I am at a lost for words. A HUGE deal for myself, to be honest with you. Me being silent is nothing short of an act of GOD! But I dont know what to do... so I came here to write.
So last night I entered a slam. Really wasnt feeling it but that that I would go in any way. Went in with what I call my "throw away poems", poems that I had written but wasnt all that comfortable with. Yes, I should have prepared better. Well as the night goes on I am going up against friends and other performers that I know. One friend, they get up there and they are performing this piece.... and it is getting a little long. I look over to another competitor and we both have the "Damn they are cutting close to going over the time limit" face. My friend sitting next to me taps me on my arm; she had been timing him and he has 6 seconds left to get to the time limit. This person crosses the 3 minute mark and I am thinking VICTORY, but then they kept going. No buzzer was sounded, no one spoke up. I am thinking... are you serious?!!! I love this person to life but, ARE YOU SERIOUS! As soon as the person finishes the piece and is walking away from the mic, then the buzzer sounds. From the stop watch my friend started this person was now 6 seconds over the time limit; this should have been an automatic disqualification. But no one said a word.
I perform my poem, not my best performance, I shall be the first to admit. Well, then it comes down to judging, here I am thinking that we have one more round to go. First off, one of the people should have been disqualified....and then a final round was taken from us without our notice. SO much was going wrong here. I was in my crying phase from my last emotional poem so I didnt catch it. Well, the crowd pic the friend......the one who went over by 6 seconds.
I am happy for this friend.... on the inside I am, but I cant help but know that this person went over time and it was all based on the time keeper paying attention. Did they not start it right when he spoke? Did they get caught up in his poem and then look down and noticed they went over time once he was done and didnt confess? There is so much going on here. I had two unofficial stop watches next to me who recorded this person going over time. And I cant help but feel shafted. I think that there should always be 2 time keepers just to make it fair. I think that a rep for the person competiting should be somewhere near the time keepers. I just am conflicted.
I am conflicted because I am happy for my friend that the audience picked them... their work is FIYAH and deserves to win, but then on the other hand...... they should have been disqualified. I dont know how I can be happy on that side. And this looks as if I am complaining. COmplaining would mean that there was no error and everything was done on the up and up. We were suppose to have a third round which meant that I could have pulled out my strongest piece, didnt happen. This person went over time but there was no one there to check the official time keeper, yep... didnt happen. So yeh... it just sucks!!! So, there is my rant for today.
Truw contras to the friend who won, but I have to fight the fight of reforming how events are handled. A plan B has to be in effect and the performers have to be aware of everything that is going on.
So last night I entered a slam. Really wasnt feeling it but that that I would go in any way. Went in with what I call my "throw away poems", poems that I had written but wasnt all that comfortable with. Yes, I should have prepared better. Well as the night goes on I am going up against friends and other performers that I know. One friend, they get up there and they are performing this piece.... and it is getting a little long. I look over to another competitor and we both have the "Damn they are cutting close to going over the time limit" face. My friend sitting next to me taps me on my arm; she had been timing him and he has 6 seconds left to get to the time limit. This person crosses the 3 minute mark and I am thinking VICTORY, but then they kept going. No buzzer was sounded, no one spoke up. I am thinking... are you serious?!!! I love this person to life but, ARE YOU SERIOUS! As soon as the person finishes the piece and is walking away from the mic, then the buzzer sounds. From the stop watch my friend started this person was now 6 seconds over the time limit; this should have been an automatic disqualification. But no one said a word.
I perform my poem, not my best performance, I shall be the first to admit. Well, then it comes down to judging, here I am thinking that we have one more round to go. First off, one of the people should have been disqualified....and then a final round was taken from us without our notice. SO much was going wrong here. I was in my crying phase from my last emotional poem so I didnt catch it. Well, the crowd pic the friend......the one who went over by 6 seconds.
I am happy for this friend.... on the inside I am, but I cant help but know that this person went over time and it was all based on the time keeper paying attention. Did they not start it right when he spoke? Did they get caught up in his poem and then look down and noticed they went over time once he was done and didnt confess? There is so much going on here. I had two unofficial stop watches next to me who recorded this person going over time. And I cant help but feel shafted. I think that there should always be 2 time keepers just to make it fair. I think that a rep for the person competiting should be somewhere near the time keepers. I just am conflicted.
I am conflicted because I am happy for my friend that the audience picked them... their work is FIYAH and deserves to win, but then on the other hand...... they should have been disqualified. I dont know how I can be happy on that side. And this looks as if I am complaining. COmplaining would mean that there was no error and everything was done on the up and up. We were suppose to have a third round which meant that I could have pulled out my strongest piece, didnt happen. This person went over time but there was no one there to check the official time keeper, yep... didnt happen. So yeh... it just sucks!!! So, there is my rant for today.
Truw contras to the friend who won, but I have to fight the fight of reforming how events are handled. A plan B has to be in effect and the performers have to be aware of everything that is going on.
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