this is largely a name-drop post, unapologetically...

had a great time reading at Books And Bookshelves last night...Tinker Greene is a totally great and it was super hearing him read...

had a nice conversation with Rick London who i had previously only been in touch with by email. what up Rick London?!

sold some books to people i didn't know which is always nice...

grew my mustache out for the occasion of Micah Ballard and Sunnylyn THBX's 9th anniversary...i now have a mustache that's not going any where anytime soon. maybe.

was made to feel like a wee rock star by the two high school girls from SOTA who came up to me after the reading and bought my books and shook my hand and had me autograph them (the books) and then ask for my email so they could give it to their teacher so she could invite me to their class...what up Brandon?! SOTA part II?

and then was made to feel like an even bigger wee rock star by the girl who asked if she could interview me for the USF school newspaper...meanwhile C. is seriously getting a kick out of this seeing her dude chatting up the young gals...and i'm getting a kick out of being interviewed and trying not to swear to much sapping my big silver can of Coors Light...rocky mountain fresh and shit.

peeps who came i shout out to you: Micah Bizzard, Sunnylyn THBX, Layne Peterson, ORTH, Erica Lewis, Matt Arnone, Jimmy Dunagan, Jay Morris, Logan (weird hanging with a dude who's song is ALWAYS STUCK IN YOUR HEAD), the cute little high school duo from SOTA, USF journo-biology major-poet, Jello Sakkis, Ricky London, Tinker Greene's posse, Sus-oner Gevirtz and Lawrence Kearney and Steve "Steve D." Dickison...woot Rachel S. and David H. for inviting me...had a blast...

and then a pod of us headed over to Lucky 13 for beers and whatnot...lot's of men on men photo booth action...Logan talking about Owen Hill...spilling beer down Layne's shirt, Matt Arnone as The Best, Jimmy Dunagan's shirt, Micah goosing everybody, THBX rallying for a happy birthday Bizzard sing along, people going horizontal...



plans to maybe skate this weekend at the DMV curbs...plans to attend S. Larsen's B&B reading on Thursday...plans to watch The Devil's Rejects tonight not eating cheese soup and whatever else at 1am...plans on working more on my little new book...plans to hopefully book another reading between now and my SPT thing with Norma...plans to conjure an actual bonafide heat-wave this weekend using sigils observed in the clouds...plans on working on that Rude Girl video trailer with Matty Arnone...plans to keep on trucking on the toilet through The Maximus Poems and Superman The Archives Vol. 1...would also like to wrestle L. Boldt to the ground putting her in a tight sleeper pinching raspberries all over her arms and neck...

and i'll leave you for now with a poem

Dear Chris Carter

I've even sat through the Stephen King episode more than once

Forced my girlfriend to watch The Lone Gunman before Queer as Folk

When I hit puberty you moved the show from Friday to Sundays
Just knew we were on the same page 'cause of that

Defended Doggett and Reyes I don't even know how many times
bought the action figures and postcard books
kept a scrapbook, attended the convention in San Jose,
met Cigarette Smoking Man nee Cancer man, joined the fan club
read the fan fiction and the novels and comic books
bought the coffee mug
taped all the episodes then
bought all the episodes on VHS 

then bought all the episodes on DVD

look, i'm just saying the 

The X-Files I Want To Believe
broke my heart
and it hurts me just a little to admit it

remember when I wrote this for my Small Town bio

David Horton even mentioned it on his blog

"John Sakkis is fanatically excited about the upcoming The X-Files movie. John Sakkis still keeps his 15 year old lamented The X-Files fan club membership card in his wallet. John Sakkis has Fox Mulder and Dana Scully action figures displayed on his bookshelf, he posed them so that they are holding hands. Girls think this is more creepy than boyishly charming. John Sakkis met William B. Davis (aka Cigarette Smoking Man aka Cancer Man) in San Jose at an X-Files convention in 1994, John Sakkis got Bill's autograph on a glossy photo that now hangs in his office. John Sakkis has read all of the X-Files tie in novels as well as the Official Guide to The X-Files vol. 1-9. John Sakkis is an OG X-Philes (from the Greek root "-phil-" meaning love or obsession), he used to keep a scrapbook of newspaper/magazine articles that centered on the show. In his high school shop class he sandblasted "THE X-FILES" onto a sheet of glass and turned it in for a grade, the grade was a C and he was mad. John Sakkis writes monster poems collects records."

then I saw I Want To Believe 

and kept waiting for the movie to really begin

and then the movie was almost over

and nothing really happened 

besides Mulder's beard

I felt foolish in front
of the poetry community
when my mom/Santa bought it for me last Christmas
I knew we'd be headed back to Best Buy
just saying Chris Carter 

you really broke my heart

I Want To Believe you know
your movie sucked but I don't
so just leave Mulder and Scully alone
even Doggett and Reyes
you killed off the Lone Gunmen so whatever
but still, just let it go and let the X-Philes
enjoy the memories


Sincerely,
Johnny