Stewart Slam Presidents Poetry Jam

OK. Still in pain. Can't sleep. Last post was so much fun. Here's another rant that ends with a smiley face.

Stewart is a smart funny guy and I'm glad he made fun of the Presidents poetry jam because it'll get more people to talk about a poetry reading at the White House. (Cause who'd be talking about it otherwise?) It'll also be great for his ratings since tons of irate poets are now gonna slam Stewart at poetry slams! As an African-American spoken word artist I'd like to get in on this little media storm at the beginning. If you like this comment on it and forward to the world baby! Wouldn't it be funny if it actually got to Jon Stewart?

Dear Jon Stewart-

Shouldn't the White House support the arts, especially in it's youth? Isn't it supposed to? Isn't it a good thing to have the President invite a bunch of young people to recite their own poetry about civic themes and ideals? I think presidents before have done so.

And the joke at the end about Obama? Are you intimating, Jon Stewart, that spoken word or (unsaid inference) Hip-hop is just a Black thing OR that a Black President supporting an aesthetic that is arguably the dominant world wide aesthetic is stereotypical because that aesthetic was originated primarily by African-Americans? (please note that while typing that section I was moving my neck and waving my finger in a very stereotypical fashion...and I snapped my finders) Yes you are saying that! Because it was funny. But you didn't provide us with the counterpoint of intelligent discourse that takes place in poetry slams around the country.

Russell Simmons Brave New Voices on HBO is a great example of what we can do with art. In many ways I think these poets do what you do. They just don't have as big a platform. Don't hate on em just cause they got to spit they shit for the President. I think you might just be jealous and that's why you made those silly jokes. Jon, I hate that there are bad feelings between us. Especially since we've never met before. Invite some of us on the show. Interview a poet! Let them recite an entire poem rather than you giving us a few clips that make them all sound like poetry slam hacks. If you do I can stop working on my piece that compares all the ways you are just like Bill O'Reilly. Right now it's a haiku. Don't make me get serious.

Yours,

Claudia Alick
spoken word artist...from Montana :)

Claudia is sick...of the messed up medical system

So I've been gone from this space for awhile. I've been very ill. Kinda still am. Since February. I'm supposed to go to he Mayo Clinic. I've been twittering about it. Typing hurts so I tend to keep it short. But I'm so pissed right now I'm just typing through the pain. Please note details from this account will be missing since I'm in agony right now, but my angry brain is telling me since I'm already in agony I might as well type as much as i want!

For the last three days I've been struggling with my doctors office to refill my prescription of pain meds. They kept screwing it up and now the doctor on call won't refill my prescription because it's my primary's day off and their policy is to not refill narcotics for patients that they aren't personally treating. Which is a reasonable policy unless the person asked for the refill 3 days ago! My primary was in town the day I called in the refill...I know because she called me back and left me a nice message. But the script never gets filled day after day. I call over and over. Today after getting the brush off from an assistant or nurse I waited to speak to a doctor. The first doctor on call never returned my message and I was just lying there writhing so my friend asked if he could call for me. When he called, the new doctor insisted on speaking to me directly and because I sounded out of breath and confused (I was in level 10 pain!!) he intimated I was a junkie and just trying to get drugs. (I could tell because I've seen several episodes of Scrubs) I called him on it and he said flat out that's what he thought. That's when i embarrassingly started sobbing. My friend tried some more but it was no go. After my friend left and I spent some time deep breathing and visualizing the docs head on a platter I called back.

This time I was calm and articulate. I was still out of breath and in pain but didn't sound "desperate" which is why he said I sounded like a junkie before. I asked if I might be able to double up on another pain medication I have, which is less effective but I take some every day and also it's ON MY CHART! I explained that I don't like opiates which make me drowsy so I take Ultram daily and occasionally take the Vicodin for break out pain. Like after going to physical therapy, or going to the office to do a training and some impromptu meetings, or going to a doctors appointment...Which I all did today! I asked why I had to call him back and suggest the medical solution. Shouldn't he have done that himself instead of accusing me of being a junkie and telling me "the pain won't kill me"? Maybe if the other doctor had called me back we could have found this semi-solution 4 hours earlier and saved me some agony. He seemed quite contrite.

So I'm now on a bunch of the Ultram which I'm told I won't OD on. It's not enough but it'll do for now. I know I promised I wouldn't blog in anger. I know all this typing is dumb. My back literally feels like there's a burning knife sticking into it...but God Damn was this rant satisfying. It's been months since I've been able to purge like this. It took me a long time to type but screw it! I am sick and tired of the bureaucracy of our medical system stomping me down. We need to make a change. People are you with me?

Claudia neglecting blog due to mysterious illness

Due to my mysterious and serious illness I've been neglecting this blog. Typing hurts a lot but I am Tweeting about it. http://twitter.com/claudiaalick Not sure if it's interesting or just annoying. It's hard to be funny witty or poetic in just 140 characters. I am feeling better today. Maybe I will be back to full paragraphs soon. Wish me luck...I also accept chocolate :)

