hot damn it's the SEMIS

LouderArts

NUYO

NEOsoul

Silver City

Berkeley

Bout of the night, this will sizzle, one of the best bouts you will ever see, more like the finals than a semi.  Louder ARTS rises up and takes what belongs to them, based on their badass writing, a spot in the finals.

Oakland

St Paul

Charlotte

Baltimore

CHI-GM

It's the semis and anything could happen, like Charlotte going to the finals, AGAIN.

DenverNuba

Atlanta

hollywood

Austin

Richmond

My hearts with Atlanta, i hope they win, but i have to pick Austin, covered in sweat to take the win and go on to tomorrow night, what will be left in their clip ? Hollywood, I hope you get a good seat for the finals, oh wait, no i don't.

San Diego

Denver MERC

BostonCantab

Lincoln

San Francisco

Congrats to Lincoln and San Diego on, I believe, their first trip to the semis.

Denver holds a furious performance by  Cantab  and SF to go back to the finals since a long time.

Going to the finals:

Louder Arts
Charlotte
Austin
Denver Mercury

Possible upsets:
Cantab
Denver Nuba
Oakland

Indie final champ will be:
Oh yeah, never mind

tHuRsDaY's WiNnErS

I have picks for tonight. You are all excited.

Brink, 8: Urbana
Bartell, 8: Los Angeles
Brink, 8: Louder Arts
Bartell, 8: Atlanta JM
MMOC, 8: Nuba
Stage Door, 8: Denver Mercury
Majestic Ass, 8: Nuyorican

(Yes, all three NYC teams are at 8 pm bouts and I've picked them all to win)

Brink, 10: SF
Bartell, 10: This is the weird Houston vs. Houston and Richmond vs. Richmond bout. Houston HT.
Brink, 10: Silver City
Bartell, 10: Cleveland
MMOC, 10: Austin SF
Stage Door, 10: Seattle
Majestic Ass, 10: Killeen

Tonights Picks !

Thursdays Picks, like you care, bear.

BostonLL-1
NUYO-2
Springfield-3
SanDiego-4- The scores in this bout go down as you go south and west

LosAngeles-1
Portland-2
Maui-3
WhitePlains-4-Maui’s honeymoon is over but they still have fun.

AtlantaJM-1
Flagstaff-2
Fayetteville-3
SaltLake-4- Atlanta is on a mission.

DenverDM-1
Hampshire-2
Philadelphia-3
Decatur-4- is Decatur in Illinois ? I suck at geography almost as much as I suck at making picks.





LouderArts-1
Albuquerque-2
ChicagoMG-3
Cincinnati-4- it’s cause of the Bengals and Marge Schott that you will take the 4, Cinci.

NUYO-1
CharlotteRD-2
DetroitBP-3
Eureka-4 Eureka ! We took the 4, oh, nevermind.

SF-1
Oakland-2
Madison-3
Amarillo-4 Battle of the bay leaves Mad and Amarillo looking for bandaids.

RichmondSR-1
HoustonHP-2
RichmondNA-3
HoustonHT-4 Okay, the weirdest bout grouping ever, can we go for four teams from the same city in the same bout next year ?

Killeen-1
St.Paul-2
Buffalo-3
Spartanburg-4 The 300 was a great graphic novel, too bad that doesn’t translate to SLAM

DallasDP-1
Seattle-2
Tuscon-3
Orlando-4 Ok, I’m probably wrong about Orlando.

SilverCity-1
Baltimore-2
Minneapolis-3
NewPaltz-4 Isn’t New Paltz a kind of beer ? if so I pick them to take the one.

AustinSF-1
SanAntonio-2
Vancouver-3
St. Louis-4 Austin and SanAnto means family feud, if it were the REAL family feud St Louis would win.



Kalamazoo-1
Cleveland-2
Manchester-3
OKC-4 I heard that OKC has a great Zoo, next time OKC should put a rhino on the team and let him snort in group poems about rhinos and extinction and they will win the whole thing.

LATE PICKS

But i swear i didn't peek, really.

kalamazoo-1
New Paltz-2
St. Louis -3
Amarillo-4

Seattle-1
Minneapolis-2
St. Paul-3
Richmond-4

San Antonio-1
Madison-2
HoustonHT-3
Manchester-4


AustinSF-1
Baltimore-2
Tuscon-3
Spartanburg-4


Killeen-1
Oakland-2
HoustonHP-3
OCK-4



SilverCity-1
Vancouver-2
Orlando-3
Cleveland-4

DenverDMS-1
Albuquerque-3
NYNUYO-2
DeRay Beach-4

ColumbusBP-1
Charlotte-2
DetroitEC-3
ColumbusWB-4

Berkely-1
BostonCT-2
Paris-3
Boise-4

Honolulu-1
Milwaukee-2
Durham-3
Lincoln-4

FortWorth-1
Toronto-2
Mesa-3
Freehold-4


AustinAP-1
ChicagoGM-2
Phoenix-3
Sacramento-4

Top three score getters,

1-killeen
2-Oakland
3-Silver city

PrEdIcTiOnS fRoM mY cOaSt On WeDnEsDaY

I called nine of the twelve winners right yesterday. More predictions for tonight, where, for some of the teams, the dream dies. Consolation: You get to choose between the Erotic Reading and the Decathalon Reading.

