Bwana Geek

Stuff to go see!

2005-10-04T21:08:00.000-04:00

The Ottawa slam team (which includes yours truly) heads out Saturday morning to go spend a week in Vancouver for the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Sigh, it's a hard life... If you want to get a chance to see us and wish us luck before we go, you've got two more chances:

Wednesday, October 5, 2005

National Capital Throwdown III

8 p.m.

Gap of Dunloe (263 Bank St. @ Cooper)

This is a Throwdown! The Capital Poetry Collective presents its FREE open mic night for established and emerging Ottawa poets. This edition will see popular local poets in a Poetry Xchange, randomly performing each other's best-known poems in a night of hilarity and fun! Performers include Steve Sauvé, Kevin Matthews, DJ Morales, Ritallin, and more! For more info, email Throwdown Coordinator Jessica Ruano at throwdown@capitalslam.com.

Friday, October 7, 2005

World Beats & Eats

7-10 p.m.

Mercury Lounge (in the market at 56 Byward St., upstairs from the Collection)

Check out this fantastic event that combines two of the best things in the world - food and music - with poetry! This event will donate proceeds to travel costs for the 2005 Capital Slam Team's trip to Vancouver for the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word! Eats by East India Company, Oz Café and Middle East Bakery. Beats by Lance Baptiste and Emily Jones. Giveaways by Six Degrees Records Vernissage by Daser. Gonna be crazy fun! $8 at the door.

Upcoming Events

2005-06-30T19:04:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, July 6th @ 8 pm
Bridging the Gap at Babylon Nightclub (317 Bank)
A fundraiser showcasing the best talent Ottawa has to offer. Hosted by Mike Check with performances by spoken word artists Valerie Armstrong, Kevin Matthews, DJ Morales, Ritallin and John Akpata. Also: b-boy battle, MC showcase, live band, live graffiti and DJs. Other performers include PressWon, Flip Kuma, DeCypher Cru, Boogaloo Tribe, DJ T-Wrecks and DJ D-Mass, among others. $5 admission.

Friday, July 8th @ 7 pm
Bon MOTS: The 1st Annual Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto Slam
Ottawa Public Library Main Branch Auditorium (120 Metcalfe @ Laurier)
Featuring performances by some of the finest poets in the tri-city area, including Wakefield Brewster, Leviathan and Amanda Hiebert (Toronto), Lady Katalyst, Buttaphly, Steel and Blu (Montreal), Kevin Matthews, Steve Sauvé, Owen Hewitt and Madame H (Ottawa). Hosted by Ritallin the Cerebral Stimulant. For more info, contact info@capitalslam.com or call 252-1777. $10 admission.

Saturday, July 9th (7 pm to 2 am)
Golden Cherry Awards
SAW Gallery (67 Nicholas St.)
The biggest awards show in town, with 10 emcees, live voting by the public, competing bands and over 200 hot local artists looking for attention. Sponsored by Stella Artois and Westboro BIA. $10 admission.

Sunday, July 10th
International Team Poetry Slam
Toronto (time and location TBA)
Ottawa's newly formed Capital Slam Team will face off against other slam teams from across the globe! Gulp...

Sunday, July 17th @ 5 pm
Dusty Owl Reading
Swizzles (246B Queen St, near Kent)
Capital Slam and Dusty Owl combine forces as the Capital Slam Team performs as a team in Ottawa for the first time and shows off what they’ll be taking to Vancouver at the 2005 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word! For more info about the show, please email steve@dustyowl.com. Free admission!

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

2005-06-29T12:42:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since my last post, and I've neglected to announce a few events that have come and gone. What can I say? The Fringe Festival kept me pretty busy for a while. Maybe some other interesting stuff has been happening as well. ;)

First things first: Every year, the SAW Gallery holds a fundraiser called the Golden Cherry Awards, which presents awards in a variety of categories to Ottawan artists in every category imaginable. Here are some relevant nominations for the spoken word community:

Capital Poetry Collective (Best Website and Best Collective)
Oni the Haitian Sensation (Best Poetry/Spoken Word)
Kevin Matthews (Best Poetry/Spoken Word)
Q the Romantic Revolutionary (Best Poetry/Spoken Word)
John Akpata (Best Poetry/Spoken Word and Best Radio Show)
Ritallin the Cerebral Stimulant (Best Erotica)
Steve Sauvé (Sexiest Artist)

They must have made a mistake with that last one... maybe it's supposed to be "Artiest Sexist" or something. Naw, I wouldn't qualify for that, either. Anywho, here are a couple other nominations that (despite not having anything to do with spoken word) I think are pretty damn cool:

Ottawa Fringe Festival (Best Festival and Best Art Organization)
World Beats & Eats (Best Art Happening)
Aaron McKenzie Fraser (Best Photographer)
Third Wall Theatre Company (Best Company)
Mélissa Laveaux (Best Singer-Songwriter)
Café Nostalgica (Best Music Venue)
Melanie Little (Best Fiction)
CBC Ottawa (Best New Building)
American Embassy (Biggest Architectural Eyesore)

The awards ceremony is Saturday, July 9th at the SAW Gallery (67 Nicholas) at 7 PM. Admission is $10 and the winners are determined by the attendees.

