Met up with Karen (who is the concierge at the Merchandise Mart), and the two of us walked over to the Art Institute and met up with Will.
Before the reading, I ended up purchasing a copy of Billy Collins’ newest book, The Trouble With Poetry and Other Poems. I guess it’s due out tomorrow, but there were copies available this evening, which was cool.
Once inside the auditorium, I went to the bottom near the stage and took a few photos. The room itself was quite beautiful, in particular the ceiling (lookit all those circles).
And a shot of the crowd. Talking later, after the reading, Will noticed how much older the audience seemed. On average, he felt that the median age was around 50 (if not higher). There were some young folks. Not many, but a few.
Shortly after this, one of the museum workers came down and told me there were no pictures inside this room. I wanted to get a shot of Collins reading, but decided to be a good boy and kept my camera in its bag the whole time.
Me and Billy Collins. For some freaking reason, I can never smile when I’m posing with folks. I try, but suddenly the process of smiling feels horribly forced, and my mouth just starts to droop into a frown. When I notice this, I try to physically raise my lips and it ends up looking silly.
I need to just start doing the stare. I’m serious here – this weird face thing is a trend. Does anyone remember the Lucille Clifton reading? See? See what I’m talking about?
The stare. Gotta start just doing “the stare.”
As a gift to Collins, I ended up burning him a copy of the reading he gave at OSU, way back in 1998. I doubt he remembers much from that small week in Ohio, when he was a visiting professor, but it definitely left a strong impression on me. After having read Collins for so long, it felt kind of nice to be able to give something back to him… even if all I gave him was a copy of himself.
Post-game: the three of us went across the street to Bennigan’s, and had a late dinner outside. We talked a bit about the reading, and it seemed like both Will and Karen had a good time. It was very exciting to attend a poetry reading with folks who haven’t been to a reading in a while (and particularly those who aren’t familiar with Billy Collins). I had as much fun looking over at them during the jokes as I did listening to Collins read. Sort of like how watching a favorite movie with friends makes it better somehow. It just does.
We talked about our jobs, what we want to do when we grow up, and the private life of plants. Circa 9PM, we all walked towards the Blue Line and parted ways shortly thereafter. I’d like it on the record that the phrase “doffing your hat” was uttered with great frequency, and the act enacted more than once with Will’s fancy hat.
