IT LIVES!

Hello. Yes, I've been away for a bit. I didn't plan to be, but a combination of work stress, christmas busy-ness and what, if it wasn't actually swine flu, I can only assume to have been some kind of weaponised rhinovirus, kept me away from blogging for a while. Plus, sometimes it's nice to take a little time off, y'know? It helps you come back refreshed.

Something else I plan to start back up soon is my writing, and performing. Again, these took a back seat for a while, but starting later this month I plan to get things moving.

On Monday 17th, I'll be doing a spot at the open mic at the Lamplight Arts Centre in Stanley. I read at one of their slams late last year, and am looking forward to having a bit of space in which to breathe with a set this time, rather than the do-one-poem-and-off rush of slam performance. I am also quite pleased that, because I have the day off after this gig, I should theoretically be able to sleep off the absurdly long journey back from Stanley that it involves (usually involving having to get a bus to Newcastle to get back to Washington - an absurd state of affairs, especially as the bus to Newcastle takes an hour). If all else fails, given that I have the day off, I shall just sleep in a skip and come home on tuesday when the buses are keeping a sensible timetable and going to Washington directly.

Then on Tuesday it's a trip down to Middlesbrough for the Electric Kool-Aid Cabaret of the Spoken Word. I've been wanting to go to this since I ended my last mini-tour in October by performing in Middlesbrough, and was ticked off to miss the November gig featuring Degna Stone. I will be going down to Middlesbrough this time, but will need to be back in Newcastle by early the next morning to take advantage of a cheap tickets offer which will enable me to read at one of two open mikes happening in London on the 19th: either Touch Me I'm Sick, hosted by the guys from Vintage Poison, who I was impressed by on my last gig in London; or possibly the Apples & Snakes organised Jawdance, depending on who can fit me in. Then it's another early start (required by the cheap ticket deal) to get back to Newcastle on the Thursday, at which point I will stop manically running about gigging and actually be able to indulge in the rock & roll lifestyle people expect me to enjoy.

Before all this, however, I'll be going to a 'scratch club' night in Newcastle occurring under the aegis of Apples & Snakes North East. Basically this is a night where you can experiment and try out new work. Obviously this entails actually having new work to try out, which is what this week will mainly involve. I'll be doing some kind of writing exercise every day, and will post the preliminary results, and a description of the process I arrived at them by, on here...hopefully Sunday will give me more of a chance to work them up, and maybe some will even be presentable enough to take on tour with me! Who knows? Well, not me, but I need to get back into a writing routine somehow, and this is as good an excuse as any. See you tomorrow, then.