Shakespeare (Amongst Others) In Love

It's time to get back to promoting poetry and all things romantic again...

Reprise, by Ogden Nash

Geniuses of countless nations
Have told their love for generations
Till all their memorable phrases
Are common as goldenrod or daisies.
Their girls have glimmered like the moon,
Or shimmered like a summer moon,
Stood like a lily, fled like a fawn,
Now the sunset, now the dawn,
Here the princess in the tower
There the sweet forbidden flower.
Darling, when I look at you
Every aged phrase is new,
And there are moments when it seems
I've married one of Shakespeare's dreams.

For those not already in the loop about such things, there are a couple of events in two week's time that might interest the romantic in you. It's of particular interest to those living in London.


Love Poetry,
Poet In The City

For those of you who enjoyed the above poem, and who'd like to have an evening of love poetry on Valentine's Day, either to share the night with someone you love or because it's an alternative to siting at home downing a bottle or two of wine on your own, then please come along to Kings Place on the 14th February.

Tickets £9.50 online.

My previous post about the event is HERE!

Details are HERE!


Meet. Play. Love?
Chapter 2, Are You My Partner?

Last weekend I met up with a bunch of total strangers (plus one friend) and we ended up wandering around an art gallery, discussing in depth what art we appreciated and what, quite frankly, was a bit shit. We then went to a pub, that turned out to be a gay pub with cabaret downstairs, talked about the day out, then some of us went on for pizza to discuss things like tourists who stop at the top of escalators and other random things. The people were a fun crowd, in that they were all quite interesting people with stories of their own, but also very friendly.

So, am I telling you that you've missed some cool event where you could've made a bunch of friends, where you could eat, drink and be merry (and look at art), if only you'd known? Well, not quite. That was Chapter 1. Chapter 2 will hopefully attract a handful more people and could be a meeting anywhere (within London), doing anything (within reason).

And that's where you come in. Or could come in. If you're likely to be in London alone Valentine's Day this will be a great way to not feel so alone. Chapter 2 is kind of pencilled in for the weekend just before the 14th, so you never know, you may actually end up with someone to go out with Monday night. You will, at the very least, leave with a bunch of really cool new friends which is better than a kick in the teeth.

So, yes, sorry... where do you come in? It's simple. On a very practical level it'll be nice to have people turning up. There were about ten of us last time, which was pretty cool, although the question 'Are You My Parner?' was answered pretty quickly by the six people already in relationships, leaving us with three men and one woman still looking. So more single people would be cool, and more women (although I imagine the one woman who was single had no problems with having three single men pay her attention).

On a creative level someone needs to decide what would be a fun thing to engage us all, and all ideas are welcome. There's lots of opportunities to go for something romantic and tied into Valentine's Day, but there's just as many opportunities to rebel against that and go do something random. Allan Wills, who is arranging these events after he found his wife through a similar project, travelled the world and jumped out of planes amongst other things and although we'll probably not be doing anything quite that grand it does help highlight that there are relatively few restrictions on your ideas.

The gallery event was free (the beers and food afterwards not so free, but then that was more a friendly catch up after the event itself), so it doesn't need to be anything that costs money.

My own vague ideas are:

• Maybe something involving writing or reciting poetry
• Maybe something at the Globe Theatre on the South Bank
• Maybe something in Camden Market

I've got no real fully formed ideas, but those are three springboards. If anyone else has ideas feel free to visit the website HERE - or just contact me through your usual channels.

As a footnote I'd add that the AYMP project is currently sitting in London, but it's in it's infancy, and could quite possibly evolve into something a lot larger. I don't know. What I'd really like to say is don't feel you've got nothing to contribute if you're nowhere near London. Maybe you'll find online involvement brings you closer to someone. Maybe something said will encourage you to travel here. Or maybe AYMP will come to you. Who knows?

Meet. Play. Love?

Mutual weirdness

Thought I'd repeat this quote again, in this format.
Because it's possibly one of my favourites.
Or, you know, wishful thinking... :-)

Dr Seuss says...

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

"I'm afraid that sometimes you'll play lonely games too. Games you can't win 'cause you'll play against you."

"I’m glad we had the times together just to laugh and sing a song, seems like we just got started and then before you know it, the times we had together were gone."

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."

"Being crazy isn't enough."

"If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too."

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."

"poor empty pants
with nobody inside them." :-)

The Weekend

“There aren't enough days in the weekend.”

Rod Schmidt

So here, at long last, is a lengthy blog about the weekend...

It begins Friday night, when I finished my late shift relatively early (before midnight), and went to meet my friend at The Intrepid Fox. I figured, hell, it's a fun place, I make friends there sometimes. It's a cool place when you're feeling a little lonely. My friend rocked up from a gig in Hammersmith (seeing 'The Cult') and I got talking to a guy from America, before the Fox shut and the three of us tried to get into the Crobar. My friend knows the bouncer, and so was let in, but we were told in no uncertain terms it was too full for us other two.

