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Sam van Zweden

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emilie zoey baker

Pride, Procrastination and other Disasters

You’ll have noticed my blog has been incredibly quiet of late. I apologise.

I’ve written very little. I’ve blogged hardly at all. I’ve read only to wind-down before bed or else I’d never sleep. I’ve seen hardly anyone and I haven’t had a beer in over a week.

This is life on the arse-end of the semester. Four assignments due in a three-week period. We’re still in that period, the last one’s due on Tuesday.

So I’m still not blogging and all of the above.

But in the name of procrastination and pride, I thought I’d post the following interviews I did for Yartz, with Lisa Dempster and Emilie Zoey Baker. They were done just before the EWF, there’s just been a little delay in getting them up – technical stuff. Computers, hey?

As I can’t figure out how to embed youtube clips:

Here’s Lisa’s interview.

And here’s Emilie’s.

And for those of you who just can’t get enough, here’s a link to the reading that EZB was kind enough to do for the Yartz .

Enjoy your weekend viewing, my friends, and I will return to this very blog after Tuesday when I am officially ON HOLIDAYS!

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Slamming into Wordsmith-ry

I’ve been loving slam poetry lately.

Emilie Zoey Baker guest-lectured at uni, and her performances made me laugh, giggles wrapped up in pretty images, musical words, gestures and rhythm.

I discovered Marc Bamuthi Joseph in an essay he wrote about the need to lay claim to words. His performances are physical poetry, “poetry in motion”, as he puts it.

Then a few days ago I found Shane Koyczan. Ohhh I sit there and close my eyes and shake my head. He delivers it all so beautifully, and just when it gets so lovely and heavy it feels like it’ll break, he chucks in some hilariously true thing that has to be laughed at.

Tomorrow, along fellow RMIT-ians, we’re gathering to bury ourselves in some slam. And while watching a lot of the work of the above people I’ve wondered a little what it is that I want my work to offer.

I’ve got rhythm. I don’t rhyme though… but neither does a lot of Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s work. And why am I trying to copy someone else’s work anyway?

I’ve got pretty images and a story… There’s just so many decisions to be made, and the thought of delivering it to an audience of my peers is absolutely terrifying.

But imagine if it goes well. Imagine if I work and work and end up with the ability to perform as beautifully as Marc Bamuthi Joseph or Shane Koyczan?

Yeah. Imagine that.

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