Emmanuel Williams reads: Hello. This is John Rhodes with my monthly open mic poetry special. Today we have on Emmanuel Williams. I met Emmanuel Williams at a reading he had at Bird and Beckett Books here in San Francisco Emmanuel Williams is from England, and has lived and worked as a teacher all over the world. He has a BA in French and Art History, and an MA in Teaching of Writing. He's a member of, California Poets In the Schools. His poems and stories have been published in Pennwood Review, Penthouse, Penumbra, Toyan, Sacred Fire, Resurgence, The Countryman, Snowy Egret, and featured on BBC and NPR. He has recently published, Loving,  a book about the spiritual aspects of sex,  and is working on, Several Circles, a multi-media presentation featuring original poems about paintings, projections, dance, music and shadow puppets. Today Emmanuel will read poems about the natural world. His web site is at: www.emmanuelwilliams.com .

Rebecca Foust Reads: Hello. This is John Rhodes San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV Show. The featured reader is Becky Foust. Ahead is her bio. Rebecca Foust’s books Dark Card and Mom’s Canoe won the 2007 and 2008 Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prizes and her full length book was short listed for Poetry’s Emily Dickinson First Book Award. Nominated for two 2008 Pushcart Prizes, her recent poetry is widely published in small print journals including Atlanta Review, Nimrod, North American Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Women’s Review of Books and others. Dark Card is about raising a son with Asperger’s Syndrome, the Autism Spectrum Disorder featured in films like “Rain Man” and bestselling books such as Look Me in the Eye (John Elder Robison) and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Mark Haddon). I hope you enjoy this TV show!

Robert Arthur Reads: Hello. This is John Rhodes Open Mic Poetry Podcast/TV Show. Today we are going to have on a well-known poet of Virginia named Robert Arthur. Robert P. Arthur is the author of twenty books as well as numerous poem/plays, including the award-winning Hymn to the Chesapeake, which was produced in New York and St. Petersburg, Russia. Robert was a finalist as Poet Laureate of Virginia in 2008 and his new book of poetry, Vija's War, is nominated for the Library of Virginia Award. He has won top honors in Virginia both for poetry and fiction for the last two years. Thought to be the finest poet of the Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, he has been awarded fourteen grants in the last two years. He is currently a writer-in-residence at Wilkes University in Pa. and the owner of San Francisco Bay Press and the literary journal Lady Jane Miscellany, as well as the Spoken Word Theatre at 40th Street Stage in Norfolk, Virginia. I hope you enjoy this special. Enjoy.

Martha Meltzer Reads: Today we have Martha Meltzer. I met her at a Poetry get-together at Mclaren Park run by a close poet friend named Clara Hsu, who was on my first show almost a year ago. Martha Meltzer is a native Californian and an East Bay Poet. Currently she is in the second year of a two year term as Poet Laureate of Pleasanton. She has been seriously writing for about five years and has been published in California Quarterly, Song of the San Jacquin, Tipton Poetry Journal, and the SF Street Sheet. She pulls inspiration for her work from everyday life, especially nature. It has been said of her work that she only writes about bears and trees. "Not true," she replies, "I once wrote a poem about a chicken."She can be reached at her myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/marthameltzer . John Rhodes of http://mysticbabylon.podomatic.com is the poet/videographer of this video.

Hello. This is John Rhodes’ San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Special known on the web as “Mystic Babylon Podcast/TV” located at: http://mysticbabylon.podomatic.com . Today we have the prolific poet on, Herman Berlandt. Herman has for a long time been planning an international poetry museum here in San Francisco. He has also produced many poetry festivals, as both spoken word and film. Herman is the author of 15 poetry selections. One, which is still available, is “Peace or Perish: A Crisis Anthology”. You can find him on the web at: http://www.internationalpoetrymuseum.org . He is also the editor and publisher of Mother Earth International Journal. In the introduction, hopefully I will be able to ask him some questions about his poetry and about his efforts to produce a poetry museum here in San Francisco. From what I have heard he already has an extensive library of poetry videos. I talk with Herman, he will read some of his poetry, and then, at the end of the show, I will read a one long poem from my up and coming book: “Mystic Babylon Revisited”.

