A short movie about Slam Poetry, Street Poetry, and Protest Poetry. There’s footage of poets on the streets of Chicago, at war protests in Washington D.C., and at the Green Mill where Slam Poetry started. Poets are some of the most passionate, corny, funny, serious, smart, philosophical, sad, and above all dedicated people you will ever meet. — Wes Heine (director)

I make a quick cameo at 1:15 right after Nina Corwin and Tim Cook. Enjoy!

The Bartender Dreams of White Moths by Karen Weyant

Of flutters pounding in her ears, tissue wings
snagging on loose wires of screen doors, burnt
crisp on streetlights, bent backwards around
the antennae of a car. She wakes up sweating,
thinking of bar napkins tearing on cans of beer,
bar stools, the heels of work boots heavy
with dust. One regular always sports jeans
stained with white paint, another wears
the wings of sweat stains under his arms.
Smoke rests in her mouth, coats her throat,
splits her skin. The jukebox echoes, Garth Brooks
scraping her hips, pinching her thighs.
She remembers all the last calls slipping
through the back door, hoping the night
insects grasping the screen will fly away.
They only cling tighter.

 
 
Dancing in Water

The ballet looked like
a school of colorful fish.
I have been drowning.
 
 

Recently while on tour I had the opportunity to visit my little brother in Austin, TX. Someone very close to us recommended we go to The Texas Chili Parlor for Mad Dog Margaritas. They make their margaritas with fresh limejuice and don’t bog them down with commercially packaged sweet & sour mix. Mad Dog Margaritas are made using an extraordinarily harsh mezcal tequila…the kind with the worm in the bottle. It’s a tough cup-o-drank.

The recommendation came from a person that learned of the drink from a song they listened to while dealing with divorce. We’ve talked about how much of a tool music can be in processing here before. I think it comes up a lot actually. Sometimes someone has said it all before. You need to live through their voice. It helps us find solace. We’re not alone.

Sitting there in The Texas Chili Parlor in a city that is not my own, turning tequila into hair on my chest, my girlfriend and little brother at the table, I felt very connected. I was connected to the people around me, the floorboards, the jukebox, the person who recommended the bar, the humid rainy air, and the laughter that can wash so much of the past away.

I search for words to describe the feeling here…though someone has said it first and, of course, said it best…

Here are the lyrics…
Read the rest of this entry »

If this doesn’t make you feel better I don’t know what will.

A few months back I posted a story by Ed Gavagan from The Moth Podcast. “Drowning on Sullivan Street” explained to us how a city could save a man’s life. The story I’m posting today is also from The Moth Podcast and is told by Comedian Mike Destafano. It is entitled “The Junkie & The Monk.” The Cure For Your Ales attempts to bring you questions, stories, allegories, and answers in regards to feeling better and moving on. Here we will explore spirituality in attempt to find some peace in a world that can really beat you bloody sometimes.

In 8th grade my homie Carl Z & I were listening to NWA. During the song “I Ain’t the One” Ice Cube spits:

Cause I’m gamin on a female that’s gamin on me/
You know I spell girl with a b

I heard Carl mumble under his breath, “Birl.”

According to Carl Ice Cube isn’t misogynistic…he is just terrible at spelling.

— — -

My homie Jarrett once said to me,

“Did you ever get home while your mom was baking bread & the whole house smelled so good the aroma took over everywhere & everything? It’d make you so incredibly hungry. You couldn’t wait to eat some of that delicious fresh baked loaf. When it was finally done you would come down from your room, cut a fresh slice while it’s still warm, and then when you finally put it in your mouth you realize IT’S BREAD. THAT’S ALL. IT TASTES LIKE BREAD. LIKE BREAD TASTES.”

— — -

One of my students didn’t turn in her work today. I called her and she said, “I’ll e-mail it to you when I get home. Can you text me your e-mail address?” I sent her the text message & a few minutes later I received a response I assume was intended for someone else…

“You a snotty nose hood rat n’dats
why I scribbled all over yo book bag ho.”

I replied:
“Did you just call me a snotty nose hood rat?
-Mr. Sullivan”

I never heard back. I assume she’s terrified.

I apologize for this post. My love of puns and humorless jokes lead me here. I just couldn’t stop myself. With that said, I present to you Worthless Halloween Haiku…
 
 
 
Skeleton’s Birthday
Skeleton said, “It’s
the anniversary of
the day I was bone.”
 
 
 
Queen of the Nile’s Son
The child of Egypt
said, “That’s my MUMMY! she’s an
abusive parent.”
 
 
 
Pumpkin Pi
The ratio of
a pumpkin’s circumference to
its diameter.

Our friends over at R U Pissed? gave us this hangover remedy recommendation…Peanut Butter, Honey and Banana Sandwiches.

“Bananas – Sugar in the form of fructose, and potassium…is one of the things you lose lots of when you drink. Bananas are also a natural antacid to help with nausea, and are high in magnesium which can help relax those pounding blood vessels causing that hangover headache. For a variety of reasons try a peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich on white bread.”

Our other friends over at Egoeccentric have provided us with this free hangover mixtape entitled “Peanut Butter, Honey and Banana Sandwich” from the egoeccentric hangover mixtape series. Download it here…

My good friend Lindsey Mineff and I gave each other an artistic prompt recently. Here’s the dirt: We each made a playlist of songs we like on youtube for each other. We then needed to create a piece of art inspired by or while listening to each other’s respective playlists.

The playlist she made can be found here.
The poem I wrote as a result of listening is here.

The line that most directly relates to her playlist is “a song in the shape of a rabbit” and if you notice, the third video on her list is “Who Can Win a Rabbit” by Animal Collective. Mostly, I attempted to capture the mood and movement of her selections while borrowing a few lines from bits and pieces of some of my unfinished poems. I find it interesting that Lindsey and I both decided to revisit unfinished projects for this prompt rather than start from scratch.

The playlist I created for Lindsey is here.
Lindsey is a photographer by trade (Check out her amazing photos) but while listening to my compilation she decided to paint. She painted a piece that pays homage to Dr. Suess’ famous piece “Fooling Nobody.” She entitled her Suess-inspired painting “Fooling Everybody.”

Lindsey had this to say:
I originally started in early July and when I did I was trying to replicate Suess’ original exactly. I got very frustrated because he painted his ink on paint and I was painting well, paint on paint…I stopped working on it for over a month. When I decided I was going to finish it no matter what…I worked on it while I played your playlist. I don’t know if I can say at exactly which song it all started to come together but I realized I was better off making it more my own. That’s when I started to make it more of a ‘pop art’ version of the original.

Lindsey and I would like to challenge you to find someone to do this exercise with and share your playlists and artistic results here. Or, create a playlist, leave it as a comment, and maybe someone will use it as a prompt. I might just post the results! Good luck!