Yes. A Thousand Times Yes.

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/grandmas-superhero-therapy-18

Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 was incredible. Absolutely incredible. It was hands down the best film yet, the acting was up to par, and the screenplay was definitely a huge improvement since Movie 6.

All of the plot changes were made to make the film flow better as a film . They were clearly made because they would have required a.) too much explanation b.) more characters and actors c.) too much time.

The only two unnecessary parts were when Harry and Hermione were dancing and then when they were naked in the Horcrux. The only change in plot that I really wanted to see was Wormtail's death being done correctly. I wish more tension had been built in the particular scenes and that the wizarding war was more prevalent (i.e. Harry walks around too much and there's not enough threat that he is in constant danger).

Other than that .... mischief managed.

The Beginning Of The End

"Grief"

Matthew Dickman

When grief comes to you as a purple gorilla

you must count yourself lucky.

You must offer her what’s left

of your dinner, the book you were trying to finish

you must put aside,

and make her a place to sit at the foot of your bed,

her eyes moving from the clock

to the television and back again.

I am not afraid. She has been here before

and now I can recognize her gait

as she approaches the house.

Some nights, when I know she’s coming,

I unlock the door, lie down on my back,

and count her steps

from the street to the porch.

Tonight she brings a pencil and a ream of paper,

tells me to write down

everyone I have ever known,

and we separate them between the living and the dead

so she can pick each name at random.

I play her favorite Willie Nelson album

because she misses Texas

but I don’t ask why.

She hums a little,

the way my brother does when he gardens.

We sit for an hour

while she tells me how unreasonable I’ve been,

crying in the checkout line,

refusing to eat, refusing to shower,

all the smoking and all the drinking.

Eventually she puts one of her heavy

purple arms around me, leans

her head against mine,

and all of a sudden things are feeling romantic.

So I tell her,

things are feeling romantic.

She pulls another name, this time

from the dead,

and turns to me in that way that parents do

so you feel embarrassed or ashamed of something.

Romantic? she says,

reading the name out loud, slowly,

so I am aware of each syllable, each vowel

wrapping around the bones like new muscle,

the sound of that person’s body

and how reckless it is,

how careless that his name is in one pile and not the other.

Everything, Everything

Portland has been a relief in this long journey. Here is some of the music that has been following and shaping this trip lately.

"Willow Tree" Chad VanGaalen

"Heartbeats" The Knife

"ThunderRoad" The Boss

Go

"Here is the instruction: Only connect. Wherever you are, right now, pay attention. Forever."

- Sylvia Boorstein, Meditation Teacher

I needed this day, thanks Portland

"the laughing heart"
charles bukowski

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

Welcome To The Beginning

"The Hill" Barnaby Furnas

"Heartbreak Ridge" Barnaby Furnas

Pullman, WA

It's always a good night to listen to Jason.

Laying in bed in Ashland, OR

Hello, Northwest - I missed you

I Would Steal Horses

for you, if there were any left,
give a dozen of the best
to your father, the auto mechanic
in the small town where you were born

and where he will die sometime by dark.
I am afraid of his hands, which have
rebuilt more of the small parts
of this world than I ever will.

I would sign treaties for you, take
every promise as the last lie, the last
point after which we both refuse the exact.

I would wrap us both in old blankets
hold every disease tight against our skin.

Maybe I Need You

This month has been one long search to places I didn't know were inside me. I'm pushing them out -- I'm depleting myself of the things I should have destroyed and conquered long long ago.

"Maybe I need you the way that big moon needs that open sea.

Maybe I didn't even know I was here until I saw you holding me.

Give me one room to come home to."

This is what we shall conquer when the earth is no longer ours

"Air Empathy" Jeffrey McDaniel

On the red-eye from Seattle, a two year-old
in the seat behind me screeches

his little guts out. Instead of dreaming
of stuffing a wad of duct tape

into his mouth, I envy him, how he lets
his pain hang out. I wish I too could drill

a pipeline into the fields of ache, tap
a howl. How long would I need to sob

before the lady beside me dropped
her fashion rag, dipped a palm

into the puddle of me? How many
squeals before another passenger

joined in? Soon the stewardess hunched
over the drink cart, the pilot gushing

into the controls, the entire plane, an arrow

of grief, quivering through the sky.

