freed up, poets & pasties, kenneth goldsmith & more

Freed up was on Thursday and I have to say a lot more fun than usual for taking place in the bar. Not because people were drinking a lot but because the layout was much more informal and the atmosphere less reverential. I suspect if I'd been a first-timer I would have found it less intimidating than a small closed room full of people sitting attentively in rows and applauding politely. Although I wholly appreciate that Freed up attempts to give new and less experienced writers a platform to perform their work - as well as encouraging people to write new work each time on topics they may not come to themselves - I feel that a noisier less controlled environment is better. Some poetry is quiet and reflective and works better in a more intimate and respectful setting but for me work that is going to be performed has to have confidence and strength to face less forgiving environments however delicate it may be.

I'm pretty sure that my own efforts this time on the theme open were met with a few sniggers but I can't be certain as I was concentrating on the performance. Given that it started with breathing aloud which continued over two metal pails being rubbed together before struggles to pronounce simple words succeeded by inarticulate noise it wouldn't be at all surprising. I'm told by my friends and someone else who was there that it was a good performance but again I really couldn't tell you. I wasn't listening. Since I didn't take any notes I can't tell you a great deal about the other performances either. Two versions of the score of my piece will be posted here shortly after this post and I will attempt a new recording tomorrow.

The other person who commented on my performance was the colleague of the sound artist who was occupying the space normally used by Freed up. According to Gary it was Claus - who I assume to be Claus van Bebber who has connections with Salford University where Gary completed his degree - although I didn't clarify that. If anyone can confirm it I'd be really grateful. He was there in support of a sound project for which he was collecting sound of individuals making a 'hmm' sound for as long as they could sustain. I think everyone at our table - Gary, Helen, my sister Hannah and I all contributed. Whatever and wherever the resulting piece is it should be interesting to hear. Not for egotistical reasons - I wouldn't recognise my own 'hmm' if I found it wanking in the bathtub - but to see how the collected elements are used.

On Wednesday next week I'll perform at Poets & Pasties at Bolton Rugby Club. I hadn't planned anything for it beyond thinking that it might be interesting to improvise for the five minutes with a handbuilt mic and the LoopStation. But after 20 minutes of improvising earlier today I'll do a 'reading' of The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader. A version of which I'll record and post here after the event. Next week is going to be the busiest week since October so there may be quite a few interesting things to post here.

For those who like that kind of thing the soundtrack to this post was Nurse With Wound and Stereolab's Crumb Duck and is now Keiji Haino's Execration That Accept To Acknowledge. I can't remember whether I bought Crumb Duck last year or in 2006 but an interesting change has occurred. Originally I found a lot of the Nurse With Wound stuff more difficult than the Stereolab sections whereas now I tend to skip through the Stereolab stuff or at least tune-out.

Finally I have started writing my essay for this semester a "[r]eflective essay on a chosen poet(s) and the relationship to the student's own sense of voice and performance" for which my chosen poet is Kenneth Goldsmith. Curiously for once my biggest difficulty is going to be having sufficient poems to submit. I will ask whether recorded pieces with attendant scores will be acceptable otherwise there will be a lot of pieces that are quite old, a lot that have been written in a hurry, and very little coherence.

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