Hello. This is John Rhodes and this is my monthly “Open Mic Poetry” show. To find out it’s semi-irregular monthly scheduling you must go to the San Francisco Public Access TV web page: http://accessf.org/guide/schedule . Be aware of the spelling of that because the accessf.org part of the URL has only two s’s. In the schedule itself the show is listed as: “Open Mic Poetry”, with the month added after ‘Open Mic Poetry”. If by any chance you have the new AT&T U-verse and get the PEG 99 channel, you can also get a lower resolution version of this show in many parts of the nation on AT&T 99. On my web site: http://rhodespoetry.com I have a youtube video on the main page that describes how to use the channel 99 channel of AT&T. I don’t want to go on too long, so I’ll cut to the chase and tell which wonderful poet we have on today. Today we have Ivan Arguelles on who was born a twin of a Mexican Artist father named Enrique. His mother was named Ethel Meyers Arguelles. Ivan’s twin brother is named Jose. Early on in Ivan’s life, in the 11th grade, Ivan received a national award for one of his poems, which I imagine helped inspire him. In the 60’s he continued to write sporadically experimenting with prose, sort of after the style of James Joyce and William Burroughs. In the 70’s he tried much harder at writing, and developed more thoroughly his surrealistic style, it being tinted with his Mexican background. His first poetic collection was “Instamatic Reconditioning”, followed by “The Invention of Spain”. Following this, Ivan was widely published in small presses and poetry journals. According to the “Directory of Small Press Publishers”, in 1984 he was ranked 4th most published poet in the country. In 1989 Ivan won the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. In 1990 he ceased writing the daily poem and turned to writing long epic poems. Ivan Arguelles has published approximately 25 books. I know one of his collaborators in writing, who helped with, I think two of his books. This was Jack Foley of KPFA radio. I have some audio of Jack and his wife Adelle on my “Mystic Babylon” web site. He is on podcast ten. Enjoy.

This show is showing about a week earlier than it does on Channel 29 Comcast, so you you can aware to look for it when it shows. Hello. This is John Rhodes’ monthly Open Mic Poetry Special broadcasted from San Francisco’s Public Access TV Station and also distributed on the Internet through my Mystic Babylon Poetry Podcast at http://mysticbabylon.podomatic.com . Hopefully it will also be distributed elsewhere. Today we are going to have the poet Neeli Cherkovski on. Neeli Cherkovski is a longtime contributor to the West Coast literary scene. Emerging from the Los Angeles underground of the Sixties, Cherkovski, now in mid-career, has surfaced as an applauded poet, critic and literary biographer. He has written nine books of poetry, including Elegy for Bob Kaufman, and Animal; two acclaimed biographies, Bukowski: A Life and Ferlinghetti: A Biography; his book, Whitman's Wild Children (a collection of critical memoirs), has become an underground classic. In the late 1960s Cherkovski co-edited the poetry anthology Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns with Charles Bukowski. Since 1975, Neeli has lived and worked in San Francisco. He was for awhile Writer-In-Residence at New College of California, where he taught literature and philosophy. Neeli has many books still in print from his long literary life.You can find more information about one book of his, “Leaning Against Time”, and also the original version of the bio I just used by going to http://www.rlcrow.com . Wikipedia on the Internet is also a good source of info. I will read as usual two poems from my works. I’m going to read one poem from my in print book, “Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence”, and I’m going to read one poem from my newest poetry book, yet to come out. That book will be entitled, “Mystic Babylon Revisited”. After this introductory clip here I am going to ask Neeli a few short questions about his life and works. After that he will read for almost 20 minutes, then I’ll read my poems, and then I’ll sign off. We’ll get started now, and hope you enjoy the show. Please go to: http://accessf.org/guide/schedule, to find out when my shows show, and also visit my free novel podcast, ‘Little Bird Told Me”,at http://littlebirdtoldme.podomatic.com . All the chapters are posted. Please also remember to come back in a month and watch my next show. Thanks, and goodbye.

This show was posted a few days before it was posted on Cable Access 29/76 TV in San Francisco. I posted it earlier as a reminder to go to http://accessf.org/guide/schedule so you can go there and find out when you can watch it on the big screen. It is only available there locally in San Francisco. Below are the show notes. Hello. This is my regular Open Mic Poetry TV Special first broadcasted from San Francisco Cable Access TV, and later to be podcasted from my Mystic Babylon Poetry Podcast at http://mysticbabylon.podomatic.com , which will hopefully, also be distributed in other places. Today we have an English poetess named Jane Ormerod who will read for 20 minutes. I met Jane when she was touring here in San Francisco. It was through subsequent contacts that we decided to work together to produce a video. Jane was born on the South Coast of England and moved to New York City in 2004. She originally started as an artist and then after obtaining an MA in writing from the University of East Anglia she became proficient as a writer. She has been published in a long list of print and online anthologies. Some of them are “Brownstone Poets 2007 Anthology”, and an Anthology from Uphook Press called, “A Cautionary Tale: Seven New York Performing Poets”. You can find more about a readily available spoken word CD of hers called, “Nashville Invades Manhattan”, by going to her web site at: http://www.janeormerod.com . An anthology of Jane’s is due to be published by a small press called Modern Metrics at: http://modern-metrics.com . At the end of this show after Jane reads I will read a few poems from my poetry book, “Spirits of Bondage Inherent Transcendence”. The Background images and music was either from the Podsafe music network, or used as art under a permitted creative commons license. The web addresses of this music and art will be listed in the credits.