Brink, 8: Seattle. Unless Minneapolis and St. Paul join forces. But that's not legal, is it?
Bartell, 8: Kalamazoo.
Brink II, 8: Cleveland.
Bartell II, 8: Austin SF.
Comedy Club, 8: Madison. It's the home team, after all.
Stage Door, 8: Killeen. (In the finals last year, after all.) Oakland could win this as well.
Brink, 10: Charlotte SC.
Bartell II, 10: New York Nuyorican. This looks huge. I'm going to this one.
Brink II, 10: Austin, but not in a tiebreaker.
Bartell II, 10: Honolulu. If Durham's got more poems, could be Durham again.
MMOC, 10: Berkeley over Cantab in a squeaker.
Stage Door, 10: Fort Worth.
Late Night: Gabrielle.

here are my picks for the first night.
i hope you're realistic enough about your chances not to get pissed off if i didn't pick your team to take the one. the best thing you can do is prove me wrong. Also keep in mind that many of these selections are purely conjectural since i know little or nothing about these teams.
Also, at the bottom are my three picks for high cumulative scores for the evening
To those about to slam,
I SALUTE YOU !




ColumbusWB-3
Bos-CA-2
Hono-1
Freehold-4

NYUR-1
LAPL-2
SaltL-3
Decatur-4

Phoenix-3
Charlotte-1/2
Boise-4
Millwaukee-2

ChicagoMG-2
Eureka-4
Worc-3
Bos-LL-1

FW-2
Aust-AP-1
DetroitEC-4/3
Berkeley-3

White Palins-4
Flag-2
Hampshire-3
Louder Arts-1

Lincoln-4
Mesa-2
Sacramento-3
Columbus BP-1

CharlotteRD-2
DenverNuba-1
Springfield-4
Portland-3

Paris-2
Durham-3
Toronto-4
Chi-GM-1


Atalanta-1
Phily-3
Cinn-4
DetroitBP-2

SF-1
Buffalo-4
Richmond-SR-3
DallasDP-2

Montevallo-4
San Diego-3
Maui-1
Fayetteville-2

1-Boston Lizard
2-Louder Arts
3-Black Pearl

PrEdIcTiOnS fRoM mY cOaSt On TuEsDaY

Bouts, bouts, bouts.

Here's what will happen Tuesday:

Brink, 8: Cantab will win. Scott Woods will cry.
Bartell, 8: Charlotte will win. Maybe they'll do that cool group piece where they hold up Xs.
Comedy, 8: Whoever's funniest between Austin and Berkeley. Or, if people like crying, Fort Worth.
The Other Bartell, 8: Curse of the Columbus Black Pearl, starring Johnny Depp.
MMOC, 8: Chicago GM, though Paris will have berets.
Stage Door, 8: San Francisco wins. Or maybe Dallas does.
Brink, 10: Chicago MG.
Bartell, 10: Urbana.
Comedy Club, 10: Montevallo. (Law of Averages.)
The Other Bartell, 10: Louder Arts. (I know, what a stretch.)
MMOC, 10: Detroit. Or Atlanta.
Stage Door, 10: Denver-Nuba.

I shall take credit for inspiring any upsets tomorrow.

Losers ? How dare you !

Losers ?
Losers !?
Well, YES !
Technically only one team will be a winner at the end of the last rotation on Saturday night.
BUT,
(and thas a BIG but)
it's possible to be a winner through gettin your party on at Nat.s and a having mindblowing blast,
now how you do that is up to you, but it should be just as important as winning.
And don't forget all the great poetry to be seen and listened to and read and WRITTEN !
What startling and great new poems will be actually written at the Nat.s this year ?
The possibilities are limited only by the imagination and degree of sobriety...
But all that aside, yes most of you will lose the competition.
So happy hunting, slam freaks.
NEXT UP ...
My prelim picks for every single cotton pickin bout ~!

When It Comes Right Down To It, You're ALL Losers

Just kidding! Have a great 2008 National Poetry Slam!

(But most of you will be losers.)

(But it's all about the poetry.)