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SHAPPY'S ONLINE DIARY:
Monday, June 28, 2004
Thursday- Release party for Wanda Phipps at the BPC. Local underground cartoon/squatter legend Fly and I swapped books. She says she may draw me in her next Peops! Yay! Made okay tips and got a bag full of free stuff fom Lucas at ROIR records including an MC5 on vinyl!
Friday-Long ass night at the BPC. Rick Shapiro asked if I might open for his latest run of comedy shows. That's good. Whiz-Band was fun as always despite a no-show from our corporate sponsor. Hip-hop til 4 am. Blegh.
Saturday- Slept in late had a nice meal with snoo and went in to cover Moonshine's shift. Competed in the $100 slam. Lost. Talked to Cline about upcoming projects. Yet another hip-hop show. After splitting tips, I walk with $9.25. I actually paid to work. Is that a dark cloud on the horizon? Shoo!
Sunday- Went to the MOCCA comic convention and got lots of cool artists to draw cariactures of me in my KING NERD book Hannah made for me. Bought lots of cool self-published comix and stuff. Got to see Kristine from Last Gasp. Went out for sushi with snoo came home and played Scrabble.
Monday- Cleaned apartment and packed a bag for our cat-sitting gig this week. The big grudge slam is this week, which will feature a performance by none other than Cristin's MOM! No joke!
posted by Shappy at 6:08 PM
Thursday, June 24, 2004 Had yet another slow night at the BPC in what seems to be a series of bad nights. Too much competition in the summer. It's gay pride week in NYC and the big Mocca comics and comics art show is this weekend. It's also the Mermaid parade this Saturday which means I'm working for Moonie this Saturday. A third subway shooting this month! What's going on MTA!?! Went to dinner with snoo at the Neptune. Deelish! I made snoo make an appointment to meet Milo, a dapple puppy dachshund that's been making appearances at the club the last few weeks. posted by Shappy at 1:15 AM
Monday, June 21, 2004 Had a relaxin' weekend. I bought some colored pencils and started sketching again. Talked to my brother, dad, and mom. Watched Star wars with Mike Henry. Made pasta salad. Read the Sunday paper and various magazines. I should try to write some poetry. However, looked into attending the last few day of the National Poetry Slam. This weekend is the Mocca comic book convention. Fahrenheit 9/11 opens in NYC this Wednesday. Shaptowicz gets to cat-sit next week so that means I get to see Spidey 2 by just walking down the street! Plus TiVo! I submitted some poems for an anti-Bush web page. As soon as it goes up I'll link it here! posted by Shappy at 6:30 PM
Sunday, June 20, 2004 HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO MY POPS-JOHN, AND ME LITTLE BRO-CAL! posted by Shappy at 2:01 PM
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Sorry to keep everyone in suspense about the Nerd Show re-cap! It went better than I could've hoped! We had a great crowd, the bar did well and the show went swimmingly! Here's a full acoount in detail form Reid Harris Cooper-
Shappy & Cristin put a lot of effort into The Nerd Show and lots of it showed extremely well and brilliantly and like any Poetry Show/SLAM there were moments that made you shake your head and think “Get it together people”. Yet, if that happened, we wouldn’t be poets and we wouldn’t be NERDS!
“Special effects” (actually just some computer animation) as designed by Ernie “Airwolf Ultraman” Cline started off the production that was devised. One of the first things to open “portion one-the nerd talk show portion” was the cast of Jollyship the Whizbang, who also were the house band Orko, doing Pirate Perspective, a puppet improv on topical events. Funny at first, but as we all know, puppets get boring, especially talking about the war in Iraq. That’s everyone though, everyone gets boring talking about the war in Iraq, no matter how funny they do it. It was good classic nerdism (sic).
Next up was Blackwulf the Magician, the Wizard… whatever. You’d know him from that episode of Conan O’Brien where Triumph insults him and he bops the puppet on the head. I’d tell you all about his appearance, but you can guess for yourself. He’s Blackwulf 24/7. Also, so you don’t need to hunt the site, here’s his personal write-up of the show.
