Modern Poets

I took a quiz. Here's what it says about me.


You are Wallace Stevens. You love everything,
especially the sound of things. Too bad you
are so obscure that at times even you don't
understand what the hell you have written.


Which Famous Modern American Poet Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I'm so happy I'm Wallace. I wrote a thing about him for LOC. But I'm not really that obscure. I'm not actually at all obscure. Like ever. So maybe it's not accurate. But it's still fun. And I am silly sometimes like Wallace. And I do love everything. So, everyone take the quiz and tell me what modern poet you are.

By the way, I found the quiz by going through 28-Toed Hen's blog to JewishyIrishy to 32 Poems (where the blogger was Elizabeth Bishop). There's a lot of poets on the internet.

OC can you sing?

In my last post I said some stuff about the Hotel Congress. Associated with it is the Club Congress, where famous bands play, like The Mountain Goats and Louis XIV and Vic Chesnutt (but he cancelled). On Sundays they have karaoke. I made my (male) friend sing "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar because he said to pick out a song for him even though he's a terrible singer and it was the only song from that musical which is one of his favorite movies ever. He was mad because it's a girl song, but he sang it anyway because he's a good sport. There's a guy who does weird body motions and sings everything really angrily and it's funny. There's a guy who does a great drunk Jim Morrison and a girl who sings Evanescence songs in Russian. The girl who sings "White Rabbit" says it's the best karaoke in Tucson.

Some blogger I know (28-toed Hen?) said something on her blog about wanting to find good karaoke in the OC and I just remembered McClure's in Tustin where we went for Ariane's birthday when I was a first year. On the way there, I was in a car with Hainesy and Liz and it was after workshop and I cried a little because I felt like I didn't belong in the program and then we got to the bar, which has red banquettes and a stage and a dancefloor and cheap drinks and old regulars some of whom will accurately guess your age, and the karaoke selection is absurdly extensive. I sang "These Boots are Made for Walking" with back-up dancers and "Is That All There Is?" the Peggy Lee song. So rad. Sumell got kicked out and mocked Chris Hood in the parking lot by saying "I'm Chris Hood. I'm so handsome and smart." So you should all go there when you come back from foreign lands.

Another fun karaoke thing is to rent a karaoke room which we did after Korean BBQ in Garden Grove, I think. I don't remember where or the name or anything though, but you could ask Sunyoung. It cost like $125 for a couple hours, but there were about 20 of us (including Arielle!) so it was pretty cheap. At the end we all sang Nirvana songs together at the top of our lungs and moshed and we all made it home safely even though we were drunk.

Bad Idea

Do not play golf at noon in June in Tucson. It is too hot. You will get heat stroke and die. Even if you're just driving the golf cart. Also, the boys you are with will get heat stroke and get grouchy, unless one is on muscle relaxants, in which case he will shoot better than he has ever shot before and make the other boy grouchier. But driving a golf cart is a good idea any time, especially if you've never gotten a driver's license. You won't crash into someone else's cart or tumble sideways down a hill.

I have seen, while observing golf in Tucson at various times in the day, many new birds, and some boring old ones.

Old ones: Great-tailed Grackle, Mourning Dove, Northern Mockingbird, Goose, Sparrow.

New ones: Roadrunner, Gambel's Quail (red-headed, not like boring old California Quail), House Finch (or maybe VermilionFlycatcher but I knid of doubt it), Cactus Wren (I think). I also saw some kind of hawk or falcon panting under a tree about six feet away from me, but it flew away before I could take a picture of it.

Here are some (unofficial) categories of birds in my field guide: Dabbling Ducks, Huge Waterbirds, Flashy Flycatchers, Classy Gulls. Titmice (hee hee).

There are other good things in Tucson. The mountains are neat and cactus are silly. I'm eating leftover meatloaf from The Grill, which is open late late and serves good food in huge portions. I had pancakes there once and they were the best ever.

Another good place to eat is A Shot in the Dark Café (which just changed its name from far-superior The Café). I had the best blueberry waffle ever this morning. One of the owners is a well-trained cook and hates cooking the kinds of things they serve there, like Potatoes Maximus, and oatmeal, but he does it really well and inexpensively and they have a nice screened-in smoking room. And the music they listen to is the exact same music I spent 7 years listening to at the coffeehouse I worked in. Smokey Robinson, Portishead, Wilco, Ween &c.

You can smoke in bars in Tucson. The Hotel Congress is very old and cool. One of the bartenders at the Taproom there, Jeff, writes bad poetry and he'll sell you one of his chapbooks.

I'm going to Massachusetts tomorrow.