I might have tried to sneak in regardless. I may have been grabbed and pulled back out of the doorway. I rang my friend on the inside and explained there was no way we were getting it, but the message went straight to answer machine. At no point did I consider my friend a prick for disappearing into the bar and leaving us outside. Well, you know, not til the morning.

It was probably for the best. I got back in and to bed at about 5am. I got up and out of the house by 9.30am.

Saturday

Saturday was a proposed pubcrawl, to celebrate Australia Day on the 26th January. Some of you eagle-eyed people might spot that Australia Day is closer to next weekend than this one just passed, but having been invited to this one it seemed rude to kick up a fuss. Intentionally the aim had been to get up early enough to pick up some Aussie-ish beach wear on the way to the first bar, something from Fat Face. It didn't quite work out like that so whilst friends turned up as the ladies from Sheila's Wheels, I looked like some weird confused geek.

The lady on the left, who is helpfully being pointed out here, is 'Megsy' our tour leader. She's also a participant in something called 100 Things, where people list one hundred things they'd like to do within their lives, and attempt to do so, raising money for charity in the process. Here's Megsy's 100 Things for you to look over, to applaud, to make you think, to maybe even offer assistance with. Or maybe, just maybe, it'll give you a moment to think of 100 Things of your own to complete.

We were also told about the incredible Carnivale D'Ivrea in Italy, which takes place in March. Not only told about, but invited along, and if money was no problem I'd be there like a shot. Money is a problem, however, and I really need to sort out getting my own place before arranging foreign holidays... but this looks SO cool - next year, Italy, next year!

Megsy was the first of two people I met this weekend who was working on a private project that involved inviting others along for the ride, but we'll come to the second person in a moment.

It was a pub crawl, of course, so we wandered bar to bar, and between maybe fifteen of us shared about forty free shots at some of the bars towards evening. Theoretically things could've got really messy, but I somehow managed to survive, brain intact. I had a great time dancing, though noticeably spent little time trying to flirt or engage any of the girls we met in any bars. I only really noticed that the following morning, and when the photos appeared online Sunday morning I begun to wander if looking and acting like the funny friend or the protective brother is really doing my love life any favours.

Anyway, starting at 11am and going on for just over eight hours meant it was pretty full on, but didn't go on ridiculously late. Which is just as well, as Sunday had other plans.

Sunday

On Sunday I was due to meet a bunch of strangers to... well... I wasn't sure. There was a Psychological Art Game proposed at the National Gallery, and we just had to turn up to, as the tag line stated, to meet, play, love? I'd arranged to meet one friend, Chris, and potentially another, Claire, but since the latter had been on the pub crawl too (she's on the right hand side of the picture above) and was feeling a bit the worse for wear, she elected for a day with books and DVDs.

We were there to meet Alan Wills, who's recently set up the website www.areyoumypartner.com - having previously experimented with blogging his search for love and a wife via a series of random invitations to try a date that was somewhat out of the ordinary (result = success!) he now wants to be able to resurrect the idea for other people to meet up in a series of interesting ways, to defy the idea of conventional dating. I wasn't sure what this would mean before turning up. Part of me was terrified that it might be some sort of speed-dating thing, simply within the confines of a gallery.

And yet three words intrigued me: Psychological. Art. Game. I had nothing to loose, and potentially everything to gain.

I'd found out about Allan via a mutual friend called Kate, who had met Allan during his Are You My Wife? project -whilst she'd been experimenting with her own 30 Dates in 30 Days project - and because Chris and I had met Kate via something else random and spontaneous it seemd that Allan's project might be something we could really get into. I'll admit a little trepidation to sticking my hand up and saying to the world "Okay, yes, I'm looking for someone," but when online dating seems to be an exercise in spending lots of money and enduring the humility of seeing how much people rate you out of ten (the last time I checked it had fallen from seven point five to seven), and going out is often an exercise in getting drunk in the hope that I might get drunk - and lucky - enough, well, it held some promise. And I wasn't disappointed.

Okay, so the male to female ratio was maybe stacked against the men, and of the ten people who turned up, six of them were in couples (including Allan and his wife), but it was a nice crowd of people and I'm pretty sure we'll see all of them at some point in the future, if only through further 'Chapters' in the project. I can see, as more people get involved, there is the potential for singles to get together, and that's cool, but it was just a nice dynamic this weekend, meeting a group of people like-minded enough to spend their Sunday afternoon doing something experimental.

Experimental? You want to know what the Psychological Art Game entails? I won't disclose it here, as it's something I think might work really well as a future first date, but it's on Allan's website. In conclusion though I seem to have been able to get to the heart of someone else's likes and dislikes almost perfectly (and with no idea whether I was anywhere near the mark until it was confirmed) - which is funny, because I'm always tied in knots about whether I can read someone properly, or whether I just want to read them in a particular way. So essentially I go around thinking the best, but don't do anything about it because I can't recognise the signs as being explicitly signs. My anti-rejection buffer generally stops me from doing stuff, but it's also wired up to my don't-ruin-a-good-thing circuits. So, well, those are issues I need to resolve.

