20.17 Blog #1: Rogue 1-2017

Better reviewers than I have summarised 2016 and Rogue One.  My rating of 2016 has been poor from a personal level, Things Happened which knocked me down.  Like a mid-90s anarchist punk song, I [tried] to get back up again.  Everyone seems to agree that 2016 was a sad year for deaths, the [increased] rise of the far right and further instability for security.  They also tend to agree Rogue One was pretty great.

Let’s be right about this, Star Wars has always been a continuum.  It didn’t end in 1983, it continued with the various novels and comic books and the adventures I created with my hand-me-down action figures in my Granny’s front room.

I’m not keen on the narrative that Star Wars ‘came back’ in 1999 and it was crap, and then ‘came back’ in 2015 and it was ace.  Because, for all it’s flaws, Lucas was trying to expand the universe of Star Wars with the Phantom Menace, he tried to show us a different world to that of the sterile Empire.  He tried to introduce the Jedi council, not the disparate Jedis in hiding in deserts and swamps.  He tried to set up the dawn of a new character arc for Anakin Skywalker.  He obviously failed, because Phantom Menace is an incredibly flawed film, like a stuttering lightsabre trying it’s  best to vzzz and vuummm.

By contrast, 2015’s The Force Awakens is a riotous romp, but recycles a huge amount of materials it’s hard to differentiate the references from the tributes.  There are so many nods to the other 6 films it’s like a vigorous head shake.  But it’s forgivable because it’s fun, frantic and funny.  It’s everything Star Wars should be, heroes vs. baddies in SPACE.

So what is the worst Star Wars film?  Attack of The Clones of course, because even though Lucas failed to craft a decent film with The Phantom Menace, he had the chance to rescript, recast and pass the baton to another director, as he did for Empire Strikes Back.  As it stands, he did not and we are left with another outing of CGI nonsense and lacklustre plot.

Even though the previous instalment was rubbish, he didn’t learn his lesson.

That’s why The Force Awakens tried to play it safe with familiarity.  And though chronologically Rogue One comes before The Force Awakens in the Star Wars story, clearly the 2016 is a contextual ‘sequel’ to 2015 film and Gareth Edwards toned down the references and nods (though still there) to try and explore a new (old) world under the surface of smugglers, traitors, saboteurs, assassins and rebels and not the force-wielding samurai of the other films.

And that is why, if we consider 2017 a sequel to 2016, we must take the past and make it better.

Each year we inevitably say:  “Have a happy and peaceful 2017” and wish each other the best, but all years have negatives and positives, with the remnants of the old year, whether good or bad, still clinging to the hull.  Creating our own sequel is hard, we cannot erase the past, and we cannot erase the right-wing victories and rise of fascism that will bleed into this year.  But we also have the opportunity to rethink this 2017 as we always rethink a sequel.

Let’s make 2017 neither Attack of The Clones, nor even The Force Awakens.  Although not perfect, let’s make it the Rogue One of the 2010s.

20.16 Blog #30: Blogs and bands, poems and young people

My phone must have crashed, or ran out of memory, or decided to rewrite history, because the calendar has lost all the details from the past year.  It’s quite scary how I have to now rely on my memory to note what has happened this year.

I slap my posters on my wall from every event I put on, so thankfully I have some record in the form of paper and bluetack

SAY OWT SLAM

We hit 13 slams and 2 years running of Say Owt Slam.  We kicked off with the very unique and honest poet Sally Jenkinson, followed by a feast of poets, Rose Drew, Lily Luty, Marina Poppa, Adele Hampton and headliner Sophia Walker  for International Women's Festival.  A little later we ran an Anti-Slam, this beautifully bizarre new concept of worst poet wins championed by Dan Simpson and Paula Varjack.  Our Clash of Champions, guested by Jack Dean, was won by Ian Winter.  After popping over to Edinburgh Fringe, we then returned with a spate of slams with Scott Tyrrell, Vanessa Kisuule and finally Rob Auton.  We also ran a couple of open mics hosted by Chris Singleton and Gen Walsh.  And that's not to mention all the wonderful slammers that came and cracked out words, and the amazing audiences who constantly bring the energy to make the nights so intense, but friendly. It’s hard to get a handle for me, I see behind-the-scenes, in front-of-the-scenes and the script-for-the-scenes so it all becomes very day-to-day for me.  But I know much the nights matter to people, and I always appreciate the feedback, the support, the love from the York scene, travelling poets, the guests and Apples & Snakes.  We have BIG plans for 2017, and started recording a Podcast now on iTunes, so I’d say Say Owt is the most visibly one of the big hits of 2016.  Thanks to everyone x

UP THE NERD PUNKS 2

Sequels are always difficult, and I made a laborious joke of this in my second show at EdFringe in 2 years.  I’ll admit, I wanted to spend more time writing and making the show, and the theme became something slightly different to my initial concept.  But I did really enjoy running the show, and always appreciate the spoken word community at EdFringe greatly.  It’s always a learning curve, and never take for granted what it means to be part of that world.  I did manage to get some new poems out of the show which have stood the test of time, namely I’m Sorry I Missed Your Gig and Discount Tescos Bunting, the latter now on YouTube.  Will Up The Nerd Punks 3 make an appearance in 2017?  Stay tuned, true believers…

YOUTH THEATRE

The year began with Hull Truck Youth Theatre putting on my adaptation of Kafka’s The Castle, which I won’t lie:  was a tricky creature to pin down.  As I’m sure any Kafka fan will confer.  But I’m really proud of the final piece, and the production was a great tangled ensemble of characters and I think a modern day (and troubling perspective) on work.  I directed a Play In A Week for the Lawrence Batly Theatre, one based around conscientious objectors of WW1 and the other wizards and spells (slightly different themes I'll admit...). I also wrote a short adaptation of The Emperor’s New Clothes for Harrogate Youth Theatre, but mainly I’m proud to have been doing more facilitation in general for Lawrence Batley Youth Theatre, Harrogate Theatre and York Theatre Royal and worked with their Youth Theatre groups.  Thanks everyone x

