more not-poetry.
perhaps notable because it's the first video Local H have made since the one for "Half Life" in 2002. Since then plenty of fans have clipped together live-shows, but as far as I know this is the first the band has been involved in. Props for choosing a song that won't get them mistaken for a pop-punk band.
Monday, 20 April 2009
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Friday, 3 April 2009
Welsh hospitality
Last night was the launch of Miscellaneous at GwDiHw (pron. goody-hoo! with the exclamation points.) in Cardiff. Organised by Gemma j. Howell, who was on the course I trucked to Wales for, but in the year before me. Room was packed out; the place reminded me of Swansea's sadly-now-defunct Siro's but all on one level. The night started with an agile-fingered piano player and ran the gamut from songwriters to poetry to instrumental jams to standup comedy.
Including a guy who started by reading from a copy of "mein kampf"-- the lyrics to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." Which ruled, as he then "taught" us how to be comdedians in a bad german accent ('zis is vat you call juxshtoposhitional comedy).
I did "zombies and paint thinner" and "tall drink of water" and went over like a brick through a window, in a positive way. That's positive, right? Yeah. Nia did "harbour bell," which I think is becoming a signature. Train ride over we compared notes on poems, what Gets Published by the Magazines That Have Rejected Us.
I think I'll try Poetry Wales again-- apparently that's what handwritten rejection letters mean.
Al, Jo and Margot came and Doprav was in full effect, holding up the poetry end of the first section with his food-as-sex-as-food piece. Met a few 'diff poets who may now be coming down to the Crunch. Excellent.
afters it all I crashed with a young man named Tudor (originally from Aberystwyth via Kuwait) and stayed up late talking national identities, world history and film with his roommate Neil. Tudor made a fish pie (Neil made the required joke) and eventually, as we all sat in the living room smoking spliffs (them enthusiastically, myself polite/clumsily) T decided it was time he Played Some Songs on the Cello.
I passed out around 4, woke up around 8 and after a bit of getting lost, found the train station and rolled back to Swansea. Before requisite showers and day-offness, I'll probably do some letter-writing, or at least think about it.
And. . .
www.nataliedee.com
Including a guy who started by reading from a copy of "mein kampf"-- the lyrics to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." Which ruled, as he then "taught" us how to be comdedians in a bad german accent ('zis is vat you call juxshtoposhitional comedy).
I did "zombies and paint thinner" and "tall drink of water" and went over like a brick through a window, in a positive way. That's positive, right? Yeah. Nia did "harbour bell," which I think is becoming a signature. Train ride over we compared notes on poems, what Gets Published by the Magazines That Have Rejected Us.
I think I'll try Poetry Wales again-- apparently that's what handwritten rejection letters mean.
Al, Jo and Margot came and Doprav was in full effect, holding up the poetry end of the first section with his food-as-sex-as-food piece. Met a few 'diff poets who may now be coming down to the Crunch. Excellent.
afters it all I crashed with a young man named Tudor (originally from Aberystwyth via Kuwait) and stayed up late talking national identities, world history and film with his roommate Neil. Tudor made a fish pie (Neil made the required joke) and eventually, as we all sat in the living room smoking spliffs (them enthusiastically, myself polite/clumsily) T decided it was time he Played Some Songs on the Cello.
I passed out around 4, woke up around 8 and after a bit of getting lost, found the train station and rolled back to Swansea. Before requisite showers and day-offness, I'll probably do some letter-writing, or at least think about it.
And. . .
www.nataliedee.com
Monday, 30 March 2009
Doombar!
Friday morning at 6:15am I was rubbing sleep out my eyes and walking up High Street to the train station. After some unsuccessful attempts to withdraw money from a hole-in-the-wall (apparently £50 at 6am registers as suspicious for someone who usually only gets up to £20, and usually around 7pm) I got the London Paddington Train for 6:29. Or so I thought. Apparently that one left early, so I sat, half-awake, on a still train until 6:59.
I did a bit of editing on Ambition is Critical and then slept most of the way between Bridgend and Reading.
Ultimately, I made my way via tube to the Southbank Centre. I was a bit concerned about finding it in time, but luckily for me, most things with names like "The Royal Festival Hall" have huge-ass signs on the side of their buildings. This was no exception. As I was walking through the door to Function Room 3 I got a call from Lucy, the organiser asking if I'd made it okay. Movie-style timing.
I was there for the Pilot Meeting of the Global Poetry System. What is that? That's what I was there to find out. Long and short of it-- it'll be a web-based interactive poetry project. Sort of like Google Maps but with poetry. Perhaps a bit of Wiki thrown in. So, say you scroll over Swansea on the map and there are balloons that pop up with links to found poetry, videos of events, reader's musings on historical Swansea Poets. For example.
The project is very open ended and the brainchild of Southbank Centre Artist in Residence Lemn Sissay, who was incredibly warm and more than that, was able to talk about Poetry as a Vastly Important Part of Daily and Spiritual Life without sounding like a Big Fucking Hippie.
