Four by Four Reading Brings Out All Sorts

 There was snow and frigid temperatures, so I was surprised if we would even get three people to show up. Thankfully, So Gee's fliers and the featured readers' industrious e-mails got the word out for a bunch of people to show up. 

The proprietors of Beans and Berries gave us this private room on the third floor, where the heat was blasting a little too high, and some elevator techno was on a continual loop in the background. It made you feel like you were in a space station that was about to land on some desert terrain.

"Nice music," Ken said. 

"The best," Dustin replied.

"So who's reading?" I asked.

"I don't know," Dustin said. 

"Should we wait for Loren?" Ken asked.

"Maybe," I said. 


We did end up waiting for Loren (above). We also managed to keep the low-key, natural flow throughout the night. Nobody felt pressured to read, and we weren't waiting in the dark while someone read from a lectern. It definitely wasn't an academic environment. We just sat around this white table reminiscent of John Lennon's white piano, and shot the shit, read, and then shot the shit some more. It was almost like a workshop, but we didn't even have people in the same genre or a specific leader. We just rolled from one thing to another. I really liked that setup. In fact, I don't think I've ever been to a reading like that.
 

At one point, Chris Brown (above), told an impromtu story about a trip to China, and how he paid to use a restroom, where the toilet consisted of a very public hole out in the middle of a tiled floor without partitions, while a running trough extended beneath him, and a group of Chinese spectators watched.

"They were saying something in Mandarin. I think I caught something about "come watch the American". I thought about telling them I was a New Zealander, but I decided to finish what I had started, since I was making some progress at that point."



By the end of the reading, we were all hugging and planning the next event. I think the tentative date is January 11th. I'll try and send out fliers for those who want to attend. It'll be at Beans & Berries in Sinchon at 730 p.m.. Who knows? We might be able to get them to turn down the heat. 

3 comments:

jwg said...

That was great. Nice to see Dustin. Face to the words. The music was just distracting enough. Poetry should not be clean.

Pirooz M. Kalayeh said...

You like the music I wrote to go with it?

jwg said...

was that your music? thought it was elevator techno. Whatever it was, it made things dirty. Enjoyed it.