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...and they lived happily ever after. Smith & Lady: poets, artists, photographers & adventurers.
Our relationship was forged to the soundtrack of Yoko Ono's magic,
frenetic, love-laden song, "Walking On Thin Ice." ( play song )
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Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
Wednesday, May 1st, 2013
Jawbone 2013
Full weekend of poetry and music . . . this Friday-Sunday May 3-5 is the 28th Annual Jawbone Open Mic Poetry event in Kent, Ohio, and Saturday May 4 is the 3rd Annual Blue SKy Folk Festival in Kirtland, Ohio.
We’re going to both.
Blue Sky is hosted by the East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church (I’m more of a pedestrian universalist myself), and my Ma-in-Law is part of the festival committee, so I was volunteered to write up short articles on four of the performing groups for the press. I’ll post those next.
Jawbone was begun and is still hosted by Maj Ragain, one of the good people on this earth, and a top-shelf poet as well.
Stolen from Facebook:
“Dr. Major D. Ragain, an instructor of English at Kent State since 1981, teaches courses such as Creative Writing (introductory and advanced poetry writing workshops), Survey of American Literature 1800 to Present, and Survey of American Literature, and Introduction to Poetry, among others. He previously taught in Illinois at Frontier College, Olney Community College and Southern Illinois University and in North Carolina at Winston-Salem State College. He earned his Ph.D. at Kent State in 1990, his master’s at the University of Illinois in 1963 and his bachelor’s from Eastern Illinois University in 1962. Today, Ragain is a successful poet with both written and audio publications.”
Jawbone, as well as Maj’s monthly open mics, are a friendly, stress-free reading venue. 30 or 40 of us sit in a circle and whomever wants to reads a poem, then someone else jumps in with an answer poem or starts a new vector. There is no feature, sign-up sheet, or order . . . no rules except be polite and don’t hog tongue time. It’s a mixture of young and old, and the yearly Jawbone attracts out-of-state poets as well, so it’s a heady ambiance.
Kent monthly open mic readings + 28th annual Jawbone – foto Smith
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Friday, March 22nd, 2013
Peter ball on keyboard, me at mic – foto Lady K
Well, I dood it. Something I’ve never done and was convinced I couldn’t do — I got up on stage with a band and in front of poets and strangers sang three songs.
I made lots of mistakes — the audience laughing caused me to laugh and lose my place a couple times . . . I lost timing because the band played live over our original recordings and my memorized musical cues were covered . . . and not only we did we not practice as a group, ever, but our performance was the first time I’d met DJ Dimitri van Puptent and electric guitar / tabla player Rick Wager . . . keyboardist and composer of the music Peter Ball was the only one who’d played with everyone.
Yet it worked, at least for me, especially for my first time. The 20-minute set went whooooosh and was over just like that. Had fun and another fine time one-of-a-kind adventure.
I want to thank Peter Ball who tried for 15 years to get me to record with him before I finally gave in in 2002 and made a fool of myself . . . after I got used to being the fool, we created some fine unique tunes together. Jamming with Peter has changed for the better my reading style, and I’ve written a slew of new poems for us to jam on.
If we get a chance to do this again, I’ll be there.
I & I at mic – foto Lady K
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Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
Mad Sing You poster by Xela
In 26 hours I’m going on stage with a keyboardist, an electric guitarist, and a DJ to sing three songs to a crowd of people. I’ve never done this, never sang in public, mostly because I can’t. But why should I let that stop me? Blues singers don’t have to be able to sing, and as my lyrics warn, “I’m more into growl and groaning, maybe some mellow moaning.” We will be doing “Bare Cat Blues,” “Blowhard Blues,” and “Booze Lose Blues” . . . music by Peter Ball, lyrics and vocals by me.
“Mad Sing You”, the first “poetrymusic” festival, happens tomorrow night, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, from 7 to 10 PM, at Mahall’s 20 Lanes, 13200 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, OH.
Estimated performance times:
SHOW STARTS ~ 7:15-7:30 PM depending on crowd size
1. TOM ADAMS ~ 7:30 to 7:50
2. SHELLEY CHERNIN ~ 7:55 to 8:15
3. TRIBUTE TO JAZZ
(Vladimir Swirynsky, Art Berg and Brian Taylor) ~ 8:20 to 8:40
4. THE JESUS CRISIS EXPERIENCE ~ 8:45 to 9:05
10 MINUTE BREAK 9:05 to 9:15
5. T.M.GOTTL & ZACH ~ 9:20 to 9:40
6. SLEAZY WEASEL & THE TOWELS OF UNBELIEF
(Steven B. Smith, Peter Ball, Dimitri Van Puptent, Rick Wagar) ~ 9:45 to 10:05
7. LATEX MENAGERIE
(spoken word by Bree, Adam Brodsky and Russ Vidrick) ~ 10:10 to 10:30
8. dan smith & the DEEP CLEVELAND BAND ~ 10:35 to 10:55
“Bare Cat Blues,” “Blowhard Blues,” and “Booze Lose Blues” (plus 60 more) may be heard at reverbnation.com/mutantsmith.
Ms. Muse – foto Smith
Posted in Music, Photography, Poetry | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013
Mad Sing You, poster by Xela
In two weeks I get up in front of two musicians in front of a microfone in front of an audience and sing in public for my first time. I will have just turned 67.
This is amusing. When I was seven I was in the school Christmas play as part of the angelic chorus. When they heard me sing in rehearsal, they told me to try humming. When they heard me hum, they said lip sync instead.
The musical half of the band — Peter Ball — is trying to pre-record the basic music tracks, then have the DJ play that at the gig while Peter plays his synth.
We’ve hit a snag on the pre-record, so if that’s not resolved, we’ll scrap the soundtrack and just do Peter on his keyboard.
If for some reason that goes south, I’ll get up and tap my foot and clap my hands and growl/sing my three blues numbers solo.
Going to do “Bare Cat Blues,” “Blowhard Blues,” and “Booze Lose Blues,” (all 3 free listen & download at reverbnation.com/mutantsmith).
This will be interesting.
Sleazy Weasel – foto Smith
Posted in Art, Music, Photography | No Comments »
Monday, February 11th, 2013
icu – foto Smith
A final draft from the vault before moving on . . . a fun bouncy eco-blues from twos year ago.
Click here to hear Onward Ho . . . 4:26.
Onward Ho (the song)
We clawed through the sea
belly flopped onto land
till wretched in wealth
we poisoned our glands
We cut down the trees
befouled our own nest
gave the dogs fleas
and messed with the rest
And now running us
greed dressed in suits
a big moral muss
that none can refute
Up through the stages with the goods for the bads
Releasing our rages and trashing our pad
For the balance of fair
is lost in this life
where our given share
is trickle-down lies
There’s more than enough
but not much more time
share some of the stuff
or pay for the crime
Because if you don’t
this card house will fall
be a world of won’t
collapse on us all
So down through the ages from the good to the bad
We’re still simple savages trashing our pad
— Smith, 2011
u c what’s happening – foto Smith
Posted in Music, Photography, Poetry | No Comments »
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