GIGS

I kicked off 2016 by putting on an all-dayer of bands for MooseFest.  We did one more Moose gig with Captain Chaos before my parenter-in-gigs ducked out to focus on work.  So I’ve been doing more gigs as Pewter Promotions with feminist queer indie-punk, like Colour Me Wednesday, Ay Carmela, The Tuts, Fairweather Band, Jesus & His Judgemental Father and Jake & The Jellyfish and a whole number of ace supports.  It's important for me to learn about gig promotion and Doing It Right, and not overloading myself.  But what I think is essential is I put on bands I want to see, else it becomes a favour, not a fun experience.  Thanks everyone x

WRITING POEMS

I decided at the start of the year I would write loads of new poems.  That didn’t quite happen how I’d like.  I have this constantly worry I need ‘this kind of poem’.  The funny one to open with.  The anti-racist one.  The one that changes everyone’s minds.  But I have written some poems for Up The Nerd Punks 2 which are now part of my set, and have been working on some in the lying light for December.  I think it’s not always useful to assume you’ll write loads of new stuff just because you say you’ll write a load of new stuff.  So before I go to bed I’ve been writing for 1-2 mins at least.  Just scribbles.  Thoughts.  We’ll see what 2017 holds.

OTHER STUFF
My band put out an EP!  I performed started scratching a new show for 2017!  I spoke at the Art of Punk Conference at the University of Northampton!  I spoke at the Third Angel Symposium at Leeds!  We continued making monthly nerdy quizzes and it's been a mega fun time, I assure you!  Thanks everyone x

I've also been pretty down at times, filled with the usual anxiety and General Blues of 21st century life.  But thanks for all my friends who stick with me, and I'm sorry to those I don't give enough time to, or have let down.

Thanks everyone x Sorry everyone x

Love, solidarity and rage x

20.16 Blog #14: Pokemon Go? Pokemon No! (or, Anxiety, I Choose You!)

I have loved Pokémon since 1999 and I will until the day I Faint, die and become a Ghost type, haunting the streets of York and known as that Odd Scrawny Ghost reciting poetry and writing blogs in 20 minutes and 16 seconds.

So it’s been a real kick in the Voltorbs that my Nokia windows phone cannot accommodate the Game (or App) Pokémon Go which is sweeping the nation like a Speed Boosted Mega Blaziken.

Don’t know what that is?  Don’t worry about.  Go back to catching Caterpies, mate.

The real salt in my wrenched wound was when a random drunk bloke (seemingly) took the piss out of me, assuming I was playing the game and pointing at nothing in the middle of the road saying “Did you see that?”  Maybe there was another (complex) joke at hand I (apparently) missed.  If so, I should have laughed.  Instead I posted on social media:  “Some guy took the piss out of me cos he thought I was playing Pokemon Go.  For Fuck's sake I can't win.”

But clearly I can win, cos I got 25 Likes out of that little sharp observation.  Yus.

I post on social media too much, and check it too much too.  I touch my phone too often, and berate the instinct in my windows for doing so.  It’s becoming something I want to challenge in myself.  I am going to start making a tally on my hand in pen for every time I move to stop my phone.

Not because I don’t want my hand to do this, and that I want to cut down each day like beating a habit, but because I move to check my phone whenever I am nervous, or more accurately, anxious.

Many a year back, I worked for an EdFringe venue, and on Day 1 where everyone gets to meet one another, we had to find the people we were living with by going around and chatting to the strangers.  I couldn’t do it.  I don’t know what I did instead in the presence of people, but I essentially took trips to the toilet and sat in a cubicle more than once. 

I found it impossible to just start a casual conversation with people who were all strangers anyway.  But, of course, it all seems like they’ve all become instant friends with all the ease of a hot bath (a luxury during EdFringe).

As it happened, the people I stayed with where absolutely charming people I got on with exceptionally well, eventually.

Now I’ve found whenever faced with this issue of feeling nervous around people with an inability to add to a conversation, I’ll check my phone.  It’s become a social norm, something that’s acceptable and means that it takes pressure of being a voice within the voices.

As much as my phone has sucked me into a world of clicks and likes and a plastic sense of relationships, it has given me the ability to stay within a conversation, a space, a ensemble, without having to constantly be making eye contact, adding words and being entirely present.  I can take part of me away, and release some of that intensity.

If you know what I’m talking about, then Hi.

I’ve always found too many people all in one place, when alcohol and merriment flow, I become very uncomfortable, quiet and unable to hold a conversation.  Not just that, unable to stay in the place.  I see people in the arts scene do this a lot, post-show drinks, where people have big ol’ chats and buy each other drinks and compliment each other’s faces off.  Audience and actors and directors and techies mix and it all becomes so intense…

Of course, it’s not intense.  It’s just a form of intensity for me.

So I often end up leaving, no matter how my phone allows me some respite.  I’ve never tried just drinking through it, I don’t have the patience or money for alcohol.  If you are one of the people who has the energy for such beloved friendship circles, beer garden revelry and unfazed bar-waiting strength then I salute you, I don’t know how you do it, but you do it.

I don’t want to diminish anyone’s fun, and I also don’t think I want allowances or support on this.  I just thought I’d write a blog about it.  To say what I feel about an Internet-connected phone being so very useful when criticism is constantly levelled against it when it comes to ‘reality’.  To say how, if you feel it hard to network, to celebrate, to be involved in very involving scenes, you’re not alone.

You may feel alone.  I feel alone.  Hey, forget Pokémon Go, this is Anxiety Go.  Catching bad vibes and levelling them up.  Taming them.  Training them.  Choosing when they Evolve, and who they beat.  Be The Very Best, because there may be 8 Gym Leaders, an Elite Four but there is only One Champion.  So I guess being that rad is gonna be lonely from time-to-time, right?

And also to say FUCK POKEMON GO and I’m looking forward to Pokémon Sun & Moon.  Like I did with X & Y, I shall not be looking at any pre-release information, leaks or sneak peeks.

Love & solidarity

20.16 Blog #11: Not-So-Secret-Wars

Not-So-Secret Wars

Spider-Man is transported to a planet on the other side of the galaxy, where The Beyonder and Madam Webb, powerful being from another dimension, have transported 4 evil villains to essentially ruin the peace of this world.  Spider-Man, as their champion for Good, must assemble a team to oppose the villains and prove that justice will win out.

It’s a good old-fashioned Super-Man team-up, something the 90s Spiderman cartoon did very well, with Iron Man, Dr Strange, Captain America, the X-Men & Daredevil popping up from time-to-time.  This storyline was inspired by the Secret War comic from the 1980s, which tested the water for a grand heroic crossover event which Marvel as since rolled out so much it’s crushed the grass.