Also, the latest No Rules Slam is tonight @ 8 PM at the Parliament Pub (101 Sparks at Metcalfe). Starting with this installment it is now a two-round competition, so come prepared.

There are lots more events coming soon. I'll try to update my site within the next day or two to reflect this.

Ciao for now!

The Capital Slam team has been announced!

2005-06-11T21:24:00.000-04:00

Last night was the Capital Slam finals, and the team was chosen. Ottawa will be represented at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in Vancouver this October by the following poets:

John Akpata (team captain)
DJ Morales
Kevin Matthews
Steve Sauvé
Oni the Haitian Sensation (team alternate)

The team will of course be accompanied by our esteemed slammaster, Ritallin the Cerebral Stimulant. It was an amazing night full of great poetry. With no disrespect intended toward those who didn't make the team, I have to say I'm really excited about our roster. I think we're going to blow them away in Vancouver this year. We had a good showing last year, but I think everyone here has matured stylistically in the time that has passed. Not to mention our secret weapon, DJ Morales. I've said it before and I'll say it again: This girl is phenomenal and far and away my favourite Ottawa poet. The audiences in BC won't know what hit them.

Plenty of events still to come this summer. Expect to see the Ottawa Slam Team at various literary events (including the July edition of Dusty Owl).

Buy my CD online!

2005-06-05T18:05:00.000-04:00

For those of you not in the city of Ottawa who want to get their greedy little hands on a copy of my live CD, Steve Sauvé Does It With His Glasses On, you can now buy it online at the Bywords Online Store. Sorry, no "girls with glasses" discount online, though. If you're a bespectacled lass who wants two dollars off, you gotta buy it in person. I may be doing a little bit of touring this year: I might show up in nearby cities like Toronto and Montréal within the next couple months, and I'll hopefully be in Vancouver come October. I will bring CDs to all my shows.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who've already bought a copy of my CD. It's only been available for a couple weeks, but I've already made a tidy profit and have received heaps of praise for it. Thank you all for your support. I may be doing a "professional" studio album later this year, and I'm considering doing one or two independent live CDs per year from now on as well. If I make it to Vancouver in October I will probably record my next live one there.

Ciao!

Spoken Word in the next two weeks...

2005-06-01T23:02:00.000-04:00

Good evening. I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not. Wait, what? Anyways... This blog has gotten 1000 hits to date. Not bad... There's lots going on in June! Check out these highlights for the first half of the month:

Saturday, June 4th and Sunday, June 5th (10 am to 5 pm each day)
Art in the Park (in the Glebe at Bank and Clemow)
Come get a sneak peak of some of the talent that will be involved with the Ottawa Fringe Festival this year. You spoken word fans out there will want to make sure to catch Oni the Haitian Sensation from 12:00 to 12:15 each day, and Steve Sauvé (me!) and Ritallin the Cerebral Stimulant from 3:45 to 4:00 each day. The rest of the time will be filled with music and indie theatre. Come out, say hi, and buy my new CD if you haven't already.

Wednesday, June 8th @ 8:15 am
Ottawa Morning on CBC Radio One (91.5 FM)
Host Anthony Germain will be chatting with yours truly to promote the Capital Slam Finals. They will probably also play a track from my CD. If you're not in Ottawa, you can still tune in by going here at 8:15 am EDT and selecting Ottawa from the list of locations.

Friday, June 1oth @ 8:00 pm
Capital Slam Finals at the Universe City Lounge
(145 Besserer, above the Agora Bookstore)
Finally, the poets who will become the 2005 Ottawa Slam Team will be decided! Hosted by Alan Neal of CBC Radio One's Ontario Today. Come cheer on your favourite poets! $10 cover.

Friday, June 10th and Saturday, June 11th
WESTFEST (Richmond Rd. between McRae and Golden)
Awesome festival, made all the more awesome by the fact that it's 100% free. This year's headliners are the Cowboy Junkies! For free!! Also, catch spoken word artists Kevin Matthews and Q the Romantic Revolutionary, as well as several other figures from Ottawa's literary scene, from 12:00 to 1:30 pm on Saturday. And trust me: YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS Catherine Kidd, who will be performing from 7:30 to 8:00 pm the same day. She's fucking amazing.

