Moonlit Guttery Team performing for ScratchPDX (2011)
A. Molotkov, John Sibley Williams, Carrie-Ann Tkaczyk
Moonlit Guttery Team performing for ScratchPDX (2011)
A. Molotkov, John Sibley Williams, Carrie-Ann Tkaczyk
A. Molotkov–Producer, poet, vocals, handsonic, duduk, percussion Bruce Greene–poet, percussion Carrie-Ann Tkaczyk–poet, vocals David Cooke–poet Ragon Linde–Music Director, music Shawn Austin–poet, percussion
Raining Back Up performance at Broadway Books Spring 2011.
A. Molotkov–poet, vocals
John Sibley Williams–poet, vocals
David Cooke–Poet, vocals
Ragon Linde–Music Director
Carrie-Ann Tkaczyk–poet, vocals
I am certain that everyone has stories. I’m equally convinced that everyone is capable of writing these stories up into novels, short stories, articles, letters, notes, emails, blogs, texts, bumper stickers, billboards, songs, or graffiti. Writing is the legacy of our opposable thumbs and our ridiculously labyrinthed brains. However, just as not all runners are equal, nor all athletes, all writing is certainly not equal. At some point during my college years I promised myself to never, ever waste my precious time reading junk. Never. Unless it’s a magazine. Then it’s all bets off. For several years I only read the classics. Only the names bound in those Literary Anthologies you read in college: Hardy, Whitman, Woolf, Shakespeare. Under my definition of “classic”, Steinbeck was a bit of an upstart. Then after living in Nepal, I went through a long bout of only reading Indian writers—preferably ones who used magic realism. Do you know how difficult it was to make a steady diet of this writing? Salmon Rushdie hasn’t written that many things, nor has Gita Meeta, nor Tagore. It was like eating a very limited diet of only orange vegetables. Yummy, but limiting. My creativity, like a body on
Recently I wrote a list of books that influenced my writing and I thought it would be interesting to pose a question to this writing group. Tell me about a book or author that inspires your writing. The Guttery responses were (not) surprising. Bruce Greene‘s writing scratches like fingernails down the vertebrae of class and culture. Listen to the performance, Love Outlives Us, and you’ll appreciate that the writers who influenced Bruce were Kenneth Patchen and John Steinbeck. Bruce claims that he likes them both because they tackle “big ideas and are thought provoking.” Bruce does too. His “Goldfish” piece read in the Moonlit Guttery’s reading of Love Outlives Us uses the metaphor of a harmless goldfish to pry open the box of the Vietnam war. My mother, whose brother’s life was shattered by his three tours in Vietnam, could not sleep after listening to Bruce read his piece. She told me that Bruce’s story gave her a new perspective on her brother’s life and the cultural forces that led to his decision to do three tours. Bruce has published his memoir of his Vista years on the web, Above This Wall. Here is an excerpt from Bruce’s memoir. It
An icy rain chills us in Portland tonight. My daughter and I stand on the corner waiting for a light. Rain drips down my hair, into my neck, and I shrug deeper in my coat. My daughter’s hand feels like a puckered fish. All I can concentrate on is that I need the interminably long light to turn so that we can race into her Taekwondo class. I’m so focused on willing the light to turn, on running into a warm room, that I almost don’t see the elderly man on the other side of the street. He is creeping down the crosswalk, an enormous clear plastic bag floating over his head like a strange astronaut’s helmet, or a jellyfish. I only really notice him after I see a man in a t-shirt racing toward him and catching him by the arm. I wonder why the guy running only has a t-shit on in this weather, and then I notice the old man, notice how weak he looks and I think to myself good, that guy is helping the old man. I would have helped him, but he’s being helped, so . . . Then the guy in the t-shirt
Veteran’s Day 2010 Adventure at Tony’s Tavern. Tony’s Tavern pulsed with poetry not song last night when David Cooke stood in as guest MC. Guttery members featured here all took a turn.
I’m not sure if I should let out our secret. Bottles in NE’s Beaumont area has a fabulously private room for writers to meet, write, and create in a cave-like room. We got lot’s done on our site. Check out our new look.
Come see some Guttery members make their debut at Tony’s Tavern. Starts at 8:00. Come see us there!!! If for no other reason, come to see Portland’s original bacchanalian Open Mic.
I bumbled into a gem of a blog tonight. While moderating my own personal blog, I accidentally clicked on the “Next Blog” button. Just like Alice, I fell into a fantastic world, one just right for book lovers: www.bookfutures.com. The site is a manifesto on the future of books. Affiliated with If:book London, the site’s director, Chris Meade, states that Bookfutures.com is “a think and do tank exploring the future of the book as our culture moves from printed page to networked screen, and the potential of new media for creative readers and writers.” Though I shudder at the thought of our culture as moving from printed page, the website’s positive energy drew me in. A piece in particular is taken from the introduction of Bob Stein’s Taxonomy of Social Reading. Bob’s predictions the about social potential of collaborative reading are persuasive and intriguing. To him the social aspects of Kindles and Blackberries are just the beginning. He describes experiments with “networked books” as having exciting social potential. Following this entry is a lyrical, reflective letter written to the Chris Meade from the poet David Hart. The poet’s words reminded me again of why I love books and why they