This show will air on Comcast Channel 29 in San Francisco on: Monday, 4/7 - 9:00 PM Tuesday, 4/8 - 6:30 PM Thursday, 4/10 - 9:30 PM, and will probably air numerous other times during the month. Hello. This is my fifth poetry special on Channel 29/76 Comcast for the month of April. It will also be podcasted from my Mystic Babylon Open Mic Poetry Podcast located at: http://mysticbabylon.podomatic.com . Today we are lucky to have with us Bill Gainer, a one-man poet and runner of a small press, called R. L. Crow Publications. Bill Gainer is known for the openness of his confessional poetry and is recognized as one of the founding contributors to the modern movement of "After Hours" poetry. Gainer says, "My poetry is written with an economy of words. I believe that the strongest way for poetry to achieve its goal, to express an emotion or feeling, is through the minimal poem." Gainer has contributed to the literary scene as a writer, editor, promoter, publicist and poet. He is a co-founder and current board member of the Nevada County Poetry Series. Gainer has read and worked with a wide range of poets and writers, including readings on KUSF with Punk-Rocker Patti Smith and a recent performance with California's Poet Laureate, Al Young. Gainer is nationally published and continues to be a sought after reader, he can be previewed on youtube.com – search Bill Gainer. If you would like to find out more about Bill Gainer, his books, and who he publishes, go to http://rlcrow.com . Before Bill reads I will ask Bill a few short questions which will come next, after this intro. I, John Rhodes, will read a few poems at the end of this show, from my book, “Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence”. Hopefully this summer I am going to come out with a new book of poetry named after my Podcast, “Mystic Babylon”. It will thusly be titled, “Mystic Babylon”. I will probably submit it for publication to Authorhouse at the beginning of May, and hopefully within 2 months it will be published. I’ll end here, and now we’ll fade to asking Bill those questions.

Hello. This is John Rhodes and this my fourth poetry TV special being broadcasted from San Francisco on various channels, the most well-known one, being channel 29 Comcast. This show is also podcasted from my Mystic Babylon open mic poetry podcast at: http://mysticbabylon.podomatic.com . Today we are fortunate to have with us Doreen Stock, a bay area poetess/writer. She has been exploring creative writing for 30 years plus . Her first book of poetry was: “Politics of Splendor”, Alcatraz Editions, published in Santa Cruz in 1984. It contains some of her works, and translations she did of the works of Marina Tsvetaeva and Anna Akhmatova. Recently she has been published in some Marin Poetry Center poetry anthologies, they being volume 5, 8, and 9, published in 2002, 2005, and 2006. She has been published in numerous magazines and has reviewed the poet Sharon Doubiago with Redwood Coast Review. Sharon Doubiago is a poet who was on one of my early audio podcasts. Some of Doreen’s works can also be found in “Tambourine”, from In-between Books, Sausalito, published in Sept. 2000. She has also published an Indian travel journal called “The Third Tiger”, available at: www.nomad-travels.com . A historical fiction is in the works entitled, “Three Tales from the Archives of Love”. She has numerous chapbooks that are also available in the open mics of San Francisco. I will read a few of my poems also. Please consider buying my poetry book: Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence. My new poetry book is nearing the end of editing. I only have to edit about 15 or 20 more poems, then I will just do 4 or 5 quick edits of the whole book and publish it. I hope to have it out by summer. I think I am going to call it Mystic Babylon, after my podcast. I hope you enjoy the show.

HELLO. THIS IS A REPOST IN AN ATTEMPT TO GET IT TO DOWNLOAD PROPERLY. POSTED HERE IT SHOULD DOWNLOAD. I HOPE YOU DON"T MIND THIS RE-BROADCAST. This is the 2nd full length open mike poetry podcast recording of "Mystic Babylon" from the Haight in San Francisco. I am recording poems from the Word Beat Series of open mic poetry sessions in Berkeley from Telegraph Avenue right near the People's Park. The Word Beat web site is at http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat . The poet from there is Michael Kelly, and I, John Rhodes am reading some of my poetry as usual too. I hope you enjoy it.

THIS SHOW HAS BEEN RE-MASTERED Hello. This is John Rhodes and this is the third special airing on this Access TV Channel in San Francisco of my poetry show, which is also podcasted from my audio/video poetry podcast site Mystic Babylon, located at: http://mysticbabylon.podomatic.com . Today we are grateful to have as our guest Clive Matson, who will be reading for around 18 to 20 minutes. I will end the show reading from my podcast novel, “Little Bird Told Me” . Please also visit my podcast novel site, which is serially produced for free at: http://littlebirdtoldme.podomatic.com . Here is Clive’s short bio. Clive is a prolific San Francisco Bay Area writer and who is also very involved in the writing community with writing workshops, retreats, poetry events, and, open mic events. In Clive’s early adult years, Herbert Huncke, a well known person of the beat generation, was his surrogate dad. He has taught more than 2000 workshops nationwide. Some of his titles are, “Let Your Crazy Child Write”, “Squish Boots”, his newly released “Chalcedony’s First Ten Songs”, “Heroin”, and “Mainline to the Heart” . The two latter books are scheduled for re-release later this year. One very popular venue of Clive’s in downtown San Francisco is his monthly “Poetry and Pizza” poetry readings. If you are inspired by Clive and would like to find out more about Clive’s books, workshops, retreats, and activities, go to his web site which is at: http://www.matsonpoet.com . The image above from the left is: Don Linker, Clive Matson, and me, John Rhodes

