After Round One

I am the 77th best slam poet in the world!
What a blast it all is. Such a great scene, and the Berkeley staff and volunteers are doing an excellent job.

I drew sixth in round one, and did After Birth. I thought it went over very well, the people behind me complained that I had ruined their makeup. Ended up ninth after round one.

In round two, the minute round I did Folson Clothing Blues. Started out great and then...

I froze. I forgot my words. Lost them. Heard the encouraging words of the crowd, heard my wife give me the next stanza. Found one of the two lines from the stanza and went on. Damn, the piece went over good too, but I had a time penalty and ended up dropping to tenth out of eleven.

I've seen the best poets freeze up, and got some nice sympathy from other poets in the round. It can, and has happened to anyone. I put it all out there on stage last night and did myself and my fellow poets proud. I did not suck, but so many were better!

What I am most proud of is that I finally went onstage without paper and presented my poetry for the first time.

And the overall leader was in my group. The Original Woman took over the stage last night, and if you're going to lose, be beaten by the best.

Tonight I'm in a group with two other Columbus poets. The 614 will be in the Long Haul at nine o'clock!

This is a very cool city, very walkable. The hotel is quirky, but decent and cheap. Had a laptop mishap that a Mac genie named Thea reset for me at no cost. There are lots of great places to eat. A college friend took us out to dinner on Wednesday night and we had an absolute riot. Last night two more friends came out to see me and it was so great to see them.

I'm trying to reach out to and converse with other poets, but it's hard shedding the social phobia. Emma's been great in dealing with my reaction to stress and jet lag. I think she's having fun too.

What the heck was the Nobel Committee thinking? Giving the Peace Prize to Obama? For what? Thanks for increasing the political divide and tension in this country, idiots.

Going to explore the UC Berkeley campus a bit today and hit San Francisco tomorrow. Weather has been good. Clouds in the morning that have cleared to brilliant sunshine. Pictures when I get home.