Tagged: j bradley

15 Views Audio Freebie

15 Views Audio Freebie

posted on February 7th, 2012 by Ryan Rivas

A big thanks is due to the massive crowd who showed up to the 15 Views of Orlando book release party, and to those who supported both Burrow Press and Page 15 by picking up a copy. Those of you who missed the party and haven’t yet bought the book, you can now listen to the fantastic readings that you missed. Impressed? Buy a copy online or swing by Urban ReThink between 10am and 4pm Mon. – Fri. to get one. It is pretty much the only way to support a small press, and, in this case, you’re helping Page 15 continue to offer free tutoring, writing programs in and out of school, creative writing summer camps, and their latest project, an anthology of Orlando student work.

Photos by Lesley Silvia

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J. Bradley – It’s a Hollywood Summer

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Hunter Choate – The Gentelest of Bends

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J. Christopher Silvia – The Little, Little Death

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Ashley Inguanta – Deconstruction

Obligatory crowd shot that happens to feature Burrow blogger Rachel Kapitan.

Stay tuned for more “15 Views” readings featuring different authors!

 

 

 

Literary Death Match, Orlando Ep. 2

Literary Death Match, Orlando Ep. 2

posted on October 14th, 2011 by Ryan Rivas

November 13th at Mad Cow Theatre will mark Orlando’s second episode of Literary Death Match. It’s one month away and there is already blood in the water.

Tod Caviness, Speakeasy host and Orlando-Weekly-voted “Best” something-or-other, will be one of four contestants at the Death Match. He fired the first volley via his liberal elitist mouthpiece blog over at the Sentinel.com, refering to his opponents as such:

…poet (and pushover) Kat Dixon, Burrow Press author (and wuss) J. Christopher Silvia, and emerging writer Rachel Kapitan (who throws like a girl).

Why did he do this? Why does a boxer tell the press he will eat his opponent’s children? Why does a football player break fingers at the bottom of the dogpile? Why did that Lector in Ybor City challenge another Lector to a duel over what book was most appropriate to read to the cigar rollers? Because books are worth dying for. Don’t think too hard about that one, just move on.

I’ve got money in Vegas that Tod, with his background in performance and sick writing skills, is going to take the crown. If only the actual judging mattered. That being said, this episode’s wise and knowledgable and completely irrelevent judges will be:

Poet, author, There Will Be Words host, man about town, provocateur, J. Bradley (Literary Merit)

Rockstar photographer, as in literally takes photographs of rockstars, Brook Pifer (Intangibles)

And last but certainly not least, poet, philanthropist, former Orlando Magic center, Adonal Foyle (Performance)

It probably goes without saying that this is going to be AMAZING. A heartfelt thanks to Jana Waring, BP darling, for locking this event down.

Alright, enough talk. Less chat. More splat! PRE-ORDER YOUR TICKERS FOR $6

 

It’s a Hollywood Summer, by J. Bradley

It’s a Hollywood Summer, by J. Bradley

posted on June 16th, 2011 by Nathan Holic

15 Views of Orlando: Part 3 ( of 15)

Location: Fashion Square Mall

 

I’m nursing my PBR tall boy at the bar when the stinger of a manicured index fingernail jabs my right shoulder. I glance over and see Val holding a black plastic shopping bag. “You’re late.”

15 Views of Orlando has been stolen from the tubes of the Internet and is now in book form, due out on 1/31/12.
Pre-order it here.

About the Author:

J. Bradley is the author of Dodging Traffic (Ampersand Books, 2009), The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You is a Robot (Safety Third Enterprises, 2010), My Hands Are As Thick As Dreams (Patasola Press, 2011), and the upcoming e-chapbooks A Patchwork of Rooms Furnished By Mistakes (Deckfight Press, 2011) and Our Hearts Are Power Ballads (Artistically Declined Press, 2011). He is the Interviews Editor of PANK Magazine and lives at iheartfailure.net.

Correspondence from a Former Flightless Bird

Correspondence from a Former Flightless Bird

posted on May 16th, 2011 by Guest

Guest Post by J. Bradley


The Assignment

A couple of weeks before my performance in The Encyclopedia Show, I received my assignment for May’s theme, Flightless Birds, from show creators and hosts Robbie Q. and Shanny Jean. Their justification for my assignment was that I am a “huge effin nerd.” I watch The Dark Crystal for the first time ever. I send my contribution to them hours later.

