Messages

16

General Discussion / Re: Poetry slam research: postmodern identity: Individualism

« on: September 07, 2011, 08:07:04 PM »

I'd love to discuss this with you further; as a philosophy graduate and a poet, the subject interest me immensely. Feel free to e-mail me. HoustonRH7@ gmail.com

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General Discussion / Re: IWPS 2011 Questions

« on: August 30, 2011, 03:54:44 AM »

Ah, ok. I didn't know you were the person in charge. (side note - might it be a good idea if people with specific titles/jobs could get a little tag by their name?). So, yes and yes. Wouldn't have even brought up the points if I'd known that.

As to the third point, I understand that it's a good idea to try and make sure the storms aren't limited to a bunch of people who live in the host city being able to register because their travel cost is zero. That would be unfair, as would having a bunch of hometown heroes ready to steal the stage. Makes sense.

I'm not sure about the idea that there is a regional sound, though. It's entirely possible that this is because I'm in an area where slams are no closer to each other than about 3 hours, but it seems like while cities within a region may have sounds, the region itself tends to be diversified by the process of people who want to be a part of a particular sound moving to the city with that sound, and people in that city with a different idea of what the sound should be moving to nearby cities and creating variety. I again freely admit that this may just be a symptom of the scene I'm most familiar with being pretty sparse, and welcome hearing that other regions work otherwise.

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General Discussion / Re: IWPS 2011 Questions

« on: August 29, 2011, 11:28:50 AM »

Here's the deal. We let folks in like this: Former Champs, International Reps, Poets without Access to Slams, Other poets.

But... that's not what Inkera said. She didn't mention former champs at all, and she said "other poets" get priority after international reps if they are further from the host city. Don't mean to nitpick, but that second one is the one I'm having a problem with.

At the very least, I'd like to see the system change so that folks without regular access to a venue, regardless of where they are, get priority over the distance qualifier. Maybe even not use the distance qualifier at all unless everyone who was an official city rep or who wanted to storm and doesn't have access to a venue is in, and there are still slots left for folks who do have a regularly available venue. Thoughts?

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General Discussion / If you've never toured the Arkansas/Oklahoma area... [looking for features]

« on: August 24, 2011, 09:52:46 PM »

Did you know that Southwest Shootout and IWPS next year are going to be held in the same neighborhood next year? True story.  SWS will be in Tulsa, OK, and IWPS will be here in Fayetteville, AR; a scant hour and a half apart.  And I know a bunch of you haven't been to the region before.  So, as someone who loves this area and is trying to help grow the scene around here, here are some things you touring poets should know to entice you to the area.

1.  Shit is cheap.  The gas down the road from my house is $3. 20, and there are places here where, on a good day, you can get it for under $3.  PBR tallboys at the bar are usually $1, and at the store are even cheaper.  Groceries cost quite a bit less too.  This makes coming through this region possibly more affordable than any other.

2.  We plan our slams to help you tour.  We know most poets have trouble driving out here, and no one wants to fly to just do one show.  So we've set up shows in the area to make things easy on you.  Fayetteville, Springfield MO and St Louis MO all have our slams the same week of the month, but different days, so you can zip through and do a paying gig each night.  Oklahoma City's two slams usually fall within their own week as well.  Whether you're going from Dallas to Chicago or vice-versa, if you plan ahead you'll be able to pay your gas, no problem.

3.  The colleges here are poetry deprived, so they pay bank.  Since touring poets come around here so infrequently, the market is under-saturated, and you'll usually get your asking price.  I would especially recorded hitting up Hendrix College and The University of Arkansas.  Both bring about 4 features a year, but because we don't get many people around here, it ends up often being the same folks.

If you'd like more information on the area and booking shows around here, feel free to hit me up.

20

General Discussion / Re: Question about NPS DVD's

« on: August 24, 2011, 09:29:25 PM »

I think it would be a pretty rad idea as a DVD extra to have a scoresheet that you could access from the main menu, and then maybe navigate to individual poems from there.  Obviously this shouldn't replace the main navigation, but it would be an easy add-on.

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General Discussion / Re: IWPS 2011 Questions

« on: August 24, 2011, 09:17:58 PM »

Storm poets are prioritized in this manner:
Out of the  country
Distance from host city
Access to local slam on a regular basis

Are all of these things given equal weight, or are they prioritized in this order? For instance, if there is a poet from Florida who lives in a city with a host venue, and a poet from the middle of nowhere Ohio, both trying to storm this year, would the Florida person be given priority since "distance from host city" is the criteria you listed first?

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General Discussion / Re: Slammaster Access Request Archive

« on: August 23, 2011, 08:14:49 PM »

I would like access pleasethanks!

Houston Hughes
co-sm
Ozark Poetry Slam
Fayetteville, AR

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General Discussion / Re: FYI: HOST HOTELS IN MA FOR NPS

« on: August 02, 2011, 06:48:43 PM »

This is. . . .  interesting.  We're staying at a hotel in the area that is not the host, and I just called them about this, and they said they have never heard of such a thing.  Some googling and phone calls later, it seems that Le Meridian is both a hotel AND a restaurant, and they have their liquor license.  So, bringing liquor in is illegal by the same laws that cover bringing your own alcohol into a bar.

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General Discussion / Re: Question About A Rule

« on: July 22, 2011, 02:18:22 PM »

Not only would I totally call this on plagiarism, but I'm also unsure of how you'd even be able to keep the audiences attention for 2. 5 minutes of singing someone else's song.  Singing sometimes works as an intro, outro, or refrain, but I've never seen a piece that is nothing but singing for that long fare well. . .

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General Discussion / Re: Up Coming Locations for PSi Events

« on: July 18, 2011, 03:17:25 PM »

Can we get an update on this? I assume some of these contracts are in by now, yes?

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General Discussion / Re: can we change IWPS to Individual North American Poetry Slam championship?

« on: December 24, 2010, 11:24:09 AM »

Is there a way that we could work with slams in other countries to make travel more feasible? For instance, perhaps IWPS could set aside a set number of slots for competitors abroad who could get a bit of financial help, and in return some of the large European tournaments could do the same for us? I'm aware that PSI isn't overflowing with cash, but even a little bit of help would be good.  I know I'd be glad to pay an extra $10 on my IWPS registration if everyone else would too; then we'd have $600-700 with which we could offer international competitors a tad bit of assistance.

If nothing else, I think we'd be doing everyone a favor if events in all countries helped to raise awareness of one another.  Maybe if there were a few mentions of the the European tournaments at IWPS/Nats, and they did the same for us, it would help build a stronger international community.  Also, we could work on creating a worldwide map like the one on the PSI frontpage so that the contacts for international venues are all gathered into one place.  Perhaps the first step to getting other countries to send people here is for us to go there first, and break the stereotype of the arrogant American.  You know, the one who does things like call a tournament a "world" poetry slam when it's not really.