Tuesday 21st April 2015
Today went well, despite
being knackered due to waking at five this morning. Slept on the bus to and
from Durham. A
Lovely sunny day but too much to catch up on to take time out for biking or
boarding. Did a bit more work for Jane Burn’s poetry collection, which is
growing in content. Listened to Elvis Costello on Spotify. Only know a few of
his hits. Thirty albums is too big a back catalogue to absorb. Going to read in
bed and hopefully get a decent sleep. Two workshops tomorrow. 9.38 pm.
Wednesday 22nd April 2015
Cut up texts from newspapers
and erasure texts using pages from novels in Waddy this morning, basic prompts
and erasures at Appletree this afternoon. Read all but the last two pages of "Your Pretty Face Is Going Straight To Hell" #18 by Tukru on the bus home. I
love perzines. I’d rather read a perzine than a novel any day. And I don’t care
if that makes me less of a writer. Back home had the baked potato, salmon,
scrambled eggs, beetroot, cucumber, mixed peppers, pickled onions and mature
cheddar with tomato ketchup – then spent forty-five minutes sewing a new D-ring into
a loop on my board bag, after which I was too tired to ride this evening. Read a
teaching guide that left me rather depressed. I am pleased I have twelve years
of workshop facilitation under my belt or I’d have given up after reading the
book. Session at Mind in the morning. 10.19 pm.
Thursday 23rd April 2015
Totally chuffed that Simon
would drive back from a retreat a day early at three in the morning to attend
the Mind workshop. He was there when I arrived at ten to ten. Good session.
Casual journal warm-ups, erasure texts then anti-slam poems. Unfortunately none
were particularly bad enough. Except Alan’s which was awfully good. We each
compiled a list of ten book titles for possible future projects. Most of us
keen to use one or two. Was in the garden by half one, mowing the lawns. Only
took an hour. Then I made the poster for next month’s Poetry Jam. I’ll get
the event page up on Facebook early tomorrow. Right now there’s a rancid smell
of horseshit drifting up the aisle of the 46 to Newcastle. I’m scorekeeping at the Anti Slam
this evening. Before that kicks off at the Cumberland I’ll have an Eat4Less bacon and
cheese melt Panini. Haven’t seen any music magazines this week. 6.15 pm.
Friday 24th April 2015
Good Anti Slam last night. Well
deserved win from Malcolm Odour (aka Scott Tyrrell). Nice to see Sarah
Hammersley and Marie Lightman in the final, and well done to polythene bag man
Asa Maddison for coming second. With weather set to change this weekend thought
I’d take advantage this afternoon and have my first longboarding session. Not
sure if it was the light headwind to slow my down or just stupidity, but felt
confident to do do some runs the whole length of the park, top to bottom. Wish
I could slide stop, but more speed might be a bit too dangerous for an old sod
like me. Had about an hour then bus back to the house. Watched Question Time on
iPlayer and read articles on the Green Party policy on Copyright laws.
Rehearsed a fifteen minute set for Springtime Speak Easi event in Easington
tomorrow. Listening to The Mission and looking forward to more spoken word.
9.10 pm.
Saturday 25th April 2015
Some bloody big juggernaut
cab stopped in the street at 20 to three this morning with all its blue lights
flashing through my roller blind and woke me up, the bastard. Was there a good
three or four minutes waiting on someone at a house opposite. Had to pull the
blankets over my head. Been lucky to get back to sleep each time I’ve woken
since…
Today is a long day. Got to get ready for
the Easington gig. Three buses to get there, at least. Three or four hours at
the event. Then possibly onto The Black Light Engine Room for the launch of Dark
Matter if I can get back to Jen’s afterwards. She wasn’t online yesterday. Well,
not by the time I went to bed at half ten. A party after the Anti-Slam the
night before; I reckon she’ll be asleep for a good sixteen hours. Hope she got
my message…
Need a good shave and I want to go round to
the Post Office. Hoping they have my printer toner cartridge. Then again, I’ve
got my gig set in books, I could leave it till Monday. My set fits fifteen
minutes. It’s not very spring-related, but it’s not offensive. I don’t think
there’s even any depressing stuff in it at all really…
Bit of controversy online yesterday over the
Green Party’s proposal to cut copyright down to 14 years. Initially people thought
that was fourteen years from point of creation/initial publication, rather than
fourteen years after death of creator. The former would allow anyone to print
up a book, make a film of a novel, reproduce anything without the original
artist getting a penny, the latter wouldn’t affect the artist in the slightest.
Was good to get out on the board yesterday.
Wish I could learn to speed slide. I don’t think my wheels are hard enough. Don’t
know any longboarders to ask directly. I saw a guy on a cut away lower platform
deck in Newcastle
on Thursday evening. If I hadn’t been on a bus at the time I’d have quizzed him
about speed and durometer. Hopefully the opportunity to glean info face to face
with someone will arise sometime this year. I’m going to put the computer on,
check updates, pack my bag, have breakfast then make myself presentable. 8.02
am.
Sunday 26th April 2015
Brilliant afternoon at the Springtime
Speak-Easi yesterday. Thanks so much to Chrissie Petrie and the Easington
Heritage organisation for putting on the event. Probably my favourite own
performance so far this year. Great venue, great food. Nice people and some
cracking sets from Harry Gallagher, Ian Horn, Juli Watson; and Tees Women
Poetry Group with some amazingly animated storytelling. Thanks to Janet for the
ride to Middlesbrough afterwards. Had a great
time at the launch of DARK MATTER 4. Engaging sets from Helen Anderson and
Julie Egdell amongst others, all steered
by PA Morbid. Cheers to Harry for the lift back to Gateshead.
Had a lovely lazy Sunday stuffing my face, dozing off a few times and watching
hilariously crap telly with the lovely Jenni Pascoe. 10.00pm
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