| Dr. Sues, Tom Waits, Nancy Stark Smith, Elvis, A Hallucination, The Poets of Penny Lane, Richard Braughtigan Sculptor Duane Hansen and Kris Kristofferson |
1989 By the time I graduated in 1989, the hair and the beard were
gone. I had settled down considerably (though I still did Monday nights at
Penny Lane.) I had begun working at the Boulder County Rape Crisis
Team and was doing groups there. I had been on a stake with a
detective on the University of Colorado campus, walking the
neighborhoods looking for a serial rapist. I was about to start work in
Denver, setting up trauma groups for crime victims in their
neighborhoods under the Reagan-Bush Crime Bill. I was recruited to
work in Hawaii in 1991 from a National Coalition Against Sexual Assault
Conference where I met Fannie Flagg in the parking lot. She was
another of my heroes. It was yet another blessing, another karmically
charged moment that seemed to push me down my new path as a crime
victim/survivor advocate and therapist.
I arrived in Hawaii in August of 1991 to start my new life working on the
west coast of the island of O'ahu to work with a primarily Native Hawaiian
population. My boss told me I'd be doing therapy in pigeon English.
I stood in the front room on that first day when a beat up car pulled off
the highway.
The couple inside began to fight, the man was beating the woman with
his fists as she cover her head and screamed.
I started out to the car.
The two local nurses who worked in the clinic with the elderly literally
tackled me.
"Don't ever interrupt a domestic fight" they told me.
Even though the women on the coast were like women all over America.
They were out there, doing their best to break up violence and provide
alternatives for the community's women.
I settled in to do the sex abuse work.
gone. I had settled down considerably (though I still did Monday nights at
Penny Lane.) I had begun working at the Boulder County Rape Crisis
Team and was doing groups there. I had been on a stake with a
detective on the University of Colorado campus, walking the
neighborhoods looking for a serial rapist. I was about to start work in
Denver, setting up trauma groups for crime victims in their
neighborhoods under the Reagan-Bush Crime Bill. I was recruited to
work in Hawaii in 1991 from a National Coalition Against Sexual Assault
Conference where I met Fannie Flagg in the parking lot. She was
another of my heroes. It was yet another blessing, another karmically
charged moment that seemed to push me down my new path as a crime
victim/survivor advocate and therapist.
I arrived in Hawaii in August of 1991 to start my new life working on the
west coast of the island of O'ahu to work with a primarily Native Hawaiian
population. My boss told me I'd be doing therapy in pigeon English.
I stood in the front room on that first day when a beat up car pulled off
the highway.
The couple inside began to fight, the man was beating the woman with
his fists as she cover her head and screamed.
I started out to the car.
The two local nurses who worked in the clinic with the elderly literally
tackled me.
"Don't ever interrupt a domestic fight" they told me.
Even though the women on the coast were like women all over America.
They were out there, doing their best to break up violence and provide
alternatives for the community's women.
I settled in to do the sex abuse work.
Kris Kristofferson
1987 The Kris Kristofferson article was problematic.
It had a crazy lead. Kristofferson and I had just met. He said
"how quickly can we do this?" I said, "If we are sharp in
about forty-five minutes." "Let's be sharp then," he said.
We did it. Afterward he invited me to the sound check.
There were just a few of us in the big auditorium. He did
"Sunday Morning Coming Down."
When He got to the part about the smell of fried chicken,
the microphone sparked and burned his lips. After he
recovered he mouthed "fried lips" into the Mic and finished
the song. Then he segued into the "Pilgrim Chapter 33." It
was awesome. It was one of my favorite songs from one of
my favorite performers.....and I got chicken skin from head
to toe.
Later my friend and folk singer Bill Sell showed up. I had
tipped him off about the interview. It was a once in a life
time shot and Bill tried to give him a tape of songs, much in
the same way the Kristofferson had plagued Johnny Cash
with his tapes.
He didn't take it.
"If I listen to it, you could charge me with plagiarism later,
saying I got my song off your tape...."
He was polite, but on.
I muffed the lead.
