Well, old Shrake here has been planning a new take on the story slam especially for Story League. I’ve been studying — while participating in — story slams for over a year now. I have a long list of new things to try, new ways to run a competition. So mark your calendars for Thursday, September 8…

A system of strivers. People with microphones in their profile pics. Dues-paying semi-nobodies trying to get a name for themselves so they can finally get paid for this sht. Day-job-having or trust-fund-milking, attention-needing show-bo’s going from bar to club to small theatre to big theatre to teevee and books and movies. A fraction of one percent of them (us) will even get to the small theatre…

Having never started a club before, more than half of me — the paranoid Scorpio side — wanted to just keep the whole thing basically a secret, in case it failed. But of course, how can you get people to join something if it’s secret? How can a secret organization put on public shows?

Me mum took me to Scotland last week for my 40th birthday. Of the three British countries I’ve visited (England, Ireland, Scotland) it’s my favorite. The people are a pure delight. They talk funny. And it shows in their signs… Munchy Box? Chicken Cottage? Mini-Burger that’s not a burger at all, but made of chicken? [...]

I suffer from severe rejectophobia. Define severe, you say? My ego is so fragile that even the slightest slight (whether real or perceived) sends me over the edge. Define over the edge, you say? No, no. You’re better off not knowing the things I’m capable of doing when I feel rejected.

I endured an abusive relationship, which, though it was horrible, was still the relative high point of my relationship career in my 30s, that’s how sad and empty my love life is.

Even with hundreds of millions (billions?) of blogs and websites in existence, you can still pick out who has true talent. You can fool Mother Internet, but you can’t fool Mother Nature.

I plan to be a nightmarish Stage Uncle to both KP’s Luke aka Li’l Dub and to my real nephew, MC Shrake. Kids + talent = money. Let’s get ‘em onstage sooner rather than later. And I’m keeping 20% of the $.