That's all I have the energy to type for now. Later!

No Rules last night

2005-05-26T10:50:00.000-04:00

The No Rules Slam was awesome again, as was expected. I made away like a bandit! I sold a stack of CDs, took home the second place prize, and won one of the special prizes: John gave me a book entitled Saving the Self: Consumerism, Freedom, and You for having the best poem about capitalism. The poem? "Batman," of course. This was the second time I've come in second place, and both times it was to the lovely and talented Rita, who bought my CD last night and is, by the way, quite lovely. Did I mention she's lovely? Sigh...

Now I've got some money in my pocket for the Great Glebe Garage Sale on Saturday. If you've never been, this event is exactly what it sounds like: the entire Glebe community has a giant garage sale. Blocks and blocks and blocks of stuff. Most of it is crap, of course. I mean, it is a garage sale. But you're bound to find something you want/need just by the fact of the sheer volume of things on display.

Oh yeah, the event calendar has been updated again. Check it out!

Poetry this week...

2005-05-24T10:43:00.000-04:00

Tonight I'm going to see two events. First is the latest installment of the Tree Reading Series at the Royal Oak II (161 Laurier Ave. E.) @ 7:30. The featured poet this time around is Anthony Bansfield (a.k.a. the nth digri), one of the best spoken word artists this city has ever seen. He doesn't perform as regularly as he used to, so be sure to come out to Tree if you get the chance.

As soon as Tree lets out, I'm high-tailing it over to the Gap of Dunloe at 263 Bank St. for the CEPAL Fundraiser. It starts at 8:00, and will be featuring musician Yael Wand, as well as special guest poet Ritallin the Cerebral Stimulant. I got a chance to catch Yael's performance at the Manx on Sunday (I went to both see her and my old friend Trevor Tchir, who used to host the Café Nostalgica Open Stage). Let me tell you, she's fuckin' amazing! And hey, if you know who I am, then you probably know who Ritallin is. He's always worth checking out. If there's time, I may take the stage at some point before the night is over.

Also, don't forget about the No Rule Slam on Wednesday and SlamWrite on Sunday. Check the calendar on the right for details on those two events. And of course, every Thursday is Café Nostalgica Open Stage @ 603 Cumberland on the University of Ottawa campus. Sign-up sheet comes out at 8:30, show starts at 9:00. I will have copies of my new CD on hand at all the events listed in this post.

Look at all this shit! Don't try to tell me there's nothing to do in this city...

That's it. I'm out.

Live CD out now!

2005-05-20T10:26:00.000-04:00

My CD Steve Sauvé Does It With His Glasses On is available now. The cost is $10 for "normal" people and $8 for girls with glasses. Also available is a small booklet containing the two poems I did at the Capital Slam Semi-Finals ("Heart" and "Rhyme") entitled a beat in my heart and rhythm in my soul, for the bargain basement price of $1, or free with a copy of the CD. Purchase either of these at any one of the many poetry and spoken word events I attend throughout the city. To be added to my mailing list and kept up to date on such events, contact me at sauve75@gmail.com.

I sold almost all the CDs I brought to the open stage at Nostalgica last night. I knew I would sell a few there, but wow! I've got a feeling I'll have to bring a lot to No Rules Slam next Wednesday. Which you should come to. Have I told you lately that it's the coolest event in the city? It's the coolest fucking event in the city.

No Rules

2005-05-14T22:31:00.000-04:00

I was right about the date for the next No Rules Slam. Gander rightward for the details.

Semi-Finals results

2005-05-14T21:05:00.000-04:00

The Capital Slam semi-finals last night were awesome! Some brilliant performances from all of the poets. John Akpata ran away with first place (big surprise!), and I managed to come in third. Here are the people moving on to the finals and their cumulative scores (out of 60):

58.1- John Akpata
57.2- DJ Morales
56.9- Steve Sauvé
56.5- Kevin Matthews (tied for fourth place)
56.5- Oni the Haitian Sensation (tied for fourth place)
55.8- Ritallin the Cerebral Stimulant
55.7- Free Will
54.5- Devin Murphy

The finals will be hot! I'm just glad people responded so well to my first round poem. It was a bit of a risk and very personal: I'd been trying to write about my heart surgery for a year now (today is exactly one year since I was released from the hospital), but I was having a lot of trouble. I finally realized that what was holding me back was that I didn't want to write a whiny, depressing poem. I attempted to write a poem about how the experience has helped me to grow as a human being, and it apparently paid off. Five people came up to me during the intermission to ask for a copy of the poem, and many more offered their praise and hugs (both of which are always appreciated). People were moved. If any of you are reading this, I will be selling copies of the poem at the finals, as well as all the poetry events I go to between now and then.

