Category: Event

This post contains news regarding a specific event, a gig, launch of some kind, etc.

My oh my…

I have been gone a little while haven’t I? Afraid that’s the way of it, I’ve been working very hard with the monetary job but have made a recent return to the creative grindstone as well!

On Monday night I had an excellent night featuring at Passionate Tongues. Michael Reynolds gave me quite an amazing introduction and I was glad for the reddish light because they saved my blushing. The crowd was relatively new to me and I managed to read the entire thing off an iPad! Being a tech geek FTW!

In further news, I will be making another feature at the magnificent Dan O’Connell on the first Saturday in August (the 6th, I think)! New posts coming soon.

Tim Hamilton @ The Spinning Room

It would appear I have been most slack in letting people know I’ll be appearing at the most marvellous Spinning Room!

What: The Spinning Room feat. Tim Hamilton
When: 8:00pm, 30th March
Where: ET Hotel, High St., Prahran
Why: Because the poetry is good! Because I’ll be featuring! Because poetry in Melbourne needs and loves your support!

We Real Cool

Dear readers, apologies for taking so long to update, I’ve been flat out between work (1 x 16-hour day < fun) and other engagements.

Speakers Corner, part of the Emerging Writer’s Festival was an amazing amount of fun. I described it to one person as “Big Day Out for poetry”. Five stages, screaming poetry over the noise of passing trams on one stage, doing the next set sounding like Tom Waits, getting to see a bunch of my favorite local poets perform one after the other, it was a big big pile of fun. Hats off to the curators (amongst whom, Sean M. Whelan and Zöe Barron’s names are listed) and thanks to them for inviting me and making it such an awesome gig.

I really wish I had made it to the other gigs but I seem to be surrounded and buried in busy right now. Partially work and family doing it’s thing, other projects and my own writing get squished in there wherever I can fit it too.

In the mean time, here’s something I’ve actually been working on. It’s a response to an Ian McBryde poem called “Reports From The Palace“. McBryde fans out there will be aware he has several poems by that name, this is in response to the one in his book “Equatorial“.

Reports From The Plaza
(after Ian McBryde’s Reports From The Palace)

We are what remains after
attrition has come and gone.

Standing at the palace gates
fuelled by inertia, leaderless.

Behind us a trail of ash and cinders,
our last known command, ‘only forward’

It is not known how long this will last.
Faces in the palace windows

bearing the same look in their eyes
as we see in each other’s.

Waiting patiently,
with one last breath.

A wolf waiting to blow down a house.

Reading: This fortnight’s London Review Of Books
Listening: Billy Bragg podcast ep. 14

Tim Hamilton @ The Spinning Room!

What: The Spinning Room! Hosted by Jon Garrett and Anthony O’Sullivan.
Who: Me!
Where: ET’s Hotel, 211 High St., Prahran
When: 8pm, Tuesday, 14th April
How: (…much?) Entry is free, but we do encourage the purchase of raffle tickets as the proceeds, as ever, go to the feature. Besides, the raffle prizes are good! There will be books and wine!
Why: Because I have new stuff! Because I have old stuff! Because the open stage is really good! Because the Spinning Room is a fantastic gig!

Reading: “The Yale Anthology of Twentieth Century French Poetry” – edited by Mary Ann Caws
Listening: “The Angels Want To Wear My Red Shoes” – Elvis Costello

Wordplay

I had the good fortune to attend the kick off for 2009 of Wordplay, the monthly gig hosted by Geoff Lemon which has now moved to the more spacious surrounds of the Dan O’Connell in Carlton. Given recent sad events it was also turned into a fundraiser for a poet who had suffered and lost in the recent bushfires.

We were entertained by the spiritual and thoughtful Simon Cox, Joelistics (musician and rap artist with TZU) got us moving, we were blown away by the picturesque story telling of Eleanor Jackson and beguiled at the end by the work of Kevin Brophy.

Go check out their website, listen to the mp3s of previous gigs, download a copy of the Wordplay mag that they’ve just launched. It’s all worth your time.

Tim Hamilton @ Passionate Tongues

My first poetry feature of the year will be at Passionate Tongues!

What: Passionate Tongues! Hosted by Michael Reynolds.
Who: Me! I will be headlining with Ozlem Baro. This is her first feature (I believe). I have heard her read at Spinning Room, I suspect this won’t be her last.
Where: The Brunswick Hotel, 140 Sydney Rd, Brunswick (cnr. Weston Rd.)
When: 8pm, Monday, 2nd February
How: (…much?) Entry is free, but we do encourage the sale of raffle tickets as the proceeds get split between the features for the evening. Besides, the raffle prizes are good!
Why: Because I have new stuff! Because I have old stuff! Because Ozlem is really good! Because The Brunswick Hotel has bad album sleeves adorning their walls and good beer adorning their bar!

Reading: “Just Your Everyday Apocalypse” – Amelia Walker (which I got the last time I was at PT!!)
Listening: “Apparitions” – Matthew Good Band

Candy Stripes @ The Candy Bar

Tim Hamilton reading at Candy Stripes
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!