Thursday, December 14, 2006

Poetry Reading @ The Label Gallery, December 14,2006

16 comments:

J C said...

highlightas and lowlights included a woman speaking in tongues, a latecomer who insisted on doing a 30 minute monologue, a Leonard Cohen poem about butterflys, an appearance by David Bergen, and hosted by some astute man named Kristian Enright. Have mercy!

TheBlueMask said...

I think I was "uninvited" by Roberts. I got the e-mail 1/2 before showtime.
I`m showing up with a pent up novel next time!

cara said...

Hey, I wanted to come to that.

Okay, I feel officially shunned.

Lorne Roberts said...

yes, cara, in this case the shunning is official-- gallery policy, y'know.

sorry.

next time?

cara said...

next time.


xafkee=feeling offically shunned by art reinforcement mecca.

Lorne Roberts said...

hee hee. keep it mind, though, it was "official" rather than "personal".

Protocol 7, chapter 4, subsection i: iv of the Label Gallery Charter states:

"Cara Zurzolo must not be invited to any open mic poetry readings, or any events, happenings, or otherwise scheduled programming related to or involving poetry."

We've really gotta sit down and vote on updating that a little-- I think Carlos rammed that addendum through our congress when he was feeling particularly bad about his own writing.

Anyway, sorry dude. There's one in early Jan, and we'll be ultra-sure to let everyone know in advance, even though our charter clearly forbids it in some cases.

cara said...

LOL
:)

I'll be equipped with some teen angst poetry and certainly I'll speak in tounges.

Lorne Roberts said...

as a child i learned and was taught that speaking in tongues was normal.

i think i believed it at points.

Lorne Roberts said...

25-30 minute readings/monologues, especially by people who show up at the very end of the night, after everyone else has read, is very disrespectful to the other readers and to the audience, in my opinion. so are poems about kicking women in the head until sperm leaks out of the cracks in their skull. (which we were "treated" to by one reader, for those who missed it.)

on those levels, i'm pretty ok to throw out the "all art is good art" idea and say those kinds of things were pretty definite lowlights.

J C said...

Shannon's criticisms are interesting.

Highlights and lowlights...

I'm glad that you noticed that I never pointed out which were which. I think that this conforms with art reinforcement. The pieces I mentioned had elements which had the most contrast for me. The pieces that went beyond the poles of normality, which in my opinion is where I like to be, and where I appreciate most art/poetry/etc.

To answer your question, the speaking in tongues part was brilliant, a highlight. I was hoping the whole poem would be that, beautiful titterings and things which I heard but didn't really understand, more about sound then word. but alas, words were formed.

I DON"T REMEMBER YOUR SALT AND PEPPER PIECE. MAYBE IT WAS BEFORE I GOT THERE OR MAYBE IT WAS NEITHER A HIGHLIGHT OR A LOWLIGHT, MAKING IT NOT WORTH REMEMBERING. LET'S ASSUME IT WAS EARLY IN THE NIGHT.

And lastly, for me, this blog is not the Label Gallery blog. This is a blog called ALFA. I think both things uphold art reinforcement. But they are not the same thing. I do like how they sometimes connect.

xo

Anonymous said...

BravoEVERYONE!

Vive le Blog!

cara said...

I was also taught to speak in tounges at an early age. I stopped long ago and stopped believing in the power of those words. Good/Bad/Sad, maybe just an indicator of the slow demystification of my world, my beliefs, my words, my meanings? I agree with KK that often poetry takes this form: delicate utterings of words first and then perhaps some mist of meaning save for their corporeal imprint. Certainly when a poem makes me feel this way it is a bright shiny highlight.

Reinforcement is not always blind praise, it often comes as suggestions, questions, discipline and hearing the observations about ourselves. It is never, never comments that are meant to hurt. Can we say this never happens here?

This is a blog called ALFA and there is a gallery called LABEL.
Two very different spaces with a lot in common.

J C said...

No kidding low lights are low lights.

The point here is no one directly called anything a low light. get your facts straight.

As for the Label Gallery website plugging the blog, great! Still two sepearate things. Hahahahahhahahahahaha

I reinforce your stubborn attitude!

someone should invite you to join our blog.

TheBlueMask said...

damn, now I`m really sorry i missed it.

Anonymous said...

I like my beard!!!! I look like a bearded sea-creature.. kindy. I assume that's me in the top left, as it's got some of the 'words' from some of my 'poems' in it.

Thanks! I had a lot I said a while ago about this whole discussion, but it reeeaally wasn't worth saying. Or at least, nutbut not worth publishing.

Anonymous said...

Or am I frothing at the plant-mouth? Or, it rather. You know. Errmrmmrm AHHHH INTERNET!!!