FREAK FOR ALL, yall

Hello again fellow Ruckus Rousers,

Here is my official announcement of my newest spoken word/side show entertainment night, the E-Street Cafe FREAK FOR ALL

Monday March 29th at
E-Street Cafe

128/130 West 'E' Street
Encinitas, CA 92024
6-8 P.M.

The Freak for All is an evening of improvisational collaboration between performers of all varieties: Spoken word by freestylers and poets will be the main dish, served on a bed of sweet rhythms and grooves provided by musicians, with your choice of sides: dance, stand-up philosophy, hoop charming, juggling, soapbox ranting, story telling, magic, astrology, comedy, speed painting, stupid human tricks and anything else you might dare to do on stage*,**

*First come, first perform. No need to contact me unless you have an act involving gnarly props or physical feats. If so, please have your act approved in advance by e-mailing details to Michael at Ruthlesshippies@gmail.com.

**Prepared solo musical performances are strictly prohibited. Musicians are encouraged to collaborate with spoken word artists. If Jason Mraz showed up, we'd make him spit freestyles too.

RUCKUS TIME

Hello fellow Ruckus Rousers,

It's been too long since we last met at Ducky Waddles--two whole months! So without further ado, I would like to announce the next Ruckus happening at Ducky Waddles on March 24 featuring guest poet Wayne Acciacca.




You may have caught Wayne mesmerizing the crowd with his dynamic visions in rhythm at our last two Ruckus performances. Expect an action packed night. I can't wait to see you all there!!!:

March 24th, doors at 7 P.M.
Reading starts at 7:15 P.M.

Ducky Waddles Emporium
414 N Coast Hwy 101
760-632-0488

To read, please email Michael at: Ruthlesshippies@gmail.com
The only rules of course: whatever you read, keep it funky and under five minutes

More Memory Lane/Posts I Should have Written Months Ago

Well now folks, it's been one hell of a year for us Ruthless Hippies. The Poetry Ruckus has grown fast at it's loving home Ducky Waddle's Emporium. We have found more of our kind all over the North County San Diego area and beyond.

As a preamble to the announcement of our next Ducky Waddle's Poetry Ruckus (march 24th) and newest night E-Street Cafe Freak for All (March 29th)...oh yeah and our booth at San Diego IndieFest (March 27th)...as a preamble to all of those official announcements, let's take a walk down memory lane:

RUCKUS #1





Shop owner Jerry Waddle had this to say about the evening:

The Poetry Ruckus premiered to an SRO crowd at The Duck, on a cold and windy late October night in Leucadia. Your host welcomed MC Michael who presented us with a full performance card of twenty poets reading and reciting their work along with snippets of Kerouac. Memorable forays were plentiful. Belinda Rachman's dissertation on penis envy and her treatise on the short comings of divorce lawyers were particularly striking. Wabidoux Rob Bell brought it early with a full chapbook of verse spanning decades and a reminiscence of Alan Watts. Bruce Stephens closed the set with a convincing argument for getting close to the real God while riding on a surf board. After a brief intermission the guest of honor for the evening, Edwin Decker entertained with recent poems, self deprecating and bold, extended and minimalist, a few memorable columns, some personal insights and readings from his book Barzilla. It was a memorable evening.

and Citybeat said this:



RUCKUS #2



It was another SRO crowd and the night was filled with high voltage. Wayne Acciacca got up and brought the the audience so close to the action with his vision of Burning Man Festival you could taste the desert sand. UCSD students had a large contingency with Alec Venida mashing up words and meanings, Jesus Castillo delivering impassioned verse and Jared Muscat reading a poem about running down stairs and then dropping the Freudian slip of the century. Ted Washington stopped by with some fresh new nhilistic stylings and Melinda Ferrer read about the beautiful boy from some sort of toy megaphone contraption. So many awesome poets that night, I wish I had the time and memory to name them all. But guest Belinda Rachman brought the ruckus in a big way, reading some memoir style musings on her delightfully colorful family life and teaching days. Finally, she capped a highly entertaining and varied set with some crowd pleasers on the topics of penis envy and divorce lawyers.



RUCKUS #3



On this dark and stormy evening, the gods spared us from those power outages that had become frequent in Leucadia over the past month. And despite the weather, a solid crew of 30 plus came out to enjoy a fine evening of poetry. Mauricio Flores brought politics straight to the floor in his short fiery poems. Young poets and new poets were a theme of the night, with Haley Jensen and Tori Anderson exorcising the demons of their diaries and a brave middle school aged boy reading sweet lines about his mother. Rai White, Tracy Yudichack and Chris Fantozzi were all newcomers to the Ruckus and they all rocked the house. John Wesick was the surprise treat of the evening, twisting our imaginations with his hilarious Drug-Ads written by Jungians. And the night was capped by a high energy, highly interactive and highly entertaining session with Ted Washingon. He brought the crowd to the edge of its seat with his shorts on war and his love for love making. These things keep getting better and better!

