New Poem - Lifetagging

Many of my more recent writings have been produced during the writing course I attended at the National Media Museum in Bradford at the beginning of 2009. The course has finished now although another is due to begin in June. Meanwhile, a number of us have decided to continue meeting and trying to write.
A week or so ago we visited Cartwright Hall in Bradford, to view a retrospective exhibition by German artist Jockel Reisner. While we all enjoyed this show, there was nothing I saw there that particularly inspired anything to write.
However, at the other end of the corridor was a photographic exhibition: Z Polski Do Anglii: Polish Communities in Britain. There I found an image by Bradford photographer Tim Smith particularly powerful. I knew I wanted to write something in response but it was incredibly difficult to come up with words that conveyed anything like the force of the original image.
After several drafts and much crossing-out, my poem Lifetagging emerged.

Hamilton Loomis at the Bronte Blues Club

Hamilton Loomis. Native of Galveston, Texas. Fine musician and friend of the late Bo Diddley. On Friday, April 24, 2009, he and his band came to play and give their all in the little Pennine village of Laycock. It was yet another of those nights when one needed to pinch oneself every now and again just to make sure it was really happening. Such a tight band playing a stratospheric standard of music in our own back yard, so to speak.
There was something for everyone. The purists got their share while other tracks reached those who prefer a rockier style. There were even songs (such as the funky Best Worst Day) which, it could be argued, were not really blues at all.
Drummer Jamie Little must really like the Bronte Blues Club. It was his second visit of the season, his first being with the excellent Sherman Robertson back in November. He was on great form, as was saxophonist and keyboards man Stratton Doyle. Bassist Kent Beatty completed a line-up that sounded as if it had been together throughout each of its member’s careers.
Hamilton Loomis is a true showman who recognises that fine musicianship is not quite enough for a performance to be memorable. The show included much leaping around, forays into the audience, solos standing on chairs (the village hall tables were not quite up to it) and other antics and asides, none of which compromised the music.
And if that wasn’t enough, there was also a guest appearance by guitarist Alex McKown who is very good and probably becoming increasingly fed up of people being amazed by his age. I’m sure he’s not by ours.
A wonderful evening. Thanks to Hamilton and all concerned.
Here to see more pics.

Successful Big Swim

As tweeted throughout the event, I completed my sponsored swim on Friday April 17th. I swam 100 lengths of the pool at Green’s Gym in Shipley - 70 in the morning and the remaining 30 after lunch. It took about three and a half hours in all, so the challenge was as much mental as physical, thinking of each length at a time rather than the tens of lengths ahead. So far I have raised just over £500 (About £200 worth of sponsors were in person rather than online) - a very pleasing total - many thanks to all my sponsors. Thanks also to the staff at Green’s for being so encouraging (and for giving me a mention on their website), and all members who chipped in with a contribution. There is still time to sponsor me on my page at the Swimathon website.

More Mitchell & Kenyon

I remember this sequence from the BBC programmes two or three years ago. Fascinating and quite sad to think that many of the youngsters featured here would meet their end in the trenches of the Somme or Passchendaele.

My Swimming Challenge

As the last few posts indicate (see March archive), I have recently changed the look of my site and was rather pleased with the result. As I mentioned on the Rapidweaver forum, most of the credit goes to Adam at seyDesign. I just added the colour scheme and a few other tweaks. Anyway, my visit rate has shot up as a result of that entry and so I’ve decided to be a bit cheeky and take advantage of the increased audience while it lasts.
Here in the UK the Swimathon (not too late to have a go yourself) has caught on quite a bit in recent years. It’s a charity event which raises money for care for the terminally ill. I have opted to go in for the SimplySwim section which allows one to swim in a pool of one’s choice and also to do the distance over several sessions. My challenge is to swim 100 lengths in a day (it’s a 25 metre pool, so that’s 2.5 km). It might take more than one session. As I mention elsewhere on this site, I am a bit of an old git although I have been swimming regularly for a while now. I would be most grateful if you could sponsor me, even for the tiniest of amounts. You can do this online by going to my page on the Swimathon website. Thanks in anticipation.

Notes from a Small Café - new bit of writing

Just uploaded my last bit of writing from the current run of the Creative Writing Course at the Media Museum. I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed this course, mainly because it has forced me out of my lethargy and made me actually put fingers to keyboard.
This latest short piece, Notes from a Small Café is about such a place in the early morning. I took a few notes from a visit last Saturday and then dramatised the scene somewhat.

Go Gotem

The more I’ve worked on this Rapidweaver theme called Gotem from seydesign the more I like it. In addition to changing the look, it has also encouraged me to put more of my writing onto the site. As mentioned before, I used Weebly to make another site called icklestories so I could put writing there. Strikes me now that this is a bit stupid seeing as I have established a perfectly good site, subtitled ‘graphics and writings’ right here. As yet there is only a story, The Curious Case of Terry Perry and the Flat-Screen Telly, a couple of other short bits of writing and a poem. I aim to add more in the near future.