Poetry groups..

Writing Poetry this year has being the major surprise

For me this year so far, as I have completed

Something like 82 odd poems this year which

Completely murders the amount off poems

I wrote last year which was something like 56

Poems wrote.

Good thing is I have generally being a lot

Happier with them this year on the whole

And look forward to exploring this more

Next year too.

A lot of this has being done to joining

A lot of poetry groups.. Here a few

Details about them about the ones

I have being involved in 2008 so

Far with a honest opinion as far

As I can see.

24 Hour Arty People

(http://www.myspace.com/24hourartypeople)

This was the group I was in from 2004 to the

start off 2008 which fell apart big style see

these posts for more details

http://writersideasandthoughtsuk.blogspot.com/2008/08/more-thoughts-about-writing-writing.html

AND

http://writersideasandthoughtsuk.blogspot.com/2008/08/at-write-out-loud-middleton-sunday-24th.html)

For anybody joining in groups like this, I would advise

You not to bother! There are always other

Groups knocking around which are better.

As far as I am aware, this group is no longer

Going although I still get the odd threatening

Email which makes me wonder otherwise.

Poetica

(http://www.myspace.com/poeticamanchester)

I joined Poetica in the Spring off 2007,
I think as I was starting to get pissed off

With 24 Hour Arty..

Poetica to quote their myspace page

‘Is a completely open forum where

everyone is welcome to come and share work

in progress and get feedback from others’

who meet up at Manchester Central Library

(UK) every other Wednesday from 6pm

to 7.45pm (ish)

Their next dates are as follows for meeting..

Wed 8th October

Wed 22nd October

Wed 5th November

Wed 19th November

Wed 3rd December

All 2008 of course.

Certainly joining Poetica when I did

Was a godsend as I made a lot of contacts

Out off that and also quite a few new

Friends.

If I am honest, the problem

with Poetica is the demand for

the group.

Certainly when I first started going,

there was usually about 10 or so people

who were regulars and that itself in a

hour and 45 minutes is a lot to get round

But when the number goes up a few more

and if people ain’t as focused with the group,

I feel it becomes dangerously unmanageable

with I remember (not my views here) several

people hogging the spotlight away from others.

I’ve ended up taking a step backwards from

the group at least for now mostly for lack

off time but it is worth looking into if you

work in the center of Manchester.

Trio Writers

(http://www.myspace.com/triowriters)

My baby, which I co run with my pals, Gary

& Amanda took over from 24 Hour Arty People

in January 2008 and has so far being kept

down to a core membership but speaking

from a personal angle, keeping it

stripped down so much I think has

worked to our favor as we have got

through a lot off stuff we may have struggled

doing otherwise as 24 Hour arty.

When we re-launch later on this year,

(October time I reckon now)

expect major changes.

New Manchester Stanza

(http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29097376060)

Tony talked me into going to this monthly

Meet up of this group who meet at the Lowry

Centre (Salford Quays, Manchester) once a month..

Next meeting 30th September 2008 from 7pm to 9pm

I think a couple of months back.

I have being to just two so far, I think and

Have enjoyed as it is a nice new location,

But have found the group itself to be a mixed

Bag where some things worked well and

Others well..

If I am honest, for the group to survive

It will need to change a little bit, but it has

A few regular members so it has a chance

Certainly.

Animal Writers

(http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24158377235)

This is a brand new one I am going to this Tuesday

Coming 23^rd September..

No idea how this will go, I must admit, but I think it is

Monthly and meeting up at 8^th Day, Oxford Road from

6pm to 7.30pm or something.

Like to Write? Manchester UK

(http://www.myspace.com/poetry_workshops)

Only managed this once, but found

It great fun.

It is an ongoing poetry writing workshop

That meets weekly.

They describe themselves as a ‘not-for-profit group

that puts on free weekly creative writing workshops

and sometimes we produce anthologies and put on

events’

They meet weekly every Monday 2pm – 4pm at

the Friends Meeting House, (behind central library

in Manchester City Centre) UK.

The one occasion I made it (because of the

Meeting times clashing with work). I found

It great fun as it was a constant writing

Workshop and I wrote 6 poems in a hour

And 45 minutes.

There is others, but I can’t offer a

Honest opinion on them.

I think with all writing groups I

Have explored this year, I think a lot

Depends on what you are looking for

And while all of these groups may

Not be what you are looking for

If you live in Manchester, England

It is worth exploring if you are

a new writer.

(Image borrowed from
http://blog.mpl.org/nowatmpl/magnetic_poetry1_by_cassandra_tiensivu.jpg)

Music Projects update.

Before I carry on with any more usual postings and rantings, thought it

Would be good fun to let you all know what the latest state off play

Is with several bits and pieces I am involved with project wise.

