TEMPE TEAM - RADIO INTERVIEW

[apollopoetry]

Here is the audio to my radio interview on Inspire Radio.

I'm pretty much done with this entire topic.   We started talking about the Nationals at about 18-21 minutes in until the end.

I pretty much said everything that I need to say about the situation, and I'm done with it after this. Peace to everyone

http://www.achieveradio.com/archplayer.php?showname=Inspire&ShowURL=http://audio.achieveradio.com/inspire/Aug-12-2007-at-08-00PM---Inspire.mp3

[apollopoetry]

I said everything i have to say in this interview.   So far, i've heard nothing but bs excuses and people talking about the details.

From what i've heard, this happens EVERY year, so that says something about everyone involved, and the process.  EVERY SINGLE YEAR this happens?? That's ridicilous. It seems like this organization is worse than a religious cult or even our own government. 

3 PEOPLE on the OTHER side of the arguement OPENLY ADMITTED that we wouldn't have gotten protested if we didn't make the semi-finals, and that they didn't expect us to make the semi-finals.

So the protests were based on the RESULTS, and the jealousy of a 26th place team who got outslammed by a bunch of rookies.  Here are a few LIES that were told to us by people on the other side:

1. We HAD to have ONE slam-off and pick the team from the winners of that slam-off
2. Me and my slam master got into a fist fight
3. Our slam master wasn't allowed to compete
4. ONLY the 26th place team can file a protest
5. We hand-picked our team just like that!

This is the 'poetry community' so everyone wants to 'talk things out' and talk behind someone's back...Like i stated in my last post, I don't come from such a fake passive-aggressive background. I'm use to dealing with things directly and as bluntly as possible; It's amazing how many snakes, and egotistical people are in this community.

It's NOT ABOUT WHAT HAPPEENED. IT'S HOW IT HAPPENED.  It's the fact that we got lied TO and lied ABOUT that pisses me off.

EITHER OR. PSI AND THE BOARD are to blame.  My MAIN point that noone can argue with is VERY simple:

1. We either were a REAL team and  got screwed over
or
2. We were a FAKE team and the entire competition got screwed over.

EITHER OR- Your organization messed up. PERIOD.

TERREN SHOULD put together every single video tape back to back with the dated weeks on it, and send you the 100's of hours of video footage with the dates on each event, to prove you guys wrong. And than i'd like to see the 'diplomatic 'lets sit down and talk' apology from your organization.

And on an off-topic..
I'm just curious real quick.......considering all the teams payed over $35,000 for this event, how much was 1st place?
Considering that everyone paid for their own hotels, travel costs, food, and the people who worked were volunteers, where does the rest of the money go?  I HOPE it's to a charity....but i heard 1st place was like 2 k or something..... COMPARED to Famecast, which was 10 k.., which was free to enter...so what happens to all that money psi?

[dbodinem]

Apollo,
]
Yep, it sure would be nice if Terran put together every video, every flyer, every piece of information to justify your selection process.  He didn't.  He was told to.

Great slam master you have there. 

And as for this...<<And on an off-topic..
I'm just curious real quick.......considering all the teams payed over $35,000 for this event, how much was 1st place?
Considering that everyone paid for their own hotels, travel costs, food, and the people who worked were volunteers, where does the rest of the money go?  I HOPE it's to a charity....but i heard 1st place was like 2 k or something..... COMPARED to Famecast, which was 10 k.., which was free to enter...so what happens to all that money psi?>>

My team didn't pay the registration fee-my city did.  We fundraised for it by putting on events.  My team didn't pay for lodging or travel costs.  That you did, suggest, once again, your slammaster and slam aren't as wired into your community as you think.  If you can't raise the $5000 dollars to get to NPS from your community, then how small is your community?  What the hell is your slam master doing?

The $35,000 money goes to pay salaries, produce product, fund part of the other three events we put on.  Maybe your show on MTV2 didn't prepare you for how non-profit arts organizations actually function?  $35,000 is almost nothing for putting on an event as large as NPS, or even IWPS for that mater.  As a former host city of the National Poetry slam, I know what it takes.  It took us about $200,000.  And we made money.  You want to know how much I got for my 40 hours of work for a year and then 60 hours for a month and 80 hours the week of?  $4000.  Wow!  I'm really taking advantage of you aren't I?  And if we actually didn't make money at the door through merch and ticket sales, I would've made nothing. 

