| Date & Time: | Wednesday, January 16, 2008
more on this date
8:30 PM |
|---|
BERZERKELEY POETRY SLAM -Every Wednesday.
*2007 West Coast Champions * Best of the E.Bay*
Charles Ekabhumi checks in:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
----THIS WEEK: $150 Cash Prizes Open Slam, Live Jazz, Hot Pizza, and Irish Beer! Christian Drake emcees.
----FEATURING: Jon Sands' poetry is a genuine look into the mind of a moment wrapped up neatly into an anvil, then dropped from a sixty story building. An Ohio native, Sands now resides in New York City's legendary slam scene; where in his first year of competition he captured a slot on the 2007 New York City –LouderARTS Poetry Slam Team, then rip-roared his way through the national scene as a finalist at the 2007 National Poetry Slam in Austin, TX. He has authored two chapbooks, In its Own Imaginative Engine (2006) and Being Human Being (2007). Blending youthful idealism with forceful passion and a drop of fire, Sands' work probes society and self in search of our most difficult answers
----LAST WEEK: Spills, thrills, and chills. 100+ attending, 17 signed up, two outstanding features who sold most of their product. LOTS of new faces.
----It was a wild and woolly slam, with crazy-ass judges, brand-spankin' new poets, and penalties aplenty. The outcome was completely unpredictable. First off, one of our regulars, Dan Gains, sacrificed and got HATED on, limping away with a 21! THEN a hot new poet, Brotha 2 Jays, rips "Mad As Hell" and earns a 28.1! Another newbie, Joyce, earned a 29.1.
--It was all over the place after that, with notable regulars such as Baraka, Jen G, Preston, Selene, and Abe getting low scores, while relative newcomers like Nozomi, and Jahan, advanced to Round 2. Miss Ashleigh played it cool and eased into Round 2 with her tribute to The Dumps, "Gorgeous Down Here". The judges, bless them, kept score creep minimal by crushing fools until the end.
---THEN, in Round 2 (same judges!) all hell broke loose. Brotha 2 Jays would have won it, but went TWO MINUTES over time and finished 5th. Joyce was on her way to some cash, but mid-poem she pulls out a TIARA and puts it on her head... automatic DQ for a Prop Foul! Yikes! Doesn't anyone read the rules? We give them out at the door! Nozomi took a time penalty AND the judges shivved her, but still finished 4th. Jahan took a time penalty AND lost the judges' love, earned only a 23.9, but that was enough for 3rd. Abe made Round 2 by virtue of the Audience Choice Award, but this time the judges went ape shit for his tribute to his father and he took top score to finish 2nd. Winning it all by remaining strong and cool both rounds (even with a debut poem) was Miss Ashleigh.
---Luckily, our features were as engaging as the antics in the slam. Mixing up a couple signature slam poems, a couple new works, and a cover of a Buddy Wakefield poem, Mack Dennis was smoother than a shot of 20-year single malt. Judy Holiday dressed to impress but her words needed no adornment. Shifting effortlessly from righteous anger to cuddly-cute, from dead-serious to hilarous, from whisper to screech, she ruled the night.
---After the show, we discussed the seeming paradox of a packed slam and low bar tab, of how drinking goes down as the quality of poetry goes up.
----UPCOMING: Jan 23: Lucky 7 & Selene Steese.
Jan 30: NerCity & Bernard Dolan. Baraka co-hosts.
Feb 6: 2x National Indi Champ: Anis Mojgani.
------STARRY PLOUGH. 3101 Shattuck. 510-841-2082.
(1 block uphill of Ashby BART). EVERY WEDS.
8:30-11pm. Sign-ups: 7:30. ALL AGES before 9pm.
Hosts: Charles Ellik, Betsy Gomez & Friends.
Live Music: 3 Blind Mice, & DJ Agana.
www.myspace.com/berkeleypoetryslam
www.berkeleypoetryslam. com
Contact: voluptuary @ hotmail.com
*2007 West Coast Champions * Best of the E.Bay*
Charles Ekabhumi checks in:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
----THIS WEEK: $150 Cash Prizes Open Slam, Live Jazz, Hot Pizza, and Irish Beer! Christian Drake emcees.
----FEATURING: Jon Sands' poetry is a genuine look into the mind of a moment wrapped up neatly into an anvil, then dropped from a sixty story building. An Ohio native, Sands now resides in New York City's legendary slam scene; where in his first year of competition he captured a slot on the 2007 New York City –LouderARTS Poetry Slam Team, then rip-roared his way through the national scene as a finalist at the 2007 National Poetry Slam in Austin, TX. He has authored two chapbooks, In its Own Imaginative Engine (2006) and Being Human Being (2007). Blending youthful idealism with forceful passion and a drop of fire, Sands' work probes society and self in search of our most difficult answers
----LAST WEEK: Spills, thrills, and chills. 100+ attending, 17 signed up, two outstanding features who sold most of their product. LOTS of new faces.
----It was a wild and woolly slam, with crazy-ass judges, brand-spankin' new poets, and penalties aplenty. The outcome was completely unpredictable. First off, one of our regulars, Dan Gains, sacrificed and got HATED on, limping away with a 21! THEN a hot new poet, Brotha 2 Jays, rips "Mad As Hell" and earns a 28.1! Another newbie, Joyce, earned a 29.1.
--It was all over the place after that, with notable regulars such as Baraka, Jen G, Preston, Selene, and Abe getting low scores, while relative newcomers like Nozomi, and Jahan, advanced to Round 2. Miss Ashleigh played it cool and eased into Round 2 with her tribute to The Dumps, "Gorgeous Down Here". The judges, bless them, kept score creep minimal by crushing fools until the end.
---THEN, in Round 2 (same judges!) all hell broke loose. Brotha 2 Jays would have won it, but went TWO MINUTES over time and finished 5th. Joyce was on her way to some cash, but mid-poem she pulls out a TIARA and puts it on her head... automatic DQ for a Prop Foul! Yikes! Doesn't anyone read the rules? We give them out at the door! Nozomi took a time penalty AND the judges shivved her, but still finished 4th. Jahan took a time penalty AND lost the judges' love, earned only a 23.9, but that was enough for 3rd. Abe made Round 2 by virtue of the Audience Choice Award, but this time the judges went ape shit for his tribute to his father and he took top score to finish 2nd. Winning it all by remaining strong and cool both rounds (even with a debut poem) was Miss Ashleigh.
---Luckily, our features were as engaging as the antics in the slam. Mixing up a couple signature slam poems, a couple new works, and a cover of a Buddy Wakefield poem, Mack Dennis was smoother than a shot of 20-year single malt. Judy Holiday dressed to impress but her words needed no adornment. Shifting effortlessly from righteous anger to cuddly-cute, from dead-serious to hilarous, from whisper to screech, she ruled the night.
---After the show, we discussed the seeming paradox of a packed slam and low bar tab, of how drinking goes down as the quality of poetry goes up.
----UPCOMING: Jan 23: Lucky 7 & Selene Steese.
Jan 30: NerCity & Bernard Dolan. Baraka co-hosts.
Feb 6: 2x National Indi Champ: Anis Mojgani.
------STARRY PLOUGH. 3101 Shattuck. 510-841-2082.
(1 block uphill of Ashby BART). EVERY WEDS.
8:30-11pm. Sign-ups: 7:30. ALL AGES before 9pm.
Hosts: Charles Ellik, Betsy Gomez & Friends.
Live Music: 3 Blind Mice, & DJ Agana.
www.myspace.com/berkeleypoetryslam
www.berkeleypoetryslam. com
Contact: voluptuary @ hotmail.com
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Berkeley
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