Also, as some of you probably noticed, I was recording all of my performances in April. That was for a CD that I will hopefully have done in time for the finals. I think I may have mentioned that in the blog before, but I'm too tired and lazy right now to check.

I think the next No Rules Slam is on the 25th of this month. I will post it to the calendar when I have all the details confirmed.

Ciao!

Capital Slam Semi-Finals this Friday!

2005-05-08T23:45:00.000-04:00

The Semi-Finals are almost upon us! Twelve poets will go in, performing two poems a piece. The eight poets with the highest total scores will go on to the Championship Finals in June to determine which lucky poets get to go to Vancouver for the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in October.

I'm bringing all new stuff to the Cap Slam Championships and I'm not pulling any punches. I was hoping to have my stronger pieces ready for the semi-finals, but I was so busy with all the other poetry events in April that I didn't have time to devote to writing new material. I just finished the draft for the poems I'm doing this Friday. I think they're pretty good. I wanted to avoid comedy in the first round (I want to show people I'm not a one-trick pony), but time constraints have forced me to go with what I already know I'm good at. Hopefully I have enough time to complete the poems and memorize them before the big day. 'Cause hey... I wanna go to Vancouver, dammit!

People have been bugging me for a while to go to Yuk Yuk's and do the open mic there. You've convinced me. I'm going to do it. I want to do it. So you can drop it, okay? Let me concentrate on the whole "trying to qualify for a national competition" thing first. The open mic will still be there after the finals. And I won't just redo my funny poems there, either. My first time there I'll probably just do the Geek Poem because I'll be incredibly nervous. After that I intend to write material specifically for the "stand up" genre. In fact, I've already got a few routines done.

Capital Slam Semi-Finals. This Friday. 8:30. Universe City Lounge. $10. Go.

Café Nostalgica 10th anniversary

2005-04-29T14:59:00.000-04:00

Besides the aforementioned fundraiser I'll be performing at tonight (which has a $6 cover, by the way), I will also be at Café Nostalgica on Saturday to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the establishment. There will be stuff going on there all day. They're planning a barbecue and will be serving all of their usual awesome eats at half-price. Starting at 2:00 pm, the live entertainment starts, and goes on until closing! From 2-4 there will be performances by regulars from their Thursday night open stage: That's where I come in. I'll probably do a 12-15 minute set. The remainder of the day will be filled with featured performances by many of Ottawa's best performers, including John Carroll, Phil Lafreniere, and the Soul Jazz Orchestra. Seriously, folks, free non-stop live entertainment from 2 pm until closing! It truly will be a weeks worth of entertainment in one day. I'm contemplating getting there around noon and staying for the whole damn thing. We'll see how my sleep-deprived body feels about that, though.

The only reason not to go is that you hate fun. Do you hate fun? No? Well then I'll see you there!

Fundraiser tomorrow!

2005-04-28T16:34:00.000-04:00

Don't forget! Friday is the Fundraiser for the 2005 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Expect to see performances from:

Kevin Matthews, the National Director for SpoCan
Steve Sauvé, the guy who is me... and yes, I'll do the Geek Poem, so stop asking!
Q the Romantic Revolutionary, winner of the 2005 Ottawa CBC Poetry Face-Off
Ritallin the Cerebral Stimulant, co-slammaster of the monthly Capital Slam
and many, many more!

So come on out, have fun, get drunk... yada yada yada. The info, as always, is on the calendar to the right of the screen.

Moans, Groans, & Unfinished Sentences

2005-04-25T12:56:00.000-04:00

This Tuesday, 8 pm at the Universe City Lounge (145 Besserer, above the Agora Bookstore) will be the second installment of Moans, Groans, & Unfinished Sentences. In organizer Liz Cullen's own words, here's the lowdown on the event:

Is that heavy breathing I hear? The second presentation of 'Moans, Groans & Unifinished Sentences' is here! That's right, erotic poetry is back in Ottawa. This fundraising event is full of empowering, titillating hilarious erotica performed by some of Ottawa's best spoken word artists, such as Oni the Haitian Sensation, Ritallin the Cerebral Stimulant, Kevin Matthews, and new talent! Bring your friends, bring that certain someone you've been lusting after and come for a night of excellent, enticing spoken word fun! All proceeds go to the Capital Slam Collective, to help send a team of Ottawa's finest spoken word artists to the Canadian Spoken Word Festival. So come, win a door prize, hear some wicked erotica, and help send a team of Ottawa's finest to show Canada what Ottawa's made of!

It's gonna be wicked. In addition to the performers listed above, expect performances by myself, Lisa Slater, Tiah Akse, Natasha O'Brien, Nichole McGill, and others!

