Tim Hamilton reading at Candy Stripes

Well, I had an excellent evening being part of a great performance at the Candy Bar on last Thursday night. Anthony O’Sullivan (of Spinning Room fame) was an excellent host as per usual, presiding over an enthusiastic turnout.

I was grateful to find that I was opening as it meant I would be less stressed and could enjoy the show in its entirety. This was handy as, apart from Josephine, I had seen little to no of my co-stars previously, knowing them only by reputation, and was able to enjoy their work with fresh ears.

The set list for me was: If Poetry, Mokita, Ballard Days, Eulogy for the Cassette, Eulogy for the Polaroid, Tomorrow’s Ghosts, Concerto in B-Flat for Piano and Phlegm and I finished with XXI - The World

If the night made anything clear to me, it was that I really need to learn how to perform without my notes! Apart from seeing some marvellous performances being done by people who were free of having to look at paper every couple of seconds, it felt a lot better being able to concentrate purely on what I was saying without having to read at the same time.

Photos of the night were taken by Michael Reynolds, who has kindly shared them to the world on this link.

Overload this year produced something of a record for me. Five gigs in one week I think is something of a record in the decade-and-a-bit that I’ve been attending and reading in open stage gigs. By the time Sunday’s closing event rolled around, I was too tired to attend. Hats off the Overload organising committee for bringing in festival number seven!

So, I’ve made a few changes to the site, the new banner was found whilst looking around on DeviantArt. The credit for the real image goes to Guy With The Guitar (link goes to the original image). Obviously enough, I altered it a little to suit the purpose.

I found the image after putting the words ‘paris metro’ into the Deviantart search function. I’m a little obsessed with the Metro (and it’s London counterpart, the Underground), such interesting places, with their varied architecture and history, old adverts still stuck to the walls, millions of people passing through them each day.

I attribute the following quote to Christine Hamm, English lecturer at Rutgers University and author of The Transparent Dinner.

“The reverse poem exercise consists of taking a poem, breaking it down line by line and trying to write the opposite of each image and word. After you’re done you can play with it anyway you want.”

Suffice to say I’ve had far too much fun doing this. Beneath the cut is one example I’ve been working on.
Continue Reading »

Sorry if you just copped a wave of links from this feed. Teffnical Diffimiculties. Ahem.