Apps/Estefan Reading Recollection (not a review)

I thought since I wasn’t able to stay until the end of last night’s reading at the Poetry Project that I’d write a small recollection (not a review).

Kareem Estefan went first. Let’s begin with comparisons (not always a good idea, but here one that will fit to bring readers up to speed): If Kareem is the newscast read through a lens of FCKChicken10101 obeying the healthy elevator muzak chomped into the textbox of “ViciousPrincess,” then Apps was channeling Jimmy Swaggart in bathos undergarments. Stan’s aim toward a Flarf bathed in bathos (sorry, pun; but not a review) is interesting and makes me want to kiss swams with hairbands.

Kareem’s poem(s) had a ABA trajectory of newscaster (reality)-->chatroom names conversing in a gelatin of hilarious name-dropping, juxtaposition and all-around sugar coated, “oh those flarfists are co-opting the voices of the underclass” goodness-->newscaster voice.

This is over-simplification. But it was amusing and greatly enjoyed. I was enjoyed, particularly (though not solely) because it didn’t grow old. Estefan possessed a seemingly preternatural ability to keep the audience snug, then snap it off. Lick-a-stick gets old faster than this stuff.

Stan’s reading was mainly from PRINCESS OF THE WORLD IN LOVE and GOD’S LIVESTOCK POLICY, both which I highly recommend. He has developed a good handle on the plainspoken-Bible-salesman-attempting-to-explain-KISS-at-an-Elderly-Care-Facility. But those, as he says, are his “religious pieces.”