Global Poetry System

If you get the chance, check out the Poetry Library's Global Poetry System. An interactive tool that enables you to search and add poetry by geographical location. Suggest your favourites and track down new gems around the world!

gps.southbankcentre.co.uk

The Private Press: Lynchpins

The Private Press do the most fantastic anthologies of poetry, with a number based around the work of director David Lynch. If you're not acquainted with his work, it's bizarre, gothic, terrifying, surreal and grotesque, not to mention weirdly sexy.

Already out are the collections 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' (based on cult series Twin Peaks) and 'We Don't Stop Here' (based on Mulholland Drive), and this year should see the release of 'Deep River Apartments'. a collection based on the chilling and dyfunctional mystery Blue Velvet.

Currently the first two are sold out, but they promise more soon!





Make friends with the Private Press on Facebook.

Dream Jobs & Reality: Poetry in the Workplace

Just uploaded a new article to Irregular Features - Chrissy Williams discussing her new job at the Poetry Library. If you think this means she gets to spend all day stamping books, click that link right now and enlighten yourself!

Transformers #4, 100 word review

After a decent start, the last two issues of Mike Costa and Don Figueroa’s new Transformers series floundered - characters talked and moved around but did little to establish themselves as sufficiently interesting, while the plot lacked direction. Transformers #4 shows serious improvement in the characterisation department. Thundercracker, a Decepticon, is particularly well drawn, but Hot Rod, Swindle, Prowl and Ultra Magnus also shine. The plot (Transformers as hapless castaways trying to construct a raft while avoiding the natives) is still ponderous, but it’s heartening to see that Costa can cover for this by writing a convincing array of clashing personalities.

What Are Birds play Suffering Jukebox tonight!

Me and Jon, aka What Are Birds, are playing a set at 7.30 (we're on first) at Suffering Jukebox, an evening hosted by Declan Ryan of Days of Roses fame, at the 3 Blind Mice, Shoreditch, tonight. There'll be a raft of other splendid bands, including:

The Shingles (Teleri, Dec, Phil, Louis and Rory )
http://www.myspace.com/theshinglesband

Charly Morris (of Le Tetsuo)
http://www.myspace.com/charlymorris

Mr Dupret Factory (Rich Trow)
http://www.myspace.com/mrdupretfactory

Book of Birds (Robert McCracken)
http://www.myspace.com/robertmccrackenmusic
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=309060479859#!/bookofbirds?ref=ts

MC: Christopher Horton

For those of you on Facebook, it's here.

For those of you not on Facebook, who haven't been to the 3 Blind Mice before, it's at 5 Ravey Street (nearest tubes Liverpool Street and Old Street) and a map can be found here. Look for a big number 5 and go through the mysterious door beneath it.

Hope to see you there!
K

The Bombing of Poems over Warsaw

Just thought I'd draw attention to this book launch event. The book documents an intervention last year, where poems by contemporary Polish and Chilean poets were dropped over Warsaw. Its part of a series of interventions covering cities which were destroyed in WW2.

Thursday, 4 March, 6 o'clock till 9.Ben Pimlot Lecture Theatre
Goldsmiths, New Cross.

Sydenham Radio Interview this Thursday

Kirsty will be taking part in a poetry reading and interview with Sydenham Radio between 8 and 9pm on Thursday 4 March. The show will look at spring, love, new beginnings and similar themes, which K will probably interpret as a cross between the sex, the outbreak of war and The Wicker Man. Who knows?

Tune in here!

Christina Lindberg Boxtoy

The time has come to promote my new pamphlet, Scarecrows, published by Happenstance Press, priced £4.00 and available to order from here. It looks a little like this:

My marketing plan is to make seven downloadable cut out and fold paper boxtoys, each one based on a character who has a starring role in the pamphlet. The third poem in the sequence is Christina Lindberg: A Collage and here's the grindhouse star herself, as she appeared in They Call Her One-Eye:

Watch it! She's out for revenge! And while she may only be three and a half inches high, you wouldn't want both barrels unloaded into your ankle, would you?

Didn't think so. You can download the net for Christina as an A4 pdf from here. All you need is a colour printer, some scissors and glue. Cut along the thick black lines, fold along the dashed ones.

Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin, 100 word review

Russian literary star Pelevin’s fifth novel concerns a kind of kitsune, a fox spirit thousands of years old, who works as a high class prostitute in contemporary Russia (but only ‘hypnotises’ her clients into thinking they’re getting their money’s worth). A series of careless mistakes leads her to encounter her charismatic counterpart, a werewolf/high-ranking military officer, and they immediately engage in energetic half-human, half-beast sex and equally passionate philosophical debate. This ain’t no Twilight-grade anaemic fantasy - much of the book is engagingly bizarre socio-political riffing, topped with spiritualism, occultism and satire. It’s funny too.

Top Three 'Concept' Pamphlets of 2009

I suppose it's too late for 'Best of 2009' lists but I thought I'd put a note about these because good poetry can always use more publicity. I'm a huge fan of the poetry pamphlet being used as a platform for conceptual ideas that might not be sustainable over the course of a full book, or would be otherwise regulated to a 'section' in the middle. My enthusiasm for these ideas comes, at least in part, I think, from the feeling that while 'the poem' is a respected artform, 'the poetry collection' is not - that is to say, poets are very keen to make an individual poem work in all sorts of interesting ways but think less of the artistic possibilities afforded by the grander scale of the whole book. Snowballing of themes and images is one thing; making the whole artifact into your canvas, to be perceived at once as a whole, is, in my view, quite another.

