Writing for the sake of writing

I've been busy with school work and getting out to promote RDRR (Dec. 3 at The Regal Beagle with Sachiko Murakami, Myna Wallin and Allan Briesmaster). I've studied a lot on the history of heavy metal magazines and have done a lot of work on this. Fun times.

It's about bloody time I wrote something on this blog. What I'm about to say next is controversial, but I'm not too sure anyone reads this blog.

I was at the Toronto Poetry Slam last night to see the return of Electric Jon as the feature. I'm just going to come out and speak my mind and say TPS has lost a step or three. In the last few months it's become overrun with aspiring rappers delivering the same thing over and over. I can't believe I'm saying this. A year and a half ago I got into a nasty online debate (I wasn't alone) with local poet Paul Vermeersch over the value of spoken word to poetry. He argued slam was full of failed rappers with big egos pretending to be poets. I told him to write about what he knew about; otherwise, shut up. At the time I don't believe he knew what he was talking about. Lately the major slam here in Toronto has become more like his description. It's probably because there is an influx of new people into the scene who have the idea it's nothing more than an a cappella rap off. I'm not putting down everyone who wants to rap their poetry. I thought a few of the more rap style poets (Relevant, in particular) were very good. But just rapping off the same cliches over and over gets tiresome after awhile. There's been a lack of originality in recent months.

Don't get me wrong. I'll continue to attend slams and support the scene. I'm not griping that I didn't make it to the second round last night. This isn't a case of sour grapes. I just feel the shows are starting to become stale. Last night some of the old guard I was hoping to see were eliminated before the show (eliminated by the draw), which was disappointing, though it's good to know nothing is fixed in the slam.