Hello. This is Mystic Babylon Open Mic Poetry podcast broadcasting from near the Haight with some more San Francisco poetry from the Poem Dome in April and also some more poetry/music from the Hydropods. The Poem Dome URL is: http://www.poemdome.com and the Hydropods URL is: http://myspace.com/hydropods . As I have mentioned before, the Hydropods are John Dooley, and Gary Glover. The Poem Dome Poets are in order, Selene Steese who is a regular poet at most of the open mikes in San Francisco, Gregory McGarry is from the Velvet Revolution representing SFSU here in San Francisco, Richard Ivanhoe is usually at the Park Branch Library open mic in the Haight where Diamond Dave is the host, Jerry Feraz reads next who runs the Bird and Beckett Bookstore open mike, and last but not least of the poets is someone who came up named Marty Campbell. When I first heard him speak his rant my audio equipment barely picked him up, saying his little rant, but then I ran it through a software program called the Levelator ( http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator ) and batta-boom, your could hear him walking up and down the isles of City Hall perfectly clear, so I decided to include him just for fun. Last but not least we have the Hydropods with a bit called, “Bum”…I never thought people thought I was so stupid… Well that’s a rap. Enjoy the open mike poetry.

This is John Rhodes and this is the 49th Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast/TV Show broadcasting from near the Haight in San Francisco. This is the second poetry special that I have had through Cable Access 29 San Francisco. You can go here: http://accessf.org/guide/schedule to find out when the show is running again as a re-run here in San Francisco. Please check every two days or so because that’s how often they update it. I am having two poets read besides me. They are Paul Watsky and Adele Mendelson. Paul Watsky is a well-known poet of the open Mikes of San Francisco and is well-published. You can find more about him at: http://www.paulwatskypoetry.com . Adele Mendelson was born in Cleveland, Ohio. When she turned 18 she ran off to New York City with her boyfriend. Later she followed the excitement to San Francisco. She became a flower child and lived in a Haight Ashbury commune. She also managed to finish college and began a teaching career at the University of California at Berkeley. She married, had two children, who grew up, and then she moved to the East Bay. Currently she lives in the Rockridge area of Oakland across from the Dept. of Motor Vehicles. She has written two chapbooks, “Gardens” and “Only in a Body”. Contact Adele Mendelson at: adelemendelson@hotmail.com , for more information about her books.

Hello. This is John Rhodes and this is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry podcast in audio today. Today we have 3 poets besides me. We have some more of the poetry from the Poem Dome celebration last April. We have in order: Daniel Yaryan, Paul Corman Roberts, and Kim Johnson. I as usual will read a few poems in the beginning. At the beginning of next month I will have another Comcast Cable Access 29 show for you to watch. Please stay tuned for it and I hope you enjoy this audio podcast. Just a reminder, my TV shows re-run on channel 29 1-3 times week and if you look here: http://accessf.org/guide/schedule/ every two days, you can see when to see my show, and you will in this way, be able to see the TV show in its full resolution…if you live in the San Francisco Area. Please, also, buy the books of the authors on this web site. My book of poetry is: Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence. For you Poem Dome addicts visit: http://www.poemdome.com . The Picture above is of Daniel Yaryan.

Hello. This is John Rhodes and this is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poety Podcast’s first local Cable Access TV show. It is broadcasted on a local only Comcast Channel in San Francisco. This show was first broadcasted Nov. 1rst 07, at 7:00pm. It will be used as filler all the way until the end of January which means it will be shown anywhere from between 10-30 times. If you go to the channel 29 web page: http://accessf.org/guide/schedule/ , and check there every two days or so you will bound to be able to find a time you can watch or record it in its full broadcast resolution. That list is inaccurate beyond a few days, so please check it often. The show will probably at least be shown twice a week. The show itself is a show with Clara Hsu, a San Francisco Asian poetess, who is the featured reader. Her web site is at: http://www.clarahsu.com . Enjoy!

Hello. This is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast leaving a message for those wondering what happened to my web site over the last week or two. All my data was deleted from Podomatic because their hard drives failed, but I’m back up again and better than ever. I’ve decided to leave more shows on my main page rather than in the archives because people don’t know how to tweak their podcatchers to download from the archives and they prefer it all on the main page. I get twice the downloads this way. If the downloads stay this way I will keep at least 40 podcasts on my main page un-archived. Eventually I will have to archive the pages, which means you’ll have to look for the little calender on the main podcast page and click on it. The next show that I’m going to post is my first local TV show. That’s about it! Thank God for back-ups. Peace and Haight Street!

