SlamProfile.com

Live from Minneapolis, MN…

For about the last two years, I’ve fantasized about putting together a truly comprehensive, non-Poetry Slam, Inc. website or wiki on the topic of poetry slam. My biggest drawback has been time and motivation. It is amazingly difficult to get amped-up about a community that only gets amped-up between April and August[!] (as they field teams to compete at the National Poetry Slam.)

I had found a dead wiki on poetry slam and wanted to revive it, but I gave up realizing it would become a time suck and would only fulfill this very personal need to have complete access to the history, lists, who’s-who bios, and stats of the poetry slam world.

Granted, there are so many poetry slams throughout the world. Some are reliably consistent, like the one run by Ko and Rayl at Substanz in Munich, and some exist for one night only. But because there are so many events and no real online source to discover all of them, to keep that information organized and accessible, I feel there is a need for some sort of slam database.

Then I noticed a Facebook wall post by poet and web-head Lindsay Stone for her brand-spanking new site SlamProfile.com So I checked it out and realized that this may be just what the poetry slam world needs.

It is without a doubt a Myspace/Facebook for performance poetry and I believe, if it catches on, it could be the source for poetry slam information, poet profiles and networking. There is no reason for people and poets not to check it out. You can post your audio and videos there, and one does not have to be logged-in to access those files either. That alone should be enough to get poets off of Myspace…

SlamProfile.com has a lot to offer poets, even right now in its earliest stage. I was the 41st poet to join, the water is warm and there is plenty of room. If it catches on, it should feel like a viable, valuable social networking tool for poets in no time.

Go check out SlamProfile.com and add “McGee” as a friend. Tell them I sent you.

And thank you, Lindsay Stone. You’re doing awesome things with it.
———
Word to the nerd.

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 9 July, 2010 at 3:50 PM, filed under Uncategorized and tagged facebook, myspace, Performance Poetry and Spoken Word, slamprofile.com, social networking, twitter. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

JOURNAL POST CHALLENGE [1/365]

I generally write when I want to. I have never "believed" in writer’s block. I feel I must really live life fully to have anything to write about.

Here’s a list that clarifies my heart, mind and soul:

PRIORITIES (ties are listed with the same number)
1. the education of my life and the actual living of and through it
1. love (getting and giving of)
3. humor (getting and giving of)
3. socializing (family/friends; communicating everything through the obstacles of distance, difference and distraction)
3. creativity/writing (all forms of art; screenplays, crafts, short stories, design, essays, journal entries)
6. poetry (writing and performing of)
7. food and entertainment
8. snacks
9. politics
10. everything else except violence, apathy and indifference (no room for them on my list or in my life)

My on-line social networking began in 2001 with Friendster, then I added LiveJournal to the mix in 2003. Then there was the Myspace era (c. 2003 to 2007?) which quickly replaced Friendster, but was resoundingly trumped by Facebook. The one constant I’ve had is my LiveJournal. I enjoy going through and seeing what I’ve done in the last 7 years. I almost despise the recent automated Twitter re-posts of last year.

The ONLY reason I’ve remained "loyal" to LJ is the sheer numbers of awesome people acquainted with my account. The amount of people who readily read and comment on my real posts is so beneficial. LiveJournal is a good conduit toward developing and making good on the above list of priorities – or at least as good as I am honest in my posts.

I feel I have not been very honest with my journal lately. I’ve let it sit on the back burner for the last couple of years. No more Twitter re-posts from now on.

I am challenging myself to post every day.

MY 365 POST RULES
1. must post every day
2. must be more than 160 characters
3. must respond to comments that require a response

In this, I think I will read more about what my friends are doing. One negative aspect to having "too many" friends on FB or MS is the fact that you cannot truly catch up and keep in touch with everyone on an actual personal basis. It’s too easy to "like" a status update. It’s like only nodding at a friend in a café when you both know you should be having a conversation.

There is so much love in my heart for so many people. Even strangers it seems. I want to get it out there. I want to put it on the table and let everyone see it and have it if they deserve it. I see in myself that I am able to communicate these feelings well to people when I am on stage and when I am writing from my very being. I think this post alone is a good example of that.

So this is just a start.
–––––––––
Word to the nerd.
2010: Live well.

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 7 January, 2010 at 4:40 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged journal, Love, post challenge, priorities, social networking. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

On the Internet

Over the last year, I’ve become very disgruntled with the amount people using useless and/or unnecessary social networking sites on the web. In November, I deleted my Myspace page, and other than the ability to message 4,000 people all at once, I have not missed much of it. I still run the T.O.F.U. (myspace.com/tonsoffununiversity) profile there, which I am trying to keep very simple.

Instead of hoarding people and sites, we should be evolving with the web. For example, the first social profile I created was at Friendster. It sucked over time, so I moved to Myspace in 2003, and now I’m at Facebook, which has learned a lot from the “growing suckage” of it’s predecessors. These predecessors are now learning from the new kids on the internet block; keeping up with the trend of quality usefulness and user-friendliness. Smart, that is.

However, I feel that when one does add themselves to a new community, they should pick one or two and stick with it. Each online community is very much like a house or a city, very few people live in more than one. It doesn’t seem logical.

By this, I figure I will leave Facebook once a better, more efficient networking portal comes along. It may exist already, but I would probably have to utilize my web-addiction a lot more to find it and develop yet another group of people I will always hardly know personally.

A good friend of mine has accounts and profiles registered on dozens of various social networking websites. I also know that this friend is annoyed with the amount maintenance needed to keep them updated, and eventually forgets about them, only to re-register as a new user. With me trying to be creative and maintain my touring schedule, I was falling behind on my Facebook and Myspace maintenance, so one of them had to go and I went with the lesser of two suckas.

My LiveJournal account has much more value to me than my Myspace profile ever did, which is why I’m keeping it. But now that I’ve “WordPress-ed” my site toward blog-friendliness, I am now reconsidering how I will use my LJ blog. I have considered using it as a Neat Links page, or as my gig listings. Not sure what I will do with it just yet.

I dig the web big time, but I certainly see the lack of much actual art/action stemming from being a member of any website or social network. I think there are a handful of people who have made their careers through web affiliation or promotion on some of these, but it seems to be a small handful of barely-skilled entertainers, and I believe it is a fleeting fame they are falling into. Over time, it’s a very small percentage of the world that actually cares about people who are famous for being famous. Fame in art is nice, but not necessary or primary. Art in fame would be nice to see.

Looking at the nature of shitty things on the net versus actual shitty things in the world and can I see that the web is a moving, growing tabloid of low-quality public interest and a broken amplifier of what the world really is and could become. The truest aspects of what counts in life can a should be found offline, on one’s own, then maybe one can research it online.

The internet is amazing. I certainly get most of my information from it, and have made more of a career through it, but I also tour a lot and perform many, many times a year in front of hundreds of thousands of people. That helps too. No matter how many people know you on the internet, one can never truly understand their own impact until they personally meet and greet the people they have or are impacting.

I feel like there needs to be better contact and context from artists online. If you have a growing fan base, stay in touch with them. Take the time to reach out and know your audience. I can learn from this philosophy too. I have really slipped in the last year with regard to keeping in touch with friends, fans and users. I am going to make a difference this year.

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 27 January, 2008 at 4:59 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged facebook, Internet-Stuff, myspace, online, social networking, websites. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.