Burnt Island played a lovely Golden Hour gig recently and sold out of CDs, they were that good. So you can buy their new album (Music and Maths) here and read some reviews below if you don’t believe me.
“A beautiful collection of folk pop laments…fragile, haunting, and often sounds timeless.” THE SCOTSMAN ****
“An impressive calling card… Glass has an idiosyncratic approach to song writing, with well-crafted lyrics spilling over one another like a meditative Kevin Rowland.” SUNDAY HERALD, ****
“Beautiful and understated…an auspicious debut” THE LIST, ****
“Refreshes the parts that wistful indie does not normally reach…undulates with subtle melody.” SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
Our friend, the novelist and film-maker, Ewan Morrison read some TIPS FOR FUN IN THE SHOPPING MALL at a recent Golden Hour. Then he sent me this video and says he’s collecting people’s anecdotes, confessions, jokes and experiences of Life in the shopping Mall to put together into a book and a film. So, enjoy the video and, should you have any MALL STORIES please drop Ewan a message here and he may make a video from your story. Have fun, mall people!
As some of you may know, the Global Poetry System collects and maps poetry in all the places we’re lucky enough to find it. As we’ve said — poetry can be found in graffiti and snow, on benches and store fronts. Well, now we’re looking for folk poems / songs from you and your region. Please help if you can!
We’re looking to gather audio in association with the Meltdown Festival which the legendary Richard Thompson is directing. Thompson’s been named by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the Top 20 guitarists of all time and has been the recipient of both an Ivor Novello Award for songwriting and the 2006 BBC Lifetime Achievement
When Richard was told about GPS he came up with the idea of creating an audio collection of ‘folk poetry’ for showcasing online, and as part of an interactive sound installation on site here at Southbank Centre. It might be anything from a playground chant to a folk song, a proverb or nursery rhyme, a historical ballad or the first record they bought.
I’m inviting all musical type folkie peoples to participate in a special project to collect audio recordings of traditional verse and poetry. In sharing content from your locality with the GPS map, you would memorialise it and contribute to a rich collection of global folk verse and tradition. Your contributions would also inspire public participation in the project, encouraging everyone to record their own oral traditions.
The recordings need only be up to a minute in length, and can be in any language. We’re looking to collect people’s stories/explanations to be mapped alongside their contribution, and use the audio clips online, and in an interactive window of sound during the festival itself.
I hope you’ll be interested in looking at the site and, if possible, participating! It would be great to have your involvement!
I was pleased to be asked to write a poem about The Full Moon for The Guardian’s Local Edinburgh Website. Now, it is always a challenge to write a poem to a deadline but it was also fun to do and gave me a chance to (once again) steal Nic Darling’s old line — “The moon is a patron of the arts”. Thanks Nic and thanks to Anna B. for the extra lines when I needed them. Thanks also to Tom Allan who foisted this poetic gauntlet upon me. I’m not sure if it is a good poem and it will certainly need some editing in the future, but I’m glad she exists and it is nice to be on this fine new blog.
Enjoy the pictures (and words) as they fly through the air!
From the Original:
The images below are from different photographers across the Edinburgh taking photos of the same moon, on the same night, but with different styles and foregrounds.
Some of the skylines might be familiar – the moon over Arthur’s Seat, the Camera Obscura, or the gothic spire of the Hub.
Others are rooftops that look ordinary in the day – but at night, silhouetted by the moon, you can zoom in and select some unusual details. You start to see strange shapes, more akin to pyramids, Aztec temples or Buddhist monasteries, on the roofs of Marchmont flats or the Royal Mile.
Want to talk poetry, need help finding an amazing book based on your tastes, or just fancy a little tour of the Scottish Poetry Library?
If anyone would like to have a sit-down in the Scottish Poetry Library with me – I have my regular office hours on Tuesday the 2nd of March. I’ll be in the poetry library from 4 – 6 and will be available to talk about poems, poetry, the library, milk trombones, future events, workshops, your favourite books, great poems, The New Avengers and whatever happened to MC Hammer?
For your diary: I’ll be in the SPL from 4 – 6 on the first Tuesday of every month — 2 March and 6 April — so feel free to come down for a chat and biscuits!
Two weeks ago I attended the Stanza Poetry Festival. I must admit, before going I was as nervous about feeling like a poetic philistine. I don’t know what I expected — maybe an exam at the end of each performance — but, to my delight I found much of the poetry, the performances and the punters to be totally accessible and lovely and not at all intimidating. You can find links to some of my favourite people on the spl website here. Also, if you are interested — you can hear excerpts from many of the live performances on the Stanza Podcast, produced by our friend Colin Fraser. Many thanks to all the fine Stanza organizers and volunteers who helped make the whole thing happen and a massive shout-out to Brian Johnstone who stepped down this year as Director. His work over the past 12 years is evident in the scope and success of the festival.
Ryan heads to Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, StAnza, to lap up the atmosphere.
