This is me versus a superb lyrebird on a hike to the Ruined Castle rock formation. I start off with a classical riff and some car alarms and then he...wins the freestyle. Check out the dead-on kookaburra impression about halfway through.
This is the obligatory graffiti-covered stairwell that leads to the local underground poetry reading, which was actually above ground but did feature the obligatory rugs on the floor and a microphone that smelled like...emotions.
17 May 2011
16 May 2011
Waiheke Island, New Zealand
13 May 2011
Auckland, New Zealand
If the university theater is already booked and you're forced to hold a poetry slam in the main Business School lecture hall--should you bring in a dazzling portable disco floor as an offset? Yes you should, kia ora.
11 May 2011
Orekai Marae, New Zealand
I had so many people tell me the Maori word for "woodcarver" also means "storyteller" that I believe it enough to believe it but not to pass it on.
This is La Casa de Estudillo in San Diego's Old Town, which bills itself as "Where California Began!" Personally, I'd vote for Sonoma Plaza, which I finally visited last September. Check out the old-school bear flag, damn.
6 May 2011
La Habra Heights, California
Can you see that plaque there in the front yard? That plaque marks the spot where the "Mother Tree" of pretty much any avocado you've ever eaten used to grow. Yeah. Did I trespass to get closer to the plaque? No, because that would be uncool. I mean: No, because I totally would've gotten caught. I can always go back.
4 May 2011
Berkeley, California
Thanks Berkeley Poetry Slam at the Starry Plough for reminding me. I hadn't been to a poetry slam in many moons and I'll be hosting one in New Zealand next week. I wonder if it'll be as, like, loud. And thanks, Ugle Skjorte, for the artifact.
2 May 2011
Stanford, Palo Alto, California
1 May 2011
San Francisco, California
Behind the (unlocked) tool shed at the Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park. (A Papaver "cupcake" is a pink poppy that looks spot-on like a cupcake wrapper.)
