Four Gathered
An extremely busy week in which I have managed to do four lovely things to be gathered in this post.
Two of these things are poetry-centered. I travelled to Watford on Tuesday to a wonderful venue called The Horns, where they do wine, tea and live stuff! I was there as a guest of rrrants, headed by the marvellous Anti-Poet who do stuff that gets ever more raucous, eccentric, loud and just brilliant. An excellent night that featured poetry, music and a touch of comedy. Everyone was ace, and one group did a lovely cover of Jolene. I can't remember what they were called, but I know there was one group called The Caution Horses which is an excellent name for a band, don't you think? Much fun was had and my namesake, Donna, very kindly gave me a lift to the station after. Thanks, guys - looking forward to St. Albans!
The fabulous Danni Antagonist was also on the bill, and I joined her again the following night for a Milton Keynes invasion of Rhymes in Birmingham, along with the marvellous Fay Roberts and the sheer amazing awesomeness that is Mark Niel. So happy for Mark, who has just been made Poet Laureate of MK! If you ever get the chance to see any of these guys, my advice to you is to grab it with both hands. However, should the opportunity not arise quick enough for you, may I recommend you get in touch with me or one of the others and buy our CD? It is called Four Gathered and features 18 live tracks recorded at various venues, and maybe there's a secret track on there too... Price is £5 in person, and we will be touting these wherever we are at. Are we any good? Well... *blushes* erm, here's a review.
So, yes we are :D
And we had a lovely night too... by the way, can I mention just how ace Lorna Mehan is - as a poet, host and person!? Hope she comes down to our neck of the woods one of the days.
Thursday, I was invited to the British Library for the launch of their Out of This World exhibition - a chance to mingle with the great and good of SF and a load of peeps I know and have a good old stare at some lovely books. China Mieville did a marvellous speech, there was a Discovery channel film, little nibblies and free wine, free wine. The exhibition is just amazing - and it's free as well, so you should totally go! There are books and art to look at, and I drew an alien on an interactive graphic display. It may have resembled one of my sheep cartoons, but I can assure you, it was an alien sheep.
I did feel a bit guilty looking at the displays, though. It was a bit like looking at my own bookshelves, as I was thinking wow, I'd really love to read that some day. Sometimes, there's just not enough time for stuff.
The exhibition is on until September, and is free. If we can scrape monies together, I'm taking N to a couple of the discussions that are also happening, and which are all £7.50.
The final lovely thing was a nice night out last night, which followed a photo shoot. I'm putting on a comedy show in Nottingham with Ben Briggs for the festival this autumn, so we needed good photos for the publicity and I asked Joe Brown as he is the best in the bizniz! Makes me feel all professional and stuff. Tee hee.
Two of these things are poetry-centered. I travelled to Watford on Tuesday to a wonderful venue called The Horns, where they do wine, tea and live stuff! I was there as a guest of rrrants, headed by the marvellous Anti-Poet who do stuff that gets ever more raucous, eccentric, loud and just brilliant. An excellent night that featured poetry, music and a touch of comedy. Everyone was ace, and one group did a lovely cover of Jolene. I can't remember what they were called, but I know there was one group called The Caution Horses which is an excellent name for a band, don't you think? Much fun was had and my namesake, Donna, very kindly gave me a lift to the station after. Thanks, guys - looking forward to St. Albans!
The fabulous Danni Antagonist was also on the bill, and I joined her again the following night for a Milton Keynes invasion of Rhymes in Birmingham, along with the marvellous Fay Roberts and the sheer amazing awesomeness that is Mark Niel. So happy for Mark, who has just been made Poet Laureate of MK! If you ever get the chance to see any of these guys, my advice to you is to grab it with both hands. However, should the opportunity not arise quick enough for you, may I recommend you get in touch with me or one of the others and buy our CD? It is called Four Gathered and features 18 live tracks recorded at various venues, and maybe there's a secret track on there too... Price is £5 in person, and we will be touting these wherever we are at. Are we any good? Well... *blushes* erm, here's a review.
So, yes we are :D
And we had a lovely night too... by the way, can I mention just how ace Lorna Mehan is - as a poet, host and person!? Hope she comes down to our neck of the woods one of the days.
Thursday, I was invited to the British Library for the launch of their Out of This World exhibition - a chance to mingle with the great and good of SF and a load of peeps I know and have a good old stare at some lovely books. China Mieville did a marvellous speech, there was a Discovery channel film, little nibblies and free wine, free wine. The exhibition is just amazing - and it's free as well, so you should totally go! There are books and art to look at, and I drew an alien on an interactive graphic display. It may have resembled one of my sheep cartoons, but I can assure you, it was an alien sheep.
I did feel a bit guilty looking at the displays, though. It was a bit like looking at my own bookshelves, as I was thinking wow, I'd really love to read that some day. Sometimes, there's just not enough time for stuff.
The exhibition is on until September, and is free. If we can scrape monies together, I'm taking N to a couple of the discussions that are also happening, and which are all £7.50.
The final lovely thing was a nice night out last night, which followed a photo shoot. I'm putting on a comedy show in Nottingham with Ben Briggs for the festival this autumn, so we needed good photos for the publicity and I asked Joe Brown as he is the best in the bizniz! Makes me feel all professional and stuff. Tee hee.