Undigested Lumps Showing 4,751-4,800 of 5,938

[Katarina]

bye!!! You'll never find me!!!

[Sam~~ we cannot see the moon, and yet the waves still rise~~]

Katarina wrote: "Sam, I'll give you another hint.

You've got that thing"

what thing?

hahaha, jude, i was going to say the same thing.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

THAT'S AWESOMESAUCE SAM BUT I DON'T WANT YOU TO LEAVE. *starts to chain Sam to a rock*.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

NEIGH ITS NOT.

[Katarina]

it's a hint to finding me. And i like bloo.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

THEN COME HELP ME.

[Katarina]

Saru, you know how i couldn't find you yesterday? Well, i bet you cant find me.

[Taylor]

I have returned for a minute. I'm listening to that duet over and over again because I am addicted and intimidated and how am I supposed to learn this in 38 days??

[Katarina]

yupperz!!!

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

GOOD LUCK TAYLOR.

SORRY KAT RIGHT NOW IM CHAINING SAM TO A ROCK.

[Katarina]

NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

YUPPP.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Or you could just recycle it.

WHO AM I KIDDING?

[Katarina]

um, i just yell at it make it into an airplane then throw it at the tv

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

RAGEEEEEE. *Chucks decoy into pit of flames*.

[Taylor]

@Jude

And a lot of luck. XD The sad thing is, it's such a complex song that we need 2 pianos.

Translation: I can't sit next to Hazel. XD

[Katarina]

Cx

[Taylor]

@Jude

Nope. Each part basically takes up the entire piano. Like…5 octaves of room. :D

[Taylor]

Yup. It's a craaaaaaazy song. I love it, though.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

SARU IS.

[Taylor]

FFFFFFFFFFFT OMIGOSH GUYS STRESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I WASN'T COUNTING ON GOING TO THIS POETRY NIGHT, BUT I JUST GOT IT TO WORK OUT AND I HAVE NOTHING NEW AND POLISHED TO PERFORM

*ANXIETY ATTACK*

Whoot.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

I like Jude's idea.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Hahaha!

WE BELIEVE IN YOU TAYLOR! *Gives an inspiring pep talk*.

[Taylor]

Lol, I've already performed all my successful stuff multiple times at this particular venue. If it were somewhere new, sure. But this is somewhere I've already been and this is actually a semi-legit poetry slam with cash prizes and everything. :D

[Katarina]

Do something from Goodreads.

[Taylor]

@Jude

Yup. I have 75 minutes now because of tech issues with one of my poems (I have to have two).

[Taylor]

Oh yeuhhhh. I got dis.

I was really stuck on this poem I'm totally freewriting, so I'm just going to combine this with another poem idea I have. :D

[Katarina]

Good Luck even though your not going to need it.

[Taylor]

I totally changed my mind on the poem I was going to write and basically wrote something entirely from scratch. Hazel and I will do a poem on this topic soon, but I think this will do well tonight.

Check it out in the poetry section.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Taylor [Falling in love again and again] wrote: "I totally changed my mind on the poem I was going to write and basically wrote something entirely from scratch. Hazel and I will do a poem on this topic soon, but I think this will do well tonight...."

*RUNS TO THE POETRY SECTION*.

[Sam~~ we cannot see the moon, and yet the waves still rise~~]

i have a decoy now? I WANNA SEE.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Sam~ on sleepless roads the sleepless go~ wrote: "i have a decoy now? I WANNA SEE."

I ALREADY BURNT IT, SAM.

[Sam~~ we cannot see the moon, and yet the waves still rise~~]

Saru (Queen of Bookland) wrote: "Sam~ on sleepless roads the sleepless go~ wrote: "i have a decoy now? I WANNA SEE."

I ALREADY BURNT IT, SAM."

CAN YOU, LIKE, UN-BURN IT? XD

[Sevania]

Taylor [Falling in love again and again] wrote: "What?

Oh. I thought Katarina was announcing the end of PMSing…. Guess not. Darn."

I'd love to see that.

