Aug. 14: The Violent Edition

The heat. The reruns. The elections. The mosquitoes. The heat. There's something about August that brings out the neanderthal in us, especially in Florida. Can you feel it there, sitting in your sweat lodge of a busted car? Look at all these snowbird morons, playing Angry Birds at 50 mph on the freeway. Makes you just want to stop the car, grab something nice and sharp and ... write a poem.

What else, right? Seeing as how the theme for August at Speakeasy is Violence, you'll fit right in. Come give a listen or join the fray as our writers throw down with some verbal kicks to the babymaker. Tales of schoolyard bloody noses? Celebrity beatdown fantasies? Come at us, bro. This month, our spoken word regulars won't just be putting their foot in their mouths - they might be putting it in yours.

SPECIAL ALERT, though: We'll be a week early this month. The August edition of Speakeasy will be at 9-ish p.m. sharp on Aug. 14 - NOT our usual third Thursday. Why? Let's just say we couldn't wait a whole month to see your pretty faces again. It's not true, but let's say it.

You've got your orders, soldier. Hey, what else you doin' on a Tuesday? Safer than going to see a movie, that's for sure.

- Tod

July 17: The Revolting Edition

Oh no. We promised ourselves we weren't going to do it and here we are. July. Smack in the middle of the most patriotic month there is. Still hung over on Milwaukee's Best and Oscar Meyer's worst. Eyes dizzy from fireworks and loud clothes. We told ourselves that Speakeasy just wasn't the place for politics, but in a state like this, how can we resist the easy option? Goddammit, we never take the easy road. We never pander.

But damned if all this nationalistic hoo-rah hasn't got us more entitled than usual. Yearning for some good old-fashioned bar griping. Easily susceptible to suggestions from Speakeasy barflies like Trevor Fraser. And that's why the theme for July is Oppression.

You know you are, right? Oppressed? Oh, sure. You may think you're free, America. Sitting there watching your Real Housewives of Miami, eating Funyuns off your erection. See, this is why you need writers. You need folks like us to tell you this is just like Burma, only without all the beheading and stuff. So rise up, writers of Speakeasy! Give the people your songs of freedom denied! Crack open your beers and feed la resistance! Poets, this is your chance. Use the word revolution as much as you like without fear of defenestration*!

Tuesday, July 17, 9:30 p.m. at Will's Pub, people. They can take our homes, our rights and even our lives, but they'll never take our beer. Or our whine.

- Tod

*Kneecapping will be considered on a case-by-case basis.