Doors open at 7:30. The Universe City Lounge can only hold about 100 people, so get there early if you want to get in at all. I'm very excited about it. I've written a brand new poem for the occasion, so come on out if you wanna see if geek poems and sex poems can mix. See you there!

P.S. They so can mix!

No Rules Slam on Wednesday!

2005-04-18T17:28:00.000-04:00

This Wednesday! Don't forget! I cannot begin to describe how cool this event is. So go. All the info you need is on the calendar to the right of this post.

End of the month...

2005-04-13T15:34:00.000-04:00

Can you believe how many spoken word events are still to come for the month of April? Look at the calendar: There are four events between the 20th and 29th. FOUR! And that's just "spoken word"-specific events. Throw poetry readings and open mics into the mix and you never have to go home... just travel from venue to venue like a wandering minstrel.

For those few who might give a damn about my health, I'm feeling much better today than I was yesterday. I'm still woozy, congested and all that other fun stuff, but I'll hopefully be up to the task of going to the weekly Café Nostalgica open mic tomorrow night. Two of the performers in the upcoming Capital Slam championships (myself and Tiah) are regulars at Nostalgica, so come on out to the Café on Thursdays to get a possible sneak peak at what we're going to unleash on the crowd at the semi-finals in May.

Poetry is fuckin' alive in the city of Ottawa! Come on out and see that there's more to it than your high school English teacher may have been able to convey. And remember: Support the arts... fuck a poet!

Open Mic at the Aloha tonight!

2005-04-12T11:30:00.000-04:00

I knew Garmamie had something planned this month, but he didn't e-mail me with the info until just now. Look to your right and jot down the time and place for the open mic tonight. And go! I might not make it thanks to a wicked cold I just came down with yesterday. I made it through the entire Winter without getting sick. Seriously, what the fuck? Must be all the recent stress from moving. Oh well. Don't let that stop you from going, though. If for no other reason than to see if Garmamie's booming voice is enough to compromise the structural integrity of Barrymore's. I'd try to convince him that vocal projection is overrated, but he's just so damn entertaining.

Alright, I'm out.

I'm the ZeD "Word Feature" today!

2005-04-11T14:49:00.000-04:00

My poem "In the Movies Nobody Has Morning Breath" has been selected as the latest Word Feature on CBC's ZeD website. Check it out! It's not the first time I've been featured, and it's not like my work is actually on the show, but it's pretty cool nonetheless. Previously featured poems of mine on ZeD have been "Best Kind of Something" and a recording of "Clarion Call" (a.k.a. "The Geek Poem"). Of course, if you want to check out all of my ZeD offerings, you can just go to my content page here.

Capital Slam

2005-04-09T16:28:00.000-04:00

The final slam of the regular season was last night and it was amazing! Oni the Haitian Sensation made a triumphant return to the Capital Slam stage, and became the second person to ever win the monthly slam twice (John Akpata being the first).

The 12 competitors moving on to the semifinals on Friday, May 13th are (in order of final rank for the season):

Ritallin the Cerebral Stimulant
Oni the Haitian Sensation
DJ Morales
Steve Sauvé (that's me!)
John Akpata
Kevin Matthews
Free Will
Madame H.
Danielle Grégoire
Owen Hewitt
Devin Murphy
Tiah Akse

It's gonna be wicked. I'm really looking forward to it. The Collective will be making a CD from the performances in the semifinals and finals, which will also be wicked. That's a lot of wickedness!

I've updated the spoken word calendar (look to the right), adding two more events and correcting the date for the No Rules Slam. I will be performing at every one of the events listed. I'll give you more info as the dates get closer.

I have some really exciting things in the works! It may be a month or two before I make any formal announcements (I'm superstitious like that), but there's a lot of amazing opportunities on my plate right now, for both local and national projects. Seriously, I'm giddy.

Move complete!

2005-04-03T16:49:00.000-04:00

The move to my new place downtown is complete! Hopefully, this means I'll be able to attend more readings. I'd like to start going to Tree again. The next Tree is on the 12th featuring Wes Smiderle. Spoken word fans will definitely want to make the trip out to Tree on May 24th, as it is featuring none other than Anthony Bansfield, a.k.a. Nth Digri. He's awesome! and I might give Dusty Owl a try as well. Their next show is the April 17th launch of Sorrowland Press's "I See A Darkness," a collection of poetry which is apparently rather dark in theme.

Don't forget, this Friday (April 8th) is the last Capital Slam before the championships begin to see who goes to Vancouver to represent Ottawa. I'm in the running and I'm very excited. I just realized that I still need to write and memorize my poems for the next slam. Moving is a very time-consuming activity... April 8th is also the next installment of the Factory Reading Series. If I wasn't already going to the Capital Slam, I would definitely go to this, as it will feature readings by Mark Truscott, Rachel Zolf, and Wanda O'Connor. Wanda is one of my favourite poets (heck, she's one of my favourite people), and it's been quite a while since I've seen her read. Oh well, maybe next time.

