Monday, March 24, 2025
Comics Spotlight: Anthony Afairo Nze
Thank you for reading Oddball Magazine on this sad but eclectic Monday.
Hopefully Not the Last Word
Rich Boucher has his own tribute for Jeff Taylor at Oddball Magazine. I've provided photography again.
Tonight at Contro-Verse
From the Contro-Verse Facebook page:
Hi everyone. Jeff Taylor was the co-founder of this event and as you may have seen in another post we lost him this weekend. We’re all fucking wrecks, but the show will go on, as he would have wanted.
Urban Media Arts - UMA 145 Pleasant St in Malden. Doors at 6:30, show ends at 8pm sharp. Bring your tissues, your laments, your memories and unrelated tangents. Smoke em if you’ve got em but please not in the studio.
We will have a hat to pass for the Taylor family, link below if you prefer to donate online or would like to sign up for the meal train.
A Friend's Tribute to Jeff Taylor
Glad to provide a photo for Ryan "Rat" Travis' tribute to Jeff Taylor. Thanks to him, and thanks to you for reading Oddball Magazine on this somber day.
On Vacation
Anne Skove is away from Oddball Magazine the next two weeks. It worked out today, because we're trying to fit a lot in today. She'll be back soon, and we'll be glad for some comics relief.
Bye, Kitty
Shannon O'Conner is back with words and photgraphy on a recently passed local figure. Welcome to Monday and the new week at Oddball Magazine.
March 26: A Slow March to March's End
We lost Jeff Taylor over the weekend. This week's open mic
is not officially a memorial, but you are welcome to bring any words
reflecting loss with you. 2025 has been a lot about loss so far.
Join us on Wednesday March 26 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM ET by clicking this link.
The meeting ID is 869 4191 8826
Password: stonesoup
Coming Up
There will be at least one tribute to Jeff Taylor today in Oddball Magazine.
Before that, we have a tribute to a more public figure.
Just might be an entire day of mourning on the way.
RIP Jeff Taylor
Jeff Taylor missed last week's Stone Soup open mic. This was not unusual as his work hours could include evenings (though he often signed in just to listen). I didn't think much of it or the fact that the Contro-Verse Open Mic he co-organized didn't have any info posted for this Monday. The last gathering had been cancelled due to multiple illnesses. Not too surprising given the flu going around on top of the quademic.
This Week's Friendly Reminder
If you don't know why Teslas are being destroyed, you should look into why.
Saw Coltrane: Legacy for Orchestra at the Boston Symphony over the weekend, and I'm doubling down on my John Coltrane music. So many songs I never heard before.
Sunday, March 23, 2025
Another Interruption to the Sadness
"My poem "Genius After ICE" is another William Carlos Williams patchwork piece up now at dadakuku. Thanks to Editor/Publisher petro c.k. for providing this one bright spot before the days to come.
Your Weekly Dose of God
A banner saying "Christ: The Way - The Truth - The Life" during the Saint Patrick's Day parade last Sunday. Frmo the Bible Baptist Church in Dorchester.
Friday, March 21, 2025
My Friday Evening Music
This song came out in 2016. The music has mellowed a bit, but they still have a bit of an edge in their lyrics.
Stone Soup Croutons, 3-19-25: The Revolution Will be Ill Advised
Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions selected from Stone Soup Poetry's open mic readers and features. I figure out a title (and sometimes the rest of the poem) later. You can read the other ones I've done since 2015 here.
I also have a book collecting the best of my first year of poems. Click here to purchase it.
Lee Eric Freedman delivered. Oh yes, he did. It's a miracle I didn't forget to mute my mic when I was laughing throughout his set.
The poem might come across as nonsense, which you might think reflects my view of Lee's work.
His work is not nonsense but pure joy somehow distilled somehow distilled form the world he and I somehow both inhabit.
I tried to make a coherent narrative. Don't think it worked out that way. Maybe it did.
I've been working all day and trying to think of better lines that won't come. So I'm publishing it before I collapse.
Thanks for reading.
The Revolution Will be Ill Advised
Flowers trapped
in window box
say, This is fine.
Remain pure
as toxic males
topple mountains.
Yellow-Bellied Wisdom
Bruce Wise and his Wise Words poem column closes out Oddball Magazine for the week. Thanks for reading. See you Monday.
Black Canvas
Janet Cormier's Bamboozled No More! kicks off Friday proper once more at Oddball Magazine.
I Hate Fridays
Had to stay home to let the fire alarm inspector in.
Now the rest of my day is screwed.
My Friday Music
When I first listened to Let's Go Bowling, I just had a bad breakup. I would say much of rock and roll has an anti-establishment sentiment, but no other band I can think of was so anti-relationship and anti-marriage as Let's Go Bowling.This song in particular was a post-breakup salve.
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Another Theme
The Instant Noodles deadline for the "Current" themed issue has come and gone. Now you can submit to the "Sanctuary" themed issue until May 18. Click here for more info.
Lee Eric Freedman at Stone Soup Poetry, 3-19-25
From this week's online gathering. A night of William Shatner impressions, poems on the moon and possible voter fraud. An evening to remember. Support our feature by donating to his PayPal (@leeericfreedman).
Waving Goodbye to the Swampscott Army
A lot of laughs last night. Thanks to Lee Eric Freedman for a great night of poetry. Please consider sending a donation to his PayPal (@leeericfreedman). Stay tuned for news on features coming up for National Poetry Month.