I made nothing this year going to a meeting every morning, then bout managing 3 bouts, emceeing 1 bout and bout managing finals.  Did I get to hear much poetry?  No.  Did I get to hang out with all the people I wanted to?  No.  I was getting up at 8 AM to go to a meeting because I'm an elected member of the Executive Council you feel so justified in trashing. 

I would love to sit down, or be on the other end of the phone to go through this.  And you can call me at (505)254-2285.  The person you should be mad at is your slam master.  He was told that this might come up, that he better be ready to back up his case and he wasn't.  Now how is that the ECs fault because they gave him the benefit of the doubt by letting you come?  Knowing what I know now, I would've disqualified you before you "wasted" your time.  But I didn't know the details that the protest committee found because I took myself out of the investigation.

Yes, ABQ was in a bout with Tempe.  And seeing how it would not have made a difference if we made semi's I didn't protest.  The only team that had standing to protest was Chicago.  Your eligibility or lack of it made a difference to Chicago.  That you were allowed to come, when I actually received the formal protest a week before NPS and then removed myself because I was competing against you, is what really makes this a bitter pill.

As it stands now, you sound a like a first year slammer who got screwed by a bunch of bad judges.  You got screwed because of the choices you made.  You relied too much on your slam master and he let you down.  Period.

And this is not a statement from the organization, this is a statement from me.

Don McIver
ABQ Slam Master

[Delrica]

Apollo, PSI and the board are not 100% to blame here. And to throw the blame on just one element of the situation isn't cool either.

I listened to the interview this morning and you made some good points in it, but there are things that are or were clearly overlooked here on all parties parts.

As a slammaster, Tarrin should have been more thorough in how he handled his slam-off and asked questions. He knew enough to participate in W&YI, which means he was looking in the exact same place as everyone else who needed to do the same process. True, EOS doesn't mandate that a final competition be held, but there has always been a general assumption that one would be held (if not by PSI and EC, then by all slammasters).

This doesn't happen EVERY YEAR, contrary to what people are telling you. There are protests about several different issues every year, and that is the risk one takes with any competition. But to make a blanket statement that this sort of protest about the exact same matter happening every year is simply false.

Had PSI received notification of this issue prior to 4 days before the competition, then I think that their results and findings would have been different than what they were. While I understand the heinousness of the matter at hand and how it was handled, it doesn't advance us (the PSI family, PSI or you) by perpetuating false accusations.

They did what they could with the time that they had.

[Delrica]

And like Don, my statement is mine, not one from PSI/the board/da man.

[apollopoetry]

And JUST by the way you responded Don, I can automatically tell that you DO have some sort of anger towards SOMETHING in life.

Notice how I simply asked a question..You don't know my TONE of voice..You don't know what I was implying....You just read my question how your pre-concieved mind is programmed to do so.

I was HONESTLY SIMPLY asking.... "How does the money get dispursed'...and you go on a verbal rampage, refer to my MTV experience which has absolutely NO simliarities to this one....and just went-off...when i was asking a sincere honest question....Funny how people's true colors show.

I'm not putting the blame on JUST one person.  I'm not defending my slam master. I told him on the phone yesterday that he screwed up and should've had his shit together.  As a first-time competing poet, I had no clue it was like this and didn't think that I had to get into the rules and details- The poets just show up to the slam every week, and slam.  That's all. 

But with you and Bob both being slam masters for soooo long, nobody's talking about how you guys both lied to us and told that we HAD to have 'one final slam off ' or we can't compete. (when that's a blatant lie that was continously told to us by people who KNOW the rules).  So either 1. You guys lied or 2. You guys were also ignorant of the rules, which is what you're accusing US of being....but US are just 'poets'. YOU GUYS are 'slam masters'. 

You should know the rules wayyy more than we do....So for you and bob to tell us that we HAD to have a slam-off was an obvious attempt to keep us out of the competition.

But once again, I'm not even mad at THAT...I'm not mad at ANYTHING anymore.  My point was clear in the radio interview-

And from the responses I've gotten....About 10% of them agree with the other side and 90% of them agree with our side...and our 'side' is that we should've been disqualified before we went out there, or not have been disqualified at all. Period.

