Anthology Fanzine: Tiny Mesa Does Albuquerque This Weekend June 20, 2009
Posted by William Spear in >> Dramatic Radio, >> News.Tags: ABQ Poetry Slam, ABQSlams, anthology fanzine, Brit Shostak, Haiku Challenge, Lauren Perry, Mesa Poetry Slam, Neil Gearns, southwest shootout, SW Slammasters, Tufiq Shyeb
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The 2009 Mesa National Poetry Slam Team of Lauren Perry, Tufiq Shyeb, Neil Gearns and Brit Shostak, travel this weekend to Albuquerque, NM for the 2009 Southwest Shootout. Come on out and join us!
Here is the information, direct from ABQslams.org
So the confirmed list looks like this:
- Albuquerque
- Denver – Mercury Cafe
- Denver – Nuba
- Phoenix
- Salt Lake City
- Dallas
- Amarillo
- Oklahoma City
- Mesa
- Berkeley
- Oklahoma City – Stomp the Stage
Thursday, end of the business day is the last day to book a room at the host hotel, the Hyatt Regency. I’m happy to say the block of rooms is almost entirely spoken for. But y’all still have time.
The full info is this:
Host Hotel – Hyatt Regency Hotel, 333 Tijeras NW
Call Hyatt (505) 842-1234
We are part of the “SW Shootout” group under ABQ Poetry Slam or ABQSlams
Also, here’s the schedule:
Friday, June 19
Registration, Blackbird Buvette (509 Central NW), 3-6 pm
Preliminary bouts 1 & 3, Blackbird Buvette, 7 & 9 pm
Preliminary bouts 2 & 4, 1Kind Studios, 10th & Coal SW, 7 & 9 pm
Saturday, June 20
SW Slammasters meeting, 10 am-Noon, Hyatt Regency meeting room
Haiku Challenge, 1 pm, Blackbird Buvette
FINALS
Team and individual (4 teams, 4 indies)
The Historic KiMo Theater, 7 pm (doors open at 6:30)
Tickets $14 gen. admission, 12 students/seniors available thru the KiMo Box Office or Ticketmaster
Sunday, June 21
Youth Open Slam & Team Teen Slam, 1 pm, N4th Theater, 4904 4th St. NW (just north of 4th and Griegos)
Free
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Anthology: Poetry Slam on Thursday June 11, 2009 at 8PM June 11, 2009
Posted by William Spear in >> Dramatic Radio, >> News.Tags: Anthology, Anthology Poetry Slam, arizona, Mesa AZ, poetry, Poetry Slam, Queen's Pizzeria
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In the tradition of Arizona performance poetry, Anthology, the state’s longest running performance poetry nonprofit presents the next great Mesa poetry tradition.
Poetry Slam is a competition, where poets perform their work to be judged by the audience based on the presentation and content. The Anthology Poetry Slam has three rounds, and in each round the poets perform in random order, with a 3 minute time limit for each performance.
It’s a no holds barred verbal duel that brings out the best in each writer and performer.
- This show happens Each and Every Thursday
- All shows start at 8PM
- Suggested Donation is $5
- Cash Prize awarded for first place
Details:
Poetry Slam
Date: Thursday, June 4, 2009
Time: 8:00pm – 10:00pm
Location: Queen’s Pizzeria
Street: 125 W. Main St.
City/Town: Mesa, AZ
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Sounds of Greatness: Johnny Parks calls Desperate Times’ stretch drive in the 1984 Gardenia Derby May 18, 2009
Posted by William Spear in >> Dramatic Radio, >> Radio Drama.Tags: >> Radio Drama, all aboard, audio theatre, beautiful flowers, champion's wreath, desperate times, gardenia derby, Johnny Parks, marvelous son, mayonnaise in my cake, roberts county, the passing of johnny parks, two plus plus productions
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In 1984, veteran sports announcer Johnny Parks was on-hand for the Gardenia Derby. Run annually on the second to last Monday in May in Roberts County, that year’s race featured three big, strong horses that were the class of the field – Marvelous Son, Beautiful Flowers, and All Aboard. All three had outstanding records and each was capable of capturing the first place Champion’s Wreath.
Another seven horses were entered with varying chances to win. But the eleventh horse was a scrawny affair with a spotty record – nine races with one win, no shows, and one place. Its name was Desperate Times. The horse’s owner once ran him in a claims race . . . but no one claimed him.
Nobody gave Desperate Times any chance of winning. Until the field entered the far turn. With a cheering crowd in the background, Johnny Parks was in the midst of the action:
PARKS: “Marvelous Son, Beautiful Flowers, and All Aboard are neck and neck and neck and Desperate Times may need a taxi to finish this thing. He isn’t even in the same zip code. Desperate Times is . . . hold on. Desperate Times is moving on the field. Cancel the cab, Desperate Times has caught the pack and knifes through them.”
