More Cobalt Cafe and CobaltPoets farewell messages.

Found these in my e-mail inbox:

Tuesday December 30, 2014
Cobalt Reading 20th Anniversary / Farewell Party

It's a potluck! Bring food and drink of any kind and plan on an evening of reminiscing, socializing, farewell and the mother of all group poems. Not so much a reading tonight but the mic will be open for the sharing of memories. We'll also be taking donations to send Cobalt owner Dave off with a little bit to help him move forward... so think generously, bring a nosh, and yourself as we end an era.

"Tell us what the Cobalt reading has meant to you.  Keep it brief."

I won't be attending the Cobalt farewell on the 30th since I believe it's meant for true friends of the host as well as those who stopped attending years ago but want to return.

Thanks to Dave and his former employees for keeping the Cobalt Cafe alive as a music venue which generously  chose to spare one night each week for poets of all types to read and/or just listen.

For exit music, I'm choosing the following:
http://youtu.be/p51Fgm1m6V0

New poem: FADED COBALT BLUE

vinyl album covers stuck
to the back of one wall
back room for BANDS ONLY
sticker pasted inside men's room urinal
bygone days when security guards
and refreshment counter employees
were still provided by the owner
open mike that drew young people
eventually replaced by poets with
varying degrees of pedigree
as features plus open mikes
stylishly designed featured poet broadsheets
on the host's adjoining table
plus numerous books by the host
at his personal table
peers of the host who used to attend
more often in the days of Magical Then
less frequent in the days of
LotsofGrownUpThingstoDo Now
readings started at Nine
and, much later, at Eight
and, by the beginning of January,
likely to be
no more events
at all
then all you can do
is turn on your mental DVR
to replay highlights

Los Angeles poetry/music venue Cobalt Cafe, as we know it, will close soon.

The Canoga Park rock club which provided a home for teen bands and Rick Lupert's long-running reading (which, during the years I went there, morphed from an all-open mike into a mostly more conventional featured poet and open readers format) will close its doors at the end of this month.

Assuming Rick will find another venue in 2015--or, at the very least, become a recurring host of special-event readings at Beyond Baroque in Venice CA.

Quoting Rick's letter in its entirety:

Sad News from the Cobalt front:
The Cobalt Cafe is closing

After over 20 years of providing an all-ages venue for music and poetry in the West San Fernando Valley, the Cobalt will be closing it's doors at the end of 2014. We're planning a 20th Anniversary/Farewell event for Tuesday night December 30th at the Cobalt. So please save the date for that.

Thank you very much to Dave Politi, the Cobalt Cafe owner for essentially giving a giant donation to the L.A. Poetry community over the last 20 years by providing the venue for free on Tuesday nights. We wish you nothing but the best in health and success in whatever adventures lay ahead for you.

There's a very slim chance the Cobalt will be sold, and if so we have no idea if the new owners would be interested in contuing to offer the venue for the reading to continue. It's all very unlikely but we will update you if anything develops.

Thanks very much to the thousands of people who have attended the weekly reading over the last 20 years that I've had the privilege to host it.

Word,

Rick Lupert

How I ruined it for everyone.

Here's a coda to the Yahoogroups CobaltPoets situation:

I recently accessed the at-that-time-open archives for the purpose of seeing whether a poet who hosts one week of the Rapp Saloon's reading series (I host the second week) had posted an announcement there.

Only then did I notice the discussion about the Monsanto protests.

To restate my earlier opinion in a more temperate way--I do understand the list proprietor's feelings that it's his domain to regulate as he pleases.  But once the not-a-poetry-announcement subject of Monsanto appeared (and was allowed to stay), then it should have continued, so long as the participants didn't try to strangle each other rhetorically.

Of course, it doesn't help that the list proprietor and I have had a history of disagreeing with each other--though I have, on occasion, acknowledged his talent and value (the latter in terms of his long-running reading series and pioneering poetry website).

I'm not comfortable with keeping things secret (whether they're poetry announcements or discussions/arguments within the "poetry community"). 

But other people are.

So now you have a poetry listserve mainly consisting of poetry announcements (which, ideally, should be available to the entire public) kept under lock and key.  And you have to be approved by the proprietor before being allowed to join.

And it's all my fault. 

Or is it?

