Last night was beautiful.  Amazing weather, good beats and poets galore.  Summer time always makes the Dupont Circle Rock!  Met some fire spinner recently and we hope to have a marriage of artistic flare — so keep your eyes posted for that possibility!

The American Foreign Legion is coming to your town

A bipartisan resolution to help illegals stick around

Republicans get cheap labor, Democrats get more votes

Illegals get free housing, plus feed for all their goats

As goose-step ambassadors for the Commander In Chief

This minimum wage job will keep your family on relief

You'll learn to vote, bomb and maime in various ways

As you march and sing Hail To The Chief at dawn each day

You'll invade Augusta, Georgia-search for WMDs

Bush knows them tall, needly-things can't all be pine trees

"Destry all their bunkers and set them flags on f'ar!"

This terrorist golf course is one my daddy couldn't par

Your past crimes against others that you never denied

Now work in your favor; Hey! you're pre-qualified!

You can practice any religion-worship alligator shoes

But if you're caught, I promise you'll pay some heavy dues.

Bush'll cut teacher's salaries to buy your uniforms

Then buy even-smarter bombs with Social Security reform

Your unpatriotic neighbors we're taking away

Our scanner shows their drawers weren't made in the USA

You'll have computerized weapons and ballistics second to none

And planes that track and vaporize your enemies as they run

We've figured out how to use you without setting you free

But Congress is hoping like hell that you won't mutiny

So all you soldiers of fortune and action-figure sons

Get paid to live your "closet life" as Attila The Hun.

Just sign up now, or make an "X" whichever you can do

A lifetime job and a MasterCard is waiting for you.

The poetry insurgency rocked DuPont tonight, dropping beats and kickin' poetry for two hours in the evening rush hour before adjourning to the Belmont House to watch Dave Chapelle's Block Party over pizza.

Poets attending included Alice, Laurie, Jeff, Laila, Midge, Damian, Shahid, and special guests Reggie and Sage from Sol y Sol. Drummers included Laurie, Shahid, Midge, Fadi, and newcomer Jesse, who shared an interest in doing outreach on the insurgency's behalf to the Rainbow Tribe community. Guerrillas brought out the sidewalk chalk in full effect, and kept the vibe going until shortly after 9pm.

Aside from folks who came out to participate, the typical flow of onlookers and passersby included a few special highlights. A group of international conference attendees paused while passing by, prompting a woman from South Africa to approach the mic and sing the country's national anthem (backed up by Laurie, who knew it from her time living there). Also, newcomer Katie introduced herself by literally dancing across the Circle, and spoke of hearing the drums while driving by before parking her car specifically to join us and get down for awhile. Good times….

4/21 – the day before earth day, the day after 420: 8AM bleary eyed and still thinking I had a chance with one of the lovely's from the night before, Shahid's face peeks around the corner of my bedroom door. "Dude, you still up for a trip to Boston?" I look over at the clock accusingly flickering its green numbers telling me that I had just gone to bed an hour or so before. "Yeah – let me get a shower." I crawled to the bathroom and contemplated being sick. Not today, I figured. Rinsed clean and feeling a bit more functional than 30 minutes earlier, we grabbed bags and jumped in the Yuppie Mobile. [Side note: It's not totally yuppie 'cause the back window won't go up, the sunroof won't go back and it smells like dog]

Long drives to long days and we switch up a few times, cover long and winding topics of conversation, develop new theories to challenge other new ones, and finally my hangover is gone somewhere around the top of Jersey, unless it was gone in Delaware and Jersey just gave me a new one.

We get to Boston w/ time to spare – Shahid changes in the back seat into the International Colors of Danger: Yellow & Black. The event was the Hip-Hop Caucus Tour in Boston's South End at the Latino Cultural Center. The sun was begging to set itself down below the horizon and there was a large crowd milling about. Performer after performer got up and rocked the mic: Spoken word, B-Boys poppin-n-lockin, some intense Breakin' and heavy lyrics demanding change and awareness. The crowd roared and the Reverend Yearwood gave out shirts and inspirational messages. There were some good names in underground hip-hop and some good names in Pro-Peace love.

The gig was up and we were out: back into the yuppie mobile for the next GP Insurgency in Providence, RI. It's about 11pm and we're to find the "Firehouse" art and experimental space that Providence hosts. We roll up on the end of the Total Bolsheviks set and I grab some drinks and start screaming at the top of my lungs "the house has burnt down; the white house has burnt down and now it's charred black!" Rattling Indie-Hipsters out of their apathy proves difficult. The shows over and we head down to New London, CT – pound some beers, laugh a lot and get some good times in before sleep overcomes us as we crash on the floor for an hour and a half needed sleep. 7AM – Wakeup, back on the road to get Sha & the Kid we dragged out with us to Boston in time to catch a train back to DC.

So goes a whirlwind visit to New England for the forces of Good: Everyone loves Good.

These taxes are killing me,
tax my soul, my heart
tax my love to pay for hate
blowing up in the name of state;
well, I'll file them for you,
little machines of death,
and you'll call yourself Caesar,
but all you really do
is make it difficult to please her:
the money could be for flowers,
or new shoes on cold feet.
You ought to put this money
into making our cultures meet
with handshakes and cheek kisses,
these are more targeted
than your smart bomb misses.
So, here's my god damned money
that I worked hard all year for
and there you go again
simply ignoring the dying poor.
Fine – I'll go and march
in the May day parade
with the people really working
and not playing charades
while you take my money
and destroy other places,
so these new homeless
have somewhere to go,
come to our golden shores
since we blew up yours.