5-9/06

Hey all. In the interest of time and boredom I'll just refer you to my blog for what I've been up to. Plus, I've been trying to get rid of all these junk comments on the page and the guestbook back up. For now you'll just have to suffer viagra adds and myspace... http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=53054571&MyTaddress oken=666f7fce-5445-414f-a725-000ce17dcaf3ML address

5-9/06

Hey all. In the interest of time and boredom I'll just refer you to my blog for what I've been up to. Plus, I've been trying to get rid of all these junk comments on the page and the guestbook back up. For now you'll just have to suffer viagra adds and myspace... address

1-4/06

How in God’s name do I summarize the last 4 months? Well, New years was a Mexico blast. My friend Julie had the bright idea to hand out plates to break like the Greeks and my knuckle head friends decided to smash them on their heads, which would’ve been funny except they were really heavy plates and much blood did ensue (good job Camelo – ya fuckin canuck). Janauary was spent biding time before going back to New York for a week. That week extended to 10 days due to a very amousous customs officer who wouldn’t let me go as well as car towing, parents house selling, apartment bill nightmare closing, fraudulent shipper storage space nightmare, hell with ex’s, unsuspected news bullshit. You can read all about it when my new book comes out since it takes up make 60 pages of it. February I fled to Los Angeles to meet up with Heather for Valentines. Stopped in New Mexico on the way (I drove with my bro MOC from Stamford, actually England whateva) to see my buddy Asa from Bradford – yes the same one from Malas Ondas. We enjoyed all that NM has to offer, which I will simply say is a bit limited but very beautiful and the people are very nice and I’m gonna stop before I get an email from the tourism commission. I was in LA less than 24 hours before I got vomited on, my car near totaled by some valet kid in Santa Monica, and was generally annoyed by the traffic. All the highways here are prefaced by “the” (i.e. “the 405”), which gives you some scope to the epic nature of automotive navigation here. I spent the rest of February and a good deal of March staying at my friend Wendy’s (hey kid), watching lots of bad reality TV, going to OC on the weekends to see my buds from GTO Chand and Mag, and commuting daily in the worst possible time to drop Heather at work. Needless to say I was a bit grumpy by the end of this experience and if I ever spend more than a few days in LA in the future I will rent an apartment and make sure I have a car for myself. As I write this I do so from my buddy Carl’s house in Studio City, but I’m off to Bangkok in 24 hours so it doesn’t really count. By the time I left California with Heather and her pal TK I was fairly burned and the subsequent drive to GTO was grueling. No one slept much and by the end it was fairly fortunate that none of us were armed. The end of March and beginning of April were mostly spent just trying to shake off February till that point (not all that successfully I might add). To my buddies who made it bearable I thank in no particular order: Jake, Duke, Paulina, Cassandra, Carlos, Steve, Camelo, Julie, JJ, Polo – you are all saints and will make it into heaven if I have anything to say about it (but I probably don’t and since you’re hanging out with me, well…). So like I said I’m working on the new book and headed to Asia where I’ll be doing much lounging traveling and writing. I’ll be in Thailand for a month or two, then Cambodia, then Vietnam, and finally Hong Kong for a second before flying to LA, then back to the Northeast fro my pals Fred and Lori’s wedding. Hopefully by then the new book will be done and I can give you guys something more to b***h about. Peace, love, and happy readings and travels, K

