Good-bye to August

Beautiful hot day
I miss the sun
I hate the sun
Face lathered in aloe
Flaking
Peeling
Burnt
Post-lunch hot salsa logic
needs a walkabout
stuck inside
with you, my only fan
and your successful breeze.

Who is your Captain?

Pachuco Cadaver :

When she wears her bolero then she begin t’ dance
All the pachucos start withold’n hands
When she drives her Chevy Sissy’s don’t dare t’ glance
Yellow jackets ‘n red debbles buzzin’ round ‘er hair hive ho
She wears her past like uh present
Take her fancy in the past
Her sedan skims along the floorboard
Her two pipes hummin’ carbon cum
Got her wheel out of uh B-29 Bomber brodey knob amber
Spanish fringe ‘n talcum tazzles FOREVER AMBER
She looks like an old squaw indian
she’s 99 she won’t go down
Avocado green ‘n alfalfa yellow adorn her t’ the ground
Tatooes ‘n tarnished utenzles uh snow white bag full o’ tunes
Drives uh cartune around
Broma’ seltzer blue umbrella keeps her up off the ground
Round red sombreros wrap ‘er high tap horsey shoes
When she unfolds her umbrella pachucos got the blues
Her lovin’ makes me so happy
If I smiled I’d crack m’ chin
Her eyes are so peaceful thinks it’s heaven she been
Her skin is as smooth as the daisies
In the center where the sun shines in
Smiles as sweet as honey
Her teeth as clean as the combs where the bees go in
When she walks flowers surround her
Let their nectar come in to the air around her
She loves her love sticks out like stars
Her lovin’ sticks out like stars

Captain Beefheart from his album
Trout Mask Replica
(1969)





...and NOW! for something completely different:

I Am Getting Out There

I've been busy and lucky lately.

Writing a lot and getting calls to read.
Put these in your memory banks and on your calendars. I'd love to see you, sign a book, talk some shit...and of course, have some drinks.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2ND AT POP'S BLUE MOON

"Bob's Scratchy Showcase" is gonna be an evening of local writers:
Brett Underwood, Tony Renner, Matt Freeman and special guest
Barely-Free Partial Prisoners
$5
5249 Pattison Ave Saint Louis, MO 63110
Neighborhood: The Hill

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4TH 7 pm @ AT THE HARTFORD COFFEE COMPANY 3974 Hartford Street, St. Louis, MO 63116 (314) 771-JAVA (5282)
Several poets from the recently released anthology of St. Louis poets FLOOD STAGE will be reading. I am one of those poets!
Read about the book and the local publishing seen here:
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/reviews/article_bc5b7e12-7d68-5b75-ae9a-88895e596f84.html
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/article_a53f72cd-28df-5d1e-8f77-265422a378c3.html


...and this is the big one!
Saturday, September 10th
HEARding Cats Collective presents
Daedalus Cacophonus
An outdoor collaborative at the Old Post Office Plaza featuring percussion, dance, and poetry
ST. LOUIS, MO - August 3, 2010 - HEARding Cats Collective, St. Louis' new presenter and producer of "strange and wonderful" arts events has received a generous grant from DowntownNow! to create innovative arts programming at the Old Post Office Plaza (9th St. and Locust). Entitled Daedalus Cacophonus, the event will take place Friday, September 10, 2010 at 6 pm, and feature an evolving percussive landscape led by Artistic Director Rich O'Donnell (SLSO principal percussionist, retired), dancers from Ashleyliane Dance Company, a variety of local poets (Anna Lum, Brett Underwood), and New York jazz saxophonist Joe McPhee. The event is free and open to the public.

In homage to Daedalus, an ancient Greek craftsman so skilled that his sculptures "seemed to move about," HEARding Cats Collective will assemble a team of local professional musicians, poets, and dancers for a mesmerizing 75 minute multimedia cultural journey. The music will inspire dancers and audience alike to move about the Old Post Office Plaza - just like one of Daedalus' creations.

Daedalus Cacophonus will create a free-flowing rhythmic dialogue between musicians, poets, dancers, and audience. The core musical element of the piece is an ensemble of 5 percussionists (O'Donnell, Papa Wright, Craig Williams, Matt Henry, and Thomas Zirkle) belting out world rhythms on bass and hand drums; meanwhile troupes of dancers, dressed statuesque in togas will groove to the beats; other sections will feature quieter duo and solo sections combining poetry with improvised saxophone (McPhee); and later, mallet percussion with splash cymbals and water gongs - making use of the basin at the plaza. The entire performance will be scored (timeline of individual sections broken out by sequential minute cues), so that each member's unique contribution is a coordinated piece of the whole, interwoven with the other performers' sections to create a complete narrative

Like many of the events HEARding Cats already has planned for 2010, Daedalus Cacophonus will draw artistic talent from a variety of age, gender, and ethnic backgrounds. Performers will range in age from 20s to 70s, both male and female, and include Caucasian, African American, and Asian individuals. This diversity of cultural influences and talent pool is the ideal way to highlight St. Louis' role in the regional and national art scenes.

For more info, please visit the links above, or www.heardingcatscollective.org.
HEARding Cats Collective was formed in November 2009, and will work to keep St. Louis strange and wonderful...

I hope this finds you well and that you will join us at the Schlafly Tap Room after the show for some rock n' roll! We've got a doozy of a show AND its free!

Tok http://www.myspace.com/tokandroll

GasRat http://www.myspace.com/gasrat

I, Crime (Hot Rock from Detroit!) http://www.myspace.com/icrime

Then!! Stay tuned for details about another reading at Firecracker Press
on Saturday, December 11th!