I'm not sure where or what Chapter 2 will be, but since I've got the Love Poetry event I'm helping out with on Valentine's Day I think the day before, Sunday 13th February, has been pencilled in as a possible date, an 'Anti-Valentine's Day'. Which is good because it then frees up Valentine's Day for everyone - it'd be a shame not to see people for the next 'experiment' (although also nice and reassuring that they've got a person to spend that day with).

In summary a really nice bunch of people. I'll maybe summarise them in more detail following Chapter 2.

Monday

I got my hair cut. Whenever I have moments of doubt about the man in the mirror I always change how he looks, whether it be via complete beard shaving or extreme hair cut. This time I went for the short hair, as the floppy hair was making me look a little studenty. I prefer to look a little more serious, a little more cool, if only to balance out the fact that I'm not half as cool as I'd like to be.

And then I went on to teach art at the place where I volunteer. Drew a few pencil sketches, one of which another volunteer asked to take home with her, after she'd asked me a lot about my love life (relax, she's married, and trained as a social worker - oh... and another Romanian). And then, on the way to work for the evening I bought The Picador Book of Love Poems. Mainly for ideas for things to use to promote the Poet In The City event, but also as a springboard for my own poetry. It's been a while, but it's something I'd love to get back into.

The last poetry I wrote was a Sonnet I composed for my ex-wife, in a card for her to read on the morning of our wedding, with each of the ten lines beginning with a letter that spelt out her newly married name. I've not really considered anything much since til recently, and the wedding card emory had me considering Valentine's cards on the bus journey home last night.

But that's another story.

The Message of Love

Now the reason we're here
As man and woman
Is to love each other
Take care of each other
When love walks in the room
Everybody stand up
Oh it's good, good, good
Like Brigitte Bardot

Now look at the people
In the streets, in the bars
We are all of us in the gutter
But some of us are looking at the stars
Look round the room
Life is unkind
We fall but we keep gettin' up
Over and over and over and over and over and over

Me and you, every night, every day
We'll be together always this way
Your eyes are blue like the heavens above
Talk to me darlin' with a message of love

Now the reason we're here
Every man, every woman
Is to help each other
Stand by each other
When love walks in the room
Everybody stand up
Oh it's good, good, good
Say I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you

Talk to me darlin'...

The Message of Love,
by The Pretenders

Credit where credit is due. The above image was stolen from here.

Vaguely promoting forthcoming AYMP and Poet In The City events in London.

#lovers #poetry #song

Send "Message Of Love" Ringtone to your Cell

Because She Would Ask Me Why I Loved Her

If questioning would make us wise
No eyes would ever gaze in eyes;
If all our tale were told in speech
No mouths would wander each to each.

Were spirits free from mortal mesh
And love not bound in hearts of flesh
No aching breasts would yearn to meet
And find their ecstasy complete.

For who is there that lives and knows
The secret powers by which he grows?
Were knowledge all, what were our need
To thrill and faint and sweetly bleed?

Then seek not, sweet, the "If" and "Why"
I love you now until I die.
For I must love because I live
And life in me is what you give.

Because She Would Ask Me Why I Loved Her
by Christopher Brennan (1870-1932)

Frank!

#neilcolquhoun #frank #boilingpoint

I promised I'd do this a while back, and it's been sitting in my Inbox a while, so on the back of my previous book-promoting post it's only right to address te balance and get this out there too!

The novella "FRANK - Volume 1: Boiling Point", by Neil Colquhoun, is something of an immersive experience. In a series of short podcasts the author introduces us to various characters. The first five minute episode part introduces hitman Walter, with Frank himself introduced in the second explosive episode. So far so good, but the podcast is just one of a couple of facets that blurs the line between the author and his public. I've been following Neil for a while on Twitter, and since he's been writing the Frank stories there have been competitions for listeners to get involved, to make cameo appearances within the stories.

I love this way of engaging the audience, plus the associated Infected Legion, those that have responded or otherwise helped promote the worlds of Neil Colquhoun (and, in a sense, spreading the disease) who get a little badge on his site.

Neil sums up the Frank story as follows:

Frank, a mysterious bounty hunter gets more than he bargained for in
his latest assignment. Becoming mixed up in the beginnings of a gang
war, he has to contend with a team of hit-men, who are not like your
usual guns-for-hire!

It’s a story about a a bounty hunter, a dead-but-alive hitman
partnered with an alive-but-should-be-dead criminal, an escort girl, a
man who has a taste for something bad… and the Devil!

The 'Frank' podcasts can be found here, at http://neilcolquhoun.com/free-audiobooks/frank, and Neil is on Twitter @necol66