Toronto Poetry Slam

Got this in my book of face today thought I'd share.

10 things i learned at rustbelt

You all know what happened by now, so Ill tell you 10 things i learned

1. Watching my team win with or without me touching the mic is
awesome. I love being lazy and just watching poetry. I also love
performing. the fact that i got to do both was great. I will say I wish you all
would have heard more of Barbara Fant (aka BarbWyre). She is amazing.

2. In the event of a nucular apocalypse, I am officially driving to a
fall out shelter in Minneapolis. Tornto got a lot of deserved
recognition for being a friendly ass team, but Minnesota and i sat on Dave
Noble's roof talking about everything from eating meat to Five Iron Frenzy to
Don Hertzfeldt. If you know me, my spectrum was well covered. So i
assume they would be good people to spend the end of all thing with.
Toronto, you can ride with.

3. Simultaneously running the Event and winning the Event deserves its
own prize. The fact that Writer's Block was able to deal with the
complications of venues and time restrains and still remained focused enough
to win it all? damn. congratulations .

4. Toronto loves poetry. Yes, more than you. There is no other place i
would rather have 2009's Rust Belt. Im afraid that now that they
have Rustbelt, the States may never get it back. Case in point, even
after a weekend full of watching poets behind the mic in the hypest
environments, they still start 6 poet cyphers on the roof of Dave Nobles
house and watch it gain size momentum all the way to his living room.
which brings me to my next lesson

5. Performing poetry with your sobriety tweaked beyond recognition is
both fun and dangerous. fortunately it was much more of the earlier than
the latter. I really want to make a new habit out of it. There is
nothing like fighting gravity, spins and stomach twitches to see if you
REALLY have that poem down.

6. Ed Mabrey is my fucking hero. I already knew this, but it was nice
seeing him again.

7. Chicago May have the best work in the Midwest. I expected what i saw
out of Alvin and Billy, but what i saw out of Tristan (who had the
best piece of the weekend, and won best dressed walking away) and K (who i would love to hear more out of)
blew me away. Chicago's poetry pool is as deep as their pie's, and

8. Cleveland is far too close for me to not have ever seen their open
mic night. One Truth is nothing shy of outstanding. I wouldn't
recognize Tom Noy if he wasn't smiling and I think the same would go for
Liberty. Columbus poets, whos up for a road trip?

9. Michigan Folk have a good sense of humor. I was afriad of getting flogged
after the harsh things said about their state in "Two Great Men", but I remained
in tact. Logic was actually created in a lab by a Glad scientist, using
James Brown records, B-Boy cardboard, Boondocks comic strips and vascoline. No man is naturally that hilarious and witty.

10. Nats is going to be a fucking blast. I so glad to have met the
acquaintance of so many great poets this weekend that Ill be meeting again
in Madison. I am going to do everything in my power to help my team get
there are prepared as possible. We came close at Rust Belt, and i would
like to be in it to win it in Madison too. As buffalo would say,
"Black-Pearl People are the bomb! and if your not Black Pearl?
you wish you were!"

For those not mentioned in this blog, no lost love, this weekend
was just that nuts. Ill bake you a pumpkin pie in Madison.

Ciao,
Spike