March 9, 2009

"That & a token..."

Some folks have emailed me & others have commented on my Facebook site about the Metroland "Best of..." issue so I feel the need to set the record straight. Those of you in the Capital District of NYS are familiar with this annual "rite of almost-Spring" where readers of the tabloid local entertainment weekly get to vote on the area's "best" optician, "best" sportscaster, "best" priest -- you get the idea.

Well, they even have a "Best Local Poet" category, if you can believe that. A perennial winner has been poetry impresario & host of the currently re-vitalized "VΩΧ" series at Albany's Fuze Box, R.M. Englehardt. This year Rob was #3 on the list, with Mary Panza in the #1 slot & me (!) as #2. Rob, as is only right, has been #1 many years. I've made the list before; I think last year I was in a 3-way tie for 3rd place. Once in a while some poet ends up on the list who has never even shown up at an open mic or reading in the area. I mean, if you've got a big family you could win any category you want, best florist, best Ethiopian restaurant, best President, whatever. But Mary, Rob & I are all active in the poetry community so it is no surprise that we end up on the list once in a while.

This year, through some hazardous investigative poetry/journalism/dumpster-diving/trash-humping (oh, maybe not trash-humping, that's something else) I've gotten the final count on this year's "Best Of..." categories & the results are astonishing.

Rob Englehardt got 3 votes. Now I must confess that I always vote for Rob & this year I voted twice (hey, it's an Albany tradition to vote often): once as myself, & again under a pseudonym (fake name), so I guess that the 3rd vote must be Rob's.

According to my count I got 4 votes (all that was needed to go ahead of Rob's 3), & I know none were mine because, like I said, I always vote for Rob. So Thank You! to all those 4 unknown people that voted for me (I have 4 kids but only 1 lives in the area so I have no idea who could've voted for me).

I lost track of Mary Panza's votes there were so many, but obviously she had at least 5 votes. You know, she has a big, Italian family & once worked as a bar-tender, & her kid is in daycare, so she knows a lot of people. And she deserves it, even if it was only 6 or 7 votes.

So, I hope Mary gets her token, since I never got mine. You know, as my father would say, "that & a token gets you on the bus."

Thank you Metroland! & all those citizens for voted for us.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

2nd place with 4 votes? First place with at least 5 votes?

Aren't there 100 poets in the capital district alone?

I stopped reading Metroland when they took away the Advice Goddess LOL.

Dan you should do a best poet vote on your blog, that would be very interesting. everybody could email you their vote. or for drama have people give their vote on your comments and explain why the poet is they're favorite yay.
- Tim V.

Anonymous said...

Dan,

Haven't you heard?
I don't vote...it's a joke :)

R.M.

Anonymous said...

I think we have so many good poets in Albany. Why compete? It's not like it's the Oscars or anything really important. And I'm very happy that Mary, Dan and Rob made the list this year. Don

Anonymous said...

blogs are for discussion right?

is an expansive discussion among many poets discussing their favorite local poet and why "competition"?

- Tim V.

Anonymous said...

Dan, this inspired me to write the first poem I've written in a long time-Shaun Baxter


What you’ve been blogging about has me pissed
Off, so I sent you this cease and desist.
I realize that your blog will be missed
So stop the slander forwith. I insist
You remove my name and all photographs
From this blog and then post them nevermore.
I know you’re doing this just for laughs,
Yet how it hurts my pride I can’t ignore.
Thus this defamation must have an end
Don’t think it's a joke, because it is not
I’m not a lawyer but I can pretend
That’s all I have to say dot dot dot
So stop what your doing, stop all this fuss
This post signed, yours truly, anonymous.