Wednesday 24 June 2009

the summer season #2



Last night at the Lamb the Blue Bus reading featured Jim Goar (from Tuscon via Bangkok and Seoul), Giles Goodland, and John Phillips (from St Ives via Paddington). A good reading and a decent audience for summer. Giles' most recent book What the things sang came out a month or so back with Shearsman. Jim has a volume due from Reality Street next year. John has a pamphlet from Kater Murr's Press (Spell, 2009) and a book from Sardines Press, San Francisco that came out a few years back (Language is, 2005). It would be great to see more of his work gathered together soon.

Monday 8 June 2009

the summer season

On Tuesday night (June 2) I officially launched Crab & Winkle at a Shearsman reading with Kenny Knight and Sophie Mayer. Then on Thursday the Crossing the Line series featured two great performers: Peter Jaeger read again shortly before his departure to Canada for several months; Chris Cheek (above) was in the middle of a brief UK tour from his base in the States. Tomorrow night Carrie Etter launches her new book at the University of Westminster’s Regent Street campus and I’ll be reading again myself this Wednesday evening at the Menzies Centre at Australia House in the Strand.

Thursday 4 June 2009

Tuesday 2 June 2009

living & breathing art

The De La Warr Pavilion, as depicted yesterday, is a great modernist (as opposed to neoclassic or fascist) art-deco structure housing galleries and restaurants on the seafront at Bexhill; a building I’d meant to visit for some while. We were there this time not for the art on display but for the arrival of photographic artist Jean Fraser at the end of the first stage of her bicycle journey to the Isle of Wight. Last year Jean rode around part of the Kent coast documenting the trip and coordinating events involving local communities as well as the visiting musician/composer Annie Whitehead, all of this to raise awareness of chronic respiratory disease. This year’s ride continues the project. As the sky in yesterday’s image indicates, it was a superb day to begin the adventure. Jean’s own day-by-day account can be followed on her site.