Blake Butler on Ustream

                Blake Butler speaks forcefully. Unfortunately he does not advise of these ustream readings beforehand. That’s a pity. You see, he speaks with such force you’d think he missed his calling as a preacher. Well, I’m not sure how many preachers drink Diet Cherry 7UP with Gin, but that’s irrelevant. Seeing his reading is a bit inspiring. Despite going on for over two hours, he refused to slow down or even ‘skim’ most poems. It was out of a basic desire to share some of the books he’d been reading that started it. What it ended up being was a marathon reading, moving so fast I could barely keep with what kept on flashing past my eyes and ears.  

                For those of you unfamiliar with Blake, he heads up the venerable institution “HTML Giant”.  He’s published a few books. Known for interviewing others, known for his readings, he’s a powerful force out of Atlanta, Georgia. This particular reading showed his passion for literature. Even his living quarters, darkly lit with piles and piles of books, gave off the aurora of a chaotic brilliance. Watching the reading only confirmed this belief. 

                “CEOs” was great. Apparently the writer did not care for CEOs at all. The CEOs were not appreciated by the protagonist. I found it pretty giant. Not just the 10,000 words of the poem, but the sprawling feel of it. Constantly it grew larger and larger. “Every CEO got three babies” one particular line stated. Watching the main character interact with the richer fans he had was funny. Rich fans (the CEOs children) asked him to mess up their fathers. As the protagonist wanted to do only that, it was a perfect circle of want and admiration. 

                “Today & Tomorrow” has Bill Murray’s face on the cover. Written by Ofelia Hunt, it is out next week. In the poem she apologizes to the TV for not using it. NPR may get more attention from her in the future. The amount of details is obscene. Chapter 6 of “Today & Tomorrow” got read as well.  Blake discussed his thoughts briefly about Bill Murray and Steve Martin during the in-between time, saying how they are good people with a lousy product. 

                "The Buddhist" by Dodie Bellamy got called ‘intense’. Apparently love requires for nothing to be glossed over. “Geeky in photos he’s handsome in person” had to be one of my favorite lines of the whole thing. Guess if I wanted to be conceited I’d say that line could be me, as I look awkward in online photos, hugging you for all it’s worth. It has an additional meaning as you sit in a chat room with countless others, many of whom you’ll never meet in person. Love hurts. 

                How to end such a large reading? Well, how about reading an entire novella. The novella, called “Dies: A Sentence” was written by Vanessa Place. As I realized he was going to try and read this entire twisting thing, I sat in disbelief. Even watching him was amazing. People ducked out as they understood Blake would not stop. Religion, property purchases, war, sex, blisters, marzipan, liberal magazines and countless other topics got filtered in and out. When a rhythm came along “out in” in particular, you really felt the sheer size of what Vanessa accomplished with the work. Occasionally the work itself mocked him, like the line “We had to keep reading”. 

                Drama came in the form of internet connectivity. Blake remained determined even as his internet connection showed hesitation. Perhaps the internet found the sweat pouring down his brow to be a bit much. It worried about Blake when it had no right. As it continued, I felt near lost in the huge pile of words. This reading made me wish I had the book ahead of time. I wanted to follow his reading in the book. Some followers were. Quickly the early hours of the day arrived. Guilt washed over me as I realized I could not possibly stay until the end. Whoever was lucky enough to last until the end had more determination than I did. 

                Everything felt epic. The length was epic. He has a personal blog which shows his development arc. Beginning in 2007, he moved forward, becoming better and better with each piece. In the early posts, you see the interaction and movement towards writing books. Seeing the comments from people like Tao Lin, I am filled with a slight amount of inspiration. I’m glad Blake Butler did this reading. Blake Butler is the boss you face on the highest levels of this great game called ‘life’.        

Ustream Team

Living their Lives.

                Cupcakes introduced the poetry reading. If you ever want to attract people to a reading, free food is usually a solid choice. Art exhibits are made better, freer, and more enjoyable with food offered. Unfortunately, I was online and unable to eat any of their food. Those there got some delicious baked goods. For those online, we had to make our own dinner and drink our own beers.

