Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: Alternatives to Host Hotel

« on: September 11, 2009, 12:56:18 PM »

Possibly off topic, but is there a nearby grocery store, for us poor poets that don't want to eat out every meal?  Even if you can afford to eat out, I've found it more convenient at Nationals to buy at least breakfast food, so I can wake up, and have a bagel and a yogurt before starting my day, without having to worry about traveling to go get breakfast.

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General Discussion / Re: Alternatives to Host Hotel

« on: September 09, 2009, 03:33:19 PM »

The Berkley YMCA seems like a good choice.  It's only 500 feet from the host hotel, and is 45 dollars a night.  Obviously it's not going to be the luxury of the Shattuck, but it looks like its gonna be the only way I can afford to go to IWPS without going into debt.
You can make your reservations here.
http://www.hostels.com/hosteldetails.php?HostelNumber=4234

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General Discussion / Re: IWPS News

« on: September 09, 2009, 08:16:52 AM »

I just went to their website, and tried to enter a reservation for 2 adults on October 7th (That wednesday) for 4 nights it tells me that the rooms with two beds are not available.  Have they already filled up, or has PSI reserved some of them?

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General Discussion / Re: Preselected, qualified judges for NPS?

« on: August 21, 2009, 07:28:59 PM »

Having read a bit more of what people have had to say, it seems like this is a more basic issue. The issue of whether  we are going to take this competition thing seriously.  On one end of it, poetry can't realistically be assigned a point value, and even "qualified" judges might score a good poem poorly or vice versa because of their own experience/perspective.  Saying that one poem or poet is "better" than another implies a level of objectivity that just doesn't exist.

However, we also have to consider that competition has it's advantages.  It drives people to produce better and better work, and to push their skills to the limit. If poetry slam was just a community of open mics, I don't think that the quality of the writing and the performance would be anywhere near as high.

So with the advantages and disadvantages of competition in mind, we have no choice, but to find some sort of middle ground.  I think that randomly selected, unqualified judges is that middle ground.  It still allows a competition, and forced the poets to improve themselves, even if for no other reason than to get a chance to perform again.  But it also is inherently, and obviously unfair.  After all, why does this person we bribed into judging get to say whether my poem is any good? What makes his opinion more important than anyone else?  Nothing!  It's not fair, and that's the point.  Applying numbers to creative expression is inherently unfair, and if we are going to be unfair, then we might as well embrace it.

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General Discussion / Re: Preselected, qualified judges for NPS?

« on: August 20, 2009, 04:20:35 PM »

I like this idea!  We should totally have preselected, qualified judges for these things.

We'd get a panel of 3-5 judges. The judges would be selected well ahead of time on the basis of things like previous slam experience, prior publications, scholarly credentials, having slept with all the right people, and other pertinent criteria.  We can go one better if we make the judges themselves, not the poets, the real reason the audience comes out to see the show. See, we'd pick outspoken, celebrity poets to be our judges. They wouldn't just hold up numbers, they'd be mic'ed and we'd get to hear the reasons they were rating a given poem a given way.  We'd pick judges with a penchant for scathing criticism and/or dippy-doo comments.

My dream team for this kind of judging panel would be Glyn Maxwell, Saul Williams, and Jewel.

The audience would be largely irrelevant, but so they wouldn't feel totally left out, we'd have a number where AT&T subscribers could text in their votes for the winner.

We'd call it "American Idyll."

I really, really hope you're kidding.

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General Discussion / Re: no repeat rule

« on: August 14, 2009, 04:21:37 PM »

And while you mentioned it, the reason why we're not cable ready or primetime ready or live ready is because we curse and talk abotu naughty things general audiences may not want beamed in their homes under the rubric of "sport".  The things you describe don't allow players to shout "fuck" fifty times a game on TV.  Different subject, though, but understand that our WORK is the biggest hurdle here, not our general market viability.  The no-repeat rule doesn't have anything to do with that.

I don't know how this would work, but what about Pay-Per-View?  As I understand there are no content limitations there?

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General Discussion / Re: Dirty little rumor im checking on...did NPS announce a site for 2010?

« on: July 04, 2009, 02:47:05 PM »

I heard that Nationals was going to be at a fictional place that exists only in popular culture.  But due to something typical of that place, it all went downhill from there.

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General Discussion / Re: Flagstaff taking party bus to NATS

« on: February 24, 2009, 07:19:27 PM »

Will Flagslam fiends friends be able to track the bus on a map?

Now that's an idea.  As FlagSlam's officially self-appointed computer nerd, I will begin exploring possibilities.

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General Discussion / Re: Travel advice for NPS 2008?

« on: May 13, 2008, 12:12:53 AM »

You might also save some money by flying into Chicago and taking a bus to Madison.  Most of the good deals on airfare are between the major airports.

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General Discussion / Re: Member request archive

« on: May 13, 2008, 12:10:16 AM »

Hello, Judiah Christy here.
I purchased my PSI membership on May 7, 2008.