powerful modern poetry?

bradly — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:35:48 -0800

Suggestions for hard-hitting contemporary poets or spoken word artists? I have little experience with modern poetry, but recently came across Shane Koyczan and love it intensely. He captures the human condition unlike I have ever experienced.

I'm sure there are more like him out there.

I'm primarily looking for recorded dictation rather than written, but both are great!

Music to accompany is a plus.

Thanks!

What Western was Bill Hicks talking about when he said "You all saw him, he had a gun."

unsupervised — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:31:09 -0800

What Western, if any, was Bill Hicks referencing when he thought he was talking about Shane? Here's the fairly famous Bill Hicks routine:

I'm so sick of arming the world and then sending troops over to destroy the fucking arms, you know what I mean? We keep arming these little countries, then we go and blow the shit out of them. We're like the bullies of the world, you know.

We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane, throwing the pistol at the sheep herder's feet: "Pick it up."

"I don't wanna pick it up mister, you'll shoot me."

"Pick up the gun."

"Mister, I don't want no trouble, huh. I just came down town here to get some hard rock candy for my kids, some gingham for my wife. I don't even know what gingham is, but she goes through about 10 rolls a week of that stuff. I ain't looking for no trouble, mister."

"Pick up the gun."

Boom, boom.

"You all saw him. He had a gun."

I just got done watching Shane for the first time and none of this happens. The only similarity is that Jack Palance is in it and a homesteader is shot by him, but he's got his own gun and draws it on Palance intending to shoot him. He was, in fact, looking for trouble.

None of the dialogue, including the awesome "You all saw him, he had a gun" is uttered in any variation.

The oddest thing about all this is if you google the line, you find tons of people quoting the Hicks routine verbatim in Jack Palance remembrances and other, non-Hicks related places as if this exchange actually happened.

What gives? Was this all the result of Hicks' fertile imagination or was there an actual Western where this took place?

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powerful modern poetry?

What Western was Bill Hicks talking about when he said "You all saw him, he had a gun."