Adventures in YouTube

So.

I'm secretly in love with this man from Miami whose foolishness is reminiscent of the good ol' HU days (ha!), and so I had to share his latest with you. I will offer that I am morally opposed to much of what comes out of his mouth, but other bits do quite literally make me laught out loud....think of him....what you wish.

Peace Be

Adventures in Revelatory Home Visits

So.

In the tradition of all people who are probably too "deep" for their own good, I couldn't just go home for the sake of going home; I had to learn a few things. Here we go:

1. It is necessary to go on some sort of ritual fast for at least a week prior to coming here....this trip alone has negated all of the pretend healthy eating I've done since March. While being hungry for seven days might have some type of backlash in terms of the initial amount of food consumed upon first walking in the door of Mom's house, it may be well worth it in terms of the level of spiritual preparedness for the task of being at home.
2. My mother has this horrible habit of not telling me what's going on...several people that I - admittedly wasn't all that close to, but had some amount of concern for - have passed away in recent weeks, but she didn't tell me because she didn't want me thinking about it while I was on the road poeting. Granted...I can appreicate the intent behind the secrecy, but great day. (Note: any parallels to my own levels of "secrecy" are completely inappropriate and utterly inaccurate...so...there)
3. I like dark red fingernail polish. This is very un-COGIC of me.
4. I almost confessed my undying love for an old friend of mine on Twitter. This would have been tragic in so many ways....mainly because it's Twitter. And because it's 2010 - who still falls in and out of love with their friends?
5. White chocolate cheesecake is still a gift from Jesus. (see #1 for additional information)...and finally,
6. It's time to start thinking about moving futher south. Four hours is too far away when you need to get somewhere in a hurry. I've been checking out the school systems in Atlanta, Savannah, Columbia....cut the journey home in half...be able to pop in and out on the weekends, that whole thing.

Ok. That's enough of me. You all stay safe.

Peace Be

Adventures in H-Town, GA

So.

It's clear at this point that I'm not going to be sharing (finishing because it was going to be garbeage) the piece that reflects my experience at Nats this year. But if you were interested it went like this:

Part 1:
The experience of competing against Roger and Jeanann and Adam and Trevor and Mo and Carlos (et cetera, et cetera, et cetera) is terrifying enough withough Eboni and Marty and Ink and Carrie and Jon (et cetera, et cetera, et cetera) being in the audience.

Part 2:
The points are not the point. Deep breath. Go get on stage.

Part 3:
I'm still awesome on stage.

Part 4:
Slam family picnic is awesome in a self-affirming kind of way. The afore mentioned names are reduced from poet-gods to just poets, and all is right with the world.

---

Word.

So.

I've been at home for the past couple of days and have become increasingly more terrified by the air freshener my mother has placed in the living room. Of course, I appreciate it on the level that pop is going through man-opause and baby brother is nearly 16 - and so both bring a male funk that could be oppresive if it went unchecked....nevertheless...it sprays at random intervals that always freak me out....especially at 3am when I'm watching old episodes of True Blood.

Writing my iwps qualifier po-ems. Currently they suck....but hopefully i'll get them together before the slam off in September. I'm going to make baby brother video my 4-minute rehearsal...so I can see what Bob means when he talks about my lack of performance energy during the denoument of the po-em. If Bob is crazy....I'll post it.....if I've got mad work to do....then i'll just hit you with a copy of the po-em.

Alright. Enough of my rambling.

Peace Be

Adventures in (National) Poetry

So.

Just got back in from NPS in St. Paul, Minnesota, where we were summarily abused by louderARTS, the Green Mill, and Dallas on the first night of prelims, thereby obliterating all hope of ranking at all in the competition. Tragic. That said, I hit several emotional lows that had nothing to do with the competition, but overall...I had a good time. I mean hey, I got to meet and get feedback from some awesome writers, play a djembe in artists' quarter, and watch two of my favorite teams do...extraordinaly well. (Big ups to team SNO for pulling the 1 at the group piece finals, and to Bull City for pulling the 3 overall). Next year's competition is in Boston, and although I spent much of Wednesday swearing of the whole PSi "community"....I'm already kinda geeked for the opportunity to reconnect with some of the poets that I met this year. ABOVE ALL ELSE...looking forward to Southern Fried next year in Atlanta.

Currently working on a po-em that is a reflection of the week's experience. Should be up tomorrow.

Peace Be