[flickr id=”6165184130″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”original” group=”” align=”none”] I think it was the first moment I realized how awesome living in a big city is.

I’d just finished doing the dishes. It was about 7:00PM. I logged into my email and saw an email with neighborhood news from EveryBlock (a wonderful site I recommend for people living in a big city with an active community). Oh, look, a poetry reading. 10 minutes away. Off I go!

The reading was part of the reading series at Danny’s, a bar in Bucktown. It has been going on for ten years as of this past August, which is an awesome achievement for an independent reading series such as this one. The setting is old; I don’t know if Danny’s is an historic landmark, but it should be if it’s not. The bar is very dark and pictures were pointless, but the beer was good and the ambiance was great.

[flickr id=”6164755133″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”original” group=”” align=”none”] Three poets read; I found two of them alright but not inspiring, but the last one was Anthony McCann whose book I bought and got signed. There’s proof below. I read through his book again to figure out how he was achieving some of the effects I enjoyed (you know, just being a grad student) and have decided to solicit him for the Columbia Poetry Review. I hope he sends in some good stuff.

Let’s recap. Guy living alone in a new city minding his own business and getting ready to cuddle with a book for the night. Guy checks email. Guy sees cool event in exactly the niche of art he’s interested in, and, what’s more, the event is right in his neighborhood. Guy goes to event, enjoys one poet enough to buy his book, enjoys beer, sees someone he hasn’t seen since his undergraduate days (oh, Michigan), comes home and thinks “wow that was a pretty nice night.” Guy realizes this is kind of a version of the regular, especially with the emails pouring in from the graduate department with readings a few times a week.

That’s, you know, pretty much going to graduate school in Chicago in a nutshell. It’s pretty great.

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