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next stop montreal
...
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cab to blackwater
train to gatwick
gatwick to
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next stop montreal
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Sunday, 6 June 2010
Saturday, 5 June 2010
bought new docs and hitchhiked to Barcelona
one time i
...just bought new docs
cherry red doctor martens
they're pricier than they were
i used to get them from a shop/ lean-to on the waist in kingsland road, only open saturday afternoons
kenny's it was
i got them there for years till it shut down, so then it was leith walk
...
so ouch, the price, barnett's on the royal mile, cheaper then anywhere else but still ouch
one day i'll be poor again, its just a matter of staving it off for as long as possible
so, ouch
cherry red though, so nice
,..
but one time i
bought new docs and hitchhiked to Barcelona
which is up there with the stupidest things i ever done
like
bloody hell
owwww
by the time i got there i had
five things wrong with each foot
five
walking was horrible
concentrated pain
god awful bloody blisters
athlete's foot
chilblains
ingrowing toenails, sometimes bloody
and this awful general bone ache which was undoubtedly my whole foot saying NOOOO at the terrible treatment
owwww
by the time i got there i had
five things wrong with each foot
five
walking was horrible
concentrated pain
god awful bloody blisters
athlete's foot
chilblains
ingrowing toenails, sometimes bloody
and this awful general bone ache which was undoubtedly my whole foot saying NOOOO at the terrible treatment
i've done a bunch of stupid stuff
who hasn't
i'm 47
but that's up there with the stupidest
aches itches sorenesses pains and agonies
every footstep a pain, abloodygony
oww, those lovely boulevards
sangria helped,
as i recall,
while i was unnecessarily lost in the barrio gothico
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Friday, 4 June 2010
in the hot crucible of that hour
...
...
And in the hot crucible of that hour I cracked,
...
And in the hot crucible of that hour I hardened,
And in the hot crucible of that hour I hardened,
...
And in the hot crucible of that hour I purified,
And in the hot crucible of that hour I purified,
...
And in the hot crucible of that hour I softened
And in the hot crucible of that hour I softened
...
And in the hot crucible of that hour I desiccated,
And in the hot crucible of that hour I desiccated,
...
And in the hot crucible of that hour I shriveled,
And in the hot crucible of that hour I shriveled,
...
And in the hot crucible of that hour I became flexible,
And in the hot crucible of that hour I became flexible,
...
And in the hot crucible of that hour I expanded
...
...
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
war casualties
...
...
3 bomb disposal men die in Gottingen
Germany
today
1000 pound bomb...
...
3 bomb disposal men die in Gottingen
Germany
today
1000 pound bomb...
those are second world war casualties
today...
which makes me think
...
...
...
Clydesdale 20
...
In Scotland three different banks issue bank notes
and the third bank’s, the Clydesdale
are well iffy
one time I was in Cyprus with a well unnecessary cashflow problem
and nowhere in the South would take them
they’d take one look at the funny colour, the mickey mouse crusader, and politely refuse
but in Northern Cyprus, the Turkish bit
they were absolutely desperate for foreign currency
what with hyperinflation and being a Mickey Mouse country themselves
only recognised by the Turks
so they were all too eager and I got
45 million lira for it
Yes 45000000
A bunch of notes
And they don’t have commas between the zeros
so you have to look hard to see if it’s a
10000000 or a
1000000
It’s the only time I’ve ever been a millionaire in any currency
Well, till I got to Lao and Vietnam last year
In Scotland three different banks issue bank notes
and the third bank’s, the Clydesdale
are well iffy
one time I was in Cyprus with a well unnecessary cashflow problem
and nowhere in the South would take them
they’d take one look at the funny colour, the mickey mouse crusader, and politely refuse
but in Northern Cyprus, the Turkish bit
they were absolutely desperate for foreign currency
what with hyperinflation and being a Mickey Mouse country themselves
only recognised by the Turks
so they were all too eager and I got
45 million lira for it
Yes 45000000
A bunch of notes
And they don’t have commas between the zeros
so you have to look hard to see if it’s a
10000000 or a
1000000
It’s the only time I’ve ever been a millionaire in any currency
Well, till I got to Lao and Vietnam last year
...
And the 45 million lira?
They only lasted me ninety minutes
Ninety?
That was three lunches and a coffee
Bloody hell
And the 45 million lira?
They only lasted me ninety minutes
Ninety?
That was three lunches and a coffee
Bloody hell
...
camberley
the million greens of English june
yesterday dismal in
Glasgow
London
Surrey
and now here glorious
...
back into more rehearsal
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
bye to scotland
...
