Wyvern

"Ugh-gh" Mardrax and Hawkwing stare down at Wyvern and await his responses to their questions, oblivious to the lizard's twisted limbs and crooked tail in light of their obvious lack of experience with mortal beings. They start to pick up on the overgrown lizard's state when his tongue rolls out and his head flaps back in an unconscious state. "Strange, I could've sworn he was standing and talking a few moments ago" Mardrax, somewhat delusional, attempts to place the bag of geld in Wyvern's claws again. He winces as he notices that the claw isn't facing quite the right direction, and lets the geld pouch slip from it. "Hmmm, if I didn't know any better, I'd say he's taking his time and thinking the whole thing through." Hawkwing nods sheepishly as the flames continue to roar throughout the area, causing billows of black smoke to rise from the ruins of the cardboard town. A cardboard saloon comes crashing down, its ashes caught in the wind. Mardrax and Hawkwing glance at one another, then step aside as two lizardmen wearing gass masks and carrying a hospital stretcher arrive to pick up the injured Wyvern. The underlings load Wyvern onto the stretcher and carry him off in the direction of the Pen Keep, stumbling and dropping him every now and then as they make their way through the flames and carboard rubble. OOC: Sorry folks. I was recently told you were awaiting a response from me in this thread, but thought you'd realize that Wyvern would be outta the picture after being strangled and backhanded across the town. :-p He's kinda durable in a way I guess (he has healed and recovered from this since... many would have been paralyzed afterwards!), but he's by no means invincible or even powerful I'm afraid. Anyway, consider this Wyv's exit from the thread. The healing process has already taken place over the course of other threads (you can read about the bandages he got off of this over here if you haven't yet), and he's back to normal now. Sorry for the confusion, once again.

The bloated field mouse grins to itself as it swallows the last of the new batch of words, letting the last 'c' in Gryphon's "demonic" roll along its tongue before gulping it down with the rest of the letters. The giant mouse leaves cryptomancer's mousetrap to the side, having almost made the fatal error of attempting to approach and swallow it with the rest of the words. It glances in cryptomancer'd direction, then down at the mousetrap, then back at cryptomancer again with a smirk. "Perhaps later." With that, the field mouse begins pacing back and forth, waiting for the next batch of fresh words with a hungry squeak.

Hmmm. I see how "Keep" works better in getting across the sense of the line, but I definitely feel "Shade"s absence in the sound of the line and the overall feel of the stanza. Perhaps there's a word somewhere between the two of them that shares both of their qualities? "Save" could be a potential option, though I'm not sure if it fits the sense that you want to deliver with the line since it feels a little more desperate. One thing I do like about "Shade" is it that it's something one can associate with cats, and fits the eulogy in that sense. Then again, "Keep" might have the more positive connotation in the end. Rambling thoughts, Wyv~

Mardrax and Savage Dragon observe the surroundings of the Word Association wetlands with accuracy and succinctness as the stream of consciousness comes rushing in. Word Associates jump back as the raging waters cause their simple contributions to go spinning. Some words crash against each other, forming compounds that never should have been. Words like "Wetwetwetwomenmate" and "Billyfibercorethermometer." The sorts of words that the ardent Word Associate might deem cheating, in accordance with Word Association Code II.VII: "Thou shalt not add more than one word." "Chaos!" cries someone. "Panic!" cries another person. "Hispanic!" cries another person, wanting to remain true to the "first word" rule even in times of crisis. "Look!" cries another Word Associate, pointing a finger in the direction of a gigantic bloated field mouse as it washes ashore. "Egads" whispers a bright-eyed Word Associate scientist. "Large?" says another person, squinting through a thesaurus that he holds in hand. "No no, take that back, enormous." The man pockets his thesaurus and glances towards the others, only to find that they're all glaring at him. "Oops, that's right, one word off the top of the dome. Sorryguysyoucantakeitfromhere." "Clutz!" "Idiot!" "Buffoon!" "Egads" whispers the Word Associate scientist in a shameless display of repetition, not daring to move. The giant field mouse lifts itself to its feet and stretches for a moment, shaking its head dizzily and dripping coffee-susceptible water over a couple of innocent words. The mouse sniffs at the air in loud whiffs, then licks its lips and turns to the scientist standing nearby. It lumbers past a soaked "Sexysenilecuddles" and sneers in the scientists direction. "Perhaps later." "R-r-r-rodent." The Word Associate scientist's jaw drops as the giant field mouse picks up his word and swallows it whole. The scientist begins flailing about as the field mouse snatches him by the collar and starts swallowing him as well. "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" "O.K, objection guys." The man who was using the thesaurus earlier points at the half-swallowed scientist and takes out a pocket dictionary. He rolls his eyes and begins flipping through it. "First of all, it's against the rules to say more than one word in a row and he said three different ones. Secondly, I don't think that 'Aaaaiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' is an actual word in the dictionary. Oh hold on, wait- no. No, that's 'ail.' See? I was right!" "RUN!" The giant field mouse licks its chops as it watches the Word Associates scatter in every direction, then steps towards the next available word with a hungry grin. It even adds its own word between meals: *Squeak*