The first 5-6ish issues of Secret Wars are pretty exciting, heroes fight, lose, regroup, battle, have infighting and fall in love like a soap opera.  It sets up some interesting subplots, such as the Wasp being kidnapped by Magneto, the X-Men acting as a neutral force and the Hulk losing his savagery and intelligence making him kinda limbo-ishly useless.  Alas, the last few issues just involve the heroes stranding around watching Galactus, and the Wasp essentially gets rescued, Hulk still does his job and the X-Men help out and it’s all fine.

I rewatched the Spiderman saga, and it’s amazing how the Secret War lasts a mere 3 episodes, essentially about an hour, when it felt so massive back in the day.  I guess with a week between Saturday mornings, it was bound to feel more of a saga.  The sheer scale of the heroes is exciting, Cap and Iron Man remind you how this Spiderverse exists without the Avengers, and Doom proves what a cool villain he is, even when guesting in another world.

Team-ups are always great.  Whether a Suicide Squad, Avengers assembling or rogues gallery playing cards, in comic books and cartoons to see all the Insidious schemers in union it’s always a bigger danger, a bigger reward for victory.  Of course it’s also the soap opera element, in the Secret War comic Titania and Absorbing Man bicker before falling for one another, in the Spiderman cartoon Doc Ock and Scorpion, one an educated Doctor and the other a streetwise private eye, trade insults.

Last night I hosted the 4^th Words & Whippets night, a collection of poets from across Yorkshire, Joanne Foxton and Dave Jarman from York, Rachel Bower from Sheffield and Andy Craven-Griffiths from Leeds.  These have always been fun compilations of poets, a mix of people who know each other, a mix of strangers and a mix of styles all melting together in the warm blackness of the Studio.

The night before (Friday) I put on a gig with an assortment of bands and musicians, Depresstival from Leeds, my band Pewter City Punks, poet Imi Godwin, acoustic psychobilly 2-piece Dead Drummer, alt-cabaret FloraGreysteel and American folk-punkers Captain Chaos.  It was a real mixture of not just genres and styles, but genders and sexualities and, if I do say so myself, it did feel like a real diverse mix all upstairs in the steam of Dusk.

These are a bit like super-hero team-ups.  Nah, they are EXACTLY like super-hero team-ups.

Nights like these make an interesting concoction.  Joss Whedon said he wanted to add Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to Avengers:  Age of Ultron because he felt the Avengers for the first film were all a bit “punchy.”  The airport scene in Captain America-Civil War showed a greater diverse range of powers, strengths and styles.  And it was glorious.

The great thing about X-Men films is that there’s always a mixture of powers, and to an extent Justice League and Teen Titans offer this range of abilities (TT is essentially the great format of alien/technology/mutant/martial arts/magic which tend to make up all power-origins).

Yesterday a convoy taking supplies to support refugees in Calais was refused boarding on the ferry, despite everyone having a valid passport and ticket.

This week a fascist with ties to a right-wing organisation, presumably inspired by the fear-mongering of a ‘broken Britain’ murdered an MP.

This week a man went into a nightclub and shot people because they were LBGTQ+ and, possibly, non-white.

Next week we’ll, most likely, vote to leave the EU and see a surge in a nationalism which isn’t limited to patriotically taping the Great British Bake-Off, but one that sees both increased direct and indirect harm to minority groups.

Because we need diversity to fight these wars.  I’m not just talking about our gig line-ups, of course.  I mean how we co-operative, connect and support one another when the going gets tough.

So here’s to diverse line-ups, team-ups, mash-ups and not-so-Secret Wars.

20.16 Blog #9: The Dark Side

My housemate and myself have been playing Star Wars Rebellion.

He’s the galactic Empire, a power with more resources than all the real-world Empires of our history combined.  I’m a plucky band of Rebels, darting from planet to planet, attempting small-scale missions in the world-weary attempt to cause entire worlds to rise up.

The box says 2-3 hours.  It’s been at least 4.  So far, he’s not found my Rebel base, so far I’ve not completed nearly enough Objectives.  It’s a war of attrition.  And it’s dark outside, like the inky black of space.  And twice as cold.

I’ve been tired this year, and I’m not sure why.  I started with the intention to write a whole host of new poetry.  I have a document on this computer which is called, quite conveniently, Poems 2016.  But none of them are of a quality I’m happy with, and none of them are finished.

Obi-Wan Kenobi has been captured.

I wrote a poem about the 2015 York Floods, but found it too crude and blunt for a complex issue which affected an entire City.  I wrote a poem about William Shakespeare, but it’s just not intricate enough to be worth the niche-ness.  In all frustrating seriousness, I’m in a bit of a rut.

My housemate lands on a planet, which was my Rebel base.  But I moved it.  Sneak

Clearly, neither of us are enjoying this game very much anymore.  We could easily quit, and recommence in the morning.  But we look at the clock, guestimate another 30 mins and crack on.  30 mins passes and Obi-Wan Kenobi has been frozen in Carbointe.  I know the feeling.

So I’ve tried to change my diet, and get some more protein in.  It feels like it’s helped somewhat.  I cut out eggs and milk without too much commitment to the proper replacements.  I’ve added back in eggs, but trying to make up the difference with more Quorn, spinach and kale.

I tried to blow up the Death Star, but didn’t send in enough ships.  The Death Star blows up another planet.  The Rebellion isn’t looking too healthy.

That’s not to say I haven’t been busy.  The Say Owt events we’ve run have been great, and I’ve been doing plenty of busy work for the Laurence Batley Theatre and Harrogate Youth Theatre.  Me and my good chum Nat have been making a theatre show for touring in 2017 (dinosaurs, punks, y’know, the usual).  Oh and blogging.

But sometimes the best laid plans for mice and Sith Lords go awry, and you find yourself, at 23.49, writing a blog as a kind of apology to yourself.

I’m starting to think up new pieces for my next fringe show, a continuation of Up The Nerd Punks imaginatively titled Up The Nerd Punks 2.  I have some poems in my head.  I even started writing a new one the other day.

It’s hard when the Empire have a Super Star Destroyer and you’ve just got a few Transport ships.

