we went to ucsd to see the freedom writers (an ucsd spoken word group) open for aceyalone. we didn't stay for aceyalone but thank goodness we were there for the freedom writers. arash was off the hook. the guy was unbelievable. i'd never seen him perform before and this as an initiation was unbelievable. he was beat boxing, rhyming, rapping, working the crowd, working the turntables, promoting his old school mix cd. and he made the beats that accompanied many of the group's pieces. seriously watching him on stage being so natural and so talented gave me literal goosebumps. ridiculous. i forget sometimes, how exciting it is to actually get out of the house and see things.



there was this girl in the group who was crazy ridiculous too. rhymed like lauryn, sang like nobody's business. and her hands. i fell in love with her hands. long, lithe, flexible, delicate and strong. her hand movements during her poetry was entrancing. fall in love with hands you say? ridiculous. i say it's possible. you just have to know what you're looking at to appreciate it. damn. hands.....



a dope part of their set was "a battle between poets." it's hard to describe but imagine a MC battle with faux british accents and traditional poetic sensibilities. one guy was just killing it. he had some ridiculously funny put downs that i can't even remember. but one of them, paraphrased and totally butchered, went something like "you're a simile, you are just the same as me." ok, you have no idea what i'm talking about. regardless, i'm so glad we went to see arash and his people perform. amazing.