Which is very hard to do.
The enthusiasm was infectious and though the rest of the day was largely brainstorming with the other Project Partners from all over the UK, it felt just as much like some sort of odd mini-summercamp. The project is very adaptable; I feel it'll be important for Swansea to emphasize new events and generating new material; the guy from Abergavenny is planning his end around one particular poet of local renown, one of the Edinburgh ladies is specifically interested in upping visitorship and readership of libraries, Will from London is looking towards youth work and performance.
So what the Global Poetry System is will obviously evolve with time; but I find it exciting to be working with such a variety of people who are also excited about words and also excited about their own communities. It's huge.
Afters I checked out the Saison Poetry Library and I was supposed to meet Will (london) and Ryan (Scotland via Connecticut) at the bar at the British Film Institute, but I had to hit up a bank first. When I got back they weren't there; either they'd each shown up on their own when the others weren't there, thought "fuck it" and left (entirely possible) or I'd found the wrong British Film Institute bar (also possible.) As was, I sat outside drinking a pint of a cornish ale called Doombar (it was pretty good) and watched the Thames.
It was good. The part about not getting to meet up with anyone in London ended up okay; I caught the train back and read the first fifty pages of Infinite Jest, showed up at Rhod and Guppy's where the whole crew was watching a pirated version of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
It was alright.
I did a bit of editing on Ambition is Critical and then slept most of the way between Bridgend and Reading.
Ultimately, I made my way via tube to the Southbank Centre. I was a bit concerned about finding it in time, but luckily for me, most things with names like "The Royal Festival Hall" have huge-ass signs on the side of their buildings. This was no exception. As I was walking through the door to Function Room 3 I got a call from Lucy, the organiser asking if I'd made it okay. Movie-style timing.
I was there for the Pilot Meeting of the Global Poetry System. What is that? That's what I was there to find out. Long and short of it-- it'll be a web-based interactive poetry project. Sort of like Google Maps but with poetry. Perhaps a bit of Wiki thrown in. So, say you scroll over Swansea on the map and there are balloons that pop up with links to found poetry, videos of events, reader's musings on historical Swansea Poets. For example.
The project is very open ended and the brainchild of Southbank Centre Artist in Residence Lemn Sissay, who was incredibly warm and more than that, was able to talk about Poetry as a Vastly Important Part of Daily and Spiritual Life without sounding like a Big Fucking Hippie.
Which is very hard to do.
The enthusiasm was infectious and though the rest of the day was largely brainstorming with the other Project Partners from all over the UK, it felt just as much like some sort of odd mini-summercamp. The project is very adaptable; I feel it'll be important for Swansea to emphasize new events and generating new material; the guy from Abergavenny is planning his end around one particular poet of local renown, one of the Edinburgh ladies is specifically interested in upping visitorship and readership of libraries, Will from London is looking towards youth work and performance.
So what the Global Poetry System is will obviously evolve with time; but I find it exciting to be working with such a variety of people who are also excited about words and also excited about their own communities. It's huge.
Afters I checked out the Saison Poetry Library and I was supposed to meet Will (london) and Ryan (Scotland via Connecticut) at the bar at the British Film Institute, but I had to hit up a bank first. When I got back they weren't there; either they'd each shown up on their own when the others weren't there, thought "fuck it" and left (entirely possible) or I'd found the wrong British Film Institute bar (also possible.) As was, I sat outside drinking a pint of a cornish ale called Doombar (it was pretty good) and watched the Thames.
It was good. The part about not getting to meet up with anyone in London ended up okay; I caught the train back and read the first fifty pages of Infinite Jest, showed up at Rhod and Guppy's where the whole crew was watching a pirated version of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
It was alright.
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Feel the Buzz (Cardiff Edition)
“Its a great place to be young,”
He waves his arm; there is construction everywhere,
buildings practically popping out of the ground like
multiple erections or moles granted courage.
The world’s oldest record store in Europe’s youngest
capital. A series of posters for gigs I’d never miss in
my own city.
Whenever I’ve got a Cardiff trip planned, I prepare
an excuse to wield against my Swansea friends’
how-could-you stares—The Other Woman, the Greener Grass, the
place their old best friend never calls from.
“you should really consider moving here. There’s a
scene you could plug into. Gigs every night.”
A Los Campesinos flyer finds itself involuntarily into
my pocket. I shuffle in and out the honeycomb of
arcades, buzzed off coffee.
But the buzz doesn’t last, out the other side is the
monstrous descent of mall-progress, named after
a saint, no-less, glass and metal rippling shower
curtain luminescence,
Looming hideous over the few places I’ve come to know,
a City so desperate to assert itself as such it swallows and
is swallowed by the things that kill it,
You could really plug in here, feel the electricity
like a lightbulb, in a row of lightbulbs, flickering
and waiting for the bin.