Hello. This is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast Broadcasting from near the Haight. Today we are going to have some more poets from the Poem Dome Get-Together at San Francisco City Hall that happened in April. The first poet we are going to have is from Martin De Porres Soup Kitchen, and he is named, Sam Yates. The second poet is Mirabai Hagen from the Open Mike, Amnesia, and the last poet is Claire Marie from K’vetch. I fortunately, for the people who watch my show just with my flash player, have made this podcast a little shorter than usual, so it should play with a medium slow DSL. Within a month or less I should be going a little bit more professional as I will be running my podcast as a local television show on Cable access 29, for those people in San Francisco. Those shows will be at full resolution of course. The first show will have Clara Hsu, make sure you ask her when she is going to be on. Unfortunately, in the sense that the video files will be large, the shows will all be about 28-30 minutes long, so they won’t play except with almost the fastest DSL or with a cable internet connection in the flash player on my site. Of course if people would buy my books, hint, hint, I could afford to have www.podomatic.com custom design my flash player for my site so I could run 30 minute videos practically through my flash player there. If only 2 or 3% of my audience would buy my books I wouldn’t have such a hole in my pocket. My audience every year ranges at around about 100,000 downloads a year. I hope you enjoy this podcast.

Hello. This is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast Broadcasting from near the Haight. I had to delete my last show because contrary to what I understood, Diane Di Prima didn’t want her audio posted. I was happy to remove it, and I did so. I guess Donna is not the only primadonna. I do understand her fears of copyright infringement, but I think that it would have been a better decision to let it stay on my site. I am in the future going to be much more careful about getting permission from artists. Today we are going to have a larger portion of poems by the Hydropods. The Hydropods are again, John Dooley poet, and Gary Glover Jazz improv., from Oregan. Their web site is at http://myspace.com/hydropods . I am in the process of attempting to start a TV show on Cable Access TV 29 here in San Francisco and am hoping that besides covering the open mikes I will be able to get videos of the more well known artists that many of you might have heard of. I am still going to record people from the open mikes though. It isn’t a sealed deal but I’ve got my fingers crossed. I hope you enjoy this podcast.

Hello. This is John Rhodes and this is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast broadcasting from near the Haight in San Francisco. Today I am going to have one other poet besides me read, named J.R. Brady. J. R. Brady is an actor, playwright and poet. Her plays have won awards and have been produced in the United States and in Scotland. From 1995 to 2002 she performed poetry and jazz with her late partner, Jon Greene, at numerous venues including the 1996 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where they received a four star review...Currently, she continues to write and perform. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including 33OO REVIEW, HAIGHT ASHBURY LITERARY JOURNAL, OXYGEN, NORTH COAST LITERARY REVIEW, NORTH BEACH JOURNAL, EARTH'S DAUGHTERS, and VAN GOGH'S EAR. She has had three chapbooks published: MERGING TRAFFIC and GENERATIONS by EYELET PRESS; and VANISHED LAUGHTER by 3300 PRESS. She has studied with Ernest White at San Francisco State University and with Diane Di Prima. At http://littlebirdtoldme.podomtaic.com I posted the 3rd chapter of my podcast novel, ‘Little Bird Told Me’, last week. Please subscribe to it. I do hope you try to listen in. Please remember to buy the books of the authors on this site. You can buy my aforementioned podcast novel in its full audio version from www.audible.com , and you can buy it, or my poetry book ‘Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence’ , in text form from www.authorhouse.com . You can also pay for the free listening by telling as many friends as you can about my works. The image is a color version of the cover of my novel. Thanx.

Hello. This is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast broadcasting from near the Haight in San Francisco. Today we have a poetry/music group called Hydropods and a special treat for San Francisco poets, a recording of the late poet of the open mikes of San Francisco, Susan Birkland. Susan passed a way not long ago, and there was a fair amount of poems about her passing, back then, in the open mikes. I may have some more recordings of her and I might put together a larger recording of her works. The Hydropods are an ensemble of poet and musician, based originally in Portland, Oregan. It consists of two people. One is John Dooley, poet, and Gary Glover Jazz improv. They have produced numerous CDs. Some of their works are for sale at: http://myspace.com/hydropods, and they hope to have a new album out in the fall called: Vulture and Other Stories. Just an update. My novel podcast of my book: Little Bird Told Me, is now online in its serial form at: http://littlebirdtoldme.podomatic.com , and also in its full version at http://www.audible.com .Now I have two books to my name, the other being my poetry book: Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence. I have another completed poetry book which I am editing and it should be ready by early next year. In the summer of 2008 I hope to have another novel out. It is one third done. It is a completed short novel I am turning into a full length novel. Please remember to support my productions by buying my books either in audio or text form. To note. Please excuse my last video podcast. The lighting was only tolerable, and the size of the file was so large you needed a fast connection to watch it in the flash player on my site. I will try to be more careful. Live and learn. The poetry podcast will start shortly. I, as usual will read 2 or 3 poems first. The picture above is from the Hydropods my space page listed above. Enjoy.