It can be hard when there are so many productive people in your scene, and genre.  Making new poems, getting gigs, getting commissions, getting praise.  If you’re a bit stuck, there’s no one to blame but yourself.  I’m not talking about being stuck due to mental illness, anxiety of depression, you can’t help that.  But stuck because nothing’s really flowing, well.  The force flows through us all.

The game ends sometime around 1am.  Chewbacca has been turned to the Dark Side, but in doing so I can ‘cash in’ my Objective to not have any of my characters captured.  We half-heartedly argue about whether Chewie is considered ‘captured’ if he’s not part of the Empire’s side.

It doesn’t matter, I’ve won simply by holding out.  The Base is secure, the Empire will eventually be toppled and freedom will reign across the Galaxy someday. 

You can keep plugging away.  Trying different objectives, holding out, defending or attacking.  Consolidating or controlling.  As long as the Empire haven’t force-choked you into submission, there’s always a New Hope.

One day those fireworks with spark over the moon of Endor.

I sleepily pack up, and we promise to try the Game of Thrones Card Game this week.

Riot Nrrrd Tour podcast

Riot Nrrrd Tour Podcast

In March 2015, two nerdy poets set forth unto the world to bring hope, spoken word and angry feminism to the ears of budding audiences.

Henry Raby is based in York, Jenn Hart is based in Bristol. They both like punk, nerdiness, politics, feminism and saying poems about these topics in front of audiences.

Henry Raby & Jenn Hart would like to thank all the promoters, audiences and supporters and copius amount of coffee and cartoons which all made this tour possible.

DIY or Die!

The Riot Nrrrd Tour consisted of:
15th March: Nerd Hutch, Newcastle
16th March: Verbal Remedies, Leeds
17th March: Empty Shop, Durham
18th March: Poems, Pints & Prose, Harrogate
19th March: Away With Words, Hull
20th March: The Forest Café, Edinburgh. No record of this show was made, due to the over exhaustion of falafel, queer disco and evening shenanigans but thanks to Raph for the gig x
21st March: Tchai Ovna, Glasgow
22nd March: Say Owt Slam, York

CLICK TO LISTEN HERE!

20.16 Blog #4: Hashtag Kafka

Hashtag Kafka

On Thursday I popped over to Hull to see Hull truck Youth Theatre perform two of my plays, one first commissioned by York Theatre Royal called The Circle of Chalk, inspired by the classic Chinese tale with a smattering of Brecht.  The second was an entirely new play, The Castle, adapted from Kafka’s unfinished tale of a man, K (who shares the same name as the protagonist of one of Kafka’s more famous novels, The Trial).  Both were directed by Tom Bellerby, and both were fantastic productions. 

The Circle of Chalk employed a huge range of music to weave the story.  Not just a few musical interludes, but a really effective backdrop of folk sounds to drive the tale along.  Brilliant committment to the story-telling, drawing us into their world balanced on a knife-edge. Watching it back, there’s a lot of ideas peppered throughout the play.  Family, duty, country, fascism, home, identity and race constantly crop up, and I hope the play tries to explore what displacement means, and how governments react to displaced people with racism and walls.

The Castle was a different beast in the sense it had one driving theme throughout, the ineffectiveness in the face of a sheer power.  Within that, there’s the destabilisation of relationships, the abuse of power, the reliance on contacts and pressures of business and ambition.  But the base idea is that our protagonist, K The Land Surveyor, is desperately trying to find work but caught in a bureaucratic nightmare and told if he isn’t work, he is worthless.

This is the same message young people across the country and being told, as their support networks have been, and are being, slashed.  Removing EMA and student grants limit their access to education.  Removing housing benefit, and the stigma of not being able to ‘make someone of one’s self.’

I’m very proud of the final script.  The cast brought out eccentric and unstable characters full of mischief and malevolence.  The atmosphere was gripping and haunting.  Kafka has a certain level of grim humour which I toyed and recreated for the stage.  But in Kafka’s novels, characters are trapped, cursed, doomed and never make the right decisions.  And all other characters are seen through the tinted eyes of the protagonist.  In our version, we tried to show characters actually making good and negative choices.  We showed empathy, sympathy and rejection of these traits.  Because this is an ensemble, and though K is at the very centre, it is a connected web of Villagers and Officials who each have their role in the story.

That is essential in a Youth Theatre play, where every actor needs to feel, and should be, relevant to the story and have a part they can get their teeth into.  Young people deserve quality scripts.  I may not be able to give them security, but I can at least give them a bloody good play to work with.  Thanks to Tom and Hull Truck for having me!

To swerve this somewhat, I tried to change my Twitter handle from HenryRabyPoetry to HenryRaby.  Because as much as poetry is my core skill, I’m also doing more play-wrighting and theatre making.  Alas, HenryRaby is taken.  The account has 0 Tweets.  I can only hope it gets deleted.  It’s a dog-eat-Tweet world out there.

Feels a little Kafka-esque doesn’t it?  This great vast system of Twitter dictating rules and names, and myself, powerless within the loopholes, to make any leeway.  I just have to sit and wait.

This week I also worked with director Natalie Quatermass on a new show about punk and politics.  It’s called Whatever Happened To Vandal Raptor?, and we’re scratching it at Derby Theatre on the 6^th March.  It’s still early days, so I’ll blog about it in detail once we’ve fleshed out more of the show.  But watch this space!

20.16 Blog #3: The Greatest Cartoon Ever

The Greatest Cartoon Ever

Hey.  Get ready to tear me apart.  Get ready to rip me limb-from-limb as I declare a statement that will shock the very foundations of the zeitgeist to it’s core.

Adventure Time is over-rated.

BOOM.  There.  Said.  *drops mic*

*Picks up mic again*

OK, so let me unpack that.  Adventure Time is brilliant.  It’s masterful and funny and full of fantastic characters and story and marvellous inventive.  But it’s everywhere.  It’s on t-shirts and hats and pencil cases and games and I really love it.  I haven’t seen every single episode (there’s a lot) but it’s not struck the chord with me that it has with so many other people, and many of my friends.  I don’t consider it the *fanfare* Greatest cartoon Ever.

So why is it that this cartoon has magically captured children and adults?  And why is it that so many of the queer community love it so much too?

Because to those fans, Adventure Time is the greatest cartoon ever.  Everyone has their favourite songs, poems, stories, films etc.  Adventure Time is dear to many people’s hearts.

