The more we do this thing at the Yellow Sofa, by the grace of its management, the more I realize how and valuable it is. What do I mean by "this thing?"
Last night, in search of another open mic to play music, I went to a place, where there were comedians telling jokes. I thought, "Oh good, I like comedy." After a violence against women joke followed by a swearing at a heckler joke, followed by three self-degridation jokes, I decided to leave and go listen to sports radio for some higher consciousness and uplift--and found it in a discussion of why J.D. Drew was currently worthless to the Red Sox and should be replaced with this guy named Riddick who has excellent stats in limited at bats. It felt like listening to Mozart. But I'm someone who thinks Margaret Cho, Bill Hicks, Dave Chapelle, and Sarah Silverman are geniuses on the Alice Walker level.
We may suspect what a wasteland our commercial culture can be, but I did not realize what brutally barren stretches the local public culture contains--and how rare when there is a place where there with is a sense of "beloved community". This term was originally applied to the non-violence based-Civil Rights followers of Dr. King, but in a more general sense, for me, it applies to wherever feelings of inclusion and affection allow people to feel seen as themselves in a community trying to achieve something together that includes taking care of all of the people it comes in contact with.
There is something we are trying to achieve, I can see. It is to make a place where someone can come in and get listened to and where we can practice listening and being open to performers. What happens is that there is a high level of audiencing being practiced. In this field of trust and appreciation, people boldly bring or discover their A-game. The feeling of encouragement and acceptance become self-sustaining. Excellence is common, and excellence takes many forms, including direct expression of what is genuinely true for the person on stage. How rare to see people in their truth, offering what matters to them, and calling out more of this in one another.
Performers from the Open Mic have begun to do feature shows on Friday and Saturday night, that draw crowds of new listeners and a core of people from Thursday nights. How cool is that?
Last week I had one of these shows, and because my regular band was out of town, I took an idea from Christa and Jeremy and invited people from Thursday nights to join me for a cover song we both liked. Here are a few of those: Christopher Goudreau ("Eight Days a Week"/Lennon-McCartney), Christa Joy ("Love Hurts"/Bryant), Jeremy Anderson ("Time"/T.Waits), and Chris Griffin ("Pony Ride"/Silverstone)
Tonight's end of night song will be "Respect Yourself" by the Staple Singers.
Listen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1II2nPmBZJk
and follow here:
Respect Yourself/ Staple Singers
B
If you disrespect anybody that you run in to
How in the world do you think anybody's s'posed to respect you
If you don't give a heck 'bout the man with the bible in his hand . . . (y’all)
Just get out the way, and let the gentleman do his thing
You the kind of gentleman that want everything your way
Take the sheet off your face, boy, it's a brand new day
Chorus:
B D B D
Respect yourself, respect yourself
Respect yourself, respect yourself
F#
If you don't respect yourself
Ain't nobody gonna give a good cahoot, na na na na
B D B D
Respect yourself, respect yourself
Respect yourself, respect yourself
Dada dad a dad a Wa wa
Everybody
Dad a dad a doo wha wha Hit de de de de
If you're walking 'round think'n that the world owes you something cause you’re here
You're here you goin' out the world backwards like you did when you first come here
Keep talkin’ bout the President won’t stop Air Pollution
Put your hand on your mouth when you cough, that'll help the solution
Oh, you cuss around women and you don't even know their names
and you Dumb enough to think that'll make you a big ol man
Chorus
B D B D
Respect yourself, respect yourself
You oughta, yououghta Respect yourself,respect yourself etc.
Hope to hear you there,
Michael Silverstone
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