... insofar as Lunarians mark time, that is.
The AB Series celebrated 70 years of bill bissett at the Mercury Lounge in the Market last night with mailed-in birthday wishes, a spellbinding performance by bill, a pinata shaped like a typewriter, cake, and performances by Kevin Matthews, Roland Prevost (with his musician hat on - I'd never seen him play his guitar before and I'm really happy that now I have), John Lavery and Luna Allison.
It was a really good show/party. Even if it did run over time (which was to be expected) and so the last part of it was shared with the people who were coming in at the back looking for martinis and dancing. And what is it about bill that just makes you feel good?
Never heard him? Here are some audio files.
The first 30 people to arrive got loot bags, too - mine contained some poem leaflets, a Grab-a-Bubble bubble wand, some raisins and chocolates, a gorgeous transparency painted with the above graffiti image, and a little matchbox, elaborately printed, and labelled "Contains one word (min. 3 letters) as read in bill bissett's sublingual." So I opened it up when I got home. You slide the matchbox open, and mounted inside, against a striped paper background, is a little piece of what looks like wide shoelace, with the word 'singul' printed on it in block font. It has to be seen: it's just a beautiful little thing. I'll have to try and get pictures and post them. (Luna's word was 'xseptiyonal.')
My box was in a bag, too, that was printed with the number 27, which was the number of my gift bag. So now I'm wondering - are the numbers significant? Did you get one of these? What's your number and word?
(Note added later: some clips from the reading are up on YouTube now: click on the link and you can follow the sidebar to the rest of the poem and other reading goodness.)
