BAM!!POW!SPLAT!! Sleep?? We don't need no steenkeeng sleep!

Hoooboy!

Holy crank loads of fun Batman!

Jeremy and I went to see a Poetry Slam last night...and........ JUST WHERE THE HELL HAVE I BEEN ??????? AND HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED THESE GOING ON ALL THIS TIME?????....

It has been a very long time since I have had that much fun being on the other side of the lights of a performance. A poetry slam for the uninitiated is when a bunch of people get together and ..um..well...slam it to the audience. It is a whirligig of styles and language and meter and beat. ZOWZIE!!

Think of mixing up in a Mosh pit, whacked out english majors, both Dylan's, Andy Warhol and Pee Wee Herman...extrude the results and you will get an idea of the mayhem

The quality of the poetry was, I thought, amazingly high. There were a few "mediums", a couple of "bads" and one sucked extra crispy, but when you consider how many poems were read, (like 50 total) I was drop down astonished.

Some of you know that I have been away from stage performance for too darn long. I have spent most of my life on stage. Between my band, The Guthrie and The Children's Theater, I have spent most of my life peforming. It has just been in the last couple of years that I have been lost and away from it. I NEED to get back to it...

I am so completely wired.....I have not slept since last night's slam..Hell, I did not SIT at last night slam....at least till the 3rd round..I was too juiced.

I will have to think of some VERY nice thing to do for my new friend Irish-Girl. She is the one who mentioned this event to me. She also competed. It is clear she is a veteran at this stuff. Her pieces were moving and real. She won 5th place. The only thing that is a bit screwy at these deals is the judges. Picked at random from the audience, I felt the judges were more that a bit arbitrary. I personally would have had Irish-Girl at 2nd or maybe 3rd. If you took all 3 poems she read cumulatively, her stuff felt more complete and mature to me than anyone elses there, except one guy. (interestingly enough to me anyway, this was NOT the guy that won)

A bit about Irish-Girl... I have come to know her a bit through my friend Jeremy's blog. (he had her as one of his links) We have traded barbs and tidbits back and forth since I started blogging the 1st of January. Now I think you can learn a great deal about some one when you read a bunch of their poetry. She has a bunch of her stuff posted. enjoy So, between her writing, blogging and general kibutzing, it quickly became evident to me that this was someone that I couldn't let stay an anonymous cypher at the end of a ethernet cable... gotta meet the real thing..So we packed up and went over...I have to add here that it didn't hurt that Jeremy was also pouring gas on the "let's go meet her" wagon as well. She was there, with her posse and holding court at the table right in front of us. It was fun to match up the written voice with the person.
Having read her and experienced her remotely, my expectations were high............. they were exceeded.

Thanks again to her for shining a light on this stuff so that I could experience it.

So, I spent all night writing, then I worked all day Saturday(today), had dinner with my whole family including all the kids, ( we number 21 when we are all there) then went out with Bill, Michelle and Jeremy to see DareDevil.

Ok I am starting to flag a bit but, I want to get a couple of things out before falling over. I AM going to read at the NEXT slam..count on it. I have already written a bunch of stuff to try and I can't wait. I don't exactly understand why I am so wired about this. I have been going a mile a minute since last night. I think I blew the guys ears off tonight ..I couldn't shut up ...sorry guys.........I'm sure they were like ..to much speed, cocaine, sugar and coffee Jack?

I dunno..I have spent my whole life being this creative person.....made a living my entire life doing just that. Singing, playing, acting.........and then phhht what? I just stop??? It's time to get back to it.

I about being inspired, plain and simple......creating, inventing, imagining......all killer stuff for me...this is what I was put on this earth to do...seriously........I've got the major Mojo going again and it is ALLLLL GOOD !!!

Posted by Jack at February 16, 2003 12:45 AM