For people who don’t know me, let me refer you over first off all

To my website – http://www.geocities.com/aen1mpo

That’ll explain everything in more details.

Music wise , first all… (In order alphabetically) for this post..

Writing next post (tomorrow)

Distance

My band Distance should have a EP out now called ‘Words in the Mix’

Which is a EP I am really pleased with and has had one or two

Compare it to Spacemen 3 which means a hell of a lot to me. I need

To follow that one up, reminds me.

Currently otherwise Distance are working slowly towards their next

Album which I hope will out on a independent record label next

Year at some point, although there could be a EP or two out before that

Also.

The band did feature on the comp ‘Let’s talk about Sex’

(http://www.archive.org/details/ltbsvol1)

and a few Distance remixes have appeared on my page on

the Nine Inch Nails remix website

(http://remix.nin.com/member/aen1mpo)

The band will of course be appearing on the annual

DIH & friends album towards December 2008.

D.I.H.

D.I.H. after the release off the ‘lost’ HATE E.P.

(http://www.archive.org/details/dihhateep)

at the start of this year has generally kept it quiet this year with

only two appearances on comp. CD’s to speak off..

A remix on the Tara’s Adventure EP

(http://www.archive.org/details/tarasadventure)

and the Let’s talk about Sex CD

(http://www.archive.org/details/ltbsvol1).

However, things will soon be picking up as the band are in the

Final throws off a new EP that is nearly ready now and should

Be out for the end of this year then a new full length album (should

Be done for the start off next year with a release date off

March / April 2009 hopefully)

And of course in the meantime, there is the matter off the annual

DIH & friends at Christmas album.

Grey Ear, White Noise

Grey Ear, White Noise is still quite a new project from

Members off Distance only really forming just before

Their appearance on the annual DIH & friends at Christmas

Album last year (See http://www.archive.org/details/DIHchristmas2007)

For more details.

This year has being a case of the people in this new project

Sorting out the sound they want to do, and this has only just

Recently ended up with their debut ep only just getting released

For FREE download (http://www.archive.org/details/hemp046)

The duo have now however just finished off their debut album

Called ‘The Lift’ which is going to split among 2 labels as

It is really a double album.

Next up for the band is going to be an appearance on the DIH

& friends at Christmas album and also another EP possibly

before the end of the year, maybe two with another album

to follow somewhere at the start off 2009.

Two Grey Ear.. remixes are available here for download

(http://remix.nin.com/member/aen1mpo) and there is more

to follow also!

M.A.N.

At last! After two and a half years off delayed sessions, ill-health

And members being on the other side of the world from each other

The long delayed album ‘From a Boy..’ is getting there at last..

Currently clocking in at 19 tracks and almost 36 minutes off music

, the band can finally admit it is nearly finished. The current plan

is to record another two or three tracks and then pick the best

ones from it, and then aim for a release date off 2009 hopefully.

The band in the meantime do have a number of tracks pending

On this comp (

http://digitalvomit.wikidot.com/dvr019-various-guide-to-successful-party-training-volume-2)

The duo will be of course be making a welcome return

to this year’s DIH & friends at Christmas series.

Some of these releases will be HICC related,

others we shall see but it should all be fun...

5th and final day in Ireland

So every journey must come to a end.. All that
really happened on the final day was the journey home
and that was itself was nearly ruined by two totally
pissed up twits.

You know it isn't going to be your day when you get
to the airplane really, really early and see them in
the bar completely wasted at 10.00am in the morning.

I did, I saw both off them completely slaughtered and as
I went to the plane boarding they followed me, and I
thought to myself please, please god don't let them get on
my plane.

I'll let you guess for yourself which plane they got on.

Yep, mine.

And then spent the twenty or so minutes we got delayed
taking off being rude to a whole host off people including
the Asian looking steward that I reckon if he could
understood them probably would have taken quite
action against them.

I have nothing against people going out and having
a good drink or four but whether it is the age factor
showing or not, I don't know but it does make you
wonder whether this is a time and a place for it.

Thankfully they passed out what the plane took
off, so was left to my own devices.

I must admit in conclusion I did really enjoy
Ireland and will certainly be returning there
next year, although trying to see both lots off
my friends at once was too much considering it
took the better part off 6 hours to travel
from where Ky lived to the center off Dublin.

I've done long journeys before from Manchester
to Brighton and Bourenmouth at separate points
but this really was a long, long journey on the
thursday but it was great as it allowed me to
meet some people whom I had grown quite
close to over the past few months and years.

Something I must do again sometime.

(Picture borrowed from
http://www.anoige.ie/Editor/assets/dublin%20at%20night%201.jpg)

4th day in Ireland

Not much to add about the 4^th day off Ireland expect most

off it was traveling, and take it from me it was a bitch of

a journey to Dublin direct – something I never never never

itend doing direct again.