10-12/05

Jesus, my worst failure to update as of late. Well this time I have a reason, if not excuse… So, to all you writers and aspiring types out there I have some very common sense advice that all of you probably already know but I’m going kick to you anyway. ALWAYS SAVE AND BACK-UP YOUR WORK. I know this is obvious to most, even to me, but somehow I never learn my fucking lesson. When I was 19 and young and cocky and constantly tweaked out on hallucinogens I managed to weasel my way into minor literary recognition and the potential for greatness. I had already been published in the Nocturnal Lyric (under Damien Wood), the Forum, Calibre and various low level rags, won my first slam in NYC at the now defunct Tower Books, and Jillian Medoff, Julia Kasdorf from the Atlantic and several other unnamed mentors had started shaping me into a pretty decent, if constantly intoxicated, wordsmith. I had even begun dialogue with St. Martins on a book deal for my first novel. This momentous piece of shit entitled Crack Jesus was a culmination of my adolescent angst and post beat posing and if it had actually been picked up I would most likely be dead right now. That said, as I was hemming and hawing with my editors and generally making every attempt to fail out of NYU, I decided to throw a party at my tiny dorm-room in Hayden Hall (my year was the dubious year where the hall gained it’s rep as the “Dorm of Doom” due to the multiple suicides that occurred, the first of which I found and the second of which was a friend but that’s a whole other story). Anyhow, at the time I was something of a computer whiz and had built my desktop out of spare parts and random boards and accessories ordered through the mail. Though I was very proud of myself I lacked the ergonomic sense to build the damn thing well enough to have a shell covering it. It was under my desk in my room but sure enough my friend Adam from Cleveland managed to step into the fucking thing half way through the party losing my all of my writing up to that point in my life. I had some written notes but I lost those as well in the following days on a speed filled road-trip that I took to forget about the loss of my life’s work. No matter. I didn’t really write again for 2 years, but who’s counting. During October is the Cervantino Festival in Mexico. It is the largest arts festival in Latin America and had nothing really to do with Cervantes and Don Quixote despite it’s namesake. Every year about this time everyone I’ve ever invited or mentioned that I live part time in Mexico decides to show up and this year was no exception. I group of certain unnamed fools hijacked my house for 6 weeks and managed to run me up a rather disgusting phone bill as yet unpaid. On top of this, they used my laptop as a continuing jukebox and DVD player till it finally burnt out and you guessed it, lost 100 pages of my current novel. It has taken me till the middle of December to even begin to get my system back up again and I currently have only recovered 50 pages. Three things can be said of this. To the ungrateful motherfuckers who won’t call or return my emails about my bills, f**k Y’ALL. To those who are too nice to kick out or beat the piss out of overstaying guests, DO IT. And to anyone who hasn’t backed up all his or her work, DO IT RIGHT NOW. Asides from the novel I lost half a dozen Reason tracks and a few finished pro-tools pieces as well as all of my music software. Don’t make this same mistake. Ahem, so this catches you up on a bit of my frustration for the last minute. On the positive I played some shows in Mexico for the last few months, mostly during the festival and some benefits for cafes, etc. I am working on the new novel again despite the fact that whenever I open the computer my greatest desire is to play solitaire. I will hopefully have some work coming out in some mags in a bit. For now grab the Ferguson Libraries new collection, I believe its called a Mood in Seasons (not sure, but I know they’ve got me in the summer section clearly for cruel and mocking reasons). Things with Heather have been going well despite rough times (stressful lives and all). We’re both trying to get projects off the ground here (me a bar restaurant with Camelo, her a non-profit outreach program). But we’re happy, if a bit nuts, and with any luck we should be in South East Asia in the next few months to chill out, drink some Thai whiskey, and hopefully not get hit by a some gigantic natural disaster. I will incidentally probably be in the SoCal area for a bit of February and March for all my Cali heads so keep an eye out. My house in Mexico is coming along though my Jacuzzi is still heat and water deficient. My buds Holly and Jeremiah just got married in November in Delaware and I send them all my luck and love. The world seems to be ending catastrophically and all that jazz, etc, etc. Merry X-mas and happy new year. Love y’all. Peace.