Watch The Jules' Poetry Playhouse Roundtable on the Five-Year Anniversary of Zoom Poetry Open Mics
I had a good time. Thanks again to hosts Jules Nyquist and John Roche as well as fellow participants Sandy Yannone, Patricia Carragon, Billy Brown and Roxanne Hoffman. Watch it now.
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Well This Was a Wretched Day
Anyone up for poetry tonight? Lee Eric Freedman is featuring at Stone Soup Poetry tonight. Won't you please join us?
Mixing Myth and Story
Aren't they the same? Think about while viewing this also fire pairing of poet Shutta Crum and artist Tamizh Ponni VP. Both newcomers to the journal! Thank you for reading Oddball Magazine this Wednesday. It was a good day.
Stale AF
Taken yesterday, two days after the Saint Patrick's Day parade. The liquor puns are already as stale as the half-empty plastic cups of beer strewn about Dorchester Street.
Early Wednesday Fire
This a great pairing from returning poet Robert Witmer and retrurning photographer Edward S. Gault. Welcome to another Wednesday at Oddball Magazine. We promise to not disappoint.
Yep
Facebook is blocking my link to today's American Haiku. Apparently because it shows Elon? Must investigate.
When Something Goes So Wrong, It's Right Again
Don't know if this was someone vandalizing another person's graffiti or some graffiti artist messing up. For whatever reason, instead of "F--k 45" we got what looks like "Fug 45," which I think is better. Though shouldn't it be "Fug 47" for accuracy? Whatever. I like it.
A Moment of Comics
I have files of my work saved in multiple storage systems, but recent events have pushed me to make sure I print out everything I've written over the last two decades. Since this decision, I keep thinking about this scene in the first issue of The Dark Knight Strikes Again and The Question's conspiracy theory about computers. I still use computers and the internet to share my work. I just no longer trust it as any kind of safe place to keep it. Story and art by Frank Miller with colors by Lynn Varley.
American Haiku: Trump Tells Infirm to Step Up
When I started my Sarcastic Haiku series, I wrote my first American Haiku.
An American Haiku doesn't care about tradition, formality or history. it takes as long as it wants to make its point because America. You can read
others I've written since by clicking here and scrolling down.
American Haiku: Trump Tells Infirm to Step Up
You want free money?
Run don't walk! Run don't walk!
Last Night at Jules'
Thanks to hosts Jules Nyquist and John Roche for last night's roundtable celebrating the fifth anniversary of Zoom open mics alongside myself, Patricia Carragon, Sandy Yannone and Billy Brown. Can't wait to see the YouTube video when it goes up.
Your Wednesday Morning Poetry
Not the timeliest selection today, but Thomas Hardy's "The Ruined Maid" suits my mood as of late. Yours too maybe, regardless of how many bullet points about your week you have to send out. At any rate, one more from the Poetry Foundation.
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Tonight: Join Us for the Jules’ Poetry Playhouse Roundtable
Join in via Zoom this Tuesday night as John Roche of Jules' Poetry Playhouse hosts Q&A roundtable celebrating the fifth five-year anniversary of poetry open mics on Zoom.
I'll be answering questions virtually alongside fellow open mic hosts Sandy Yannone of Connecticut's Cultivating Voices, Patricia Carragon of New York's Brownstone Poets and Billy Brown of New Mexico's Fixed & Free.
The event goes from 9:00 to 11:00 PM ET. Click here for more information.
Come On In, North Shore Poets!
With the feature for Stone Soup Poetry this weekend, it seems appropriate to have another north shore poet invade our Boston space. Welcome young writer Nicholas Leahy, who is assisted by returning artist Nicholas Leahy. It's a nice start to Tuesday over at Oddball Magazine.
This Week's Most Distinguished Network Name
It's amazing what people will name their online networks. I'm always trying to hijack Wi-Fi when I'm commuting, so I often come across a number of interesting names. Every Tuesday, I post the most impressive and/or cringe-inducing names.
 |
| Most bitches don't give warnings. Thanks for the heads up! |
Damn!
Woke up at 6:00 this morning.
That's late for me.
Now I'm already struggling to salvage the rest of the day.
Monday, March 17, 2025
My Work is Back in Molecule!
My poem "Forgiveness" has just been published in issue 12 of Molecule. This issue also includes a micro interview with Elizabeth Gordon McKim by Dave Somerset and and poetry by several others including Robbie Gamble, Richard Hoffman, Kymm Coveney and many more. Thanks to Editors Kevin Carey and M.P. Carver for including my work again.
We May Never Hear the Word "Sorry" Again
Antoher poetry and art pairing by Richard Spisak for Oddball Magazine.
Productive (shhh!)
I keep getting material from my Saint Patrick's Day parade footage from yesterday. Check out my TikTok. with yesterday's and today's videos More coming, I hope.
I Love Glasses Humor
Anne Skove's comic makes me smile again. Read "She Who Laughs Lasts" today at Oddball Magazine.
Duck!
Mike Mesterton-Gibbons speaks on the recent Donald Duck crisis to kick off our week at Oddball Magazine. Hope you're strapped in!
St. Patrick's Spirit Award Winner
Me (looking at Dave's facepaint job): Nice job, Boobheart.
Dave: Braveheart?
Me: You heard me.
Hoping to put up more photos and TikToks from the parade.
My Monday Morning Music
I first heard about the band Let's Go Bowling in the nineties through a little zine called Read Magazine. I finally caught up with their music in the early aughties via Yahoo! Launch. I know rock music can be misogynistic at times, but Let's Go Bowling really turns the dial up with certain songs like "Uncomfortable Sidekick," the first song of theirs I ever heard.
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