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‘Y sigo mi vida con risas y penas”

the smoking lovely tour officially kicked off at 13 with a jammed packed crowd. recipe for an amazing evecing– combine free admission, free snacks, all star “closed” mic, and perdomo reading. for a second, you might have thought it was a lost episode of acentos with rich, flaco, anthony morales, jayme, & john rodriguez reading and willie featuring but not really… what i am tryin’ to say is that whenever there is a louderJAM it gets kinda mixed together with what synonymUS was… not with this show. acentos has its own personality and just having a bunch of latinos onstage at 13 doesnt turn it into an evening at the blue ox. just sayin’.

even better was the late night dance jam that followed which had me trippin’ down memory road to the good ol’ days (how lonmg have i been around this scene again?) of celebrating spoken word with some good foot stompin’.

“Over foreign seas an’ breaking skies”

got out work on time friday, made all the right MTA choices, and got to cornelia street in time to catch martÃƒÂn espada feature. great reader which is never a guarantee for a quote-page-unquote poet. afterwards, i picked up *way* too many of his books which i made sure were all autographed.

espada seemed to have no recollection of seeing me at the neruda reading and had *no* memory of the acentos poetry series.

i wasn’t expecting him to drop his jaw and yell, “oscar, compai!” i am just getting a lil too used to this local notoriety in the corner of the nyc poetry fish bowl and espada was a good dose of strong medicine. running a series out of the bronx is nothing that hasn’t been done before. being part of the louderARTS project is only important to people that *know* what the louderARTS project is. i don’t even mention the term “slammaster” anymore and can barely say it with a straight face. there are only a few ways to catch a poets attention and ididn’tt get to cornelia in time to even get one of those opportunities; ‘the contributions to the scene’ way is out; leaving published work as the only way to go, for now. don’t get it twisted, my world isn’t changed but i think i have some newer, higher goals in this game.

the ego was back on the mend at bluestockings, the cabana cabal did great and even added an unofficial pinch hitter when juan diaz (also listening to martÃƒÂn at cornelia) told me that cornelia wasn’t exactly feelin’ him. figured he needed a crowd that was more receptive to a young hermano‘s words and let him have some spotlight during my slot. oh, back to the ego, mahina movement’s gabby gave me the best intro i’ve *ever* gotten (gemini, in da house!). the whole vibe at herencia latina was on point.

between this and the wbai gig, i am seeing a few new heads at acentos

wasn’t able to make manny xavier’s feature at the nuyo or keith roach’s book release but thats how it goes.

“I’ll follow your bus downtown”

sooner or later, i was going to do one of these…

Putting your appointed path ahead of any inner conflicts, you make your own rules for the benefit of all.

If my life or death I can protect you, I will.

“Well I never seen change without a fire”

post wbai, we all hit this pub by guy’s job and it was one of the moments that makes it all worth it. just chillin amongst friends talking about life & art,

the broadcast went well, if a bit rushed. i would’ve liked a bit more time to explore the origins of acentos more and *really* woud’ve appreciated more time to discuss the future of the series. louis was awesome as his radio voice is just amazing… especially when you realize that it is his REAL voice. between commercials we were all just being jackasses, passing notes around to try to see who would crack first and laugh out loud on the air. i was happy with my lil say on the radio so i cant complain and when i dont complain– you know it had to be cool.

the after party moved up to Macando’s(sp?) book shop on 14th and eighth, where rich found a copy of a book that louis recommended. it’s an out of print first edition which means that it was way overpriced but thats the life.

the after-after party kept going at urbana as the cabana cabal all got on the slam list adding some sazon to the bowery. i did ‘brooklyn back break beat’ but had the misfortune of drawing the 3 slot which means that your poetry has to be kick ass to survive the score creep… of course, i could do one of the more established pieces but then urbana has this ‘un-official’ rule about doing new pieces in the first round… then again, a whole bunch of people have pissed on the rule in the past… who am i kidding, i have no desire to do ‘motb’ in a slam unless its the last round… so ‘bbbb’ it is…

the bottom line– i got slaughtered in the scores. oh well, so the slam goes.

rich and fish did well, advancing to the second round but once the judges pick a favorite it usually stays that way. george mckibbens and dawn saylor were the said favorites and fought it out in the last round with george getting the scrabble board.

right now, i can afford to laugh off a bad finish at urbana but i dont know if i can keep the same smile going if the same happens at 13… we shall see.

The Friday Five

1. Do you watch sports? If so, which ones?

baseball, football, basketball, tennis and golf. hockey & soccer are best seen in person. pro wrestling on tv is theatre.

2. What/who are your favorite sports teams and/or favorite athletes?

the new york yankees(!), in basketball i am really feelin’ the sacrament kings

individual athletes are generally assholes in the new sports world but i will always tip my hat to pete sampras for getting the job done and putting his name in the record books by being the best he could be instead of what the media wanted.

3. Are there any sports you hate?

not really, once you can get into golf everything else is cake

4. Have you ever been to a sports event?

everything except a *real* NFL game (been to a couple of exhibition games)

baseball- i’ve been to a ton of yankee games including a world series game and the second *ever* mets vs yankees game (yanks win that one 2-1)

basketball- many, many trips to the garden to see the knicks back when they were good. once scored playoff tickets right behind the backboard as the knicks *wooped* the cleveland cavaliers.

hockey– just two ny rangers games but they were both great seats.

first time was just above the line of the plastic glass on a real hot march day meaning i had on a light t-shirt for a hockey game… not smart.

the second game had me two rows behind the ranger’s bench!

pro wrestling– on tv its theatre but live it becomes so much more!

back in the day, i would be up in the garden almost every month with my lil brother and sister. been to pay=per-views, live tv tapings, and the holiest of grails– WrestleMania!

5. Do/did you play any sports (in school or other)? How long did you play?

nope… straight high school geek