Welcome back to the Weekly Word. This week we are taking a look at another poet. His name? Rives. Simply, Rives. Just one name, like all the women on Brazil's world cup team (who lost in spectacular fashion to AMERICA). Anyway. You may recognize his shaved head from a TED conference where he spit a couple poems and did a quick wrap-up of the conference, or perhaps you saw his TED talk on 3 A.M. where he revealed to us the conspiracy behind that dark hour of the night.
For your viewing pleasure today, I present to you two poems, both from Rives' appearance on Def Poetry Jam.
The first poem is called “Sign Language”. Rives is fluent in sign language, as well as a couple other languages, and in this poem, he tells us about hosting Deaf Poetry Jams for deaf high schoolers. Very very cool and funny.
To top things off, I present you Rives' page, http://www.shopliftwindchimes.com , which is one of the coolest names for a website ever. Two hints: 1: check out his pop-up books for children, 2: there is a treasure hunt embedded in his website which leads to some easter eggs. Enjoy!
Have a suggestion? Let us know. Check out our facebook at facebook.com/IAmTheMonster
I know a lot of you are living of Ramen noodles and Little Ceasars 5$ pizza's. but fear no more. today we're going to show you how to make a down south dish that wont break your already empty bank accounts!
Jambalaya is a traditional southern dish that usually consists of three parts; meat, vegetables and rice.
i picked up some Zatarans Jambalaya mix from my local safeway. 2 boxes to be exact. Then i headed to the local creek and threw out my crawfish trap i purchased at Bi-mart for about $8. i baited it with some leftover salmon meat i had in the freezer. after letting the trap soak overnight i pulled in about 20 crawdaddies. I put them in a bucket and headed home.
Once home, i chopped green pepper,corn,red pepper,onion and one jalapeno. After blasting the crawfish for a couple minutes with the garden hose i boiled a stockpot of water and cooked them for about 5 minutes. Then peeled them and got some decent tail and claw meat. Next i chopped up some andouille chicken sausage.
Cook the zatarans jambo mix according to their instructions. Once finished add all your prepared veggies and meats and let it simmer with a lid on so you dont lose all your moisture for about 15minutes stirring occasionally.
We topped ours with some cheddar jalapeno cornbread, no big deal.
Youre now ready to get to gettin, cause this dish is hittin!
Hello everyone, Molly J. here! First off, sorry for the delay but I am delighted to inform you that all systems are now a go! I Am The Monster has decided to set up a Monst-test for you all so that you can score some free monster merch! The contest entails doing a cover of one of the songs on our facebook. This can be any kind of cover: guitar, drum, vocals, tuba (as someone had already inquired about), banjo....you name it! Make a video or recording of your cover, post it on youtube and send us the link. We will be reviewing your cover as a band and picking out our top favorites that will receive free merch. If you are doing a vocal cover and can't do the clean vocals or vice versa...get creative with it! You don't have to be a prodigy for us to like it...we want you to have fun with it! If you have any questions about anything you may contact us via facebook, individually or as a band and we will help you as best as we can. Also, here are the lyrics for both Edge Of The World and Depths. I made lyric videos as well (which are also on our youtube) if that makes it easier. We will look forward to seeing what you pull together! Good luck!
Edge Of The World
I swear I've been here before. Can you hear the words I speak?
I'm on the edge of the world. You've fallen from the light again.
And I know we've come so far. But will you ever get back home?
For you, I fight and follow blindly.
We will take misfortune, in it's wake. For you, I fight and follow blindly.
We will crawl on our bruised and broken hands. For you, I fight and follow blindly.
We will crawl on our, on our bruised and our broken hands.
The writing on the walls. Can you hear the words I speak?
It's all too real. You've fallen from the light again.
It's made by sheltered minds. But will you ever get back home?
Let loose the wolves
The ocean crashes. Can you hear the words I speak?
The fear is here. You've fallen from the light again.
And every bone is broken. But will you ever get back home?
The ocean crashes and every bone is broken. The fear is here, it always has been.
So scream these words: set me free.
Days turn into decades, but you still haven't found a way to escape. And I recall the day when I tried to patch your pain with faith and you walked away. Can you tell me where you're going the compass is unclear, the path that you're taking is wrong but with time you'll know. Just pull it together, it's time we forget this and go.
I'm never looking back, I'm never coming home. Take your abandonment, there's no room for it here. Just remember where we came from, there's a glimmer from the past.
We won't stay down, our march will shake the ground. This is our time to shine, this is our revolution. Just remember where we came from and you can finally Set me free.
Someone set me free.
Depths
Gambler, I'm calling your bluff. Lay down your hand, you're not fooling anyone. Watch your step. Your only weakness is that you have no destination and no will but to live to kill our dreams. But we will stand strong and we will fight.
We won't hold our breathe.
(Save the sinking ship...) We'll fight the water into the depths.
(into the depths)
Watch your tongue, you will be found. Watch your tongue, if it's the last thing that I do.
The siren has sang it's song. Save the sinking ship.
The anchor will bring us down, keep your head above water.
(The revelation of who we are...)
Don't burn all your bridges or you'll fall to the water below.
But I can't help but set them ablaze with the fire in my bones.
We'll make it out by the skin of our teeth. We'll make it out by the skin of our teeth.
You have nothing but your glory to blame. You have nothing but your glory to blame.
Yell fire fire, this is not a test. Shake it off, pull yourself together.
I'm not a monster, I'm just a simple man. (I'm not a monster)
I'm not a monster.
And we won't hold our breath.
(save the sinking ship) We'll fight the water into the depths.
(...into the depths.)
Even you juggernaut, even you couldn't stop the power of this freight train.
This week's weekly word is on a little man named George Watsky. He is a slam-poet/rapper who's on the rise in the world of words. He got his start as part of a slam-poetry teen team who won the nation slam-poetry tournament.
After gaining some popularity among spoken worders, he performed the poem “V for Virgins” on Def Poetry Jam (hosted by Mos Def). “V for Virgins” is a poem which reclaims the sexyness and awesomeness of the high school virgin who would rather play D&D with his boys. I personally connect with the line, “Damn that's some sexy peach-fuzz sexy” as I cannot grow any sort of facial hair (nor can Mr. Cody Iremonger). Another poem, titled “Drunk Text Message to God”, is equally hilarious, but also has a serious side of acceptance and understanding.
Since making name for himself in the poetry realm, George Watsky has since began making a name for himself in the hip-hop world. You may have been one of the nearly eleven million viewers of his youtube video hit “Pale Kid Raps Fast”, in which he raps fast over Busta Rhymes “Break Your Neck”. He has an album coming out soon and posts a new song from the album every Monday until the album comes out. So check out the white kid reclaiming hip-hop and spoken-word poetry.
Links:
George Watsky home page: http://georgewatsky.com/
Watsky youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/gwatsky
“V for Virgins”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=212iH9jckT8
“Drunk Text Message to God”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uOhD67028I
“Pale Kid Raps Fast”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6XLswqiX0s