[apollopoetry]

Here is a DIRECT quote from Alvin from Chicago:


"Sadly, one of the reasons this came up is because Tempe was underestimated. Everyone expected your rookie team to get demolished in the preliminaries, and no one would've noticed or file a protest. Without a doubt, you were protested because you made semi-finals and affected the tournament. "

Isn't that just sad??? Doesn't everyone realize that it doesn't matter if we made semi-finals or not..we still would have affected the tournament?? Different bouts...different poets....different scores...different semi-finals.

[Delrica]

I hear what you're saying, Apollo.

But you're taking Alvin's comment and turning that against the whole tournament and the staff.  Alvin's statement is Alvin's and no one else's.

Of course we recognize the implications from all sides. But that doesn't negate the fact that when your SM was asked for information to clear your slam, he didn't provide it. Even after being advised to bring it, he chose not to.

Does that make PSI, the organization that initially received the complaint, wrong for erring on the side of caution and letting you compete? No. Because based on the time period PSI had, they conducted their investigation to the best of the their ability and made judgment based on their findings. Tarrin was advised to bring those items with him because there was possibility it would be brought up again.

It's not the protest committees fault that Tarrin wasn't equipped with proof (that he was forewarned to bring) that the slams were legit.

I know there is anger and resentment from a lot of different areas (yours included - and to say otherwise would make be a contradiction in that no one still talks about things that they feel nothing for), but the truth of the matter is that the damage has been done and we need to start working towards ways to better our situations collectively so it doesn't happen again.

[edaniel]

Apollo,
The Protest Committee doesn't file protests, it answers them.  Any team Tempe beat could have protested after their bouts.  They chose not to. If Chicago had chosen not to protest, your Slammaster's mistakes would have gone unpunished (at least until Tempe beat another team out of the finals, and they protested).  If Tempe didn't make it into the semi-finals, the mistake would have slipped completely under the radar. 

Your "either or" logic is a little flawed. It presupposes that your team should not have been competing, yet blames PSi for Tempe's mistakes.  This isn't a zero sum game. There is no "either or". There were 2 separate investigations by 2 separate bodies.  The first investigation was done by phone, and was inconclusive. The second was done by your preferred method. Face to face.  It found that your team should not have been allowed in. Your team did damage to the tournament. The Protest Committee removed your team to prevent further damage.  If anyone needs to apologize, it's your Slammaster who needs to apologize to you for not understanding the rules, and to the team that was prevented from entering the tournament because it was full, Knoxville. They didn't even get to compete at all.

You had two opportunities to bring this face to face with the entire community. The Slammasters meeting was the on Friday morning. I was there. You weren't. The Slammasters passed a new resolution that requires Slammasters post their selection process here, hopefully that will help avoid this in the future. The Slam Family meeting was on Saturday. I was there, this wasn't brought up there either.  It was however brought up here and on Livejournal. Not quite "face to face".

And for the record, no one protested you for your altercation with your Slammaster the first night. The MC told me about it after you pushed her out of the way to get to your Slammaster. She didn't protest, she asked you to calm down, face to face. You did. I'm not sure where the protest you claim happened shows up there, there was certainly no form filed, nor a protest meeting.  When I spoke to you about it, it was in passing.  You said it was nothing, and I believed you, and that was the end of it.

The fact that you had a weekly slam was never in question. How the team was chosen from your community was.

And another thing, there wasn't a single protest last year, not one. Happens every year? Not really.  What does seem to happen every year is some one gets their feelings hurt and takes it out on the people that work hard, year in and year out to keep this organization moving.

This forum is here for the community to answer questions, you say were told a bunch of lies by "the other side". Well all of the information your Slammaster needed is right here  in this forum. The rules, and a whole bunch of people that are happy to answer questions.

You certainly deserve to be angry. I think you were hurt, but not by Chicago, PSi or the Protest Committee;  by a disorganized Slammaster.  I would ask that you not be so hard on him though, since I would like to think that he made an honest mistake.

