Tenth and Juniper
January 25, 2009 5:19 AM   Subscribe

Meet Eric, street poet. He's also a doctor of philosophy, but maybe that is the same thing? Sort of SLYTy, but goes to his blog. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
posted by figment of my conation (18 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Get a job.
posted by bardic at 7:09 AM on January 25, 2009


Get a haircut and get a real job.
posted by gman at 7:43 AM on January 25, 2009


i can do without the hat, but i'm diggin the poetry. and being a poet is a real job. a 24/7 job.
posted by billybobtoo at 8:13 AM on January 25, 2009


I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

That depends whether you stopped listening after two minutes, thinking 'I did not enjoy it'.
posted by RokkitNite at 8:20 AM on January 25, 2009


gman, is that a joke attempt, or just knee-jerk anti-poet nonsense? Because the dude is bald.

He's got an interesting way with words/concepts (like this: "why should garishness get all the glory if making the bed is not its own courageous act what with danger beating softly across the loose weave of the very blanket which takes care of you at night"), and the text behind his "why tip?" link is a decent argument more focused on the work of writing than the personality-cultishness of most bloggers' direct and indirect requests for support. You'd think that might earn the respect of the "get a job" blowhards", but perhaps they didn't read that far as they were rushing off to work.

I'd be interested to know what drew you to him, figment; thanks for posting.
posted by donnagirl at 8:35 AM on January 25, 2009


my kid brother is a better philosopher/poet/squatter.
posted by es_de_bah at 8:40 AM on January 25, 2009


donnagirl - Obviously you're not a golfer.
posted by gman at 8:55 AM on January 25, 2009


His poetry sucks. Big time.
posted by luckypozzo at 10:01 AM on January 25, 2009 [2 favorites]


My best friends are street poets, but this is truly awful.
posted by nasreddin at 12:37 PM on January 25, 2009


And his philosophy, as he talks about it in his blog, sounds like a boring rehash of '80s leftist jibberjabber about "the body."
posted by nasreddin at 12:42 PM on January 25, 2009


I follow him on Plurk. In his plurks, there have been glimpses of a world that I find difficult to fathom - he dropped out of teaching because he couldn't stand in front of the students any more, gave up security for this tenacious grasp on food and shelter because of drives within him too great to resist - to transgender, to write full time, even though he realizes it may be to his great detriment. Some of his writing comes off as stream of consciousness how many polysyllabic words can I string together contrived, but there are these flashes of understanding that intrigues me to stick around for more. I am still on the fence as to whether it's brilliance or madness, but have no reservations about calling it enlightening.

I remember when Mefi was a place to share out of the way things to explore rather than 4chan and Boing Boing reposts or point and laugh snarkfests. I apologise for having bucked the trend.
posted by figment of my conation at 1:13 PM on January 25, 2009 [1 favorite]


You're not a bad person for having posted this. We're not bad people for disliking it. You have nothing to facetiously apologize for.
posted by nasreddin at 2:10 PM on January 25, 2009 [2 favorites]


I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I don't think I did.
posted by Pecinpah at 3:48 PM on January 25, 2009


What nasreddin said. I really like performance poetry, but this was pretentious, self-indulgent waffle. For me, he represents a lot of what puts people off exploring poetry in the first place - he seems more interested in self-mythologising and inhabiting the persona of a 'Poet', with a capital P, than he is in editing his work.

'Criticism' and 'snark' aren't the same thing. This, in my considered - but subjective - opinion, is poor poetry. You're entitled to enjoy it. In my experience, the poetry scene suffers from treating people who proclaim themselves practioners with too much credulous reverence. I'm sure Eric will survive without my support. Allowing people to judge your work is endemic to being an artist, after all.
posted by RokkitNite at 3:52 PM on January 25, 2009 [2 favorites]


I thought his reading was pretty decent. I felt engaged and he had some very striking moments, despite the rambling narrative, self-mythologizing, etc. But still better than 95% of what I see at most open-mic readings.

Thanks for posting.
posted by troubles at 9:00 PM on January 25, 2009



I follow him on Plurk. In his plurks....


Oh Jesus God damn fuck biscuit what the Hell is a Plurk. Is that like a twitter or a tweet or a .. just ... aaaaarrrrrrggggghhhh.


DON'T YOU ALL START DOING IT TOO.
posted by louche mustachio at 11:36 PM on January 25, 2009 [1 favorite]


Is there a way I can flag people as COOL and then implement a filter via settings so I never again have to read a comment from them about how other people who actually try and do things suck?
posted by srboisvert at 4:20 AM on January 26, 2009


Metafilter: some of his writing comes off as stream of consciousness how many polysyllabic words can I string together contrived.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 12:44 PM on January 28, 2009


« Older Fair and Balanced   |   Better Than 1000 Cookbooks Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments