I'd like to thank...

I've been nominated for the Leibster blog award by Gary Longden, a lovely initiative to support bloggers with small but perfectly formed follower lists of less than 200. It's all described by Gary here: http://garylongden.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/the-liebster-award/#comment-354
I have to nominate some blogs of my own in turn.

1. Jess Mayhew's Drift Rook blog which is here: http://driftrook.blogspot.com/ Jess Mayhew was one of the winners of the Crystal Clear Creators pamphlet competition and is a superb writer. She's one of those people who definitely worth keeping an eye on.

2. Left and to the Back: http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/ A music blog run by Dave Bryant, who is absolutely dedicated to sharing the best of the obscure. The sort of blog where you come across quirky records and is so well written too. Dave, funnily enough, is also a poet.

3. The Literary Critical Detective, by James Holden, here on http://theliterarycriticaldetective.blogspot.com/ a fascinating foray into the creative and the critical...

4. Laura Smith's Made by Lolly, here: http://thoughtsbylolly.blogspot.com/ very beautiful objects d'art for all to enjoy!

5. Jayne Stanton's lovely writing blog Poetic Licensee http://poeticlicensee.blogspot.com/ which is full of writing! The kind of thing I should do on my own blog really!

Shindiggery - Monday 22nd August.

The Leicester shindigs jointly held by Nine Arches Press and Crystal Clear Creators have a real sense of buzz about them and last Monday's was exactly in that vein. The headline readers were Matt Meritt, Roy Marshall, Alex Plasatis and Deborah Tyler Bennett, whose new pamphlet 'Mytton, Dyer, Sweet Billy Gibson' is out now. All of them were wonderful. Alex's reading was a real surprise, of a very lascivious nature you'd say, very funny though. I'd go into details but there might be children reading. Matt's work is always a pleasure and was, as always, evocative and well-written. His writing is at full strength, and we were lucky to hear some brand new pieces. Deborah's work is always a treat and some of the poems from the pamphlet were based on her own great-grandfather and very strongly-voiced, making use of her Nottinghamshire roots and dialect. I was born in Worksop, you know, I'm very fond. Roy's work is imaginative and sonorous, my left ear was right next to the speaker, I savoured every word.

         The open mic, was very strong indeed, performances came from Mark Goodwin, Jayne Stanton, Gary Longden, Jane Commane, Jonathan Taylor and others. All wonderful. I left with rather a glowing feeling, happy that such things were occurring in my own city. Put that in your pipe, London town. If you would like to read other accounts of this event then are two I know of, one by Gary Longden: http://behindthearras.com/wordsandvoices.html#Shindig
and Matt Merritt: http://polyolbion.blogspot.com/

Filmic and Versified Events

On the first Sunday of every month, 'Rhymes and Wine' organised by Deborah Tyler-Bennett, is held in 'The Swan in the Rushes' in Loughborough. Every first Sunday of the month I dutifully pop along and the one last Sunday was great.

On Tuesday I performed at WORD! in Leicester. It was a special event to promote the film issue of Staple and also featured, as ever, the mighty Open Mic. I was fortunate enough to have a poem selected by the organisers which I performed with a film backdrop. The poem was called 'The Carnival of Souls' and was based on the early sixties horror film of the same name. The film itself is something of a cult amongst film fans; a low budget horror which had lain virtually ignored until it was revived in the late 80s. I watched it years ago as a teenager, one unfestive Christmas Eve, a late night BBC 2 thing, and it stuck in my memory. I performed alongside Lydia Towsey, Jayne Stanton and Pam Thompson. Everyone worked really well together and the whole event had a very sparky atmosphere. During a moment of 'technical difficulty' Lydia was a consummate professional who did one of the funniest and entertaining fill-ins. The films had been produced by Keith Allot and it took place at the Phoenix Cinema in Leicester. The poems will be appearing in Staple.

The open mic was wonderful and is always the highlight as much as the headline act - eclectic and democratic - with a very supportive audience. There are normally 40 or 50 people at WORD! and the other night I think there were even more. Need I say this is a very impressive turnout.

OK, that's two whole nights out! Crikey, after two weeks hol time to back to the writing itself.