the slugfest cometh

after extensive negotiations (and more than a few non-idle threats) the terms of the haiku slugfest between my camp (b1-66er) and that of the va "punching bag" vagen are now set.

1. for the next seven days, the vagen and i will be posting two haiku per day on the archipelago. the topic/nature of the haiku posted will be determined by the poster's competitor.
2. unless specifically stated otherwise, all haiku will be of the 5-7-5 form.
3. as all norwegians, finnmärsckers and long-time-reading-archipelagates will tell you, my haiku is what is broadly known as 通り様式, a rough and brutal form of the poetry. the sociologial equivalent of putting a bowling ball under the mattress of a princess to test her for purity. the vegan has more of what can be loosely described as "the american boarding school" style. that is to say: preppy, well-kept, and for all practical purposes, intolerable. still, we have to come to some sort of common ground in order to compete and have agreed on the following. he is, at his sole descretion, allowed to use pictures to help annonate his haiku (hint: watch for these if he's flailing); he is not allowed to use, what are known in high-poetry circles as, "cheater titles."
4. like any decent brawl, we consider this to be a public display of overt-machismo. as such, we will both be posting the other participant's tasks to this blog, the day before, in the form of a comment. while the vegan and i are sworn by oath to not look early, this will allow you, our dear, dear viewer(s) to anticipate the coming mayhem of the next day. once tasks are picked, i will be deleting the original comment entries. this means you should expect posting chaos and either relish in, or ignore, it.

as sheer spectacle, the romans used to flood the colosseum and stage ship battles for the hedonistic crowds. 2,000 years of technology and "advancement" have managed to bring us to this point. if that doesn't make you pine for leaded water and wearing a toga, nothing will.

and before we begin, i have one last, personal, note to the vegan: in the words of john lee hooker, "lord have mercy on the people of tupelo mississippi."

[note added 11/1/05: jdiego added as slugfest referee.]

[note: if you're brand new here, i usually send people here first. i just wanted you to know what was going on with the slugfest.]