Nitty Gritty Slam #29, October 30

A crowded night upstairs at Valentines for a rare 5th Tuesday slam & open mic. & a raucous night it was too with lots of sex poems, even some drug poems. Something in the water/beer?

Mojavi was the host for the open mic & I went first, doing the open mic so I could perform with props/instruments, my dowel claves, for "Put Down the Government Rag," a seasonal piece. L-Majesty did a love poem & sang "You Send Me." "Hat Guy" read from his laptop about trying to get oral sex.

Alyssa's poem was a lecture to an ex- about making lust. Brett Petersen read "Cock" which actually was about his poems, I think. Sexy Jess made the audience swoon with a sexy poem "Fine Shade in my Pink." Rain Dan read a poem about a hitch-hiker, the first line "I thought you were a real hippy…" Christopher the Poet was back in town & recited his "Letter to My Unborn Children" but got tangled up in "rewinds." Kevin Peterson read from his blue notebook a poem about dosing friend against his will, I guess a confession. Poetyc Visionz recited his sermon on stereotyping. & Mojavi read a piece about the evil spirits that are assigned to us (or so he says).

Many of the same poets, including me, also signed up for the open mic, so tonight it was an 11-4-2 Slam. There was more love & sex, with Billy doing a piece about zombies on the airways, in what I would've said for a "costume" (included a straw hat with horns) but he didn't get disqualified, although L-Majesty did lose points for going over the 3 minutes. I did my poem "The Lady Bishop" & ended up in a 4-way tie for what I think was last place.

At the end of the 2nd round it was Alyssa in 4th place, Christopher the Poet in 3rd, & Poetyc Visionz & Algorhythm duked it out in the final round, Algorhythm's alphabetical tour-de-force netting him a 30, beating out PV's bible-quoting poem about love.

Regularly on the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays of each month, the Nitty Gritty Slam is also held on the 5th Tuesday, if there is one, at Valentines on New Scotland Ave., in Albany, NY -- $5.00, $3.00 with student I.D.