Search

Sam van Zweden

Writer

Open Search

Teaser Tue(Wedne)sday

I missed yesterday’s Teaser Tuesday due to another urgent post, but I’d hate for you to miss out!

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
  •  You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

“In the after-dinner heat, when the dishes were dried and put away and the greasy sink was shining, Louie slipped down the orchard in her bare brown feet and, opening the unhinged back gate a trifle, looked out into the peaceful street. Just opposite were the little wooden houses of the only two neighbours who were Louie’s friends – the Kydds and the Walkers.”
From Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children (Penguin Modern Classics edition, p104)

0

Overload Day 10 – All Done

It’s over for its 9th year – Overload Poetry Festival has said goodbye and won’t be back until next September. It went out with style and a bang at the Grace Darling on Sunday evening.

I’d never been to the Grace Darling before. What a venue! Down-stairs is decked out nicely – nothing spectacular, though their menu made me drool on the floor. The Overload Surprise Showcase was upstairs. Upstairs is like some absolutely NUTS cross between Ding-Dong, the Hotel Windsor and your primary school hall. There are some amazing gold glittery curtains, and fantastically upholstered wing-backed chairs. The space is quite large, and was set up for the evening with rows of seats around the stage.

Hosted by Steve Smart and Santo Cazzati, the showcase featured performers and awards, and DJ Zanda kept us entertained in breaks and later into the night. 

A hightlight was the performance from Ian McBryde, who whispered his poetry so quietly that I found myself leaning towards him. He performed many pieces, my favourite was a piece about the Titanic. McBryde made himself both the doomed ship and the iceberg, in an incredibly striking piece that really spoke to me.

I’d never seen Anna Fern perform before, likewise Alicia Sometimes. Anna has a unique brand of performance, combining spoken word with vocal acrobatics and percussive instruments to make something more like a soundscape than a poem. Alicia Sometimes’ poetry is just plain fun. She did a piece about spending too much time at home and plugging her pets into amplifiers. Her dog into an amp, her cat into a wah-wah pedal (“meowowowowwwww”) and her budgie into a delay pedal (“who’s a pretty boy-boy-boy-boy-boy?”) – I’ll be looking out to see this self-proclaimed “poetry slut” again.

Also performing were Graham Colin, Joel McKerrow, and Luka Haralampou, who all placed at the Overload Slam Grand Final. Awards were presented, with Bendigo Bank being kind enough to donate $2000 in prize money for the winners.

It was a small crowd, but a responsive one. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet some of the festival’s performers in a more intimate setting, and a last chance to see some awesome Overload Poetry in action before it all wound up.

I’ve had a great time over the festival, and I’d like to thank Overload for being kind enough to take me on board to review the shows. Thanks to Ashley Molese and Luis Gonzalez Serrano for their support, and congratulations to Overload for such a hugely successful program. Can’t wait until next year!

0

Overload Day 9 – Poetry Slam Grand Final

This was the 2010 Overload Poetry Slam Grand Final – three rounds, eighteen performers, a hell of a lot of shouting, clapping, drum-rolling, laughing, nodding, mind-blowing. There was debate about scores, there was begging for the tech guy to stick around so the event could wrap up. And WHAT a wrap up!

Eighteen performers competed in the first round, six in the second, and four in the third. The third round (originally of three performers) grew to four due to a mis-read of scores, with a 0.1 difference resulting in an extra competitor. 0.1! That’s how close the night was.

The final round of four performers featured Joel McKerrow, Luka Haralampou, Steve Smart and Graham Colin. These men are THE best Melbourne has to offer, and this means we have a hell of a lot to be proud of. 

Steve Smart balances on the line between sardonic wit and a raging inferno of intensity. He understands, in a way that is just so spot-on when it’s appropriate for the wit, and when for the intensity. He jams these things up against each other like tetris blocks, there’s just no gap at all. His self-deprecating humour doesn’t make the audience squirm, and he plays the cynic perfectly. Steve Smart is a brand unto himself, and he knows how to play it. Somehow, he manages to always keep it fresh, and last night was no exception. He placed fourth with a score of 81.29.

If you’ve ever read anything Beat, you’ll recognize Graham Colin instantly. He’s the dapper fellow, one of any of those dapper-writing-fellows from the Beat Generation, and he performs that way too. The way Graham moves, the way Graham performs, it’s all jazz. In the second round, Graham performed a piece that began and was punctuated by scatting, and he scatted incredibly well. He spoke about making love to artists, and I believed every bouncing, scatting, jazzy word. Graham placed third with a score of 81.46.

Joel McKerrow towers over the audience but never appears too big. Never appears forceful, but always urgent. He bounces on the balls of his feet, his arms flying out in all directions to help deliver the words from his mouth, across space, to your eager ears. His words work through him, and his poems have life. Joel placed second, with a total score of 82.11.

