Totally forgot to put this out there: Word Street has launched! That’s the poetry/spoken word magazine I’ve been hinting at for awhile that I was writing the article on slam’s relevance for. This issue is kind of a sampler, a web-only teaser, but the hope is for the first print edition to publish in October.
The National Poetry Slam is Dead
Crazy busy at work and home this week but, along with managing my GSL fantasy football draft, I’ve been surfing around for the scoop on Nationals. (LA won by the way; Nuyorican came in second and San Jose’s Mike McGee won the indies.) Between Blogger and LiveJournal, I suspect the poetry_slam list will be rather
NPS Update
Omar just called: LA beats Union Square (2001 redux?) while Nuyorican beats Urbana, ensuring NYC’s streak of Finals appearances since 1996 (at least) continues. They also landed someone named Jive Poet, ranked 7th overall, in the indie finals. (Celena Glenn was Urbana’s top individual @ 21, Ta’i Freedom Ford for Union Square @ 45.) Had
Unpatriotic soldiers, Dr. Bushlove, Howard Lieberdean & The Reality of 2004 First, protestors were being unpatriotic and endangering our troops by speaking out against the war. Now, the troops themselves are being told to shut up! Pentagon makes moves to contain complaints from US troops in Iraq Written by Douglas Quenqua Published on August 04
Must see: http://www.bushflash.com/dlc.html While I don’t buy the Kucinich-Dean parallel, it’s a pretty powerful piece of propaganda. I’m watching the AFL-CIO / Working Families Forum on C-SPAN right now, featuring all nine candidates and it’s been a bit of an eye-opener so far. Interestingly, it’s being held at the Navy Pier in Chicago where this
“[Marc] announced a three-year sabbatical in ’99; by the fall of 2001 he was back. Without him, he says, things had gotten so bad that this year’s 14th annual National Poetry Slam… wouldn’t be happening otherwise.” “He says that some of the people who tried to step in while he was gone were looking to
I’ve given in to several requests and – crossing my fingers – have added a “comments” function to my journal. It’s actually a guestbook, a la Rich Villar’s, but I like the running commentary setup over the post-specific format. All I ask is that you have the courtesy to not be anonymous if you post
Balseros One of the most heartbreaking documentaries I’ve ever seen. The flip side of Buena Vista Social Club and a must-see for all you pseudo-revolutionaries out there that need a little dose of reality to flesh out your one-dimensional rants. Director Carles Bosch makes no judgments on the lives of the Cuban rafters he follows
I survived. Oral surgery is barbaric. Dentists that reference Marathon Man while you’re in the chair aren’t funny. The actual extractions only took about 20 minutes. Slept with a mouthful of gauze last night. Curious about the vicodin but haven’t had any pain to justify taking it. Stayed home today, caught up on sleep and
“I know where weapons of mass destruction are… Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Poor health care is a weapon of mass destruction. And when the government lies to the American people, that is a weapon of mass destruction!!” —