Poetry Slam

The first poetry reading I ever went to I also swore to be my last.  I sat in a Barnes & Noble for two hours listening to old people talk about sex.  Lyss and I begged for the sweet relief of death for the longest two hours of our lives.  So when my roommate asked if I wanted to go to a Poetry Slam, I reluctantly said, “Yeeah…that sounds like…fun.” *painful smile*

The Slam was put on by the Manic Mouth Congress and was to choose the University of Washington Poetry Slam Team to send to California for the national competition. 

For those who don’t know what a Poetry Slam is, here are the rules:

Poems have to be original
No props, music, etc.
3 minute time limit
5 judges are chosen from random from the crowd to score each performance
                The highest and lowest scores are dropped
                The other three scores makes up the poets score for the round
At the beginning of each round, a “sacrificial poet” performs as a way of calibrating the judges scores

As I braced myself for what was to come, the first sacrificial poet went up on stage, and delivered a poem about picking your nose.  And it was funny.  “Ok,” I thought, “This might not be so bad.” 

The poems ranged from Harry Potter to abusive childhoods, and were pretty consistently fantastic.  30 poems and 4 hours later, we left with smiles on our faces and our UW Poetry Slam team chosen.  My person favorite of the evening (as well as the night’s Grand Champion) was Troy Osaki.  His second poem “Halo” just might be one of my favorite poems ever, and lucky for you, he has a Youtube Channel!  Check out his other poems, and enjoy!

Introducing the Gingers

So, we decided that instead of introducing ourselves, which would be boring, we would introduce each other, that way, a more unbiased portrait would be painted regarding our character.  So, here are the mandatory facts without getting specific enough to enable stalking.

Name: Lyssa aka O.G. (Original Ginger) aka Ginger-lyss
Age: Old enough to drink
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite Hobby: Video Games

An exposition on her disposition:
Ginger-lyss is what I would consider your classic "Angry Redhead."  She is prone to fits of rage and cursing, especially whilst engaging in her favorite hobby (see above).  She is notorious for reading to within the last ten pages of a book and stopping completely.  I have suggested therapy for this affliction, she did not respond warmly.  She spends the majority of her time on the computer/console and will thus be writing largely about video games.  She also pretends to be a photographer and will also be speaking on that subject and on art as a more general category.

I have no doubts that her posts will be both entertaining as well as informative and above all else cynical.

Signed,
Ginger-lee


And now it is my turn.

Name: Aub aka Ginger-lee
Age: She claims to be slightly younger than me, but I'm pretty sure she's actually some reincarnated ancient bent on world domination
Favorite Color: Black... I think, she talks a lot about "jewel tones"
Favorite Hobby: Baking, reading and reading about baking

Ginger-lee in a nutshell:
Ginger-lee has worked for years to master the powers of her mind.  Born as blonde as Barbie, Ginger-lee worked for years to will herself into a ginger.  By the age of 10 it had worked. Though overused, the phrase “if looks could kill” has never been a better description than it is of Gingerlee.  Aub has actually murdered people with a single glance, and will continue to do so. If you were to see the two of us walking side-by-side you may struggle to tell who was who. Ironically we could not be more different. Ginger-lee is the quintessence of sophistication.  Grammar guru, culinary connoisseur, she is definitely the classier of the ginga ninjas.

Gl's area of bloggering will be centered around the things that she loves which will probably include baking, literature, all things macabre and mocking my lack of grammatical correctness.  

/blog
Ginger-lyss

That is us.  You may now shower us with love and admiration.