[Sevania]

Taylor [Falling in love again and again] wrote: "@Jude

I still work at the grocery store working a 5 AM-2 PM shit. Haven't found a new job yet. :/"

Hahahahhahahahahhahahahaha

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Sam~ on sleepless roads the sleepless go~ wrote: "Saru (Queen of Bookland) wrote: "Sam~ on sleepless roads the sleepless go~ wrote: "i have a decoy now? I WANNA SEE."

I ALREADY BURNT IT, SAM."

CAN YOU, LIKE, UN-BURN IT? XD"

*HAS THAT KIND OF TECHNOLOGY BEEN INVENTED?*

IN OTHER NEWS I JUST WATCHED THE HOST AND OH MY GOSHNESS THAT WAS INCREDIBLE AND ASDFGHJKL;

[Sevania]

Saru. I finished City of Bones. You may not want to read my sorry excuse for a review, though.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Did you not like it?

[Sevania]

Oh, I loved it. (But I guess you've seen that by now.)

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Sev–I tried being normal once. It was horrible. wrote: "Oh, I loved it. (But I guess you've seen that by now.)"

YES. YES I HAVE. AND THAT IS THE BEST REVIEW I HAVE EVER READ.

[Sevania]

OH. OKAY. THANK YOU. (IT WAS PROBABLY THE STRANGEST REVIEW I'VE EVER WRITTEN)

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Sev–I tried being normal once. It was horrible. wrote: "OH. OKAY. THANK YOU. (IT WAS PROBABLY THE STRANGEST REVIEW I'VE EVER WRITTEN)"

BUT THE MOST EMOTIONALLY ACCURATE.

[Sevania]

That's probably true.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Sev–I tried being normal once. It was horrible. wrote: "That's probably true."

YUP. Have you seen my review of it?

[Taylor]

So, y'all want to hear what goes on at a poetry slam? Or at least, the informal one I was at?

Of course you do. :D Sit down, get comfortable.

So, I had no way to get down to this poetry slam. My parents had other plans for the evening, so I shot the event organizer, who is a good friend of mine, an email and asked him if he would be able to give me a ride. At first, he said no but he would try to find someone for me, but he ended up being able to take me.

He picked me up at the grocery store I work at because it was a nice central location we all knew about. In the back was the night's backdrop, a huge black-and-white painting of a cabin with a smoking chimney. I don't have pictures to show you because I forgot about that, but trust me…it was cool. :D

We drove over to the nearest gas station to meet up with some of our buddies to eat pizza and chat and mostly just to discuss set-up plans.

On the way down to our venue, I helped my friend, Roah, memorize his show-opening piece. There are two things you should know about Roah:

1. He's the most chill kid in the world
2. He's freakin' talented

But tonight…chill he was not. The whole time down there, he was failing miserably at keeping his cool while he skipped lines and stanzas of his poem about romantic things he did with this girl.

Slam Poetry 101: Most of the love poems are fiction. :D

We got there, and started to set up. Lemme see if I can give you an idea of what the room and our decorations look like.

We're in a room in the back of this little cafe that is a very dim, brick-walled Mecca for our local poets. When you walk through the black curtain that has replaced the door, you can tell this place was built for strong emotions. People who have come over the years for concerts and our open mics have written their names on the bricks. The strongest source of light when the stage lights aren't on is a red neon sign glowing with the word "People." To the immediate left and right of the doorway are large, step-like benches for people to sit on, and a whole control panel for all the sound equipment they have set up -- speakers, mics, monitors, etc. The stage is a little raised platform in the front left corner of the room. The floor has room for maybe 40 chairs.

When we arrived, we set up our backdrop, hung Christmas lights around it, and made sure all the sound equipment was in order. Last-minute, I found the lady who was helping us and asked her to help me set up a jack for my iPod (for my duo poem). She was a little peeved I didn't talk to her an hour before, but whipped out a converter all the same.

People started filing in at about 8 PM. These are all the roughest sorts of people that many have labeled "bad kids." Guys with long, unwashed hair, girls with pierced faces and dark eyeliner, and an overall feel of "I am depressed." That's what we, the poets, are here for. We make them feel accepted when my little conservative town sometimes forgets that Christ's teachings extend beyond church meetings. But they're good people. Maybe a little confused, but good people all the same.