1. The Reluctant Vegetarian by Richard Moorhead, Oystercatcher Press
Reviewed by me here
Sample poems here
Buy from here

Moorhead uses not vegetables but the words denoting vegetables and ransacks each of them for flavours, uses and meanings. Each poem is laid out in dictionary format and many of the definitions are simply sumptuously worded. Mm.

2. Corpoetics by Nick Asbury, Asbury and Asbury
Reviewed by me and others here
Buy and sample here

Asbury slices up corporate manifestoes gleaned from websites and rearranges them into stumpy but hugely inventive epigrams and light verse. Pointed and artful.

3. The Terrors by Tom Chivers, Nine Arches Press
Reviewed here
Buy from here

Chivers, who published his debut book only months after this delightful pamphlet, presents a series of imaginary emails to inmates of Newgate prison - some unjustly judged, some maniacs. History collides with the technological age - thunderously good.

Johnny Weir: Hero

I stopped myself from writing about American figure skater Johnny Weir a while back, mainly because I feared it would quickly descend into me gibbering about how goshdarn beautiful he is, but now I have a better reason to talk about him.

I've loved watching the guy skate since the 2006 Winter Olympics - he's talented, dedicated and a spectacular showman. But he's also got a massive personality too. He carries with him an orbital array of quotes and eccentric actions, which, naturally, the press love. For the not-yet-obsessed, these include Camille, the single red glove he wore for a spell while skating, who was 'blamed' for any mistakes on the ice, his awesome Poker Face routine, his forming part of the inspiration behind Jimmy MacElroy in Blades of Glory, the Peta death threats regarding the fur on his costume, the fact that when asked for his 10 favourites songs of all time, six were by Christina Aguilera, and of course, his famed discretion when quizzed about his sexuality:

"There are some things I keep sacred. My middle name. Who I sleep with. And what kind of hand moisturiser I use...If I was out to please 10-year-old girls and their 45-year-old mothers in Boise, Idaho, I could play the game and be nice and make my voice deeper. But I don’t see the point. I’m not alive for 10-year-old girls and their 45-year-old mothers in Boise, Idaho — or Colorado Springs, Colo."

For Johnny Weir, he is answerable to the public for his skating and his skating alone. And that's exactly how it should be. But apparently at the 2010 Olympic games, interviewers in Vancouver thought it would be fun to prod the lion. Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch reports that journalists suggested (employing the piss-poor caveat of "this may not be politically correct but -") that his costume and body language were to blame for his score, before asking whether Weir's femininity reflected badly on other male skaters (AAARGHH! NOT GAY!!!! Skating isn't gay! Get your gay off me!) and even joking that he should take a gender test.

It's this kind of institutionalised, insecure, casual homophobia and gender bias that can gradually drive people who don't fit the idea of femininity or masculinity to despair. But it's also a question of free speech, and the most touching thing about this nasty, bigoted little situation is the grace with which Weir handles the subject. Just watch this passionate and eloquent press conference.

Because it's not just about a celebrity getting touchy about questions regarding their sex life. It's about children in the 21st century being afraid to be who they are and about parents and the media hammering gay, bi, trans and just plain different children into lying to themselves and living in fear, sometimes for their entire lives.

Johnny Weir is setting an example for kids in a number of areas: hard work, unabashed, unapologetic self-belief, and a masterclass in how to be a genuine star.


*******************************

Thanks to Lizzie.

Approaching the Divine Comedy in the Twenty-First Century

The first feature article we have up at Dr Fulminare's Irregular Features is a fresh look at Dante's the Divine Comedy by Andrea Tallarita. If you've found yourself baulking at the idea of reading the Comedy because it looks like so much 'fire and brimstone' preaching, or just because it seems intimidating, give this short article a whirl - you might find it provokes renewed interest:

Approaching the Divine Comedy in the Twenty-First Century

Fables 13: The Great Fables Crossover, 100 word review

The last volume of Fables left the characters facing their grimmest predicament yet, so writer Bill Willingham really couldn’t have chosen a worse time to insert a jaunty cross-over romp with spin-off series Jack of Fables. Even on its own merits, it’s a damp squib - the antagonist is essentially God (manifested as an author), determined to end the Universe with a stroke of his pen but stricken with writers’ block. His agents - all personifications of genres of fiction - are fairly irritating, especially ‘Literature’ (who should really have been called ‘Bad LitCrit’). Bizarrely, each gets their head chewed off.

Paper Foldables

I just discovered paperfoldables.com. It's a wonderful site run by Bryan Green, featurable downloadable nets for paper characters, many of which are based on computer games. Just check out the amazing Street Fighter II set! I might have a go at creating some of these myself...

Last Stand of the Wreckers, Issue 2, 100 word review

 

What if Alistair MacLean (he of Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare fame) were alive today and writing comics? He might be doing something like Nick Roche and James Roberts’ Last Stand of the Wreckers. Issue 2 carefully finalises the bubbling pot of contrasting personalities and gives us more background to arch-villain Overlord, the Decepticons' most famous deserter. Then it throws the Wreckers headlong into a wall of gunfire as they begin their suicidal assault on the prison outpost Garrus 9. On top of that, there are at least three mystery sub-plots raised. Exhilarating, engaging, coherent and beautiful.