Nitty Gritty Slam #13, March 6

Unlucky 13, el presidente Thom Francis had to hold down the electronic duties alone & host the open mic (as Mojavi took over the duties of the Slam Bastard) -- the rest of the crew taken out & shot by competing slam venues from across the Region (at least the poets survived).

Before I get into the sad tale of the Slam, let me comment briefly on the night's open mic. D. Alexander Holiday is getting more & more Dadaist in his latest poems, tonight the purely alphabetical sounds of his "KKK Poem" (poignantly after reading Joy Harjo's poem "Strange Fruit"). There was Leslie Michelle with her poem "The Human Heart" & host/MC/el presidente Thom Francis with "Relevance Gone" & "Third Can."

But the big hit was the night's virgin, the birthday girl @ sweet 65 Deb Adler, with the snowtire poem "Going Away" & a poem to the birds, "Letter to Camp." In fact she was such a hit that she volunteered as the "Sacrifcial goat" (or lamb, to be more kind). Her poem "Overture Coda" about her parents meeting on a Pittsburg streetcar singing a song by Schubert got a very respectable 25.5 for a real poem.

OK, so how much proof do I need to proved that, like I've always said, (1) I am not a Slam poet, & (2) "real poems don't get a 10"? Since there were only 4 of us in the Slam it was a (pace Dain Bramage) 4-4-2 Slam, with Shannon Shoemaker & me in the first round going dick to dick. By the second round I knew I was done, with a combined score of (only) 54.5. All night long there had been high scoring, with a proliferation of unnecessary & un-warrented 10s (none for me, of course).

But when the dust settled at the third round, Poetyc Visionz was in third place, while Shannon (in the money) Shoemaker & Kevin Peterson (to whom I had to explain the meaning of "KP") were tied. OMG! What to Do? (WTD?) So a final (repeat) round ended up with Kevin over (hmm...) Shannon.

Hey, don't knock it. No other Slam venue in Albany has gone to 13 events -- check it out (virgins welcome) on the 1st & 3rd Tuesday of each month at Valentines on the beginning of New Scotland Ave., just off the Park, 7:30 Pm -- pay up $5.00 at the door.