the weekend that was

Congrats to Amy who had a doll on exhibit, and performed a poetry reading at the Venus Envy. It was a pretty wild night weather-wise and the lights went out before Amy was to read, so she began reading under an emergency light, but luckily the power returned midway. There was a great turnout despite the deluge which continued throughout the night.

One highlight was this old codger who was standing behind me while Amy was reading. He'd been talking to the hors d'oeuvres ever since we'd gotten there, but when Amy started reading i heard him comment, "I can't hear a word that she's saying" as he butted in front of me. Well dressed in a gray suit, he had the kind of lucid insanity that you're allowed to have when you're elderly.

I can't wait, anyway, Amy completed a poem inspired by Ryan's birth and he belted out, "That one wasn't too cheery!" One of Amy's friends responded, "NEITHER IS LABOR!" which was priceless. Yes, it was a rowdy scene. The crazy guy continued to commentate, Cindy read a poem about San Francisco and he just started yelling "Haight Ashberry! ha ha Haight Ashberry!" even after the reading he walked by us and repeated it again. Great stuff.

Mona Webb did a reading that was off the hook, straight out of the Def Poetry Slam. There was belly-dancing plus live music, it was a very cool scene.

Sunday, we hit the Festival in Lafayette which was a blast. We met up with Tommy and Connie and caught Carimi from Haiti, and Maria de Barros from Cape Verde which were cool acts. We didn't want to push Ryan too much in the heat, so we headed out and luckily we were able to catch Buckwheat Zydeco perform live on the radio, he is cool. Hats off to Lafayette for broadcasting their festival live, gotta love it. I always have a better time at this one than the New Orleans Jazz Fest.