Hello. This is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast broadcasting from near the Haight. THIS IS A REDITED VERSION IN ATTEMPT TO MAKE IT COMPATIBLE WITH MY PODCAST FLASH PLAYER. Sorry about running such a late show, but I did finally get it out. My web site totally crashed from late Saturday to late afternoon on Monday. Also an old poet named Drew Stroud on podcast 15, who recorded with Jennifer Barone had a stroke. Please pray for him. A friend of his sent out emails to a lot of my friends and apparently they were written in a way where it sounded like I had the stroke not Drew and I was in ICU. I got a lot of letters out there from friends thinking I had had a stroke. To all my poet friends out there who still don’t know, I am perfectly fine and no, I’m not know going to now fake my death. No harm done, and I do extremely hope that Drew Stroud gets better soon. He is still in the archives if you would like to re-listen to him. Today is going to be rather relaxed as I have no featured reader. I taped this at the Priya Restaurant in Berkeley where they hold an open mike called Poetry Express run by Mark States. I met Joyce Jenkins, when of the people who runs the Poetry Magazine, Poetry Flash, at Poetry Express. I tried to get her to be on my podcast and read some of her poetry, but I think she had an old 50’s 60’s ballad going in her head like Honey Do, Honey Don’t, because she would alternate between yes and no. Anyway, please read that Magazine if you can. It’s web site is: http://www.poetryflash.org . Please pardon the lower resolution in the first part of the video as I had to lower the resolution on Mark States introduction through the software, to improve the lighting. I didn’t realize I had a lighting problem when I recorded it. The rest of it should be fine. I think you will find show of mine this better than any sit-com, and yes I also programmed this so you can watch it with Apple TV, and if you have the appropriate extra hardware you can watch it with your tivo I think. It’s not HD video, but when they start using fiber optics more commonly in the U.S., I will upgrade to HD. Again, please buy my books, which are, in poetry, “Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence, and in fiction, “Little Bird Told Me”. Audible is still saying that they’ll have my audio book, “Little Bird Told Me” on line, and the next date that they gave me was today or tomorrow, but I’m beginning to think about crying wolves at this point. I hope they estimated right at this point. The photo above is a picture of Mark States..

Hello again! This is John Rhodes and this is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast Broadcasting from near the Haight in San Francisco. Today besides me, the Poet Laureate of California, Al Young, is going to read. This is another recording courtesy of Jim Nesbit who only asks that I mention that you respect the copyright of the authors in the recordings. Al Young has a web site at: http://www.alyoung.org . He was elected Poet Laureate of California in 2005 and I think that means that shortly his honor shall be transferred to another poet. This recording was done at a small open mike here in San Francisco with all the other regulars of the open mikes present, so it was very informal. I hope you enjoy the recording and consider buying the books of any of the readers on my podcasts. Again, my books are in poetry: ‘Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence” and in fiction: ‘Little Bird Told Me’. I do hope that next week www.audible.com will post my for sale audio version of my fiction novel, ‘Little Bird Told Me’, and I can then present you with my free serial version sometime next week. Keep your fingers crossed. They are actually a speck late. Enjoy .

Hello, this is John Rhodes and this is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast broadcasting from near the Haight in San Francisco, with the best of San Francisco poetry. Today I am having one poet besides me, named Richard Schimpf read. He has been involved in many forms of writing and film production which includes two movies. They are: ‘Between Places’, and ‘Mission Movie’. You can find more about him at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1721786/ . He also is a poet. Any day now I will post my first audio chapter of my novel, ‘Little Bird Told Me’ at: http://littlebirdtoldme.podomatic.com . It has been at www.audible.com about two weeks, and shortly they should be finished formatting it for posting. As soon as it launches there, I will launch the serial version. Please buy the works of the authors on this site. My poetry book is entitled: ‘Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence’. Thanx.

