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The Blue Banner
October 24,2002
Features
Slam poet Taylor Mali entertaining, yet cocky
Sian, poet Taylor Mali visited UNCA Oct. 3, delivering his often-i^nny and in-your-face styled
Former teacher performs lively material to enthusiastic crowd in Humanities Lecture Hall
Sarah Grano
Features Reporter
Slam poet Taylor Mali exhibited
both talent and ego when he per
formed for a large crowd in the
Humanities Xecture ■Hatt'.0a:73r.
Mali wa^.eptejta^niijig an^‘fiill of }
energy. His poetftswereckv^r, criti^
cal and uproariously funny.
Like most slam poets, Mali talked
fast and loud. His poetry relied just
as much on performance as it did
on the words in the poem. The
performance was closer to stand-up
comedy than it was to poetry read
ings at your average coffee house.
Mali’s poems were more often,
entertaining than something to
ponder. Like a stand-up comic, Mali
spent much of the evening articu
lately making fun of people. In one
of his best poems, he mocked other
slam poets and their passionate.
political sincerity.
“This is how you write a political
poem, and how you deliver it with
power,” Mali instructed the audi-
He showed how to create a hook-
line, and how to repeat it over and
over througl^out the poem. He led
T'the audieiicelrira cajl andresponse,
: ^nd randQinly broke into “Amaz-
■'ing Grace.”- ^
“There is emergency in a political
poem! There is not time to waste,”
Mali preached. “Corruption does
not have a curfew. Greed doesn’t
care what color you are, and the
New York Police Department is
full of police officers.”
It was during such poems that it
became clear how highly Mali
thought of himself While Mali was
nearly always entertaining, he was
also cocky.
“I may not be a dead white man
yet,” said Mali. “But, hey, two out
of three ain’t bad.”
Several of Mali’s poems made fun
of the way younger people speak.
One of them had to do with a girl
who was a “like addict.”
In this hilarious poem entitled
“Totally, Like, Whatever,” Mali
preached that people needed to
speak with conviction.
“Like, don’t think I’m uncool just
because I’ve noticed this, ” said Mali,
imitating young people. “This is
just, like, the word on the street,
you know? It’s, like, what I’ve heard?
I have nothing personally invested
in my own opinions, okay? I’m just
inviting you to join me in my un
certainty?”
Mali’s best poems were about be
ing a teacher. For nearly 10 years,
Mali taught during the day, wrote
poetry at night and competed in
poetry slams on the weekend. Many
ofhis poems made fun ofhis former
students, but it was also dear that
Mali had a great love for teaching.
Mali’s subject matter ranged from
an impressive dyslexic Scrabble change the world it’s going to be
player to a student’s inability to pay one eighth grader at a time. ”
attention. He performed one poem Most of Mali’s poems were light
laden with inappropriate and rather and funny, even though many had
dirty typos that was a real audience a deeper point. Besides his
pleas'
The winner of the
2002 Virginia State
poetry slam champi
onship read a poem
written by Mali en
titled “Objection
Overruled.”
The poem portrayed
Review
work, he performed
several serious, liter
ary poems, such as
“We Real Cool” by
Gwendolyn Brooks.
On the whole, he per
formed them
great conviction and respect.
— obnox- Mali performed a very poignant
s lawyer asking how much teach- piece he wrote about being at the
— earn. The answer was an elo- deathbed ofhis father that was truly
quent tirade about the value of moving.
teaching. _ He used a looping station for the
In the poem, Lily, Like, Wilson” poem, which enabled him to per-
Mali spoke of one of his students form it with a song playing in the
whose mind opened in front of his background.
„ In one of the more bizarre ele-
So I finally taught somebody ments of the performance, Mali
somethmg,” said Mali. “Namely, taped his voice in order to harmo-
how to change her mind. And (I) nize with himself while imitating
learned in the process that if I ever bagpipes.
In the first looping poem, Mali
repeated the phrase, “These are the
voices in my head. Sometimes I
wish they would go away. Some
times I wish I had a beer.”
While he prepared for looping he
seemed quite amused with himself.
It was, unfortunately, rather boring
for the audience.
When he used the looping station
to do group pieces by himself it was
much more impressive.
On the group pieces, he included
both singing and beats in the back
ground.
While the preparation for this part
of the performance was slow, the
final effect was worth the effort.
Mali has two spoken word CDs,
three videos and three books avail
able.
He no longer teaches, and now
supports himself on his slam poetry
alone. The performance was truly
entertaining, even if the performer
was occasionally cocky.
Phish returns from hiatus: one phaifs praise and disdain
Stuart Gaines
News Editor
Stop your glassblowing, slam on
the brakes of that piece of crap
Volkswagen microbus, roll one last
kind-veggie burrito and tie back
those nasty dreadlocks, because hey
kids, Phish is back.
