what's going on

Unfortunately there were some large gaps between posts in January. Partly because I had my dissertation-equivalent sequence of poems and commentary to complete and hand in, partly because the follow up post on gaming + poetry ended up around 3,700 words, partly because something for work took 2,500 words so I didn't feel much like writing anything else, and partly because at the beginnning of the month and again since Tuesday evening last week I haven't been able to get online at home except with the Wii, which isn't very convenient. So what have I been up to over the last month?

reading
I have at least two dozen books stacked up waiting to be read. Fiction, non-fiction and mainly poetry. The poetry is kind of my priority at the moment. I'm not nearly familiar enough with contemporary innovative practice, and certainly not happy with where my poetry is at the moment.

I'm happy with my sound poetry and there'll be more on this later. I'm not especially happy with my visual poetry which has more or less hit a dead end for the moment. But what's most concerning is the old fashioned text poetry. I haven't been able to reduce my dependence on objects and description despite a few attempts over the last two years. This means that I have quite a lot of work - including most of manchester that I'm ambivalent about. On the one hand a lot of it does what I intend, and is easily an improvement on what I produced in 2008 and most of the early part of last year. On the other hand none of it is as radical or interesting or unusual as I'd like.

Along with completing manchester I may have to spend a few months reading and experimenting just to get anywhere near where I want to be. It means that inevitably as well as reading for enjoyment I'm reading for research, to analyse techniques and think about how my current practice relates to the work of others. This is one of the reasons I enjoy gaming - I can do it without having to think about how it relates to my writing - tv might have the same effect if I didn't feel I was being treated like an idiot all the time.

being condescended to by idiots
Probably the worst source of condescension is work. I really don't take kindly to people repeating back to me something I've just told them in a slightly reworded way as though they were explaining a complex problem to a slow child. Especially when, despite being in a more responsible role than me, they then demonstrate that they don't actually understand the procedure they're lecturing me on and have responsibility for helping implement. The temptation to email back saying 'you're wrong - and here's why' is very strong. In fact this morning I was so pissed off by another matter I did contact someone to ask 'what the hell?' in slightly more diplomatic terms. Slightly.

avoiding conversion by peculiar christian sects
Now this was actually fun. I was on my way to record some water sounds when I got stopped by some Korean christians wanting to telll me about their church. On this occasion I thought I'd see exactly what brand of weirdness was on offer, and I wasn't disappointed. They were from the World Mission Society Church of God which apparently began in 1964, and it shows.

They don't appear to be fundamentalist in the sense of taking the Bible literally - they're not creationist in the American sense for instance - and seem content with what science as to say about the size, age and composition of the universe - but they do seem to read parts of the book very closely. So minor prophets like Amos and Micah feature, so too does Revelations, and also Leviticus - though not the bonkers and intolerant bits you might expect. Instead they read from a section I'd never read before detailing the festivals of Zion, which apparently are a prerequisite for salvation or something. I'd kind of drifted off by this stage. However they claim to be the only church celebrating all these festivals whch include the brilliantly named Festival of Trumpets - although not my own Festival of Toast sadly. Their key sacrament is passover - by which they appear to mean a version of communion.

Although they are charming people and I'd say fairly harmless they really had no chance of converting an atheist like me. Their selling technique centred around the problem of evil, or at least how bad things happen to good people, concentrating on disasters - particularly the Haiti earthquake. Which is certainly tasteless if you wanted to object. But rather than offering an answer they offer instead the chance that god might protect you (presumably spiritually rather than physically). So if you partake in passover then you will be protected from disaster.

And here's where it comes together, and I suspect one of the reasons they've been accused by some of being a cult. They don't just have in mind disasters like the Haiti earthquake, they also have in mind the expansion of the sun, collision of enormous comets with the earth, and other extinction-level events either destroying humanity or the entire planet. It's this mixture of acceptance of hard science, apocalyptic dread, an intricate and selective reading of the Bible, and overt friendliness that I'm sure is very effective in persuading those willing to be persuaded.

recording sounds
Without the pressure of deadlines it's been good to record some sounds and sound poetry and just mess around. I did record a couple of pieces for consideration for The Other Room's 09/10 anthology - one of which using two tape recorders among other items was inadvertently moving close to Alvin Lucier's I am sitting in a room. But these were entirely home-based, I've also been outside recording.

Having manufactured a pretty rough hydrophone I've been looking for chances to use it. I expect the really interesting sounds will start to emerge through the spring, when plant and animal life starts to become more active. For the moment the best - or really the only sounds - are from moving water. I have a lot of material to play with now, although no concrete plans for what to do with it. There are also several non-water sounds around the city that I want to collect, again with no specific plan in mind.

gaming
Mainly it's been cartoony, kiddy things. On the whole I'm not interested in wandering round shooting - although I kind of enjoy Resident Evil from time to time, and Mad World is pretty funny. But actually I haven't been playing either of those. Instead I'm trying to make Rabbids Go Home last a little longer, getting frustrated by occasional wildly swinging camera angles in Mini Ninjas, and really getting into Boom Blox Bash Party and especially Excite Truck, the latter despite the fact that racing games usually bore me.

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