SONGWRITER GRACE PETRIE WEBSITE

Grace Petrie, whose work I've featured on Rupert's Blog, has a website where you can listen to her work, buy her work and catch up on her gigs.

LOVE MUSIC, HATE RACISM & HOMOPHOBIA GIG, NORWICH

My first poetry reading for ten months. Nervous or what? This 'Love Music, Hate Racism & Homophobia' gig at The Crypt, Norwich, had a diverse line up with Norwich's Alternative Punk rock Band ' Lost In Plastic' headlining, supported by Swing Ball, DJ Outlaw, poet Martin Figura and myself.

Between 50 and 60 people packed into this historic basement venue.

I am reading tonight with Tim Lenton and others at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft, and would like to get back into performing, so maybe this is the start I need...

BOXED IN: A BREAK FROM BLOGGING

I've taken a break from blogging here for a couple of weeks to make over 100 art/text boxes - half of which can be seen here at the studio I share in Norwich. I'm going to make over 100 each month until May, when there will be a launch of this all new edition of 'Out Of The Machine' boxes...

The 'new' aspect of these boxes is that there are few duplicates and each requires its own text. They are certainly more theatrical and three-dimensional than before. This is important to me as I'm always fighting between text/page, performance, space (real and internal), utter seriousness versus humour/hilarity, real time uttering versus 'utterance,' humanity versus the machine, etc.

The tiny boxes come from InPrint's brilliant 'Poetry Vending Machine' project begun in 2005. While the machine may have stopped vending, I've literally taken the boxes from the machine to open out in the light...

MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB FEBRUARY GIG - THE KRISTIAN BORRING QUARTET

Kristian Borring

INTERNATIONAL RISING TALENT AT MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB

This month’s concert on Sunday 6 February at Milestones Jazz Club features a band led by a young guitarist who has been called "a rising talent on the new London jazz scene" - The Kristian Borring Quartet.

Danish guitarist and composer Kristian Borring steers a steady course through original material via clear-sighted improvisations that are both elaborate and gently propulsive.

The lyrical intensity, melodic grooves and rich harmony of Kristian’s compositions often hide a complexity of changing time signatures and shifting forms that are an attempt to envision 21st century jazz while acknowledging its rich tradition.

Originally from Denmark, Kristian studied bebop and contemporary jazz guitar at Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague and at Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Dutch guitar master Jesse van Ruller before being invited to continue his studies at Guildhall School of Music in London.

A versatile musician now based in London, Kristian has performed throughout the UK and Europe with a range of musicians from The Puppini Sisters to Kenny Wheeler and Bobby Wellins, playing everything from modern house and soul music to folk and jazz.

In 2010, after a year of performing throughout the UK, Kristian took his quartet into a London studio to record their debut album, ‘Nausicaa’.

His influences include guitarists JimHall, Wes Montgomery and Pat Metheny and jazz legends Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock and Sonny Rollins.

Kristian is given vibrant support from some of the London jazz scene’s finest young players - the band’s full line-up features Kristian Borring (guitar), Arthur Lea (piano/Fender Rhodes), Spencer Brown (double bass) and Jon Scott (drums).

Listen to Kristian Borring’s music by visiting www.kristianborring.com
or
www.myspace.com/kristianborring
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).


Quotes

"Artfully melodic contemporary jazz compositions...a rising talent on the new London jazz scene", Time Out

"…mixes post bop lines with more contemporary abstract sounds…", Jazzwise

OLD SCHOOL Broken Project 11 - 14a

Found this out walking in Suffolk

SLIP-SLIDING -Broken Project 11 - 14b

SIX BELLS - Broken Project 11 - 14c

I chased my glasses back to the Six Bells, going over

events to their loss to rediscover my eyes, but good morning

TV broke in on me as my money fell through my pockets

in inverse proportion to the goodness of the morning

and I "why-why-why-wonder" why I chased my glasses

back to the Six Bells to rediscover my sight.

CHECK THE WALLS - Broken Project 11 - 13a

APPROACHING STORM - Broken Project 11 - 13b

TODAY'S REPORT - Broken Project 11 - 13a

Here is today's report on wild and domestic animals and birds viewed from a left side facing window of a National Express 'sprinter' train from Cambridge to Lowestoft, via Norwich, having spent the previous evening drinking real ale in the Six Heavenly Bells.