UPDATE: Rick Lupert, CobaltPoets proprietor, replies to the above.  Here's his complete answer.
"oh, dear...no...I've received a couple of request from people (one recently and one not so recently) to delete past messages that had content they had written that they were concerned would come up as potential employees researched them on the web that they thought might not shed the best light on them. It was suggested to me that making the archives available only to members would make those posts not accessible by google searches etc while still allowing anyone who was part of the group (which is open to anyone to join) could still have access. So, yes there is an extra step for the public to get to the archived material, but it's still available and you, So you've ruined nothing and, Terry, you are more than welcome to rejoin the list if you'd like access to it. Re the Monsanto piece, I also received NUMEROUS requests to nip the conversation in the bud and a handful of "Thank Yous" after it was done...people tend to be pretty finicky about the amount of email they receive and when so much, to them, irrelevant material is posted to a list they're really just looking for poetry information on, it leads to people unsubscribing in flocks...many folks would just unsubscribe without bothering to send an email requesting the list remain focused on poetry...the main point being that the Cobalt list's primary purpose is to support the Cobalt reading...although it's very liberal on allowing other people to post news and information and marginally liberal on allowing occasional commentary and conversation on things involving poetry, when items like the Monsanto conversation come up directly cause people to want to leave the list, it becomes clear that the main purpose of the list begins to take a back seat which does not serve well the reading series or anyone interested in that primary purpose, which is most people on the list. Thanks, by the way, for the kind words you wrote about my website and me. I enjoyed your occasional picture from Italy and hope you and Valerie had an extraordinary experience there."

TRIBUTE TO RICK LUPERT--"Tired Dogs, Uninterested Cats"

Physical violence and poetry readings should never mix.

Over a week ago, a poet was punched and injured by an audience member at the Cobalt Cafe in Canoga Park.  I attended that reading, but left as soon as the closing "group poem" was concluded.  So I missed the incident--not hearing about it until a couple of days later.

Am guessing last night's Cobalt reading was a more civil occasion (I was at Coffee Cartel in Redondo Beach).

Nonetheless, I very much hope that the Cobalt Cafe owners will once again (as in past years) pay for either a bouncer and/or someone to work the counter on Tuesdays.  It isn't fair to ask longtime host Rick Lupert to do everything on those evenings.

Rick Lupert: SoCal poetry's Hall Monitor.

So I went over to the Cobalt Poets Yahoogroup to check on whether a certain reading was going to occur this week, and I read something about an open mike charging $5.00 [actually, it was $5 for a coupon to buy coffee and goods at the coffeehouse] and there's a discussion that isn't totally positive [not discussing a somewhat more contentious one involving fundamentalism and homophobia a few posts later].  Here comes the Cobalt Cafe host Rick Lupert to express his usual discomfort (boldface added by me):
More importantly, it would be nice, kind and even more human if we didn't jump

on opportunities to critique others, their readings or projects in a cynical or
sarcastic way. If that's your preferred style of communication, please contact
the intended recipient directly as it is not welcome on this list.

This is essentially a "don't say anything un-nice about anyone; I only want this list to be announcements only because I like control better than dealing with variables" announcement.

While one can at least respect Rick as a poet and long-time community pillar, one can't help but long for the days of the Cobalt list when people could disagree (and sometimes quite forcefully) with each other without being almost immediately told to shut up and take it elsewhere or suffer banishment.

Perhaps it's better for people to be themselves every so often without masks and hypocrisy.  It makes it easier to see which community poets you want to be friends/allies with--and which ones to avoid.

Something that all of us in the poetry community are guilty of.

A couple of nights ago, I went to see a poet at a venue in Los Angeles.  He doesn't do features very often, so I wanted to take advantage of this rare opportunity to see him.

Unfortunately, the turnout was small.  And, I'm assuming that part of the reason was that some of the poet's friends/colleagues don't go or don't want to go to that venue.  And the poet featuring there wasn't going to be enough for those friends/colleagues to make a one-time exception.

This happens a lot.

People don't go to poetry venues for one or more of these reasons:
A. Dislike of the host/hosts
B. Not wanting to travel a long distance
C. Start time of the reading being too early/too late
D. Perception of the venue as being "bad" or "uncool" or insufficiently literate
E. Perception of the venue as being unappreciative of their poetry
F. Dislike of the host/hosts' choice of features


If you're a poet in LA/OC, you've probably nixed going to venues (at one time or another) for at least three of the reasons listed above.