Move! Move! Move! Move!

Went to work early. So that I could leave work early. So that I could meet with Ken at The Poetry Center. I pitched the idea of creating an "audio archive," based in Flash, that would let them make all their recordings available to the public. They’ve been around for a long while (1976 I think), and they’ve had tons of poets read even before then. Ken showed me a big drawer full of audiocasettes, with readings that go back for about 15 years. Tricky thing is, they only have written permission for about the last five years. But still – we were both pretty excited by this idea, and it’s going to be a great project to work on in my spare time.

So after that, I get home around 7:30 PM. I heat up some leftovers and eat while I’m standing up, in front of the TV. I was worried that, if I sat down, I might linger too long in the apartment. I scarfed down food, set up the VCR to tape Nova (he FINALLY remembers!) and was out the door by 8 PM.

I made my way to Schuba’s for a show featuring Dave Fischoff and Damien Jurado. There was also a reading by Adam Voight, and I liked it enough to where I bought his book. Dave played an incredible show, and I’ve definitely got to interview him for the blog and get some sound clips up. There’s no one else that I’ve heard that does what Dave does… I’ve known him since our undergrad days in Bloomington, Indiana, and each show since… he’s just gotten better and better, each and every time I’ve seen him.

Damien Jurado was pretty damn amazing. I got introduced to his work through Ben, at work. After hearing him play live, I now want to get more of his CD’s. Like Dave, it was just him on stage and it was a really funny, really touching, really intimate, really hysterical show. At one point, he forgot the words to a song and stopped playing. He said something akin to "Fuck! This is how it is. This is how I am. I fuck up." It was really cool to see. Damien had a fun time talking with the crowd, and despite how mellow and understated and somber some of his songs are, I left that show feeling happy and glad I attended.

Agh. So much more I want to say here, but it’s late and I’m completely beat up.

I had two beers and two Sprites at the bar. I tipped the bartender, and I tipped well. I got rockstar parking when I arrived, right by the side door of the place. As I left, I swung out and did this huge U-Turn on Belmont. Right in front of two police cars. To my luck, they just kept on driving by, didn’t even blink. Good karma this evening… hell this whole day!