Did You Know?

From The Encyclopedia Show’s Website

Brought to you from the minds of poets and producers Robbie Q Telfer and Shanny Jean Maney, The Encyclopedia Show is a live variety extravaganza that commissions local and touring artists and experts from many disciplines to use their individual talents to present a different verbal encyclopedia entry each month. The Encyclopedia Show endeavors to build an age-integrated community cultivating accidental knowledge and irreverent loving kindness. Though the show is accredited by the Institute of Human Knowledge and Hygiene, it is our ongoing mission to chafe against logic and proof, find meaning in obfuscation, and wrest truth from fact once and for all.

Additional Facts

  • There are Encyclopedia Shows in Austin, Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, San Francisco, and Seoul, Korea. Chicago is where The Encyclopedia Show started.
  • I’ve listened to all of Season 1 & Season 2 of The Encyclopedia Show thanks to WBEZ’s online archives.
  • I sometimes wrote poems inspired by topics of certain volumes, such as Mythical Beasts (this is one such example).
  • Robbie Q and Shanny Jean and I go way back from our slam days. I first experienced Robbie Q at the 2003 National Poetry Slam during the Nerd Slam in Quimby’s, where I learned from him how awesome Muppets are truly. I first heard Shanny in 2004 at the 2004 National Poetry Slam in St. Louis, where I hear the evils of Cracker Barrel and watch her take part as a five person group piece from the perspective of the kids from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory that did not win the Golden Ticket.
    Thinking about this makes me miss the Normal, IL slam team.

After the Audition

I get feedback from the story I wrote for my assignment. I am to add more background about the Skeksis but do so in a way where it is not forced. I do not touch the draft until the day of the show where I revise and rehearse furiously.

At The Venue, Before The Show (Scenes)

  • Defending Larry Bird ferociously against the joke writing knives of Shanny Jean.
  • Watching Evan Chung and his fellow members of The Encartigans set up. One of the musicians brings up a saw and a bow to play it with.
  • Hugging Jilted Emily Rose and surviving it.
  • Seeing Tim Jones-Yelvington walk into the venue, glammed up in a way only Tim Jones-Yelvington can be glammed up.
  • Cringing under the glare of the Fact Checker from the Institute of Human Knowledge and Hygiene, Herr Belknap.

Things That I Learned From The Other Contributors During The Show (You Figure Out Which Ones Are Truths and Untruths)

  • Tim Jones-Yelvington once threw a rock at Robbie Q. According to the Fact Checker, it is the most beautiful sentence in the English language.
  • The Skeksis isn’t real.
  • We’re the only country that sentences children to life.
  • The Chicago White Sox are so bad, their manager forced two of his players to write a report about the Baltimore Orioles
  • The Visigoths worshiped The Flightless Visigothic Partridge God
  • Lame ducks make more of a groaning sound than a quack
  • The word “cock” said 22 times in a poem about the ostrich the right way is incredibly funny and entertaining
  • Hand turkeys are drawn to be executed by poor taste
  • There’s a far off land called Lake Takhomasak where a kiwi once killed a person or I think killed a person
  • The Kakapo produces a smell that makes it very attractive to predators and they have no way of defending themselves, much like a supporting character in a Lifetime movie
  • Icarus never listened to his father
  • Jokes about Celine Dion getting killed by a SEAL team in Abbottabad told by a man in a makeshift penguin suit isn’t that funny
  • The truth lost. By a lot:

Looking Back

I’ve listened to a lot of Encyclopedia Shows where there’s great moments and some not so great moments. Flightless Birds was the best Encyclopedia Show I’ve seen. The voices and backgrounds were incredibly diverse, talented, and funny in their own way. I’m glad I got to do it and would love to do it again (and again).

There Will Be Words

There Will Be Words

posted on April 27th, 2011 by Jana Waring

We love you. All of you. And since we intermittently choose publishing projects it may be a while before we host a new book signing. We decided that we can’t wait that long to see all of your smiling faces again, SO Ryan and I sat down with the great J. Bradley and came up with a plan to co-host a reading series.