First off all, I was up at 9am and had a lovely chat

to both Ky & her brother Tor before Ky and she got

the bus back to Bantry with me and spend most of the journey

besides avoiding somebody she didn’t want to

talk to (Long story I ain’t going to repeat as it

her private business). That itself took a hour as I think

it was a bingo day out for grannies as tons off them

got on our bus and it took about a hour toget to

Bantry.

When off Bantry, ended up with half a hour spare

before my bus to Cork came so we sat down and

had a lovely chat in some local pub by which I was sorry

to go as I can honesty say it felt like I had two

really good friends there, but I couldn’t stop

forever.

The bus to Bantry eventually came and then it

was a two hour drive toCork. I was back in Cork

eventually and then it was a case off dragging my

suitcase which I had discovered by that point had

a faulty wheel and that made life harder and

did I mention it was raining again also!

I ended up stopping off in Cork for a bit to get

a bite to eat and then by the time I got to the

train station I had another three hour train

journey to Dublin. And did I mention it

was raining again also!

I think by the time I got to Dublin it was

about 6.45pm, so I got the bus round again to

the spot I needed to be which took about

15 minutes, and then as I got lost I got a

taxi down to the Millenium Spire to meet my

pals Conor & Orla.

I had first met Conor something like 6,

maybe 7 years back when I read a advert

somewhere for a fanzine he was starting

up and wanted people to contribute to it.

Of course interested I dropped him a email

back and contributed to the zine for it’s entire

5 issue life and alsoit’s then slight involvement

on the internet before it folded

somewhere the 2005 or 2006 mark

(Conor would remember – I am too old to

remember things like that – lol) and we kept

in contact ever since.

Orla I met sometime later through Conor

when he sent over to me some of her poetry

which left me spell bound for

months afterwards.

I must admit I had a few problems tracking

them down owning to my complete lack off

knowledge off Dublin, and also the fact that

Conor had grown his hair long and had a

long moustache.

Either way, I had a good time meeting up with

both of them and have plans in motion to meet both

off them next year, which was great news.

The thing that tickled me most off was the

journey back to the hotel as soon as I stepped

into the taxi to take me back, the taxi driver said

to me ‘That’s the hotel connected to the Lap

Dancing club’

I laughed with him over it but honest to god I

thought he was taking the piss as my various guides

hadn’t mentioned anything about it above a lap dancing

bar, a night club but not a lap dancing bar.

He was right too which was the really funny thing.

If I had being sober, god only knows what I may have

done but I was too far out off it.

Day 3 in Ireland

The 3rd day in Ireland like the previous 2 days contained a
awful lot of rain. Living where I live in Manchester, you
could say we are used to lots of rain but it was pretty grim out
there, let me tell you for nothing.

The end of the previous day was spent in Ky & Tor’s studio
setting up the tracks which we would mix today. I must admit
on the previous night I was more than a little bit nervous,
as the last time I properly worked in a studio environment
like that was somewhere around 2001 or 2002 during the
early days off DIH but it was good fun as it gave me chance
to blast them out with some good old fashioned noise.

The vocals that came later I think in hindsight caught them out,
but when I use vocals often like I do for DIH are done like that
for effect and as part of the instrument but both of them showing
how good they are pulled round and produced some stunning tracks
I must admit, and some which nearly blew my head off! Lol

On that Wednesday however returning to the point we spent most
off in their studio mixing these bits into full songs. Considering
I am used to mixing a little bit on my PC using programmes like
Acid Pro, it wasn’t as bad as it could have being, but it was
hard work by any stretch of work just thinking of how to pull
a song from it. Thankfully I had one in mind from when we were
pulling them all of an instrumental version of the main
strong with a lot softer sound but the other was harder!

Since I have got home – Ky & Tor have posted five of
these tracks online.. You can sample them here if you are
interested

http://www.darkworld.com/00page08.html

The 6th mix which is probably the most radio friendly mix I
believe will be coming out on I tunes fairly soon, so watch
this space!

Ky & Tor probably because they knew what they were doing
pulled it off in a few hours and we all sat down and
chilled out in the evening nicely and spent the evening
talking about crazy little music projects we have done
in the past.

It was great fun – just a shame – the weather was
so crap!

(Picture is of their house)

Ireland - Day Two off my holiday

The second day of my Ireland adventure started off very

quickly indeed on 9th September 2008.

After the late night of the previous day which resulted in

me not getting to bed until nearly 1am, and complete
with next to no sleep because of the heavy rain and

wind which was tapping on my window, I barely
had any sleep by the time I got myself ready

in Cork City.

I had arranged to meet Ky, my pal in Bantry

at 1.30pm near the bus station in Bantry, and

knew from looking at the bus timetable I would
have to leave Cork at 11.30am. That it I

decided would be a good time as it would

give me plenty off time to get going and stuff in the
morning, but as I picked up my suitcase

the timetable fell out and I saw there

wasn’t a 11.30am timetable. There was

only 10.30am and 12.30 Noon.

