Jack Kimball and Christina Strong at the Demolicious Series. the Demolicious Series is definitely a bright spot in the Boston area poetry scene. it's comfortable, doesn't have the inner sanctum ambience that pervades so much around here. I decided to read at the open mic but that proved slightly challenging, insofar as I didn't want to take too much time, but my work tends to stretch out. and I write often in series. saturday I'd written 4 poems in a series that perhaps will go on, and liked what I wrote. I read this, the 1st piece, kinda long. it's still new so I didn't have the best reading bead on it. but enough about me. James Cook read 2 nice, thoughtful poems, and 2 others whose names I haven't managed to place in long term memory yet (both read at the Fitterman/Sloman reading), read several works that were quite good. then Jack read, entirely from a lengthy manuscript. the ms still hopes to find a publisher. why wouldn't it, frankly? the pieces were largely short, sketchy in a way. Jack employs a disjointedness (assuming disjointedness is something that can be employed) that is more like an abbreviation. as in gist. tone is delicately asserted. hearing Jack read probably is a good entrance to his work, so that you can catch hold of the tonal shifts. his poetry is one of voices, of varied sources. whether or not these sources are Googled, or if they are in his head, I don't know and definitely don't care. the shifts are precise and human. emotion bumps against emotion thru the work. I did not take notes and lack a useful memory, so I cannot quote. but I can say there were quite a few laughs, quite a few brilliant lines jumping out. consensus says that Jack read too long. okay, he did, except that it made sense, reading from a single work as he did. he skipped some poems, and all the prose parts of the manuscript, which Jack says are brilliant. what I heard held together, which is why I forgive his reading so much. Christina showed 2 movies that she made. both were powerful political assaults. in the 1st, we see clips from an early Our Gang, with the kids bracing for a play war, juxtaposed with Christina reading (on the soundrack) plus music. then a collage of CNN type talking heads and I know I'm not presenting the experience well. it was rivetting and thougthful. the 2nd film featured a lot of disturbing war clips, people dying very completely, with a terrible desensitived aura over all. and this coupled with those always hard to believe Bushisms that bubble from the fount with creepy ease. I like Christina's political thunder. it situates quite naturally in her work. the political voice of LANGUAGE poetry has often sounded like poli sci to me. to me, any fierceness has to be central and visceral, not brainy decoration. fire and thought together is what I saw in Christina's movies. so it was fun, good to have...