New event calendar

2005-03-28T15:15:00.000-05:00

I've added spoken word event listings to the sidebar. This way the most current news on upcoming events will always be on the upper portion of the page, with a little colour to help it stand out. I think this will work better than just posting the listings as blog entries, 'cause they tended to get lost in the shuffle that way. Hopefully I can actually get around to updating it regularly...

Update

2005-03-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to post for a while, but haven't gotten around to it for reasons that will become evident to you shortly.

First off, I got second place at the No Rules Slam! That's the second time in two weeks that I've won money for doing poetry. It's a good feeling. Your score at the No Rules Slam is based upon the decibel level of the crowd's applause. I got a reaction of 113 dBA (the winner got 114). To give you some points of reference, that's a little louder than a power saw or car horn, or about as loud as the average rock concert. Let me say that again: the applause was louder than a freaking car horn! I was flabbergasted. It was definitely my best performance. I was much bolder and louder than usual, and it was only the second time (EVER) that I've taken the microphone off the stand. I'm glad the audience had such an overwhelmingly positive response to the new, more confident Steve, 'cause it was a lot of fun and I don't plan on reverting to "meek mode" anytime soon.

Also, I've been apartment hunting for two weeks. I just signed the lease today for a room in a shared apartment downtown. I'm moving in on Friday. Yes, you read that right. Friday. Guess I should start packing, eh? I'm excited because I've been living in Nepean ever since I first moved to this area from Windsor in May of 2001. My whole life is downtown. It makes much more sense for me to live there. My accomodations won't be as nice as they are now, but my rent is cheaper and hey: location, location, location. I can walk just about everywhere that's worth going to.

I'm also working on starting up a new spoken word event within the next couple of months. Does the city need another one? Yes. Every city everywhere always needs more of the arts. Mine will have a unique catch to differentiate it from the others. Something to do with a little project of mine some of you may have thought I'd abandoned... Those of you who know what I'm talking about should expect to be hearing from me relatively soon. Keep in mind that I'm ridiculously busy right now, though.

Reminder: No Rules Slam on Wednesday!

2005-03-21T20:27:00.000-05:00

Quick reminder folks: The No Rules Slam is this Wednesday (March 23rd) @ Parliament Pub (101 Sparks Street at Metcalfe) starting at 8 pm. I have it on good authority that this is a ridiculously good event. Try to get there early, last time they had to turn dozens of people away at the door because the place was packed! This will be my first time going. I'll be doing one of my old favourites that I haven't performed for quite some time (It's a little too long for a regular slam). At No Rules, you're allowed to use costumes, music, etc., so it promises to be interesting.

National Capital Throwdown

2005-03-17T15:15:00.000-05:00

So yeah, I went to the National Capital Throwdown last night and it was awesome! It was my first time there and I was not disappointed in the slightest. I love the slams, but it was very refreshing to go to a non-competitive spoken word event and see people giving their all on the stage for a receptive crowd. I will definitely be a regular at this event from now on. I also finally met Julie Delaney, the woman behind the Ottawa edition of the CBC Poetry Face-Off for the last several years. She didn't waste any time telling me I had to compete in the next one, which I've already heard from a bunch of poets over the last two years. Okay, okay, enough already: I'll do it!

Seriously, Looking back at the last three Face-Offs, I think about 70-80% of the participants have been friends and acquaintances of mine. So I get the pressure to compete from all sides. It makes me very nervous though, 'cause they give you a topic that you have to write about and I've never been very good at doing specific commisions. I just tend to write about whatever the hell is on my mind at any given time. Julie pointed out that the topics tend to be very broad, which is true. This year was play. I could've done that. I think. Oh well, I guess we'll see next year, eh?

Places you should be

2005-03-12T20:18:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the poetic goings-on that are still to come this month:

Wednesday, March 16th
7 pm: lisa b.'s salvaged music cross canada tour with guest Oni the Haitian Sensation @ Club SAW (67 Nicolas). $7 cover.

8 pm: National Capital Throwdown @ Gap of Dunloe (263 Bank St. at Cooper). Free event. For more information, contact: norules_slam@hotmail.com or garmamie@hotmail.com.

Thursday, March 17th
8-9 pm: Pimping the Pimp's System Part 2 @ ARTS LOUNGE (20th floor Dunton Tower @ Carleton University). Free event.

