World Class Poetry Blog

Horrible Saturday: The Emporium, Edgar Allan Poe, And Me
31 May 2008, the poet @ 7:40 pm

Well, I did it. Made the presentation.

I’m always a little anxious about dealing with technology. I’m not the most technical-minded person in the world. I can figure it out if given the time, but I have to really sit and think on it. We played around with getting the S-Video to play from my PC to The Emporium’s TV screen, which the owner had set up for our presentation. That didn’t work so we went with the projector and screen as a backup. In both cases, we had trouble getting it to work. Even with a local TV station’s camera crew present, we couldn’t get the hardware to participate. I’m not sure if we were supposed to change certain settings on the display of my laptop before trying to run the video or if we were supposed to have additional hardware that we didn’t have. Had all the cables, VGA to VGA, power cords, and S-Video cord, but no dice.

I was going to play a couple of videos off of YouTube. One, below, is a video someone put together based on Edgar Allan Poe’s poem titled “Ulalume” and the other, also below, is a video presentation based on “The Fall Of The House Of Usher” using Alan Parson Project’s composition as the score. Instead of using the video, because of the time crunch, I just talked about Edgar Allan Poe’s life, the death of his parents and his first wife, his estrangement from his father, his debts, and of course his mysterious death. Then I gave a dramatic reading of a few of his poems, “The Conqueror Worm”, “Dreamland”, and “The Raven.”

It went well, I’d have to say. My dramatic readings are getting better. I used to be so shy speaking in front of a group. Now I just get up and let it go. One audience member, a 13-year-old girl, was really into it, as was my five-year-old grandson, Dylan. They were both spellbound as I got into the mood of “The Raven”. Eyes fixed, sitting on the edge of their seats, those two. At least I know I can hold the interest of young people. At any rate, I had fun and I’m looking forward to August when I give a similar presentation on Edgar Allan Poe for the bookstore’s science fiction day.

And now, the videos:

4 Comments a “Horrible Saturday: The Emporium, Edgar Allan Poe, And Me”

1. Jim Murdoch — June 1, 2008 @ 6:08 am
   

   Enjoyed the Alan Parsons - haven’t listened to him in years.

2. ciara — August 10, 2008 @ 6:54 pm
   

   That\’s the bomb! First time stopping by. Gotta come back

3. the poet — August 10, 2008 @ 7:16 pm
   

   Thanks Ciara. Please do come back.

4. Some Poe videos « The Edgar Allan Poe Bicentennial — September 5, 2008 @ 3:05 pm
   

   [...] September 5, 2008 at 8:05 pm (Uncategorized) (movies) They can be viewed here. [...]

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