OK, so i'm Joel Dias-Porter and i'm going to try this blog thing for a minute. I have a lot to say, about a lot of topics. Poetry. Politics. Poker. Professional Football. just to name a few. Does this feel intimate to you? Sit a little more comfortably in your chair (I am) All my life i have weakened and broken the backs and legs of chairs by leaning back in them until i was most comfortable. Sometimes they have broken while i was sitting in them, although i've never been hurt by the fall. i guess all those librarians were lying. The I's (first person) are not lowercase for any political (against the pivileging of narcisscism in post-modern culture) or theoretical reason (anti-narrative eye), but simply because i'm a lazy bastard who doesn't like to hit the shift button. i'm a hunt and pecker (fun intended) When Clinton lied nobody died (except a few million spare sperm). Bush deceives more than he outright lies, but the end result is the same. i have a five year-old son (big head, bright smile) and i worry what kind of world he'll inherit. Coal plants do produce cheap elctricity, but they also produce higher rates of cancers around their plants. i grew up in a city (Pittsburgh, PA) that still has people suffering from years of exposure to airbourne pollutants. Speaking of the 'Burgh, i had a wonderful trip there a few weeks ago for a reading at CMU. i stayed with friends (the poets Terrance Hayes and Yona Harvey) who have a fly crib near East Liberty (E-Slibertee). The reading went very well until i started reading a poem called 'El Magnifico' which describes my childhood fascination with Roberto Clemente and the effect his death had on me. At some point in the poem i realized that this was my first time reading in PGH since my father died. i started crying so hard i couldn't see the poem, because the tears were stinging my eyes. i finished the poem as a point of personal pride, but that's the closest i have ever come to not being able to finish a poem. Speaking of not finishing things, last night i left the poker game in Dupont Circle after playing for only about two hours. I was very tired after playing No Limit Hold'em all night at the Taj Mahal in AC (+$165), then driving back to DC to do a voice-over session for a short video at 11 in the morning, and i was getting cracked pretty good (-$200), but that's not why i left. There is a fish whom we call "the Syrian' who often shows up and loses big money ($300-$1,000) he popped up out of nowhere, like he always does, and like he always does he started wanting to argue about the money after every hand. Since we play outdoors we can't use chips, so we use a bottlecap on a chessboard as a marker (every square is five dollars) and settle up after every hand. Every single time he won, the Syrian accused someone of shorting him. Usually i don't mind becuz he loses so much money (he plays every hand, and bets every hand), but i was bone tired and when he got around to accusing me of shorting him $4, i started yelling at him. i thought it was best i leave before i hit him. The last time i hit somebody my hand was swollen for three weeks. i almost never leave losing unless the game breaks up or i get broke. Speaking of broke did anybody see the hit that Chris Hope put on Lamar Gordon in the Steelers-Dolphins game? Separated his shoulder, at the time i was in the DC ESPN Zoneand i thought for sure Gordon had a broken arm. I never want to see anybody get hurt, but THAT is Steeler's football. Our defense lost some of its attitude when Lethon Flowers got cut a few years back, but the bad-intentions type of hits seem to be returning. my son is only five, but he knows a good hit when he sees one, he left me a voice-mail msg about #28 knocking one of the Dolphins out. he must have seen it on SportsCenter. i don't have cable right now but if ESPN were to bring back Chris Olberman and re-pair him with Dan Patrick i would go out and get it right away. Damn they were funny and good (and clever too). damn i'm hungry, gotta go . . .
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