A RIVER & SOUND REVIEW AT SHOWCASE TACOMA

Clockwise from upper left: (1) A River & Sound Review was part of Showcase Tacoma's Poemporium & Lit Fair; (2) singer-songwriter Scott Andrew; (3) RSR emcee Jay Bates and Tacoma poet laureate William Kupinse; and (4) award winning Spokane novelist Jess Walter.

"I love telling stories more than anything."
—Jess Walter at A River & Sound Review

What if you had a show, a performance, a literary entertainment extravaganza, and no one came? Well, it happened. A River & Sound Review had its most recent show at 5:00 p.m. on Friday 08 August 2008 in the Vicky Carwein/Keystone Auditorium at University of Washington Tacoma as part of the Showcase Tacoma arts festival, and no one came.

Well, that is not completely true. Out of the fifteen people present, three were performing, nine were members of A River & Sound Review or related to a member, one was a William Kupinse fan, and two looked completely confused about where they were. So, in an auditorium that has a capacity of approximately 120 people, three people came to see the latest RSR offering.

Everyone else missed the best show that RSR has produced.

Scott Andrew played his guitar and sang as though he were in front of a packed room. He produced enough rhythm and beat by tapping his foot that it sounded as though someone was accompanying him on drums.

William Kupinse read many poems about nature and our place in it, as well as a few about Tacoma, which made sense, since he is Tacoma's poet laureate.

Jess Walter read a poem, which he said he must be crazy to do on the heels of Kupinse. Then, rather than read from his most recent novel The Zero, a National Book Award finalist, he spoke about what it means to be a writer. He spoke about his writing relationship with Kurt Vonnegut, who acted as a "distant" mentor to him.

The best part, however, was how the three principle performers interacted with one another and improvised their individual performances based upon those of the other two. William Kupinse referenced one of Scott Andrew's songs, Jess Walter read his poem with a sense of play and a nod to William Kupinse's reading, and Scott Andrew played a song that dealt with some of the same themes of the reading of William Kupinse and the talk of Jess Walter. It was all unscripted and unplanned and perfect.

It is just too bad that you missed it!

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You can view more pictures of show #21 (RSR comes of age!) of A River & Sound Review at the troysworktable Flickr page.