I knew from speaking to Ky a few days

before she was going to leave back for home

on the rural bus at 2.00pm, so I was going to
go for the 10.30am bus and hope I would find her.

This resulted however in a mad rush paying

at the hotel, packing and getting round to

the bus station in under 10 minutes.

As you may have guessed, with our times

being different, I was then expecting problems

in Bantry trying to find Ky, but I knew from what
she told me she would stand out with her bright

red hair, and thankfully she did as within five

minutes off arriving, which eased my worrying
mind totally.

Bantry itself was a tiny little town indeed which

had no more than 2 little streets off shopping
which had a charm even though it was still really
windy indeed and raining a bit.

Ky was as what I expected, a softly spoken

Canadian woman of a few years younger than me
and as we got the bus back to hers, I

looked at the area around us.

This really was what you term was up in the

sticks. I thought she had being joking when she

had told me originally that she frequently got

woke up by sheep most mornings but she hadn’t

being for as soon as we got off the rural bus,

all I could see was sheep and more sheep.

This really was going to be a adventure and a

half for me certainly and this was before I entered

Ky and her brother Tor’s music studio.

Trip to Ireland (Day One)

Dear all;

Sorry for the lack of posts recently.

One or two of you may know but I have being over
in Ireland for the past week or so visiting and
meeting my pal Kylyra and her brother, Tor
who are both involved with ‘Dark World International’
(www.darkworld.com)

Although I had known Ky if my memory is correct
since the end of last year, I had never met her
previously and took the opportunity with me
having quite a bit of time off work I thought
I would go and visit.

Where Kylyra and her brother, Tor is located
somewhere just beyond Bantry which is on the
coast off Western Ireland somewhere beneath
Cork City

I originally set off from England last
Monday (8th September 2008).

While it would be easy to log all of this over a
few paragraphs, I thought I would do this over
a 5 day post. One of for each day I was in
Ireland.

On the first day, I got the plane out from
Manchester Airport which got delayed
huge style to start with by about a hour
And a half, which then caused me to
arrive in Dublin in the middle of
their rush hour.

Thankfully the rush hour wasn’t as bad
as I have seen where I live, so I got a city bus
around to the train station I had to go to
the train station that would take me to
Cork City.

The train journey itself was very long
winded indeed, something like 3 hours
or so with is long winded indeed and
cost me a lot more than I really wanted
to pay (I tried to pay for it over the internet
without success) and then got told a
expensive price which pissed me off huge
style, but after a discussion there I went
on the train and didn’t arrive at
the hotel until 10pm at night
and by that point, the wind was
really picking up and the rain
started coming down really hard
too.

The hotel itself was expensive
also but classy, and as soon as I
logged in at 10pm I thought to
myself I need to go and get some
food but before I did, I went for a
walk around the back of the hotel
on the dockyard and would you
believe I got approached by
a hooker.

Needless I went in the opposite
direction.

And the rain didn’t get any better.

But I started work on a few new
Poems (Will be shared in due course
of course).

Wrong Text Message (New Poem)

Dear all;

This is a old poem that I am going to dedicate to Carol.

Which I found the other day and thought I would post

It to you for a slight change in style.

Cheers

Andy N

Wrong Text Message

The nastiness was evident
from the first sentence.

The words were full of bite
bitterness and unmasked hate.

It was littered and broken
down with slurred words
which made me think
to begin with they were drunk.

The second was scattered
with mis-spelt words
with the f and u mixed up
and the off totally out of place.

In the third, the aggression
reached an crescendo
with a immediate threat
never to ring them back.

While the fourth concluded
with 'I hate you, I hate you'

Of course, I quickly deleted it.

New Poet on 'Other's Poets Poems'

Richard Brooks (pictured above) is the latest voice
to be added to the slowly increasing archive
of 'other poets voices' on my website 'Setting Sun'
(http://www.geocities.com/aen1mpo)

He describes himself as is 21 years of age and living
in Leyland nr Preston.

He also adds he is currently studying for a degree in
Media and Tv at Salford university. He hopes to
use his poetry writing experience to give his scriptwriting
another edge. His styles and themes vary from the romantic,
to the dark to the surreal. His influences come from
his varied taste in music and writeres such as Jim Morrison,
Bob Dylan, Dylan Thomas and Oscar Wilde. He is also very
interested in philosophy and metaphysical poems.

Richard can be contacted at rbrooks_86@yahoo.co.uk

His poetry (which is highly recommanded as I think he
is really talented and caused me a major selection
problem by enclosing tons of poems which I loved
and would have fitted them all up) can be sampled at

http://www.geocities.com/aen1mpo/brooks0.htm