First, we take Massachusetts, then we take Scotland. THEN Manhattan.

Posted by on Sep 26th, 2021 in News | 0 comments

Last month, I mentioned that I had a crazy whackload of online events coming up in October.
That has not changed. And I’ve started going to Zoom events again, but with hair grown on my head and face to cover the silly shingles blisters.

So the next Month of Jeff is going to go something like this:

1) First Friday Open Mic
I’m kicking off the month with a thirty-minute feature set at this series based in Swampscott, Massachusetts.

2) Like a Blot from the Blue
Only two days later, I get to be the headliner in this popular series based in Scotland, which attracts a lot of familiar faces in the international Zoom community.

3) Ad Lib’s Got Talent
Another one of these – a special Halloween edition.

4) Brownstone Poets
One of three featured readers at this long-running series in Brooklyn. This one requires pre-registration with a US$5 cover paid online.
(Fun fact – I’ve attended this series in real life… way back in 2011, I believe. I doubt they remember me.)

All of these events are also open mics, so bring something to share of your own. If you ain’t coming for me, come for your own exposure.

More, slightly bigger news coming later.
And now… ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Conway Twitty!

Happy Thanksoween.

What if Sean Connery were talking about a singles bar?

Posted by on Sep 5th, 2021 in News | 0 comments

The shingles isn’t healing as quickly as I’d hoped, so I’m still holed up at home and even limiting the Zoom events I’m attending these days. When I do attend, I keep the camera off. It still looks as if I have bad acne. It’s not worse than it was before, but it’s hard to tell if it’s getting better. The areas that were in extreme pain three weeks ago now get near-painfully itchy at times.

The worst part is that I’ve had to bow out of several IRL events with friends to which I’d been looking forward – just as life is slowly returning back to normal in Ontario.
I’m giving the shingles another two weeks to clear up, because I have three performance events scheduled by the end of September… and one of them is a live one:

1) Spoken Word in the Park
My first IRL gig in more than a year and a half, on the 21st. Apparently it’s in a park, way way out in the west end of Toronto. And there’s an open mic. Really, that’s all I know. Assuming it doesn’t rain, I’ll read and/or perform a set of all-new material, most of which has barely been heard by Canadian audiences, if at all.

2) Ad Lib’s Got Talent
Damon Lum’s informal monthly series is back on Zoom on the 24th.

3) Bill’s Back at the Globe
An international group of poets, including some I know via Zoom, will be reading from Act I of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus on the 25th. You can watch it on Facebook Live.

But wait, there’s more!

October is going to be another big month, because I have no less than three (3) international Zoom poetry gigs lined up. (Four, if you count another Ad Lib night.) When features come, they come not single spies, but in trios.

Details for all of the above on the right sidebar, with relevant links to be updated when available.

Here’s a song I hadn’t heard in well over thirty years and have become inexplicably obsessed with lately:

Happy Labour Day, Charlie Brown.