Month: February 2011

Everyone should know this

I wanted to wait until we were old enough
when feelings are not like the fever of a child
now learning how to walk, embarking upon new terrain
it happened today, regardless, I felt the heat stinging my skin
with anticipation, I let go, and didn’t care if I fell on my face
an aderaline hot as day, summertime when it’s still winter
I imagined chimes of an ice-cream truck signaling change.

I wanted to resemble cool for you, I wanted to give you the superfacial
when there’s nothing cool about the unknown, I can’t pretend…

Just take me home

I don’t want flowers right now
they will begin a new displacement
with their crushed petals, bringing anew
as the creases of a page, that you just
bought from the corner store, trying to
make-up with things that doff…

Broad Strokes Wednesday, February 23 @ 8:00 p.m.

 Live Wednesday, February 23 at 8:00 p.m. on Washington Heights Free Radio (WHFR)‘s Broad Strokes, Calypso Sally will have special guest, Mindy Abovitz, Editor-in-Chief, and founder of TOM TOM Magazine, a magazine about female drummers.

 

Broad Strokes streams live off the web every last Wednesday of the month at 8:00pm. I, Calypso Sally, that’s me, try to play a broad range of genres, stretching from indie rock, pop, alternative, noise rock, hip hop, reggae, dance hall, metal, calypso, funk etc.  It’s sort of a mixed bag.  I also have live acoustic performances. But this month I have media extraordinaire Mindy Abovitz in the house.

She’s going to talk to me about TOM TOM Magazine, women taking over the drum world, the music scene in NYC versus abroad, and how open the media has been with a woman taking on a  predominantly male environment.  Full throttle, however, she is wiping out the old school mentality!

Mindy Abovitz is a musician and media maker from South Florida currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Florida and a Masters in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research. She has been playing drums for 11 years and has taught at Rock Camp for Girls and Vibe Songmakers. Before starting Tom Tom Magazine, Mindy was an engineer at East Village Radio, worked at Main Drag Music, threw music shows at her loft The Woodser, and played drums for Taigaa, More Teeth, The Good Good, and other Brooklyn bands. In 2009 she started Tom Tom Magazine: A Magazine About Female Drummers because there wasn’t one and media representation of female drummers was poor. She has since put out 5 issues of Tom Tom and plans on putting women musicians in the front and center of the media because that is where they belong. She currently drums for Chica Vas.

Two Strangers Kissing

I remember that night in Union Square, 
I was telling you some ridiculous tale
of my boyish adventures. I remember
the moment, my hands freezing for your hold.
Everything you said to me resonated
in a way a tropical island warms you
somewhere far from the cold
more romantic than anything in English.
In that moment, I  felt fluent in a syntax my tongue
was incapable of pronouncing as a teen
still yet to learn how to do proficiently.
While I was contemplating the correct
conjugative verb, the correct timing 
to accent my impulses, you fell close
to me and our lips locked on these streets
where everything is dirty, and crude.

She talks about distance

When I’ve been born to be alone
I came into this world with my mother
She’s dead now, she left this place
with strangers, who may have cared
about her survival, and what it would
mean, for a a young survivor, but I’m…