He managed to grab poets Jim Carruth, Karen Solie and Jay Bernard to share their thoughts and feelings on poetry in general and StAnza in particular. We also have the very great pleasure to include the wonderful Itinerant Librarian, who has been travelling the world for the past four years with her portable poetry library.
The Golden Hour is on the road again. We’re all ferociously excited playing the highlands and islands, to be gigging in beautiful spaces with new and old friends and we do hope you or your friends will join us. It is going to be a mega-hot series of shows with the best poetry, prose and music we can muster. If you have friends nearby where we’re going, please tell them to visit us. Fans of The Golden Hour know we don’t disappoint! All the details are below. We hope to see you. xxl
The Golden Hour Highland TOUR!
Join us for a literary cabaret which has played to sold-out audiences in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, London and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It is poetry and prose, original eclectic songs and visual amazement. It is physical and mental. It is a reading. It is a gig. It is a party.
Featuring:
Readers / Writers: Ryan Van Winkle – poems & stories from the Reader in Residence at the Scottish Poetry Library. Ericka Duffy – Southern (Ontario) Gothic fiction & Poetry Jason Morton – Shouts from the barroom floor.
+ Jane Flett – winner of the Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Award and seamstress of many fetching stories
Music / Song Writers: Billy Liar – starter of many a folk-punk riot Hailey Beavis – an angelic voice, but devilish on six strings Jed Milroy – bouncin’ bluegrass from the banjo balladeer
+ Toby Mottershead – a rare solo set from the Black Diamond Express frontman. Old time rock n’ roll goes stomp box blues.
Special Guests:
@ Moniack Mhor: Chiew-Siah Tei – new fiction.
John Glenday – The poet launches his crazy shining diamond – Grain.
@ Ullapool
Jon Miller – the poet, musician and Tom Waits fan graces us.
Tour Dates
* 25 March
Glenurquhart High, Drumnadrochit
1.45 – 2.45pm
+ Moniack Mhor – Teavarran, Kiltarlity, Beauly
7pm
Special guests: Chiew-Siah Tei & John Glenday
NB: John Glenday is one of my favourite poets and he produced the most stunning and quietly beautiful book of the past year. If you have not bought Grain – do buy it. It is the real deal and everything that poetry should be. You can hear my interview with him here:
Listen now…
* 26 March Stornoway Library, 19 Cromwell St.
5.30 – 7pm
* 27 March The Ceilidh Place 12-14 West Argyle Street, Ullapool
8pm
£5 entry (Free Stolen Stories Book for ALL!)
Special guest: Jon Miller – the poet, musician and Tom Waits fan graces us.
• 28 March The Blue Angel – Findhorn – The Park, Universal Hall, Findhorn / Forres, Morayshire
7.30pm
* 29 March Blue Lamp – Aberdeen – 121 Gallowgate, Aberdeen AB25 1BU
7pm
” Landscape poems are never merely about landscape; they are also nearly always about us…” – Owen Sheers
Poets Guide to Britain presenter Owen Sheers visited the Scottish Poetry Library recently to talk about his critically acclaimed TV series and its accompanying book. In the first of our two acts we feature an excerpt from the event where Owen discusses landscape poetry, verse on film and the problems of the poetic persona. In act two, Ryan manages to extract some unusual facts from Owen’s past.
Presented by Ryan van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Incidental music by Ewen Maclean. Follow us on Twitter: @anonpoetry & @byleaveswelive.
“Red Like Our Room Used To Feel” is many things. It is an intimate poetry performance from Ryan Van Winkle. It is an audial experience featuring new ambient noises from Ragland that will crawl up inside you. It is joy, memory and loss condensed into one musical soundscape. So, come, lay down, have a cup of tea, enjoy a snifter of port, close your eyes and be where you want to be…
Forest Records has released this album as a free download and as a tangible cd you can buy.
The CD is a sample of what it was like to visit my one-on-one poetry performance at the Hidden Door festival in Edinburgh on 30th and 31st January 2010.
We hope to do it again someday. In the meantime, if you want to see photos, my notes on the performance or fancy downloading my other cd (for free) visit the the new audio section of my website here.
Ragland made such amazing music such that I am not obliged to feel utterly embarrassed by my poems or my silly voice.
You can download and listen to the whole album by clicking on the album cover below. To prick up your ears please have a listen to opening track “The Flood”…
“You are only ever a poet when you are in the act of writing…”
Recent creative writing poetry graduates Aiko Harman and Dave Coates (who also moonlights as the SPL’s occasional receptionist) talk with the ever effervescent Ryan about poetry, the challenges of getting into the poetry scene and what it means to be “a Poet”. We’re also very happy to include the track “Two Inches Tall” from Sheila K Cameron featuring the voice of Scottish acting legend Tom Conti.
Presented by Ryan van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Incidental music by Ewen Maclean. Follow us on Twitter: @anonpoetry & @byleaveswelive.