Me and my housemate recently watched a few Count Duckulas, which are incredibly pun-heavy surreal nuggets of British eccentricity.  Much more nutty than Dangermouse, with some great set pieces that lead to a zaniness only 80s cartoons could provide.  The puns drove me quackers.

I’ve also been caning a lot inordinate amount of the Batman The Animated Podcast which is a gushing source of fan nostalgia waterfalling from my iPad.  Check it out, I never watched much Batman TAS cos it wasn’t on UK telly as much (Batman Of The Future was though, or Batman ‘Beyond’ to you ‘Americans’), but the Podcast is very funny, well-made and goes into great detail of the show, which I love, cos I love analysing and details (could ya guess?)

Retro cartoons are back, or at the least they have a marketability.  You can slap a 80s or 90s cartoon onto anything and it’ll sell.  But how much do people revisit these cartoons?

You know I love Pokémon.  But I don’t even think the Pokémon cartoon is the best thing in the world EVER.  It holds a heap of nostalgia for me, and I’d watch it gleefully, but that would be rooted in the memory how much it mattered when I was 11.

On the flip side, I devoured Gravity Falls.  Such a well-crafted collection of stories.  Twin peaks meets Hey Arnold.  Not only were the jokes spot-on, but the characters were 3-dimensional (which is ironic considering one was a nightmare 2-D space demon), including strong female characters, gay characters and quite possibly a Trans* character.  I couldn’t watch the finale for fear of it ending, like the apocalypse.  But end it did, and marvellous so.  With salty tears running down my cheeks, as Dipper and Mabel bid farewell to Gravity Falls, and part of their childhood, I too said goodbye to a cartoon which PROVES to me that cartoons are still high quality.

Well, actually, it doesn’t.  Because it’s all subjective.  Just as one person adores Adventure Time for its fresh take on the adventure genre, another person will argue “cartoons aren’t as good as they used to be” while rocking their He-Man t-shirt.

But compare this whole comparison with other genres.  We hold Citizen Kane up to be one of the greatest films of all time, just like we declare Shakespeare, Dickins and Tolstoy to be our greatest writers.  The greatest musicians include Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Presley.  I’m not saying I much rate these assumptions but that is the general structure of our western culture.

But no one really holds up a cartoon as the greatest ever.  Because kids don’t care about that.  They just love sitting after school and watching something silly, exciting and/or funny.  They’ll watch reruns, they’ll watch the latest show, as long as they enjoy it, they enjoy it.  If you enjoy something, you enjoy it.  I’ll analyse it for hours and hours and hours, but at the end of the day you love something because you love it, and the rest is silence.

Oh, and for the record the Greatest Cartoon Ever is Legends Of Treasure Island.  Without doubt.

Goodnight out there, whatever you are….

20.15 Blog #14: GreedCreep

If you were to sift through my bedroom back at my parents, you would find stacks of old Games Workshop figures.  The only thing I brought with me from this stage of my teenage life was a huge map of the Warhammer world, which sits alongside my map of Westeros and Middle-Earth.

This has been my first year living away from my parents since University, which came after a good few years working out how to make this Freelance Thing work.  I moved in with a couple of Anarchists who were glued to Gogglebox.

This year has really been a productive year for me.  I wrote a play for Harrogate Youth Theatre, and have just finished another for Hull truck Youth Theatre.  Past Henry’s goal was to write plays for young people, and to achieve that has been super awesome.  I’ve gigged at Latitude and Boomtown Fair and went up to EdFringe with a show.  Say Owt Slam has gone from strength to strength.  But I am constantly worried I take it for granted.  I’m always worried I take everything for granted.

I get anxiety sometimes about what should be achieved, and is achievable.  I constantly compare where I am to where other people are.  This is too much of a competitive trait, it assumes everyone climbs the same ladder, or worse is on the same production line.

Now I have more rent and food bills to pay than when I lived at my folks, I have started to worry about money.  Now, actually, I don’t really need to.  I’m kind of on top of finances, and I am slowly making enough each month.  But I do worry about money, because I worry about GreedCreep.

This term popped into my head recently.

When I was a kid, I would write long lists of what Warhammer I would buy if we won the lottery.  I don’t think this was because I wanted to hoard all the Warhammer in the world all for myself.  Warhammer is a game you play with other people.  I wanted more to use in our Saturday daytime battles.  Though, at the end of the day, it’s still ownership over stuff.

I wanted all the music I could get, so that I could find and enjoy gigs, take part in conversations and maybe even form a band (pity it took 10 years, but we got there, guys).

I’m getting that quite badly again.  This time with Board Games.  2015 will forever be recorded as the year we all got obsessed with the Game Of Thrones Board Game, but I’ve also got very much into Boss Monster, Dominion, Coup and a few others.  I like the fact I can arrange a gaming day/evening and have a huge selection to enjoy.

To that end, I have this twitch whenever I walk past Travelling Man or OG Games.  I kind of get this sense I really want more games to add to my collection.  Lego, Mighty Max, CDs, patches, plays, comics, books…I’ve always been a bit of a magpie for collecting. 

However, I think this is GreedCreep.  It’s not necessarily an evil thing, I don’t want to have all the money in the world ever.  But I do think it is a gnawing bug in the back of my brain.  It’s a force that drags me in certain directions, to certain websites or to certain shops.  And I think it’s a major force in nerd culture.  Since the nerdifcation the ordinary, since the commercialisation of nerdiness, you can get watches, dressing gowns, shoes, hats, gloves, socks, pencils, notepads, cases, clocks, curtains, bedsheets, stationary…anything with Tyrion, Finn, Batman or even Joe Strummer’s face on.

And, yeah, it might be punky to love music, nerdy to love games but it’s still capitalism, it’s still a wanting of objects, of things, of items and no matter how much you dress it as ‘alternative’ culture.

So I’m going to keep an eye on this GreedCreep.  This wanting.  Because I like my Pokemon shoes, I like my bag o’ patches, I like my zine library and play collection and new comic books and I LOVE my new board games, but I need to make sure these are for sharing with folks.  These games are to be played, comic books to be shared, CDs to be lent and plays to be written for people to perform.

20.15 Blog #13: Spectre didn't have a ghost of a chance

I can’t remember a time when I hadn’t seen all the James Bond films.

