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Go Birds!

Sunday, December 31st, 2006 | Fanaticism, Philly, Poetry | 2 Comments

Nothing says Happy New Year like seeing the Cowboys get whooped by the second worst team in football, while the Eagles clinch the NFC East (for the 5th time in 6 years, baby!) and take down Atlanta with a full lineup of 2nd & 3rd string players. Playoffs, here we come!

And, in honor of the Eagles triumphant return to the post-season, I give you “Brotherly Love,” a poem I wrote just before the Eagles trip to Superbowl XXXIX in 2005. To Jeff Garcia, Brian Westbrook, David Akers, Brian Dawkins, Jeremiah Trotter, Andy Reid, Jim Johnson, and even Donovan off in recuperation — we love you, fellas!

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2007 Events Aplenty!

Saturday, December 30th, 2006 | Events, Poetry | No Comments

Happy New Year (almost)!

I’m delighted to report that I’ll be starting 2007 with a bang, with a reading and two new events that I’m really excited about.

Featured reading, Autumn Konopka and Ashraf Osman
Jan. 8th, Monday, 6:30 pm
Free Library of Philadelphia, Center City
As part of the Philadelphia Free Library’s Monday Poets Series, I’ll be reading (about 15-20 mins) mostly from my collection, What the Postwoman Left, including the few final poems that haven’t read anywhere yet. The reading is in the Skyline Room at the Central Branch on Vine Street, so even if you don’t care about the poetry, come for the view. Seriously though, this is a great series that draws a large, diverse crowd — so along with the fine featured poets (*wink*wink*) the open mic is pretty darned impressive. Please join us.

Open Poetry Workshop, led by Autumn Konopka
Jan. 13th, Saturday, 1-3pm
Big Blue Marble Bookstore, Mt. Airy
I’ll be leading a new poetry workshop at the Big Blue Marble that is free and open to poets of all writing levels. Bring 10 copies of one poem. I’ve participated in workshops for years — the good, the bad, the ugly — so I’ve learned what it takes to make a workshop constructive, pointed, sensitive, and fair. If there’s a good turn out, the workshop will continue every 2nd & 4th Saturday. Check out the details here.

The Bard’s Book Club
Feb. 8th, Thursday, 7pm
Big Blue Marble Bookstore, Mt. Airy
The Bard’s Book Club is a space for poetry lovers to talk about the poetry they’re reading — not just the poetry they’re writing. You don’t need to be a poet to come — you just need to be interested in reading & discussing books of poetry. I’m not interested in talking like a high-minded, inaccessible lit professor. I’m interested in getting down to what moves us in each book, how it’s working, where the language really lifts the hair off the top of your head. This group will continue on the 2nd Thursday of each month, and books and poets will be open to the interests and ideas of participants.

As always, if you want more information about these events, get in touch.

Charity meme

Friday, December 29th, 2006 | The Greater Good | No Comments

I’m intrigued by this meme, even though I’m pretty sure its some sort of spam. But it’s not about a mortgage or a penis enhancement, so I’ll play along. Especially since, as a nonprofit fundraiser, I’ve got a vested interest in how people think about giving.

Really, I’m genuinely interested in what motivates people to make donations — this time of year, it’s always a mix of holiday spirit, holiday guilt, and tax implications. I’m not sure that any one is better or worse than the others, so long as your not just hording your money away or using it to buy more useless gadgetry. I got into a conversation on Christmas eve about Bill Gates… my relative says that no person should have that much money, and I say Bill Gates (through the Gates Foundation) does an impressive amount of good with his fortune. Yes, it still boggles the mind that there are people who are personally worth more than the GDP of some small nations, but there will always be people who have more than others… to me, it’s what you do with it that counts. And it’s also about what “more” means to you — alot of us put charitable giving at the bottom of our priority lists, because we can’t “afford it.” (Yes, I’ve been guilty of this.) But, really, even the smallest donation can mean alot to an organization helping people in need. It sounds hokey, but I’ve been there — $5, $10, $25, $50… all of them make a difference to the bottom line.

So, alright, I’ll step down from my soap box and give you my five… › Continue reading

Friday Random Ten, the conjecture edition

Friday, December 29th, 2006 | Music | 4 Comments

1. If I were you, Kasey Chambers (Barricades & Brickwalls)
2. I Might Be Wrong, Radiohead (I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings)
3. Debaser, Pixies (Doolittle)
4. Tonight She Comes, The Cars (The Cars Greatest Hits)
5. Bowtie, Outkast (Speakerboxx)
6. There’s Something Goin’ On, The Roots (Do You Want More?!!??!)
7. You Might Think, The Cars (The Cars Greatest Hits)
8. Mantra, Tool (Lateralus)
9. Time is Burning, The Horse Flies (Gravity Dance)
10. New Orleans Instrumental No. 1, R.E.M. (Automatic for the People)

Bonus! Love Will Tear Us Apart, Joy Division (Substance 1977-1980)

a modest contruct, faux real… for more friday randomness to carry you into the new year.

GRRRR! Chocolate Fudge!

Friday, December 22nd, 2006 | Domestic Prowess | No Comments

I’ve been making chocolate fudge for a few years, and it usually turns out pretty good. But every year I get a type of amnesia that makes me forget all of my fudge troubles from the previous year. So, despite it’s shortcomings, I’ve been with one fudge recipe, for better or for worse, for about 5 years. This year, however, I decided I wanted to see what other fudge recipes had to offer.

