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video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers performing her poem “The First Death of the New Millennium” (guitar by John from from his original blues song) in her feature “New Year’s Unplugged” in Chicago 1/15/10, Regina’s Place; Logan Square (this video was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers performing the second third of her feature “New Year’s Unplugged” in Chicago 1/15/10, with Janet and John also playing background music throughout the show (at Regina’s Place in Logan Square), which included her poems “The First Death of the New Millennium”, “Don’t Go To Denny’s” and “Before Taking Over the Controls” (this video was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Happy New Year, Janet”, “The First Death of the New Millennium”, and “Don’t Forget to Write” from the “New Year’s Unpluggedshow and chapbook, “Swallowing Sand and Pebbles” from the “Twitter Insideshow and chapbook, and “Are they Invincible” and “Motions on the Planet” from the “Death ‘n’s Rebirthshow and chapbook, all read from the Scars Publications 2010 poetry book “She’s an Open Book” 6/6/20 as a prequel to the “Poetic License open mic 6/7/20 home edition” she hosted and shared on a Facebook event page (this video was from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera, and posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).
video See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Happy New Year, Janet”, “The First Death of the New Millennium”, and “Don’t Forget to Write” from the “New Year’s Unpluggedshow and chapbook, “Swallowing Sand and Pebbles” from the “Twitter Insideshow and chapbook, and “Are they Invincible” and “Motions on the Planet” from the “Death ‘n’ Rebirthshow and chapbook, all read from the Scars Publications 2010 poetry book “She’s an Open Book” 6/6/20 as a prequel to the “Poetic License open mic 6/7/20 home edition” she hosted and shared on a Facebook event page (filmed & streamed from a Samsung S9 camera).

The First Death
of the New Millennium

Although this millennium did not technically start until 2001,
people reveled in the New Year’s celebration when it became 2000.
If people always try to remember the first baby born in a new year,
then this should make the record books: in Nevada, a 26-year-old
Todd became the first person to die celebrating the millennium.
Minutes before midnight, this Stanford graduate climbed to the top
of a street light in front of the Paris Las Vegas Hotel in Las Vegas.
At midnight, he started to slip. In an effort to break his fall, Todd
grabbed the street light electric wires for support. He didn’t survive
the electrifying millennium festivities he was conduction, but
a camera caught his 1999 climb and year 2000 headfirst plunge
to the concrete below. Reports could not be obtained to find out
if he died from electrocution or from the 30-foot fall, but he made
the first noteworthy news story for the year 2000.


Copyright Janet Kuypers.
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may be reprinted without express permission.


the 2007 book Tick Tock, front cover