WAITING FOR THE POEM

THE POEM

NEW ISSUE OF 'NO MONEY IN POETRY'

As ever, another excellent issue of No Money In Poetry here.

UP TO NO GOOD BY THE POOL

Thrigby Hall, Norfolk.

LOVE MUSIC HATE RECISM GIG TAKE 5 CAFE, NORWICH

Saturday's event (28th Jan) was well attended with excellent music and DJs.  I also got to read four poems: 'Sliced White' published in Tribune way back in 1977; 'Fifty-seven Pence,' written in the 1980s; and two more recent poems. An enjoyable experience.

Great Venue

Age creeps on...

GOING TO BED EARLY...

Means I can get up early and enjoy the best part of the day.

MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB GIG - FEBRUARY 5: CENTRE-LINE BAND

CUTTING-EDGE JAZZ FROM CENTRE-LINE AT MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB

This months concert at Milestones Jazz Club on Sunday 5 February features a powerful quartet of the UK's leading musicians playing contemporary jazz of startling spontaneity and energy - Centre-Line.

Centre-Line was founded on a 17-year musical partnership between saxophonist Russell van den Berg and drummer Darren Altman performing original groove-based and melodic material that draws on the influences of Michael Brecker, John Scofield, John Coltrane, Weather Report and The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Centre-Line always sound like an integrated unit, using a wide palette of colours that grooves and surprises - aggressively rocky one moment, playful and swinging the next, delving into the flexible language of jazz.

The quartet utilises out-of-the-ordinary instruments such as the EWI (Electric Wind Instrument) to create an array of electronic soundscapes that mingle with the more traditional set-up of saxophone, guitar, bass and drums.

As prolific composers all four members contribute to the band's wide-ranging reportoire and are in demand to work with other noted musicians in a variety of styles from respected jazzers like Kenny Wheeler and Jim Mullen to the hit West End show 'The Rat Pack', from Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Debbie Harry to the Ronnie Scott's house band.

The bands members are also lecturers and visiting instructors at the UK's leading music colleges like the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall, Trinity and Purcell Schools of Music and the influential jazz course at Leeds College of Music.

This concert is part of a nationwide tour supported by Jazz Services to promote their new CD, 'A Virtual Joyride', and is their only date in East Anglia.

The band’s full line-up features Russell van den Berg (tenor sax / EWI), Jez Franks (guitar), Jon Harvey (bass) and Darren Altman (drums).

Listen to Centre-Line's music at http://centrelinemusic.com/?page_id=1535 or via the club website at http://www.milestonesjazzclub.co.uk

All Milestones gigs are held on the first Sunday of every month and take place at Hotel Hatfield, Esplanade, Lowestoft with the doors opening at 8pm.

Admission - £7 / £6 (concession).

THE HOME OF KITSCH?

Find wonderful kitsch items - from the wistful to the weird - at Kitsch Corner on Rupert's Gallery Shop

WORK BY DON ROUT

Don Rout 1931 to 1993



Don Rout lived in Lowestoft all his life. He worked for MAFF, studying North Sea Fish, before illness forced him from work’s routine. He had a band, Don Rout and the Pig Trotters, and in the 1970s began painting large murals, primarily for the Theatre Centre (now Seagull Theatre), Pakefield.

During the 1980s his paintings grew smaller and smaller, though he maintained a prolific output. Living on the beach for much of the time, he built a Sun Temple (recognised by the local council as such) and took part in performance on the beach and at the nearby Seagull Theatre.


In the late 1980s he produced small paintings, drawings and college boxes. He also got involved in international mail art. Don was one of Lowestoft’s brightest characters. A park bench overlooks his beloved Pakefield Beach, inscribed ‘Don was here.’ He certainly was.

I am selling some of Don's Collage Boxes. Click here for details.

INTERNATIONAL ART POSTCARD EXHIBITION, SURFACE GALLERY, NOTTINGHAM

The International Postcard Show 2012

Open: 25th January – 11th February

Preview: 24th January 6-8pm

Surface Gallery is delighted to present the first exhibition of 2012 The International Postcard Show. Curated by Surface Gallery, this long-standing annual exhibition features hundreds of original artworks connected solely by their 4” x 6” format. The show brings together works by established practitioners, students, new comers and international artists from as far afield as Europe and USA, with each individual postcard acting as a celebration of the diversity in practice and location of the participating artists.

Following the success of last year’s very first Surface Gallery artwork exchange, all participating artists have once again been given the opportunity to receive an original artwork in exchange for their own following the completion of the show. This unique aspect of the exhibition offers artists the chance to connect worldwide through a random and remote exchange system. These original artworks are also for sale throughout the exhibition, priced at just £15. This is an ideal opportunity to discover up and coming artists and to buy some original work for an affordable price.

Before the days of emails, Facebook, and Twitter people would send postcards that time-travelled all over the world as a way to 'keep in touch'. This year we are introducing an interesting interactive aspect to the International Postcard Show as visitors, inspired by the exhibition, you can create your own personalised postcard at Surface Gallery. Come and write to loved ones, estranged friends, or your neighbours and get reconnected by the satisfying process of writing and sending a simple postcard.

***

If Winter Comes by Rupert Mallin, 6 by 4 inches (one of the postcards).

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK

One of my favourite films was on UK TV this afternoon - the 1955 Western thriller 'Bad Day at Black Rock' starring Spencer Tracy. I love the desolation of the setting and Tracy's acting. It's a very moral story. What's happened to that morality in the US today?

LOVE MUSIC, HATE RACISM GIG, NORWICH, JAN 28th

Great line up of music & poetry

click on picture for details

A happy occasion...

After Kevin Costus managed to unblock the drains at No 23 Willow Lane he changed his name to Rod, Rod Costus, in appreciation of his new found skills. Unfortunately, he had not realised that he would meet a young woman in the Spring and marry her that Autumn. They had a big wedding reception. Rod was a shy dancer. So was Dina. But when their families started shouting out for them to dance - Dina! Rod! Dina! Rod! - they soon got up and danced.

A POEM by RUPERT MALLIN

The hotels fell
into the gluey blue lagoons
of the sky,
Granddad hanging on by his trowel.


What else had Pythagoras imagined?

     Rook with an apprentice?
     Crow with a bar?
     Locusts with dessert?

At the end of time again,
mad dogs, slippery lions
and ruminating ravens
face each other across the square
at awkward angles,
working out the distance, the time


     scissors, paper, stone


to who will be at dinner
and who will be all bone?


The hotels are full
of bricklayers’ sores
and moistened mittens
on midnight velvet,
paste gems, costume jewellery,
the status quo from granny’s attic.


And via a whistle in the lift,
inside the caretaker’s hut


     Look!
     A word
     on paper
     hanging from a hook!


_______________________________________________________________

This is the first poem I have written for over eighteen months - at 3am one cold morning last week.

Car Booting and Jumble Sales Around Norwich 2012

New Year Car Boots in and around Norwich: Sprowston Car Boot (at Sprowston Park & Ride) is up and running on Sundays (sellers at 7am, buyers from 8am); likewise there are Car Boots at Costessey P&R and Harford P&R at the same times Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Arminghall CB (the biggest around Norwich) will probably re-open in February, depending on the weather.

Jumble Sales are quite sparse but the best place to find them is in the Norwich Evening News (listings rather than classified ads).