Guy stuff.

The Great Debate, #632: Is Freestyle Poetry?

Many say it isn't. I say, it depends. One of the arguments against it that I hear the most is that it's unfair to pit a freestyle against a poem that's been crafted over time, edited and revised, etc. If you picked up some slam bias from the "unfair," you nailed the issue. Freestyle is impressive to an audience, generally scores high and, therefore, e=mc2 and freestyle is not poetry! There's also the question of how much of the freestyle is actually improvised, with the inference that the prefacing of a piece that may incorporate pre-existing work as a freestyle…

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America is stupid. At least the ones that watch American Idol and take the time to vote. I mean, really, what the fuck was THAT last night?!?! Ruben in the bottom two? Trenyce booted while Camouflage Doughboy lives on? That fake jarhead couldn't even hold his head up while Ruben stood out there waiting for the results, knowing it should have been him instead. Bad enough he didn't get a chance to step on a landmine somewhere in the middle of the deserts of Iraq, doing the job he volunteered for, but to sit up there watching two people with…

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Apparently, I'm a very bad person. DisorderRatingParanoid:LowSchizoid:LowSchizotypal:ModerateAntisocial:ModerateBorderline:LowHistrionic:ModerateNarcissistic:Very HighAvoidant:LowDependent:LowObsessive-Compulsive:Moderate-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! -- The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Fifth Level of Hell!Here is how you matched up against all the levels:LevelScorePurgatory (Repenting Believers)Very LowLevel 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)Very LowLevel 2 (Lustful)Very HighLevel 3 (Gluttonous)ModerateLevel 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)Very LowLevel 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)Very HighLevel 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)Very HighLevel 7 (Violent)HighLevel 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)HighLevel 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)HighTake the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

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Found parking quickly this morning! Yay! Salomé and the kids are back tonight! Yay! Going back to Hartsdale. Boo! Last night's slam... Need another day to digest it. Maya Azucena: WOW! The slam took a back seat to her performance. Read my new poem (the end result from last week's free write) at the end of the showcase. It got some surprisingly strong reactions that caught me off guard as I'm not good with compliments. Not sure if it's because so many people that are around now have never really heard me read or the ones that have are just…

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Looking for parking in the morning so completely sets my day off on the wrong foot! Looking for it in Brooklyn Heights on a Monday morning - where after driving around for 30 minutes, you stick it on a meter and cross your fingers you'll ONLY get a ticket - sucks like a five hour open mic in the park where the swings are off-limits and there is no shade. I'm a little poetry'd out at this point. Since last Monday, I've been at a poetry reading every day except for Wednesday. Haven't done that since '98 when I used…

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Good thing: one stop commute to work this morning, got in at 8:45am! Bad thing: parking in Brooklyn Heights sucks as bad as anywhere else. Ended up in a corner spot, crossing my fingers that we don't get another ticket! Tonight's Urbana semi-finals has the potential to affect our Finals. If Shappy or Dawn win tonight, they're in Urbana's Finals next Thursday. Dawn's already in our Finals and most people would bet Shappy will be in the top three next Monday and also end up in our Finals. Shawn Randall is already qualified for both of our Finals, too. While…

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In the breakup with my last girlfriend before Salomé, I left a trunk full of personal items behind that my ex threatened to throw out. She never actually did throw it out but I never got it back either. There were a lot of things in that trunk I'd like to get back, not the least of which are a bunch of my grandfather's poems and lyrics that my mother gave to me after he passed. Isaac LeCharles Harper was a small-time record producer in the 60's, back when people weren't properly credited and were regularly cheated out of royalties.…

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