of about 35 heads and that’s cool for now but we need to get some young locals into call the place home and use it as a jump off for 13, the Nuyo and any other spots they may want to go to.

That and we banged out some CDs at a discounted rate with Acentos making up the difference. More on the CD another day.

measuringstick

let my synonymUS family know what is on my mind and it is not being well received. what is success? yes, we are producing some awesome work and we are letting people rock out and take chances but we are not filling in the seats. this shouldn’t be a concern if we were producing crappy open mics and the features were horrible but that is not the case and that is where my frustration lies. if the audience isn’t coming then there is a problem and I just want that to be known. of course, when passion overruns me i lay it out the way i see it and these folks should have seen some of the e-mails that *almost* went out.