To Glasgow, Trongate, to the Panopticon for the Music Hall show, which Robin Cairns is in … the oldest music hall in the world, where Stan Laurel, who’s Dad ran the place, made his debut, unknown to his Dad
An old-style Music Hall show too patchy to work… certain people are great, a young old-style operatic singeress, Robin, an Asian Magician complete with doves up his capacious sleeves [Aziz, what a great name for a magician... As Is...], and a few other good bits... but way too patchy…
The place like a museum, with old posters… one for a “Comedian and Descriptive Vocalist”… and I ask what that means of Judith Bowers, who runs the place, and she says a descriptive vocalist is what Robin does … and what I do too
And on the wall an RAF poster [1918]… where at the bottom is says if you join the Royal Air Force voluntarily you cannot be transferred to the Army or Navy without your own consent… well, if I’d been between a rock and a hard place in 1918, I reckon I’d’ve taken them up on it… and joined the air force... rather than being told to walk slowly towards some machine-gunner who’s already killed hundreds of you today
At the bar in Cumnock the English guy shushes the plastered guy in the boozer so the bar can hear the poet
…
Cumnock
Wee small miners town in Ayrshire
Got closed down along with the two pits, back in the 80s
Great gig
Forty folk in the Lounge Bar of the Mercat Hotel
Run by Robin Cairns, who I’m staying with in Glasgow’s Pollokshaws, and gigging for tonight…. a bunch of local poets, one nutter, and me
Very nice indeed… Robin got into performance poetry cos he saw Big Word and is now the main guy running performance poetry shows on the West Coast
Main act was Rab Wilson, who speaks in the dialect of Rabbie Burns, who is somewhere between saint and god as far as this lot are concerned, especially in Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire… Rab is old skool language, old skool left wing, new skool way of taking the world… great fun and interest to hear him… and this is an old type of bard in that he is speaking of and for the people round here, he is their voice, their antenna, their lightning conductor… is addressing, nae voicing, their lives and concerns in a way which very little media does
This is the bones… begins one guy
Is this the same Cumnock where someone told me the Orange, i.e. Protestant band, used to practice in the street outside the Catholic Church so they couldn’t hear their own service?… I think it is
Same guy told me about someone in Ulster who was the daughter of the Chief Rabbi, which meant she spent her whole life being asked the question… ahhh yes, but are you a Protestant Jew or a Catholic Jew?… I have real trouble not finding that funny… Do you?
A well up for it audience, lots of fun moments and all round a good thing to do… Robin runs a number of gigs like this around
Apparently I ran the first ever poetry slam in Ayrshire, in Kilmarnock, which I never knew, or have forgotten… and probably in Dumfriesshire as well… after the slam, in Kilmarnock, I remember hearing Coward Of The County in a karaoke boozer and being deeply self-appalled to find I didn’t hate it, cos it is shite, and it felt like an old friend and made me feel warm and cosy… which gave me the best joke for the shopping/mall show I did in 2008, my most successful show yet… the joke operating around Contempt Breeds Familiarity… i.e. you can’t hate anything forever
...
Glasgow, sunshiny bank holiday
Titwood road
Low sandstone house on a wide street
Pollokshaws into town
In the café the waitress’s skaggy 25ish son wheedles for cash and smokes, he’s done it before and her face is made of brick as he ups the wheedling and gets more of both out of her… and she tries to reject but soon accepts his hug
Into Glasgow Green for the Guardian and the greenery, the queue for the ice-cream van longer by the minute
You’s looking for ketamine? I am too
Robin’s wife Karen is an architect and watercolourist, she sells two or three a week… she worked for the biggest architects in Scotland but the smaller place over the road offered her the same job but with a four day week… meaning she could paint on the day off… so she was went straight over the road, and is still there, surviving the recession, and selling two or three a week
and now Glasgow
dismal Tuesday morn
two hours to kill
till
departure from
a great time, a treat of a time, in Scotland
...
scotland was always pretty good to me
after four years i was described as
the godfather of scottish performance poetry
by the main sunday paper, Scotland On Sunday
which is pretty amazing seeing i'm from Surrey
like gobsmacking
...
killer show last night in Rio Cafe
felt marvellous to do
and a great reassurance
...
...
cheerio scotland
montreal sunday
nowhere to stay yet
...
dismal Tuesday morn
two hours to kill
till
departure from
a great time, a treat of a time, in Scotland
...
scotland was always pretty good to me
after four years i was described as
the godfather of scottish performance poetry
by the main sunday paper, Scotland On Sunday
which is pretty amazing seeing i'm from Surrey
like gobsmacking
...
killer show last night in Rio Cafe
felt marvellous to do
and a great reassurance
...
...
cheerio scotland
montreal sunday
nowhere to stay yet
...
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