Sounds and words

Sorry about not having written in a while! :( Let’s go straight to the good stuff: I’ve been to a couple of literary/musical events in the last month, let me tell you about them! :)

Rally & Broad

Venue: Tron Theatre

Price: £5

Date: 28^th May

I knew about this event because one of my classmates was performing at it. Knowing her, I expected this to be amazing, but it surpassed my expectations! The hosts were excellent (a bit too enthusiastic and shouty for my taste, but that’s because I’m a bore, haha), and the performers even more so! The Rally&Broad people are hosting another event at the Tron this Wednesday 25th June, you can read about them here.

Katy Hastie’s reading was a great mix of sexist stereotype smashing, howling laughter, nostalgia, word ritual and macabre humour. I’m sure everyone in the room remembers the piece for which she had to invite over a male friend to read bits of “advice” from an old magazine for teen girls, while she shouted, from the back of the stage, a reactionary sexist’s guide to understanding women / getting sex from them. The last thing she read was a short story about a “game” her family plays at funerals… Hearing about new ways to show love is always welcome. Death, love and playfulness all together. Human condition right there, guys. :)

Alan Bisset performed an extract from his new play. He played all the characters (from Scottish folk tales) masterfully, to the point that he felt like a total stranger when I walked up to him after the show to talk to him. We hadn’t seen the least bit of him during the performance. I still think he should record that bit and upload it on YouTube… it’d make him a worldwide star. Also, it’s a really clever way of looking at the “Better Together” campaign’s arguments: there was no need for counter-arguments. [Note: about the independence debate, check this out]

Katherine Leyton is a poet from Toronto. Her poems felt like colourful pebbles: rounded, polished, smoothly creased, beautiful little things you can hold in your palm. Actually, that idea might be stolen from one of her poems, and that’s why I associate it with them. If so, please tell me! :) I think she didn’t get all the applause she deserved (because she didn’t say “thanks” at the end / make a pause / indicate, or maybe her indications were too subtle for us…). So, in order to make up for it, please receive a written HUGE ROUND OF APPLAUSE from me!!! She also founded the How Pedestrian project.

The last appearance of the night was a different kind of writer. Shambles Miller is a singer-songwriter (or is it singer/songwriter?) from Glasgow. His songs are honest, unpretentious, hilarious, witty, sweet, playful, sensitive and full of pop culture references. Here, see for yourselves:

I bought “How to Be a Ghost” from him. It’s a comic book he wrote and his friend Neil Slorance illustrated. Again, it’s cute, intelligent and funny, and it even has a feel-good message/advice (slightly cheesy for me, but that’s because I don’t have a heart, and that doesn’t make it any less true). Plus it features the best ghost dog you’ve ever seen. What else can you ask for? :) You can check out Neil's stuff here.

New Writing Showcase

Venue: Cottiers

Price: Free

Date: 12^th June

This event was part of the West End Festival, which I have to say I haven’t made the most of. Again, I knew about this thanks to Katy! I trust her taste, you see. Again, I had a great night! To start with, the theatre at Cottiers (church reconverted into pub/venue) is a beautiful place (stained glass windows and all, mind you). Katy was playing "compère" (I don’t know how this is different from host, but that’s the word they used). The performers were members of the creative writing programme at the University of Glasgow, they were all very different, but all of them were great! The first performer was Agata Maslowska, who played the guitar and sang two songs, one of them from Poland, and the other one of her own. Her voice, the guitar, the stained glass windows… You should have been there! After this lovely opening, there came the readings: Alice Seville, Molly Vogel, Jordan Mulligan, TC, Rose Ruane, Martin Cathcart Froden and Jonathan Walker all wowed us! My memory when it comes to coupling poem/author is not very good, so by way of general comment: you should see them live. I’m sure their poems look great on the printed page and they also sound great in your head, but the way they read them… So much passion and talent! I'm looking forward to hearing/reading more about them! :) You can take a look at the Facebook event here.

Shambles Miller + Reverieme

Venue: 13^th Note

Price: £1

Date: 17^th June

The venue was a basement, it had no windows, it was incredibly hot for Glasgow. But there was cake, smiley faces and great music (and happy dogs). None of my friends came to this concert with me (thankssss guuuyssss…^^’), but I had a great time and ended up making new friends! :D

I’ve already talked about Shambles Miller in this post, so I’ll make this short. Highlight: he broke one of the strings on his guitar mid-song and had to use someone else’s. Also, he doesn’t seem to be content with all of the good stuff people like me say about his music (fair enough), and his new song “Worriers” makes it clear that he can do thoughtfulness too (which everyone already knew, but then again, I understand his discomfort with being labelled as a “comedy musician”). As a mark of respect for both his funny and his serious stuff, here’s “Worriers” (around 13:30, but you should listen to the whole thing!):

The main act of the night was indie pop band Reverieme (Airdrie). I am SO glad I went to see them live. I am going to go on and follow them around like a crazed fan from now on. I kept swinging my head to the music and closing my eyes, and the people around me must have thought I was high, but I was just taken away by the beauty of their music. The lead singer’s voice is mesmerizing, as are the lyrics and the tunes. Their lyrics remind me a little of REM's lyrics: fragmentary, eloquent and suggestive. I can’t recommend them enough. Only “bad” thing: they kept making self-deprecating jokes which were absolutely out of place given their awesomeness! :) Here you have a couple of their songs:

 The blog won't let me post the YouTube video for "Get to Know Me", but you can watch it here.

I hope not to have overwhelmed you with so much good stuff! If you have any recommendations, or if you didn't know about the people I've written about here and are glad you do know them now, please tell me in the comments section! :) I'm away to London on Wednesday and until Saturday, so that'll probably be the next thing I write about!

