Seven days

Sunday 14th October 2012 –

Lovely day with Jenni. We ate all the bigly food. We had fried egg sandwiches and fruitcake for breakfast, chilli and rice for lunch, and a cakey tea with cheese and tomato sandwiches, corned beef pie, fruit salad, crisps and copious amounts of jelly babies for the in between times. We took a walk over to The Sage to pick up lots of tickets  for the Free Thinking festival. Listened to Fight Like a Girl album by Emilie Autumn in its entirety and some New Model Army plus tracks from Phantom of the Opera.

I slept much of the way back on the bus. Was going to go to the pub for a black currant and soda till the next Moorside bus but it wasn’t too cold so just walked it instead. 

Home to lots of facebook updates. And two launches I fancy. A book of flash fiction by Tony Williams at the Lit and Phil on Wednesday and Kallisto’s Tales by Emma Whitehall on 30th October.

Will have to focus totally on New College stuff tomorrow and vid research for Reel Therapy creative writing meeting at MIND in Chester le Street on Thursday morning.

Jenni put a link on my facebook wall about a skateboard journey. I commented that I’d love to ride one again. But would look pretty silly on the streets of Consett. 11.17pm.

Monday 15th October 2012

       Blank room, cold death...

Available only in the collection "So Much for the Sunshine" published by Talking Pen 2013

Tuesday 16th October 2012

Lamplight was very sparsely attended last night. We had some great people there reading and performing but only a third of the turnout of the previous month. Sometimes, by sheer coincidence, a lot of people have new things to share and all descend upon the Open Mic on the same night, some months it’s diehards only. Maybe next time there’ll be more. We usually hold the event towards the end of the month but this time round it happened to be half-way through. Maybe that had some bearing on it. I’ve often tried to work out what the formula is to keeping the numbers up and come to the same conclusion every time: there isn’t one.

It was good to hear new autobiographical stuff from Claire Murphy Morgan. She name-checked a writing handbook called Bird by Bird which I’ve read a few reviews of. I have numerous tomes of this sort and find that I end up spending more time reading about how to write than exploring new fiction, poetry and biography. I love the autobiographical stuff, though. Claire wrote about school days, about being a political activist aged nine, and a chemical high you can’t wait to come down from. It was unusual yet reassuring to see her reading from a little notebook rather than performing from memory on a theatre set.

Jane Burn’s illustrated Fox rhyme story was great and everyone thought it should be published. Learnt from her Facebook status afterwards that she was buzzing from being at the event. I enjoyed her poems.

Grame Fletcher is a man of many voices and opinions and isn’t afraid to go into risqué areas when the mood takes him; a drunken rant on art in Scots was followed by an interesting lecture on language drawing on recent BDSM Fifty Shades of Grey series then a fabulous rendition of the Tom Waits’ classic Tom Traubert’s Blues.

Mike Treasure always leans towards the less is more approach and gave us a couple of imagistic and philosophical pieces about dreams vs reality and feeling out of step with oneself.

Mark Speeding had some new songs that are surreal, strident, dada and pop – particularly enjoyed his piece about the alcoholic man with a sore head. He also sang Raining in Your World which is one of my favourites from him.

Surprise guest Fernando with his daft audience interviews, onstage baked bean snack and hoopla antics was hilarious. He had some great little badges and colouring books in his merchandise box as well.

I did a couple of things from September’s morning pages – a piece about a dark room and Sigil Sammy worked best but I’m not entirely sure about material for my next publication yet. Prompted by enthusiastic feedback for my blog I did a few diary pages from Shades of Grey in the second half.

It was a good little gathering of writers and performers and showed that some of the most interesting and satisfying gigs aren’t necessarily the most well attended. That said, I’m hoping the final open mic of the season blows the roof off Lamplight Arts Centre.

Ego? Of course, you need one just to get on stage in the first place. Keep it going! 8.16am.

WORKLOG 17/10/12 – Morning Pages about Lamplight. Did some lists for handmade collection for Xmas, prep for Waddy and off to Durham. Enjoyable session. Moment captures, Mid-term course recap, ILP forms, etc. Students’ new stuff possibly for Poetry Jam. Invited guests to perform. Watched short films for REEL therapy sessions commencing next week in Chester le Street. Emails/updates etc. Edited short pieces and submitted to Turps magazine. Regular journal. 9.43pm.

Wednesday 17th October 2012

Stranded in a bus station, maybe Darlington. Big red double deckers – could be London. I wait and wait but mine doesn’t come. Next I’m in a small pub sitting at the bar a young couple next to me stand chatting. The guy leaves, the girl turns out to be someone who went to Blackfyne. She is keen to linger and get to know me. This isn’t really going to happen. I let her down and next thing I’m sleeping in a coal house, have to clamber over junk to get to my little doss pit, but it’s better than outside. Now I wake and I find that it’s the first time that I’ve slept in for a long time.

The kids are larking about at the kerbside, mocking the driver. “You wanna ride on my scooter, Mister?” A boy gets on board, says they aren’t his friends. “They told me I’d missed the bus.” They push each other off the kerb. The driver gets annoyed. “move away from the bus, you pillocks! It’s my bloody licence that’ll go, I’ll be the one in court!” It’s early evening and plenty of time before bed for bigger mischief. “Bollocks!” the driver mutters under his breath and puts his foot down.

Thursday 18th October 2012

Nearly slept in this morning. Wrote fictional morning pages then got sorted for a meeting with MIND. It went well, we agreed on four film clips to use for the writing workshops. The room was good and I have good vibes about the project. Felt really hammered when I got home so no work this afternoon. Watched Freddy Mercury documentary, read a few Tony Williams stories and Googled David Gaffney. Jenni came with pie and chips. She’s downstairs watching Family Guy. I’m ready for bed. The days run into each other and I don’t seem to get much done. 10.47pm.

Friday 19th October 2012

Jenni was watching the history channel when I went downstairs this morning. I sat a few minutes then made her an omelette before doing myself a bowl of porridge. Jenni’s meeting was put back an hour so we watched Cbeebies Rhyme Rocket. Dominic Berry has been on the programme but we missed today’s guest poet. When Jenni left for the bus I started work on Poetry Jam event page. After lunch I did some typesetting for my chapbook. I’m sure lots of people have wonderful weekends planned. I just want to crack on but tomorrow I need to do other things. Been listening to Jill Tracy and Kate Bush. Still snotting on quite a bit, haven’t been out today. Journal is a race against the clock.. Not much noteworthy. Busy times, busy times. 11.46pm.

Saturday 20th October 2012

Spent some of the day clearing the bombsite that is my kitchen and did some editing. Listened to Amanda Palmer’s new album on Spotify and some Tori Amos live tracks as I typed. Talked to Jenni about plans for tonight’s JibbaJabba. Hopefully I have something new to read there. Best get ready or I’ll be running round like a headless chicken again at the last minute. Have a good weekend all. Keep it going! – Steve. 3.53pm.