Writing and other forms of madness – Week commencing 22nd November 2010

Dear all;

I tend to normally hate this point in the year.

Of course, it’s not because I am a humbug and hate Christmas and stuff,

which I don’t as I have a lovely nephew, Jack who is nearly 3 and will

look forward to seeing his face when he opens up all of his presents

etc, I just hate the fact how busy all of the shops start getting on week-ends

when everybody start panic buying Christmas presents.

I ain’t going to say I am any better as I ain’t, but certainly when you get

to this kind of year, all of your creative juices certainly start slowing down

as you get tangled up with lists of presents.

Of course, this then starts leading into meals with work, meals with friends

and meals with family which then again slows down what you write

as a poet like me.

In my case at the moment, I recently posted on my website a list of

the gigs I have coming up for the rest of this year and certainly looking at it,

their isn’t much of a drop happening in the run-up to Christmas which is

perhaps a little bit of a surprise but my own time is limited somewhat.

This week, last night I was at the Write Out Loud night, a spoken word

open-mike at the Howcroft Inn in Bolton. I had been to the Bolton one’s

a few times over the years, and can remember their nights from the end

of 2008 into the beginning of 2009 a really busy, thriving atmosphere

at the Gypsy’s tent (an old pub now shut) and another pub near Bolton

train station (Millstones?), but oddly enough I have never been to Howcroft

and although it was a nice quiet atmosphere that did feel welcoming which

I would recommend, my concerns on the night is simply the pub is

simply too old fashioned to attract the younger generation in, which

this night certainly needs as without a fresh injection, I don’t know what

sort of future the night has.

I was hearing of a talk at one point about a re-location to Butterflies just outside

of the city centre which would be a clever move as that is top notch café / bar

with a build in P.A. system which I think would support the night more and

build on it more etc, but alas this is only my thoughts.

This Week otherwise (typing this on Monday) is on the whole going to

be a quiet week although I will be up to things after work.

Monday (today) I will be looking at my next poem which will be called ‘Snow Family’ which is a nice borderline children’s poem about a wonderful snow family, which is progressing nicely but there is a magazine or two I need to sort out submissions for.

Tuesday is my band’s latest rehearsal ‘A means to an end’. We didn’t meet last

week as Jeff (my guitarist) was away, but I certainly think the band is starting to get somewhere as Jeff is proving easy to work with.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – as it stands I’ll be in working on a
computerised advert for a few websites advertising what A Means to an
end are looking for additional personal wise for our gang and then starting to think about Half Evil promotions. Half Evil Promotions are a promotional company for gigs involvingmusic and poetry among other things in the Bolton side of things. My friend, Jeffarama is involved in that and his friend Bob. Bob’s now had to take a little

bit more of a back seat to it, and henceforth I am going to help out with a bit more

now, and get involved in it. Previously I was involved with Poets and… in Bolton,

therefore have a bit of experience how those things run.  

I am also deep in thought (or as deep goes with me sometimes) on a competition on the theme of ‘Space’ for the latest monthly Write Out Loud Competition.

Free to enter if you are a member (membership is free)

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=17321

I maybe doing a little gig on Saturday but this is not confirmed yet and what was listed down for Friday at Butterflies as their acoustic night on my website has

been called off, so I won’t be there. If the Saturday one doesn’t happen – next thing for me will be Pass on a Poem on Thursday 8^th December, so we’ll see but as always with my life outside work, life is a development and plans sadly do change.