'Aye Write!' - Glasgow's Book Festival

This year's 'Aye Write!' festival lasted from the 4th to the 12th of April. Among a variety of events, I chose the following:

A. L. Kennedy - All the Rage

Venue: Mitchell Library - Burns Room

Author: A. L. Kennedy
Book: All the Rage (Jonathan Cape, 2014)

Date: 8th April

Price: £8    

I have read some of Kennedy's short stories, as well as a number of her articles/reviews, so I decided to give this event a shot. Also, I had recently discovered that she is a stand-up comedian, so I thought: literature + humour = winning combination! I really had a great time at this event. The host's liveliness contrasted with the writer's dark wit, and I thoroughly enjoyed her reading aloud from her new collection of stories. The story she read was 'This Man', in her own words an attempt at writing something 'happy' (after which word she made a pause and added, with a mischievous half-smile: 'ish'). The story itself is a wonder of attention to detail (she said she's not a very good observer in real life - but she can make up the details in fiction). It focusses on a female character on a first date with 'this man', and on how she over-analyses every little gesture, sound, smell. It was sweet, awkward, thought-provoking and funny all at once. If these weren't enough positive words about her and her work, here you have more: I checked her website to find out about the publisher/date of All the Rage, and I discovered that she lists both good and bad reviews about her books (and also 'silly' ones), and that she replies to some of them! Priceless.

Bernard MacLaverty - The Collected Stories

Venue: Mitchell Library - Mitchell Theatre

Author: Bernard MacLaverty
Book: The Collected Stories (Jonathan Cape, 2013)

Date: 9th April

Price: £8 

I read MacLaverty's novel Cal as part of one of the courses in my undergraduate degree, and loved it. I like open endings (unlike one of my best friends, and a lady in the audience), provided they're well-written. In this occasion, he read two of his short stories, included in The Collected Stories: 'On the Roundabout' and 'Words the Happy Say'. The first centers around a violent incident and the telling of it afterwards, the second revolves around a calligrapher and a lady in love with the Emily Dickinson poem the title of the story refers to. His reading voice is fantastic, I'm so jealous of his grandchildren! He also talked a bit about his native Belfast (which he described as both a wonderful and horrible place) and he recommended other writers' work, such as Gerard Manley Hopkins, Michael MacLaverty (no relation of his), Mary Flannery O'Connor or Paul Muldoon, among others. The only downside to this event was the host, she was a bit too stiff and formal for my liking. I'll leave you with the poem by Emily Dickinson:

The words the happy say
Are paltry melody

But those the silent feel

Are beautiful —

Emily Dickinson, 1750

The Untold Story - By Our Own Tongues

Venue: Mitchell Library - Burns Room
Authors: Ivory Kelly, Joanne Hillhouse, Martin MacIntyre

Books: Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean (Peekash Press, 2014)

Dannsam led Fhaileas / Let Me Dance with Your Shadow (Luath Press, 2006)

Ath-Aithne / Re-Acquaintance (Clar, 2004)

Date: 11th April

Price: £4 (drinks incl.)

This event brought together three writers, who read bits of their work and talked about it with the host, Dr Gemma Robinson (University of Stirling). The panellists were: Ivory Kelly (Belize), Joanne Hillhouse (Antigua) and Martin MacIntyre (Scotland). Kelly and Hillhouse read from their short stories included in the anthology Pepperpot. MacIntyre read from his poems (Let Me Dance with Your Shadow) and stories (Re-Acquaintance), in Gaelic and in English. The main topic for discussion afterwards was language and the position of their work within the English-speaking world. Kelly said she chose to use a hybrid between standard English and the standardised Belize creole, with enough of each to be understandable and still have the taste of Belize. Hillhead talked about the acceptance of creole languages as something legitimate (not like a 'bastard child', in her own words), she said she believes this is a way for creole speakers to learn to accept their own identities. MacIntyre talked about his personal relationship with Scottish Gaelic: his grandfather was monolingual in Gaelic, his father spoke both Gaelic and English, MacIntyre learnt Gaelic as an adult. The three of them talked about how privileged they are to feel the freedom to write about whatever they want, in whatever language (or mixture of languages) they want. This event was organised by the British Council, the Commonwealth Foundation (Commonwealth Writers), and The Gaelic Books Council. 

Of course, I think it's great that the 'Aye Write!' festival included events such as this one, with speakers that are 'minor' authors (in terms of sales/media promotion). However, I still had the uncomfortable sensation that this event had been marketed as 'exotic' or 'marginal' literature (were the low price and the free drinks incentives to an otherwise uninteresting event in the eyes of the general public?), and the ghost of colonialism was definitely in the room (interestingly enough, the Gaelic community was included in this). As a speaker of a 'minority' language (Catalan, which has more than 10 million speakers), I feel part of that uncomfortable situation. I recently read (in an academic analysis of publishing called Merchants of Culture, by John B. Thompson) that more than half of all books written in English are translated into other languages, but only 6% of books written in other languages are translated into English. English native speakers are also, apparently, among the least interested in learning other languages. Is it that they don't know what they're missing, or that they don't care?

As a general comment regarding the three events I went to, I have to express my surprise at the fact that I was only among the 5% of the audience that were under 50 years old. This might mean that 'Aye Write!' organisers advertise very effectively for a 50+ audience, but somehow I doubt that. I'm sure they advertise for as wide an audience as possible. Is it the prices what make young people not attend? Is it the events themselves? Are they not interested? Do they prefer to spend their money on the books themselves rather than go listen to the authors? Do I have a weird taste for someone my age? I don't think I do...

As always, I welcome any comments about the authors/books/issues I talked about here! =)