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Dan, a squeezebox, a child’s toy and myself will be heading to Sheffield this weekend (Sat-Sun 11-12 October) with Viewmaster for WROUGHT, an awesome 1-to-1 performance art festival. We’re running from 5-8pm Saturday evening and 2-5 Sunday afternoon, if you find yourself in Sheffield this weekend, do join us for some poems some music and a trip to your childhood.

WROUGHT: A One-to-One Performance Festival is a brand new performance festival exclusively focused on One-to-One performance in Sheffield. It takes place over a weekend between the 11-12 October in and around the Hide (Scotland Street, S3 7AA,https://goo.gl/maps/P0Lpc).

See our line-up of ARTISTS and PROGRAMME here: http://wrought-sheffield.com/artists/

For the TICKETS, follow this link: http://wrought-sheffield.eventbrite.com

FREE tickets for Saturday Evening Event: http://bit.ly/1E8ECga

FREE tickets for Sunday Post-Festival Panel Discussion: http://bit.ly/YZiCUn

This 2-day festival features a variety of One-to-One performance pieces, a workshop led by artists, and a post-show discussion. We aim to bring artists, academics and audience together to create a vibrant platform for discussion.

Really excited to be one of the hundred poets producing and reading work at the second edition of Camaradefest, the mass-collaboration project organised by our friend SJ Fowler. It’s happening on Saturday 25 October at the Rich Mix Centre down London Town, kicking off at 12noon and running into the wee hours. Tickets are free, hope to see you there.

There is nothing quite like Camaradefest. 100 poets come together in 50 pairs to premiere brand new collaborative pieces of innovative poetry.

Beginning at 12 noon and ending late into the night, Camaradefest evidences the endlessly exciting potential of collaboration in poetry and the true depth, width and brilliance of 21st century poetics. Expect no two works the same, and following on from the great success of the first fest last year, an unforgettable way to experience contemporary poetry.

Get a taste, view the videos from the first fest here:http://blutkitt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/camaradefest-videos.html

What: Camaradefest II

When: Saturday 25 October, 12noon-late

Where: Rich Mix Arts Centre, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London.

How Much: FREE

This Thursday 2 October I’ll have the great pleasure of hosting and introducing a night of poetry, music and cinema to launch Highlight Arts, the organisation formerly known as Reel Festivals. The line-up is outstanding, including Golan Haji coming all the way from Syria, doors are at 7.30pm, tickets are free but do book in advance.

Join us for the launch of HIGHLIGHT ARTS.

FREE EVENT with international music, poetry and film, featuring:
– Shooglenifty
– Golan Haji (Syria)
– Krystelle Bamford
– Emily Ballou
– Kaela Rowan
– DJ Dolphin Boy
– Short films from Iraq, Syria and more…
– Complimentary food and drink

Thursday October 2nd 2014
Scottish Storytelling Centre, Royal Mile, Edinburgh
Start: 7.30pm

Tickets are FREE but limited to 4 per person – available via website or box office.
Tel: 0131 556 9579
http://www.tracscotland.org/scottish-storytelling-centre/centre-events/1884/highlight-arts-launch-event

Event details:

The team behind Reel Festivals (Reel Syria, Reel Iraq and Reel Afghanistan), would like to invite you to join us in ushering in a new era as ‘Reel’ becomes ‘Highlight Arts’ (www.highlightarts.org)

Featuring a hand-picked selection of international music, poetry and film from Reel’s ground-breaking projects past, present and a with a nod to what’s in store for the future.

Just announced: Syrian poet and author Golan Haji will be flying in for the event and will be involved in some poetry translations.

What: Highlight Arts Launch

Where: Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43 High Street, Edinburgh

When: Thursday 2 October, 7.30pm

How Much: FREE.

