Links

Poetry/Performance
Organizations and Venues

Austin Poetry Slam
(www.austinslam.com)

Austin Poetry Slam kicks ass. Come check it out. All the cool kids are there. I'm there every week... pretending to be cool too.

Puro Slam
(www.puroslam.com)

Puro Slam in San Antonio is very very fun. check it out. All the cool kids in SA are there.

Neo Soul Lounge
(www.southflavas.com)
(link launches video)

Brian runs an amazing open mic in Pflugerville on Thursdays. This is the best open mic in Austin. The Neo-Souldiers really are cool- and super friendly and talented as well!

Jollyville Pictures (www.jollyvillepictures.com)

Tate English and Don Swaynos run Jollyville Pictures, and have created films that have screened at the Austin Film Festival, Flicker Film Festival, the New York Independent Film and Video Festival, and Tromadance! They were also responsible for the short satire: Theory, Fact, or Fiction.

Hyde Park Theatre (www.hydeparktheatre.com)

The Hyde Park Theatre has been bringing independent theater to central Austin since 1992. They also run the FronteraFest, which I have participated in for the past two years.

Slam Poets

The Minister (www.ministersin.com)

The Minister (Brian Overman) is an austin slam poet, film maker, and general artistic/performance co-conspiritor of mine. He has some badass videos up on his personal site! Keep it up my friend!

Peter Nevland Band (www.peternevland.com)

Peter Nevland and his band are on tour right now, coming soon to a coffee shop, bar, church, living room, or whatever near you. Check him out before he gets big! (which is happening very quickly) Spoken Grove baby.

Big Poppa E (Broken Word)
(www.bigpoppae.com)

I have a lot of respect for Big Poppa E. Eirik is a really nice and cool guy and his poetry is tops. He's been in the slam game for a long time and has given me tons of great advice. Thanks BPE, you rock! Big Poppa E is probably on tour right now, coming soon to a coffee shop, bar, church, or couch near you. Check out his shit, he's already big.

Suzy La Follette
(www.lavendermenace.com/)

Suzy just moved to Austin from Flagstaff. She kicks booty at the slam. Suzy is the tour partner of Andrea Gibson, one of my favorite slam poets anywhere.

Adam Rubinstein - Destructible Heart Press
(www.destructibleheart.com/)

Adam lives, writes, and performs in Albuquerque, NM. He also has his own publishing company. This is a very cool man who knows some things about lots of stuff.

Faylita Hicks
(www.faylitahicks.com/)

Faylita is an Austin poet who performs regularly at a lot of the same venues that I do, and she's a multiple time team member of Austin's Neo-soul Slam Team. She's got a great site, if I do say so myself, so visit it! She rocks every mic she steps to!

Artists, Film Makers, and Musicians

Farid Mohammadi - Texas Nafas
(www.texasnafas.org)

Farid runs a website and a cable access show that both showcase local poetry. Check out Texas Nafas on Austin's Public Access Community Television (channel 16), every Saturday at various times between 6:00 and 10:00 PM in Austin, Texas.

Dano Johnson - Collection Agency Films
(www.danojohnson.com)

Dano Johnson is creating! Even more than I am! He makes puppet shows, animated movies for the internet (including the 'Kinky Toons' for Kinky Friedman's 2006 Gubernatorial run) and works on other fun graphic design and film projects. He is sometimes in league with Jollyville Pictures.

Chenin
(www.geocities.com/chenincamille/)

Chenin is a smokin' hot & fabulous person & poet with a website you should check out! You can find poems, pictures, and all things NIN. She's smart and beautiful too, so you'd better recognize!

Jabarvy
(www.jabarvy.com)

Charlie Narayan is an all around nice guy and also happens to be a singer and guitarist for the band Jabarvy, which performs regularly at Antones,Friends & other places around Austin. Go see them, they will jam for many hours and you will want to dance.

Andres Lucero
(www.geekdreams.com)

Andres is an excellent chef of thai food and does web design for bands! Hire him if you're into robots or need sexual favors performed for a reasonable fee.

Mdesigns1 (www.mdesigns1.com)

Marcie Dean does graphic design in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is my oldest friend in the whole world. That is to say the longest. That is to say I've known her the longest. Marcie herself is neither old nor long, but she is cool, so check out her site!

Natural Healing and Sustainable Living

Hollistic Chef (holisticchef.biz)

This is an excellent website for anyone interested in holistic cooking, gourmet dinners and cooking classes. They also have weekly wellness programs, weight reduction programs and health consultations. Owned in part by my friend Tarika Ahuja.

Personal Links

Mike and Penny Strack (stracks.tripod.com)

My parents website. My sister and I created this. My dad recently ran in a marathon!

Micellaneous

This Modern World (www.thismodernworld.com/)

This is my favorite comic strip, Tom Tomorrow is genius.

Tripod (www.tripod.lycos.com)

Tripod has been my free webhost for several years now, and they have always been great.
I finally decided to get a pay site, and so I just signed up with them. I guess I almost felt like I owed it to them.
Plus the ads just kept getting more annoying every year.
But other than that, I have only good things to say about tripod! Now I have no ads at all. Just 11 bucks a month.

Live Journal (www.livejournal.com)

Get a live journal, update it regularly. Assume the government isn't reading it! Live in ignorant bliss! It's free so it must be ok right? I do it.

Free Web Space (www.freewebspace.net)

If you don't want to pay, I remember this site being a good source for free sites.

Furniture Porn (www.furnitureporn.com)

This site is a spoof on pornography sites. It is hilarious.

Despair.com (www.despair.com)

This is one of the coolest sites ever.

Superbad (www.superbad.com)

I love this site. I guess you could say it is an influence, but I don't have the flash skill of this person.
It's like a maze of websites. Yay!

Ze Frank (www.zefrank.com)

I absolutely love the little videos and games on this website. Ze is a genius! I particularly like 'request', and the dancing videos. Yay internet artwork!!!!

send me an email:
obstacle_course@yahoo.com