29th September 2006

Dave Finchett (photographer) is back of his hols and has sent me all of the photos as promised. They are fantastic; I'm really pleased. Very lively shots with a contemporary feel. I'm also pleased with the way that I look different when I am being the various personas I use on stage.

Dave has charged me less than I budgeted for because I decided against having a set of prints; it seemed like a waste because most people just seem to ask you to email photos to them. I need to check out what happens when you don't spend as much as you'd said on something. For example: Does this money have to go back to the Arts Council or could I put it towards props (which I'm thinking I may have under-budgeted on) or could I buy another couple of writing days if necessary or could I pay for my train travel to the ARVON course (I didn't allow for that in my budget which I think was a mistake I could have done with that because I bet it's going to be expensive) ? I will keep you posted on the outcome of this.

Having the photographs means that I can now set the ball rolling with Ken Hurd on the website design. I have a meeting with him at 11.30 on Monday.

Better get on and do some writing now.

27th September 2006

I wrote. I worked on my Punch poem. It now has a title. The title is 'Punch Gets His Story Straight For The Jeremy Kyle Show'. It's a long title I admit.

I have retold Punch's story as if he is justifying himself on daytime tv. Punch is a youngish chav type character. I'm using devices from Rap (i.e punctuating my words with sound effects and silences) and I can feel the influence of Polar Bear (brilliant performance poet) in the piece, particularly in the rhythm and delivery of the poem - I want to experiment with the speeding up and slowing down of the pace to show how Punch becomes angry and then calms himself again. I think this gives an underlying menace to the performance.

I showed it to Dave (my partner) and to Stu (my friend), which of course is ridiculous because you shouldn't show your writing to friends and family because they will just say "that's nice, dear"; except these two wouldn't. They booth gave positive feedback and said that the poem was funny but also held the attention because you felt like you wanted to know what happens next. The comment was also made that the poem read/sounded like 'The Streets' - which pleased me immensely. I'm not sending it to my writing buddy (Jane Seabourne) yet. I will be interested to here her comments; she is a very different sort of poet to me and therefore gives a different and envaluable prespective on the things that I write.

'Punch gets his..." is just over three minutes long which means I could cut it back slightly and use it as a stand alone poem for Slam Competitions. I might try it out at Cheltenham All Stars Slam, which is not this weekend but the weekend after.

There are still some clunky bits in the poem but on the whole I feel quite pleased with it. The narration only goes as far as the baby being thrown out of the window so I'm thinking that there are two more poems of about the same length too be had using Punch as a narrator in this way. I'm going to try and develop them next. This way I will feel like I've filled some substantial chunks of time poetry wise and hopefully feel that the thirty minutes I've set myself is doable.

22nd September 2006

Enjoyed my writing day today. I scrapped the 'mixed media' poem for the time being and began writing as punch. I imagined Punch was talking to his lawyer after a day when all the events one sees in a P & J show had happened to him. I got a voice going which I was pleased with.

24th September 2006

Got to see a real life P & J show at Northicote Farm, Wolverhampton. It was a 'harvest festival day' and Wendy (she's the mother of my partner's kids - that sounds a bit P & J in itself) tipped me off that there was going to be a show.

I got there and there was this very spritely elderly woman, a stripy fit-up and no audience. She went off to drum up trade with one arm up a toy monkey's bottom. The woman had an outfit on that was rather like the one Judy wears (Hey, if it works, don't knock it and it sort of did). Ten minutes late with an audience of about fifteen, ranging from two years to about one hundred and two, the show kicked off.

It started with the P & J lady making a ladder out of newspaper (it was better than it sounds, trust me!), then the Scaramouche character appears. This character is traditional and has a long extending neck that is not imediately apparent; he got some laughs with it too. Punch appeared scaring infants. Judy and the baby followed. There was a police officer, a ghost, Joey the clown, some sausages and I do remember a crocodile which lay flat on the playboard for a while looking a bit lifeless, well she has only got two hands. The story also involved the appearance of a spider (which I've not come across in any of the reading I've done).

All the character's voices were the same (male or female) except the voice of punch which was the traditional swazzle voice. It didn't matter that all the character's voices were the same because they only ever spoke to punch so there was never any problem identifying who was talking. The swapping of voices was handled really deftly; that must take a lot of practice. I would love to tray out a swazzle but I would be scared of swallowing it! That type of thing happens to me!