1987 The Kris Kristofferson article was problematic.
It had a crazy lead. Kristofferson and I had just met. He said
"how quickly can we do this?" I said, "If we are sharp in
about forty-five minutes." "Let's be sharp then," he said.
We did it. Afterward he invited me to the sound check.
There were just a few of us in the big auditorium. He did
"Sunday Morning Coming Down."
When He got to the part about the smell of fried chicken,
the microphone sparked and burned his lips. After he
recovered he mouthed "fried lips" into the Mic and finished
the song. Then he segued into the "Pilgrim Chapter 33." It
was awesome. It was one of my favorite songs from one of
my favorite performers.....and I got chicken skin from head
to toe.
Later my friend and folk singer Bill Sell showed up. I had
tipped him off about the interview. It was a once in a life
time shot and Bill tried to give him a tape of songs, much in
the same way the Kristofferson had plagued Johnny Cash
with his tapes.
He didn't take it.
"If I listen to it, you could charge me with plagiarism later,
saying I got my song off your tape...."
He was polite, but on.
I muffed the lead.
Tom Waits
1977 If you download Internet explorer7
from Microsoft (it's free) the browser has an
enlarge feature that makes everything easier
to read.) But what I want to show you here is
the photograph. The article itself is fun, but
obviously shortened to fill space. It doesn't
read as well as some of my later pieces. It is
one of my first entertainment pieces. I wanted
to put my whole night in the article. I wrote it
that way. There wasn't room for it.
The late Mark Billingsly was the photographer
on this article and did some fantastic portraits
as well as concert shots. We hung out back
stage after the show. There was a big ice filled
chest filled with Hieniken on the floor for the
crew. Waits didn't drink. We talked for about
an hour. At one point a women came in
dressed to the nines. He said "I don't usually
get them like that."
He asked her if she'd like to come to California
with him. She said yes. The next album was
"Blue Valentine." It was full of images of a
Nebraska girl lost in the big city who got
abandoned, robbed and got put on the streets.
The mind does fill the gaps, doesn't it?
I think she was a ringer.
I don’t know how I started doing the present-
tense style that I built my career on. I never
worked less than three jobs in Lincoln while I
was in school. Most of the time over night on
the radio. All the writing I did was single draft
and intense. It’s a blur.
I didn’t think about it, I just did it.
The style is part radio, part writing fiction and
part rock journalism. I never missed an issue
of Rolling Stone Magazine and the Village
Voice in the 1970-1980s.
I'd spend all day Saturday reading.
I'd had everything Tom Waits had recorded at
this point. I was listening to "Foreign Affair"
Non-stop. That and Joni Mitchell's "Hegira,"
Bob Dylan's "Street Legal" and Van Morrison's
"Common One."
Arlo Guthrie was my first big interview. I'm still
looking for that article. And Waits was number
two.
1977 If you download Internet explorer7
from Microsoft (it's free) the browser has an
enlarge feature that makes everything easier
to read.) But what I want to show you here is
the photograph. The article itself is fun, but
obviously shortened to fill space. It doesn't
read as well as some of my later pieces. It is
one of my first entertainment pieces. I wanted
to put my whole night in the article. I wrote it
that way. There wasn't room for it.
The late Mark Billingsly was the photographer
on this article and did some fantastic portraits
as well as concert shots. We hung out back
stage after the show. There was a big ice filled
chest filled with Hieniken on the floor for the
crew. Waits didn't drink. We talked for about
an hour. At one point a women came in
dressed to the nines. He said "I don't usually
get them like that."
He asked her if she'd like to come to California
with him. She said yes. The next album was
"Blue Valentine." It was full of images of a
Nebraska girl lost in the big city who got
abandoned, robbed and got put on the streets.
The mind does fill the gaps, doesn't it?
I think she was a ringer.
I don’t know how I started doing the present-
tense style that I built my career on. I never
worked less than three jobs in Lincoln while I
was in school. Most of the time over night on
the radio. All the writing I did was single draft
and intense. It’s a blur.
I didn’t think about it, I just did it.