Many thanks, Nick Jones and all who took part in the recent filming of a pilot for a possible local area series, The Nerd Show, at the Bowery Poets Club, located directly across the street from the immortal CBGB! It was a pleasure to have been interviewed by the evening's remarkably wacky host, Chappy! Then I took part in a rather twisted knock-off of American Idol, wherein I landed the "Simon" role. (I do hope I was grumpy enough!) Anyway, here's hoping that a potential syndicator will be twisted enough to want to sell The Nerd Show to stations and advertisers, that sort of thing. When you read the NATPE Convention issues of Variety as often as I do, you tend to look for the coolest things on TV, regardless of whether they suck or not.
Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz then took to the stage and read her love poem to Shappy which should be titled “qamuSHa'” according to the online translator I found… that’s Klingon btw. I can’t recall if that’s her actual title or she used a different Klingon for I love you. The poem is all about how they work as a couple and what type of nerd Shappy is. Austinites had heard it and I am glad her home crowd has now heard it as well.
The Randy Brothers were next. They did banter and then did “The Meat Shirt” song. I was glad to give Brian props after for a spirited and fun performance.
Orko did one song about a crab who wants to be a sailor and then Shappy and Orko did what Cristin calls “Star Wars Grab Bag” in which Shappy grabbed Star War’s action figures and came up with free form little poems/songs. It was wacky and weird and nerdy. I still want to know how the Captain Kirk dressed in period clothes from City on the Edge of Forever got in the bag though. Also, for Shappy’s nerdy knowledge, what I was trying to explain about the controversial history of that episode can be found in a book that Harlan Ellison wrote with his original script.
Matt Cook then came out and did his feature set, reading his brilliant and hilarious work. Matt Cook as some of you may know actually appeared on the United States of Poetry on top of writing a great poetry collection. So first the link to the USOP stuff, then an Amazon.com link.
NOW, Time for NERD SLAM! I was a special Celebrity Judge along with Blackwulf, an editor at BUST, some comic artist I didn’t know and Shappy. I believe folks from St. mark’s were to suppose to judge as well (instead of I'm not sure who, not me though, cause I was asked to Judge beforehand) but they didn’t make it. While the seriousness of the SLAM didn’t REALLY exist, it being a theme slam and all, Shappy still pulled off sacrificial duties and performed Ernie Cline’s “When I was a Kid”. Of course, he was disqualified, as it was a cover poem. That wasn’t serious either, as we broke SLAM rules and Orko performed back up for most of the poets.
-I don't agree with all of what Reid has to say here but it gives you a pretty good idea how it all went down. I got some really cool Slurpee cups in the mail the other day and a cool Pufinstuf movie poster. Work was a drag last night. Pretty slow. Mike Henry is in town filming everybody for the slam documentary. Now me and snoo are chilling and watching Fast Times at Ridgemont High. AWESOME!
posted by Shappy at 5:01 PM
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Well, tomorrow is the big nerd show! Me and snoo are very anxious about the whole affair.
I'll be glad when it's all over! Two nerds coming in from Austin, Blackwolf the Dungeonmaster, Jollyship as the houseband and possibly some surprize guests.(In other words, it'll be a surprize if they show up.)Anyway you slice it, it's going to be AWESOME! Tonight I gotta go to the club and pitch in for the "staff night". I thought I was working but that turned out not to be the case. Eh, I'll be behind the bar anyway. Drop by for fun and games!