Hello! This is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast broadcasting from near the Haight, with the best of San Francisco poetry. Today we are having 3 poets read, and, a San Francisco president of the board of supervisors named Aaron Peskin is also going to read a few poems. These poems were all read in late April at an annual be-in/get-together, at City Hall which was made up of a collection of poets from San Francisco called, ‘Poem Dome’. ‘Poem Dome’, has a web site at: http://www.poemdome.com . You can hear a little bit of Diamond Dave giving his compassionate hosting skills on this podcast also. He runs an open mike at the Park Branch Library which is very close to the Haight. The poets that will read besides me are, Angela Ngai who reads at the Sunset Heighborhood Beacon Center in connection with http://www.bamboozled.org. That venue is run by E.K. Keith, who helped put on ‘Poem Dome‘. Kaisha Borgaro is the second poet to read who reads at: “Just Gimme the Mike”, in the Bayview District of San Francisco. and the last poet is Bill Evans, who is visible most everywhere, but won a chance to read at the ‘Poem Dome’ at the Café Prague Open Mike in North Beach, where the term Beatnik was coined by Herb Caen. Just to note. I sent in my audio file of my novel, ‘Little Bird Told Me’ to Audible Books Thursday to post there in its complete for sale version, and as soon as they post it, I am going to run the serial, free version of it, one chapter at a time every two weeks for 56 weeks. Please consider buying it from Audible. Though. I very much enjoy entertaining you with the poets of San Francisco and have been trying to get you some of the big ones like for instance Jack Hirschman, but so far all you have been able to afford me so far in purchases is a gravestone in “Potter’s Field”, with the other dead poets and novelists. Please remember to support the authors (including me) in this podcast by buying their works. Thanx.

Hello! This is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast Broadcasting from near the Haight. Today besides me we have Elz Cuya reading. She is the host of the Dalva series poetry readings in the Mission District in San Francisco, and works for Youth Speaks ( http://www.youthspeaks.org), and does numerous other things which she will mention when she reads. This podcast I am hoping will be my first properly formatted video to look at on Apple TV, so if you have Apple TV, see if it loads right and leave me a comment on my show notes. She has one myspace site I am sure of at: http://www.myspace.com/poetrymission, and I think she runs a yahoo group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PoetryMission . Pardon me for a shameless plug but please by Youth Speaks books and if you can please buy one of my 2 books too if you can. Thanks!

Hello! This is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast broadcasting from near the Haight. Today we are going to have a very nice recording including the poet Laureate of San Francisco that was made at Sweetie’s in San Francisco, May 2nd 2005. Jim Nesbit, the man who ran that open mike was kind enough to let me use his recordings just as long as I was sure to make people aware that the copyrights of all poetry reverts back to the author. Jack Hirschman was born in 1931 and has written more than 50 books and essays. He is judge of the ongoing San Francisco Poets Eleven Poetry Contest, here in San Francisco, and I was one of the winners. The library and the city, are helping run that contest. They are also going to put out an anthology of winning poets. Jim Nesbit is also a writer and you can find out more about him at: http://noirconeville.com/ . Please excuse my delay about posting the audio for my novel, ‘Little Bird Told Me’. I promise it will be out in no later than a month. The book is now available from all online bookstores, but please buy it from Authorhouse. The give me more money. Remember to by the books of my posted authors. Thank-you.

Hello! This is Mystic Babylon broadcasting from near Haight Street with the best of San Francisco poetry. Today we have some poetry from two other poets besides me. First I have some poetry from a poet who asked me a long time ago to record some of her works named Lenore Weiss. She gave me a disk of what she called cell-phone poetry and I extracted one small snippet from that recording. After that I have some poetry from a poet named David Alpaugh. He also runs a small press. David Alpaugh’s works have appeared in more than a hundred literary journals and anthologies. His first collection, Counterpoint, won a prize, and is published by Story Line Press. He has had chapbooks published by Coracle Books and Pudding House Publications. His new book HEAVY LIFTING has just been published by Alehouse Press. Order it direct from the poet for $15 postpaid: Small Poetry Press Distribution, P.O. Box 5342, Concord, CA 94524, or go to: http://www.alehousepress.com . He has his small press at: http://www.smallpoetrypress.com . May I remind you to read and buy our books. My poetry book is: Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence, and my new novel is called: Little Bird Told Me. My voice-over for that book is almost finished and as soon as I get it submitted to Audible.com in its full version, for sale, I will start posting it chapter by chapter over a whole year. David's picture and part of the cover from his new book is above. Remember, as Poor Richard’s Almanac said, “Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees”.

Hello there. Here I am again with my Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast from near the Haight in San Francisco with the best of San Francisco Poetry. Today you will be able to see a big icon of the open mikes. This is the poet Julia Vinograd. I remember seeing one of her books I think, back in the seventies in Cody’s old book store on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, and I remember wondering how she did that. You can find more of her work at: http://www.zeitgeist-press.com . I have been trying to get a video of her for awhile. Please buy our books. My book is Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence.

Hello. This is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast broadcasting from near the Haight in San Francisco. Today I have one poet besides me. The poet is named Tom Odegard. You can buy his book, or chapbooks, by writing: Tom Odegard P.O. Box 2808, Friday Harbor, Washington, 98250, or by sending an email to: tommsg@gmail.com . All of this info will be in the web site show notes and Tom will give more info when he introduces himself when he reads. You can see the cover of his newly produced book, right here above the show notes. It is entitled: Past Lives Led. I decided I am going to read part of the first chapter of my new novel, “Little Bird Told Me” that just came out. If you want to read the full first chapter it is posted at: http://www.rhodespoetry.com. I’ll probably read 6 minutes. Please consider buying my and the other author's books. My book is available through Authorhouse for a reduced price and for a little more from Barnes and Noble. The reading segment will start shortly.