Sunday, March 20th
2-5 pm: SlamWrite @ private residence (see webpage for details). Free event. For more information, contact: hhorak@magma.ca

Wednesday, March 23rd
8 pm: No Rules Slam @ Parliament Pub (101 Sparks Street at Metcalfe). $5 cover; free to performers. For more information, contact: norules_slam@hotmail.com.

ALSO, don't forget Café Nostalgica still goes on every Thursday @ 603 Cumberland on the University of Ottawa campus. Poetry open mic followed by the music open stage that goes on until the wee hours of the morning. What more could you ask for? That it be free? It is. Usually starts around 8 pm, but the doors are open long before then: If you wanna sit, get there early.

Na na na na na na na na... Cap Slam!

2005-03-12T17:20:00.000-05:00

Wow! Capital Slam was amazing last night! They packed the Universe City Lounge and actually had to turn quite a few people away at the door 'cause there was just no room for 'em. I don't know who bribed the judges for me, but I got some ridiculously high scores in both rounds (29.8 for my first piece and 29.7 in the final round) and took home my first Capital Slam victory. For those who weren't there and are wondering at all the Batman references in this post, I did a poem explaining how capitalism may have it's flaws, but without it, the Caped Crusader could not possibly hope to thrive and protect us as he does. Silly? Yes. Crowd-pleasing? Much more than I anticipated.

There were some amazing performances on that stage, dammit! Café Nostalgica regular Tiah made a splash with her first appearance at the Capital Slam doing a piece about a conversation between a weewee and a hoohaw. ;) It was brilliant!

DJ Morales completely blew me away as usual. The girl's 17 and I think she may be my new favourite Ottawa poet. I shit you not. She has way too much talent for someone so young. I was writing total crap at her age.

The featured performer Sonia Ndongmo gave us a half-time show I'll not soon forget. Her voice is just astonishing, and she's backed up by an incredible band. Greg has assured me that he will do everthing in his power to get her back on that stage in the future.

I can't say enough about last evening. It was just astounding, and I'm fucking thrilled that Greg and Elissa are having so much success with the series after a mere six months. I had high hopes for this series from the very beginning, but even in my optimism I never expected to see it take off so dramatically in this short a time. Congratulations, guys! All you gotta do now is keep it up!

There's a friggin' spoken word Renaissance going on in this city, and I'll soon post some info on all the events that are still to come this month. (There's lots!)

Holy victory, Batman!

Happy New Year!

2005-01-01T02:48:00.000-05:00

I resolve to get off my ass and write some new poetry. I've been putting it off for a while because I know humour will no longer be the main focus of my work. It'll certainly still be an aspect of my poetry, but I think there'll be more poignancy to the pieces. This past year was brutal... I spent a third of it in the hospital and almost died more times than I'd care to count. That changes the way you view the world. Your eyes become opened to the triviality of some of your pursuits and the importance of things you've ignored. This new Weltanschauung will be reflected in my poetry.

Just got home from the Pixies concert...

2004-11-29T01:39:00.000-05:00

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Enough said.

Capital Slam site

2004-11-20T21:00:00.000-05:00

The folks at Capital Slam have finally got their webpage up. It's still a work in progress, but they have posted some information about their next show on December 10th featuring Kaie Kellough of Kalmunity fame, who is currently promoting his new book Lettricity. I know I'll be there...

In the news

2004-11-16T11:58:00.000-05:00

So, the Capital Slam was awesome! There was a great open mic set full of fresh new faces, followed by John Akpata's feature set. He played guitar! Is there anything the man can't do? John's set was followed by the actual slam. I wasn't very happy with my performance but I managed to snag third place anyways. Second place went to Matt Peake, and the winner was Kevin Matthews. Kevin was on the Winnipeg team in the Spoken Wordlympics and has recently been announced as the national director for next year's Wordlympics, which will be in Vancouver and totally rock. Is it too early to be excited?

In other news, Golden Star Lounge returns after a two month hiatus Friday, November 26th. It will be at the East African Restaurant (formerly known as African Palace) at 376 Rideau St. Featured performers include Manchilde from Montreal and Spin from Toronto. I've seen both performers before and trust me, you don't want to miss this. There is a $7 cover, but I think it's free if you read.

There's a show coming up with PressWon, ...As The Poets Affirm, and John Akpata -- unfortunately I don't remember the details. Look for it in the upcoming issue of XPress.

Sunday, November 28th I'm gonna go see the Pixies perform in Gatineau. It seems like eons ago that I bought the tickets. I am so pumped! It's the fucking Pixies! Odds are this tour is a one-time thing, which is unfortunate, considering (in my opinion anyways) what they did as a group was much more impressive than any of the band members' post-Pixies music.