5-9/05

Jesus, so I know it’s been forever since I updated and I apologize profusely. The last few months have been some real weird rough going. I’ve become single again, though who knows how long that’ll last, been trying to sell my parents place off as me and my brother have become the last of the line, trying to record and constantly getting sidetracked, and generally drinking far too much for my wallet and liver. Here’s the writing update. I’m fairly deep into a new novel that’s more or less about family and loss and is the darkest fucking thing I’ve written since being a disgruntled adolescent. I’ve been reading lots of Asimov and a whole lotta potboiler bullshit (see Dan Brown and Dean Koontz) on account of spending so much time in airports. I’m doing some appearances in Vermont in August then a lot more appearances for Cervantino throughout October in Mexico. As always I’m fuzzy on the exact dates and details. If you’re in Mexico you’ll see me for sure. Have you ever noticed that Solitaire and Movies can eat up time like nothing else? Spider and FreeCell and junk and indies, Christ… I’ve been getting some weird a** fan mail lately as well. To the fellow in Memphis who wants me to swing with his wife and enjoys reading MO with his hunting buddies… you rock bro, but some other time. To Polo, sorry about the Chilango bit brother, you are a friend without description (pinche Chilango). To Cassandra and Heather, thank you for making me less suicidal and possibly more inebriated. Oh and Ca, writing emails to ex-girlfriends while blasted on pints at 4 in the afternoon is NOT a good idea. Thanks kid. Karen if you’re reading this I’m not sure what I wrote but I’m sure it was nothing you haven’t seen before. I apologize anyhow. I’m out for a minute. Catch y’all on the flip. Check out Jaime Salazars new book on the Foreign Legion. Pick up Common’s new LP. See Crash and They Came Back if you haven’t yet. Smoke less and drink more. Peace and love and all of that.

4/05

First things first, I’d like to give a shout out to the students of the Community High School of Vermont, especially those in the poetry class, for being kind enough to have me. Though the idea of being required class reading is somewhat terrifying to you guys made it worth it. Thanks to Fred, Lori and Ross for holding it down up North, keep fighting the good fight. Speaking of scary, my last three appearances have been equally cool, bizarre and anxiety inducing. I walked into the Ferguson library last month to support my friend and fellow poet Drew Trudeau only to discover I had been made one of the main guest speakers for the day. That and the fact it was National Poetry Month and I only brought prose might give you a feel for that. The next two just passed back to back. I got to speak at the Rich Forum in Stamford for Asian American Heritage Month for both Asians and kids alike. The only problem being that I don’t really write about being Asian and my stuff is about as kid friendly as the brothers Grimm. Nevertheless it was a lovely event, lots of wild art and cute children. Thanks Valerie. The last event of the month can be described as Lynchian. In the burlesque club of the Slipper Room in the LES, my buddy Loki (K. Brink Nielson) just had the book release party for his dystopian take on the Wizard of Oz, Club Fascistland. Hosted by Scotty, a incredibly tall gay man dressed in a blue bunny suit performing magic and comedy, the night consisted of several stripping performances, Johnny Goldstein doing pimp comedy, Sully on the decks, me insulting Loki drunk on stage, and of course the man of the hour doing a twisted take on the ice cream man. Much fun, go get his book immediately; authorhouse.com has copies on the Internet. Hmmmm…… so what else? Dan the Hotch of Wrong has been working on a track with me that’s shaping up to something pretty cool. Kienyo just released a new album under the misnomer of DJ Sujihno. It’s called I LOVE Baile Funky. Get it. Jess is still fighting the good fight about to start over at a Latin American Non-profit. I am still shell-shocked to be back. And we’re all a million miles from K1 representing the nation. Peace J

3/05

Ok, Barcelona is awesome. I took Jess for her birthday out to coastal Spain and came to several immediate conclusions. One, I have no idea why I didn’t come here when I was last living in Europe. Two, though it’s not based around the ocean like Cannes or Milan, they certainly know how to party like f**k around here (and there’s some beach on top of it). Three, the dollar is weak, and mean like the Ukraine on Seinfeld weak. Try 70 Euro for a half kilo of Lobster (1 Euro = $1.35, 1 Kilo = .6? pounds, therefore smallish sea-bug = around $100 friggin’ bucks, I mean I know it’s a delicacy and all but we were on the damn beach!). On the flipside of that our good buddy Enrique Perescancio took care of us all around. He’s running the cool art collective/bar/café/god knows what in the Ribera district (think Wetlands in NYC a couple years back). It’s called RAI (Recursos d’Animacio Intercultural) and it’s a sweet crew of talented driven writers, performers, artists, and all around good people. I did one reading with them where I should have been mortified (only English poet in the line-up) and instead felt really supported. In no order shout outs to Guillieme, Sandro, Marcella, Brenda, Herman, Shandi, Matteo, Nadesh, Reiner, Veronica, and anyone I’m being stupid enough to forget right now. You guys rock. So I’m back in NYC again. Kienyo and I are working on the album plus some stuff for an upcoming anthology. I got some mysterious message about doing some appearances for a poetry workshop but it’s in one of those Transformers style cell-phone garbles so hopefully they’ll ring back. Other than that I think I’m just gonna dig in the next few months and produce. Keep spreading the word and love, Peace out kids.