The audience reaction was a treat - I watched faces. Kids were bemused, enthralled, amused and adults seemed to be just as held by the entertainment. Strangely, the older kids of about ten and eleven seemed to be the most taken with it.

BUT. And it's a big but; there was no violence. No slapping! I was disappointed and there was no hangman or devil! The best bits removed!

It was great to see it though. I'd like to see some more shows and compare them to this one.

13th September 2006

Last night I performed at Wolverhampton City Voices. I did a set of newish poems and included one that I had finished about an hour before. It is about neighbourhood watch and I may be using it for one of the character's in Poetry with Punch. It went down well.

Today was my studio session!!! Photographic shoot!!! Kate Moss, pah. I was a true professional. Well, in truth the photographer was a true professional. Dave Finchett was excellent, he made it really easy. I did some shots of me performing Strip Poetry (which is a performance piece that I do regularly) , some shots of my stand-up comedy character, some shots which would be suitable for literature festival brochures (which I have been asked for a couple of times this year) and some shots of the props I use for kid's poetry. The only bit I found difficult was when he needed to take pictures of me as me! I wonder what that says about me? Answers on a postcard please.

Anyway, Dave will let me have the pictures when he comes back off his holidays and then I can contact the website man to begin building that.

I feel that things have moved forward a little (I also got confirmation that I have a place on the Arvon Course). The only thing I need to do now is write some bloody stuff. 'Mixed Media' the poem is pooh!

1st September 2006 - the day I could start accessing the money from the Arts Council...I sat and thought about what I would do and have decided that for the time being I will have my writing days on Wednesday's and Friday's leaving the rest of the week to temp. I have been working on reception for a place called the Bingley Centre; it's in Wolverhampton and they are happy for me to work three days in this way.

I also sent off a booking form for a 'spoken word' course run by the Arvon Foundation. I have heard really good things about their courses but I haven't been able to afford one before. Although, now I've re-read their literature you can apply for a grant to attend their courses if you're a bit hard up (good to know).

Next, I checked into public liability insurance because you need this to work in schools. It's about £75. It only takes about a week for it to come through so I'll hang fire and wait to see if work in schools looks at all likely.

After that, I went round to my Mum and Dad's to blag some tea! Little things like this will make the grant stretch further.

4th September 2006
I went to visit Laurence ? (Lozz) and recorded some poems for a podcast! Ehh! Aren't you impressed (what's a podcast?) Anyway it went OKish, although I didn't prepare links between the poems which mean't that I waffled inanely and sounded like a bit of a dick. I always prepare links between poems when I'm performing to avoid this type of embarrassment so why I didn't think to do it for this I don't know. I'm not looking forward to listening to it.

At least I managed to mention the Arts Council had funded me! You have to use a certain phrase if intereviewed about what you are doing and you have to use the Arts Council logo on everything you produce to do with the project (they detail the correct way to do this in a booklet that they send to you). It could be quite easy to forget or overlook this specification, especailly if you didn't read the guidelines until after the project was finished (not that anybody would do that- ho hum!)

The website address for downloading the podcasts is www.blackcountrypodcasting.com. I promised to point any suitable poets or musicians from the Black Country in Lozz's direction; he's interested in people who write and perform their own stuff. Networking seems to be vital to get work or generate interest in what you are doing. I've made a note to self to ask Lozz for another go at podcasting when I have written my new material; he said that most people used the sessions for blantant self-publicity, which is a great opportunity and not to be missed out on.

5th September 2006

First writing day...I have decided to write a poem which is three minutes long and therefore useable in slam competitions. I am going to write about the way the media is in this country and hopefully clarify some of the themes that are going to be underlying my Punch and Judy performance piece. Having seen some excellent performance poetry in the shape of 'Exposed' which is and Apples and Snakes/Arts Council production I am fired up to attempt a fast motor mouth type of poem.

I've been listening to Eminem and reading his lyrics; I like the speed of his tracks and I like the various sounds and other voices that appear in his work; these seem to counterpoint the main thrust of the rap.

I went to 'Six of the Best' last night, in Birmingham. This is a live literature event which is run by the poet laureatte of Birmingham, Richard Grant (also know as Dreadlockalien). Elvis McGoneegal was on. He is the UK and now World Slam champion. Fantastic! Political and fast moving poetry. He uses highly adept accents and impressions of Bush and Blair to bring his work to life. Lots of soundbites. This is the type of thing I am aiming for in my poem Mixed Media (working title). Incidentally, I got soundly beaten by Elvis in the Cheltenham Science Festival Slam.