Now that I've slept twelve hours
Finals night:
St. Paul killed it - they brought the pieces the judges wanted to hear, and they brought good work. ABQ did really well, though my two biggest beefs with the stuff they sent up were that I think Damien Flores' piece was a four minute poem crammed into three minutes -- It'd have been better if he could have taken his time, and that the choreography in the Dancing/Kitchen piece pulled people just far enough from the microphone that I missed whole phrases. Xn blasted the Samson piece, and the time penalty sucked. The Shannon Leigh piece from (I think) Nuyo was good, but sounded a shade familiar.
Other poems I heard that blew me out of the water:
Merc/Nuba bout, the sacrificial poet was crazy good. I don't remember her name.
ABQ - Roommate sex piece was hysterical.
Sara Lihz, poem about clinic visits made me cry.
Simone B. from Cantab's Fibonacci poem was tied with Jon Sands' growingup/penis poem for best of the week.
Second mention for the Samson piece. I'd like to talk about that one, some.
"My Vagina..." piece from a dude, coupled with the look on Oz's face = awesome.
Ben Wenzl (omaha rookie) did well, onstage, though I've heard his stuff before. I didn't see too much else from the Omaha kids.
Sam Teitel's kicking animals piece at underground indy's was the shit.
Scott Woods' piece there was also good.
The meta-poem about rape was brutally honest.
Biggest problem of this year's nats: Microphone control. About fifteen people had it. Rookies: Learn your microphones.
St. Paul killed it - they brought the pieces the judges wanted to hear, and they brought good work. ABQ did really well, though my two biggest beefs with the stuff they sent up were that I think Damien Flores' piece was a four minute poem crammed into three minutes -- It'd have been better if he could have taken his time, and that the choreography in the Dancing/Kitchen piece pulled people just far enough from the microphone that I missed whole phrases. Xn blasted the Samson piece, and the time penalty sucked. The Shannon Leigh piece from (I think) Nuyo was good, but sounded a shade familiar.
Other poems I heard that blew me out of the water:
Merc/Nuba bout, the sacrificial poet was crazy good. I don't remember her name.
ABQ - Roommate sex piece was hysterical.
Sara Lihz, poem about clinic visits made me cry.
Simone B. from Cantab's Fibonacci poem was tied with Jon Sands' growingup/penis poem for best of the week.
Second mention for the Samson piece. I'd like to talk about that one, some.
"My Vagina..." piece from a dude, coupled with the look on Oz's face = awesome.
Ben Wenzl (omaha rookie) did well, onstage, though I've heard his stuff before. I didn't see too much else from the Omaha kids.
Sam Teitel's kicking animals piece at underground indy's was the shit.
Scott Woods' piece there was also good.
The meta-poem about rape was brutally honest.
Biggest problem of this year's nats: Microphone control. About fifteen people had it. Rookies: Learn your microphones.