A silent bird

I was just thinking about how much I love this video recently.

"Peacebone" Animal Collective.

SONGS AND VIDEOS

So much goodness.

Beyonce "Why Don't You Love Me?"

Stateless "Bloodstream"

Jurassic 5 "Swing set"

Poems On The Pacific

April Ranger and I completed our first tour together -- we traveled up and down the West Coast complete with adventures, friends, poetry, and mega resorts. It was an incredible experience - absolutely stunning and personally reenergizing. April is a wonderful person and someone I am proud to call my friend. Here are some photos from the trip:

Roslyn, WA

Pacific Coast Highway

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Los Angeles, CA

Seattle, WA

Website and tour dates

Here's the new Gringo Choir website:

http://www.thegringochoir.com

Here are the current tour dates for my tour next month with April Ranger:

May 9th Portland Poetry Slam
115 NW 5th Ave., Portland, Oregon

May 11th Seattle Poetry Slam
Open Mic @ 8pm, Feature @ 9pm
1114 Howell 2219 4th Ave., Seattle, WA

May 12th Seattle Pacific University
Details TBA Seattle, WA

May 14th Nathan Hale High School

Seattle, WA

May 14th Roslyn, WA

May 17th Sacramento Poetry Center
Feature @ 7pm
Hot Poetry In The Park, Sacramento, CA
http://www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org/

May 19th Berkeley Poetry Slam
Show at 8:30pm @ The Starry Plough
3101 Shattuck Ave Berkeley, CA

May 20th John Natsoulas Gallery
Feature @ 8pm
521 1st Street, Davis CA

May 23rd The Amsterdam Cafe
Feature @ 7pm
North Hollywood/Los Angeles, CA
http://www.amsterdamcafenoho.com/

May 24th Southern Oregon University

Details TBA, Medford, OR

May 25th, Da Poetry Lounge

Hollywood, CA

May 26th Lightbulb Mouth Radio Hour
Show at 8pm
149 Linden Avenue, Long Beach, CA
http://lightbulbmouth.com/

New Shows New Summer New Plans

Everything Wide and New

ADVENTURE TIME!

SO much is going on right now.

I just organized and produced the 2010 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational with an incredible group of people and it was a great experience.

At CUPSI, The Gringo Choir premiered "A Taste Of The Atlantic," our new multi-media poetry show. It went unbelievably well. About a week later, The GC flew down to Arkansas on another crazy adventure to perform at Hendrix College. It was a much-needed learning experience as to how to mold this show to work for our tour this fall.

The Gringo Choir is going to be on a Nation Wide Tour September and October. We're going to begin booking asap. And in the middle of the tour I'm going to have to go compete at the Individual World Poetry Slam Invitational in Philadelphia as I am the 2010 IWPS representative for the Boston Cantab Lounge. So yeah. I'm really excited. This is cool, guys.

I'm currently wrapping everything up with my book and publishing before I go on tour in three weeks. Everything should be done and ready to go to the printers by Sunday - which is awesome. The book is called "A history of silence" and will have 20 poems and several photos in it.

I'll be on tour May 9th-27th with April Ranger and I can't wait. It's a bit stressful at the moment with so many shows being arranged at the moment but we have plane tickets and ourselves and some shows currently booked. I'll post those as more come in.

Top Gun and Milkshakes and Poetry

This is what life has been of late:

Poetrypoetrypoetrypoetry

workworkworkworkworkwork

poetrypoetry

gringochoirgringochoir

cupsicupsicupsicupsicupsicupsicupsi

tourtourtourtour

workworkworkworkworkwork

bookbookbookbookbook

tourtourtourtour

workworkworkworkworkwork

poetrypoetry

gringochoirgringochoir

cupsicupsicupsicupsicupsicupsicupsi

milkshakes

and of course

For Emma, Forever Ago

It's the end of March. How did this happen?

So much is going on this Spring it's almost to much to comprehend.

So much time has passed since I posted on here I almost feel guilty.

More updates coming soon. Meanwhile, this is all I have been listening to. Weather appropriate.