beat.

Off on my travels

I meant to write a couple of posts for the turn of the year but I didn't have time. It's interesting to think about 2009/10 now, almost three weeks into 2010.

2009 was a little disappointing. Programming took more of my energy than I'd have liked, meaning writing projects, including the novel, didn't get the attention they should have done. The year was pretty good - I ran 600 miles, did over a dozen readings, made great progress on my novel - but I would like to have done more.

So far 2010 has been a blast. Despite the snow, I've managed to do some running and am, just about, on track for the Brighton Marathon in April. My talk at the Catalyst Club, on How to Escape on a WW2 POW Camp, seemed to be very well received.

The most exciting news is that I've become a freelancer. I'm planning to do both writing and programming work in 2010, but so far I've been exclusively working on some writing projects. One of these was an essay which included some fictional sections - I'll announce that when it comes out.

Even more exciting, I'm off to India tomorrow. It's amazing to think that in about 30 hours I'll be landing in Delhi. I'm going to be away for a couple of months and will be taking the opportunity to get away from my computer as much as possible. I will be contactable by email, but I'll only be checking every few days. There will also be some blog posts, as a friend has agreed to scan in some letters.

2010 has been pretty good so far. I'm looking forward to seeing what more it brings.

Interesting odds and ends

• My new Argus marathon blog post is 633 miles to go, in which I discuss being a human Jesus Lizard.
• I like Alan Coren's advice to Caitlin Moran: "The first idea that occurs to you, will have occurred to everyone. The second idea that occurs to you, will have already also occurred to the clever people. But your third idea – only you will have had that one.”
• After Swindon Orbital, Richard Willis is now working on Blake's Road, which promises "a more ambitious project, tackling a number of subjects simultaneously: Blake, England & the English, Morality, my own psychology, and a couple of other topics I’m afraid I must keep to myself for now". I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of this.
• A interesting post from Ian Hocking about Workshops, following on from my recent one
• My friend Bill Jones has made a book

Catching up

• After a short hiatus, I'm posting to the Brighton Argus marathon blog again. My most recent posts are A Frustrating Few Weeks and The Doldrums. Despite these titles, training has recently been going well.
• I planned my marathon training schedule last week and was horrified to discover I have 663 miles to go before finishing the marathon.
• Alan Moore's new magazine, Dodgem Logic is now out. I liked the review that described it as "resembling if anything, a fanzine version of Radio 4" The magazine is hoping for people to set up local franchises - hopefully it won't be long before a Brighton edition appears.
• I recently posted about Tim Clare's attempt to write 100 poems in a day. This was successful, and there's an interesting summary on his blog along with links to some of the most interesting poems produced.
• A couple of Saturday's ago was the Brighton sketchcrawl, the second time Kay Sexton has encouraged me to try drawing. Photographic proof is provided here by mockduck.

Clearing tabs and catching up

The last few weeks have seemed very busy, and I've not had chance to post everything I meant to. So, here are some links from the last few weeks:

• Last Tuesday was the sixth sparks night. There were some great stories, including my old friend @LaGirafa's first reading, and a couple of stories from Vanessa Gebbie  (who blogged about the night here). It was also good to see Jonathan Pinnock (blog post here) who I met at London's Liar's league last year. Sparks Night is a friendly, well-curated evening - submissions are being accepted for Sparks 7 until November 14th.
• I had some good responses to my Literature network post on seven ways to be a great writer, but my favourite was this one: "a better description would be Seven Tips for Becoming a Great Poser". I will have to email the chap when my next post is online.
• I've been submitting interesting snippets of overheard conversation to the Evening Argus Overheard in Brighton blog - here and here. The entry deemed unsuitable for a family newspaper was this one: "It's like Allen Ginsberg had this magic penis and every poet that touched it became famous"
• Lovely six-word-story from exmosis: "Our last photograph together. We smiled."
• Wise advice from Hawker's pot: "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so do be careful."

White Post Modern Farm

I've had a very quiet day today, mostly spent writing at my desk. I went for a short nap about 2 and woke at 6. I have therefore missed Pride, merely enjoying it vicariously through twitter. I'm going to get an early night tonight and catch up on some reading as I have actual plans for tomorrow (among them a long run).

Meanwhile, here are some photos from April that were lost in the draft posts folder. They were taken at White Post Farm (referred to by one road-sign as White Post Modern Farm - how cool?). Visiting the bird-feeding cage has incredible.

Sweepings

• I had some good writing news this afternoon. Firstly I had a submission I made on Monday accepted (although it won't see the light of day until 2010, which probably makes it my first hit of next year). I've also been asked to start a new blog, which will run in addition to this one and the EMLN posts. More news on both soon.
• I went to see Moon and Antichrist on Tuesday. Moon was somewhat underwhelming - a pedestrian science fiction story full of inconsistencies and logic gaps. Antichrist, while gruelling and unpleasant, was a stunning movie, far exceeding my expectations. There's a good discussion of Antichrist here.
• I love six-word stories, but it's rare to find satisfying ones. This one by Colin Houlson is pretty good.
• Lolcats were invented in Brighton in the 19th century (via twhume)
• Lovely timelapse footage of the Elephant Bed exhibition being installed at Fabrica.

Busy, busy, busy

I didn't get much done last week. I wasn't feeling great (possibly a side-effect of cutting out caffeine) so took things easy. I didn't even do any writing, just concentrated on getting some sleep.