Wyvern picks at his teeth with a rusty ninja star leftover from last Carnival's Pirate vs. Ninja arena, approaching the stream of consciousness with a cautious step. The lizard raises a brow as he watches the stream run its course adjacent to the Pen Keep, with several curves and bends making the coffee-susceptible water slosh about chaotically. The logic-bound banana leaf boats tied at the dock bob up and down to the varying currents, casting their shadows on a large stone dam labeled "Word Association Barrier - DO NOT REMOVE." The empty river dug-out on the other side of the dam looked as dry as Wyvern's bank account post-Almost Dragonic Brand Salt-E-Pops™ (guaranteed to get you feeling salty, or your money non-refunded). "Naw, the moon'd definitely go digital. Just wouldn't be as accurate as the Sun, with the halves n' crescents n'all. Too much math." Wyvern steps past cryptomancer and stretches his neck to observe the stream in more detail, still not daring to get within three feet of the running water. He snorts to himself and tosses the ninja star to the side, then spits a loose piece of metal from his mouth and watches it skip once on the stream's surface. "Y'know, I don't get what ya folksss find so intriguing about this thing. I mean, sure the stream supposedly leads to the underground lair of the Pretty-Darn-Holy Grail, and sure it's rumored that the mud beneath contains bubbling chocolate worms... but, it's still water." Wyvern twists his snout in as disgusted a grimace as he can muster and takes a few steps back. He almost steps on a field mouse scurrying across the stream's banks as he raises his snout to the sky and hiccups a smoke ring. "I mean, fine, there're fans of mystic streams. But does it really deserve its own Association?" Wyvern sighs and slumps his shoulders, shaking his head. "I don't suppose there's any chance of draining it and replacing it with booze or chocolate or blood (I, for one, haven't forgotten the Pen's vampire population! And remember: if it ain't sickly good, it ain't Almost Dragonic Brand Type-O™)?" Cryptomancer raises a hand to speak, but is interrupted as the field mouse suddenly hops out from of a tuft of weeds and leers. "Perhaps later." The mouse opens its mouth and pounces forward just as Wyvern slips over a patch of muddy hair shed by Akallabeth. The overgrown lizard's tail swings upward as he falls back, smacking the omnivorous field mouse in mid-leap and sending it flying. The mouse soars through the air until it lands mouth-first on the "Word Association Barrier" dam. Wyvern and cryptomancer gape as the mouse swallows the dam whole and inflates to approximately 187 times its regular size. They watch as the stream's currents suddenly shift in the direction of the Word Association wetlands, gawking as the waves somehow manage to carry the huge field mouse downstream. "Well." Wyvern lifts himself with a grunt and wipes some mud from his horns. His beady eyes remain focused on the mouse as it drifts further and further towards the innocent land of one-word responses. "Thisss could get ugly." ;-) OOC: To be continued.

I like this poem, Momento Mori. :-) The rising water metaphor works quite well in reflecting the emotional state of the narrator, and the violent images of rushing water set the tone of the piece nicely. I particularly like the positioning of the "When it rains: it pours" and "When it drizzles: it storms" lines in the two stanzas where they're incorporated, as the "pouring" to "storming" build-up seems to reflect the mounting emotions of the piece well. The title of the poem is also interesting, as the normally cheerful thought of a parade seems to refer to a relentless flooding here (it actually reminded me of the title of an upcoming CD by the Painkillers: "Hate Parade"). The one part of the poem I didn't care for as much was the Sunlight/Sunshine metaphor, which felt a little more typical than the rest of the piece and was stated rather bluntly. Perhaps if there was an adjacent metaphor for the dark clouds, it might work better... why are the clouds there in the first place? Nicely done. Thanks for sharing this.

