Report from ''School/l'école'' 21.9.09

Welcome to the Cabaret Populaire/Culture Rapide.
Have a drink and a pancake cooked up by Vanessa at the bar.
Flo kicked off in French, with what he read in his horoscope. Charlie (photo) stuck his nose into other people's business. 'Don't ever get personal with a chicken,' he advised.


The theme was school. John McNulty was sent to the back of the class. Sally described a break up in 6th grade. Sam admired the act; the small, persuasive scene; birds' blood.
Michele brought ''spaghetti beat,'' his kind of Italian psychedelic beatnik poetry. He'll be running an Italian spoken word night at the Cabaret Populaire on Monday 28th September.
Nancy knows that love knows no buts or ifs; for what is it you haunt? ''Let Jesus come as a woman this time,'' she said, (photo below).


David Barnes (me!) asked ''What's the craic?'' Pointed to his box of stolen bibles. Dana was Unforgiven. Alberto was, and is, still trying to escape school. Who knows why humans kiss? Sally went commando. Erica got out her banjo, for a song about learning from mistakes (photo below.)


Sam got a lemur wrapped round his shoulders. Julie slammed to Betty's beat on the box (clip posted below.) Bruce (last photo, below) gave us the story of an elevator repair man who saved a suicide jumper, among other things.


Jason told the story of Jim, who nicked things. Michele ended the night dreaming the fog on the pillow...
Thanks also to Yara, Fred and others who read!
Next SpokenWord 5th October. The theme is Machines.

Julie's words, Betty on the box

Recorded 21st October 09

Report from Breaking Things, 7th Sept 09

12 poets, singers, performers. Improvised poetry! And a full bar. SpokenWord is back!
I kicked off with an account of how I broke my arm the day we found the electric vagina in the cellar. Pieton, Utopianist, revait d'un pays qui s'appelle Noland, where there are no hangovers. Maxime, suffering from Mercury Retrograde, read from Lebanese (and Paris resident) poet Etel Adnan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etel_Adnan The sun revolves in cyclones... Christopher sang (no metaphor) that this poem is my stance - an imbecilic man falling off a ladder. Brought his broken banjo, missing teeth. He says my wife's ghost lies with him. Sam gave a remote interview, looked over the piece of toast's shoulder, charged the zinc. Armen Kassabian did his freestyle and improvised rap thing - you can find the pills we eat on his blog http://armandoloco.blogspot.com/ Alberto said something incoherent and unprintable about me and how he claims I really broke my arm, then launched into his jazz tribute to Archie Shepp, French-kissing a golden swan. Betty listened to Stevie Nicks' loneliness, like a heartbeat. John Kirby Abraham brought the guy who tried to break the metro. Sally extracted from her novel a short piece: The Break-Up (God told me to.)
In the second half, Christopher was in a Sentimental Mood. Sophie smashed porcelain at German weddings. Betty broke through the wall between her voice and the world. Alberto apologised. I told about houses, used as homes. Bad dreams carried in the metal of the cars on the roads. Sam read Ted Berrigan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Berrigan which turned out to be stronger than alcahol. Lia spoke of New Year's Day, breaking with the past, disappearing fast. Oog (yes, that is what he calls himself) advised everyone to Remain calm! Stay in your homes! Be happy! (Or you'll be shot!) a text by Jello Biafra used on Ice T's Copkiller album. And at the end, as the numbers dwindled to a happy few, Sandy brought out an ode about loneliness. feeling kind of funny, gotta find your number.

Next SpokenWord is 21st September. Theme - School.