Sunday 7th April 2013
Up at half seven. Nothing
came from morning pages. Uploaded Poetry Jam pix to Facebook and did an event
wall for Lamplight open mic. A little comment to Jenni about falling asleep
prompted the swiftest NaPoWriMo composition and upload so far. Worked on some
Sunshine edits this afternoon, sat with Jenni this evening as she went through
preliminary sequence of poems for a show then put my own feature set together.
Hang on, this is Sunday. Day of rest and all that And this isn’t my work-log
book. Oh well… 10.37pm.
Monday 8th April 2013
Workman removing scaffolding
from the back of the house next door broke my concentration this morning so had
to do my poem a little later. Settled for something short and swift called
Work. Today has been pretty good. Giant STP bike arrived and looks pretty good.
Couldn’t get the wheels on though. Emailed the seller, says I need to tease the
disc brake pads open with a screwdriver. The big news today of course is the
death of a certain tory politician. Good to see so many rip-roaring comments on
facebook about it. I posted ‘Maggots One: Maggie Nil’ by Attila the Stockbroker
on my wall and left it at that. Got a preliminary copy of ‘So Much for the
Sunshine’ knocked up this evening. Just need a quote and a couple of tweaks –
and of course a final cover image and the card for dust jacket. Really excited
about publishing it. 11.35pm.
Tuesday 9th April 2013
Really tired today. Stayed in
bed longer than usual. Didn’t do much work. Only a poem in the loosest sense of
the word that I didn’t want to write. Sick of all the fucking bullshit in the
news. Had another crack at getting the bike working but decided to leave it to
a professional. Should be able to pick it up on Thursday afternoon. Really
tired today. On the couch much of the evening. Watched the Big Bang Theory and
QI. Looking forward to getting off to bed. Jenni is busy trying out her gig
set. I have one to get into shape for Saturday but some cancellations this week
means I’ll be able to spend more time on it in the run up to the weekend. Going
to spend Saturday afternoon with my old friend Stephen Clark. Never seen him at
all this year. Going to do a few amendments to book tomorrow. Pleased to see
the back of today really. Just tired. Bed. 10.15pm.
Wednesday 10th April 2013
Jen’s laptop is whirring away
to itself on the couch while she bathes upstairs before her big gig at Northern
Stage this evening with Jean Binta Breeze, Andy Croft, Tony Walsh and Bridie
Jackson and the Arbour. Reckon it’ll be a mint night. Hoping to film it.
Would be good to get into Newcastle for five this
afternoon so I can have a look in Details for some Canson paper to make
Sunshine dust jackets. Still unsure which image to go for on the cover. Would
really like to come up with one of my own.
I wrote a little 12-line poem
for NaPoWriMo. Prompt was Planet Earth. Pretty chuffed with it. Quite like the
idea of writing shorter pieces. Doing slams a few years back the thing was to
have a piece of performance poetry to fit the time-frame and people would go
for the two to two-and-a-half minute poem. Now, I’d rather be short and snappy.
And obviously they’re easier to learn as well.
Still really fucking cold
out. Won’t be biking this month, I reckon. Pleased I got the STP bike though.
Will be good to mess around on that over the summer. 2.43pm.
Thursday 11th April 2013
Enjoyed the Radikal Words gig
last night. Didn’t go to bed till after one this morning. The ‘poems’ I wrote
for NaPoWriMo were pretty silly but they filled the quota and got some likes.
Been working on the binding for my book. Not sure if it’s the direction of the
grain in the terracotta boards I chose, but getting the prototype covers to lie
closed has been a nightmare. They are going to take a lot longer to make than I
thought. No simple fold and staple for this project. Hand-bound, coloured
endpapers, heavy duty dust jacket…
Went to pick up my bike from
the shop when Jenni left for her Darlington
gig. Bike rides fine now but the brakes aren’t good enough for the old-school
freestyle moves I bought the thing for. Spent a lot of time online looking for
better brakes. I thought Shimano Deore would have been okay discs – they don’t
work on this bike. I’d rather have V-brakes any day…
Half way through putting
another copy of the book together. It’s getting late and I need to rehearse
tomorrow. 11.27pm.
Friday 12th April 2013
Tired most of the day. Got up
too early after working till half one this morning. Only did an eight liner for
NaPoWriMo. Tomorrow I’ll freewrite my morning pages in bed instead of using
prompts at the drop-leaf table. Internet was down for most of the afternoon.
Surprising how quickly you feel cut off when you can’t check out what’s going
on in the big wide world. Not much going on in Consett. AJ put up a status in which
a tory mp described it as a boom town. Yeah, post apocalyptic. It was dead when
I went for my foodstuff this afternoon. Bought some ivory thread for the
Sunshine bookbinding job. Rehearsed my set for the Black Swan Jazz Café Big
Bash gig for an hour or so then read some stuff online. Debating staying up
till after midnight so I can do a NaPoWriMo poem – or bed early and get up
first thing to get something down before leaving for a twelve o’clock meet-up
with Stephen... Tired now. Think I’ll call it a day pretty soon. 10.45pm.
Saturday 13th April 2013
NaPoWriMo really brief due to
the need to be out quick this morning. Met up with Stephen and had heavy
conversation then bought some art paper at Details. Discussed book cover, still
undecided about image. We had a drink on the quayside with Kirstin then I went
for pizza and chips. Really lethargic and reluctant to perform this evening at
the Jazz Bash in the Black Swan but it turned out to be one of the best gigs in
a while. Got to do a new piece and engage the audience despite use of the page.
Good to see Jenni enjoying her set. She really made the atmosphere in the room
great to perform in. Scott Tyrrell went on after a forty-minute female vocal
jazz set and just totally stormed it.. All his best poems. Lots of laughs. The
big band was mint as well. Jenni wrote her NaPoWriMo poem in the club.
Thoroughly enjoyable evening. 11.25pm.
Sunday 14th April 2014
My feet are fucked. Started
hurting on the walk from Consett last night. Think my socks must've been scrunched
in my shoes. Straight after breakfast this morning I sat lancing massive
blisters, needed to use pliers to get the needle in and out. So I don't fancy
walking or even standing much for a while…
As of lunchtime I was no
nearer a new poem than when I woke up first thing with Meatloaf on my mind. Don’t
know much of their music except the hits, which I’ve been listening to whilst
typing…
Late afternoon I managed to
crank out a rhythmical rant inspired by an American cult figure of letters and
was pretty pleased to get over seventy lines to redress the balance of my
little pieces earlier in the week.
Did a little bit more book
cover experimentation this evening but no further forward. After much net
surfing and frustration I have finally resorted to contacting a paper bag manufacturer
in hopes of getting heavy duty brown paper for dust jacket as the 90gsm on a
roll available in shops is way too flimsy. What a way to spend a Sunday night.
Shoot me now. Thanks for reading. 9.18pm
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