Among those seen today:-


Rook, crow, common gull, black-headed gull, hedge sparrow, thrush, cow, swan, bullock, white goose, crested girl, wood pigeon, mallard duck, starling, terrier dog, horse, coot, rabbit, magpie, sheep, reindeer, pheasant and partridge.


Today's most common bird - rook
Today's most common animal - cow
Today's noisiest - crested girl (male)
Today's most appealing - startling
Today's treat - caged green budgie (Wymondham Station)

SOS - Broken Project 11 - 12a

WALL - Broken Project 11 - 12b

SURVIVAL - Broken Project 11 - 12c

My life's puncture repair kit's been nicked

MY HANDS - Broken Project 11 - 11a

Drawing by Tom Mallin, circa 1955

NOT BEGGING - Broken Project 11 - 11b

HANDS - Broken Project 11 - 11c

Hand folds, is held and holds.

Hand grips the sink - the sink dissolves.

Hand spreads, is measured and measures.

Hand is lined and we follow.

Hand gestures, signs, presses flesh and buttons.

Hand holds up traffic.

Hand slips from the cliffs off Gunton.

Hand for a hat trick.

Hand on a hoe, a shoulder, a gun.

Hand is its other half.

Hands are truly, fondly, falsely.

Hands are smiles, deals and daggers.

Hands across tables, maps and beds.

Hands of adverts and fish market lumpers.

Hands from the font over the dead.

Hands held in rings wearing rings, swinging to

"These are a few of my favourite things."

BREAKING - Broken Project 11 - 10a

THROUGH THE WIRE - Broken Project 11 - 10b

Collage by Rupert Mallin

THIS TIME - Broken Project 11 - 10c

I study the matched studs in your lobes

While my fingertips dip your entirety

Into my immeasurable happiness

As the bone collector passes us by, this time.

I conjure up each slippery wish

As if the dish for my delicate buds.

I dress in wolf's white fur

And purr, this time, Love.

THE HAT BOX - Broken Project 11 - 9a

What is in the hat box?

THE MARKET - Broken Project 11 - 9b

The Free Market makes us all individuals...

INDIFFERENCE - Broken Project 11 - 9c

Hush puppies on ice macadam

Walking in a coat of girl's skin

Into a diagram of a waiting room

So far from sadness

I can smell indifference

DAWN - Broken Project 11 - 8a

Watercolour by Rupert Mallin

THE WALL - Broken Project 11 - 8b

EARLY AUTOBIOGRAPHY - Broken Project 11 - 8c

Despite my ticks, wriggling and loud voice, I was a shy child. My parents, neighbours and their offspring, gave me pets so that I might be befriended by them to alleviate my shyness. The dog instantly escaped from our back yard compound and tore into the washing drooping from the line, while the cat committed suicide on the quiet country road we lived on. I also starved two rabbits near to death, before they were taken into care.

WATER, STEEL, GLASS - Broken Project 11 - 7a

WATCH TOWERS - Broken Project 11 - 7b

Monoprint by Rupert Mallin

FOUND TEXT: HOW GALLS TRAVEL - Broken Project 11 - 7c

GALLS AND THEIR COURIER

How Galls travel...

In the spring of 2002 I found two clusters of mature ram’s-horn galls on a small oak tree at Great Yeldham. The galls had all developed from buds at the tips of the shoots, where their horns formed conspicuous, spiky crowns. The site is many miles to the north of all the other sites in which I have found the species, although Pat Walker informs me she has found the galls at Great Shelford, about 20 miles to the west. The tree is on the edge of a small car park belonging to a specialist car dealer and used by visitors from all over southern England. It seems very clear to me that the insects have arrived by car - perhaps even my own as the car dealer is my son! It is just too much of a coincidence that all these galls should crop up on a single tree some miles from other known sites, especially as there do not seem to be any Turkey oaks in the immediate vicinity.

