The important bits of this write-up are in the last couple of paragraphs.
(What was that "pyramid" technique I learned in Journalism class so long ago? Clearly a load of hogswallop, regardless...)
Complications may well have been the result of a teensy weensy bit of selfish optimalization on my part; compounding my bumping the meet over early on from Vancouver to Seattle to accomodate my desire to hop the border and catch the poetry slammery (as close to my hometown as I presume it ever will be), I engineered and arranged events such that the night of The Big "While I'm in Seattle, I may as well interact with regional noders" E2Con was planted squarely on the same night that the big Slam Finals competition will be. Why did I do that? Simply put, because I will have been taking in approximately four hours a day of slam activities for each of the previous three days and by Saturday night predict being either seething or discontent enough to REQUIRE a major, non-slam-related event in order to maintain my sweet demeanour.
Of course, this was before I realised that Svaha would be involved.
In any event, (in credence with my failing to have proposed activities for this meet) my belief is that as far as e2cons go, mere interaction with the physical shells of the node-avatars is far and above more interesting than pretty much any other activity in which the interaction could be set. I fear that gathering umpteen people together from different states merely to shell out $17, sit in a dark room and clap (or scowl) at the appropriate moments of emotional intensity would (here it comes) make for poor meet reviews and poor memories of each other - not bad ones, but merely hazy, distracted by the atmosphere and overwhelming egos on stage.
Some might consider it folly for me to travel across international boundaries to observe the championships - and then bail out on the final round, but from time to time I can really be one of those perverse bastards to whom the journey is more important than the destination.
In any event, what I'm up to in this writeup is not to contribute my two cents against Poetry Slamifying the meet, but rather to suggest to those in the Seattle area: if you're intrigued by the slam festival going on in your own city but not enough to make the investment of both the meet and the moolah, meet up with me earlier in the week to take in some of the earlier slam and slam-related events for less or even free. (Of course, some might argue that there is no such thing as a free slam.)
Wednesday, August 1st: preliminary rounds at a number of venues (I'll be stalking Teams Vancouver and Pittsburgh to maximise my cheerleading and Svaha-scoping abilities) from 8-9:30 pm and 10-11:30 pm, $5 a shot.
Thursday, August 2nd: more preliminary rounds (because there are a lot of poets from a lot of cities competing!), same times as the night before. Also also the VanSlam-hosted Karaoke at the Sit 'n Spin starting at midnight running into Friday.
Friday, August 3rd: 1:30-3 pm, 5th Wheel slam at the New Orleans Creole Restaurant, followed by the Slam Masters slam 3:35-5 pm a block away at the Central Tavern. Later that night is the Exhibition slam ($10) from 7:30-8:30, and semifinals for both teams (9-10:30) and individual (11-12:30) slam poets, also $10 a pop.
Even on the very day the meet's scheduled upon, Saturday, August 4th, I plan to take in a couple of free slam performances (the Haiku slam at the Central Tavern 1:30-3 pm and the group slam performances following there from 3:30 to 5), depending on how late the loudmouthed shebang gets underway. (If anyone could arbitrate a starting time and location around that neighbourhood, I'd be greatly obliged.)
And of course at various times during this multi-day orgy of performance poetry I may be found at the Worlds' Longest continuous open stage at the Hurricane café, running 24 hours a day from 12:00 am Wednesday to 12:00 am Sunday. If I'm sufficiently jazzed, I may even step up to share some words - words which you might even be familiar with following subtle perusings in this very database.
This all glances around the heart of the matter. I'm going to be arriving in Seattle sometime around noon on Tuesday (tryin' ta swipe a spot in the hostel) and though it looks like we have glorious ideas presented for our potential pretenses-for-meeting, very little is actually
known. I anticipate having less internet access in Seattle than I do at home (almost by definition - it would be difficult to arrange otherwise) and would like to know as much as possible about the meet before being a country away from my regular internet access 8) Thus I beseech you: if you have a celphone, giveth us thine number that seekers of wisdom regarding this assuredly noble and glorious event-to-be may be able to get last-minute scoops on the poop and reconvene with meet fragments which may result from unfamiliar driving, delays in rendezvous and other such inevitable catastrophes-in-waiting.
I'll see yuz soon and above all - enjoy yourself!
If you enjoy yourself lots, also remember: there'll be a retinal burning redux a couple of hours away in Vancouver, BC the night of August 8th - failing a node, /msg me for further details, as well as the prefetal e2 end of summer denial of school northwest gathering in Portland again another few days later on the 18th... The whole previous year's worth of Northwest cons packed into two weeks! Yow! We could make this August the roving Pacific Northwest meet that never ended, Grateful Dead-style!
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