Tuesday, May 1, 2012

April 1

my sister’s an easy april fool’s day target
it’s not because she’s naïve,
maybe it’s because she trusts me
but it’s too easy,
so I take a pass this year.


April 2

what makes a cover song?
someone wrote about sinead:

“she is a controversial singer of the 1980s that came to stardom with the cover of prince’s ‘nothing compares 2 U.’”

do you all consider this a cover (a sentiment i’ve see many writers take), or the equivalent of sinatra and the like having people write songs for them? i mean was manic monday a bangles cover of a prince song? i don't think so.

thoughts?


April 3

broadway boobies behrle


April 4

late night craving a beverage
some chocolate
i get dressed from sleepy clothes
walk to the super market at 11:30 p.m.
media alerted.


April 5

trained to folks in the island
a day before the first passover seder
mom worried i’ll miss the train out to brothers
miss their seder two years running.


April 6

first time seeing brother after
fight at our parents’ house two months ago
he shakes my hand
and that’s that.


April 7

(sing to your own tune)

you don’t take questions
you don’t want no replies
i keep sharing everything
probably should just start telling lies


April 8

i know it’s not going to end this way,
and i really love the mets way more than i’ve ever hated the yankees,
but for the first time in 27 years,
only the third time in 50 years,
the mets begin the season 3-0
the yankees 0-3.


April 9

(sing to your own tune)

back again
doing it
back again
it’s easy again
to be doing it
doing it


April 10

(sing to your own tune)

trying to fill up
complete it when
it’s hard to be doing it
doing it again

what about you
what about you
can you lend me a hand
what about you
what about you
I don’t want a spray tan


April 11

after no classic album shows for over a year,
because of sidewalk’s reconstruction project
and struggle filling the empty sleater-kinney slots
i’m revisiting the sleater-kinney show
cutting one of the albums,
and moving it to be part of our festival,
back to boog basics.


April 12

no more corners to cut to get a physical issue of boog city out
i check on printing fewer copies,
though i’ve known since my first tip to a printer at 17
the paper is the cheapest part of printing,
that flipping the switch is the most expensive thing.


April 13

first non-boog hardcore editing and cutting in over a year
red pen content
felt good
always feels good


April 14

Bleeding for Mets tix.


April 15

people can be nice
most people are nice
people can be nice
most people


April 16

i'm honored to say, i say, i say, that  a poem from the new pulitzer-prize winner for poetry's winning book appeared first in the portable boog reader 5 thanks to co-editor lauren russell.

go to p. 13 for tracy k. smith's poem in the pbr5:


and here for a local story on this brooklynite winning the pulitzer:


yay tracy.

:)



April 17

i used to go in the den by myself
put the saturday night fever lp on
dance nonstop until a side was done
and keep flipping sides until me or the music ran out.


April 18

i can’t remember what dick clark said to me
after nine-year-old me rushed the stage
when my sister won $20,000 on the pyramid,
i was more concerned with meeting one of my sister’s playing partners,
1971 miss america, the nfl today’s phyllis george.


April 19

mexican food on jesse,
first time seeing him in like a year.
the door's open because the weather’s pretty good,
idiots smoking near the door,
gets inside.
i close the door,
score $1 caffeine free diet pepsi two-liters at the cvs,
the limit’s five.


April 20

4:58 a.m. and my dvr has been on tbs
while I watch parts of last night’s conan
and I see it’s the last minutes of wimbledon
the movie about the tennis tournament
not the tennis tournament
and I hit record and capture the whole movie
dare me not to watch a kirsten dunst movie
dare me
anyone of them,
she just makes me smile,
like that time behrle and i were
out distributing boog city
and we spotted her and justin long
holding hands on ludlow street.


April 21

my veronica mars marathon,
six episodes,
five years after cancellation
first ever reruns are playing on soapnet
i’m enjoying it once more,
even though i remember who lilly kane’s killer is.


April 22

this afternoon’s mets game has been rained out,
causing the i-gave-blood for mets ticket game,
tomorrow night at 7:10 against the giants,
to become the i-gave-blood for mets’ doubleheader
now featuring a start from giants’ ace tim lincecum.
thank you mother nature.


April 23

i only spend money at mets games the first game of the season.
i buy a yearbook and a media guide
and then that’s it for the season.
maybe a pack of baseball cards every so often,
four quarters for an imprint of
mr. met or the mets logo on my now crushed penny,
cranking the arm around and around
to do the crushing.
but i walked past a kosher stand on the way in
and i’m too lazy and broke to have meat in my kosher home
but here was a stand filled with it,
and, surprisingly,
the kosher hot dog is cheaper than the all-over-the-ballpark unkosher ones.

throughout the first game
i ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
and almonds
and buttered popcorn i microwaved at home
and a granny smith apple

and then arup came from work for the second game
and after he watched my stuff while i peed and then refilled my tiny water bottles
i asked if he could keep watching my stuff
while i went to the kosher stand on the other end of our deck
so i walked around the deck
and, like many of the higher deck booths
on a weeknight at a real empty ballpark,
it was closed.
i asked an usher if there was another one nearby,
he looked in his book,
“ah there’s one close by, section 115.”
he saw the look on my face. we were in the 400s.
“really, it’s pretty close.
take that elevator down to the ground floor,
and it’s right there.
i was in this already,
and took the elevator down to the ground floor.
i was right at section 123.
i kept going,
beginning to loop from the third base to the first base lines,
and there i was,
right back at the kosher stand i passed on the way in.


April 24

mom calls,
“get ready to come down to the car.
your father has a bag of stuff for you.
i wasn’t feeling well, i’m not coming.”
and i’m real disappointed.
was hoping to grab dinner with them,
go to the gallery with them for next to last boog event there.
10 minutes later dad calls,
“your mother’s trying to get in the side door.
come down and get the bag.
act surprised when you see her.”


April 25

(sing to the tune of folsom prison blues)

i don’t know what it costs
to pull that bad tooth i got
i’m not going nowhere
’til i get a price quote
i’m stuck with a bad tooth still
and time keeps draggin’ on


April 26

2-1 down
bottom of the ninth
ex-met reliever heath bell
walks the bases loaded
and then a 13-pitch walk to pinch hitter Justin Turner
brings one run in
and then rookie outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis singleds deep to right
to bring in the game-winning run.


April 27

last money
it’s gristedes for
loaf of arnold’s light whole wheat bread
store brand light cream cheese
box of peanut chews
large curd cottage cheese, 4%
3/4 of a pound of land o’ lakes yellow american cheese
$14.16


April 28

one poet recommends i book rita doyle for the festival
another recommends i book r. erica doyle
but they’ve each given me the same address
it takes a while for me to figure out what the r stands for.


April 29

when you say no
i should know no
and not proceed anyways
i should’ve known no
i think I did know
and now i know no
for next time.


April 30

the three-hour nap
is a glorious thing.