Odd Words January 27, 2011
Posted by Mark Folse in Odd Words, Toulouse Street.trackback
Let’s start this week with literary tattoos. For over a year I had poet/playwright Raymond “Moose” Jackson’s haunting spoken word poem about New Year’s Eve 2006 in New Orleans “o’neil’s lament” on my I-Pod and would listen to it over and over again, with it’s powerful refrain that seemed to speak for everyone in New Orleans: “I am not allright, but I am upright.” When I went to get my fifth anniversary tattoo, a fairly common (for us) fleur-de-lis, I knew just how I wanted to personalize it, with those very words.
After I wrote the intro over the weekend, local artist provocateur Rex Dingler shows up on Facebook with these pictures. The site linked to above has a message that comes back if you email them saying they have such a backlog they don’t know when they’ll get around to posting anymore. If you have a literary tattoo send me a pic and some information on yourself and why you chose it and maybe we’ll make that a feature here.
And so, to the listings. I haven’t mentioned the ground rules in a while. I don’t post everything going on in town, just things I’m liable to show up for purely out of personal taste. Or because, well, it’s Odd which is a recurring them here. If you have an event coming up be sure to drop a line to markfolse ~AT~ rocketmail ~d0t~ com. If you actually read the blog, chances are it’s cool enough to list here.
§ On Thursday editors and contributors of the bilingual Arabic/English literary series Meena present a reading with musical accompaniment. 7 p.m. at Little Morocco , 7457 St. Charles Ave.
§ This sounds like a fun read, if you’re of a certain, um, bent : Meet Jeffrey and Randal, two desperate junkies and your guides on this top-to-bottom fun-house tour of Hollywood’s underbelly. From infamous crime scenes to celebrity treatment centers, SICK CITY is an outrageous page-turning adventure set in the sun-bleached wilds of LA. Tony O’Neill will be reading and signing Saturday night at 6 p.m and at the Maple Leaf Book Shop at 1 p.m.
§ While the library calendar is mostly listing story and reading time for kids and that sort of thing, I think I’ll need to wander over one day and check out this exhibit at the Main Branch on Loyola Avenue: Freedom Riders–A traveling exhibition developed by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in partnership with American Experience to tell the story of the 1961 Freedom Rides. On display at the Main Library during the month of January.
§ The Maple Leaf is an open mike on Sunday, and 17 Poets! will return next week with a very special feature pair. Watch this space for details.
or at these independent New Orleans bookstores:
Nice ink, Mark. Reminds me a time not so far back when – when people would ask me how I was – I’d answer, “Still vertical.” (I’ve since upgraded my condition to “oh, well, okay.”) Stay strong, buddy, and take care.
Thanks. Congrats on all the well deserved nominations for you and your actors. I think you should upgrade yourself to “Allright”.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
I appreciate your kind words. As for “upgrading,” I don’t know. Wouldn’t want to tempt the Furies.
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