Podcast plug for Indiefeed

It’s time for me to recommend a podcast.

I’m slowly working my way through the Indiefeed Performance Poetry podcast on my way to work in the mornings. What currently amounts to 300-and-a-bit poems recorded around the slam and open mic gigs of North America (including several recordings from great poets further back in history such as Auden, Ginsberg, Millay, etc.). There’s a wide selection of brilliant poetry of every stripe. This podcast is really worth checking out if you love the spoken word in all its many splendid forms.

The link to the site is http://performancepoetry.indiefeed.com/. Worth getting an iPod for.

It should also be noted that “Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam”, the new book by Cristin O’Keefe-Aptowicz is out and about, the prologue containing none other than the grand Melbournian poet Steve Smart. Sounds like a great book and I may be chasing a copy of it.

This message, may or may not have been brought to you by me entering a competition to win said book. Thus it is I fulfill my new year’s resolution of last year by enteing a poetry competition. Almost.

Listening: Taylor Mali – Labeling Keys
Reading: The Rattle Bag (ed. Ted Hughes & Seamus Heaney)

Calling you well organised types…

I have something of a left-field question for you dear readers out there… and I know some of you have the required knowledge here.

I’m currently reading my way through my whole poetry collection (which is…large, to say the least), and sorting the read books as I go.

Now, I have X categories of books:

  1. Written and compiled by author (“From The Fool To The World” by Tim Hamilton)
  2. Written by author but compiled by someone else (“Selected Poetry” by W.H. Auden, compiled by ….)
  3. Multiple poets, single collection (“New Music” compiled and edited by John Leonard)
  4. Multiple poets, series (Penguin New Poets 1-27)
  5. Multiple poets, annual release (Best Australian Poetry 2003-2007, edited by Bronwyn Lea & Martin Duwell & Annual Guest Editor, UQP)

How do I go about getting my books into a semblance of order? As you can see above, I do have some ideas of my own but I’m eager to see how other people work this one out.

Oh, and if you are reading this on LiveJournal, come to the site and comment on this post!

Listening: Lee-Press On & The Nails – Brazil
Reading: Edna St. Vincent Millay – Early Poems

Moving Galleries Launch (+ photos)

Tim's poem is at the top. Michael de Valle's underneath.

On Tuesday I skived off work to make my merry way down to Flinders St. for the Moving Galleries launch. I bumped into a bunch of fellow poets, some who I’d not seen in a long time, some I only knew by name and reputation.

The project organisers and Lynn Kosky (State Minister for Transport and the Arts, a fortuitous combo of portfolios, no?) made with the speeches. I was pleased to hear this project will have funding to run bi-annually for the next three years.

Speeches over, we were shepherded down to Platform 14 to wander along the length of one of forty trains that will be bedecked in artwork and poetry. Naturally, every one went hunting for their part of the whole. Cameras were brandished as people posed beside their work (see right).

Detail of the promo poster.

You Melbournians who catch the train on a regular basis, keep an eye out for the Moving Galleries project. Lots of lovely stuff to read and look at. If you happen to see my work on your train, please comment here, I’d love to know who sees it and when! Everyone received a copy of their artwork (text or visual), mine is sitting coiled in its cardboard tube, waiting for a trip to the framers.

Reading: Ian McBryde – The Shade of Angels
Listening: Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart

Give people rice! Expand your vocabulary!

freerice.org is a fund-raising website (link opens in a new window). Take part in their word quiz and every question you get right sees the sponsors donate 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. Keep doing it over the course of a few days and discover your vocabulary magically expand!

Reading: Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney(ed.) – The Rattle Bag
Listening: Marillion – Alone Again In The Lap Of Luxury

Moving Galleries Launch

Looking forward to the launch of the Moving Galleries project for 2007/8. Appropriately enough, it will be taking place at Flinders St. Station.

Very tickled by the idea that I might see my work in a train while on my way to work. Hopefully I shall have photos to share as well!

Reading: Roger McGough – Collected Poems
Listening: Something For Kate – Pinstripe

A change is as good as a….

So, I’ve made a few changes to the site, the new banner was found whilst looking around on DeviantArt. The credit for the real image goes to Guy With The Guitar (link goes to the original image). Obviously enough, I altered it a little to suit the purpose.

I found the image after putting the words ‘paris metro’ into the Deviantart search function. I’m a little obsessed with the Metro (and it’s London counterpart, the Underground), such interesting places, with their varied architecture and history, old adverts still stuck to the walls, millions of people passing through them each day.