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29 July 2005 |
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| Crap.
I completely neglected to cite my sources (thanks for the catch, Andi)…
The little stick figure in my last post is an homage to one of the simplest and most satisfying games on the Web. The simple and satisfying game is right here. I just figured all the cool kids were playing it nowadays.
Don’t find the game simple and/or satisfying? Whatever.
I’m off to Buffalo.
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28 July 2005 |
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| …so then I bodysnatched Dawn’s code (see previous entry) and—since I’m about twelve years old in JavaScript years—I made my own very juvenile little project (click):
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27 July 2005 |
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| Poet Dawn Gabriel is my JavaScript sensei, and she sent me this present (click):
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26 July 2005 |
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ATTENTION (Mom):
First: Happy Birthday (Mom).
Second: I posted on this site that I will on air on HBO’s DEF POETRY JAM Episode 36, this Friday, July 29. That’s what Def Jam told me. However, as a few vigilant readers have pointed out (thanks Kurt and Corazon), TIVO lists me as airing next week, Episode 37, Friday August 5.
Who do you trust? I dunno. I guess I could call Def Jam, but I think I may be peeved with them in advance about the way they edited my poem…
Tune in this Friday anyway—TIVO lists my old teammates Steve Connell and Sekou tha Misfit, performing as a duo. Click here for my interview with Sekou in which he mentions that Steve and I are constantly getting mistaken for each other. (A fan once told me (she meant Steve) that I (meaning Steve) changed her life). Click here and scroll down for my February 4 picture of Steve, and compare for yourself (Mom).
…Rives on Def Poetry Jam doing “Op Talk"…
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23 July 2005 |
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| - - Word of the Week - - |
glabella
Pronounced: “gluh BELL uh”
The glabella is the space between the eyebrows. It means “little smooth place” in Latin.
The glabella is also the spot where, if you wanted to drill straight back into your “third eye,” or maybe straight back into your pineal gland, you would start. For your third eye, you could have a very short drill bit, or even an imaginary one, because the third eye is make-believe. For your pineal gland, you’d need a fairly long drill bit, and probably some help, because the pineal gland is located in the center of the human brain.
What did Descartes have to say about the pineal gland?
“My view is that this gland is the principal seat of the soul, and the place in which all our thoughts are formed. The reason I believe this is that I cannot find any part of the brain, except this, which is not double. Since we see only one thing with two eyes, and hear only one voice with two ears, and in short have never more than one thought at a time, it must necessarily be the case that the impressions which enter by the two eyes or by the two ears, and so on, unite with each other in some part of the body before being considered by the soul. “
Turns out, if you view the pineal gland under a good microscope, you can distinctly see its two hemispheres. Dang, Descartes.
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22 July 2005 |
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| Lots of gripes and requests lately so…
A few of my poems are available on-line. Just go to my homepage and click on the windchimes. If a poem isn’t there, that’s because it’s not there. And I give you advance permission to forward them, post them on your blog or website, use them in a presentation, cover them, re-mix them, or pretend they are your own. That goes for anything on the site that I made. If it’s something someone else made, they may have issues with you e-pilfering their thing.
Fuck—I didn’t put it here.
CONFIDENTIAL TO THE HACKERS AND THE CLICK-HAPPY: Congrats on finding the “hidden_story” on this site this month. It was inspired by one of the best-ever suicides, Reynard Beck. Google this guy and you get: very, very little. I found him the old-fashioned way—in a book thingy.
Not here either. Just go to the library.
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18 July 2005 |
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Reigning National Poetry Slam Individual champ Sonya Renee at the Bowery Poetry Club Grudge Match Slam last Thursday.
I should make an “advent” calenadar for Nats.
What would bring a D.C. gal all the way up to the Big Apple on a school night? The promise of a good time at a yankee slam? Reconnaissance? A lot of strange stuff happens in Slamville during the lead-up month to Nationals…
And instead of chocolate—towlettes to wipe the frikkin mic off…
Click on Sonya’s fly-ass wig for a link to her cutting-edge website. Click on Sonya’s mouth for a link to my February 22 “Poet Profile” interview with her.
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13 July 2005 |
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Slam maven/villian Taylor Mali laying down some dope-ass “air turntable” old-school wicky-wicky hip-hop jams at the Brown Gardens Senior Residence this afternoon…
I enjoyed our visit to the Residence today, and I think Bassey did too. One of the ladies there reminded me strongly of Rose, a resident at La Casa Del Rey Retirement Hotel where I worked during my “freshperson” year at U.C. Santa Cruz. Rose would spend her time playing “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” over and over on the piano in the game room. She took requests, too, as long as the request was “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”.
Pretty much the only request made of the poets today was “no poems about death.” And I’m thinking—this from a place called Brown Gardens?
Click on Taylor’s brain for a link to his website. Click on Taylor’s hands for a link to my January 15 “Poet Profile” interview with him.
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12 July 2005 |
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| A bunch of readers wrote in to ask about the Metro Card in my July 4th entry (scroll down three posts to see it). Some people wanted to know if I actually cut the Metro Card like that (yes I did—with an X-acto), and many people wanted to know if they could have or buy the Metro Card (no they can’t, no they can’t—I mailed it off the next day to the mermaid who made me a Polaroid of just ocean water. I hope that address was genuine, Fishtail.).
A few clever readers sent in artwork of their own, inspired by the magical Metro Card, or even lifted straight from it. That’s what the poet Michael Roberts did. If you scroll down to July 4 and click on the skyline, you’ll link to his handiwork. Well—and my handiwork.
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11 July 2005 |
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When I finally learn Flash
this entire website will
be nothing but
stuff like:
this
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09 July 2005 |
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| - - Word of the Week - - |
dandelion
Pronounced: “DAN duh LIE uhn”
Dandelion is derived from the Old French dent de lion, or “lion’s tooth,” because of its jagged leaves. And because “dandelion” just sounds better.
The French didn’t stick with dent de lion either. The modern French word for dandelion is pissenlit, or literally “piss-in-bed,” on account of the dandelion’s diuretic properties. Meaning: eat it and it makes you pee.
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08 July 2005 |
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| The stats page for this website allows me to see the key phrases that users have typed into search engines to come up with a link to www.shopliftwindchimes.com. The top five results for the week of July 1-7 are:
1. rives poet
well, rives IS a poet after all…
2. poems about windchimes
…but does rives have a POEM about windchimes…?
3. rives def poetry
…and rives WILL be on Def Poetry Jam July 29…
4. houghmagandy gay
…which is where rives did that kite poem last season…
5. how to shoplift
…and rives CERTAINLY knew how to shoplift, once…
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02 July 2005 |
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Thanks to everyone who wrote in after seeing me slam at the The Nuyorican last night. Yes: the poem I did in the third round was mostly a freestyle, but No: it wasn’t all done “off the top of the dome.”
Rives poem “Op Talk” on Def Poetry Jam
I will be returning to The Nuyorican for a 20-minute feature on July 15. The night before, July 14, I will be slamming as part of a team in “The Grudge Slam” at The Bowery Poetry Club. On July 29 I will be returning for my third season on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. |
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