let me make this clear

i love art.

i love the art that my "community" creates.
i love the art that my peers make.
i love art that doesn't relate to my experience but helps me know what other people go through
i love art that tells my story reflected back at me
i love art that inspires me
i love art that disgusts me and makes me look at why
i love art that makes me react
i love art that has nothing to do with me and still makes my eyes water with a shared human connection

this is why i go to open mics
this is why i run an open mic
this is why i read / go to museums / go to film festivals / buy music
this is why i bother
THIS IS IMPORTANT TO ME.

each of us. every fucking one of us. has a uniue and important story to tell.
it matters. goddamn it. IT MATTERS. for each person giving their story breath it gives another person breath to keep going.
OUR LIVES MATTER. this is why to bother. to keep writing, telling, creating.  i really and honestly believe that it matters. morals or not. if the story has salvation or ends up in the gutter. straight love, gay love, poly, queer, gender bending, trans, bisexual, swinger or whatever your flavor love. it all matters very much. WE all matter very much. as people. we matter. regardless of our sobriety or lack there of. regardless of how our morals fit in with each other. regardless of what we each hold sacred. even when we find no common space to agree - we all still have the stories and the lives that matter.

music that has no lyrics can be profane. music made up of only blasphemous profanity can be sacred. you never know where other people are going to find their holy.

it's not for me to judge.  i just want to. in this one life that i know i have. to encourage. to foster. and to view and appreciate as much art / music / film / literature / poetry / performance / story telling / experience as i humanly can. and to take away from that as much transformative and wisdom as my open heart allows.

that is all. that i can possibly. want. to do.

(no subject)

k'vetsch tonight and would you believe - every open mic-er was awesome. like ow punch in my gut awesome?!?! from new readers to seasoned - it was one of those hear a pin drop nights.

i was thrilled that my pal and awesome (This American Life featured) pal Kelly Lee was reading.
i got all moved and shit.




i was so sad to miss last nights reading - but tonight made my heart sing.
i love that i live in a place where there is so much good art.
so many people willing to step up on a stage and risk it.
people just willing to rip that skin off their heart and take the flesh underneath it
and make it text.

it's been an emotional weekend.
and i thank the universe for it.

easy never gets you to the good parts.

omg - want

Wanna work for LitQuake?

Litquake has a Job Opening!

Festival Coordinator.
Starting as soon as possible and working from now through the
Festival and a few weeks beyond.  This job begins at about 1Ž2 time through
August and then increases to full time  through the Festival (October
6-14).  Duties include various administrative duties, keeping
timetables, coordinating communications between producers and committee
members, helping to build Litquakes mailing list, answering queries,
assisting in filtering author submissions, etc.  Must be a self
motivated self starter and good with follow-up, able to keep many balls in
the air at the same time.  Must have a car and valid driver¹s
license, have a computer that can be used for work. Fee is $5000 -
$6000.

Please send resume to:
Jane Ganahl , co-founder ­ jg@litquake.org
Jack Boulware, co-founder ­ jb@litquake.org
www.litquake.org

p. 415-710-4704; f.  415-550-7825

P.O. Box 720125, San Francisco, CA 94172-0125

reworked piece that i read last night

antlers.
hunting.
sex.
deer blinds.
musty smell of cabins.
smell of old wood panelling and american beer.
dirt under nails.
guns that are never fired.
the sharp smell of blood when the carcass comes home. open flesh strapped to hoods of american cars. never on a foreign car - something about blood and steel that can only come from detroit. horrifying and sexual all at once. violence carved into skins and honored on the wall. i wonder if culture allowed it - if you would put the hips of every woman you fucked up there. mounted on that wall. cleaned of flesh and bone and love and sweat. bleached and sterile. bones of a conquest. of a moment. of destroying something you weren't ever meant to have.

once i laid naked at 3am on the roof of my parents house. you could climb out through the bathroom window. i went out a lot to listen to my radio when they weren't home. but that night with stars and branches and moon owning the sky - i jerked off for the first time with roof shingles scratching into my back and at sixteen with blood on my shoulders, i was my own trophy. these hips were owned by me. and i would put them on my wall - to honor -

omg - sometimes the american combination of culture and commerce just cracks me up!

Queer Open Mic on Friday the 13th

I am so excited about the next QOM. Not only is there an extra week off to get all rested and polish up those poems - but we have one of the finest poets in the country coming over and she's bringing her accordion!

J. Fantôme Wilber is a traveller girl who loves words, wandering ghosts, wondertales, and whiskey.  She tells stories because she is stories.  She writes poetry and prose about desire and freedom and danger, travel, nights of boozing, her misspent youth, smoky clubs, and other things that make her ghost-heart thump faster.   She writes magical realist fiction about things like mysterious deaths, men who get turned into bears, girls who live in lakes, and the circus.  When performing, she often accompanies herself on the accordion.  She has run away with the circus five times, and other than being a writer she is also a musician, human pincushion, glass-walker, burlesque dancer, and clown; and she has been known to spin punk rock records at various bars throughout the midwest.   You can find out more about her by visiting her website: http://sadandbeautifulworld.net/.



Queer Open Mic
July 13
730 sign up, 8pm show
@ $3 Bill Cafe
1800 Market Street in SF

(no subject)

sometimes we burn the fire
sometimes it burns us

ETA: what are your favorite fire quotes?
here's another to get the ball rolling
"you play with matches little doggie - you get burned"

(daveroguesf i am looking to you to catch that reference)