Fisher Poets Gathering 2013: Listen Live!

Today’s a har­bor day in Asto­ria, Ore­gon, friends, and the fleet’s all here.

SW winds of 35 knots, gust­ing 45, 20-foot seas, and side­ways rain… Pretty appro­pri­ate con­di­tions to drawn folks in, nation-wide, to the 16th annual Fisher Poets Gath­er­ing.

We piled into Cap’n J’s Sub­aru yes­ter­day – he, me, his sis­ter Ash­ley, and our buddy Mikey – to make the five hour drive down. The miles flew by as we recounted favorite per­for­mances and won­dered what new mate­r­ial folks would share. Reunion excite­ment replaced last year’s green­horn uncer­tainty. We’ve been look­ing for­ward to this all year – as vet­eran per­former Rob Seitz said at last night’s wel­come din­ner, “pretty much since the last week­end of Feb­ru­ary last year.”

Speak­ing of that wel­come din­ner, Joel “I’m not the writer, I’m just here to sup­port her” Brady-Power took the mic with a poem about his fisherboy-to-fisherman jour­ney. Even among such a sup­port­ive crowd, it takes a lot of courage to get up there. He did a great job. (There might even be a video in a future Hooked post…) I’m super-proud of him; please join me in giv­ing him some kudos.

I’m hav­ing a quiet moment at the Dan­ish Maid Bak­ery right now, try­ing to quell the stom­ach jit­ters already build­ing for tonight’s read­ing. (Because caf­feine and sugar are great ingre­di­ents for calm…) It’s a ways away yet: 6:30 at the Wet Dog, squeezed between high­lin­ers Geno Leech and Rob. If you’re there, be sure to say hello.

Even if you’re not with us in per­son, thanks to Astoria’s KMUN Coast Radio you can catch the Asto­ria Events Cen­ter per­for­mances wher­ever you are. They’re live-streaming tonight’s and tomorrow’s shows, 6 – 10 pm PST. There’s a fan­tas­tic line-up at the Events Cen­ter – some of my favorites – and South­east fleet elders won’t want to miss the Fisher Poets trib­ute to Har­ri­son “Smitty” Smith, on Sat­ur­day night at 6:30. Tune in here.

Also, a cou­ple of us female fish­er­folks with be on the radio in a cou­ple hours. Lis­ten here, Fri­day after­noon at 3:30.

Whether you’re here in per­son or catch­ing the live-stream, I’d love to hear who you heard and what you thought.



Great big thanks to Coast Radio for mak­ing these per­for­mances avail­able to folks who can’t be here in per­son, and for being such a loyal FPG sup­porter. The num­ber of folks who make this event pos­si­ble is stag­ger­ing and hum­bling; grat­i­tude to all.