Last night, I saw the Fall 2006 Mush Tour featuring Daedelus, Caural, Thavius Beck, and Christopher Willit at the Bar of Contemporary Art in San Francisco. I think this is the first show I've trekked out to where the entire line-up consisted of live electronic music, so I was curious to see what the producers would offer to make their beats interesting live. Daedelus is, in my opinion, one of the most original and innovative electronic/instrumental hip hop producers working today, and I'd heard very good things about his live show. Caural and Thavius Beck I had seen live beats from on previous occasions (both recorded in this thread), and they've always impressed me with their beatwork. This evening, I met with Thavius Beck at the merch counter and chatted with him for a bit until I realized that the first act had already started and moved up to the front of the tiny venue. Christopher Willit was the warm-up act for the San Francisco show, and he had a little band along with a female vocalist accompanying him. Their music was very low-key and trance-like, so soft that it took me a minute or two to pick up on the fact that they were performing. They definitely had a dream-like headtrip quality to their set, which worked well for what it was but sort of dragged a bit near the end. Still, there were some very interesting moments in their set, including one point where the drummer began making these squeaky sounds by rolling his drumstick across a cymbal, and the horn player responded with some jazzy echoes. Not a band that I'd invest in or really pay to see, but kind of a nice mood setter never the less. Thavius Beck was the first of the central Mush line-up to perform, and he rocked out on an MPC drum machine and SP sampler, as well as a laptop. Listening to his music is kind of like being sent to the futuristic world of "Bladerunner" and going on a chaotic acid trip. Thavius performed mostly new tracks that haven't made any of his albums yet, and his excellent combination of swirling synths and intricate drum programming definitely impressed the crowd. Very good set, and great to see that he's been keeping himself super-busy with new material. Caural was next up to perform, and set up a video slideshow that displayed the eyes of different people to compliment his music. I was very impressed with his solo set when I saw him open for Busdriver and Pigeon John about a month ago, and this set was longer and even better. There was a real sense of care and refinement in the way he constructed his complex drum programming and mixed his tracks, and the things he flipped ranged from odd nostalgic rock records to his interpretation of the original 6-bit * theme. Caural also chopped up old school hip hop vocal samples from Q-Tip (of Tribe Called Quest) and others, and interspersed them throughout his songs to good effect. One definite highlight of his set was when he flipped the piano loop from his track "Photograph" and chopped it to perfection, making entirely new melodies out of it. Great set. Daedelus was the last to perform, and single-handedly turned the BOCA into a raver techno dance party. For those who don't know Daedelus, his style might be described as a cross between a Victorian dandy (everything from his clothes, to the way he speaks, to the samples he toys with in his music) and a mad scientist. Daedelus flexed his style in a very interesting way over the course of his set, using a blinking sampler board to * and transform them into an electro dance mix. He really got the crowds dancing and raving away, which sort of surprised me since even super-energetic hip hop shows tend to get little dancing these days. One awesome moment of his set was when he took a moment to thank the crowd, only to reveal that he'd recorded his own voice via laptop. He then chopped up his own "thank you"s and turned them into a dance tune... very original! Another great set. It's good to know that electronics can be entertaining to see live. * Note: Visual quality of the video is horrible due to the poor lighting of the venue, so consider these links more like audio compliments to the review. Caural's video eye projections can still be seen, though.

