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What an amazing week. Day Four was the women's voice slam, the labour slam, the 'bad poetry' slam, the haiku death match and the Erotic Slam.
Women's voice slam was incredible as usual. Jean Rinaldi blew my mind again. She says that she hasn't been slamming for a little while and I am hella-glad (as they say down there) that she's back. The labour slam had some pretty good moments. There were a lot 'what I wish I COULD say to customers who ask my frustrating questions' poems that were a joy to hear.
I read my Next Jen piece for the Bad Poetry slam and I didn't do too well. The point was that the poem was supposed to be horrible and my Next Jen piece, while full of puns, was just a little too witty, I think. I ended up somewhere in the middle. The prize was a big block of cheese.
The haiku death match was intense. The winner ended up saying something like twenty-two haikus after all the dust settled. Makes me want to get busy for some haiku action. I only have one good one at the moment.
After that was the second round of poetry. Again, words can't describe it. Mike McGee was my bout manager for one of them and David Perez was my backup timekeeper so I got to sit right between them. Great guys. And the poet named Lucky Seven was my scorekeeper for all four rounds that I was a time keeper at so we really developed a good rapport.
Seth Walker from Texas hosted the second round. Talk about presence! Dude's my height but thing and has a wild beard. He looks like he should be making moonshine in the mountains and skinning possums, y'know? In a good way.
The poetry was incredible.
The erotic slam capped off the night and it was really anticlimactic. The poems were mostly about love and sex gone wrong or sex with too much love. I read my 'sex' piece but it, too, was tainted by sensitivity. One thing that they did that was interesting was that when a poet was sucking, the audience, instead of booing, had to fake an orgasm. So people would start to moan and groan a little bit here and there before it built into a crescendo and the poet was shut down.
The high point of the night for me was seeing a paraplegic poet in one of those super-deluxe wheel chairs get 'booed' off the stage for his too-long erotic poem by an audience that was faking orgasms loudly. Not something I think I'll see that often in my life. : )
After that was a few drinks at the after party and then bed.
FINALS NIGHT
Finals night was incredible. I'm sure if you google IWPS finals night 2009, you'll see most of it. Before the actual slam competitors got up there, they had showcases of the poets that had made a really special mark during the competition but hadn't placed high enough to be on the finals stage to compete.
Dee Silence and Stephen Meads did their amazing Fathers duo piece. Team Boisie (HUGE props to them) were tapped to do their Rape Is Bad: The Musical piece which went "I heard what the slam poets say/ Rape is bad in every way/ even if you're black or gay/ rape is bad in every way" as a sarcastic nod to the fact that a tremendous amount of slam poetry seems to be based on personal disaster and the more personal the better.
It completely split the audience. Half the crowd booed and half the crowd cheered their asses off. It changed the scoring for the entire night and it changed the whole landscape of the evening. They were terrified when they got up there and I don't blame them. HUGE props to them. Four girls and a flamboyant guy. You all have huge balls. It took courage to get up there and do it. They'll be talking about it for years.
The competition itself went well. The winner was Amy Everhart. Slightly reminiscent of Andrea Gibson in her delivery but there's nothing wrong with that. Her poems were fantastic.
After party was meh. I didn't really hob-nob or anything too extreme.
COMING HOME
The flight home was okay. We all got back in one piece so I guess that's cool but I think I can do better next time organizationally. The second leg, from Seattle to Vancouver, was in a little propeller plane and I have never been so freaked out in an aircraft. The flight was super smooth though.
Glad to be back and I feel very inspired. We now return you to my regular writing.
Women's voice slam was incredible as usual. Jean Rinaldi blew my mind again. She says that she hasn't been slamming for a little while and I am hella-glad (as they say down there) that she's back. The labour slam had some pretty good moments. There were a lot 'what I wish I COULD say to customers who ask my frustrating questions' poems that were a joy to hear.
I read my Next Jen piece for the Bad Poetry slam and I didn't do too well. The point was that the poem was supposed to be horrible and my Next Jen piece, while full of puns, was just a little too witty, I think. I ended up somewhere in the middle. The prize was a big block of cheese.
The haiku death match was intense. The winner ended up saying something like twenty-two haikus after all the dust settled. Makes me want to get busy for some haiku action. I only have one good one at the moment.
After that was the second round of poetry. Again, words can't describe it. Mike McGee was my bout manager for one of them and David Perez was my backup timekeeper so I got to sit right between them. Great guys. And the poet named Lucky Seven was my scorekeeper for all four rounds that I was a time keeper at so we really developed a good rapport.
Seth Walker from Texas hosted the second round. Talk about presence! Dude's my height but thing and has a wild beard. He looks like he should be making moonshine in the mountains and skinning possums, y'know? In a good way.
The poetry was incredible.
The erotic slam capped off the night and it was really anticlimactic. The poems were mostly about love and sex gone wrong or sex with too much love. I read my 'sex' piece but it, too, was tainted by sensitivity. One thing that they did that was interesting was that when a poet was sucking, the audience, instead of booing, had to fake an orgasm. So people would start to moan and groan a little bit here and there before it built into a crescendo and the poet was shut down.
The high point of the night for me was seeing a paraplegic poet in one of those super-deluxe wheel chairs get 'booed' off the stage for his too-long erotic poem by an audience that was faking orgasms loudly. Not something I think I'll see that often in my life. : )
After that was a few drinks at the after party and then bed.
FINALS NIGHT
Finals night was incredible. I'm sure if you google IWPS finals night 2009, you'll see most of it. Before the actual slam competitors got up there, they had showcases of the poets that had made a really special mark during the competition but hadn't placed high enough to be on the finals stage to compete.
Dee Silence and Stephen Meads did their amazing Fathers duo piece. Team Boisie (HUGE props to them) were tapped to do their Rape Is Bad: The Musical piece which went "I heard what the slam poets say/ Rape is bad in every way/ even if you're black or gay/ rape is bad in every way" as a sarcastic nod to the fact that a tremendous amount of slam poetry seems to be based on personal disaster and the more personal the better.
It completely split the audience. Half the crowd booed and half the crowd cheered their asses off. It changed the scoring for the entire night and it changed the whole landscape of the evening. They were terrified when they got up there and I don't blame them. HUGE props to them. Four girls and a flamboyant guy. You all have huge balls. It took courage to get up there and do it. They'll be talking about it for years.
The competition itself went well. The winner was Amy Everhart. Slightly reminiscent of Andrea Gibson in her delivery but there's nothing wrong with that. Her poems were fantastic.
After party was meh. I didn't really hob-nob or anything too extreme.
COMING HOME
The flight home was okay. We all got back in one piece so I guess that's cool but I think I can do better next time organizationally. The second leg, from Seattle to Vancouver, was in a little propeller plane and I have never been so freaked out in an aircraft. The flight was super smooth though.
Glad to be back and I feel very inspired. We now return you to my regular writing.