Dean Young was #1 last night--very funny, very kind. He's a rockstar poet in my book, one of my heroes, but he doesn't act as rockstar as he could. We threw down PBRs and High Lifes together at the Starlight Lounge along with Hadara, Michael D, Anthony Hawley and Becka (sp?), played 50's trivia, talked music (Silver Jews, Sun Kil Moon, Beck) and poetry, I even asked about the fullest his mouth had ever been, and if he thought he could fit 100 plain M&M's in there. He said he probably couldn't.

I was a smidge disappointed in his reading, not because his performance wasn't top notch (it was, and his banter was admirable) but the audience was tired, unresponsive, and too small for a Young reading. Dumanis did such a killer job putting this together, publicizing it, etc, I just wish Lincoln/Wesleyan would have answered the call a little better. They're not going to have too many chances at Dean Young.

In other news: A and I are going to Norfolk, NE, this weekend. I have about 70 papers to grade. I figure Norfolk is a good place to do it.