                “Dead Poets Society” got a shout-out. It makes sense for the Internet Poetry Society (aka BoyKittens) to read this out online. Steve Roggenbuck had part of it posted in real life as a form of inspiration. Robin Williams is an inspirational figure. His hairy arms make me feel better about myself. Unlike Robin Williams, I don’t need to shave my arms on a daily basis. 

                A few new faces were introduced. Cassandra Nguyen read Blake West on his tumblr. In fact, this was the second time this weekend I saw Cassandra, the first was the night prior at Ms. Troyan’s lovely abode. Since I had once encouraged her to meet Steve Roggenbuck, I feel that I helped push along this great meeting of the minds. 

                “Eat when you feel Sad” by Zachary German got some attention. Balloons got a lot of attention as well. As Brett Gallagher’s reading progressed of Richard Chiem’s work, they constantly tried to derail the proceeding. Richard Chiem was even there in the chat room, showing off his IPOD music skills.  It felt avant-garde. Constantly the reader tried to focus on the poetry but broke down into laughter. For other readings, Brett appeared to be treated as the “straight man” as they played volley ball with the balloons.

                The performance between Stephen Tully Dierks and Cassandra Nguyen went fantastic. Each one read a line. Slowly the action became hotter and hotter. A twist completely changed it up. Obviously energy drinks were put to good use for this performance. Perhaps it wasn’t the inappropriate amount of caffeine they consumed. Instead, it might have been the rowdy celebration of their cat’s birthday. Sunday, May 2^nd marked the celebration of their cat’s birth. 

                Poncho Peligroso (better known as the 2011 Poet Laureate) had one of his poems read during the broadcast. House plants were viciously tormented and abused during this time. I cried a little inside. Gardening happens to be a hobby of mine. So hearing about emotionally abused plants proved to be rather heavy for a Sunday evening. Thankfully, the ending of the poem made it worth everything. 

                Beach Sloth got read on ustream which was infinitely excellent. Cassandra Nguyen read my Lookbook post which felt great. Never before has anyone read one of my posts online before. In fact, I rarely even read them aloud in person. Hearing it read tempted me to do a potential PodCast at some indefinite point in the future. Right now, it is merely a thought. I’m curious to see how my delivery and inflection would change the reader’s perception of what I write. 

                After much coaxing, we got a reading of Brett Gallagher’s work Vessel. Vessel is something Brett has been working on for a while. It takes place in a Fjord in Scandinavia. Two main characters (whose names I can’t begin to spell) interact. Somehow I enjoy it; I like the delivery and the rhythm of it. Saturday night I heard a bit of it but I still wanted more. Brett’s stated it will be published at some point. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later, and I’ll definitely have my eye out for it. 

                Jackson Nieuwland had a great poem. The word ‘fuck’ got used more than I’ve heard from everyone in the entire week. Due to the strong language, it ended up being pretty funny. I try not to curse but fail most of the time. To err is to be human so the celebration of the exclamation point of words always is a bit relieving.  

                Finally the moment everyone was waiting for arrived. Cassandra Nguyen re-activated Facebook. A flood of friends came forth, after several added the incorrect Cassandra Nguyen (myself included, in my defense I only followed other people). Now she’s re-integrated into Facebook life. Things will be better for her, as countless online poets are there to ease her transition. As the UK went to sleep and New Zealand (UK-lite) woke up, one last poem remained.

                Stacey Teague got her poem “New Zealand Dinosaur” read by the collective group of four. The reading got passed off among each other. With each new line read by some with the prefix ‘popcorn’ they read it with as much gusto as you can muster on a Sunday night. 

                When they left, I remembered a New York Times article I read earlier on Sunday. It explained the allure of Soho in the late 70s/early 80s. Art movements are the most passionate in the beginning. They form tight-knit communities. Obviously the Boykittens have no geographic locale, but I feel closer to them, thousands of miles away, than I do with my coworkers. Boykittens have staked claim to their own friendly neighborhood on the internet. I guess it is the welcoming environment which has made itself a favorite bookmark on my browser.

                Have the Boykittens created the late 70s Soho of the internet? What do you think? I know my answer.