Like all my viewing habits, we had a nox upstairs in the corner of my parents bedroom with every Bond film taped off the telly.  In our house, we rarely had any bought tapes, everything (including Asterix, Star Wars and various cartoons) were taped of the telly)  This was viewing on demand

My Dad’s Bond was Connery and early Moore, so those are firm favourites in my mind’s eye.  A few years ago, we went through each Bond film in order.  I remember being pleasantly surprised that Timothy Dalton’s Bond films were engaging, and saddened that Moonraker was not the gem I recall from my youth.

My Bond was Brosnan.  Born in 1988, Brosnan’s best Bond was part of growing up, even if I didn’t see them all in the cinema, he was still my generation’s Bond.  As tough as Dalton, but with more humour.  Goldeneye has everything for me, especially that nostalgic connection to the Nintendo game.   Ah the hours and hours spent throwing Proxy mines at each other…

Anyway, due to two pretty naff Bond films, my teenage and young adult years lacked a Bond, so I kinda got attached to the older Bond as best than any current fad.  I was a little slow to catch up with Daniel Craig, missing both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

I enjoyed Skyfall, despite the sexist development with Moneypenny for turning her from a field agent to someone stuck behind a desk.  But I enjoyed it nevertheless.

Bond is an interesting English figure.  We’re good at making rebels of the establishment, and yet against the establishment.  Robin Hood, the disgraced ex-lord of Locksley.  Falstaff, a Lord and yet a vagabond.  Dennis The Menace, the naughty kid who, in his heyday, had mass mainstream appeal.  Lennon and Lydon.

Bond is part of the British establishment.  He’s not the loner, like the American Western figure, and yet he is the character who might break the rules, go behind his superior’s backs, defy laws (driving a tank through Moscow etc).  There’s a whole bundle of Bond traits, it’s not one thing.  One film might play down the Britishness, another film will explore the violence, another the gadgets, another the villains, but it’s all a melting pot of Bond.

SPOILERS

I found Spectre insufferable.  It seemed to take ages for Bond to actually get anywhere, and then major plot points were glossed over quickly as the need to wrap everything up rushed everything in the final act (they were brothers?  Spectre organised for M to be killed?  What are the other agents doing while the 00 programme is being shut down?).  Spectre were set up as this indestructible huge organisation, but Bond very easily blew up their base without much effort.  Then Blofeld went from being their sinister shadowy figure to a guy who flies in a helicopter above London with a couple of henchmen rather than his grand army.  What was his devious plan?  Collect everyone’s credit card details?  Watch us on the toilet?  I was not impressed.  I was underwhelmed.  I felt like a rehash of Skyfall.

20.15 Blog #8: Ambition (or: Lex Luthor is Bad)

In another decade, a younger Henry wanted to be a famous writer.  The kind of writer they write about.  The kind of writer that gets studied.  The kind of writer that gets studied in their lifetime.

At some point, I lost that life goal.  I wonder whether it was because I lost self-confidence in myself, and asked:  “What makes me so special that people would want to study me?”  Sometimes I ask why people would want to bother listening to me at all.

But you’re here reading this blog, so you’re at least interested in reading what I have to ramble.

A lot of poets have built their careers on viral videos.  There’s a lot of hardwork goes into the construction and promotion of a poem that can go viral, and I’m not knocking those poets.  They’re reaching larger audiences and we’re riding those coattails.

But if all poets were able to go viral, we’d infect the world.  But we’re not going to go viral.  The very nature of a viral video is it exists in a sea of videos which do not get the same attention.  Bucking the trend and beating the competition makes the video noticed.  But (from where I'm sitting at least) they can make a career.

Ambition is the little cousin of Hope.  Left in Pandora’s Box, Hope is both the sin and the virtue.  Hope is a negative and a positive.  A trap and a freedom.

Ambition in our western society has two faces.  Climbing the corporate ladder to fame, riches and famous riches is seen as A Good Thing.  Within the arts, students are told making good work is seen as A Good Thing too (and so it is), but it doesn’t hurt if you’re on a nice salary or get healthy ticket sales from that work.  Even a decent job in a building.  Stream of funding.  Interview in The Stage/Guardian. Congratulations.  Us theatre-makers sell these dreams to ourselves.

But with the stroke of the same hand that pats your back, ambition can be seen as self-serving and self-gratifying.  The working class are sold the lie that we must be “happy with what you’ve got.”  The church has done this job for centuries with the Pie In The Sky lie.  The humbleness song is somehow in a positive key and should make us grateful for simple wages, simple benefits and a simple life.

Aspiration is another cousin to hope.  Aspiration is like ambition, but I see it as to elevate oneself beyond the situation you exist within.  Aspiration is about rising, ambition is about gaining.  The working class are told they should aspire, because the ruling classes have made the working class situation so unenviable

We live in such a vertical world, that it is impossible to be ambitious without clutching at the feet above you and stamping on the fingers below on this imposing ladder.  The competitive culture encourages self-serving attitudes.  Not only this, but an ‘eye on the prize’ perception means you lose sight of where you are (see Yoda’s wisdom for more information:  "This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless").

But I said ambition is a double-edged blade.  There are positive qualities.  There is a better world worth fighting for (see Sam Gamgee).  We should want will demand better.  Anarchism is about valuing yourself and defending your rights and as individual to never be a slave, but not as the cost at making slaves of others.  Lex Luthor (see Superman) has ambitions to become the biggest businessman in the world, the biggest power on the planet, the President of the United States.  Heck, he even tries to dominate all space, time and reality a few times.  But at the cost of controlling and ruling over others.  Ambition should be horizontal, am ambition to support yourself and others.  Ruthlessness is born from Luthor's vile ambition.

Love is born from another kind of ambition.  Ambition to better yourself the world.  To save it, to secure it, to make it more FUN.  If ruthelessness is born from negative ambition, then we should nurture the purposeful love that can emerge from positive ambition.

This world is so broken, so many flaws, so many systems that control, grind, kill.  But we can make a better world, every fight we lose, every fight we undertake, every fight we win is going towards a better world.  We are told this is the state of the world.  The Tories won a ‘democratic’ election.  Deal with it.  Find a job.  Wash your hair.  They say.