TAKING CARE OF THEMSELVES - Broken Project 11 - 6a

Waiting for the penny to drop

THE VILLAGE HALL - Broken Project 11 - 6b

What became of gigs in community centres and village halls? What became of community centres? What became of village halls?

FOUND TEXT - Broken Project 11 - 6c

FROM A MEN'S SWIMWEAR CATALOGUE


Welcome to Kiniki’s swimwear for men catalogue. Wild - is a steamy animal print hot from Kiniki’s own design studios, and Fizzy is a deliciously light-hearted design. Here you will find the handsome Dale, heavenly Bliss and exotic Prowler. Our new innovation is the Fizzy Ring. Also new is Bunz with the cleverly concealed padded posterior!


Charmer boxer shorts: Brooding and handsome, with a touch as soft and smooth as a cat. Like all charmers, this one possesses an easy feline elegance, spiced up with more than a hint of excitement. A purrfect fit and a purrfect price. Just £12.90. Meow!?

SALHOUSE - BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 5A

IN PASSING - BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 5B

As we pass by in the street

SURVIVORS - BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 5C

Vapour tints the lip of
Life gambling into action:
Zithers raid the copse
And a goodnight knife fight
Lances silence. Cherry jewels
In sheets of dew dance viridian.
Rotten sleeves of luxurious moss
Doss in a witch toxic ditch.


A murder of crows from sullen shadows
Circles the sleeve of a well.


A giant green tarpaulin
which covers a machine
In a once lush meadow
Where they're building homes with views
Gives up its breath.


An owl hoots and it rains
And survivors go gunning again.

THE LINE - BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 4A

Holding The Line?

MADE OF THIS - BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 4B

Memories are made of this

CANNOT HOLD - BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 4C

You scoured the stars

Sparkling like pans - the

Ploughshares of your dreams.

Leaves of jollity fall

And mulch the day away.

The plough hangs heavy

In the clay

But heavier in the sky.

I look into your eyes for

The centre cannot hold.

ASSAULTED - BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 3A

There he would be, every morning, stood at the end of the alley, greasy, dirty, frightening - 'Potato Head.' "Want a crisp, do you?" He'd offer, adding "they're all assaulted."

I shudder still.

WORK - BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 3B

The dread of work awaits

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 3C

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Good Morning John and Good Morning Everyone. Well, on this rather flat, sombre, cold, dark day, when the drizzle steps into your bones and the mist makes for shrouds, I ponder whether we are wrought out of chaos or whether we are part of a grand plan, each playing his or her part for a Higher Divinity than Man.

I was pondering just this as I shook my way through the cereal packets in Sainsbury’s yesterday, looking for the fruits of the new year, which scare me a little in their prospect of pleasure.

I’ve been scared of heights since birth and do not believe Heaven is in the sky beyond the stars, where souls rest eternally on pillow soft clouds.

This store value sherry is surprisingly smooth.

Good Morning Humphries, Good Morning Ladies Everyone. Well, on this rather zappy, samba stomping day, oil drizzle on the barbecued gammon and the jewel of sunshine in our eyes, I ponder whether we are on Route 66 to Chaos or merely in the queue at the Halifax, each playing her part in that Higher Virginity of Man.

I was pondering just this as I carefully lined up my noodles at lunch alone in Wagamama’s before delivering my annual talk to the Sprowston WI.

I’ve been scared of sprouts since birth and do not believe Heaven can be built out of shopping malls - all full of holes with their heads in the clouds.

Yes, syrupy smooth this sherry.

Yo Humph, Yo Girls! Well, it’s the kind of day Zippy makes out with George, and bananas pop their skins, juice running from my mouth like tropical multi-coloured, multi-vitamin juice, and I ponder the chaos of molecular structures everywhere and the wonders of International Monetary Fun. Heaven for some but a never ending cha-cha for others.

I was pondering just this as two security guards outside Ann Summers quizzed me for my name yesterday. What’s in a name? I’m a celestial number, I replied.

I’ve been scared since birth - rather scared - of the souls of arses rising into Heaven beyond the skies, turning what is nice and tranquil into what’s nasty and quarrelsome, cans of Special Brew littering our quilts of eternal rest...

Very, very smooth...

Good Morning Table Legs, Good Morning Floor...