There Will Be Words will be Orlando’s first monthly prose reading series. Starting the second Tuesday in May, and the second Tuesday of each month thereafter, TWBW will showcase four of the best writers that will engage, entertain and excite you in ways never thought possible with prose.

Please join us at our home base Urban ReThink (625 E. Central Blvd) on May 10 from 6-8pm for the inauguration of this fine event. BP’s own Ryan Rivas will be reading, as well as three other local literature heroes named Billy Manes, Tod Caviness and Rene Joy.

Come one, come all. There will be words. There will be love. And there will be beer.

See you there!

-Jana

PS. For those who like spreading the news about their whereabouts and excellent adventures, here’s your Facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174331189286254

Also, here’s a teaser for who’s reading in the upcoming months.

 

Curtain Call

Curtain Call

posted on April 18th, 2011 by Amanda Hawkins

Guest Post by J. Bradley

 

This Thursday, 4/21, marks the final Broken Speech Poetry Slam, founded and hosted by J. Bradley. It begins at 9:30 at Stardust Video & Coffee. We at BP encourage you to go and celebrate its ten years of existence, say your goodbyes, and be inspired to start your own cultural tradition in Orlando. –MGMT

I wanted to write a eulogy for the Broken Speech Poetry Slam but I can’t find the words to mourn or to cover up the faults. Instead, I give thanks to the following people and events because without them, the slam would not have existed and grown for the past ten years.

I never said thank you enough to K. Meyer for helping me get this thing off the ground during the first year. Her extensive event planning experience in the entertainment industry gave the slam the legs it needed to survive and thrive. Without her there, I don’t know if the slam could have survived past the first year.

Tracy Kamhi, Sandra Monday, Queen Beat, and Andi C were the first poets to participate in the Broken Speech Poetry Slam on that January evening in 2001 in a meeting room at the UCF Student Union. Their participation helped prove that the slam was for real and encouraged other poets to participate.

Alex Katsaros, who at the time was President of the local Sigma Tau Delta chapter at UCF, also helped get the slam up and running. His patience and collaboration helped Broken Speech grow in its infancy on campus.

Brendan Earl is, was, and will always be a cornerstone of the Broken Speech Poetry Slam. I had the tremendous pleasure of watching him grow since 2001 as a writer and a performer. I’m proud that the slam gave him the venue he needed to evolve.

Guinevere’s gave the Broken Speech Poetry Slam the home it needed to transition from college slam to city slam during our 2002 and 2003 seasons. Getting kicked out of the venue then allowed us to casino games transition to our long time home, Stardust Video & Coffee.

Our first team that we sent to nationals in 2002, composed of what Orlando considered the best of the best in local poetry by many in town at that time, provided the disappointment this city needed to wake up and start getting better from a writing perspective. The City Beautiful needed to see that thinking locally gets you demolished globally.

Stardust Video & Coffee deserves a tremendous thank you for the last seven years of hosting the Broken Speech Poetry Slam, weekly, then monthly. They are one of my all time favorite hangouts in Orlando and I’m incredibly grateful for their long term support.

The 2007 Orlando slam team gets a super special shout out. They were the first team that finally proved to the national slam scene that Orlando knows how to write and perform their asses off, paving the way for the 2009 slam team to place in the top 20 of the nation at that year’s national competition.

From 2003-2006, Michael Tedder was the host of the Broken Speech Poetry Slam. His low-key, humorous style made the show interesting, fun to watch. He was a fine host and is a fine friend.

Jelian Morales, our host from 2006-2010, was the best host we’ve ever had, if not one of the best hosts in town. She was high-energy, funny, sassy, and epic. I’m glad that she’s hosting the last ever Broken Speech Poetry Slam. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thank you to everyone who ever came out to watch, judge, participate in the Broken Speech Poetry Slam. Without you, we could not have been around for the last ten years.

This isn’t a goodbye. This is more like a see you later, see you soon.

Happy Birthday, Broken Speech

Happy Birthday, Broken Speech

posted on January 19th, 2011 by Ryan Rivas

Guest Post by J. Bradley

A lot of people in the slam community credit Paul Devlin’s SlamNation as a catalyst for them to get off their asses and start a slam in their town, be a slam poet in their town, or both.  The documentary inspired me to strive toward becoming a literary rock star, which I’m still working on.  My catalyst in starting the poetry slam here in Orlando came in response to a letter the Orlando Weekly published by performance poet Sandra Monday in 2000, who lamented the conversion of Java Jabbers into Back Booth and Orlando’s lack of culture.