At the weekend I journeyed up to Lancaster for a conference, The Critic As Artist, which looked at the fusion of literary criticism and creative writing. Creative critical writing is different to every other type of writing and each of the papers I watched was delivered in completely different ways, including powerpoint experiments, fictional scholars, and post-it notes. Most fascinating for me was a paper by John Goodby that was edited into a poetic form and discussed "high street" poetics vs the experimental. I also saw presentations by a couple of University of Sussex poets, Abi Curtis and Sarah Jackson. 

I wasn't sure how I would find the conference after a couple of years outside academia. The ideas and techniques used left me invigorated. I know there was a lot I didn't understand but I was fascinated by what I did get.

One advantage of being in Lancaster was bring able to visit my cousin, as well as meeting his new daughter for the first time. I spent Sunday morning visiting the playground with my cousin's family before braving the train network, the only downside to any weekend away.

I've returned with Lancaster for various ideas on my work, as well as a renewed excitement. Which is a good thing as I have various projects people are waiting on. One is my reading in this year's Melbourne Festival (Melbourne, Derbyshire, that is). I've been thinking yet again about Matt Webb's presentation at dConstruct 2007, which is one of the most provocative talks I've seen. It dispenses with the usual structure of 'say what you'll say, say it, then say what you've said', in favour of 'a fool's alphabet'. I'm going to try something similar for my Melbourne Festival piece and see what that leads to.

I'm also possibly reading some work between bands at an event this weekend, which is something I've not tried before. I've been looking for pieces that will work best in this context, as well as writing some new ones. I'm most excited about 'Michael Jackson in heaven' which I wrote last night.

I'm also running again after a couple of weeks injured . I've signed up for the Brighton Marathon in 2010 and am very excited. A little exercise will do me good too - I was shocked by the photos from the last Short Fuse where I look more like Alfred Hitchcock than I'd like. I'm suspect this is what led to one of the poets at the conference remarking that I 'didn't look like a vegetarian'.

Catching up again

Somehow two weeks have slipped by since I last posted. There are lots of things I need to write about, such as my next Literature Network blog post, Pictour, Penumbra's new issue and two readings I've got coming up in June.  I also have a pile of links to post.  Meanwhile here are some odds and ends I meant to post last week.

• At the end of April I read at Glue Gun '91.  I had a good time reading and, being on early, could relax and enjoy the rest of the show - dying clowns, fake newspaper front pages, factsheets, the end of the world and a stunning set by AKDK.  Glue gun '91 was incredible.  The next episode is May 21st at the Victory (Life after man!) and AKDK are playing at the Hope the following night.
• The new Art Brut album, Art Brut vs Satan, is amazing.
• Sometimes I've played a game with people where we try and figure out what we could invent if we were sent back in time a thousand years or more.  Life has become so abstracted that most of my skills and knowledge would be useless without an elaborate civilisation to back them up.  This poster will come in useful. I'd love to know who made it - maybe time-travellers from our own future?
• My run of running misfortune continued last week when I feel over, banging up my knee and hand pretty badly.  I despair of getting back in shape again.

Going to get an early night tonight.  I'm very excited about tomorrow as I'm finally going to watch Synecdoche NY.

But everybody knows that...

One of the most useful things I learned on my masters was the importance of citation.  It's not enough to provide a fact: you need to be show where it came from. 

I once spent a few hours in the University library tracing William Burrough's assertion that Tristan Tzara caused a riot by performing random poetry on stage. I'd seen the fact quoted in various places but ended up fairly sure it was an exaggeration on Burrough's part (as unlikely as that sounds).  By a process of repetition the story had gained an academic credence.

Another important thing I learned was to be suspicious of common sense.  If 'everyone knows' something it's worth figuring out where that belief comes from and what its limits are.

David Aaronovitch has written a brilliant article in the Times investigating the statistic that we are caught on CCTV 300 times a day.  It's a fantastic demonstration of how 'everyone' can come to know something.  (via As Above)

A disappointing weekend that turned out OK

I had big plans for this weekend but most of them fizzled.  I was due to meet someone on Friday to discuss a collaboration and failed to find them.  Saturday I had an appalling headache that drove me to spend the whole day sleeping.  And, because of a (almost-healed) back injury, I missed today's Sussex Beacon Half Marathon.

But this weekend has not been a disaster.  I've read some interesting books, most fascinating of which was In Praise of Shadows.  This is a book on aesthetics by a Japanese novelist, Junichiro Tanizaki.  I particularly loved the description of the effect of dark tableware on soup.  The level of detail has left me spending the weekend noting little things about the world around me. 

Downsides to the book were some unpleasant theorising on aesthetics and race, and the translator's appalling afterword.  He claims "the urge to edit Tanizaki is "almost irresistable" because his essay doesn't have the "symmetry and logical progression" expected by a "Western reader".  "His descriptions of lacquerware under candlelight and women in the darkness ... are perfect jewels; but would they not stand out to better advantage removed from the company of that murmuring bowl of soup...?".  No, not really.  

(A quote I loved from the introduction to the book: "The sun never knew how beautiful it was until it fell on the wall of a building" - Louis Khan)

I woke up at 5:15am this morning feeling refreshed, so read until it was time to get up.  After lunch I visited the Brighton Zine Fair's market.  Wow.  I picked up loads of interesting reading, but could easily have come away with much more.  It was an exciting and inspiring event and I'll try to write a separate post about it.

I'm now trying to wrap up the weekend ready for Monday and will hopefully have time to write my piece for Other People's Stories, which is likely to be about high-paid commuters and cheap flats.