1-2/05

so what’s new… hmm… been a minute floating out the real world decided to touch base on this virtual one. December was X-mas mayhem. I managed to start smoking again due to one particular nerve-wracking family day with my girl in Texas and subsequent weak willed continuance into cheap Mexican cigarettes. Prior to that I did a lovely interview in Houston for Nuestra Palabra at KPFT where I managed to break FCC regulations several times without even meaning to (damn internet recordings!). You all get so much love I can’t even begin. New Years I made it to Mexico for some antics with my maniac friends Paul Holden (El Monumento) and assorted GTO maniacs at Bar Ocho. January was a whole lot of parties and chilling at my new crib which has managed to change from a beat up VW shop into a lovely villa due in no little part to my amazing architect David Chavez who I recommend with the highest honors as an artist and friend. End of January we got back to NYC where me Jess and Kienyo are trying to turn our crazy little pad into pure dopeness, insane landlords and overpriced contractors aside. Oh, late mention, I made the finalist list (but not winner) for Glimmer Train Press Very Short Fiction Award (Fall 2004 I think). Bah, humbug… So now it’s February, snowing, and I fucking hate being back - but so what. To keep busy I’ve done three open readings that have all sucked in one way or another, deadbeat hippies and officious English pricks aside (you know who you are you fucking uppity pretentious fucking hack, stay in Stamford and grow some hair and lose the London accent you fucking wannabe). I’ve met some cool poets but I guess I forgot what a wack scene NYC can be at it’s worst. I’ve got kids who starting slamming when I quit trying to give me advice and so much jealousy and condescension it makes me wanna take a shower or wash these maggots away with my piss on a daily basis. Ahem… Whatever at least I was born here…. Well March is a breath away and I’m spending half of it in Barcelona so ha ha ha J Anyhow, Kienyo and I are still working on the album, look for it soon. I’ll be posting some new stuff on the site shortly. Much love to all of you. Keep writing and posting (sorry again for all this spam porno hair loss shit on the guestbook, f**k em, I’ll sue em when I get a minute). Love, rock on, Wood