First Ruckus: HUGE SUCCESS

This just in from Jerry Waddle, owner of Ducky Waddle's Emporium:

"The Poetry Ruckus premiered to an SRO crowd at The Duck, on a cold and windy late October night in Leucadia. Your host welcomed MC Michael who presented us with a full performance card of twenty poets reading and reciting their work along with snippets of Kerouac. Memorable forays were plentiful. Belinda Rochman's dissertation on penis envy and her treatise on the short comings of divorce lawyers were particularly striking. Wabidoux Rob Bell brought it early with a full chapbook of verse spanning decades and a reminiscence of Alan Watts. Bruce Stephens closed the set with a convincing argument for getting close to the real God while riding on a surf board. After a brief intermission the guest of honor for the evening, Edwin Decker entertained with recent poems, self deprecating and bold, extended and minimalist, a few memorable columns, some personal insights and readings from his book Barzilla. It was a memorable evening and we will do it again. I just have to figure out how to get more people inside The Duck. Stay tuned for the next event."

What I have to say about the Ruckus:

"That was awesome, people. I can't believe we managed to fit over twenty poets and at least twenty more guests into the store. I can't believe how amazing all of the readers were. I can't believe how awesome special guest Ed Decker was. I can't believe we get to do this again, December 9th at 7P.M. Stay tuned for more deets."

Bring Tha Ruckus

That's right people, poetry cometh to North County.

Our special guest Edwin Decker will be gracing us with some readings from his poetry collection Barzilla and other psalms.

blurb:

"Despite the fact that it was nominated for a 2007 San Diego Book Award, Barzilla and other psalms is a tome for your bathroom book rack. It is funny, sarcastic, irreverent and obnoxious. Some might be inclined to call it poetry but really it is a reaction to poetry as it completely lacks poetic ambition, which is to say, it aims to entertain--not impress."

The event is free and all are welcome to read/spit/rhyme--originals on paper, rehearsed classics, spontaneous verse, minimal theatrics, whatever. Time limits will be based on the number of readers, so if you would like to read, please email me:

ruthlesshippies@gmail.com

RSVP.

As this is an October 28th event (that's 7PM), Halloween costumes are strongly encouraged. But as Ducky Waddles is a small space containing fine art, new/used books and other awesomely under priced items you don't want to knock over like a klutz, please leave the Karate Kid Shower Curtain Outfits at home. How's that for a run on sentence?

So come on out! Listen, read, buy a book and support your local seller of totally radical things.

Keep it funky folks,

Michael Schmitt
'Ruthless Hippie' at large

Ruthless Hippies Poetry Share Moves to the Duck!!!

Ladies and Gents,

Thanks to every one who came out and made it a memorable final evening at Too Much Tu Tu's, escpecially Linda "Tu Tu" Robinson for letting us do whatever the hell we wanted in her store!!!

The rumors are 100% TRUE. The next poetry night will be held at Ducky Waddle's Emporium.

It will be at 7PM, Wednesday October 28th.

It will feature Edwin Decker as a guest reader.

It will be freaking awesome.

More details to come.

Ducky Waddle's is located at:

414 N. Coast Highway 101
Encinitas, CA 92024

Right next to Lou's Records.



Celebrating a new era for the Ruthless Hippies, we shall now take a walk down memory lane:

Poetry Share #3

Some very impressive new comers shouted their lines over the sounds of moving trucks as Tu Tu closed her store up. So long Tu Tu's, you found it funky and you left it funkier.



Poetry Share #2

A family of Brits on vacation intrigued by the Arnold fliers came and the mother delivered an impassioned performance from memory. All were treated to the poetic stylings of guest reader, Ted Washington, who of course tore the roof off the building.



Poetry Share# 1

Things were off to an auspicious start. Tutu had a date, so she left her friend Fred (let's call him) to keep an eye on her store, which Fred had a funny way of doing. It included bringing other Da Hui over from Uncle Duke's bar to threaten me with violence because they thought I was trying to throw a rager. Sufficiently convinced that poetry was taking place, Fred made his boredom known during the premier of Jared A. Muscat's ten minute epic, "Blackberries and Clouds". A fine evening of disturbances, readings from Iphones and special guests from the New York Times closed with Fred shouting angry and shirtless in front three young female poets, "[something extremely ruthless which need not be printed]".

Funktastic Plug

Yep...


He's a local celebrity these days.


...keepin' it funky, ya'll...

Last Wednesday of the month

Many things to celebrate:

-the poetry share's 3rd night in existence
-Jared alive after multiple seizures
-Nick alive after cranial injury
-special guests
-the endless summer continues
-afterparty?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!? do people have jobs anymore?

Get to the back of Tu Much Tu Tu's by taking Leucadia Blvd all the way west to the 101 and tunring right to head north on the 101 for two blocks, at the second block make a left onto Diana St, find somewhere legal to park and walk past Uncle Duke's Bar, down the alley with the signs. Look for people enjoying themselves with words.