Hello again. This is John Rhodes, and this is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast broadcasting from near the Haight in San Francisco. Today I have one poet besides me named Lynette Cloutier. She received a scholarship from the New York Metropolitan Opera, studied voice and drama with them, and also explored for awhile contemporary music. In 2003 her work was published in the French publication Van Gogh's Ear, and Paterson Literary Review. In 2004, she published her first chap book “Between Worlds“. I think you will enjoy her works. My book, “Little Bird Told Me”, is officially out all over the web. Last time I checked Amazon didn’t have it yet, but Barnes and Noble has it. Please though, buy it from http://www.authorhouse.com . It’s cheaper through them, and I get twice the royalties if you buy it there. Please also consider buying my mystic book of poetry: "Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence".

Hello! Welcome again to Mystic Babylon broadcasting from near the Haight. Today I am recording poetry from the Gallery Café near the Cable Car Museum in San Francisco. The host that you hear in the recording is Kit Kennedy. I will be brief in this part of the intro. I hope you enjoy this poetry. My new mystic novel is out, “Little Bird Told Me”. It is purchasable from http://www.authorhouse.com , for a reduced price in their bookstore. If you can, please buy it from them because I get twice the royalties, plus the retail price for you is much less. If you must, it will be available from other online bookstores in a month or so. I changed my personal web site around a lot also so please check it out at: http://www.rhodespoetry.com . The photograph above is of the host of the Gallery Cafe, Kit Kennedy.

Hello! This is “Mystic Babylon” Open Mike Poetry Podcast broadcasting from near the Haight. Today I’m doing a blue screen at a religious shrine next to St. Ignatius church just above the Haight. I decided to read some poems with the name Mary in them, to topically connect with the image of Mother Mary is in the background. I am not very conservatively religious but have studied Christianity and all religion fascinates me, especially when it relates to the subjects of meditation, world peace, and inner peace. I thought the statue looked very graceful so I included it. Today I have one other poet besides me who is reading, and that other poet is Joan Gelfand. She has been published widely including in publications like, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and the list goes on and on. She has a poetry book out called, “Seeking Center”, and she has a novel coming out called, “Voice Over”. Joan has a blog at, http://jg.typepad.com/ciel . Please remember to buy the author’s books. The book I am reading from is, Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence. There has been a delay in the creation of the voice over of my text/audio novel, Little Bird Told Me, but the audio version should be out by the end of March. I think my text version of the book should be posted in the Authorhouse Bookstore, and hopefully in places like Amazon.com by the 23rd of Feb. It will have a cheaper base price from Authorhouse, and I get twice the royalty from their book store so if you can, please buy it from them if you do. I don’t want to brag, but I think some of the material I put on my poetry podcast is fairly professional in quality and many times rates equal with public radio. They often repeat a lot of their shows on and on and I don’t. The reason why I mention this is just to remind you that we appreciate any support you can give us by buying the books listed here. I have yet to find money growing on trees, although poetry seems to grow on them quite well. Just to note. With my tax returns I upgraded the hardware on my computer so the quality of the video will hopefully improve greatly. This video podcast may not show it because it was half edited with my old hardware but the next video podcast should show it.

Hello! This is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast broadcasting from near the Haight. I am trying to plug a new open mike in San Francisco. Today I am recording a segment from Red Hill Books which is at 401 Cortland Avenue in the Bernal Heights Area, for those listening in the San Francisco Area. I’m not positive which Monday they have the open mike, but please call them at (415)648-5331, and ask for Sierra to find out the exact date and time. They need you to be interested, so please think about coming. Their web site is at: http://www.dogearedbooks.com/redhill . The book I will read from briefly is: Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence.

Hello! This is Mystic Babylon Open Mike Poetry Podcast broadcasting from near the Haight. Today we have an eclectic mix of poets who most have already read on my podcast. This podcast was recorded at the 3300 Club at 3300 Mission in the Mission District. The 3300 Club’s web site is at: http://www.3300club.com . I have two jokes for this Super Bowl day. The first is: even though people are dieing like flies these days our civilization has improved. People no longer die laughing. The second joke relates to one of the poems in this day’s recording. The joke is about a poem about snow there. I just wanted to say that I think that the conservatives in San Francisco want to put artificial snow on Haight Street so the aging hippies and baby boomers won’t complain about global warming. The joke will explain itself when you hear the poem. Nancy Keane is the MC at the 3300 Club. Please let me remind you to buy my book, “Spirits of Bondage and Inherent Transcendence”. If you’ve put up with my poetry this long maybe you should just up and buy it. The manuscript for my hippie podcast novel: “Little Bird Told Me”, just went to the publisher and I hope it will be purchasable from Amazon.com in 3 weeks. I have reserved a podcast page to podcast it in audio at: http://littlebirdtoldme.podomatic.com .