The Economy Finally Got Me (Expanded)
Canned. The proverbial Heave-ho. The old baseball "management has decided to go in a different direction". I feel like A.J. Hinch, except that I've been through puberty.
The slam announced last night that the 29th of July would be the last "Mesa" in Mesa Slam. The slam will be moving to an as yet unannounced location (a fact I find disconcerting). And while some would ask how such a thing could happen, I am strangely at peace with the whole change, with the exception of the sadness (again) that there may be no slam in Mesa after 16 years.
The core of the community is now fairly close to downtown Phoenix, making it more of a challenge for them to come out to Mesa, exacerbated by the summer audience doldrums that the slam has gone through. So, last night, in a move that has been discussed at various times but not committed to until last night, the community informed me that they would be moving the slam. After a moment of "Wha?", I merely let them know that I would be unable to make that move with them. The venue was informed, an announcement made. After that they just kinda took over, and I, almost quietly, relegated myself to a table with Bill, watched the feature and poets, caught up with Aura, and went home.
My feeling comes from a place that I tried to identify in a recent Facebook note, that I think that the slam, Mesa Slam, is fundamentally flawed. I think that we had done some work to change that, a nice lineup of local and out of town features I thought was starting to pull out some of the locals.
I am not upset by the change, but I do think there is an unfair element of blaming the slam's trouble's on it being in Downtown Mesa. I will stick to my point that the show had become uninteresting to audience, and far too centered around the poets themselves instead of the show as a whole. Those issues will need to be addressed, because there are too many entertainment choices for people on a Thursday night. Queens bore that out, that their receipts had improved in the last month, in response to the changes and features that we had made in June and July.
In the end, however, my energy and enthusiasm are lacking to continue the push, and as I think more about it, I begin to think that this is the best way for me to bow out gracefully. I am proud of the slam, I am proud of the slammers. I am satisfied that the slam is important enough that people want to try and take it to the next level.
So, the slam will still be an Anthology event, and there are some things that need to be discussed in that, and I am sure at some level, I will still know what's happening, guest hosting now and then and the like. There are no hard feelings, some sadness, but nothing that a little time and space won't cure. I went through this in the period after Essenza finally closed for good and we started trying to do Del Sol.
So what of me?
In the immediate future, nothing. Between spending alot of time travelling in the second half of the year, and working on film projects, I won't have time for much else.
And that's it. How appropriate that David Tabor features next week, and Cat Klotsche on the final night.
I am curious to see what is done with the slam, where it ends up and how it ends up doing.
The slam announced last night that the 29th of July would be the last "Mesa" in Mesa Slam. The slam will be moving to an as yet unannounced location (a fact I find disconcerting). And while some would ask how such a thing could happen, I am strangely at peace with the whole change, with the exception of the sadness (again) that there may be no slam in Mesa after 16 years.
The core of the community is now fairly close to downtown Phoenix, making it more of a challenge for them to come out to Mesa, exacerbated by the summer audience doldrums that the slam has gone through. So, last night, in a move that has been discussed at various times but not committed to until last night, the community informed me that they would be moving the slam. After a moment of "Wha?", I merely let them know that I would be unable to make that move with them. The venue was informed, an announcement made. After that they just kinda took over, and I, almost quietly, relegated myself to a table with Bill, watched the feature and poets, caught up with Aura, and went home.
My feeling comes from a place that I tried to identify in a recent Facebook note, that I think that the slam, Mesa Slam, is fundamentally flawed. I think that we had done some work to change that, a nice lineup of local and out of town features I thought was starting to pull out some of the locals.
I am not upset by the change, but I do think there is an unfair element of blaming the slam's trouble's on it being in Downtown Mesa. I will stick to my point that the show had become uninteresting to audience, and far too centered around the poets themselves instead of the show as a whole. Those issues will need to be addressed, because there are too many entertainment choices for people on a Thursday night. Queens bore that out, that their receipts had improved in the last month, in response to the changes and features that we had made in June and July.
In the end, however, my energy and enthusiasm are lacking to continue the push, and as I think more about it, I begin to think that this is the best way for me to bow out gracefully. I am proud of the slam, I am proud of the slammers. I am satisfied that the slam is important enough that people want to try and take it to the next level.
So, the slam will still be an Anthology event, and there are some things that need to be discussed in that, and I am sure at some level, I will still know what's happening, guest hosting now and then and the like. There are no hard feelings, some sadness, but nothing that a little time and space won't cure. I went through this in the period after Essenza finally closed for good and we started trying to do Del Sol.
So what of me?
In the immediate future, nothing. Between spending alot of time travelling in the second half of the year, and working on film projects, I won't have time for much else.
And that's it. How appropriate that David Tabor features next week, and Cat Klotsche on the final night.
I am curious to see what is done with the slam, where it ends up and how it ends up doing.