New Art on the Wall too!

My coworkers put on a pleasant little bash for us yesterday. They're good people, and there was an enormous cake. They wanted us to take some home, but there's still plenty of wedding cake left!

Been reading all kinds of articles on either a renaissance or the death of poetry slam.

I blame Obama on that silly little poetry jam he had at the White House that had such renowned slam poets as Michael Chabon and his wife. Joe Biden never would have hosted a poetry jam.

One thing I did notice in the stories is that there were few women poets mentioned.

And poetry in the news cycle is ending in three, two...

Wishing my Scottish wife luck today. She will be watching the boy for the next three days.



She'll do fine. He can be quite the handful though.

I see health care is coming back to the forefront again. How about this? Allow every American citizen to pay the same amount and into the same plan that congress gets. If our number one health care system is good enough for them, it's good enough for the rest of us.

Our Wedding Slideshow

Thanks to Kate and Doug for taking most of the pictures. Camera Obscura provides the soundtrack. Hope you like it.

Arts Fest Weekend

What a beautiful day to be outdoors. The temperature was perfect. There was a light breeze that took away one of Louise's poems just as she started it. Mikelle did a great reading. Here are the top three Arts Festival Poets of 2009.



It is very humbling to be on the same podium as Mikelle and Louise, and they're so much better looking than I am!

Here's the set list

It Was an Old Book
Whirlpool
River Walk
The Tiles
After Birth
The Children of Dunblane as Teenagers
For Daredevils
Art Exhibit Opening
They Hate Your Blog



IRN-BRU is used as a prop/crutch/cause for banter between poems. I thought it went well. A good crowd was paying attention. Did not see the police car that pulled up behind me as I was reading but the helicopter that buzzed over head threw me off a bit.

After the reading someone came up to me, said I did well and (not to be offended) compared me to this guy.



I took the compliment. I'm not up there doing Holiday in Cambodia. He said I looked like him a bit as well. I'm not so sure there's a resemblance between me and Jello Biafra though!

Today we found the boy a cool sand and water activity set. It's very, very hard buying anything for him. You do not know if he will ignore it, be afraid of it, or use it. The smile on his face as he ran his hands though the sand said it all. He's a great kid.

I'm a bit relieved to have done a good thing for him.

It's Saturday

And I'm reading at the Columbus Arts Festival at six tonight. Here's how I looked two years ago.



I'll have a different shirt on today, and poems that were not even written then!



More wedding pictures are coming soon. So busy we can't even look at them all!

Pictures are stll trickling in

We got some lovely video that Tyrone took. Funny guests, saying nice things, bless them.

Found out yesterday that the place where we had the rehearsal dinner is closing in a couple of weeks is closing due to the economy. It's a shame. We did not actually go to Handke's, but Encore, their small plates bistro, which was only open for a short time.

Emma and I scoped the place out about ten days before the wedding. I called them and asked about whether or not they could accommodate large parties. They said yes and we made the reservation.

Everyone had a good time. It was not very busy. Our only critiques were that the server really would have been overwhelmed if it were busy and that the music was a bit loud. The food was good. Some people had the Handke's desserts and the check was not as large as you'd think.

I'll close with the periodic reminder that I will be a featured poet this weekend at the Columbus Arts Festival. I start at the poetry tent at six o'clock. The weather should be great. Please come!

Saturday Night at The Lofts

Review posted at tripadvisor.com and sent to the hotel. No response yet.


On May 30th my wife and I spent our honeymoon night at The Lofts. We expected a quiet and relaxed evening after a busy afternoon wedding celebration. We got a different experience.

I made my reservations a couple of weeks in advance and was treated with great professionalism by the staff. I was looking forward to the evening. However, when I went to check in on Saturday at noon, things began to change.

The meters in front of the hotel we all bagged, on a Saturday afternoon. I had to park across the street, and was accosted by a homeless person – which left me more irritated than uncomfortable. When I mentioned the situation to the staff after I lugged my bags across Nationwide Boulevard, I was told that there was construction being done on the Hyatt skywalk, over 100 yards away. Ok, fine. I could not help noticing that the meters were still bagged on Saturday night, and may have also been on Sunday morning. What was the story there?

When I checked in the room looked fine, but I was extremely disappointed that it cost ten bucks for wi-fi. While I had no plans on going online in the evening, it would have been helpful to make some last minute checks of email before the wedding as there was at least one cancellation that needed to be addressed. I can go to Wendy’s and get free wi-fi, how come I can’t get free wi-fi at The Lofts?



Returning to the room in the evening brought more little things that were wrong. I decided to use the valet service and was treated rather abruptly by the valet when I asked him what I thought was a simple question.

When we went upstairs to the room the key did not work. This was very bad form. I had to inconveniently go all the way back downstairs, leaving my wife by the door with our bags. Then I was told rather casually that the key may have been demagnetized by a cell phone. I do not have a cell phone, but was in no mood to discuss this and went back to the room after the key was repaired.

We are not coffee drinkers but enjoy tea. My wife is Scottish. Having a choice of only two bags of tea was quite cheap. That, and having to boil water using the coffee maker made our tea taste like coffee.

We were also not impressed by the noise level of the room. We felt as if we were sleeping in the middle of a factory.

Our experiences at The Lofts had two plusses, the bed was quite comfortable and the bathroom was very well equipped. The rest was quite lacking, a lot of style and very little substance. I really have no desire to stay here for any future special occasions and will definitely not recommend The Lofts for any out of town visitors.

Pictures are trickling in, more coming soon

The out of town guests are no longer our responsibility. They have flown, drove away or are being taken to the airport by other friends.

I'm really, really grateful we had such good friends and family here to help, share, support and have a really great time this past week.

Her father and sister were here for eight days and they had a wonderful time. We got to take them to many different parts of the city and they seemed to be happy where their daughter and sister was going to be living. Her dad was very inquisitive about traffic laws in Ohio and noted the sizes of the automobiles. One of my favorite moments of the week was when he ordered a Bud at the rehearsal dinner and got it served to him in a frosted mug.



Her sister is wonderful. We have to find a brother-in-law and sister-in-law day to give us something to celebrate.

So many traveled great distances and came to see our wedding at no small expense. We're blessed to have such great people around us.

My left leg has a nasty scrape and the bottom of my right thigh has an incredible bruise from when I fell down the steps. I still have no clue what happened. At least I did not knock Lisa over. The first person to come see if I was alright was Louise's six year old son. He should be a paramedic.

More on our wedding as the week goes along. There's so much to remember. It was a perfect day in so many ways. We really could not have done it without Lynn's allowing us the use of her B&B. She is awesome. Harrison House is highly recommended.

The Lofts: there's a post for another time.