Nov. 12th: Capital Slam feat. John Akpata

2004-11-03T11:52:00.000-05:00

Here's a message from Greg and Elissa @ Capital Slam:

Ottawa has reached a new level of spoken word with Capital Slam! Following on the heels of last month’s spectacular premiere at Suite 34, the show moves to its regular venue and night (second Friday of every month at 8 p.m. inside the Universe City Lounge). Join hosts Elissa Molino and Greg "Ritallin" Frankson as things heat up on the Road to Vancouver 2005! Only one person can leave as the Monthly Champion ... who will it be?

Capital Slam
Friday, November 12 – 8 p.m.
Featuring John Akpata, October 2004 Capital Slam Winner and World Individual Final Runner-Up at 2004 Canadian Spoken Wordlympics

Universe City Lounge @ the Agora (145 Besserer Street, above the bookstore)
$7 at the door (slammers $5, arrive early to secure a spot in the slam)
*Cash prize will be awarded to the top poet on the night*

To find out more, contact us by email at info@capitalslam.com.

All's Hallowed Eve

2004-10-29T14:28:00.000-04:00

So, Halloween is fast approaching. There's a crapload of things to do here in Ottawa. Personally, I'm going to be at the Witches Gathering over at Barrymore's on the 30th. It's $15 in advance or $20 at the door. I'm performing in the ritual, so I get in for free. For a really good list of happenings this Halloween weekend, check out this week's Ottawa Xpress.

I'm also going to recommend that you watch the special two-hour episode of ZeD TV entitled "Night of the Living ZeD." It's on tonight at the show's usual time (11:25 p.m.), and also on Halloween night at midnight. It's on CBC, of course.

P.S.: There's a chance that a film crew from ZeD is gonna come out and do a segment on yours truly in the very near future. I'll tell you more when and if it happens. If you haven't done so already, you should check out my ZeD profile, where you can find several of my poems (both written and recorded).

Jeeze...

2004-10-23T18:01:00.000-04:00

I'm not very good at this blogging thing, am I? I never seem to have time to update it. The Canadian Spoken Wordlympics have come and gone. You can check out the results here. The Ottawa teams failed to make it to the team finals, but Oni snagged third place in the Francophone Indie Final, and John Akpata (host of Monday Night Scribes on CHUO and the columnist behind "House of Trouble" in the Ottawa XPress) took home third in the Canadian Indie Final and second in the World Indie Final. Shortly after the Wordlympics he snatched victory away from yours truly at the inaugural Capital Slam. This brand new event is hosted by Greg Frankson (a.k.a. Ritallin) and Elissa Molino, two of my teammates from the Wordlympics. Their first night was awesome and we all expect it to get bigger and better from here. The next one will be in November and I hope to have details up before then.

Update

2004-07-03T15:23:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone had a good Canada Day! I just realized that I've left a couple cliffhangers in my posts and I haven't gotten around to letting you know how things turned out. I shall rectify this mistake immediately!

First off, I didn't make the Ottawa Fringe Festival Slam Team. I got an unusually low score on a poem that usually does really well. Oh well, them's the breaks. The Golden Star Lounge is also putting together a team to represent Ottawa at the Spoken Wordlympics, and I think I have a good chance of making that team.

Speaking of Golden Star Lounge, it was an awesome show last month. There weren't as many people in the audience as I've come to expect at the event, but it turned out great, due in no small part to the Soul Vibe Poetry Collective. They kicked ass!

Anyways, I have a party to attend, so I'll talk to you all later!

Tomorrow night...

2004-06-24T23:58:00.000-04:00

I was at Café Nostalgica tonight and the Soul Vibe Poetry Collective dropped by to give a little preview of the poetry they're gonna drop on us tomorrow night at Golden Star Lounge. Holy shit! They are really fuckin' amazing and you're a damn fool if you don't come out to see 'em. I just hope I go on first 'cause I sure as hell don't wanna follow that act.

By the way, inspired by my friend and fellow Ottawa poet Wanda O'Connor, who recently put a bunch of her material up on the ZeD website, I've followed suit by getting my own page on ZeD. Check it out.

Upcoming shows

2004-06-21T10:45:00.000-04:00

So, here we go: My first real post to the blog. Can you feel the excitement? Anyways, just wanted to let anyone who might stumble across this site know that I've got a couple of cool shows coming up shortly.

First off, I'll be in the Canadian Spoken Wordlympics Slam at the Ottawa Fringe Festival tomorrow (June 22nd) looking to secure a spot on one of the teams representing Ottawa when the Wordlympics comes to Ottawa in October.

I will also be a featured performer along with Soul Vibe Poetry Collective at Golden Star Lounge on Friday, June 25th. Check the GSL website for details.

I'm gonna try to write some new shit before these events. It should be a lot of fun. Hope to see ya there.