Dangerous Wisdom

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Sometimes, there are those days where nothing quite goes right, your timing goes awry, people let you down or perhaps you just disappoint yourself with your efforts. And just occasionally, crazy ideas work out just fine, everything's ready on time, people exceed expectations with their generosity and talent, and you kick yourself for ever doubting it all.

But I've now seen artists building a garden in a theatre, where dragonflies with glowing eyes look on as YET MORE amazing poets from Milton Keynes (and beyond) enter, and give us their words from behind a cute picket fence and surrounded by flowers. 

And there were poems scribbled on leaves (the beermats will be back one day, I'm sure!) which were added to our "poet-tree" (see what we did there?)

And there were "Kapow" signs and name-badges, plenty of chocolate and nibbles, and new local music (monkey kettle & Friends vol 1) over the stereo adding to general atmos.

But more importantly, we had lots of people taking part, many of whom were new performers or new to Milton Keynes, 4 of whom were up for competing, and all of whom were great.

Big fat thanks to our artists Nikki (who left before the show) and Carla (who also gave us some great rhymes, and was on photography duty, oh yeah, and she did the lighting too. I'll get me coat); Ubercool multi-musician Rooh; MatthewMT (for letting us in the theatre and stuff!); Roger for amps, mics and other important stuff; all who donated prizes (including Borders, they rock even more than I thought!); our 4 slammers (especially our winner Alison Brumfitt who I later discover is a well-reknowned and experienced performer. Cheers for coming along and joining in, Alison!); everyone who took to the open mic; and everyone who just came along to watch (and yell Kapow! just for the hell of it!) And big love an'all to Fay, for being the website queen, Facebook-doer (it still scares me!), poetry goddess, and more of an organiser and overseer than I could ever hope to be (I hope you don't now have a house-full of said picket fence, crepe flowers and glowy dragonflies)

Thank you all so much for choosing to spend your Easter Saturday with us. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And sorry I ever doubted how attendance might have been! Everyone excelled themselves, I can't wait to see the photos!

KAPOW!

And it happened, 7th December, Poetry Kapow as organised by Fay and myself, with the invaluable assistance of a few dedicated others. The poster was gorgeous, so everyone I asked was happy to display it, the Madcap venue eventually came up good, despite us having very little time in there to recce and generally have a tech rehearsal. Lights and staging all worked out well, although we really wanted to use a second stage, it was set up with its own amplification and everything, but our performers preferred the main stage!

Mostly though, all the performers were good, and each section was kept short, with some fantastic musical intervention by Rooh... I could go on forever, but the important thing is that we're both very much looking forward to the next one (in the spring sometime, I think)

Oh, and I'm self-published now (of sorts), i lost sleep over it, but I now have 2 booklets of poetry to sell.

KAPOW!!!

Hello musicians and music-lovers everywhere!

Just a quick note to say if you haven’t added your thoughts to our www.musiciskorg.com website yet, you might like to give it a go. Read the comments already there and then just follow the link to upload your own. The picture doesn’t have to be of yourself, just an image that represents what music means to you.

We’d love to hear what you have to say!

Hold onto your Christmas stockings, boys and girls, as Poetry Kapow Productions need poets of all shapes and sizes to get scribbling, get up on stage and show off at our Seasonal Finale at the Madcap on 7^th December.

There’ll be a poetry slam, other competitions, and more entertaining interludes than we’ve even dreamed up yet. But we need rhyming Rudolfs, Pantomime dames and serious poets who think we’ve gone a bit silly to sign up and join in. So if you’ve a sonnet in your bonnet, a poem in your pants, or just some angst to vent in a rhyming fashion, get in touch on info@poetrykapow.co.uk

So another looong weekend went without a hitch... phew!

Friday night, went out with work, and got very drunk on cocktails, talked and talked and talked like a wind-up toy to some very unfortunate folk, realised I was getting wobbly, gave up and left early, got home, got more drunk and passed out. Oh well, at least it was my own bed!

Saturday started early with a 7.30 am hangover, then a busy morning, including finding the incredible "Animalwatching" by Desmond Morris, which I fell in love with years ago and have now bought for £1!

Lunch with the fella in the brilliant "slug and lettuce", they're know what we drink now, and I've had most of the things on their menu at one time or another.

After a nice long afternoon of dressing up, we went to slimelight for a great evening of constant high-octane dancing, DJs and band were all pretty good, which was useful for me, because after getting home I had time for a shower (which I'd been craving since 2AM) and to smarten up before meeting with family for lunch.

Lots of chinese food, wine, beer and cake later I got back home about 8 o clock, which was WAY too late to start a film :(  so we just curled up to Long Way Round.

need lots and lots of caffeine to get me through the day... still have a feeling I won't quite make it!

Ok... gig on Sunday.

I have 2 tickets and no takers for the 2nd. My fella (much like myself, but, hey, I've committed myself to go, and am looking forward to it) doesn't fancy the predicted THREE HOUR bus ride to London and back to see System:FX / Panzer AG on Sunday.

Ideas, suggestions... .takers??? (system:FX on at 6.30)

Wow, yeah... April. Blimey!

Uh, saw Swarf at the Bridgehouse... They STILL absolutely kick butt, Liz has the most amazing voice, and the music manages to be sweet and gutsy at the same time. And the sound in this teeny-tiny venue is pretty good too, shame it's in a very isolated estate in Canning Town.

Sick and Twisted was effort, and although it was good in places, it was just too loud and there were too many "Uh, no. Why??" moments on that dancefloor... mooooving on!

Birthday weekend was VERY nice... made lots of Dennis the Menace and Tom & Jerry cakes for work, and spent a couple of days visiting this gallery and that exhibition, following the Independent's listings to find that: 2 of the places did not exist (and phone numbers didn't work) 2 were merely shop fronts (one of which was closed, 1 had the wrong timings (and was merely a few rubbish pictures in a cafe) and whatever was advertised for the V&A was completely inaccurate, and it was very dull. 

fortunately, despite almost catastrophic train problems, Si met me in London and took me out for my surprise dinner which was at the Oxo Tower and absolutely great. Their cocktails were pretty amazing too, and no more expensive than your average Soho bar.

And on Friday morning, we left at Dawn to travel to Dortmund and on to Gladbeck for Forms of Hands. We stayed in a lovely, and very friendly little town called Gilsenkirchen, which was a drive and a half from anywhere, but worth it. Our hotel was really nice, and we had a couple of meals (and more than a few drinks) in a proper german pub (called the Witches house, and there were all little witches everywhere!)

the fest itself was mostly pretty exciting (despite their lack of rum, jaeger or diet coke... grrrr!) Si bought lots of music... I was typically more conservative for my own cynical reasons. But in all it was a great success, and whilst I've a lot to learn before Leipzig (back off to Germany via london on wednesday!) my German wasn't too bad and we survived ok.

so now we're pushing Friday night's Poetry Kapow (are you coming? are you? huh??) and I was up VERY late last night trying to get angry about stuff and form it into rhymy words. So we're a bit nervous, but it'll all be exciting and fabulous and it'll be Slime o'clock (you better believe it baby!) before we even realise it.

So this weekend is gonna be pretty awesome, SO glad it's a bank holiday! And then I'll have to pack to be away for nearly a week... erk!

Stupidly busy and twitchy and generally ready for another party or two before the money runs out!

And the month is over! Roll on Summer!!!