But riding around Tennessee and Arkansas with Russ Ritter has been super. Really truly. We started at the University of Memphis on Tuesday, Hendrix College in Conway, AR on Wednesday, ASU-Beebe last night, and now we’re at our hotel in Batesville for my gig at Lyon College. The audiences have all been medium to huge and enthusiastic to say the least. Especially Hendrix and Beebe. Wow! What great kids they all were. And they all hung out after my set, which is by far my favorite part of touring.

I am going to chill out in Fayetteville with Russ this weekend, and then I have one more Arkansas school to go before I hit Kansas City again.
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The Individual World Poetry Slam is going on right now and I am sad not to be there. It’s making me homesick for Canada. It’s phenomenally unfortunate scheduling that is keeping me away from the one place I really want to be right now — Vancouver. Vancougar. Vansterdam. VanCity. Jean Claude VanDamn!. East Vancouver is such a home to me. I know there are about a hundred American slammers righ now, totally digging the scene that has acquired so much of my heart.

Reasons I belong there right now:

1. It’s closer to my girlfriend than I’ve been in months. I’d find a way to get her there, were I there. We’d make out hard, among other things.
2. It’s my title that’s on the line, but I have enough titles…I may try for it next year in Columbus because Columbus is rad.
3. I could help the American poets learn the Canadian ways. “It’s called a tuque, not a beanie.”
4. Poutine at Belgian Fries. Black Plague beer at Cafe Deux Soleils.
5. So many rad poets there all at once, and so many of them are so good on stage.
6. Commercial Drive.
7. Stanley Park. Ask anyone there how to get to it, because you must see it before you leave.
8. Nanaimo bars. Find one and think of me when you eat it. Diabetic coma inducers. When you orgasm, you can thank me.
9. Canadians. Much cooler than we give credit.
10. The Vancouver Slam scene: best in the west.

I could list my predictions as to who the finalists will be, but that’s not fair. I can say that I am pulling for too many people to make sense out of the twelve final slots. In all honesty, I would like to see Alvin Lau make it, as well as C.R. Avery, Dan Leaman, Patrick Swan, JohnMark, Marc Marcel, and Kim Johnson. I am missing so many people because I do not have the full list in front of me.

If I could pick a winner, it would be RC Weslowski hands down. I just discovered he qualified to be in the competition and that made my day. I cannot choose anyone else because Randy is my favorite poet. Ever. Always. The skill he has on and off stage is remarkable, which is why I am remarking, and why I’ve had a webpage for him for some time now. http://www.mikemcgee.net/weslowski.html If he grabs the title, I’d be just as proud as all of Vancouver will be.

I do truly hope Jamie Kennedy DeWolf makes it to finals. Our history slamming against each other in the SF Bay Area is long and old, and so I know his work very, very well. He is the only poet whose work has ever intimidated mine. Seeing his name on a sign-up list at a slam back in 2000 was the scariest thing a Bay Area poet could experience. Nobody looked forward to slamming against Jamie, especially me. He’s gotten a lot of crap from the slam community for his style, volume, methods and topics. He’s one of the hardest working poets I know and he has grown so much over the years. I hope that gets noticed at this competition. I am really pulling for him.

Of course, there are all of the heavy hitters like Sonya Renee, Buddy Wakefield, Anis Mojgani, Ed Mabrey, Andrea Gibson, and Joaquin Zihautenejo. I’d just like to see what they’re doing this year, and then point and laugh at them if they’re repeating the same stuff, because that is whack. I love them all, but that would be considerably whack.