Review - Meeting Noah Cicero / Brittany Wallace and Reading 'in Chicago'

i met noah cicero and brittany wallace last saturday. we sat at a small table inside of 'scribbles coffee co' and drank coffee. it seemed (based on the contents of the table) that noah and brittany had eaten a muffin or some sort of bakery item before i arrived. i told brittany on gmail chat that i was going to be there at noon. i arrived ~20 minutes after noon. on the drive there, i listened to some songs by devendra banhart and some songs by delay. i listened to the song "turn my swag on" by soulja boy tell'em on repeat.

noah appeared physically smaller than i expected. i motioned like i was going to pull another chair to the table that they were sitting at, but brittany said something like "no" and pointed to a chair that they seemingly placed at their table, prior to my arrival, for me to sit in. i was aware of this chair before attempting to 'pull' another chair 'into this', but seemed to dismiss it, somehow, as 'intended for [someone else]'. i felt extremely aware of how i was removing my scarf and my coat. i shook both of their hands.

upon being asked about high school, i mentioned something re "social anarchy". it seemed really bad. noah said, "what's your game plan for when you go to new york?" all of my answers to questions felt extremely inadequate.

i felt 'tragically' 'unable' to control the muscles in my face for the majority of our conversation.

at some point, a man who was sitting at the table behind us 'farted' extremely loudly.

after maybe ~45 minutes, noah said he had to go to work, so we drove to brittany's house. noah went upstairs to do something and brittany and i poured glasses of wine. brittany drinks 'franzia' brand boxed wine. after noah left, she told me about how they met. i asked her if noah seemed to dislike me, i felt bad. she said that noah said he thought i was nice. she said something about cocaine and how "if she hadn't found tao lin's blog she would've never met noah."

i enjoyed noah and brittany. they were both very nice and funny. i liked listening to both of them talk.

another thing was that i wore sunglasses for the entire drive there. i took them off before getting out of the car and i hid them in the glove compartment.

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later, i read poetry 'in chicago', via skype, "at 'the funhouse'"

before the reading started, richard 'sat me down' in a chair so i could 'meet' people / 'chill with' everyone. i drank ~3 shots jack daniels, ~7 sips 'gingerade' kombucha, 2 cups black coffee, and 1 cup water. the reading went like this..

sam pink - seemed really good. 'kicked off' the event by reading some advertisments from a newspaper. read poems from 'i am going to clone myself then kill the clone and eat it'. appeared confident / spoke loudly and clearly. enjoyed him. was in my bed for the first half of his reading, then moved to my desk. i laughed out loud a couple of times.

me - was 'plugged in to' a television. read while sitting at my desk. turned the volume down on my computer because there was a ~1 second sound delay. read five poems. heard some laughter. feel as though i may have spoken 'like a retard' / sat 'retardedly close' to the screen. felt completely unable to 'gauge' how i was being percieved. at times wondered if i was 'actually' reading to people or if this was 'some kind of prank'.

bobby evers - read a long story re two girls who liked sleater-kinney or something. seemed funny at parts. said "lo-fi" maybe twice. said "suck my dick bitch".

'matt whispers' - read some poems from his 'effigy' zines. seemed hard to hear. i let ziggy and mallory 'commandeer' the computer screen during his reading.

richard wehrenberg jr. - good, 'as always'. seemed hard to hear at parts. i think skype was 'auto-adjusting' re sound; so people would clap loudly, and then he would read quietly, and i would only 'catch' the end of each poem, as the volume seemed to 'rise'. seemed to select a good group of poems to read. read this poem that i like a lot. miss him.