WHAT ANNOYS – DELIGHTS – AND IS OFTEN UNEXPLAINED.
What is ANNOYING me this week?
TWO TYPES OF SHOPPERS – THE AIMLESS and THE FOCUSSED – both oblivious to the rest of us.
What is DELIGHTING me this week?
MY NEW STUDIO BACKDROP SUPPORT KIT.
LISTENING TO:
THE WALL – PINK FLOYD
SOME OF MY DOINGS:
THE SEASON OF LONG BALLS
Well the Football season is nearly over and Tamworth are safe for another season in the Conference Premier. I must admit since I started following Tamworth some six or so years ago my interest in the teams across all the divisions has grown and I now take note of what is happening in the four divisions of the top flight as well as the Conference Premier, North and South.
Tamworth had a good start to the season but have struggled since Christmas. They can play some good football especially against the better teams, where they up their game and play to feet carving out openings that find results. They tend to be a bit chameleon like and let the opposing team set the play which they then copy and against the poor teams they revert to a long ball game which frustrates the fans as invariably they don’t win the balls in the air and the attack is cleared only to see our opponents nick a goal in the last few minutes.
This was clearly shown in the battle they put up against Everton at Goodison Park in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, losing 2-0 but getting high praise in the process, OK, we lost but then we were expected to lose, but in holding Everton the way that we did was a result in my book. Then weeks later we lost at home to Bath City who have not been off the bottom of the league for most of the season, we should have won that game easily. Focussing on the way our teams win is not the end of it, it is important to understand how our teams lose, especially when there is not the luxury of strength in depth. Still we can put that aside for another season, we are safe.
Whilst every Tamworth fan would like to see our team in the football league emulating our Staffordshire rivals Burton Albion, we have to accept that The Lamb ground would not really be up to league standards and as such if we did succeed in getting promoted we would struggle to rejuvenate the playing facilities and also pay the wages of the players required to make us a permanent fixture of the football league.
Tamworth have never over extended themselves financially and chased the unsustainable dream that so many clubs have in the past only to find themselves in liquidation and demoted beyond the Conference and in effect having to start again. Football clubs are businesses but they should never forget their core activity is the game, without the game the conference, hotel or what ever facilities they want to sell, are meaningless, the game is their unique selling point. They are just another offering in an already over crowded hospitality industry without it.
I don’t often talk about my footballing passion on this blog so that was my summary of a season on the Terraces or my view from THE SHED.
THE WALL.
Last week saw another workshop at the Community Café this time in Amington where we explored the themes of Comfortably Numb and created a new sound poem. Some fantastic lines were generated by the small group who attended, including Chloe who as a 12 year old was not phased by writing lines of poetry and was by far the most prolific. It was interesting that her lines took the voice of the comforter, the adult caring voice. The sound poem brings this out and creates an interesting juxtaposition of voices with the her young voice expressing the voice of reason, this would not have been so immediate and obvious from a page poem.
The final workshop is this week at Belgrave when we will create the third piece.
I already have some great lines and recordings to be included in the final piece from all three workshops and I am really looking forward to the next workshop to gather some more.
Rehearsals for the show are also progressing and the difficulties of working with different groups of people, each playing their part but rehearsing separately, then all coming together for the performance, has raised some interesting challenges. Not that they cannot be overcome and this week will see the mapping of the show from the individual acting pieces that have already been blocked out, to the already choreographed dance pieces, to the band, to the choir, to the projections, to the lighting, to the props etc.
I am filming on Saturday, a well known Midland Poet, is coming along to read as a talking head – reciting his and others poetry which will be overlaid with archive footage to create a montage on themes suggested by the production. A chance to use my new studio backdrop kit and to play with lighting, the things that excite me, even when people give me those weird looks.
I am glad of the opportunity to work on a production on such a scale, in both bringing my experience and also adding to my learning at the same time.
Some events coming up.
Nightblue Fruit with one of the Polesworth Poets – Sarah James – 1st May – Taylor John’s House, The Canal Basin – Coventry – 8:00pm – Bar plus Open Mic.
Poetry Alight at the Spark Café – The second evening of this excellent event with several guest poets plus pre-booked open mic’ers. Gary Longden will no doubt be providing more details in the coming weeks.
15th May. I expect to see several of the poetry trail poets reading at this event.
Spoken Worlds – Burton’s premier Poetry event – it was excellent last Friday, where I played my sound poems as Poet as DJ – and got many positive comments. The next is on 18th May – 7:30 start Open mic plus real ale pub – The Old Cottage Tavern, Bykerley St, Burton-on-Trent.
THE FIZZ – Bringing all thinks poetic back to Polesworth –22nd May– Guest poet is Margaret Torr – plus open mic, refreshments available 7:30pm start – Polesworth Abbey Refectory – High St, Polesworth, North Warwickshire.
John Donne – Good Friday 1613 – Riding Westward.
Several poets have suggested ideas for commorating the writing of this poem at its 400th aniversary next year, but I am still open to ideas – so please keep them coming.
The Lost poets will return in June.
SOME OF MY COMING SOON DOINGS
Readings in May
1st May – Nightblue Fruit – with Guest Poet Sarah James
15th May – Poetry Alight – Spark Café – Lichfield
18th May – Spoken Worlds – Burton on Trent
22nd May – The Fizz – Polesworth – Guest Poet Margaret Torr.
June 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th – THE WALL – Tamworth Assembly Rooms.
Re sound poetry – have you seen the stuff on which consonants are associated with positive and negative emotions? I’ve always thought the human brain is wired for survival and human interaction, so we see human faces in toast and animals in clouds. Is it the same with sounds? Are we drawn to sounds that remind us of ourselves? The fast beat of excited hearts, voices in the wind. The scream of nails on blackboards. Pink Floyd used a bare woman’s voice on DSOTM. Mike Oldfield used gutteral chanting.