I have been through every scrap of paper and blank book I own and can’t find the SPEAK themes anywhere.

Can one of y’all post em for me?

Grrr…

I just realized that the last three slam events I’ve been to (2005 iWPS, 2005 NPS, 2006 iWPS) were all excellent.

It is just possible I may have misjudged the moribund nature of the Beast.

I mean, I heard crap in all three events, but the good stuff I heard was pretty damn good.

This year’s revelation, in the bouts I heard, was Ryler Dustin from (I’m almost sure) Seattle. Intense writer, good delivery. Nice guy too. It will be interesting to see he if he stays involved with slam, as his work is not representative of a lot what you hear these days. I think that’s a good thing.

There are a lot of others to mention, but I’ll do it in the natural course of things as I go along.

I performed four times: twice in the sacrifice slam (“MWSB” and “Punk”), once in the men’s reading (“Nuggets,” a new one — OFF PAGE!), and once as a sacrifice on the second night (“Punk” again — I would have preferred to have done something else but it was a two minute round and the only thing I had that I knew would fit and had the necessary energy was “Punk”). That might be the most I’ve read at any slam event since 1999.

I’ll be in Austin for sure, since I’m determined to award the Ken Hunt Prize this year. Which means I might have to go to Slammasters, I suppose…

Amazing how wiping my hands of a thing never lasts.