October 2014 — nick-e melville — complaint

nick-e says: This poem started as a conversation about complaint letters. As a found poet, I am very interested in subverting bureaucratic language in various ways: the replies to Ryan’s complaints provided the source material for my contribution to our collaboration. I focused on, and extracted lines which demonstrated, the banal, the inane and the ridiculous; not unlike Ryan’s initial complaints…

Ryan says: I like to complain. I was probably complaining about something when we got the idea to do this poem. I knew nick-e does work with found and officious texts and I hoped he’d find something worthwhile in the letters I’d sent out to cinemas, airlines, and phone companies over the years. Maybe I hadn’t wasted my time writing and grumbling down the phone.

complaint

Not long now

until you’re off

on your travels

It is your responsibility to check with the airline

that any onward flights you have confirmed

are operating as booked

This is an automatic notification email that cannot accept in-coming mail

*

For a long time

this is a how I thought

a person should be

phone melting

in the crook

of her shoulder

tea boiling and manager

manager I want to speak

manager manager let me finish

manager manager you’re not listening

*

Document prepared for customer

Status Confirmed (x8 potentially)

MR RYAN VAN WINKLE MEAL TYPE NOT AVAILABLE FOR THIS FLIGHT (x2?)

MR RYAN VAN WINKLE ASIAN VEG MEAL (x4?)

YOU ARE NOT INSURED!

You have yet to purchase a Multiflex pass.

It may not be too late!

paper or E?

Names correct & spelt back phonetically

Travelling on US passport

Anyone

from a country belonging

BA 1440 O 26NOV 2 LHREDI HK1 1145 1310 26NOV E BA/NOSYNC

*

if I had a sunday

i would get on the phone

i would set my teeth right

i learned words like automaton

pusillanimous – i could have loved

could have whisked eggs

and fluffed pancakes, i could

have made the bed, or even

called a taxi, why not where

did we want to go. but that person

was not a person i could be. not

with my father’s tie in the closet

my mother’s cord still wet in my mouth.

for a long time

i couldn’t pick a fight

with my own wife

but i could heat up a phone

crack a rotten egg down the line.

*

your recent travel experience with US

Your comments matter to US

For this reason

I have thoroughly reviewed your case

Your concerns have been sent

to the appropriate leadership teams

We are working hard to earn

your continued patronage

I’m sorry you found the kiosk

difficult to understand

and navigate

Given the issues that our industry continues

to face in these volatile economic times

Thank you for giving us

this opportunity to address

you

I have carefully reviewed

everything in you

*

my entire body one throbbing nose relating

to the Guarantee Obligations sniffing

twitching when i try to sleep, worrying an obligation

of a downstream affiliate – the stream

is rapid, an obligation of other parties

where there is only the sense

of her perfume, an hour or less, in respect

of the Underlying Obligation of the Underlying Obligor

that is Not Subordinated. in the end, he proposed

direct obligations of the Reference Entity

*

I am angry because a woman told me

your computers are ‘never wrong’

I am familiar with technology

I am 36 years old, not 86

I am not daunted by flashing screens

*

The origins of simple, everyday things

is in the longing

for something faster, easier

the longing is building a fire

that rain or floods won’t quell

the lonesome is shifting around

with his hands in his pockets

*

Your kiosks

are not intuitive

take longer to use

are more unpleasant

than a standard human

interaction at a desk

It is insulting to imply

I was somehow dazzled

by your new-fangled machines

as if I had stepped out of a time-machine

straight from the Victoria age

*

i mean to say we always want better

than what we have, who wouldn’t

take a little bit extra, a little bit more

*

I am most offended

that I should be concerned

for your industry

in these ‘volatile economic times’

In these ‘volatile economic times’

people are losing their homes, their jobs

the costs of things like higher education ever increasing

and the gap between rich and poor ever expanding

The idea that I should pity you

rather than be furious

at your theft

is outrageous

*

i should talk with my grandmother again

about the things in my pockets

a pink handkerchief, some oil

instead, i am on hold awaiting

the dull excuse of management

while the dead stay still and silent

*

Your company is suffering

due to gross malfeasance

I thank you for your time.

nick-e melville is an experimental poet and artist working in found, visual and conceptual poetics. he has had several publications in various media over the last four years, including: ALERT STATE IS HEIGHTENED (sadpress 2014); me (p.ow. series, 2014) junk mail (if p then q, 2014) and selections and dissections (otoliths, 2010). DOLE (Interview Room 11, Nov 2013) was his first solo exhibition: a conceptual examination of the detritus left behind by Social Security. He teaches creative writing for OLL at Edinburgh, among other places, and was Writer (not) in Residence at HMP Edinburgh, 2010-2011. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing/English Literature at the University of Glasgow, working on a project called The Imperative Commands.

complaint live at Rich Mix, London

———-

Commiserate is a monthly experiment in poetic collaboration.

