Things I'm doing. Things to do.

This past Saturday, I served BBQ. I'm using the term correctly.

Meredith corrects me when I use BBQ in other circumstances. BBQ is very specific to her. To me, I use the word to refer to grilling or a type of sauce used to cover grilled meats. To her, it's pulled pork.

So anyway, we had a Southern-style New Year's meal, complete with black-eyed peas, collards, cornbread, BBQ, and mac n' cheese. So good . . . and so bad for you. I swear, I was using meat in everything.

Time for my colonic.


***

Running into the issue of conducting a workshop for a collaborative piece. How do you do it?

For one thing, the level of investment in a collaborative poem might not be as high as the investment a writer has in a solo piece. There's also the whole juggling of egos that's magnified when there's collaboration (See Project Runway whenever there's a group project). My temporary solution is to conduct workshops solely with the collaborators. So, in a class with four groups, you meet with each group individually instead of the whole class.

Is that solution working? We'll see. Our first meeting will be on Wednesday.

***

Bored with my gym music so I bought a bunch of hip-hop albums. (Yes, E. When I ran into you and C. at Everyday Music, I was going to put some albums back, but I wound up buying 'em all). .

Spoils include the following:

Kid Koala--your mom's favorite dj
Lifesavas--Gutterfly
RZA--Afro Samurai: The Soundtrack
Lupe Fiasco--The Cool
Common--Finding Forever
Pete Rock--Hip Hop Underground Soul Classics

My gym selections are very different from my normal musical tastes. For example, during the same album shopping spree, I had the new Low album, Drums and Guns. I also eyed the new Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album. I'm also awaiting the new album from Cat Power.

Here's the thing, though . . . you don't want to be running on a treadmill or bench pressing while Low shuffles into your iPod. It happened to me once, and I almost dumped 170 lbs on my chest.

Anyway, I'm loving RZA and Kid Koala right now. RZA's remade himself from a seminal member of the Wu-Tang Clan to a damn good soundtrack editor. See his Ghostdog soundtrack. You'll understand. And Kid Koala's not exactly the type of stuff to get your heart rate up, but it's an interesting listen. Tight samples of dialogue with music and beats here and there to form a narrative.

I've yet to give the other albums a close listen, but I will when I go to the gym today.

***

Got a couple of poem acceptances and some journal solicitations. Very good season so far. I just need to keep working which is tough when you're me. Writing has not been on my brain lately. But if you want to talk about painting and scraping popcorn ceilings, I'm your man.

***

Baby shower . . . egad.

My well-intentioned mother sent out the invitations in her illegible script. So babiesrus.com looks like babiezon.com There's also the problem of Meredith's name. While she can and has gone by my last name, she doesn't professionally and that's cause for some concern, since the invitations were sent using my last name and I'm not sure many of her relatives actually know what my last name is.