So I
was watching the finals of the Nordic Combined today and….ok, I really had no
reason to actually watch the finals of the Nordic Combined. This is what
happens when you work from home part of the time and it is after market close.
You end up watching whatever Olympic coverage happens to be on at the moment.
Anyway, while watching the thrilling cross country portion of the Nordic
Combined I got to see the brilliance of deciding to place the games in Sochi in
action. Now I can’t consider myself a cross country aficionado but I don’t
believe that courses should consist of about a twenty foot wide path of snow
that is surrounded by pure dirt. Seriously, the only part of the cross country
course that had snow on it was the course itself. I’ve never seen anything as
bizarre in my life and I was watching a sport that believes that ski jumping
and cross country skiing are related skills.
In
sad news that will get lost amidst the other headlines Maggie Estep died today
at only fifty years old. Most people will have never heard of Maggie Estep. To
be honest hers is a name I haven’t thought of for well over a decade. But, she
was part of the spoken word poetry scene back in that brief moment of time when
spoken word was a thing. They even had a special spoken word poetry addition of
MTV Unplugged which is completely insane in that a) MTV once dedicated an hour
of prime time to a poetry recital and b) somehow a poetry recital could be
considered unplugged.
Maggie
was a part of that broadcast and I just want to point out how cool that moment
in time was. I can’t sit here and talk about how influential her poetry was
because outside of a few other brief performances this was what I knew of her.
But the fact that she could make it on to MTV (along with the guy from King
Missle of all things) to just recite poetry and even appear on Beavis and
Butthead was a sign to me that there is more than one way to express yourself.
I’ve always been one to write and typically write for myself. I couldn’t get on
stage and sing or play guitar but I have some small skill in sitting down and
writing but that is a very solitary task. It is tough to connect with people
and even tougher to get feedback. I mainly write for myself but occasionally it
is nice to have an audience.
The
spoken word scene also proved to me that you don’t have to write in the
traditional way. I know it is almost inconceivable now but when I was a
teenager my dreams of seeing my words in print or available anywhere would
involve either getting a book deal or a magazine assignment or if I was going
to be incredibly daring, just publishing my own zine. I knew people who made
their own zines. I had no idea how they did it. Incredibly though a decade ago
I just set up a blog and started writing and ended up with readers all over the
world. I’m bummed that the blog took a multi-year sabbatical and lost its
steady readership but it will come back. I’m just happy to have an outlet.
So
tonight in between Olympic coverage and rightful eulogies to Sid Caesar
remember Maggie and her brief moment in the pop culture spotlight. She was able
to stand on a stage and read her poems to a national audience. How amazing is
that.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Still continuing with albums that
were released in the last year or so. Here is one from Josh Ritter’s release
from last year. For an album that came out of the aftermath of his divorce this
is a rather upbeat song. Plus, it is Josh and his songs are the closest thing
to poetry that you can find out there.
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