Last night Frankie called me, as she is prone to do, and asked if I wanted to drive her to pick up her friend, Rachel, at LAX. Being an accommodating shlub, I said, "Sure." Little did I know that I was then expected to drive all the way to Santa Ana so she could attend a poetry reading. Never mind that it had already started (For those of you who don't know, Santa Ana is down in Orange County. A good fortysomething minutes from LAX). As was once said about Sinatra, "This is Frankie's world. The rest of us just live in it."Thus we began that long, crazy journey. Me, trying every crazy short cut I could think of and breaking a few land speed records to boot. It turned out that Frankie's friend, Rachel, is a science teacher. So most of the trip was spent discussing school kids, dissecting frogs, and dissecting school kids (okay, I made that last one up. But I had to pepper up the conversation, somehow. Going to Santa Ana was a loooong drive, as was the conversation).
By the time we got to the Gypsey Den, all the open readers had already read. Jaimes Palaciao was kind enough to throw us up there anyway. Frankie did really well as is her wont. And I gave everyone the opportunity they had been waiting for to refill their coffee. Actually, I did well, too.
I thought it would be funny if we just left after that. But I knew Frankie and Rachel would veto that idea, so I didn't even bring it up.
There were two features. The first was from Italy. Her name was Sonia Armaniaco and she did a very interesting piece using prerecorded background noise (thunder and backbeats) to create a wild aural landscape. The next feature was Elmo Martin. He was an ex-punk, like myself. He did some poems entitled, "Why I am a Bad Poet, parts 1-3." Cool stuff.
Next week, we found out, will be the last "Penguins Hooked on Macaronics." So go down there and help them go out with a bang. I think we might be organizing a group to go there, so if you are interested in going, write me: waymanbarnes@litrave.com . Just do not discuss dissecting frogs on the drive down there. Or school kids, for that matter. I beg you.
Peguins Hooked Macaronics
Monday at 7:30ish
Gypsey Den
125 N. Broadway
Santa Ana
714-835-8840
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