"An aquarium?" Wyvern's smile turns to a scowl as the thought of water in his Office dampens his mood a bit. "Unless that'sss clear alcohol those octopi are swimming in, I'm gonna have to ask you to start a seafood fry shortly after thisss. Thanksss for the Innocuous Octopus Ultimatum, though." Wyvern pulls his acceptance stamp from its niche on his cluttered desktop and turns to retrieve some free octopus ink, only to hesitate at the thought of having to reach into H2O to get it. The overgrown lizard grumbles to himself and taps a claw on one of his horns to think, then perks up and turns towards a pile of junk mail that rests at the corner of the Office. Wyvern reaches through the spammy feel of promotional offers until his claws touch a familiar object, and he lets out a triumphant hiss as he pulls a prototype version of an Almost Dragonic Brand Paraphernalia Pick-a-Parter™ from the middle of the pile. "Thisss should do the trick." Wyvern grins and attaches the acceptance stamp to the end of the long mechanical pole claw, then extends it to the octopus tank. The claw begins automatically sorting through octopi, tossing several of the less valuable sea creatures out of the tank. "Just watch, this thing'll find high quality octopus ink in no-time!" Wyvern flinches as the Pick-a-Parter begins to short circuit, tossing things faster and faster and spraying water across the room. The reptilian Elder still lets out a triumphant laugh as the device acquires ink from a worthy octopus, and turns the pole to stamp Momento Mori's application ACCEPTED just as the contraption tosses a Purple-Spotted Face-Hugging Stinger Octopus in Wyvern's direction. The overgrown lizard hands Mori back his accepted application sheet, only to go flailing around the room as the exotic octopus curls its tendrils around his horns. "Aaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!" ;-) OOC: An ACCEPTED application story, Momento Mori. Welcome to the Mighty Pen! Sorry for the wait, glad to see you've applied. I'm looking forward to reading more of this story, as well as any other works you choose to share or any community events you choose to participate in. Welcome, and thanks for all the fish.

If it's really a friendship that's been ignored, then I doubt that repayment would become a relevent principal. All relationships have their difficult twists, but I think unknotting the problems can be easier than struggling to make up for lost time. There's usually a sense of forgiveness once everything's been talked out, though I guess there could certainly be exceptions...

Momento Mori paced back and forth through Wyvern's Office, like one of the hotshot reporters from his application piece liking a tabloid headliner like his own felt hat, but being stumped like the half-buried midget used as Big Foot's stool on what to edit to meet the word limit (like people with limited vocabulary, like myself). Fortunately, like a strong gust of stagnant polluted air, Wyvern shoved his feet, claws, and tail through the open Office window and stumbled into the room. "Ssssorry to keep ya waiting." Wyvern grumbled as he shook the remnants of wrecked tax document paper airplanes from his wings. He turned to the applicant and mustered up his most dastardly grin. "Nice to see you finally made it. I hope you found some means of entertaining yourself while I was out plotting... those two piecesss of gum under the second applicant easychair can be a great way to flex your sculpting skills, if you haven't tried'em out. The cobwebs give'em thisss additional texture and-" Wyvern stopped speaking as he noticed the blank expression on Momento Mori's face, then snapped a claw in the air and promptly snatched his application story from the top of a pile. Wyvern hissed to himself quietly as he read over the Tale of Tantalizing Tabloids a.k.a "Deadline." He folded Momento's story in a claw once he'd finished with it. "Hmmm, interesssting indeed... so the truth behind the tabloids finally reveals itself." Wyvern lifted a claw to his chin and scratched at a scale. A mischievous gleam flashed across his beady eyes. "Perhapsss I should break out that Almost Dragonic Brand Prehistoric Garganzolech Cheese™ I've been aging in order to bribe the news rats into writing a 'Wyvern makes fortune off of gullible troglyodyte masses' tabloid. Heck, my geld stash may even already be made, if Almost Dragonic Brand Subliminal Message Players™ actually ended up making a profit! Exxxceeellent." Wyvern cackled to himself and began rubbing his claws together, only to pause and perk up as Momento Mori cleared his throat in a deliberatly loud manner. "Oh! Right, the application." Wyvern flipped through the pages once again, then sat in silence for a long moment. "Well... it's a little short at the moment, if ya get my drift. Missing one or two pagesss, if yaknowwhatImean." "Hmmm?" Momento Mori frowned and raised a brow. "What do you mean?" "The geld donationsss form." Wyvern flashed a sinister sneer and extended a claw. "You thought I'd forgotten? Hand it over, buddy." ;-)