_________________________________________
okay, it needs work. but now I've got the Bellingham Edition, Cardiff Edition and Swansea Edition. The skeleton of my chapbook is complete and waiting to be filled in.
He waves his arm; there is construction everywhere,
buildings practically popping out of the ground like
multiple erections or moles granted courage.
The world’s oldest record store in Europe’s youngest
capital. A series of posters for gigs I’d never miss in
my own city.
Whenever I’ve got a Cardiff trip planned, I prepare
an excuse to wield against my Swansea friends’
how-could-you stares—The Other Woman, the Greener Grass, the
place their old best friend never calls from.
“you should really consider moving here. There’s a
scene you could plug into. Gigs every night.”
A Los Campesinos flyer finds itself involuntarily into
my pocket. I shuffle in and out the honeycomb of
arcades, buzzed off coffee.
But the buzz doesn’t last, out the other side is the
monstrous descent of mall-progress, named after
a saint, no-less, glass and metal rippling shower
curtain luminescence,
Looming hideous over the few places I’ve come to know,
a City so desperate to assert itself as such it swallows and
is swallowed by the things that kill it,
You could really plug in here, feel the electricity
like a lightbulb, in a row of lightbulbs, flickering
and waiting for the bin.
_________________________________________
okay, it needs work. but now I've got the Bellingham Edition, Cardiff Edition and Swansea Edition. The skeleton of my chapbook is complete and waiting to be filled in.
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Chapbook update, travel plans, etc
So I've been oscillating on whether the chapbbok should be 1) a bunch of unrelated poems people will like or 2) a themed batch of connected poems written since I've come to Swansea.
Plus side of 1: Easy and fun to perform. Quick. Versatile to different audiences.
Plus side of 2: Relevant. Challenging. A more rewarding read.
Thinking it over and getting feedback from folks both side of the pond it seems folks are veering towards 2-- but really want both. And so do I, really. I'd like to produce a book I can read from when I don't feel like talking about Wales, but I want the cohesiveness that comes from a theme. So the next week will be polishing and finishing a few pieces I put on the back burner in an attempt to walk the tightrope.
because why do anything easy?
speaking of, tommorrow at 555am I take a train to London for the Southbank Centre's workshop/orientation for all the partners in the Global Poetry System. I don't have a place to stay or much money, but hey-- flexibility. go see some art galleries and shit, come back with a GPS Plan of Attack.
Plus side of 1: Easy and fun to perform. Quick. Versatile to different audiences.
Plus side of 2: Relevant. Challenging. A more rewarding read.
Thinking it over and getting feedback from folks both side of the pond it seems folks are veering towards 2-- but really want both. And so do I, really. I'd like to produce a book I can read from when I don't feel like talking about Wales, but I want the cohesiveness that comes from a theme. So the next week will be polishing and finishing a few pieces I put on the back burner in an attempt to walk the tightrope.
because why do anything easy?
speaking of, tommorrow at 555am I take a train to London for the Southbank Centre's workshop/orientation for all the partners in the Global Poetry System. I don't have a place to stay or much money, but hey-- flexibility. go see some art galleries and shit, come back with a GPS Plan of Attack.
Saturday, 21 March 2009
These kids, I swear, drink nike
for kids back home curious about Welsh vs. English accents, here's a broad stroke. Also a fairly hilarious interview. The band (Future of the Left) is from Cardiff and speaking for camera, so the accent is a bit toned down. But you can still tell the diff between the London interviewer and our Welsh boys here.
. . . this isn't the single they're talking about, nor is it quite representative of Future of the Left's "sound". . . its a bit cleaned up and a bit more march-y than usual. But the video and the song compliment eachother in an odd funny/disturbing way that Falkous just seems to be getting better at. I think 4AD (see also: TV on the Radio, Pixies, Bon Iver, Deerhunter) perhaps wanted something less tweaked to lead off with.
The Pub I work in is not quite as old-fashionedy as this one, but for some reason the one in the video feels very familiar and authentic, for all its weirdness. Perhaps because of all the weirdness, only brought to the surface instead of lingering below candy vodka shots and charted jukebox hits.
If I found any good Gindrinker videos, you'd have those as well. But try Youtubing "gindrinker" and you get a buncha tanned sorority girls falling over.
. . . this isn't the single they're talking about, nor is it quite representative of Future of the Left's "sound". . . its a bit cleaned up and a bit more march-y than usual. But the video and the song compliment eachother in an odd funny/disturbing way that Falkous just seems to be getting better at. I think 4AD (see also: TV on the Radio, Pixies, Bon Iver, Deerhunter) perhaps wanted something less tweaked to lead off with.
The Pub I work in is not quite as old-fashionedy as this one, but for some reason the one in the video feels very familiar and authentic, for all its weirdness. Perhaps because of all the weirdness, only brought to the surface instead of lingering below candy vodka shots and charted jukebox hits.
If I found any good Gindrinker videos, you'd have those as well. But try Youtubing "gindrinker" and you get a buncha tanned sorority girls falling over.
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