*

Put Back Booth on back burner and get involved – (Orlando Weekly: 9/14/2000)

Regarding the letter from Sandra Monday [“Beat doesn’t go on at Back Booth,” Sept. 7]: Over the last five years venues and weekly programs for poetry have diminished exponentially in Orlando.  We used to have the Yab Yum, Java Jabbers, Stardust, Performance Space Orlando and other locations.  Now poets are relegated to scattered open mikes in family bookstores.  Isn’t Orlando supposed to have the culture of a burgeoning metropolitan area?

Unfortunately, Orlando as a whole feels the need to be more attractive to transient citizens than to those who live here day in and day out.  Do most of us want our city to be famous for theme parks and boy bands?  No.

We need a major art/literary movement to awaken the minds of the 180,000 plus citizens of this town.  We need the world image of Orlando to be broadened.  All major cities have culture.  Look at New York, Chicago, San Francisco.  All of them have a national, if not international, recognition of their advances in all forms of art and culture.  Why can’t we share the same prestige?

There are a brave few who try to bring culture to our city.  Some of them include Victor Perez and Patrick Scott Barnes.  But they can’t do it alone.

And there are those who complain about the lack of culture and do nothing.  Those who do nothing and complain don’t deserve to complain.

And this all comes back to you, Ms. Monday.  I have read two letters making similar complaints in the Weekly, yet I don’t see you taking action to change things.  I’m making the rounds.  I’m seen around town, and I’m the managing editor for a publication that promotes free ideas and culture, ironically sponsored by the Sentinel.  I’m trying to make Orlando a better place.  I know you, and others like you, can as well.  All you need to do is DO SOMETHING.

J. Bradley, Managing Editor
UCF’s IndePENdent

*

A month after that was published, I got my local English honors fraternity to help me start a poetry slam on UCF’s campus.  After, I quit my managing editor internship and focused on starting the Broken Speech Poetry Slam.  The IndePENdent folded, eventually.  The slam turns ten next week.  I think I made the right call.

Starting a show is tough.  Maintaining it week in, week out, month in, month out, is excruciating, but the sense of community it creates and the art it brings out makes the agony and the heartache worth it.  In 2000, the poetry scene was watery at best.  Now, we have amazing performance and writing talent in people such as Tod Caviness, Brendan Earl (you may know him as Ronin), Curtis Meyer, Shawn Welcome, and rising talent in Alex Ruiz and Sam Lamura.  We went from being smacked around left and right by bigger, badder cities at the National Poetry Slam, to holding our own, to beating those bigger, badder cities.  We’ve got an open mic devoted to poetry almost every night in Orlando.  It’s safe to say poetry’s healthy in this town and I can take some comfort I have something to do with that.

What gives me more hope in the cultural health of this city though is seeing the writers that came from here or migrated here making a splash in indie lit world, such as Laura van den Berg, Timothy Dicks, and Lindsay Hunter; and that Burrow Press is giving it a go in indie lit publishing here; having cool neighborhoods like The Milk District, and more art galleries like Neon Forest popping up around town.  We’re not there yet, but in comparison to where Orlando was in 2000-2001, we’ve come a long way.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes doing this, I won’t lie.  I’ve alienated people, been an unjustifiable asshole at times, but I’ve learned a lot from these hard lessons and overall, I think I deal with people better in running the slam and in life.

What can you do to make Orlando even better in the next ten years?  Do something.  You don’t have to slam, you don’t have to write, you don’t even have to be artistic, you can still do something.  Support your local arts, tell people about the cool stuff you saw, take part in the things that go on around you.  Do something, something small or something large.  Do something.  Orlando has enough haters.  We don’t need one more.

In ten years, I’ll still be here.  Maybe Broken Speech will be around still and we’ll get to talk again on its twentieth birthday, maybe it won’t be.  All I know is while I live in this city, I will do what I can to make it better.  What are you gonna do?

—
J. Bradley is the SlamMaster of the Broken Speech Poetry Slam, which takes place every Third Thursday at Stardust Video & Coffee around 9:30 or so.  The slam will celebrate its tenth birthday at The Cameo Theatre on January 27, featuring the No More Ribcage Tour and a three-round poetry slam.  Check out J. Bradley at iheartfailure.net.

