Open Mic Night

I've played at open mic at the Blue Horse Music Hall three times now and every time it just gets more and more interesting.

The first time I played there was a total of four people who performed and probably a total of 15 people in the entire place. It was pretty boring outside of the fact that I got a decent recording of two of my songs for only $10.
The second time there were at least ten acts to go up and a decent size crowd in the audience. I didn't get a recording that night, but I did make some new musician friends. The Blue Horse provided a stage for a wide variety of musicians that night. There were the typical open mic-ers, you know the solo singer/songwriters like me. There was a guy who got up there and performed some rap music he had written. There were a couple of duos. There was a 65-year-old man who got up and performed a John Mayer song and an Amy Grant song very badly. There was also a full band that came and played. It was fun and interesting. The only thing that would have made it all better would have been if I had gotten another recording, but alas, something had gone wrong in their equipment and nothing was recorded.
So last night, I went again. It was probably about seven different acts that got up to perform and the word interesting doesn't quite do justice to the night. Well, one of the acts was a husband and wife duo. The wife shared with us a story about how her husband just that day had killed a deer with a spear in the yard. That was interesting. Another act was guy who got up on stage to perform "spoken word". For all of those who aren't quite sure what "spoken word" really means, it appears to mean that you just get up on stage and rant and rave for an extended period of time. The guy was funny though and certainly interesting. Then there was the three piece band that apparently covered a Rebecca St. James song (this is according to my friend Alice, but I don't know for sure). But the kicker was the poet. This guy got up there and shared six or seven of his poems with us. The first two were fairly graphic, sensual poems. But I told myself to just consider it "art" and "expression" and let it go. Then he prefaces the third poem by announcing that this poem might be considered offensive to some people. Nothing could have prepared me for what followed after that. MIGHT be considered offensive!!! MIGHT!!!! My question is on what planet might it not be considered offensive!?!? It was beyond words disgusting. Talk about awkward. When it ended I didn't know whether to clap out of politeness or cry. So I basically just sat there with my jaw on the floor. All of his poems after that are a blur. Maybe they just seemed much more normal after that. Maybe my mind just blocked the rest out. Don't know, just hope that guy gets some things sorted out in his mind/heart/spirit/whatever.