rock star

I adore Eileen Myles. I suspect that most people who hear her for the first time are likewise smitten. She read from a long prose work, not yet published, anecdotal musings about a life of poetry, and the opening chapter told of her hard crush on an English professor in college, one of those profs who makes you feel smart just by looking at you, you makes you feel as though you're truly seen when they look at you, and I thought, this must be exactly what your students feel about you, Eileen Myles.. Hell, it's what I was feeling, sitting not even a foot away from her in the small performance space. A completely engaging story teller. She made us feel as though she was so glad to be there among friends, though I can't imagine she had personal connections with many people there. and she had another quality that's extremely rare. she possessed a deep level of cool that isn't predicated on making everyone else around her feel uncool. sitting there in front of her, you sort of felt that you too could have done a poetry reading at CBGB's.

oh, i could go on and on. by the time i pounced on the book counter, every last copy of everything had been snatched up. i do wish she'd read some poetry. would have just loved to hear how she read. yes, i know there are mp3s. will have to do.

Lisa Foad and Zoe Whitall were perfect openers. just a delightful evening from beginning to end.