This evening, my grandfather took me to see Bob Dylan and his band, who performed with Kings of Leon at the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco. My grandfather, who's an absolute Dylan fanatic, really wanted me to see Dylan live, so naturally I obliged. I'm sure many of you would have jumped at the opportunity, but I wasn't particularly excited about this show. I definitely recognize Dylan's talent and see the influence he's had on a generation of music, but there's something about really large concert venues that I just don't enjoy. I feel like something personal is lost when there's a fence seperating the stage fifteen feet from mobs of people, and assigned seating is the general rave. For this show, I found myself seated high in a balcony crammed between two people, to the point where it was difficult to make out everything that happened on stage. Kings of Leon were a pretty generic pop rock act with a couple of catchy melodies, but nothing to write home about. Of course, I'm probably not the best judge when it comes to the quality of these sorts of rock bands, so Kings of Leon fans need not take offense! They walked onto stage with a pretty cool ancient choral chant playing in the background, so they get kudos for that at least. Their set was pretty much what you'd expect at a show like this: one track played after another until the end of the set, all by the books. Bob Dylan and his band also played things pretty much by the books, though they were considerably better than Kings of Leon (check their track record for more details!). Apparently, many of the classic songs like "Highway 61" and "Like a Rolling Stone" were done in an improvisational manner... I don't think I'm enough of a Dylan buff to have noticed all the subtle nuances, though I really liked hearing those songs performed. Bob Dylan's voice has definitely grown hoarser and deeper over the years, but the way he strung his lyrics together was still quite impressive. Though it isn't my favorite style of music, I'm glad I got to catch a legend of his stature live. Still, it's a shame that these sorts of concerts have to be such standard, impersonal affairs... it almost felt like watching video footage of a concert rather than actually attending one. A more interactive and intimate show with Bob Dylan would've pwned, but I guess that sort of thing isn't a possibility these days unless you're flthy stinking rich and feel like blowing half of your moolah on a personal concert party...

Nice poem, Ozymandias. :-) It's definitely a piece that I sympathize with. I like how you build up the natural descriptions with greater and greater detail, only to relay the let-down of the poem by singling out the last line. The emphasis on the beauty of nature and the way that it makes you feel reminds me of some of Tanuchan's poetry in a good way. The hypothetical marching song experience also enhances the mood of the piece, and makes the let-down somewhat harder to take. Nicely done, once again. :-) Thanks for sharing this poem here.

half-loved, half-lost, torn by alias. Severed, tacit shear of contact. pluralist schism : drowned by indifference. /join love within, /quit without weakness, to harm. whore words to profit, worlds apart. … leave the cause to be. … more than half-lost. near-empty html, echoing hearts to silence

Nice poem, Mardrax. :-) I like the way that you split it into three pieces for the different stages of emotions, and think that your excellent title reflects them well. The underlying prayer that the friendship will last is very strong, and is definitely something that resonates in my own life. My personal favorite segment out of the three in this is probably "Don't," as I really like the way you phrase the narrator's self-confinement. In terms of possible things to improve: the tone of the second piece seemed a bit wobbily, mainly due to the "and" and the "if you know what I mean" lines. You might consider dropping or rephrasing those lines to strengthen the overall mood of the piece. Also, the line "though you stand only to gain" in the third piece confused me a bit. "Standing only to gain" strikes me as a sort of negative trait, but the "though" suggests that it's positive... perhaps you could expand upon that detail a bit? Nice stuff. I hope that the friendship you speak of does end up lasting forever, relationships can be such tricky things to maintain. And a Happy Birthday to you, by the way. :-)

Nice poem, Memento Mori. :-) I agree with reverie that the allusion to the Garden of Eden is apparent, though I didn't read the second person of the poem as necessarily being Eve, since serpent's influences in this piece suggest broader themes to me. I found your decision to make the serpent female very interesting, and really like how you juxtaposed "sacrifice" and "queen" in the second to last stanza. You mentioned in a previous thread that you were unhappy with how some of your rhyme schemes turn out, and that you didn't care much for meter. Personally, I think the two are interconnected, and that the reason you may be unhappy with how some of the rhymes come out is because of the differing rhythms of words and syllable counts. For example, in the first stanza, there's a slanted rhyme between "head" and "manifested," but the rhythm of reading "Hissing sweet words in your head" is entirely different than that of "Corruption manifested." Unless you want to create a deliberate jarring effect on the reader, you may want to try parralleling the rhythms of lines more to enhance the rhyme schemes of the poem. Also, while I didn't have as much of a problem with the second person of the poem as reverie did, I did feel that the introduction of the first person in the last stanzas felt odd in the context of the rest of the piece. You might consider sticking to the second person in those stanzas as a possible means of improving upon this. Anyway, nice stuff. :-) Thanks for sharing this here, and know that you don't need to prove yourself as a writer in our eyes. We don't place emphasis on writing experience or background, around these parts. :-)

