honestly, my personal goal was to place in the top 20. that would lead to us being asked back to the next nationals in 2000 at providence, RI. i had no idea we'd share the grand prize with san francisco, our friends, after the poetry pages settled.

the first night of the competition we lost to the nuyorican team. by the second night, after winning a round against dallas and baton rouge, we were ranked 19 out of 48 teams. our next night, the semi-finals, was a very important night if we wanted to continue to the finals. we needed to place 1st, but we were up against boston, a historically strong team, and mesa, AR, whom we knew nothing about. the bout before ours was oakland vs. the entire state of texas. austin and dallas had all of their fans and supporters there and, if you know about the mad(pardon the NYCthat slang) love the northern california teams had for each other, we, santa cruz, chico, san francisco, los angeles &hollywood were in the audience supporting team oakland. each and every californian, for that matter every one, had the hearts in their throats and were belting the loudest calls of love and respect i'd ever seen. it was better that a bachelor party. it was better than my bar mitzvah. the love in the house was thick as fudge. as you probably know, oakland won, guaranteeing them a spot in the finals. our show was up next. san francisco had left for their own show at another venue. we started prepping for our show against boston and mesa. we were vibing off the energy created by the previous round and psyching up for ours.

cont'd later -

vadim