10/04

God, so where to begin… Well the first week of this month me, Kienyo and Jess drove down to Houston. Jess did our entire PR and scheduling work for the month, Kienyo starting writing beats for the upcoming shows and I did an interview on KUHF for the “Front Row”. Xplaura should have that interview and a couple others up in just a bit. A week in Kiener and I started the tour up with an interview on KPFT for the “Living Arts” show (you’re awesome btw Dean). We then played a show at Helios, which is always pleasant, followed by an event at the Artery (thanks so much to Mark). For the Artery show we had the pleasure of playing with Aaron Trumm (Houston slam veteran) and EK Keith (super sexy author and poet goddess). The show was filmed I’ll let you know more details on that soon. Afterwards we headed 16 hours south to Mexico’s central highlands and the massive Cervantino Festival (the largest arts festival in Latin America). This years invited guests were South Africa and Italy, as you might imagine Kienyo who is Trini got pretty fucking sick of being asked what the motherland is like and after awhile started sporting a Brazilian jersey and Jamaican flag - which of course only added to the confusion. Rather than detail each show we played for the festival that were many and varied, I’ll just lay out the line-up. Kienyo played Maestro using a combination of Reason and Nuendo on my PC as well as orchestrating and engineering the accompanying musicians. I played MC on all evenings going between poetry, rhymes, and excerpts from MO. For most of the shows we had Michael Severens on Electric and standard Cello playing leads and ambient sounds. We also had our friend Daniel from Mexico City on Saxophone playing leads for most of the shows. Additional Rhythm section was composed of Paris and Amad from the Latin funk band Barro Negro on bass and guitar respectively, as well as Caspar on didgeridoo, flute, and horn. DJ Dylan from Portland sat in as a scratch DJ for one show as well. The venues were as follows: we played two low-key shows at Café Zilch with myself Michael and Kienyo. On Halloween we played Bar Ocho with myself Daniel and Kienyo (Kiki even managed to come up with one track spoofing Ghostbusters though I’m not sure if my words leant the light-hearted spookiness he was looking for). We played around five shows at the club Bar Santo (named after the infamous Mexican wrestler), always with me and Kienyo, and alternating additional musicians. The largest shows we played were in Plaza San Francisco set up by my buddy Marco from Invocarte (literally invoke-art) with several thousand screaming kids watching and moving through while we were filmed for national television and generally acting like drunk rock stars. We played the Plaza the two biggest Saturdays of the festival back to back and it was nuts - autograph picture posing interview fucking up drunken nuts. On the personal tip, me Kienyo and Jess all stayed in the construction site that is our Mexican home. It’s a former Volkswagen shop that I bought some months ago and have been converting and designing into a three level home with the help of Jess and master architect David Chavez and his crew. As you can imagine all of my preparation fears came true when we first rolled in at 2 in the morning and I did not have electricity yet, nor hot water, nor doors and windows for that matter. That first week was chaos remedying that and buying appliances. Also, Jess and I were crashing in the guest bedroom, which seems kinda Asbestos filled (I’ll still haven’t stropped sneezing and coughing), and multiple guests showing up for the festival (my brother for his 25th b-day mid-month, and Ethan from the book amongst others). Between this and shows you might imagine that by the time Halloween rolled around we were pretty burned up and looking for a break.

Summer 2004

It’s been a hell of a time since I last updated. I’ll summarize. I spent June and August in Mexico. I’ve got a small property down there that I’ve been building into a home. At the time of this writing it should be ready to stay in come the Cervantino festival in October (ready as in having windows and doors). July was a party month. As well as the usual extravaganza for the fourth at the Decarlo’s (yes that includes you Tony) I also threw a ridiculous bash for my 29th in Stamford, CT on the 19th. By the middle of the party around 4am the noise was out of control and kids were electrifying each other’s nuts in my living room. By morning I had people asking for a spare bedroom and video equipment. Regardless to say everyone had a blast except me who spent half the time trying ineffectively to control the noise and mayhem. I took the rest of July to chill except for doing one reading at the Harry Bennett Library at the end of the month. August as I’ve said was spent down in Mexico. I was a featured poet on the Rogue Scholars website so you should check that out. Me, Jess, and pal Dan Jenson hit the road the beginning of the month and drove the 2,600 miles from CT to GTO. Muchos gracious to Chandler (pinche fucking loco) and Steve Lightner for giving us spots to crash on the account of my house not yet having electricity, windows, water, or walls for that matter. A shout out to Stef Randel as well who made the leap from Colorado to come hang out with us and go buck fucking wild like I knew she always could. Polo, Luis, and everyone else, ustedes conocen quien son. I started to get literary stir crazy so I ended doing some shows in Austin at the end of the month. Austin, incidentally, is a fantastic town. I spent a week at my friend Nakisha Guevara’s place going to various water spots and drinking far too much (would ya expect anything else?). Shout outs to Steve, Bobby, Ben(s) and all the cats at Groene River, Rod (hope the road to Cali was smooth bro), Cori, Stacey, and Josh for keeping it down.