The style is part radio, part writing fiction and
part rock journalism. I never missed an issue
of Rolling Stone Magazine and the Village
Voice in the 1970-1980s.
I'd spend all day Saturday reading.
I'd had everything Tom Waits had recorded at
this point. I was listening to "Foreign Affair"
Non-stop. That and Joni Mitchell's "Hegira,"
Bob Dylan's "Street Legal" and Van Morrison's
"Common One."
Arlo Guthrie was my first big interview. I'm still
looking for that article. And Waits was number
two.
The Poets Of Penny Lane
1987, Boulder Colorado
By early 1987 I was working on my
masters degree. I was enmeshed with
Buddhist psychology, meditation and
performance art. Dancers, poets and
musicians were everywhere. Everyone
smelled like incense or of mountain air.
The tempo had picked up considerably. I
remember the thrill of fast cars running
down the mountainside beside fast
streams. The blind twists and turns of the
mountain roads. In town, the flat irons
loomed in the background in the foothills
like chunks of milk chocolate cleaved by a
butcher knife for the kettle melt.
After the wide pallet of the prairie, the
mountains were i another planet.
I felt a lot like the guy in the song
"Renaissance Fair" by the Byrds. "I think
maybe I'm dreaming....."
At free-form dances on the floor with
dancers in scarves doing dervish like
spins and at coffee house performances I
was flooded with new images and people.
My senses were alive.
One night I saw a grunge band doing a
song called "Giget Goes To Hell." The
lead singer was sounding a lot like Jim
Morrison and apologetic about it to.
"I can't help it if I sound like Jim Morrison"
he whined.
That was Tom Peters in a vulnerable
moment. Usually he was up front and in
command. He looks like Erol Flynn and
has that swashbuckler persona when he's
not thoughtful and withdrawn.
He runs a book store called the Beat Book
Store. He a tremendous writer. His
memory for the poetry and prose of other
people is voluminous. Well read, good
looking, and mysteriously informed about
everything that was going on, he was like
God's Gabriel.
Out there on bronze edges, belly aching
and praising the ongoing.
I hooked up with Tom and Penny Lane
where I offered to tape his open mic
poetry readings. And that's what I did
every Monday night for three years.
I watched the poets come and go.
I pressed record and pause.
That was the job.
Record and pause.
I watched Tom watch the poets. He kept
things moving. Kept people to their time
limits. Acted like papa. Everybody got to
read. Nobody was left out. He'd shoot me
amused smiles every so often to see if I
caught what was going on.
I usually did.
It was all peak.
I share a love of live performance with
Tom that goes back to my own garage
band days those rare basement parties
where we played to a small crowd, or the
church social where we got paid in
Orange Crush and hot dogs.
One big wild aside, the scenes.
The "So You Think You're a Poet"
tradition continues at the Laughing Goat
Coffee House in Boulder, Colorado
soyoureapoet's Calender
Sep 4 2006 8:00P
Annual Labor Day Open Poetry Reading
@ The Laughing Goat
Sep 11 2006 8:00P
5th Annual September 11th Memorial
Reading & Presentation @ The Laughing
Goat Coffeehouse
Sep 18 2006 8:00P
Junior Burke, Steven Taylor & Todd
McCarty @ The Laughing Goat
Coffeehouse
Sep 25 2006 8:00P
Laura Wright & Daron Mueller @ The
Laughing Goat
Oct 2 2006 8:00P
1st Annual Yom Kippur Reading of Allen
Ginsberg's KADDISH @ The Laughing
Goat
Oct 9 2006 8:00P
Jeff Chester & Michael Price @ The
Laughing Goat
Oct 16 2006 8:00P
Niko Murray & Michael Wojczuk @ The
Laughing Goat Coffehouse
Oct 23 2006 8:00P
19th Annual Jack Kerouac Memorial
Reading @ The laughing goat
Oct 30 2006 8:00P
Devil's Night Costume Poetry Reading @
Laughing Goat
Nov 6 2006 8:00P
19 Year Anniversary of "So, You're a
Poet," Reading Series @ Laughing Goat
Nov 13 2006 8:00P
Joe Richey, Sue Rhynhart & Gary Allen @
the laughing goat
Nov 16 2006 8:00P
Tom Peters @ Lyons Itinerant Poetry
Society (LIPS)
1987, Boulder Colorado
By early 1987 I was working on my
masters degree. I was enmeshed with
Buddhist psychology, meditation and
performance art. Dancers, poets and
musicians were everywhere. Everyone
smelled like incense or of mountain air.
