Wednesday, November 15, 2006

15/11/2006 Poets Day




..that is what we used to refer to Friday as in the days when I used to "work" for a living....
It means "Piss Off Early Tomorrow's Saturday"...
This, as I'm sure you all know, is an example of an acrostic phrase.
At John Hegley's show last night, there was an acrostic competition with a JH CD as a prize.
The winner was "Let's Enjoy Incense, Tea and Heroin" (LEITH)
The previous night's winner in Glasgow was "Only Boats And Numpties" (OBAN)...
I thought they were very good...I didn't do one because I didn't have a piece of paper or a pen. I couldn't really think of one anyway, so I'm not making excuses.
JH was in top form as per usual...his set is always very loose and relaxed.
It's nice to be in The Stand and not have to worry about getting your head bitten off...
In fact, he was so unthreatening that Martin Evans was comfortable sitting in the front row for the second half of the show.
It is difficult for me to overstate what an outstanding achievement this was for JH.
He has conquered K2 by pogostick then swum the Pacific by doggy paddling, in the same afternoon.
I talked to him after the show, and as is usually the case when I meet any of my heroes, felt I had come across as a bit of a twat.
I mentioned something about not hearing a "fuck" on stage all night, but then immediately thought this made me sound like Mary Whitehouse's nephew congratulating him on his clean and wholesome stage show.
I then made matters worse by saying "not that I've got anything against bad langauage per se"....now that was a really wanky phrase to come out with, wasn't it...
This is a bit like the expression like "I'm not a racist, but..." which you often hear as an opening gambit on talk radio shows...
It usually means "yes, I am a racist"...whereas my comment signified "yes, I am a twat".
In a departure from the usual format at The Stand, a band played a short set in the middle of the show.
They were "Preston Pfanz and the Seaton Sands"...
I can't remember when I last enjoyed a live band as much.
They are a beat, surf type combo..."suited and booted", and play a selection of original and cover instrumentals...
They look completely convincing, and augment their music with some very entertaining Shadows-esque choreography...
If I was having a party and needed a band I would book them...just brilliant...
And any band who have a track called "Last Night At Brattisani's" is ok in my book.

When I was recently travelling aboot, I read Richard E Grant's book "The Wah Wah Diaries".
It's about the process of him making a film about his childhood in Swaziland in the last days of its colonial rule by Britain.
I'm a bit of a slow reader, and have to confess to starting many books and never quite making it to the end.
The problem is if you leave too long a gap between reads, you find yourself reading lines from characters that you've completely forgotten about...and can't place them in the plot.
Anyway, unusually for me, I read this book cover to cover in a day...
If you've got any interest at all in the the film industry and exactly what is involved in taking an idea and (eventually) getting a film made, then you must read this...plus Grant is a very funny, sardonic writer.

1 comment:

jimbo said...

Just thought I'd say Fuck Off!!!!