First place winner – Luka Haralampou… Knocked.My.Fucking.Socks.Off. You know a piece is good when the audience starts whooping and clapping midway through the piece in agreement. You know it’s good when people jump to their feet at the end and clap with their hands above their heads. Luka is a slam poet and hip-hop artist. He works the two together, his slam runs along with a true hip-hop bounce, and he stands his ground in his words. Luka’s subject matter is concerned with understanding, with growing. I think that’s something that speaks to us all, so apart from 10/10 execution, Luka’s words are just plain beautiful.

Slam master IQ said to the audience early in the evening; “It’s your job to influence the judges… yell at them” – and yell we did. After a while all the whooping started to feel like “Hallelujah!”, and with IQ getting all ministerial up the front, proclaiming things loud and proud, the whole thing got the profound feeling of a revival.

This is the kind of revival I can get behind.

And for a revival of last night’s finalists, come down to the Grace Darling in Collingwood tonight from 7.30pm for the closing event for Overload, where they’ll have a feature spot, wrapping up the massive 10-day event.

All images © Danny Presser 2010

4

Overload Day 7 – Melbourne Poetry Map Launch

Spring Street isn’t usually my side of town. The suits are scary. The steps at Parliament (both the landmark and the station) are so steep I want to vomit on something. The venues all have dress-codes. Despite all of this, last night I made my way down the lane way of Meyers Place to Loop Bar for the launch of the Melbourne Poetry Map: Audio Graffiti. Impossible bar to find. We stood outside for a good few minutes trying to decide if we were at the right place – there’s a severe lack of signage here. Randall Stephens’ hat was the only thing to give it away.

Turns out that more people than the venue could comfortably fit had the same idea. We piled in on top of each other, spooning strangers. It was worth it. Partly for the opportunity to spoon people I didn’t know, but mostly for the amazing words that came through the PA.

The Mebourne Poetry Map project is a tour of Melbourne landmarks, each with its own poem delivered by well-known and respected Melbourne poets. There are six podcasts and maps available to download, and each tells a different story. As you take each route, Melbourne opens up as human and alive and very very touchable. This isn’t a tourist guide – this is the beating heart of Melbourne as told by our best.

While the podcasts feature 21 poets, the MPM:AG launch last night showcased 13 of those performers. Highlights included Randall Stephens’ “What are you looking at?” and Lia Incognita’s “Typography”. While these poems are wonderful in their recorded podcast form, they really had a sparkle at last night’s performances. Randall seems to feed on audience enthusiasm, and his yelling “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT!?” at us was electric, it grabbed attention and didn’t let it go until the end. His yells were shoved right up against quiet, lovely, intimate explanations of exactly what you are looking at.

Lia used signs to demonstrate the typography she was exploring, as a Chinese-Australian, chinese Australian, Chinese/Australian poet.

These more serious pieces were performed along with pieces that made me laugh out loud – real, blurt-laughter. Maurice McNamara talked about the terror that book sellers feel at the prospect of selling actual books to actual people. Are you sure?

The blurt-laughter-est piece of the evening was definitely Meaghan Bell’s “Union Lane References Hunter S Thompson”, in which she channels HST’s utterly terrifying technicoloured menageries into a back-alley of our own city.

The performances were strong, the podcasts are enjoyable, and I plan on downloading them and taking a walk some time soon. Check it out, get to know your city from a different angle. Props to Eleanor Jackson for producing such an original and exciting project!

2

Lentil As Poetry! (Overload, Day 6)

Lentils to mouth. Eyes have some trouble deciding between Charlie Chaplin film and milling crowd. I recognize a lot of these people, but I also don’t recognize a lot of them. This is nice. This is people coming out of the woodwork because of a festival. This was Lentil As Anything in Abbotsford last night, which turned down its music and gave its space over to poetry by candle-light, the Last Chance Slam for Overload Poetry Festival. And such words!

The evening began with a “sacrificial lentil” for judges to practice on. A tall man named Joel gave us some words about what it is to be human. That we’re all essentially human on the inside, as our essence. He knew how to string words together to feel good without rhyme, and he knew how to deliver them with varying speed to great effect. I didn’t catch his surname**, but Joel will be performing at the Slam Final for Overload on Saturday night.

The night was hosted by the very encouraging and enthusiastic IQ, who got the crowd riled up about scores, sang us some little ditties while waiting for poets or music, and encouraged us all to eat about five times our fill of lentils.

Some of the evening’s highlights could be seen coming a mile off. Some of Melbourne’s most entertaining poets were there, the ones who you see at an event and feel warm and comfortable and cosy with the fact that you’ll be hearing some awesome poetry. Last night the always satisfying Steve Smart and Randall Stevens performed, as well as the lovely Deb**.

