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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

This is Not Goodbye

Last night was a lot of fun. A bit too much, maybe, as my hungover ass stayed home today! Shappy beat me 3-2 in the head-to-head. I won the Star Wars round (!) and the imitation round, he took the other three. Every round was split 3-2 except for the imitation where I won all 5 judges over! Quacky was probably the most fun I've ever had on stage. I need to write funny stuff! The Anything Goes round went really well (despite losing to Shappy's musical lambasting of the Matrix Reloaded) as Sabrina's edits made the piece flow nicely.…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

It takes a clean break to heal right

Could it be that Spring is finally here for real? It’s beautiful outside.

Grabbed lunch from the little Caribbean trailer out front – jerk chicken, rice and peas and plantains with a mint iced tea – and sat over in Battery Park to eat. The tourists are out in full force and there was a loud rock band playing somewhere in the park. The breeze from the River was pleasant and my lunch was delicious. After eating, I read over my Anything Goes piece for tonight’s bout with Shappy. Ended up changing my approach and went for the whisper over the shout.

I don’t think a lot of people fully realize what I’m planning. Salomé was caught off-guard by the immediacy of it and took it a lot harder than I have. It’s kind of bittersweet for me but, at the same time, my sense of sadness is greatly overshadowed by my sense of hope, both for myself and for Monday nights. I’m hoping the newer people assert themselves and step up and take advantage of the opportunity. Unlike last time, there’s not going to be any transitional meetings attempting to smooth out differences. Quoting myself: “It takes a clean break to heal right.” In regards to the slam, I’ve got faith in Oscar, as long as he doesn’t burn himself out working on two-and-a-half series. I think there’s a few others that will find their niche in my absence as well. Of course, there will be others that will probably find themselves further removed from things. That’s the unfortunate side of things but the reality is, with me there or not, that’s going to happen.

I’m looking forward to getting out to other places again, hearing different voices and connecting to new scenes. Definitely be able to do every Acentos now, check out some of the other reads in the Bronx and catch some of the offbeat stuff at the Bowery here and there. This will be the first time since December 1997 that “host” isn’t attached to my name!

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

ser·en·dip·i·ty

ser·en·dip·i·ty the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for. Omar is a bad man. Bad. Appealing to the geek in me, he dropped the idea of a fan fiction-type project in my head - writing our own versions of comic books online - and it's like the time I was introduced to Pokemon! We hit St. Mark's Comics Friday night to refresh my memory as I haven't actively bought comics since the late 80's and I realized my taste in comics was pretty similar to my taste in other things: the underdogs, the unrespected, the…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

But I’m not the least bit excited

Ditched the morning sessions of the conference yesterday and wandered the streets for a couple of hours, getting some air and clearing my head. Finally checked out the Pokemon Store in Rockefeller Center. Good thing I never went in there when I was actively collecting the cards! Had lunch with Salomé at Bread from Beirut and then struggled to stay awake through the afternoon sessions.

The slam ended just before midnight on Monday and I didn’t get home til nearly 3am. I’m still feeling it today, both the exhaustion and the mixed emotions from how things turned out. It was an interesting night to say the least. Shappy got eliminated in the first round on a time penalty despite having the advantage of going last in the first round. My prediction for the second round was on point as Claudia fell victim to score depression midway through, delivering yet another awful variation on “the slam is bad” poem. Third round saw Shawn take a dive, dedicating yet another lame anti-slam poem “to the person who said in their online journal that I’d come up short this round” (that’d be me!) and going way overtime with it. Remaining six were, in order from low-to-high, Dawn, Omar, Lynne, Marty, T’ai, Roger and that’s how things stayed at the end with Roger, T’ai, Marty & Lynne making the team.

And that’s where the mixed emotions come in. They all performed wonderfully, as you’d expect from a bunch of seasoned veterans, but I’m not the least bit excited about them being on the team. Excluding T’ai, who I AM excited about and feel a little sorry for, I’ve got no interest in seeing Roger, Marty and Lynne at Nationals yet again. This is Roger’s fifth year competing, Marty’s fourth and Lynne’s third. Roger’s won the Individual Championship and coached a team to the Championship. Lynne won a team championship. Marty’s toured the country three times over. I fail to understand their need to continue competing in the slam especially in light of my very public stance that the slam should be about encouraging and developing NEW voices.

Honestly, it’s just selfish.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Ok, I lied. Quick fix! Ed Garcia is THE man! The CD (5 PAST 13) is going to be ready for Monday night's show and it's purely because he busted his ass to get it done. The mastering, the design, the production...hell, he even ordered the track list! (I'm #13.) Fuck collectivism, it takes individuals with the drive and determination to get things done. All committees do is talk and obstruct progress. Is it obvious that I'm not looking foward to the collective meeting at the end of the month? Going to take a lot of convincing to get me…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

So last night was the rather inauspicious relaunch of louderJAM. Light turnout, low energy and some of the most random MFs on the open mic. WTF?!?! The Impossible Home excerpt was interesting if a little sloppy in its adaptation to a different space. Reminded me somewhat of the erotica reading a few years back at Spy, though not as polished. Curious what the whole production looked like. All in all, it bodes well for future collaborative projects. (Side note: Why is Sabrina so ridiculously talented? Beyond the poetry, she sings, dances and speaks Spanish like it was her native tongue!…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

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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