[dbodinem]

Actually Apollo I'm mad because you are attacking an organization that I love.  And yes, you may read my post as angry.  Because I am angry.  I am reading your posts here as an attack.  You've posted it in as many places as you can think of. Your actions suggest you are interested in tarnishing the reputation of an organization I have very strong feelings for.  Yep.  I'm angry.  Angry because people don't own up to their actions.  Your actions say you feel you got screwed.  Your words don't say exactly that, but your actions do.  I'm angry because I tried to do the right thing by not investigating because I felt it would be perceived as wrong if a coach of a team that is competing against Tempe is also the one who is investigating it.  And now, after the fact you are mad because you were allowed to go to NPS rather than just dismissed.

I've received your posts about this in several different places:  LJ, MySpace, here.  And chose to respond here because you say your "done with it" then continue to post.  And then put up a radio interview?  I thought you were done with it?  Until your posts, I didn't even know about your MTV2 experience, so that's why that is there.  And you are right, my anger got the best of me there and that's a low blow.  I apologize.  Your prior work isn't relevant. 

And Terran never once asked me about how the team was chosen.  I talked to him about WinandURin and made sure you didn't disqualify yourself then, which you didn't.  But I never once told Terran he had to have slam off.  You don't have to have a slam off.  I didn't talk to Terran after WinandUrin until the Tuesday before nationals.  If he's telling you he talked to me before that he's wrong and lying. 

If you would like to get past tone of voice being an inhibitor of us communicating, you can call me.  Here's my work number (505)224-5313.  I want nothing more than for you to get the answers to your questions.  But you have to understand that your actions, though maybe not intended that way, were read as an attack by me and I responded.  If you would like to ask me pointed questions I will give you straight answers. 

[apollopoetry]

Ok...but don't think that I didn't vent the same form of frustration to my slam master....He's stepping down as slam master, and we probably will lose a leader in our community because of this.  One of us will probably take his spot...and if anything, this has motivated me to get even more into the scene out here.

AND I posted 'I'm done with it, in the same post that I posted my audio....I said 'here's my audio and I'm done with it" and posted THAT everywhere.   

BUT i'm not done listening to other sides..I'm just done with trying to explain ourselves....I DO think that most of the people involved GENUINELY care...and TRULY care about the organization....And I'm 100% sure that there are some involved that are cowards and two-faced shit-talking backstabbers. And it's taking a lot of patience for me to not deal with that the way i normally would.  AND YES, I might be taking some of the anger that was built up from the fake people and taking it out on the real people, and I'm sorry for that.  But at this point, it's hard for me to tell who's real and who's not.

After staying with Mesa, and then having them walk right by me without saying a word on their way to contributing to a 'ruling' which they say they disagreed with..etc...

I'm just disgusted by it all.  And I probably did put a blanket on everyone..Mesa, Phoenix, Chicago, Alberquerque (when 95% of these people have never even been to the tempe slam and have no proof or evidence of anything, except what a couple people are telling them), and I'm probably speaking too generally.
Another side question:
Do you think that we should get a refund since we didn't have a fair and open chance to compete all the way and we spend tons of money getting out there?  and I mean us poets...not the SM..but the poets who were just victims more than anything

[Delrica]

Oh the refund issue (and I hate to add another Tarrin issue on this, but it is):

All competitors are given the same date restrictions on refunds.  By the time NPS comes around, all monies received in registration are spent.  There's a timetable somewhere (Scott/Steve/someone with a memory and location, please post it) that states when monies can be received back.

We can't give you a refund of your registration fee because of Tarrin's screw up. If we gave every team that got DQ'd a refund, we'd never have any money.  Not really fair to all, you know?

[randomcelestial]

Sure.  Your SM screwed you over.  Ask him for the refund.

[apollopoetry]

Ok fine...how about this:

PSI and the board were 100% right.

Does that make some of you guys feel better? I'm not putting ALL the blame on them...But if people can't complain bout situations and the way that they were handled, and everybody wants to be buddy-buddy and pucker up, nothing will ever change.  And there should always be improvements made on all systems.  So I'm just saying: This is what happened. This is what could've happened. and this is what needs to happen.

[Delrica]

It's not about feeling better, Apollo.

But at this point in time, there's not much of anything that can be done outside from learning from this experience (on ALL sides) and moving forward, so that this doesn't happen to someone else. That's what this should be about. Ways to make sure this doesn't happen to another team ever again.