Tonite was the Cactus Slam, and the show was great- it really was, I finally got to have a show outdoors with the PVC light system, and it went well. Bill was a great host, the poets were wonderful, and the audience was generous, as generous anyway as Mesa gets these days.

The night started a little rough- apparently there is someone running around the Phoenix scene filming the slams and putting the performances up on their website- no signoffs, no permission forms, no nothing. I had to nip that shit in the bud, and, of coarse, I had to be the bad guy about it. I got the “well, we don’t film poets if they tell us not to.” bullshit. Buddy, let me give you a little advice, you should not be filming poets at all unless they tell you they want to be filmed, you cannot “assume” you have the right to film just because someone doesn’t tell you not to film.

So, I tell the guy that I’m sorry, but the NP that is sponsoring the event has a filming policy (and we do), and that we would need to discuss his use of the film. This elicited a “but I work with these guys all the time” response- again, the assumption that because you film one place you get to film any place. My response: “well, I’m sorry, but we are not affiliated with those organizers and we have a film policy that we will need to review your use of the footage- because we at times film our own events with appropriate signoffs that allow the poets to know that we will be using the footage to raise money for the NP.”

This solicits a hurumph, and finally a “maybe I’d better not tonite.” to which my response is “I think that would be best”. And he trudges off into the night.

Poets, hear me now, it is your right to be filmed, and no one should film you without you having given that permission- it is not assumed that because you don’t speak up, you have forsaken your rights, they are your rights, period.

SOB.

Mind you, had he come to me with a permission form and asked me to sign it as Anthology, I would have said no. If I had wanted the show filmed, I have a $2,000 camera in my office to do it with, not some cheap ole handycam. And, I would have circulated signoffs to the poets to sign before the show. And I would have done more with it than post it to YouTube…

Mirrored from The Blog of Bob Nelson.

This powerful:




I say no more...

I need a volunteer to keep score, of the Scrabble Game that will be happening during the Cactus Slam 2.0:

I JUST Added to the Cactus Slam: SCRABBLE CHALLENGE
- Each Team (Mesa, Phoenix, Flagstaff and Tucson) chooses a person (can be anyone) can represent your team in the Scabble Challenge that will happen at the same time as the slam. Game starts at 8PM, goes until the slam ends, or the game ends, whichever happens first. Highest score team gets $50, from my own pocket.

http://www.anthology.org/aps/119-cactus-slam-ii.html

This quote from Los Angeles City Attourney’s Office:

“The city attorney does not want something like this happening again, the city paying [the initial costs] for a private event,” spokesman John Franklin said.

So, all the taxes that you collected on the hotel rooms and sales and such… oh say over the last twenty years or so when people come to LA tohave followed michael, or to have seen see his shows… you’re going to give that all back to those people, right?

Jerk.

PS- I get it, $500million is alot to be in debt, but I am sure many other cities (like Gary, In.) would have been honored to host that event, and they would not be dorks about it.

Mirrored from The Blog of Bob Nelson.

Hey all-

   I could use 3-4 people to volunteer for tasks like merch table and scorekeeping for the Cactus slam. Interested? let me know…

Mirrored from The Blog of Bob Nelson.

as in, we kicked some ass in practice tonite...

Go Tiny Mesa!

testing some tech

Mirrored from The Blog of Bob Nelson.

So, my new cubemate and I are swapping Google Map shots of our respective new England homes (79 Nelson Rd, South Weymouth- for the curious- yes, my Grandfather/Uncle, were the developers), and talking about how much we miss the old country. He's from Southern Main, about an hour from the city.

Kinda wish I had gotten to see the Standing O for Nomah last night, that was very cool.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Slam team practice tonite, and I have a ton of work on Haven Stories to finish, and Movie meeting is tomorrow night, and I've started pulling together the parts for a game I've had since I was 16. I also need to meet with Dave and finalize plans for Saturday's slam and get some more promotion out on it as well. So, busy is the name of the game these next few weeks...

Ham-ditty rolls for Cali on Sunday, and what kinnd of dad would I be if I didn't have her working up until the moment she leaves, so she will be working Cactus 2.0 on Saturday night, Ironically, seven years ago the day she arrived after I received full time custody, was the first Cactus Slam.

Sharon dodges work at the cactus, by leaving for Washington DC on saturday for two weeks- she'll be a rare commodity around these parts as she has that, followed by a work meeting, follwed by her annual writer's conference...

So- that leaves Aura and I to fend for ourslves for a couple weeks, much pasta will be consumed, we'll have to find stuff to keep us busy.

Maybe Todd is aiming to get into politics?

Why AZPoetrypedia.com is important, and why you should get involved in updating it.

This Anthology.org article is here online. Comments may be made here


AZPoetrypedia.com celebrates it’s one year anniversary on Saturday, July 4th 2009 and we cross 45,000 page views in that one year, and over 400 pages added to the index so far. But why does any of that matter? What’s the point of creating such an archive?

The site itself, simply says: “This site is sponsored by Anthology, Inc. External URL and is designed to be a resource for locating information about poets, poetry venues, and poems that are related to Arizona.”

In deciding that the site was needed, there were two things that pressed most into considerations- Education and Posterity.
( Read more... )

We slam like Dakota Darkhorse depends on it...

"DPS: Don't stop on Loop 202 for fireworks"

And people still do it...

Sooooo....

DPS will close the damn freeway to let crews spend 72 hours to paint a white stripe?

We're in a budget crisis?

It's Freeway festival time!

Close the freeway- which is raised freeway allowing access only at the exits, rent out all those stupid new age artsy craftsy booths that you see all over town in January and february, charge people $5 "to get on", and they are guarenteed the best seats for the Tempe Town Lake Display. Kick a % back to Tempe as a thank you for the firworks...

Call it "Festival 202"

Shawnte Orion, I would just email you, but I can't use email at work- how does your schedule look tonite or tomorrow, do you have some time to get together? I have sometin' I'd like to chat with you about...

Sat Night, July 11th

Mesa meets Tucson and Phoenix (and maybe Flag if someone can get ahold of them) in a death match poetry slam....

There must be a host

but not just any host

THE MOST TRUSTED VOICE IN ARIZONA...

Are you available? and Willing?

I have now given a label, Zombieotica...

She now has created her own Genre of poetry...

So, do you know someone that would like to get into slam a little, but perhaps would like the opportunity to talk about it BEFORE they hit the stage?

Well, now is your chance, as a fundraiser for the Mesa Poetry Slam Team, I am hosting 3 sessions over 3 weeks for poets and writers that would like an introduction to slam.

It's $15 for all three sessions, and they run the 9th, 16th and 23rd.

Sign up here, I can only handle 10 people (effectively), so the first come, first served has it...


http://www.anthology.org/workshop-registration.html

New bill doesn't apply to cow-tipping

It's an anti-dogfighting bill that got expanded to all animals, except cowtipping.

So, I've been preparing to get back into Star Fleet Battles lately, I picked up a bunch of stuff from eBay, Captain's edition stuff from '99 as opposed to the Commander's edition stuff I had from '83. I still remember when I finally had my $20 to buy the volume II edition of the rules- which I still have to this day.

I just received a BUNCH of stuff this weekend, and I need to figure out what I have, what I need, and what I want to do. I had said that i was going to start a tutor session (after I've played enough to get back in the swing of things, and I'll probably sponsor a tourney at some point.

I've got some plans to rearrange my cave and open up some space to set up a table for playing on... I am pretty jazzed about it actually.

I think I'll ask Dave if he would be willing to let me host some weekend ganing at Queens- might be a great way to fill some tables on a Saturday and get some business.