Getting a lot of ink these days. It’s wild. Sometimes the shortest interviews produce the best results. Lauren Viera’s article in Tribune today is a gem. (check it out at http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0604-poetry-slamjun04,0,7524276.story ) Laura the bartender’s perspective takes center stage. And what does she mean when she says, “He’s really good at handling a crowd and defusing the situation. When things got a little out of hand, those were my favorite times.” She means Marc losing control and yelling at people in the crowd who are too absorbed in themselves and their loud-ass conversation (and their cocktails) to realize that someone’s one stage baring a battered soul via performance poetry.

Of course, there are also those times when Marc starts screaming at innocent bystanders and makes an ass of himself. Those moments are especially fun to witness.

Another front page funny picture of Marc at the Green Mill and another quote of Amiri Baraka calling the slam a “carnival … commercial showiness, emphasizing the most backward elements” of poetry. Is he speaking of Slam or Jam? Or are his opinions just old guy wham?

Here’s a link to the article if you want to check it out:

http://bit.ly/ysAuH

Be sure to listen to the audio/slide show. It’ll give you a deeper sense of what goes on at the Green Mill every Sunday night.

Jon Stewart asked “who cares” whether it’s a Poetry Jam or a Poetry Slam?

Answer: Only thousands of nobodies who have dedicated their lives to an outsider art movement that’s under threat of being hijacked by self-serving individuals and commercial entities bent on distorting the spirit of what began (and struggles to survive) as a full-spectrum community of everyday word lovers who have managed against all odds to bring poetry (and the performance of it) back into public amour.

I agree with you John, Jams are not Slams, especially if Jams are about posturing at the White House and getting face time on TV. That’s why this old man turned down his invitation to swill with the D.C. poetry politicos.

What a great article by Whitney Dibo in Time Out Chicago this past week pitching the new books! (Read it – “Slam’s New Round.”) My idealistic pro-democracy friends are going to be upset when they read it. “I don’t believe in democracy [anymore]. I prefer benevolent dictatorship.” And I guess I do, as long as I’m the dictator.

Luckily the books aren’t filled with as many contradictions as you’d find in my soul. As friends say, “Marc is a very complex individual,” which a nice way of saying I’m more than a little screwy at times. So what! I stopped trying to make complete sense a long time ago. There’s no fun in it. Hell, I’m still using a head shot (in the article) that shows me wearing a wedding ring — and you bet that’s pretty screwy.