Adam's reading at Inescapable Rhythms on Wednesday night was great. There was a nice spread of food: cookies, brie, caviar, strawberries, wine. We take care of own at Inescapable Rhythms. Adam read well from Color Plates, a book I'm liking more and more.

There were new faces in the audience, many of whom read and read, or performed, some songs and performance poems. I read "The Mind's Ordinary Task" from After Dayton, a poem I never read, not for any mistrust I have for it, but for it's longer length. I need to practice reading it in order to get the pauses and intonations right. I'd initially planned to read two newer poems and Ted Berrigan's "Red Shift."

After the readings were over I walked into the Real Art Ways gallery, to a smaller room where David Wojnarowicz's "A Fire in My Belly" was being shown. The video is amazing, and I encourage folks to see it. This video was part of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's exhibit "Hide and Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture," a show that explores the role of gay identity in art. It was a part of the show until Republican lawmamkers, namely John Boehner and Eric Cantor, cried wee wee wee and threatened arts funding, leading the NPG to remove it.

The bigotry exhibited by legislators, particularly the Republican ones, around this issue, not to mention others, is beyond pissing me off. It's shameful and disgusting in America, 'Merica, "land of the free," a country that prides itself on its freedom and plurality, that is a defender and warmonger of democratic values. Land of the free my ass. Dear John Boehner, looks as though your new fame and power is transforming you into one of those.