Let me briefly explain how this slam worked. There were slots for 15 poets. Each of them would perform a poem, then the judges would select 5 finalists. Those 5 finalists would perform another piece, and the audience and judges would select 1st and 2nd place winners. First place gets a trophy (purchased at Deseret Industries, Utah's version of Goodwill XD ) and $50, and 2nd place gets $15.

At around 8:30, we finally got started. I was up first, because I signed up in the middle, and everyone signed up after. We only had 9 poets, raising my chances of making it to the finals from 33% to 55.6%. (Yes, I really calculated that.)

My poem was a fail. It was a duo poem with my friend Eliza. Well, a recording of her voice, anyway. Because she couldn't be there, we recorded her part with pauses in between for me to read my lines. Problem is, when I get antsy, I talk much faster than normal, so there were always a few seconds between my line and her next. And the audience just didn't react strongly to it, which made me nervous.

The other poets were fantastic. We had 3 professional poets come compete, who were all part of a team that will be going to the national poetry slam coming up here. Each of them performed powerful poems. The other performers were friends of mine who I've seen at lots of events.

After our first round, the judges went off to discuss winners of the first round. I went and talked to one of the professionals because connections are always good. He told me he had never seen a duo poem outside of a slam team before, and that made my day, because I always strive for the unique. I also got his contact information so he could help me break into the poetry scene a little more.

The judges came back and Roah announced the finalists. The three professionals made it in, to no one's surprise. My friend Soley, a really awesome girl from Iceland, made it in as well. Then I made it, which was surprising, because there were, in my opinion only two poems that failed more than mine. :D

For my next poem, I performed "34 Things I Learned in High School." That one went much better. It didn't quite get the reactions I was hoping for on some key parts, but the end worked very well and I got the exact mood I was looking for out of that audience.

The poet I talked to during intermission was probably my favorite. He performed a poem about the Kupa (sp?) King from the Mario video games that was absolutely hysterical. "THAT PLUMBER IS A CRIMINAL. WELL, I'M RESPONSIBLE FOR KIDNAPPING, BUT THAT'S ONLY A LITTLE BAD, RIGHT? IN COMPARISON TO THE GENOCIDE OF MY COUNTLESS MINIONS."

In the end, two of the professionals won, which we were all okay with because they did a phenomenal job. They needed the money, too, because driving out to another state in the middle of the country is no cheap endeavor.

To round out the awesome night, I talked to one of the amateur poets, who told me that he loved how real my poetry was. And he did the craziest thing possible -- he started asking for advice. He has a stuttering problem and wanted to know how to overcome that. Because I've never had a stuttering problem, I told him some of the things that help me maintain clarity in my speech, and I think it helped him.

We packed up, Roah and I flirted with some of the girls, and then we drove home with the soundtrack for "Where the Wild Things Are" blasting loud enough for people to turn their heads as we drove by at 11 o'clock at night.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Taylor [Falling in love again and again] wrote: "So, y'all want to hear what goes on at a poetry slam? Or at least, the informal one I was at?

Of course you do. :D Sit down, get comfortable.

So, I had no way to get down to this poetry slam. M..."

I'm not even done reading but I read "...shot the event organizer..." and I panicked. DEAR GOD TAYLOR THERE WAS NO NEED TO SHOOT HIM. "...an email." Oh.

[Taylor]

Nah, he probably already shot himself…with drugs….

Yay poetry humor.

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Taylor [Falling in love again and again] wrote: "Nah, he probably already shot himself…with drugs….

Yay poetry humor."


YAY!

[Saru (Queen of Bookland)]

Taylor [Falling in love again and again] wrote: "So, y'all want to hear what goes on at a poetry slam? Or at least, the informal one I was at?

Of course you do. :D Sit down, get comfortable.

So, I had no way to get down to this poetry slam. M..."

THAT WAS A GREAT STORY. I ENJOYED IT.

[Sevania]

Taylor! That sounds like an amazing night! I wish I could have heard everyone perform.