claudia revises her past

If you are reading this
you are probably a little confused
the problem's with chronology
i'll refer to events that will happen or have happened
but i'm here becuase this place allows me to sequence
myspace does not
If you are reading this
I am surprised
sincearly
I live in a world where my online journal is private
not because there are elaborate electronic safeties
but because no ones reading it
I rate this on par with the scribbles in my hardcopy journal
a series of to do lists
flyers for events
pasted in scrapbook style
notes from meetings
ideas for poems and stories and big ideas
and me complaining about my life
sometimes in rhyme
important only to me
If you are reading this
you might have noticed the misspellings
i plan to spell check later
it's not hip-hop
just lazieness
not ignornace
just bad typing
you also might have noticed the inconsistant formatting
I plan to fix that later too
it's becuase i moved my blog from blogger to yahoo to myspace and then back to blogger
myspace has terrible formatting features
plus it posts in the order you post not by the date
and i heard through the grapevine
they erase posts
how horrible would that be?
like forgetting your journal on the bus
In a big city
if your reading this
you'll notice the lack of comments
the comments are trapped in social networks
really the comments are the best part
people are so clever and suportive
they sometimes argue with eachother
it's like if you'd kept all the notes you passed when you were in school
one of my favorite activities is reading my viewers comments
also thier the only way I can tell people are reading this
If you're reading this
you're witnessing my biography transitioning electronic space
this is the one i used in the past and decided to replace
it wasn't blogger it was me
i was feeling lazy
myspace had places to post video and pictures and also you could email
i decided to invest myself in the place where i could be most present
the other plus to myspace is that it feeds to facebook
but i guess that's really a facebook feature
but also i have friends who only use myspace
and they aren't as comfortable with virtual promiscuity as I apparently am
so i'll still post there
but i refuse to post everywhere
hope there isn't a big electronic pulse that erases all the computers
until that inevitable day (cause if you write it'll come true)
i will continue to scribe my life in multiple spaces
i will go back and edit it to make it fit in the lines
so stay tuned as I fill in the blanks over the next few days
moving two years of rambelings is time consuuming
so your patience please
If you are reading this still
i am impressed

Spread some Love

July 12, 2008 - Saturday

Spread some Love Spread Love give someone a compliment and mean it! Give a present to someone just because Smile even if you feel sour or angry people mirror what they see this doesn't mean hide your emotions or stuff negative feelings inside it means finding something that tickles you, makes you happy, satisfies you and then rocking that hard! comment on something that's positive sometimes it's funnier to critique but take one for the team and get sincere the trick to spreading love is meaning it it can't be fake it's gotta be heart, gut, and hand spreading love is action spreading love is revolution spreading love is infectious I was feeling all tired and cranky yesterday and I saw this hugely pregnant woman who seemed to also be feeling the heat and lateness of the day so I told she looked fabulous cause she did and that's something, looking good while growing another human being inside yourself is tough and not ten minutes later a man on the street said I looked beautiful and it wasn't flirtatious it was just observational was I beautiful cause I just spread some love? Maybe Spreading love makes you beautiful try it out my friends spread some love today!

OSF GREEN SHOW TV take 2

June 25, 2008 - Wednesday

OSF GREEN SHOW TV take 2 Another try at groovy technology. So as you already know we're working with EQ.TV to get a live streaming video player to catch these groovy green shows we put on. I think we should be able to add video to the player even when we didn't shoot it. The first incarnation was just watching it on eq.tv's site. Then we got a player that we could embed anywhere but it showed lots of different stuff. Anyway here's the next step in the process-a player that just shows green show stuff-the awesom part of working in the vanguard is you get to try new stuff out. cross fingers this works...ok it's not working. But click on this link and see what it should look like! green show tv

OSF get’s Buck tonight!

June 19, 2008 - Thursday

OSF get’s Buck tonight! Oregon Shakespeare Festival will be getting buck tonight with Rickerby Hinds Hip-hop Theater Show BuckWorld 1 featuring awesome youth krumpers. Streaming live online tonight at 7:15 PST at eq.tv. We're piloting a program to tape our free outdoor stage and stream it live one line 12 times to connect to our electronic community.

TCG/NPAC aka kareoke in denver

June 16, 2008 - Monday

TCG/NPAC aka kareoke in denver Theater Communication Group and National Performing Arts Conference in Denver June 10-14 2008 in Denver I was there on a TCG Young leader of Color grant (thanks Cummings!) the highlights- --idea 1 on plane- OSF webisodes --met so many amazing people who work in this biz, ran out of busines cards second morning --attended lots of inspirational speeches but whats a plenerary? --idea 2 children of Grenada (first generation kids of Grenandan immigrant go back to the island for a show) --saw mike daisys "how theater failed america" there was a talkback about it the next morning- love theater only we would gather nationally and present a show critiqiing the entire industry, we rock! --more plenerarys and break out sesions and caucus sessions and speeches, theres over 4000 of us and it's all rather overwhelming -anna devere smith does a speech and she's awesome and bill rauch does a speech (i have cool boss everyone wants) and there a piece about the performance of the future which lasts for a long time. -see Denver project at The Curious Theater -perform "rooted in oppression" -workshop with Will Power. fun, challenging, right on -participated in small protest in favour of free speech -got hair braided hallilujah! -See Universes reading of Ameriville -the content and presentation are brilliant- needs a dramaturge- can't wait to see it when it's done -shut down the kareoke at the ramada with a group singging of men at works overkill -idea 3 hip-hop education in theaters conference -everyone votes with America Speaks handheld remote control doohickies and we can see the results immediatly on a big screen. very cool. some ideas I'm down with and others not so much, It is confirmed for me that Theater is at the vanguard in the industry in terms of diversity -diana reeves performes-gorgeous! -idea 4 National Performing Arts Day -idea 5 National Diversity in the Arts Job Bank -talking about leadership in a room full of young leaders. must write about the dangers of leading on the downlow. theres a difference between the servant leader and trying to lead without folks acknowleging your authority. final thoughts- I love being around folks. I get comfortable around family. When i lose my filter I talk a lot. I'm funy and clever and have lots of ideas. when I'm nervouse I begin to communicate in all one liners. maybe I talk too much, but I found this week immensly relaxing even though they had us running from 7am to midnight everyday. if i only follow through on one idea from thsi conference that'll be what's up. hope to remain in touch with the very smart talented people I met and got to know a little. I felt invited into the room finannly and that's a thing to be grateful for. I'm gonna stick a wedge in it and tell all my friends.