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Friday Random Ten, “It’s all greek to me” edition

Friday, December 22nd, 2006 | Music | 1 Comment

1. Dave the Moon Man - Looper
2. Self Destruction, Final - Nine Inch Nails
3. Still Ill - The Smiths
4. The Equator - Tortoise
5. Ode to a Beautiful Nude - Rufus Sewell (reading the poem by Pablo Neruda)
6. End of Amnesia - M. Ward
7. Electrify - Beastie Boys
8. The Guns of Brixton - The Clash
9. Cropduster - Pearl Jam
10. Arc - Pearl Jam

The joy of sharing a music collection is that I often encounter albums & artists that I would have never bothered with otherwise… and that’s pretty much the case with this FRT. All but #5 belonged to the Little Mister. And I don’t think I’ve ever been, or would be, inclined to listen to any of the albums, except 1 & 3.

Really, that’s all I got this week. Check out Howard, Ellen, & Ben for more friday randomness.

Fudgey Goodness

Friday, December 22nd, 2006 | Domestic Prowess | No Comments

Over the past week, the Little Mister and I have been enjoying our annual holiday fudge-making extravaganza. Usually, the “extravaganza” consists of a few batches of chocolate fudge, some with nuts, some without, nothing too crazy or extravagant. But this year, we went wild and decided to throw pumpkin fudge and peanut butter fudge into the mix.

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Five things (most) people don’t know about me.

Friday, December 22nd, 2006 | memes | 1 Comment

Ahh… there’s nothing like the smell of fresh meme in the morning! Many thanks to Joe for tagging me.

1 — I was Little Miss Cheerleader, and I still have the hot pink trophy to prove it. Actually I came in 3rd… but who’s counting. I only quit cheerleading when the everyday practices (not even for competition, mind you) conflicted with my obligations to the environmental club. That was around the same time I traded in my Bobby Brown tapes for R.E.M., swapped my stretch jeans for extra baggy t-shirts and jeans, grew out my perm, and stopped trying to make my bangs look like Everest.

2 — During my freshman year of college I had to go through drug & alcohol awareness classes. It was all because my dopey friend thought the R.A. wouldn’t notice the 40 of OE he was drinking from a sock while talking to his girlfriend on the phone in the hall outside his dorm room. Yeah, that didn’t work out so well for him… or the rest of us, who were imbibing discreetly in the room.

3 — I have a fairly large & extensive collection of Minnie Mouse paraphernalia. I was 7, my grandparents lived in Florida, and it just stuck. That’s all there is to say about that.

4 — I snuck into a Counting Crows concert in London. The show was sold out, it was at the student union at the University of London — a space certainly no bigger than the Troc (and this was well after the Counting Crows were playing much larger venues here in the States). While my friend and I were standing around looking pathetic, this toothless old Brit said he could get us in for 20 quid, which was actually less than the cost of the ticket. We paid him, he snuck us up a series of staircases and through several back rooms. Just when we resigned ourselves to ending up in a back alley, he pushed us through this door that opened out to the right of the stage, about 5 rows back. Best show ever.

5 — I *heart* the self checkout at the grocery store. When I was a kid, I really wanted to be a grocery bagger. (Queue up “High Hopes” by Sinatra.) I loved the way the scanner thing beeped and the satisfaction of getting a cart full of stuff packed into a few neat bags. In fact, my biggest pet peeve is still those baggers at the store who just throw your stuff in the bag all willy nilly. That’s just wrong!

I’m gonna buck the system and not tag anyone. Merry Christmas to all of you who might have gotten tagged. This is the last time you get off so easy.

Deathly Hallows!

Thursday, December 21st, 2006 | Books | No Comments

Yes! Finally!! J.K. Rowling has released the name of the last Harry Potter book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Harry, 13, from Leicestershire … emailed BBC Newsround and said: “It sounds interesting, but a bit sinister.”

Um… Harry, I know you’re 13 & all… but get with the program: If the rumors are true, this book is going to make sinister look like Disneyland.

Seriously, Rowling keeps killing people — playing fast and loose with our readerly emotions. As much as I shudder to even think it, I’m not sure Harry Potter’s going to survive book 7. Even still, I’m almost giddy with anticipation.

I met Harry Potter in the summer of 2000, after I graduated from college. I decided to see what all this Potter buzz was about. At that point, the first four books were out — all released within 2 years of each other. I finished all four in a few weeks and was totally hooked. But Rowling is like those drug dealers who give you the first few hits for free until you have no choice left but to pay. She started to hold back. Not another book till 2003… then 2005… now when??? Of course, I blame the movies for the slowing the book process… but I imagine it also gets harder when you start killing people. And important people. People who are loved. If she’s going to do what I fear she’s going to do, we may never see this book. In Stranger Than Fiction, Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson) couldn’t finish her novel because she was wrecked from killing so many characters. We could be waiting a long long time for the Deathly Hallows.

But, even though there’s still no release date, Amazon didn’t waste anyntime coming up with this spiffy little place holder cover. Thank you, J.K. & Amazon. This should satisfy my Potter fix for at least another month or so.

More than meets the eye

Thursday, December 21st, 2006 | Movies | 2 Comments

If you’ve ever wondered, “Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?” then you need to check out the trailer for the live-action Transformers movie that’s due out next Summer. The Little Mister & I went to see Rocky Balboa last night and got a preview of the goodness to come. I’m not even kidding — this movie looks wicked cool! And I never even really played with transformers as a kid.

I particularly appreciate the (not so) subtle nod to another 80s toy fad that shows up in the last 30 seconds of the trailer.

Between this and The Order of the Phoenix, Summer 07 already promises to be a good movie season.