Tonight's Dire with Larry O Dean

Hosted by Tim Gager. Click and join the Facebook group here for the Zoom info.

Tonight: Virtual First Fridays Open Mic! Special Pride Edition

Hosted by Kaleigh O'Keefe. Click here for more information, including the Zoom link.

Wisdom for the End of an Exhausting Week

Thanks to Bruce Wise for his latest Wise Words column. Thanks for reading Oddball Magazine this week. Read some of our Black Lives Matter posts if you haven't yet?

How to Take It All In?

Janet Cormier looks at all sides with this week's Bamboozled No More! at Oddball Magazine.

Terrible

I'm horrified at how much of a morning person I've been converted into.

Worse, the time when I'm at my most lucid and capable might be between 5 and 8 A.M.

After that, I might as well call it a day.

Enjoy the afternoon, you horrible people.

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION: Stone Soup Croutons, 6-3-20: The Grand Party

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions picked from Stone Soup'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. To paraphrase Lorne Michaels, this poem doesn't go up because it's ready, it goes up because it's Friday morning.

What an open mic this past Wednesday. It was late because I was late. Nearly everything has been late this week. My newsletter never even came out when it should have. But that's okay. Because you get to see me in the video of the event enjoying tomato soup with Planters cheese balls thrown in as the best croutons ever. I love my girlfriend. She has the best ideas.

This week's poem isn't quite Black Lives Matter, and it isn't quite pandemic, but it had elements of these themes from the open mic to kind of make its own amalgamated theme.

Time to go catch up with everything else. Thanks for reading.


The Grand Party

Bring your best upside down bible.
Easier than flipping White House.

Truth and honesty make private Pietà
in penultimate corner for non-dancers.

City Hiaku

U.S. reopened.
Traffic blocks flow of road
like a knee to throat.

A Quieter Protest

There was a Black Lives matter protest last night in Jamaica Plain, with police cars and ambulances  as far back as where I work. As I left, I saw these posters someone seemed to have taped up right under the noses of the people keeping watch.

T.G.I.F.

If only that bunker could be locked from the outside.

Inspired by DL Polonsky.

And Now...

Here's a very special Black Lives Matter multimedia presentation by Liza Zayas. It's a very special Underground Garden today at Oddball Magazine.

Is James' Pandemic Poem the New Labyrinth Poem

Read James Van Looy's latest poem column. It's All One Thing is up now at Oddball Magazine.

Stone Soup Poetry Open Mic, 6-3-20

From the new weekly online open mic.

 

 

 

Found Not Art

After months and months of no new finds, I saw this while going into the Central Square red line entrance.

Wave Bye!

Thanks to everyone who came to Stone Soup Poetry's online open mic last night. Thanks for trying to wave naturally on command. We'll see you all next Wednesday.

My Mega-Poem is Up

"Rough Beast Born," my epic-sized erasure poem, is based on Donald's Trump's imfamous near-ninety minute speech at his South Carolina rally in February. After all my work editing his words, it's still a beast of a poem. It is finally up at Headline Poetry & Press. My thanks to Editor Hokis  for her endless support.

The Closer

With photography by Jennifer Matthews, poet Marcus Pierre closes us out our Black Lives Matter Day at Oddball Magazine. Thank you for reading.

Continuing

Welcome Goodness Olanrewaju Ayoola and photographer at large Jack Marty to the installment of our Black Lives Matter Wednesday at Oddball Magazine.

#BlackOutWednesday?

Jason Wright's extra Jagged Thought for Black Lives Matter is up now at Oddball Magazine.

The Future

A poem by Jordyn King with multimedia artwork by Ira Joel Haber. Welcome to a Black Lives Matter Wednesday at Oddball Magazine.

Your Own Personal Heaven?

Dexter Roberts gets steps into the spotlight for this special Wednesday at Oddball Magazine.

Your Own Personal Heaven

Poet and artist Dexter Roberts has the spotlight next on this special Black Lives Matter Wednesday at Oddball Magazine. Thank you for being with us.

American Haiku: Alt-White Lock Up

When I started my Sarcastic Haiku series, I wrote my first American Haiku. You can read my first one, and others I've written since, by clicking here  and scrolling down.

American Haiku: Alt-White Lock Up


Five-Seven-Five Yay!
Curfews now good for country!
All lives matter! Our lives Matter!