I want to build an inclusive and high-quality poetry and punk scene.  I want to challenge myself and make stronger work.  I want to tour, meet new people, make new friends, see and work with new artists.  I want to inspire someone that will inspire someone else.  These are my ambitions.

Be ambitious in valuing yourself.  Be ambitious to do what you want, however you want as long as it doesn’t harm someone else.  You are wonderful, but that wonder doesn’t detract from the wonder of your neighbour.

Be ambitious.  Demand the impossible.

Another world is waiting xxx 

20.15 blog #5: Patchwork People

Yesterday a friend remarked I wasn’t wearing any patches.  Just on my trousers, however.  My hoodie was still covered in patches related to Adventure Time/squatting, TMNT/Anarchy and punk/Roger from Doug.  But she’d never seen me without patches covering my slim (if a tad hairy) legs.

I started wearing patches back at Uni.  Before then, I resisted the call to cover my clothes in patches because I still liked to stream-lined simple approach of a band t-shirt.  I think that’s because I came from a scene where patches were the norm for the punk friendship circle, and at Uni I wanted to stand out more and carve my own identity.

I have three pairs of trousers with patches on.  My black & white patches only, usually an assortment of punk and ska bands.  My folk-punk trousers, consisting only of bands of that genre from across the world.  My anarchy trousers, with three simple yet effective anarchy-related images (Red A, spanner in the works and Sabcat).  My Seen-In-York trousers, a mixture of local and touring bands whom I have caught playing gigs in my hometown.  My hoodies are also themed, there’s the Devil’s Brigade hoodie with black & red patches, and the Against Me! Queer hoodie I can’t wear when I work with kids due to rudeness.

This may seem incredibly obsessive and compulsive to be so rigorous over patches.  They are, after all, simple bits of cloth.  But punk and ska (and metal but…yeah…whatever) are the only genres of music which really push this aspect for fandom.  Mod to an extent, maybe a Strokes or Libertines patch might find its way into a collection, but mainly punks promote themselves through patches.  Why?

Well, punk has always strived for a DIY attitude of self-promotion beyond the mainstream means of communication, and mark of that marketing strategy is to find alternative models of word-spreading.  Zines, hand-made posters and popping your band on a patch.  It also shows a belief.  Punks from across the spectrum of Oi/crust/anarcho/straightedge/boozey all believe in the concept of punk.

I’m currently reading Taqwacores, a fictional book about a fictional Muslim punk scene which actually inspired a real life Muslim punk scene.  The author presents the argument through his characters that the belief in the idea of Islam is similar to the idea of punk.  Now, I’m not comparing a 1400 year-old worldwide religion to three chords, but I think Taqwacores in general is about how one styles one’s identity.

I have always been incredibly aware of how I wanted to be seen and recognised.  As a teenager, I hated clothes with any logo on.  Later, as I got into Anarchistic principles, I realised it’s because to boast that logo is, to me, to place a faith and a belief in that logo.  You are emblazoning a FCUK image across your chest, you must be championing that product.  You’re allowing your body to be a marketing tool.  You become a product too.  What loyalty do you have to brand names?

So it is natural I sport band t-shirts and patches as a sign that this is what I want to promote.  This is what I want you to see.  This is what I want to be associated with.  I have loyalty to ONSIND, Operation Ivy, Rancid, Spook School, The Clash, Jonny Gill etc.

Mischief Brew are one of my favourite bands.  They have a song called Punx Win which includes the lines:

♪ Creep into town,
And it's not long
Before i start to roam.
Seek out the patches on the punx,
Maybe a band I know.
I bet you in five minutes time,
We find that we know all the same
People, places, and roads.
And its not long before I start to feel,
That somehow I can never leave home.  ♫

There have been a few times I’ve struck up a conversation based on someone else’s patches, or someone has chatted to me.  Someone asked if there was a Food Not Bombs chapter in York because of my FNB patch, which allowed them to find out about the FNB efforts locally.

So sometimes I do like to think of myself as a waking billboard, plastered with patches, logos and images.  But these are all images and logo and names which I have actively sought to attach to my clothes, to paint afresh in some cases.  I want to say:  “Hey world!  Check out this band!”

I think it is important to style yourself how you choose.  I think more people should wear patches.  It adds colour and variety, it redesigns and reimagines clothing and just looks fucking cool.

You can buy my patches from my Bandcamp in their various forms.  They look great on t-shirts, hoodies, bags, jackets and socks.

There’s nothing I like better than a good afternoon spent patch-hunting.  Remember kids, patches cost pennies. Pints cost pounds.  Here are some of my favourite Etsy shops for patch-hunting:

PatchTrash

Phoenix Compost

Black Lodge Press

The Church of Hot Coffee

Lucynycal

PeachMoonDIY

DIYNostalgia

Retirementfund

20.15 Blog #4: Riot Nrrrd Tour!

A 20 min, 15 second blog

Touring is never boring

I went on tour with good friend and superb poet Jenn Hart.  I met Jenn when she came to see Letter To The Man (from the boy) in Eastleigh a few years back, and since then we’ve done a few gigs here and there and she allowed me to interview her for my podcast about punk & poetry.

After a few dates in August 2014, we decided we’d go on tour at some point in 2015.  That was as much as we’d settled on.  I put together a tour with Travels By Telephone (whose new EP is super) last year, so drew upon that experience of emails and dates flying back and forth like duelling wands.

We named it the RIOT NRRRD tour because of our love for Riot Grrrl and nerd culture.

Our first date was Nerd Hutch in Newcastle, a wicked DIY space based in Travelling Man, which aims to promote queer, feminist and nerdy voices.  As a collective, they have a great sense of friendly attitudes.  I met up with Jenn from her mega Megabus ride and we performed pieces in the shop, and set the tone for the intimate, yet relaxed tour.

Leeds was different to this chilled vibe.  Leganski & Chris Singleton’s Verbal Remedies open mic proved Leeds’ strange bubbling diversity and general loudness which proves spoken word can be affecting and energetic.

Then we hit Durham, not really knowing what to expect. I’d been to Empty Shop a fair few times for various indie-pop gigs, and we did Practise Patience back at the end of 2013.  Carlo and Alice were super lovely, and despite only having three poets for the open mic, we had a full room which proves people are more than willing to come and check out poetry and enjoy as an audience.

Harrogate was a welcome pitstop, a lovely pub with whiskeys and warm open mic where new and old faces shared their stories and poems in Tim Ellis’ open setting.

