Tuesday 14th July 2015
Was good to finally get the
event page up on Facebook for Jane Burn’s pamphlet. Twenty three people
expressed interest in two hours. Venue is sixty capacity. I reckon we’ll do ok.
Been listening to ‘Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me’ by The Cure. First heard this when
Stephen Clark’s sister, Andrea, got it back in 1987. Wish I’d seen the band
play back in the eighties. My fave album by The Cure is ‘The Head on the Door’.
Haven’t been far today. Put the bin out, that’s it. Besides porridge for
breakfast, every meal has included a heavy duty ham sandwich. Worked up bits and
pieces for Waddington Street
session, college prep for summer course. The floor is covered in papers.
Without the whirr of the computer all I can hear now is my full-on tinnitus. I
should really have been in bed long before now as I need to be up early
tomorrow. But I might read a while. 11.02 pm.
Wednesday 15th July 2015
Two workshops today. New
people in at Waddy this morning for the first session in a block of ten:
warm-up exercises and a look at zines with a view to DIY publishing for all.
After lunch I had my final Cambian Appletree session for the time being.
Reviews of previous exercises. My overpacked bag gave way under the strain. Bit
of a pain having to carry it rather than hang it form my right shoulder. Slept
on the bus home. Fixed the bag and prepped for tomorrow. Listened to some
discussions about Greece
on the Richie Allen Show. Would’ve been good to go longboarding this evening
but the work comes first. Listened to Nocturama by Nick Cave
and the Bad Seeds. Saddened to hear about the death of his son. I should get
myself off to bed. Kind of slept in this morning. Will be out all day tomorrow.
No work on my own book until Friday, I reckon.
10.29 pm.
Thursday 16th July 2015
My most full-on day in a
while. Two workshops then out to watch a poetry gig. Enjoying the good fortune
of more paid summer work but I wasn’t ready for a fifteen sixteen seventeen
hour day out. I know I've mainly been sitting down and haven’t done much but deliver
writing exercises, bits of admin, watch people perform, but I’m feeling quite
hammered. The group poem that Consett Writers are working on is starting to
move along. Was quite exhilarating to be working with new people at Centre for
Change in Durham
this afternoon. Tried to do email stuff on the bus to Newcastle but apparently I’ve exceeded fair
use on Go North East free Wifi. How, I don’t know as I was only on a few
minutes. The Stanza this evening was jam-packed with quality writing. Jane
Burn, Ellen Pheathean and Bill Herbert. Strong open mic from Chosen Angel, Ken
Creen, Olya Bowers (great survival story), Alix Alixandra, Vinny McHugh, Renata
and Trev. Three meals on the fly – egg and tomato sandwich, bacon and cheese
Panini, chips and gravy – and now sleep on the bus to Consett. 11.17 pm.
Friday 17th July 2015
Read David O’Hanlon’s
excellent poetry collection ‘Art Brut’ this morning. Good to have a walk into
town, get food supplies for the next few days. Bought Sex Pistols Ultimate
Music Guide from Uncut magazine. Pleased it’s got a lot of articles on Public
Image Limited in as well. Watched some documentary stuff on the Pistols, read
bits and pieces. Emails/FB stuff. Journal copy-ups. Extra poems for book. Edit
session on marathon pieces. 10.15 pm.
Saturday 18th July 2015
Worked on my new book
‘Laughter to Split Glass’. Still only half way through the poems. Used title
cards to aid sequencing. Good bike ride over to Jen’s place. Tesco for food and
juice. Watched Rebus. 10.38 pm
Sunday 19th July 2015
Lazy Sunday with Jenni
Pascoe. Listened to performance poetry by Mark Grist and MC Mixy. Watched Frost
and Columbo. Had chicken balti then walked into town for more supplies. Rhubarb
and custard, a few episodes of Big Bang Theory. Took 93 and a half minutes to
ride home. Facebook on the tablet. Updated page cover pic on desktop. Ham and
tomato sandwich. 11.00 pm.
Monday 20th July 2015
Keyed in notes from last
week. Got word from PA Morbid on the pieces that will make up my half of the
Dark Matter double-header chapbook with Catherine Ayres. All my pieces are
prose poems. I’ve always tended to blur the boundaries between poem, flash
fiction and slice of life vignette anyway. I think for my part prose format makes
best use of the space. Been too fuzzy headed to edit much stuff today. Red more
Pistols stuff this morning. For a band that only made one proper album and four
original seven inch singles they sure caused a stir. I’ve been listening to
them since I was in my early teens. Looking forward to seeing Lydon’s Public
Image Limited in September. Tomorrow I must put another craft workshop together
for Wednesday. Pretty done in, to be honest. 11.28 pm.
Tuesday 21st July 2015
Going to have to make a move.
I’m sitting in a bomb site of a bedroom savouring the fruits of my labour. Took
the plunge this afternoon and made a first draft of a perzine. Forty pages.
It’s only a preliminary. An experiment. But just by cherry-picking pages from
my on the move notebooks and photocopying them, I’ve got some pretty decent vignettes,
poems and snippets of journal. Added a few photographs, some travel tickets and
a strongly worded angry from Moorside after a gig that went belly-up in
February. But, I’ve got to make a move. In nine hours I’ll be on the bus to Consett
then onto Durham
for a bookmaking workshop. The eight hours I’ve put in on the perzine have
whizzed by. And it’s all prep for the summer course at Waddy. The bed is
covered in paper cuttings, so is the floor. I’ve not had a drink since six
o’clock. Best get supper then off to bed. But hey, I’m buzzing. 11.29 pm.
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