2002-04-01

The slams tonight were a blast. I read "Fool's Goldust" and a new poem that I just wrote today, which I will feature here in a few minutes. It's really f'n great if you get the joke (not everyone did, but that's ok, I laughed at them not getting it). Willis Dyer got first place tonight, and he will also be the featured reader at Galileo on Wed. night, he beat me for that by two votes and I personally think he really deserved both the victory tonight and the reading he's getting on Wed. Tapestry came in second, and while I think he was a little off tonight, certainly deserved it. Third place was Clay, and again he too was very deserving of placing. While I'm not sure where I placed this time around (there were at least thirteen poets in all tonight) I know that I didn't get last place and that makes me happy. My goal for this slam season is to try to beat Tapestry at least once this year. If I can do that, I'll be quite happy indeed.

Some of the other poets worthy of mention are: Miya (the poet formerlly known as Miranda), Paula Sofia (who, as usual, kicked copious amounts of ass), Rick Ruple (Who is damn good but doesn't seem to do too well at slams for some stupid reason), Joe (whom I had never seen before tonight, but was pretty damn cool nonetheless), Pheonix (who was a first time reader EVER tonight, and has really good poems but needs to learn not to abuse OTHER people's equiptment), Zero (Another first time EVER reader, who was damn good and I used to watch dance at the Wreck Room for hours, by the way, I have to say that reading for the first time at a slam means that these people have more guts than I do, particularly since I've been doing this for many, many more years than I care to recall right now and this is only my second year doing the slam thing, but then when I started we didn't have slams in Oklahoma, and probably not at all, although I'm not certain of that), Hal (whose poetry is quite good and is getting much better as a performer, if only he would stop the "pause-acting" Shatneresque stuff), Alissa (whom I most assuredly am suprised showed very little nervouseness at all and did a great job with her poems).

There is one more person who performed tonight who I'd like to pay special attention too right now, and not for a good reason. Tonight Taryn performed and didn't do too well. I think she got a bit upset about it and she did leave before the winners were announced (she said as she walked out the door "I didn't place, so there's no reason to stay). Now even the few times that I came in last place I stayed throughout the whole "awards" portion to support those who deservedly won. This is simply good manners and sportsmanship (if that term is even applicable here). Now before she stormed off she probably should have asked herself why she didn't do so well this time (other than not having several judges bribed into giving her a decent score, unlike last time, yeah, hon, don't think we didn't notice it last year). A:Memorization is important in slam competitions, that's one of the many reasons I did so badly last year, and I had tried at least, unlike her at this or any other slam she attended. B:Some of the judges tonight were watchers last year and saw her blatently buttering up judges, I am certain that this worked against her this time around. C:There is a certain amount of dislike for her anyway because of her behavior at the normal readings (including trying to cheat her way into a featured reading without even trying to disguise her handwriting, as if everyone wouldn't notice). These last two things shouldn't have been a factor in the judging tonight but thery were. As for her poems themselves, they were pretty good, but her delivery needed a little work. One of the things she needed was to get closer to the microphone. Another thing is she needes to project a little more. One last thing is that she reads almost every poem she does exactly the same way, and there is an insensarity to them. Even if one doesn't mean the things one writes, one should at least TRY to pretend one does. Performance at a slam is equally as important as the poem itself, and sometimes more so, depending on the individual judge (of course the opposite can be sometimes true as well, if for example Boston is judgeing).

Without further ranting tonight I'm now going to post a brand new poem, never before to have appeared on this page or anywhere else. This is "My One and Only Poem about Apathy"

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Whatever

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~Matt Magus

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