Edging into Summer
It's been an eventful few days in more ways than one...
First of All there was the Camden Crawl on the 24th April. Started a gorgeous sunny day hanging with poetry Chums Fay and Mark in Camden, by going to Resurrection Records and buying a handful of stuff including the AMAZING Spreading the Infection by Prospero. Truly awesome album of industrial atmospheres as well as some full-on metal-bashing. Lovely.
Then the slam itself was rather good (although the Jazz Cafe wouldn't have been my choice of venue...) loads of great performers, including some seasoned pros like Alison Brumfitt and Pete the Temp. After some muddled miscalculation Mark realised that the crowned winner can't have possibly scored higher than he, and went back to the compere to check the scores.
Of course Mark was right, and he had won after all, he was a bit rattled by the whole thing but at least he got the gig. And afterwards we all went for pizza! Despite our promise of free food and drink, nobody knew anything about this and we had to fight our way through the streets of Camden to find somewhere suitable to go.
It turned out an amazing evening, with 7 of us all leaving there as new friends, and by missing the rush-hour back, us 3 had a pleasant journey back to MK.
Since then, I've mostly been trying to not spend too much time and energy at Slimelight, although it's been difficult, as ol' Doc_absinthe has been DJing there, and it's all been rather good! really looking forward to Fuze, and then Slimes this weekend, which should be the last I'll see of the place for a while (don't quote me on that tho!) Now that I'm on the literacy panel for MK Arts Gateway, I've seen the massive possibilities for arts and poetry-related goings-on here for the next few months, and it's all looking a bit mental and I'll try to post what I can on here. And I do believe that MK's poets ("Bardcore") STORMED "Word at the Y" at Leicester last night. All 5 of us got a slot and did rather well although this week's bad news didn't leave me in the best state to socialise and network.
At the moment, we're all scribbling madly because we've been commissioned to perform at the current exhibition (James Lee Byars) at Milton Keynes Gallery as we'll performing there on the 15th May. We've had some awesome publicity photos taken for this, as well as for our many festival appearances over the summer, it's getting just a bit exciting!
Tonight, we're merely going along to cheer on the glamour slammer Mark Neil in the final Oxford Slam. The next performance for the rest of us is Tongue in Chic at the Madcap, Milton Keynes on Sunday. Yes, that is after my double-Slimelight weekender... I'll be taking a taxi to that one and Darn the expense!
And now onto the bad news. Funny how these things ripple through, but I've just learned that a young lad (always too young) that I've known for a few years died over the weekend. I've been feeling a bit of a loss of innocence and faith myself too as a result. All part of growing up, I suppose.
Sorry no cut, but LJ is being rubbish.
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