MIT Tongues

The other week I went to the MIT Museum. There was some great stuff, and even an exhibit that will be useful for my dissertation, amazingly enough (the folks involved produced visual "poetry" like 2D busts formed by terms used in a blog). My top takeaway for the day was a child's contribution to the "Wall of Ideas" in the second floor robotics area. While most other children had drawn some kind of boxy robot equipped with laser beams or nigh-magical rocket boosters or some other kind of high-flying-no-practicality inventions, this child had simply written, in all capitals, "TODAS LAS LENGUAS!!"

Much Love for the Cantab

In case anybody from the Cantab comes across this blog as a result of buying my chapbook or Googling me or Facebook linking or whatever: thank you for an awesome night. You laughed when I hoped you'd laugh. You went dead silent when I hoped you'd be listening. You played along with any requests I had. You multiplied my efforts. You were, in short, an ideal audience, and I was so glad to have been there from the beginning of the open mic to the end of the slam that followed my set. Thank you.

Capital Fs

Yes, I capitalize the Fs in JeFF. I do this in publications (journals and chapbooks, even in my one scholarly publication so far), on my syllabuses, when signing off to family members in a letter or email. Sooner or later folks ask about those capitals. I've got three reasons.

1. The capital Fs were spawned from the way I make my signature. It looks like the Fs are uppercase, which is just a quirk of my writing. But a gentleman by the name of John Greenwood started printing them capitalized in a writing workshop we took as undergraduates.

2. I liked the look. There's a balance to JeFF Stumpo that I don't find in Jeff Stumpo. Somehow the weight at the beginning just looks right to me.

3. It makes people ask. On the downside, somebody might wonder if I made a typo in my own name. That's a rare event, as the two capitals make it appear pretty darn intentional. It's silly and vapid, but it gets me a second look from time to time. Sometimes (submitting poetry without a guardian angel comes to mind) that's needed.

Sorry that the story doesn't involve going through demon trials to upgrade the letters of my name one at a time, and if only I can defeat seven dancing genii by midnight tomorrow I'll get all the letters capitalized. Or a horrific typewriter error at the hospital when I was born, the ramifications of which later trickled into the internet and the untold millions who can't type properly. Or that time I was approached by [insert famous artist/musician/puppeteer here] who granted me a new name in exchange for one of my poems.

Signing off,
JeFF

Set List

If you saw me last night at the warm and welcoming Poets' Asylum in Worcester, this is the set list you heard. If you're going to see me at the Cantab on August 19 or at GotPoetry! Live on September 1, this is the list you'll hear*. I really like how it turned out - it has a progression (with the exception of the first poem) from simple to complex performance. That is to say, the pieces get more and more involved in terms of motion, tone of voice, use of persona, etc. It really lets the audience slowly build up into the complicated pieces, all the while bouncing back and forth between serious and silly so as not to overwhelm with one tenor. All told, the set lasts about half an hour (give or take a couple of minutes depending on improvised banter between a few poems, but I try to go from one to the next without much interruption).

Vom Kriege
Icarus comes in first
Icarus applies for a grant from the DoD
in absentia
A priest, a minister, and a rabbi...
Love After Marriage
Mother Earth
[scheduled banter about truth in poetry]
Esteban Peicovich and the Theory of Relativity
Wooden Boys and Deadlier Toys
[option for There will be no reinvention of the wheel depending on the audience]
Sign of the Turtle
ADD TV


*If you go see me at the Zion Hill Reading in November, you won't hear this list. Instead I'll be telling a Russian fairy tale for about 20 minutes.