Irishtastic

Set list from last night, as far as I can recall it and perhaps not quite in order, for your reading pleasure:

Me: Mairead Byrne's "Pitch"

Jennifer Knox: Seamus Heaney's "Otter"

Alison DeFrees: Shoot. I can't remember the fellow's name; he was new to me and she read a few by him that were quite nice.

Susan Brennan: William Butler Yeat's "The Second Coming"

Maureen Thorson: Something by Louis MacNeice--maybe "Prayer Before Birth"? Oh pints.

Rachel Shukert: The Cranberries' "When You're Gone"--I think? She didn't sing it, she read it, complete with breathy Dolores gasping and all the "doo doo doo doos." Hilarious.

Sean McNally: An excerpt from Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman, which Sean spent so much time explaining was circuitous and rambling and digressive that he never actually read. Brilliant. Shafer flung him over his shoulder and removed him forcibly from the stage to guffaws.

Marion Wrenn: Nick Flynn's "Listenerland" from PBQ. Marion noted that she wasn't sure if he was actually of Irish descent, but that on St. Paddy's Day everybody is a little bit Irish so... No arguments from us; Miss Marion is universally adored.

Shafer Hall who forgot to read until we reminded him: Mairead Byrne's "Headlines"

The music was also fantastic--covers of Sinead O'Conner's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, particularly the woman (one of the duo representing the Have Nots?) who sang "Nothing Compares 2 U" and the twangy country version of "I Am Stretched on Your Grave" by the Dream Bitches. And Erica is right--Bethany of Feverfew is terrific. I was wowed. Thanks & applause for our host DAK and Boog City. Look for that Sean Cole book when it's out!

Then we went to sing karaoke up the street. Much raucous behavior and a fiesty chair that kept spilling its occupants.