Nitty Gritty Slam #63, February 4

The last Slam at Valentines before the place comes down, but a lot of folks stayed home, including el presidente. But Kevin Peterson & Mary Panza keep the event alive. Kevin was the host for the open mic.

First up was Pat Irish reading someone else's poem, "Foxholes of Hollywood." He was followed by Nick Bisanz enjoying his "Henry Rollins moment" with a tale of flirting at work, "The Young Guy, the Old Legend & the Middle Man." Last on this short list was L-Majesty with a philosophical pondering of whether love was blind, or art -- more from him in a minute.

Kevin Peterson & Algorhythm

The Slam list was short too, only 5 of us competing, definitely working to my advantage, for a change. Mary Panza was our MC & dutifully read the official "spiel" as prescribed (i.e., decreed) by el president. K.P. suffered through a lot of audience heckling to struggle through "How to Make a Grilled Cheese Sandwich." Algorhythm did a piece about "a dope-fiend bitch." I got 24.5 points for "I Thought I Saw Elvis." Samson managed to get here from class just in time with a piece about being maligned. L-Majesty talked about his imaginary friends & in the past but now being an "Army of one."

The Winners & the Host:
DWx, Algorthym, Mary Panza, L-Majesty

Poor K.P. got bounced out of the 2nd round, which L-Majesty started with "Confessions of a Butt-Chaser." Samson suggested that the ASPCA should use sex (not with the animals) to make their commercials more appealing. When I travelled with the 3 Guys from Albany we had an adage for our playlist, "When in doubt pull out the dick -- poem," so I did, & got a whopping 27.4 for "To My Penis." While Algorhythm got less of a score than I for his poem in this round, his cumulative score put him & L-Majesty in the final round.

L-Majesty did a fine piece on his mixed heritage, "Blaktino Rican," while Algorhythm struggled to read a new piece from his phone. But, hey, 3rd is not too shabby for me.

& that was it for poetry at Valentines. The next time the Nitty Gritty Slam takes place it will be across town at the new Low Beat on Central Ave. Check out albanypoets.com for more info.