The crowd saw the move made by Desperate Times and began to cheer on the horse.
PARKS: (OVER CHEERS) “Desperate Times has Marvelous Son in his sights and gives the big boy a black eye. Beautiful Flowers wilts under Desperate Times’ relentless attack. There’s only one horse left between Desperate Times and victory. Desperate Times is flying over the track and All Aboard is desperately trying to hold on. All Aboard inches ahead but Desperate Times answers the challenge. . . . HERE COMES DESPERATE TIMES.”
The crowd roared louder with each stride of Desperate Times. And Parks began to play off their emotion.
PARKS: (LOUDER OVER CHEERS) “All Aboard can’t believe he’s being caught and Desperate Times is anything but. It’s All Aboard and Desperate Times. . . . All Aboard is holding on for dear life but Desperate Times is a freight train. An express train that won’t stop until it wins. Coming to the wire and it’s All Aboard. Desperate Times and All Aboard. All Aboard and Desperate Times. Crossing the finish line it’s . . . DESPERATE TIMES.”
With one magnificent stretch drive, Desperate Times caught All Aboard and won the 1984 Gardenia Derby.
~ ~
Excerpted from The Passing of Johnny Parks (c) 2009 By William E. Spear.
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Sounds of greatness: Yogi Berra’s 84 years, and counting, of one-liners May 12, 2009
Posted by William Spear in >> Dramatic Radio, >> News.Tags: baseball, hall of fame, n. y. yankees, yogi berra
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Stats on Yogi Berra
Born:
- Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra on May 12, 1925 in St. Louis.
Nickname:
- A friend said he looked like a Hindu holy man.
Career:
- 15 All-Star selections;
- 10 World Series championships;
- 3 American League Most Valuable Player awards; and
- Inducted into Hall of Fame in 1972.
Like all great players, his true genius went beyond his impressive statistics. In Berra’s case, it was his command, sort of, of the English language. Simply put, his one-liners were the equivalent of three or four lifetimes of grand slams.
Examples:
- “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”
- “I want to thank you for making this day necessary.”
- “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”
- “When you get to a fork in the road, take it.”
- “I didn’t really say everything I said.”
- “Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded.”
- “We have a good time together, even when we’re not together.”
- “Our similarities are different.”
- “You can observe a lot by watching.”
- “It gets late early around here…”
- “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
- “If I didn’t wake up I’d still be sleeping.”
- “Always go to other people’s funerals otherwise they won’t go to yours.”
- “You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that isn’t enough, in the second half, you have to give what is left.”
- “Ninety percent of this game is half mental.”
Forget what he did on the baseball field, his one-liners are Hall of Fame material.
Happy birthday, Mr. Berra.
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WFHB: An Evening With Border Radio now online April 19, 2009
Posted by William Spear in >> Dramatic Radio, >> News.Tags: "Colonel" Mike Kelsey, An Evening With Border Radio, Arbutus Cunningham, Art Heckman, Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, Cathi Norton, Dennis Riggins and the Firehouse Swing Thing, Firehouse Gospel Singers, Jason Fickel, Jeni & Billy, National Audio Theatre Festivals, Richard Fish, WFHB
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From Richard Fish:
“An Evening With Border Radio” is a live two-hour variety show, performed last March 27, hosted by “Colonel” Mike Kelsey & the ever-popular Arbutus Cunningham, with some help from yours truly. We were broadasting from Bloomington’s Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, a beautifully renovated movie-and-vaudeville house from the 1920s — which will eventually, we hope, host the National Audio Theatre Festivals.
The program features Jeni & Billy, a marvellous Appalachian-folk duo from Nashville, TN, and a bunch of great Bloomington musical talent, including Cathi Norton, Art Heckman, Jason Fickel, the Firehouse Gospel Singers and our house jazzband, Dennis Riggins and the Firehouse Swing Thing.
It’s mostly music, but there’s lots of radio fun along the way. Of course Arbutus tells one of her hilarious stories, and is transformed into a radio preacher in another very funny segment.
We go back in time with the first live performance of the RadioSynclastic Infandibulator, the radio time-machine familiar to listeners of The Fire House Theatre (8-10 Sunday evenings!). We explore Border Radio in the 1930s — stations like XERA, located in Mexico (and thus beyond FCC regulation), which pumped out as much as a million watts of homespun and sometimes truly dubious programming. And there’s a tip of our hat to radio great Fred Allen with our own modern version of “Allen’s Alley.”
As you’ll hear, we had a whole lot of fun, and a fabulous audience in the theatre!
Details
“An Evening With Border Radio”
http://www.wfhb.org/music/current
WFHB
http://www.wfhb.org
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