Great story, Rune. :-) I found it very funny and engaging throughout, and admire the way that you treat such a morbid subject with such humor and grace. I really like how you set the mood of the story with your personal tone and perspective, particularly with the comparisons of the nurse and blood donor process to "beverage nazis" and "vampire things." That really sucks that the whole attempt to give blood was foiled because of the quantity specifications... I hope your proud of yourself for going through with it anyway. :-) Thanks for sharing this snippet of your life here, I definitely enjoyed reading it. :-)

Two interesting films that I saw recently: “The Science of Sleep” (in theatres) and “The Best of Youth” (on DVD). “The Science of Sleep” is Michael Gondry’s second full-length film, following his debut oddity “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” I had pretty high expectations for it and, like “Eternal Sunshine,” the film more or less delivered without exceeding expectations. My favorite part of “Science of Sleep” was the way that Gondry conveyed the main character’s dreams, as the combination of random-yet-interconnected details and odd stop animation effects really conveyed the feel of dreams well. The interactions and misunderstandings between the main characters felt very true to real relationships, and Gael Garcia Bernal did a typically good job in the lead role. The feel of the film is very similar to “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and deals with similar subject matter in a similar matter, so those who didn’t care for “Eternal Sunshine” probably won’t enjoy this one. Worth checking out, in my opinion. "The Best of Youth" is an epic italian film that I saw about a month ago, which I've been thinking about in a very positive light as of late. I was a little ambivalent about it after first seeing it, as the movie is literally six hours and fourty minutes long and takes a huge hunk of time to watch (I saw it in two three hour and twenty minute segments on two seperate evenings... thank God for halftime intermissions). I must say that, a month after seeing it, there are definitely scenes that stick with you long after seeing it. The characterization over the course of the film's length is so profound that you really feel that you know the lives of the characters in the most intimate detail. It's like following a friend's life from adolescence to old age, and the events that occur throughout it leave a lasting and meaningful impression. Definitely good stuff, and well worth seeing if you're up to devoting over six hours of time to a subtitled film.