Broken Fire Hoses & Machetes Made of Broken Dreams: an interview with J. Bradley

Broken Fire Hoses & Machetes Made of Broken Dreams: an interview with J. Bradley

posted on December 14th, 2010 by Ryan Rivas

How do you interview an interviewer? The only question more daunting is how do you interview an interviewer who leads his interviews with questions such as, “You have a time traveling closet.  Using this amazing scientific discovery, which former President would you travel back to and play Seven Minutes In Heaven with?”

J. Bradley is the author of Dodging Traffic (Ampersand Books, 2009) and The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You is a Robot (Safety Third Enterprises, 2010).  He is also the Interview Editor for PANK Magazine and runs the Broken Speech Poetry Slam, soon celebrating 10 years in Central Florida.

Being a writer as well as interviewer, he is not impervious to having the tables turned, which is what I attempted to do while walking the fine line between imitation and flattery.

—

Are you one of those writers who’ve been writing since childhood? Did you prefer action figures (which ones) to pen and paper; or how did you keep occupied in those developmental years?

I loved writing when I was six.  I was seduced by math until I was about 15.  I wanted to be many different things (accountant with super powers, cool computer hacker) but once I discovered I hate math involving letters and that I can’t program in BASIC, I turned back to writing.  I miss action figures, though, ones that had articulation that would allow you to reenact epic martial art battles.  Now, the best you can do is stiff chops and kicks.

I read in a past interview that you’ve done away with cable TV. I wish I could do the same, but I am hopelessly addicted to basketball. Now that cable is out of the picture, have you encountered any substitute distractions while writing? What are you addicted to?

I read a lot (short story collections more than anything).  When I don’t want to read or don’t feel like writing or just drinking, I’ll watch movies on my DVD player or watch something on Netflix.  I’m watching Babylon 5 again and I appreciate it even more because of the elaborate threading and storytelling in it.

Are you still connected to the slam poetry community? May I be so bold as to ask why so many slam poets deliver their work in a similar cadence? And while on the topic, would you be so kind as to fill in the following SAT analogy?

I am still connected to the slam poetry community and have people in that global community that I admire and enjoy their work.

Regarding cadence, I don’t see similarities.  Where I see repeat offenses is in content.  It’s easy to hit someone who doesn’t know you’re hitting them or let alone care to hit you back.

slam poetry: broken fire hose :: flash fiction: machete made of broken dreams

What could the literary community learn from the slam poetry community? And vice versa.

The literary community could learn how to engage an audience in person.  The slam poetry community could learn to be more interesting.  And to edit.

When doing readings/performances, do you worry about sneezing or barista-coffee-grinder solos? What was the worst distraction you’ve personally experienced?

I don’t.  I block out most distractions, except crowd reactions.  I think the worst distraction I’ve personally experienced was in 2003 during a slam team fundraiser where I got heckled by someone because of a poem I performed about being a substitute teacher and something that actually happened.  Looking back, I deserved it.

If you were suddenly Dr. J. Bradley, professor emeritus of creative writing at Prestigious University, what would some of your writing classes be called? Course descriptions are also encouraged.

Open Mics: Nature’s Greatest Mistake
Fact And Fiction: The Importance Of Telling The Truth Even When Lying
STFUAW: Action Speaks Louder Than Ambition
How To Fail Amazingly

As a fellow Orlandoan, do you feel defensive when you tell people where you live, or that this city gets a bad rap? And speaking of bad raps, who is the worst rapper alive, in your opinion?

I don’t.  People who only see the tourist areas have no right to talk shit.  I will only hate on a city if I have been to it and experienced its suck, like St. Louis.

About rap: most of it puts me to sleep when I experience it live.  The only rappers that have not put me to sleep are Sage Francis, Grand Buffet, and Mac Lethal.  I’m a rock guy.  I need live music.  Scratching records and letting your hype men do all the work is wack, son.

What do you enjoy most about Orlando? Could you supply our fellow Orlando readers with a poignant-yet-offensive retort for all the haters out there?

Orlando has culture, has art, has interesting cool places if you’re willing to look and enjoy the coolness here in this city.  Instead of hating, do something to make this city better or get the fuck out.