Hull’s Away With Words was interesting as always, the regular open mics with an assortment of political poems. One fellow asserted he wasn’t a chauvinist before reading a poem about ‘Tits that took over the world’ which sad very strangely alongside someone’s experiences of being trans*.  Overall proving Hull is full of vibrant characters, none so much as head honcho Jim Higo.

Then off to Edinburgh to the Forest Café, chauffeured by Travels By Telephone who delightfully joined us for the Scottish dates.  They fed up, and we headlined their open mic.  It felt a tough crowd, maybe after we’d gigged with so many rewarding audiences, but afterwards we got plenty of good vibes off people and our host Raph Lehmann took us to a cool queer disco.

Glasgow was simply divine, a really nice gig in Tchai Ovi, a little tea house with smashing food.  Audiences came-and-went throughout this matinee show which meant the energy was always moving and we met some new friends, hung out with Hugh & Pippa of Dangle Manatee and had a lovely Saturday.

Finally (after 6 hours drive) we returned to York for my own night, Say Owt Slam which I co-compare with Stu Freestone.  As always, despite the travels, Jenn smashed it and it was another sold out affair of slam-stye spoken word.

What did I learn from tour?

People can be incredibly generous and willing hosts.  The best nights and venues are the ones who treat everyone like a friend, who adhere to a DIY philosophy and make safe and accessible spaces.

I continue to learn about feminism and queer identities and challenge myself and my privilege.  I can never truly capture the voice and experiences of other peoples, but I can give those voices a platform and combat the expectations and conventions we find at poetry and arts events.

What’s next?  Well we’ll be doing a Riot Nrrrd south tour, and maybe fitting in some midlands dates.  I recorded interviews with our promoters and people we met, and hope to make a podcast for next year.

I also hope I can replay some of my friends and put them on in York with that same love they did.

Up The Nerd Punks!

20.15 Blog #1: DANCE LIKE NOBODY’S BLOGGING

The 2015 blogs are a series of articles written by me in 20 minutes and 15 seconds.

20.15 Blog #1:  DANCE LIKE NOBODY’S BLOGGING

It’s no surprise that music is a recurring theme throughout a lot of my poems.  For those of you that know me, you’ll no doubt be aware I own more band t-shrits than HMV.  The floor of my room buldges due to the weight of CDs, and my iPod is full to bursting.  It gorans and wheezes under the pressure of thousands upon thousands of songs.  My first love was punk, and then came ska.  Since then, I loved the mod music of the 60s and 70s, soul, blues, R&B and hip-hop, folk, hardcore, queer punk, rock ‘n’ roll and new wave.  Inevitably I always return to guitar music, like a cat finding sanctuary under it’s favourite grubby car.

But I want to write a little blog about dancing.  My first memories of dancing, like most, was school discos.  Cotton Eye Joe was a favoutie tune for us 90s children.  That song perhaps cemented my love for fusion music.  Hyphens galore, I love ska-punk, folk-punk, hip-hop etc. and Rednex did a odd merge of 90s dance and hillbilly.  Yeah, it never caught on, but it’s not your average pop tune either.

Me and my friends growing up never really went out for a boogie or a dance.  We used to hit old men pubs for ales, find a large table and crowd round and make up silly injokes and debate the meaning of life.

So the majority of dancing I ever did was at gigs.  Now, the first rule of punk gigs is obviously the pogo, but as I soon learned that’s an enourmous effort to maintain, and not always feasible with people slamming around you or even the low ceiling of punk dives.  The mosh pit is the second go-to style of dancing, and of course the skank is trademarked by the ska and ska-punk genres.

The Mosh Pit

I quite quickly fell out of love with pits, inevitably because of the small size of venues meant all it takes is one or two dickheads to wade in, and the pit becomes less fun and more of a battle to not get too bruised.  And let’s not forget, when all’s said and done, we’re here to see a band (at least I believe so).  I remember casually dancing along to bands like UK Subs and then some huge psycjobilly or skinhead punk would throw their weight (usually with shirt off) looking to start something.  Now, as a skinny and (traditionally) scrawny fellow I can’t keep up, and nor would I want to.

Pits should be about respect.  Respeting that not everyone is as tough as you, and therefore toning it down.  The old addage is ‘If someone falls down, you pick them up’ but I’d like to hope people only fall down in the first place, not because you shoved them.  I recall a gig with The Skints where the crowd were eager to mosh even to the most chilled out vibes.  I stopped seeing mainstream bands I liked, such as The Coral or Happy Mondays, due to drunk blokes throwing their weight around when the music didn’t call for it.  The dancing is a repsonse to the music, not a reponse to your own egocentric ideas how to behave to impress (both in the sense physcially and astonishingly).

Skanking

This is where I’m in my element.  I’m a naturaly bouncy person, my feet seem to have the talents of a Tigger (thoughy my mind at times become Eeyore).  Ska seemed eprfect for me, in fact for a long time, I could onlt ever listen to music with an off-beat tempo.  Skanking can still be intrustive, those flying kicks can hit low and high, but you can find your own space with your own groove, and there are different ways depebnding on the music of said band, and the atmosphere.  My girlfriend has a video of me somewhere dancing in the York streets after a demo to Capdown on the sound system.  Any excuse.

So why is dancing so important to me, why does it keep reappearing in my poems?  I have a whole poem about it in the form of If I can’t skank, it’s not be revolution and my tribute to Emma Goldman is partly due to her famous quote (which my poem is based from).

Well, I remmeber one of the first gigs I went to rocking out to a local band called All Sexy But Ginger, and just loving being in my own world fuelled by the chaotic tunes of ska-punk.  Physcially, I often hold msyelf close, duck down, hands in pockets, hunch over (expect when performing I hope).

That same expression is the same as whne I do a gig, and try and bring that energy.  Punk for me is partly about energy .  Bringing some passion which otherwise doesn’t exist in day-to-day life.  We are battling the day-to-day.  The mundane must be killed, so let’s fight that drudgery with some physcial movement!  And that’s why punk pits need to acknowlegde that people are finding their terms of expression, so double-check before you intrude upon them on the dancefloor.

So wap on the soul and groove those feet, listen to some psychobilly and swing those arms, get the disco blaring, head that head a’head bangin’ and see you in the pit!