The tempo had picked up considerably. I
remember the thrill of fast cars running
down the mountainside beside fast
streams. The blind twists and turns of the
mountain roads. In town, the flat irons
loomed in the background in the foothills
like chunks of milk chocolate cleaved by a
butcher knife for the kettle melt.
After the wide pallet of the prairie, the
mountains were i another planet.
I felt a lot like the guy in the song
"Renaissance Fair" by the Byrds. "I think
maybe I'm dreaming....."
At free-form dances on the floor with
dancers in scarves doing dervish like
spins and at coffee house performances I
was flooded with new images and people.
My senses were alive.
One night I saw a grunge band doing a
song called "Giget Goes To Hell." The
lead singer was sounding a lot like Jim
Morrison and apologetic about it to.
"I can't help it if I sound like Jim Morrison"
he whined.
That was Tom Peters in a vulnerable
moment. Usually he was up front and in
command. He looks like Erol Flynn and
has that swashbuckler persona when he's
not thoughtful and withdrawn.
He runs a book store called the Beat Book
Store. He a tremendous writer. His
memory for the poetry and prose of other
people is voluminous. Well read, good
looking, and mysteriously informed about
everything that was going on, he was like
God's Gabriel.
Out there on bronze edges, belly aching
and praising the ongoing.
I hooked up with Tom and Penny Lane
where I offered to tape his open mic
poetry readings. And that's what I did
every Monday night for three years.
I watched the poets come and go.
I pressed record and pause.
That was the job.
Record and pause.
I watched Tom watch the poets. He kept
things moving. Kept people to their time
limits. Acted like papa. Everybody got to
read. Nobody was left out. He'd shoot me
amused smiles every so often to see if I
caught what was going on.
I usually did.
It was all peak.
I share a love of live performance with
Tom that goes back to my own garage
band days those rare basement parties
where we played to a small crowd, or the
church social where we got paid in
Orange Crush and hot dogs.
One big wild aside, the scenes.
The "So You Think You're a Poet"
tradition continues at the Laughing Goat
Coffee House in Boulder, Colorado
soyoureapoet's Calender
Sep 4 2006 8:00P
Annual Labor Day Open Poetry Reading
@ The Laughing Goat
Sep 11 2006 8:00P
5th Annual September 11th Memorial
Reading & Presentation @ The Laughing
Goat Coffeehouse
Sep 18 2006 8:00P
Junior Burke, Steven Taylor & Todd
McCarty @ The Laughing Goat
Coffeehouse
Sep 25 2006 8:00P
Laura Wright & Daron Mueller @ The
Laughing Goat
Oct 2 2006 8:00P
1st Annual Yom Kippur Reading of Allen
Ginsberg's KADDISH @ The Laughing
Goat
Oct 9 2006 8:00P
Jeff Chester & Michael Price @ The
Laughing Goat
Oct 16 2006 8:00P
Niko Murray & Michael Wojczuk @ The
Laughing Goat Coffehouse
Oct 23 2006 8:00P
19th Annual Jack Kerouac Memorial
Reading @ The laughing goat
Oct 30 2006 8:00P
Devil's Night Costume Poetry Reading @
Laughing Goat
Nov 6 2006 8:00P
19 Year Anniversary of "So, You're a
Poet," Reading Series @ Laughing Goat
Nov 13 2006 8:00P
Joe Richey, Sue Rhynhart & Gary Allen @
the laughing goat
Nov 16 2006 8:00P
Tom Peters @ Lyons Itinerant Poetry
Society (LIPS)
