Our Fellow Mad Ones...
One half score and a couple-few days ago, Mad Swirl brought forth on this mad, mad blue marble, a new creation, conceived in Swirling Madness, and dedicated to the declaration that all mad ones are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great creative war, testing whether the mad ones, any of the mad ones so conceived and so dedicated to madness, can long endure. We have come to dedicate a portion of the web, as a final posting place for those who here gave their mad spirits so that this madness might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
Just what's our agenda? Lend us your ear and we'll tell you.
Some Fundamental Madnesses
:: Of, By & For the Artists...
:: Read our Lips, No Old Poetry...
:: Change We Can Believe In...
Of the Artists, by the Artists, for the Artists...Mad Gallery's Promise to You!
The Mad Gallery is a beautiful space where we proudly display the many facets of the visual arts. From the furthest reaches of this mad, mad world we have gathered together just a few of the most maddest painters, sculptors, photographers & illustrators that we could and swirled them all together here.
Currently featured in the Gallery is painter Jimmy Ovadia. Jimmy's art "leads us on a transformative psychedelic odyssey full of unique and creative dreamlike portholes. It takes the mind through twists and turns perceived through levels of consciousness and mysticism. Jimmy's quest is toward an abstract surrealistic art that visually unites the body, mind, soul and spirit. It elucidates and enlightens the individual and the world around them."
Also in the gallery since our last virtual meeting are new works from David Arthur-Simons, Tom Harding, Peter Schwartz, Shelly Pinder and Greg Lamer.
Read Our Lips, No Old Poetry...Always Swirling New Poets in Mad Swirl's Poetry Forum!
Now with over 80 poets (and growing everyday), Mad Swirl's Poetry Forum is truly a poetic voice to be reckoned with. This massive online collection features some of the maddest poets from all over this big blue marble of ours. Now tell us, would we lie to you?
The Forum is truly a living and breathing entity, growing and flowing every day...so it's best to come by often to view the latest. Here is just a morsel, an excerpt if you will, from one of our featured poets Glen Still:
A True Liberator
A tribe of innocents
Lead to the pulpit
Believing in the ghost
To rise up
But a metal sword
Comes dancing through the fire
Cuts them all...
Blood Red Bleeds
The first step to amortize one self
Into the system
I imagined a freer world
I imagined her by my side
I see no one here now
I must go off to fight a war
Try to find a way to defeat this common god
The one that doesn't keep his promises
The one that vexes me against my neighbor
Therefore I refuse to raise the gun
(click here to read and hear the complete poem "A True Liberator")
Here are some of the poets we've added to the Forum lately...
Staff Writers: Johnny Olson · Lisa Olson
Featured Writers: Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal · M. H. Clay · Justin Hyde · Paul Sexton · Glen Still · Mel Waldman
Contributors: Robert Louis Henry · Gayle Bell · Nicole Kuwik · Tom Harding · Bernard Alain · Paul Sexton · Kat Dixon · Claude Barret · Cabe Lindsay · Colin James · Raffi Kiureghian · Ray Succre · Jessamyn Cuneo · Kirsten Reinking · Anne Ransom · Dan Provost · Joe Quinn · Gary Beck · Scott Larson · Nick Orf · Max Earl Blair · Melanie Brown · Connor O'Brien · George Harding · Clive Matson · Kenneth P Gurney · Larry Anderson · Moctezuma Johnson · Gene Barry · Changming Yuan · Jonathan Hayes · Jack Henry · Joseph Reich
and many more...
Change We Can Believe In...Mad Swirl Open Mic Night!
This is the official and unanimous Declaration of Mad Swirl Open Mic Night at Absinthe Lounge every 1st Wednesday of the month.
When in the course of Mad Swirl Open Mic events it becomes necessary for us mad ones to dissolve the mental and physical miles between us and gather together for the madness, which connects us with one another. And to assume among the powers of the host of this madness, the separate and equal time in front of the mic to which the Laws of Booze and of Nature's Tea entitle us. Fortunately, this sometimes enables they that would declare these causes to impel them to poetic revolution. Soooo...
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all poets, musicians, singers, storytellers, comedians, and performers are mostly created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are poems, songs and the pursuit of madness.
And for your support of Mad Swirl Open Mic, with a firm reliance on the intoxication from Absinthe Lounge, we mutually pledge to you our words, our tunes and our sacred madness.
Come one. Come all. Come to participate. Come to appreciate. Come to support your fellow mad ones.
Absinthe Lounge · 1409 South Lamar Street · Dallas, 75215
"So, come on iconoclasts, forward! Already the foreboding sky grows dark and silent!" Renzo Novatore Arcola
Make Your Picks...Mad Swirl Issue Six!
Time is running out to get your hands on Mad Swirl Six: The Blue Note Issue, a 28 full-color-page, 23-track collection of beat-utiful collaborations between poetry and music.
This Blue Note Issue is Mad Swirl's ode to the insanity that is Mad Swirl Open Mic Night. In this issue, you'll find the poetry and music of some of the most maddest of the mad ones...
Johnny Olson · Lisa Olson · Cheyenne Gallion · Paul Sexton · Opalina Salas · MH Clay · Desmene Statum · Josh Weir · Roderick Richardson · Chris Zimmerly · Swirve · Tim Thomaston
For this very limited time we are offering Mad Swirl Six: The Blue Note Issue for the low, low price of $5!
How do you get your hands on this amazing collection of madness? You have 3 options...
PayPal! It's safe! It's easy! It's instant!
OR
Visit us at Mad Swirl's Open Mic Night and buy an issue direct from Johnny O.
OR
Send us an e-mail and we can discuss payment options.
It just doesn't get any easier then that! Get your Mad Swirl Six fix as fast as you can!
Our Price: $5.00
S & H: $2.00
All the Hip Kids Are Doing It, Why Not You?
VOTE. We're not going to get all preachy, try to sway you in sOme suBtle wAy to MAke you vote for who we like best. We just want to do our public service by saying GO VOTE! Did we say that loud enough? GO VOTE!! A tad louder? GO VOTE!!! Not registered? Need more info? Visit RockTheVote.com
"The stakes are too high for government to be a spectator sport." Barbara Jordan
So, our Fellow Mad Ones, to include Joe's Six-Pack & Plumber...
This insane nation, under-ground, shall swirl together a new kind of madness -- and this zine of the mad ones, by the mad ones, for the mad ones, shall not perish from this big beautiful blue marble.
Stayed tuned to Mad Swirl for even more in the coming days, weeks, months and years as we continue to weave this mad web and print this mad page and set this mad stage whether we get voted in or not. So there.
Sincerely?
Johnny O
Madman-in-Chief of Mad Swirl
The whole Mad Swirl of everything to come begins...now!