On Monday night, I went and saw the "Quit Your Dead End Job" tour featuring Sol.illoquists of Sound, Glue, X:144 & SPS, and Prolyphic at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. I'd been waiting for this concert for a while, since the last time I saw Glue was one of the best shows I've ever been to (if not the best!). Bottom line: the "Quit Your Dead End Job" tour did not disappoint. For starters, Bottom of the Hill is a really nice venue that I'd never been to before. It had a kitchen open 24-7, an outdoor balcony, easy-to-find restrooms, and a really nice atmosphere inside. The place actually got crowded as the evening progressed, and the nightly San Francisco crowd ended up being quite lively. Prolyphic was the first to take the stage to perform. I wasn't expecting much from his set since I'd seen him performing tracks with Robust as the Stick Figures on a previous tour (reviewed earlier in this thread), and was left thoroughly bored by their set on that occasion. Fortunatly, Prolyphic seems to have stepped his game up as a solo act, as he put on a nice set. He played it strictly by the books, just performing new tracks from his upcoming records one at a time, but his songs were well-written, well-produced, and performed with a passion. He still wasn't the most exciting live act in the world, but his music left a good impression on the crowd and it was a nice way to start the show. X:144 & SPS, who I'd never heard of prior to this concert, were the next act to perform. X:144 established himself as a showman from the moment he stepped onto the stage, breaking into an oldschool fast-talking hype man routine that grabbed the audience's attention from the get-go. One thing that struck me as interesting about their music was the use of turntablism in their songs, as SPS constructed almost all of the beats live through scratch routines. One standout moment was a track where X:144 had the audience buckle their imaginary seatbelts for a flight, only to break into some hyper rhyming patterns as SPS scratched the beat faster and faster. Another great moment was a tour-only track entitled "Smile," which had the audience doing just that. A very good live act, overall. Glue was next up to bat and, much like the time I saw them before, they pretty much tore the house down with an amazing performance and stole the show. For those who don't know, Glue is a three-piece hip hop group consisting of two-time freestyle champion Adeem on vocals, DJ DQ the "folktablist" on the scratch, and super-producer Maker handling the beats. Maker, who hadn't been involved in Glue's live set the last time I saw them, actually participated this time around by providing drum patterns and echoey effects on his trusty MPC while Adeem performed. An emphasis should be placed on "performed" here. The great thing about Adeem is that, in addition to being an amazing rapper and freestyler, he has a really fun down-to-earth personality and knows how to get a crowd involved and active in his set. He also performs mindboggling verbal feats on stage, which really must be seen to be believed (don't take my word for it. Scroll to the bottom of this post!). As if Adeem's antics weren't enough, DJ DQ seems blessed with the ability to manipulate sound using only his hands and a record... Adeem even explained at one point that DQ only speaks in scratch, and that they need to bring a set of tables every time they have a group discussion just so they can get feedback from him (haha!). DJ DQ's solo scratch set was worth the price of admission alone. Too many highlights in Glue's set to mention here, but it'd be wrong of me not to mention their closing number. After getting almost everyone in the crowd to give highfives to one another, Adeem stepped into the crowd and performed a rousing rendition of the track "Ain't Nothing Promised About Tommorow," which ended in a collosal group hug around Adeem while he burst into a ridiculous non-stop quadruple-time flow. O_O Whatever you do, don't miss Glue's live show. Once Glue had wrapped things up, the Sol.illoquists of Sound took the stage as the evening's headliner. I had heard good things about S.O.S and had read some rave reviews of their live shows, but wasn't too familiar with their music. The group's composition is interesting, as it consists of two married couples: Alexandra & Swamburger and Tanya Combs & DiVinci. I was particularly interested in seeing what the hype around DiVinci was about, as I'd heard many good things about his live MPC work, including a rave review from the Pen's own drummondo in this thread. Well, I'm gonna cosign drummondo here, as DiVinci was an absolute beast behind the boards live! The other Sol.illoquists were good, particularly Alexandra with her interesting style of singing voice, but it's fair to say that DiVinci stood out the most amongst the four of them. It wasn't just the way he played his set of three MPCs with his hands, arms, elbows, head, teeth, or feet, it was the entire way that he carried himself throughout the set. For example, after the Sol.illoquists asked for the crowd's opinion of the Black Eyed Peas (cue collective booing), they went into their own intelligent rendition of a Black Eyed Peas track and actually made it good. During the track, DiVinci came out and did an insane gorilla dance on stage, shaking his rump around and actually eating a banana before tossing the peal into the crowd! The dancing didn't stop there, as Swamburger jumped into the crowd and formed a breakdancing circle, which quite a few breakers in the crowd danced in to the rhythm of DiVinci's "percalater" beats. The set ended with all of the other acts clamoring back on stage to help the Sol.illaquists perform their final track, and everyone in awe as DiVinci cranked the evening's last drum beatdown. Great set, even better show! Since I failed to deliver on pictures in the last review, I figured I'd make for it with a couple of videos I took from this concert. ;-) Note: there's a little swearing in them (no thanks to me :-p) and the sound quality goes in and out on some of them (I've finally figured out where the audio part of the camera is...), but I think they're a fairly accurate sampler. Enjoy: Glue performing part of "Catch as Catch Can": Glue performing part of "Beat Beat Beat"... Adeem actually reached out and grabbed the camera to speak into it at the end of the clip. Much of this track is improvised: DiVinci in one of his calmer moments:

Wyvern strikes a toothy grin and rubs his claws together as he slithers through the Cabaret crowds. The reptilian Elder swerves past Mira, Appy, and Ayshela, then squeezes his way through Peredhil (holding the Portrait of Zool) and Mynx in order to give reverie a claws up. He hops forward and extends a scaly arm around the newly-published poet's shoulder, flashing a signature sleazy salesman grin. "Reverie m'boy, I alwaysss knew you would make it. Which is why I prepared thisss non-negotiable contract well in advance." Wyvern hands the Dreamlost a blank sheet of paper from the Devil's Advocate folder and nudges him several times. "Just fill out thisss sheet with your signatures, and we'll be on the road to graphic novel spin-offs and obssscure film adaptations in no time. Oh, and be sssure to fill out the whole sheet with those sssignatures... I plan to cut'em out and sell'em on the black market once your name really gets huge." OOC: Congrats, rev. ;-)

Wyvern's tail sways back and forth as he jots down a couple of notes in stick figure doodle form. He snickers over Venefyxatu's sage advice and proceeds to take the Belgian necromancer's cue, offering a few life advice modifications of his own...

