Paris/Barcelona
Bonjour/Hola
It's been a while. I am currently typing this on my laptop in Barcelona, Spain. I have been here since last Monday evening on my first real vacation in I don't know how many years. For the past while all my away from the day job traveling has been poetry related where I have either been on tour or been at a festival performing/hosting etc.
I do get back to "work" with two shows to wrap up this stay, tonight and tomorrow night. Tonight I am co featuring at an event and tomorrow I am going to be slamming in English at Slam Barcelona. I love how my poetry has been my passport and I have been able to travel to many places, I might not ever have gone without it. I really feel the urge to do that more next year as well. I have invitations to go to Germany for a tour as well as a return to England. I am also contemplating a tour of the U.S. (maybe, sort of, I don't know) or at least portions of it. I have standing invites to return to NYC and I also want to do a West Coast Tour from Seattle down to the Bay. I don't know anyone south of the Bay area though, or at least I don't think I do. I could scoot over to Arizona after the Bay. Anyhow, I need to figure out some stuff.
The early part of this trip had me in Paris once again for the World Cup of Poetry Slam. It's an international poetry slam competition that features a number of different poetry slam champions from various countries. There were 22 reps this year from places as wide ranging as Gabon, Congo, English/French Canada, Norway, Spain, Israel and more. I was here in 2007 for the very first event and the overall talent level has risen dramatically. It's exciting to see. It's also exciting to hear how "poetry slam" has evolved in different countries. In Germany it is huge getting 4000-5000 people out to their finals each year (depending on which city hosts it and the size of that city), having a poetry slam tv show and having the government not only acknowledge their national slam champion but hire them for regular well paying gigs. Awesome stuff.
The competition was a lot of fun and for the first time in a long time it really felt like the competition was the secondary element of the festival. People were still wanting to win but the vibe and atmosphere was so congenial and welcoming it was a thrill just to get to meet everyone. Size has something to do with it as we were a small cadre of poets in a strange city.
On a side note there was a falafel shop across the street that most folks frequented late at night once the host bar kitchen was closed (or even when it was open for that matter) and at one point on the Friday night it was jam packed. So the start of a joke was created "what do you call nine poets crammed in to a falafel place all at once?" I said they should be called a "shwarm of poets."
ha and ha.
I ended up finishing 5th overall but I truly didn't mind. I knew I wasn't going to win after the first round. (the judges were handing out 29.3 and 5's all week in the first round so if you were even a little bit behind it was near impossible to come back.) I was the beneficiary of those high scores early on (which helped me make it to finals) and then I got bit by them in finals. In a way it helped me have a really good time and just perform and have fun without worrying about outcome. I know this should happen anyways but it doesn't always occur when I compete.
I have also been in an interesting transformative space personally in recent weeks and bringing that attention and focus with me also helped me enjoy it more and it helped me achieve different private goals that I set for myself that in many ways were just as important if not more so than winning per se.
The trip has also been made more exciting by having my sweetheart, Wilhelmina in Europe with me along with our friend Deirdre. I have done most of my traveling by myself so it is both a new learning experience and fun adventure to figure out how to adapt our styles. I am so happy that she is here. It is good to be here with her.
In the end congrats to Simon Roberts from Quebec for winning the title at Coupe du Monde. It is the second time in 3 years that a rep from French Canada has won and I think the 4th or 5th time a Canadian has won over all. I was very happy for him as he did an excellent job and he is a really nice guy as well. He and his partner/coach Mary Anne Laforge are traveling in Holland right now (mostly Amsterdam) before they head home to see how much his life might have changed by winning the trophy.
Bon nuit.
It's been a while. I am currently typing this on my laptop in Barcelona, Spain. I have been here since last Monday evening on my first real vacation in I don't know how many years. For the past while all my away from the day job traveling has been poetry related where I have either been on tour or been at a festival performing/hosting etc.
I do get back to "work" with two shows to wrap up this stay, tonight and tomorrow night. Tonight I am co featuring at an event and tomorrow I am going to be slamming in English at Slam Barcelona. I love how my poetry has been my passport and I have been able to travel to many places, I might not ever have gone without it. I really feel the urge to do that more next year as well. I have invitations to go to Germany for a tour as well as a return to England. I am also contemplating a tour of the U.S. (maybe, sort of, I don't know) or at least portions of it. I have standing invites to return to NYC and I also want to do a West Coast Tour from Seattle down to the Bay. I don't know anyone south of the Bay area though, or at least I don't think I do. I could scoot over to Arizona after the Bay. Anyhow, I need to figure out some stuff.
The early part of this trip had me in Paris once again for the World Cup of Poetry Slam. It's an international poetry slam competition that features a number of different poetry slam champions from various countries. There were 22 reps this year from places as wide ranging as Gabon, Congo, English/French Canada, Norway, Spain, Israel and more. I was here in 2007 for the very first event and the overall talent level has risen dramatically. It's exciting to see. It's also exciting to hear how "poetry slam" has evolved in different countries. In Germany it is huge getting 4000-5000 people out to their finals each year (depending on which city hosts it and the size of that city), having a poetry slam tv show and having the government not only acknowledge their national slam champion but hire them for regular well paying gigs. Awesome stuff.
The competition was a lot of fun and for the first time in a long time it really felt like the competition was the secondary element of the festival. People were still wanting to win but the vibe and atmosphere was so congenial and welcoming it was a thrill just to get to meet everyone. Size has something to do with it as we were a small cadre of poets in a strange city.
On a side note there was a falafel shop across the street that most folks frequented late at night once the host bar kitchen was closed (or even when it was open for that matter) and at one point on the Friday night it was jam packed. So the start of a joke was created "what do you call nine poets crammed in to a falafel place all at once?" I said they should be called a "shwarm of poets."
ha and ha.
I ended up finishing 5th overall but I truly didn't mind. I knew I wasn't going to win after the first round. (the judges were handing out 29.3 and 5's all week in the first round so if you were even a little bit behind it was near impossible to come back.) I was the beneficiary of those high scores early on (which helped me make it to finals) and then I got bit by them in finals. In a way it helped me have a really good time and just perform and have fun without worrying about outcome. I know this should happen anyways but it doesn't always occur when I compete.
I have also been in an interesting transformative space personally in recent weeks and bringing that attention and focus with me also helped me enjoy it more and it helped me achieve different private goals that I set for myself that in many ways were just as important if not more so than winning per se.
The trip has also been made more exciting by having my sweetheart, Wilhelmina in Europe with me along with our friend Deirdre. I have done most of my traveling by myself so it is both a new learning experience and fun adventure to figure out how to adapt our styles. I am so happy that she is here. It is good to be here with her.
In the end congrats to Simon Roberts from Quebec for winning the title at Coupe du Monde. It is the second time in 3 years that a rep from French Canada has won and I think the 4th or 5th time a Canadian has won over all. I was very happy for him as he did an excellent job and he is a really nice guy as well. He and his partner/coach Mary Anne Laforge are traveling in Holland right now (mostly Amsterdam) before they head home to see how much his life might have changed by winning the trophy.
Bon nuit.