Steve performed a piece expressing his wish not “to be intense like I can be / I want to be the guy who is more fun” – painting a light, spinning, carefree wish, peppered with true Steve Smart wit. In round two Steve’s work only got better, bringing in audience participation, offering himself up to lovers as “a knight in shining ugly clothing”.

Randall, the jungle-hatted bard, similarly talked about wanting to impress women (let’s face it, we all do), trying to be “a little bit geeky in that cool kinda way”, and in round two Randall talked about falling in love, “with all the grace of a fridge”. I’m always a bit delighted by Randall’s understanding of sound – he co-co-coughs, he “hisssssssssssssssssssssssss”es. He gets right inside his words, not just reading them but really becoming his work. Randall placed 3rd for the evening, and will be performing at the final on Saturday.

Deb**, who I’ve also seen perform before, didn’t disappoint. She writes about the way things feel, how they really feel, and when you hear it, you somehow end up nodding your head. I love listening to Deb because she doesn’t write about feelings in a “Woe, Vulnerable Woman!” way, but in a way that is empowered because she’s in touch with it all.

The thing I love about Overload is that it’s so inclusive. While I was excited to see poets that I’d seen before and knew were good, it was even more exciting to be seeing new people. There were bush poets, established poets, I met a woman from Elsternwick who hadn’t performed in over a year, there were hip-hop poets, there was an entirely endearing guy who worked at Lentil as Anything who just wanted to share his two-line poems with us.

There were thirteen poets competing, so it’s a bit impossible to cover everyone. Highlights from people I didn’t know, though:

Lauren** performed a piece about how hip-hop was, before we even knew about it. In round two she performed a piece about changing yourself, starting with your attitude and what’s going on in your head. Lauren placed 2nd for the evening, and will be performing at Saturday’s Slam Final.

First place-getter was Meryl**. Meryl. Was. Amazing. I’d never seen Meryl perform before, but gosh I’ll be looking out for her in future! Meryl wasn’t afraid to look her audience in the eye. Meryl had an incredible grasp on the use of volume, and what it could do for a performance piece. Meryl had lovely pause moments, she had wonderful funny moments, Meryl is an incredible performer. Taking home a $50 prize and a pass to the finals, I’m going to predict at least a placing for Meryl in Saturday’s final. She was undoubtedly the highlight of last night at Lentils.

And this has just been one night! Tonight I’ll be heading down to Loop Bar in the city for the Melbourne Poetry Map: Audio Graffiti launch. Check out the event page, because this is a night that promises to GO OFF.

**This “Not Catching Surname” thing was actually quite a prominent theme of the evening, me being incredibly alert and not even thinking about the fact that the event would be written about. So I’m missing a lot of surnames. I apologize, especially to those I’m writing about whose surnames I’ve missed!

3

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
  •  You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

“From the moment I woke up the following Monday morning, the stolen garden gnomes on my shelf accosted me with their mocking cheery smiles and flamboyant red hats.
That girl Jewel hadn’t let me be, and now not even inanimate objects would give me a break. ”
                          From Steph Bowe’s Girl Saves Boy (p30)

0

Look UP!

Overload Poetry Festival is here for its ninth year, and they’ve got a stellar program.

As part of the program, Overload are broadcasting micropoetry on the ticket text at Federation Square. Two of my pieces have been accepted. This poetry display will be running from the 10th-19th of September.

So if you’re going through the city and you pass Fed Square – look UP!

0

Happy Birthday To Meeeee!

Well, not to me. To LGWABP.

Today is the first anniversary of this blog! It certainly doesn’t feel like a year. So much awesome stuff has happened because of LGWABP, and I’m really glad I’ve stuck with it. People often say that you shouldn’t blog unless you’ve got a passion for it, because it comes through in the content – I hope my passion comes through. I love this thing! LOVE IT!

174 posts later…

In the last year I’ve written a lot more than I used to. I’ve realised that “being a writer” is what I’m doing, and I’m dedicated to that. I’ve met amazing people, some of them higher up in the industry than myself, others on the same level, others just beginning – all of these people have been helpful, insightful, and immensely encouraging.

I’ve had three pieces accepted for publication. I’ve introduced myself and been recognized for my blog name. I’ve had my passion understood and been invited to do book reviews on c31’s Yartz. I’ve been asked to guest blog. I’ve interviewed a hero of mine. I’ve learned what doesn’t work.

I feel like I’m on the way to good things. And LGWABP is has a lot to contribute to it.

Thanks for reading, ya’ll, keep it up! And I’ll keep posting.

Cheers to my first year!

8

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
  •  You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

“It’s a temptation, but I refuse tostart crating a neat ending to my life, as if I were some minor short story. The more loose ends the better.”

from Robert Dessaix’s Night Letters (1996, p105)

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