Much to the chagrin of Republi
can parents ofsuburban white Gen-
X hippies and Christian rock fans
everywhere, the super-sized
jamband Phish returns from a self-
imposed two-year-plus hiatus from
touring.
Announcing a four-date holiday
run late this past summer, the Ver-
mont-based quartet will retake the
stage beginning with a New Year’s
show at New York’s Madison
Square Garden and followed with a
three-night run at a fan-favorite
venue, Virginia’s Hampton Coli-
Tickets to all four shows sold out
faster than most Phish fans can
name their favorite strand of bud,
and the hype surrounding their re
turn is distracting oodles of Phish-
happy, voting-age youngsters from
the upcoming elections.
The online auction house, ebay,
has seen tickets to the shows sell for
hundreds, even thousands of dol
lars.
COURTESYOFADAMFOLEY.COM
After a two-year-plus break from touring, one the most loved and hated bands of all time, Phish, is back.
One ebay auction that ended Oct.
23 featured a starting bid of $2,000
for a pair of tickets to the New
Year’s show.
But as unfair as it may be, there
will always be enough trust-fund
hippies, or trustafarians, to support
the dreaded and evil concert-ticket
scalpers at times like these, thus
ensuring that tickets stay out of the
hands of the grassroots run-of-the-
mill fans who perhaps deserve them
For all practical purposes, Phish
inherited much of the younger por
tion of the Gratefiil Dead’s fanbase
when Jerry Garcia died in 1995.
Since that time, the Phish phe
nomenon, or more accurately the
Phishphan phenomenon, has snow
balled into a monster of almost
immeasurable size.
The band’s New Year’s Eve 2000
performance drew over 80,000 fans
(for about $100 a head) to the
Florida Everglades for two days of
music in the swamp.
The unusual event featured a non
stop, midnight-to-sunrise perfor
mance on New Year’s morning.
Phish, known best for their non
sensical lyrics, long-winded jams
and intricate songwriting, sold out
two and three-night stands at enor
mous amphitheaters in Indiana,
Nevada, Georgia and California.
Many tour-happy, bootleg T-shirt
selling phans, despite their rabid
desire for more, more, more shows,
see the two-year hiatus as a good
thing.
Some argue that the band’s end
less touring schedule made both
songwriting and live jams a bit stale
in the last years leading up to the
“The improvisation was boring at
times,” wrote Jeff Waful in a recent
article in “Relix” magazine. “In
stead of the steep peaks and valleys
of (performances during) the mid-
90s, Phish’s jams often became
monotonous plateaus.
Put simply, the band members
had run out of ways to challenge
themselves and the music suffered. ”
That’s putting it nicely, too.
Phish’s entire last year of touring
featured almost no new material,
only new cover tunes, and perfor
mances relied heavily on old favor
ites.
Nevertheless, fans bought tickets
with constantly increasing price tags
show after show and tour after tour.
The technical proficiency that de
fined the genius of Phish (and made
them so noteworthy to begin with)
began slipping away at the end of
17 years of near-constant touring.
And new legions of tone-deaf,
trendy Phish phans looking for a
thrill just kept screaming louder.
The whole thing started to feel hope
less.
One of the dumbest, cheesiest
songs ever written in the history of
cheesy, dumb songwriting, “Jenni
fer Dances,” debuted on the De
cember 1999 tour, appeared three
times, and then abruptly and wisely
retired from the performance rota-
The disappearance of “Jennifer
Dances” was likelyfrom the band’s
pure embarrassment about the teen-
rock ballad.
It quickly became the butt of even
the most dedicated phan’s jokes,
and when compared with old-
school tunes such as “You Enjoy
Myself,” “Fluffhead” or even “The
Wedge,” there is no comparison.
Old Phish material boasts com
plex chord progressions, amazing
solos, unique drum-beats and bass
lines, innovative lyrics and a myriad
of other qualities that any music-
lover living outside of MTV and
the top forty can really appreciate.
In short, with Phish, the old
things were often better than the
newer ones, and most serious fans
want to see a return to the quality of
those earlier days, in terms of
songwriting, performances and
band-member attitudes.
Since the time off, the band mem
bers have been busy with interest
ing side projects that should help
bring them back into focus when
they return on New Year’s.
Bassist Mike Gordon recently col
laborated with guitar-legend Leo
Kotke, pianist Page McConnell’s
band Vida Blue has toured to posi
tive reviews and drummer Jon
Fishman’s band “Pork Tornado”
continues touring as well.
Fishman’s band as well as guitarist
Trey Anastasio’s band will both be
in Asheville this fall for live perfor
mances.
One can only hope for the best
with the return of the granddaddy
of all the jambands, Phish.
Despite the hype over the return,
Phish still hasn’t done anything yet
to deserve $1,000 scalper-ticket
prices.
And in this case, phan money may
be better spent on organic produce,
overpriced live-Phish releases or
even, God forbid, a good, old-fash
ioned stick of deodorant.