Left Coast Travel: 1

Everything started with a marathon travel day. Truly some Planes, Trains & Automobiles shit, but I finally made my way to Vancouver on Sunday night. Had a bit of a miscue with my lodging situation, but it turned out well as Sean McGarragle took good care of me. The show was Monday night and pretty magic. Its uncanny how you accumulate friends and acquaintances over the years with no bearing of where they're geographically located, but you're reminded of such when they keep showing up at the venue. Big crowd, great energy. The audience and its response was very much a living entity and it was a joy sharing poems with them. Got some quality time with Ms. Spelt as we talked about EVERYTHING (which many people do with Ms. Spelt). His viewpoints on mythology in the classical and modern sense fascinated me and really framed a great conversation. The best moment of the night for me may have been when he covered Gabrielle's latest poem before the slam. Magical stuff.

Tuesday night, I made my way down to Seattle. Look, Daemond is one of those cats that you mention his name to anybody in the know and they light up with the immediate 'good guy' response. You get confirmation of such after about 3 1/2 minutes with the guy. He also trumps any feelings I have of missing Leah after a few days since Inti has been out of the country for weeks.

Let me pause here to say that its cold out west. Muthafuckin cold man. Not what one pictures when they travel that far west. It might have gotten cold back in Columbus during the time I've been away, but 40 degrees in San Fran wasn't part of the plan. You hear that Mother Nature?! I got some four and five letter words for you when I see you. I heard your kids ain't shit either.

Anyways.

The Seattle show was cool. Unfortunately, they had some venue issues a few days before my feature. This led to Daemond and crew having to find another venue at the drop of a dime just to field the show. Which they did. But of course, changing a venue on short notice will always lead to a dip in attendance and this was no exception. I did miss some of the usual stalwarts of the Seattle Poetry Slam not being there, but the crowd was super attentive and involved so I enjoyed it a ton. Oh and Mike McGee was there. And he was awesome. Of course he was.

Due to another venue/attendance situation, the Everrett, WA gig didn't work out, so Daemond and I both flew out of Seattle on Thursday morning (him to go see Gabrielle, me to The Bay). It turned out great because I got to Oakland in tact, got some rest and hit the town in time again to catch the Oakland Poetry Slam. Lots of great peeps in the house, lots of good poems thrown around capped off with Buddy's feature which was pretty damn special. I imagine he's gotta be road weary as hell, but he still brought his trademark energy last night and it was nice to see.

Next Gig: Sunday Co-Feature with Ainsley Burrows at The City Slam in San Francisco.