Black Lives Matter

Welcome our new contributors! Poet MG Stephens and artist C. R. Resetarits gives us an early start with this special Black Lives Matter Wednesday of Oddball Magazine.

June 3: Here We Go Again, Stone Soup Poetry

It's been a long few days. I want to let loose some steam, and I think many of you do to. Come join me on our online open mic this Wednesday night on June 3. You can perform whatever you like, but anything reflecting on the the racist atrocities and the recent responses will be especially welcome. Please join me if you can.

Join me this Wednesday, June 3, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM ET by clicking this link.

The meeting ID is 859 3490 2667

Password: stonesoup

What a May!

The alt-right loves putting the word "Boom!" in their headlines, their video titles and their emails. At first, I thought I didn't have enough "Boom!" in my latest found poem of May's alternative news headlines to justify its title, "Lowering the Boom!" Then I searched Bitchute, and I was good. Read my latest Tales of the Alt-Blight at Medium.
 

Flemmings Beaubrun is Back With Words for You

Read the returned Flemmings Beaubrun in this week's Epic Autism Report. Welcome back to Oddball Magazine, Flemmings.

For #BlackOutTuesday

Here's a Prince remix courtesy of Deejay Daz-One, linked now at Oddball Magazine.

This Week's Most Distinguished Network Names

It's amazing what people will name their online networks. I'm always trying to hijack wifi when I'm commuting, so I often come across a number or interesting names. Every Tuesday, I post the most impressive and/or cringe-inducing names.

New England is going to have a rough football season...if it even happens.

As The Lights Go Out

Bonus Work

A poem by Jamie Nelson and photography by the aforementioned Jack Marty starts off our week of poem for George Floyd and others. Black Lives Matter at Oddball Magazine.

What's Louder Than Words?

Geoffrey Fallon lays it down for everyone asking "why" things are happening the way they are. Read his comic "The Secrets of Skinny People" at Oddball Magazine.

From Picture to Page: Sights

Helicopter photo taken last night. The one constant throughout the protests this weekend.

Sights

Eyes ahead.

No one keeps
track of all.

Day...Day...

Beautiful day...

Could still use a comic.

Bill Harvey's "The Odds" kicks off the new week at Oddball Magazine.

Happy Birthday John Mulrooney

Moving Forward

Sending out emails to editors.

May almost feels like I want a "do over." But if things get moving this week, all my working and waiting will have been worth it.

Flowers on a Brand New Day

Still Life After Breakfast, Part 118

Spion Update for June

Lots of good news. I took this picture of Spion's sticker art in Andrew Station. Not only has this sticker gone over one hundred and twenty days without some a-hole tearing it up, but I found out through Instagram that an artist colleague of mine knows Spion!

This Week's Additional Friendly Reminder

We're probably in a newer world today than we already have been the past few months, but this information is still vital. This is one of the many creative advertisements seen around Cambridge.

This Week's Friendly Reminder

This is what matters most. The message of Black Lives Matter. Not the fools who break stuff blocks away from a peaceful protest that ended before the trouble began.

The picture above is a close up of a photo taken by one Jack Marty, whose work you might be seeing later in Oddball Magazine.

Happy Day After

Let's see what happens next after last night.

You can either support the good and help everyone move on or accentuate the negative and stand on a street corner with a weapon.

I'd prefer the former.

I Love it When I'm Blocked on Twitter

After this guy retweets a post of mine about wearing masks, it was my duty to make him break, and I finally did.

Trouble is, I have to look over a bunch of alt-right emails for my next Medium piece. You would think being on Twitter all day would help me prepare that. Sadly, it does not.

Southie Bloom for Sunday

Your Weekly Dose of God

I first heard Low Pop Suicide in college when I was a lousy music critic for the school paper. I still have the CD of their first album, On the Cross of Commerce.

The song linked below I later heard on MTV. It wasn't in a video. It was part of the soundtrack to an episode of  the first "The Real World" set in California, the episode where Tami Roman gets an abortion.

No matter how much I try to avoid religious extremes in my everyday life,  I can't keep my religious roots out of what I create or the art I consume. 

That Feeling

When you have a finished poem after hours of work.

Final Edits

After hours of work, I'm finally able to put final touches on a poem while listening to YouTube videos.

Another behemoth piece.

I hope this goes up soon.