posted by Shappy at 3:06 PM
Sunday, June 13, 2004 What a great weekend! Friday night was a blast until a busload of Boston bean-heads came in and gave of a buncha attiude. Whatevah! Still made good tips! Saturday me and snoo went to the Entertainment Outlet and got a buncha movies, met her pal Dave Pantalone for Chat-n-Chew. Then we went to see WORD WARS a documentary about Scrabble tournament players. Cristin and I saw many parallels to the poetry slam scene. Then if that weren't cool enough the producers had a Q and A and had two of the stars of the film (Marlon and G.I. Joel) come out for questions as well. These guys are also featured in Word Freak (book about Scrabble that is awesome) so it was cool to meet them. G.I. Joel gave us his card and we might visit his Scrabble club! Then tonight we had dinner at our fave fancy Italian place in Astoria and Mayor Bloomberg came in to dine as well! Everyone was buzzing! I guess a mayor can really make a difference in a restraunt! posted by Shappy at 8:32 PM
Friday, June 11, 2004 Hey! I'm feelin' fine! Busy, but fine. Got St. Mark's comics to sponsor the Nerd show next Thursday. Been havng a good week so far at the bar. Got to see Danny Hoch read on Tuesday. Ally Sheedy read last Friday. That was cool. I wanted to talk about WarGames the whole time but kept a civil tongue. Do you think we'll have a national holiday when Ford dies? Long live Ray Charles! Who was way cooler than Reagan ever was. posted by Shappy at 1:58 PM
Sunday, June 06, 2004 What a roller coaster week! Back late on Monday. Worked all night Tuesday.Wednesday- went out for dinner with snoo and Robert Hughes from Australia. Saw Nikki P. from my CHicago days perform with Celena Glenn at the BPC. Went and saw Brook Pridemore play at the Sidewalk Cafe. Then back to the club for up-to-no-goodness as a result I said some stupid shit to Cristin that night. We have finally resolved our problems. Thursday more hip-hop and shit at the club. Friday-more of the same. Finally, a day of rest. Had two fine meals with snoo and cleaned up the house! We watched ELEPHANT tonight. Quite a jarring film! Just so you know, I love my girlfriend. Her name is Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz and she's really smart and pretty and a fine writer! posted by Shappy at 1:26 AM
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
TO AUSTIN AND BACK!
Tuesday and Wednesday of last week I worked and made very little traveling money. I took Thursday off to prepare for the trip, knowing we had a 8AM flight the next day. I shoulda worked but I can make it up next Monday. No matter! It was time for some R-n-R in TEX-ASS!
We got into town and Ernie immediately took us to Magnolia Cafe for an amazing meal including Cristin's fave-queso! We then went back to home base and played some video trivia and got ready for the big Spoken Nerd show. We set up a giant Atari system and had a Scrabble table lit and ready for all comers! People were actually heckling the Atari players! Cristin gave Andy Buck (Austin poet/lothario) quite the Scrabble spanking.
The show was awesome. A variety of nerdy poets performing in front of a sold-out theatre! Cristin premiered a new nerd love poem she wrote for me! AAAAAWWWWW! She got a standing O! I had a great time performing and got a lot of love as well. It was a perfect poetry show! I then ran into an old college room mate and fellow theatre geek-Mike McCafferty! He was in town filming a Mike Judge film! We then all went bowling and a wide variety of fried foodstuff.
Saturday-Ernie brought in breakfast tacos from Tamale House #2! Oh sweet, Jesu! I can not tell you how awesome they are! A must while in Austin! There was a lot of party planning to do. After having lunch with Mike Henry and Ernie me and snoo walked around a bit. I bought a nifty vintage shirt that I wore to the party.Ernie took me and snoops to Thai Kitchen for a spicy meal and then to Toy Joy where I bought Cristin a little stuffed wiener dog named Dolly that she adores! We got back, chopped celery and off we went to Susan and Ernie's send-off. Susan is actually leaving to go a writing dealy while Cline sticks it out in Austin til the end of July. No matter this was everybody's chance to see them off together. Which means everyone we knew in Austin was there. Jeff and Toni, Gen VC, Hillary T, MJC, and a host of livejournalists! It was great to be at an actual party for once and not be behind a bar! Cristin tuckered out in the later hours. Such an early bird! Man, a good time was had by all!
Sunday-everyone slept in except for Cristin who met up with her old college professor. Me and Ernie and Susan went to Jason's Deli for lunch. (Salad bar! Free Ice Cream Bar!)We then got to Hogwild (my fave vintage toy store in Austin and sponsor of Spoken Nerd show!) I bought a Snoopy lamp and a nice Charlie Brown vinyl statue from the 50's. Cristin made naggy noises the whole time! We then got more cool stuff across the street at the Living Room. Then we all went to see THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW which was totally cheesy and fun to see on the big screen. What disaster movie isn't? We then ordered pizza and watched Shreck 2 which I was prepared to hate but was pretty funny. I just love/hate that CGI!
The next day was spent in airports and delayed planes! Yuck! Cristin was pretty brave up til the last bit where I had the stew bring us some ice and towels. Snoo was all hot! But, we finally got home and now we're all caught up! See you tomorrow!
posted by Shappy at 2:08 AM
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