I think premise for this piece is very cool, as both Mynx and reverie suggested, and I like how the gal's exam ends up being three times longer than expected. The addition of the father reading a book at the end is a nice touch as well, as it seems to harken back to the good ol' days of textbook studying and gives the whole thing a hint of nostalgia. I agree with Mynx that expanding this piece might be a way to improve it, and think that in particular the girl's trials and anxieties could use some expansion. It's mentioned that the exam will define the girl's whole life, but I don't get much of a sense of conflict or tension from her experiences, and strengthening that area a bit might make the piece a bit more exciting to read. The major exam passes by a little too pleasantly at the moment, in my opinion. Anyway, good stuff, definitely promising. :-) Out of curiousity, what happens to the people who fail the exam? I'm curious to know, and adding a bit on that subject might even increase the excitement a bit!

Very nice poems, Ayshela. :-) Your most recent one is excellent, in my opinion, as it deals with a very heartfelt subject in a very interesting manner. The intimate details that you draw upon and poeticize really add to the power of the final question in the piece, and I love the phrasing throughout it. The use of line spacing for the "breath" statement, the stirring question at the end of the poem, and the interesting wordplay of "flutterby" all stand out to me in particular. I also really like the way you personify words and characterize them as harmful throughout a number of your poems. Good stuff, once again. :-) I'm glad somebody managed to prod you into posting these here!

Haha! No alternative interpretation at the moment, but I just wanted to say that I thought this "Green Eggs and Ham" continuation was cool. :-) I like how you derailed the story and took it in the direction of over-the-top morbidity, and appreciated the various Seuss-ian references (poor cat in the hat!). Your continuation also reveals the true moral of the story: if your cooked ham turns out green, it's probably a good idea to either throw it out or test it on Aardvark first.

Wyvern wanders into the Cabaret Room, sorting through a large pile of blank documents from his Devil's Advocate folder. He pauses as he overhears Memento Mori's question, and nods along to Disco-neck Ted's statement as he approaches in a quiet slither. The overgrown lizard nudges Momento Mori once he's in range, then hands the newcomer one of the blank sheets from his pile. "I wouldn't really worry about it, y'know? Jussst keep the title 'Brainstorm: Tabloids and You,' and yer pretty much set." Wyvern frowns and folds two more blank sheets, half-distracted by the pile. "I mean, ssstorms of brains attributed to people reading the tabloids? Everyone knowsss that Psimon is behind that sort of stuff!" Wyvern snickers, but goes quiet and lifts a claw to his chin as he repeats the title under his breath. "Of course, then again, 'Alien Brainstorm: Tabloids, Bat Boy, and You' would also have a nice ring to it..." Wyvern folds another blank sheet and spears it on one of his horns, then turns to leave. "Anyway, be sure to fill out that geld donation form before you apply. I'll be catching ya around." ;-)

Hmmm... The conflicting feelings towards love give this poem a very strong base to work with, and your frustration and sadness are both very apparent in the tone, but I can't help feeling that the poem might work better if the first person "I" was dropped from it. You touch upon some interesting concepts on how love can tease and torment that I'm sure many can relate to, but the "I" seems to be at the center of the poem rather than these thoughts and emotions. Your "Everyone But Me" poem gave off a similar impression to me, so I just wanted to offer a potential way to convey your feelings with more strength. This is the Pen; people understand that what you're writing means a lot to you and comes from your experience, and will sympathize even if the "I" doesn't dominate the piece. You don't need the "have fun telling me how much of an idiot I am" stuff to get people to sympathize with your troubles either... heck, you know the Pen is a community that takes good care of its brethren, so no need to make dramatic unlikely predictions. :-p Anyway, I'm sorry to hear about your love troubles, and can definitely sympathize with some of this piece. Thanks for sharing this.