3/04

Another funny month. Played a show at the beginning of this month with Dharmata, who have been getting better and better and you should definitely check out and support. My girl Jess got here in the middle of the month and we've been having a blast and figuring that all out and it was her birthday as well as Ethans (of the Zipolite chapters) and we partied like it was 99. Also got to check out some good friends in DE for my friends Holly and Jerimiahs' housewarming. Many cool heads in attendance, Seahag of Sound of Urchin (go buy the new album dammit!), Dr. Long Ghost (ditto on the album), the always charming Xplaura and Davey of Squeezebox, along with many old and close familiar faces. I've been gearin up for my next jaunt down south in Mid-April so catch me if you can before then. The book is now available at St. Marks Bookstore in Manhatten for all you city heads. That's 9th Street and 3rd Ave (Bowery), for those of y'all that don't know. Force your friends to buy some copies and get the word out there. Alright then, more soon, nos vemos cabrones.

2/04

Readjustment from my little "vacation" has been hell. After the two shows in GTO the beginning of the month I came back to the states abandonning my buddy Cam's palacial hacienda and spring weather for the ice and cold of the northeast. Hanging for approxiametely a week I did what any sane poet would do and fled to an even colder locale, upsate Vermont. Well I am a masochist after-all... Anywho, spent the middle of the month hiding out in Burlington with some buds doing my typical insomniac binging thing, including a Mardi-Gras celebration and parade (never have cheap brightly colored beads and snow seemed at such odds). Then came back to the good old NYC area to get back on the ball (yeah right). Oh, btw, my buddy Carl Restivo (Wyclef guitarist and generally representer of NJ) has a new band and album out. They're called Colfax Road and I dare you to listen to "Hip-Hop in the Morning" and not start humming. Check em out at CarlRestivo.com. Later.

9/03

So my little friends, thanks to the intense, wonderful, not to mention amazingly talented Xplaura, kentevans.com is up and running. The past few months have been a rollercoaster of timing and chaos, and as usual I'm attempting to make some sense of it all with little success. This section of the site is dedicated to that end, tracking my descent into madness, signing hell, and the general drama of existence. I'll be posting shows, thoughts, poetry, and updates on the book with as much vigor as I can muster through the foggy hungover haze that is my current state. That said... Loki Kevorkian just interviewed me for the Rogue Scholars btw which should show up on their site any day now when the little b***h can get his shit together :). Digs Magazine (the magazine for the the post-college pre-marriage generation) just put me on their recommended reading list. My book is in Connecticut Public Libraries, and could possibly be on the syllabus for some college classes. Yikes, I always said I would know I had made it when kids were forced to read and interpret my shit. Dope, redemption. Take that Faulkner! I just got back from Seattle, lovely town that it is, this week and I'm now headed up to Burlington. Washington was cold and rainy but had sporadic moments of sunshine. I think I may have SARS now though since my usually frightening smokers cough has now transformed into an alarming wheeze/death rattle. On the up side I got to hang with my dear friend Jess who is lovely and charming as ever as well as a certain Megan who seems to have gotten her shit together to the point I feel like the laziest man on earth. I spent the week playing chess, drinking expresso (they just pulled some crazy Boston Tea Party shit out there in protest to a 10c tax increase on the stuff), and basically hanging with people I love. Good vibes, thanks Jess, you're the best babe. While in the Northwest I also managed to get up to Van Couver and visit my friend Steffen and the baby Jesus (inside joke, gross in fact, definitely immoral, possibly illegal, probably blasphemous, don't worry about it - really). Did a local reading hosted by this really cool cat T. Paul Ste. Marie (wow man, that's a mouthful) who runs Thundering Word Heard productions. It looks like he'll be setting up my shows in San Fran up to BC. Rock on! I always said I liked Canadiens, eh. So now I'm heading to Burlington to chill with the amazing Phish sisters, my buddy Fred, and a cast of characters best met rather than described (what up Mac and Gin?). Burlington College apparantly thinks I'm sober - wait - I mean qualified enough to do some appearances. Ya know, q&a, serious academic type stuff. Hmmmm..... they are a dry campus... interesting. Anyhow I'll keep you guys posted on when that's going off. So, I'm off to cold green Vermont to get in some trouble. I'll be in Mexico from October 8-23 for the Cervantino festival, most likely doing readings at Bar Ocho, Barfly, and Spanglish if for some reason you're south of the border and looking to support. I'll keep ya posted. Much love, K