Inspired by  SJ Fowler  ‘Camarade’ project which pairs poets together to create new work, I’ve stolen the notion and begun to collaborate with friends and writers of interest. You can read about the project and see 2013’s poems here.

We talk to director Paul Kelly and co-writer Travis Elborough about their film How we used to live, an elegant and strikingly original film about London made using colour film footage from the BFI and a bespoke soundtrack from Saint Etienne. They performed live in the Barbican on 13 September and you can find out more about the film at www.heavenlyfilms.net. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable and produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser www.culturelaser.com. We acknowledge the financial assistance of Creative Scotland.

We spoke with some of the artists at the National Theatre of Scotland’s Blabbermouth event – a mammoth 12 hour presentation of the diversity of Scottish culture. We talk to Graham McLaren, Annieka Rose, Aonghas MacNeacail, Morven Christie, Paul Laverty, Glasgow Girl Amal Azzudin and Alan Bissett on the eve of the historic Scottish referendum vote. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable and produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser www.culturelaser.com With thanks to Creative Scotland for their financial support.

In this edition of Book Talk, host Ryan Van Winkle talks to Ajay Close and David Mitchell about time, ethics and mortality.

Novelist and dramatist Ajay Close discusses her latest book, Trust. Trust follows the lives of a disparate group of characters working in mining and banking and the effects or two major events, the miner’s strike and the banking crisis, on their lives. Ajay discusses where the idea for the story came from and how it developed over time.

If the last edition of Book Talk left you wanting to know more about David Mitchell and The Bone Clocks you’re in luck – this edition of the podcast features an extended discussion with the man himself. Spoiler warning: this discussion reveals detail about characters and plot.

David tells us about the process of creating the book and how he was able to effectively portray time’s passage: “stay true to life and how we perceive the passing decades and you probably won’t go too far wrong”. Morality, mortality and the future are also discussed.

Podcast contents
00:00 – 00:28 Introduction
00:28 – 08:52 Ajay Close
08:52 – 30:00 David Mitchell

Very pleased to have my poem, ‘Into the Desert with No Name’ included in the anthology Double Bill, the sequel to Split Screen, both published by Red Squirrel Press and edited by Andy Jackson. The launch party will be held at the Scottish Poetry Library on Saturday 4 October from 1-3pm. Hope to see you there.

What: Launch of Double Bill

Where: Scottish Poetry Library, Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh

When: Saturday 4 October, 1-3pm

How Much: FREE

We talk with Bruno Wizard, an underground legend in the 1970s for his crazed live performances and ‘mystery man’ status and a real one-off. The lead singer of The Homosexuals and The Rejects, he performed at the Roxy alongside The Jam and The Clash; was part of the ‘Blitz kids’ scene; squatted with the Warren Street Mafia; and rejected a series of record deals out of loathing for the establishment. He features in a new film, The Heart of Bruno Wizard, and our Ryan speaks with him and the film’s director Elisabeth Rasmussen is an uplifting and inspiring conversation. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable and produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser

www.culturelaser.com

Really excited to be involved with a new anthology of Scottish poems edited by Colin Waters, Be the First to Like This, launching on Thursday 25 September at the Scottish Poetry Library. Tickets are free, but booking is essential. There are a bunch of really talented poets included, some you might already know, some you’ll be delighted to meet. The launch kicks off at 6.30pm, there will be wine, chat and poems. Hope to see you there.

Be the First to Like This: New Scottish Poetry is an anthology gathering together Scotland’s new generation of poets.

Here, the classically formal mixes with the wildly experimental. Subjects are as diverse as texting, fancying film stars, dole offices, quantum physics, and Richard Branson; the common denominator is modernity, a sense these are poems that could only have been written in the early twenty-first century.

A selection of the poets featured in the anthology will read at the launch.  

What: Launch of Be the First to Like This

When: Thursday 25 September, 6.30pm

Where: Scottish Poetry Library, Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh

How Much: FREE. Book here.