Ignorant Wombats Propose Sabbaticals

​I'm perhaps getting too jaded to enjoy slam as a participant. Luckily, I got to enjoy some spectator time and socializing time to make it worthwhile.

Tonight I filed my first ever poetry protest. Nothing malicious. No one did anything evil. A simple mistake was made that altered my rotation, my poem selection, etc. I would have felt much better if it had been some shithead that I had a grudge with, or was amazingly stupid. Unfortunately, it was someone really cool whose work, friendship, and general demeanor, I worship. Filing a protest sucked. Sucking more, knowing that there was nothing that could be done. I was all set to sit in my seat and fume as the next poet got up, but that next poet was named Bluz, and his poem was THE highlight of our bout. Well written, well-performed. It made me smile in ways sappy slam poetry never makes me smile. So kudos to Bluz, congrats on being #1 at the end of day one of competition.

I worked myself up so much over round one that I completely changed my delivery for Deconstructing Freedom, improving it vastly, but pushing it just over the time limit. The time penalty moved me down another space in the rankings. Unhappy Adam is now somewhere in, I think, the top half by not very much. Otherwise it's the bottom half by not very much. Either way, hovering around the middle.

My bout went a little heavy on the Victim Poetry. Either the writer or their close friend or relative is the victim of some osrt of social stigma. Even I fell into it by doing "Deconstructing Freedom." Luckily, some of the Victim Poetry in my bout was very well written. The ONLY poet who performed two non-Victim poems was Burlington VT's Geof Hewitt, who, naturally, came in last for doing non-Victim poetry. That was a pity.

After the bout I was in, was The Killer Bout: Roger Bonair-Agard, lowhumcrush, emceereeree, aurorabell, rialisticprose, randomcelestial, Chris August, Christobell, Michael Guinn, and Dan Vaughn. I'm tempted to make all sorts of "she was robbed in this round" and, "how the hell did he outscore her" comments EXCEPT that the scores were extremely tight: all poets were within a point until the last two poets. It was really luck. No one got robbed. No one coasted. The bout just was what it was: a slobberknocker.

On the Awesome Side, the winner of the bout? Chris fucken August. Congrats, Chris, you earned it. The other poets were on the top of their games performing, for the most part, excellent work.

After the slam was a Sex Sells Reading (kinda like an erotic slam ends up, not like an erotic slam is supposed to be) that featured, among other things "a hiccuping nut", various things that shouldn't be done with food, The Shane, and asthecrowflies's amazing performance of both "Girlfriend", AND Brenda Moosey's "Anaconda."

And Zork ordered a ton of pizza for everybody, which made my stomach happy, as I'd previously only eaten candy hearts since I arrived in Worcester. They don't provide the nourishment that human hearts do.

I know I promised gossip, but there isn't a lot that's fit for public consumption. No one's inappropriately hooking up in front of me. I have not seen any nudity at all. Shit, if it wasn't for birthday festivities, no one would have been entertainingly drunk/hungover yet. So far the biggest drama is the "Impeach the Asshat" t-shirt drive; I am Swiss on the subject.

The venues rock the casbah. Big ups to javabill, mom_star, newpoetik & crew. I haven't had this much fun watching poetry since The Venice Beach vs. 2 other teams bout in Chicago in 99. I love the ability to do a headstand in one venue, fall over and land in another. No one even had to worry about the snow until the end of the night.

I'm entirely too tired to be writing this update. Best of luck to almost everyone in tomorrow's bouts. Those not being wished luck, don't take it personally. It's not that I don't like you, I just don't want you to finish higher than me.

The Tattler would be so ashamed of me. Hopefully I'll summon the effort to make shit up tomorrow.
Current Mood:  exhausted
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Fri, Feb. 11th, 2005 04:41 am (local)
radioactiveartThere may be some "Impeach Asshat" stuff you may not be aware of.
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Fri, Feb. 11th, 2005 04:46 am (local)
akamuuWell, if it's the personal stuff, I'm aware enough to know that I don't like it, but I don't think it's relevant to the word "impeach." If it's PSI stuff, you're probably right, I'm probably ignorant. But it seems there could be something more constructive to do than make obscure t-shirts about it.
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Fri, Feb. 11th, 2005 04:50 am (local)
radioactiveartIt's the second, and it made me feel great to wear it.

Petty as fuck, and I don't care. It's aimed at one person, and it seems to have done its job.
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Fri, Feb. 11th, 2005 04:54 am (local)
akamuuOk, as long as it serves its function.
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Fri, Feb. 11th, 2005 08:01 am (local)
twosnoos: WTF?If these t-shirts have a meaning outside of LJ and the personal then what is it?
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Fri, Feb. 11th, 2005 09:05 am (local)
radioactiveart: Re: WTF?sorry, folks...

an indiscretion on my part to have referenced it. in retrospect, the t-shirt is more a personal message on my part to the party in question about something i know that no one else need know, or that anyone can do anything about now.

and that's all you're gonna get.
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Fri, Feb. 11th, 2005 09:41 am (local)
radioactiveart: Re: WTF?And now, in retrospect yet again, I'm thinking that in general, this post was crass rancor on my part.

I've got no way to definitively prove or disprove anything to anyone's satisfaction but my own; even if I did, the info is too outdated, now, to matter.

I don't regret the t-shirt as it reflects a personal opinion; I do regret bringing up that opinion here without substantiation for the rest of you to examine. That would, of course, render me...Republican, at best.

So you can take this as a apology; and I will make personal amends with that party on Saturday, if I see him; later, if I do not.




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Fri, Feb. 11th, 2005 05:21 pm (local)
diana4poetryDoll, I always love your recaps... I wish I was there.
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Tue, Mar. 1st, 2005 08:34 am (local)
insafemodeThanks. Will we be seeing you at The Lizard anytime soon?
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Wed, Feb. 16th, 2005 10:14 am (local)
brags2bitchesAdam,

I friended you on my LJ. Please return the favor.
Looking forward to staying in touch.


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Sun, Feb. 20th, 2005 11:22 am (local)
penny_playerAdam, I am setting you up for June, I have a date and details to be a feature at the Storytellers event I do and you can have as much time as you want. IT would be for the tenth of that month. Let me know if that is good
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Tue, Mar. 1st, 2005 08:33 am (local)
insafemodeJune tenth or so would be great, just let me know what date you end up picking.

Thanks.