14.01.12AND IT'S ONLY JANUARY
a lot on my/too much on my
/// My dear friend Francisca Goncalves is creating an exhibition on the Portugese writer and poet Fernando Pessoa. I'm hoping to help her
curate it, and will be producing rewritings of the translations of his poetry, as well as writing new poems based on
one or more of his poetic personas. The exhibition will feature work by a number of artists, music composed and performed
by Fran, and various writings by myself, Fran and others. The exhibitions will hopefully be taking place in London and Portugal
in the summer.
/// The Off Modern website has been rearranged a bit. If you wanted to, it's now easier to find a couple of my
short stories back from 2010 in the Archive under 'Literature', under the grand heading
Two Examples of an Off Modern Literature.
/// I'm writing a short story for the next issue of Playground. A few of the previous issues have been purchased by MOMA
as great examples of design OF COURSE. Congratulations to Joe Hales and Carianne Whitworth.
/// I've just taken on my first large freelance translation assignment. It's a 7,000 word essay on the history of world exploration through fiction, images
and documentary film, due the end of January.
/// I'm reading at a conference arranged by UCL PhD student and journalist Rebecca Johnson in March. I'm going to read a short paper
which I think will turn into my MA dissertation. What's it about? Gerhard Richter, Michael Hoffmann, Durs Gruenbein (old green leg),
agency, translation as commentary, nightmares, stress.
/// ...my magazine Verfreundungseffekt is getting printed NEXT MONTH. We'll be having a launch and exhibition at the end of February.
25.12.1125 // YOUNG, FRESH AND RELEVANT
Young, Fresh
and Relevant
Last week I turned 25, just thought I'd mention it. I had a great birthday. Sauna Youth were playing at the
Old Blue Last for Upset The Rhythm's Xmas party that night and I think it went down pretty well. We're playing
Power Lunches aka The Sweat Box on NYE. Liv and I hope to demo our first few songs as Feature in January.
My first ever literary translation has appeared in Issue 2 of Young, Fresh
and Relevant. It's a bilingual magazine with a few
of the pieces appearing in both German and English. I translated a very short story called Abschied/Taking Leave. The book
looks really great, I can't wait for Verfreundungseffekt to come out. I'm glad I did the translation before I started my Translation
Theory and Practice module on my MA otherwise I probably would have over thought the whole thing and never managed it, even
though it's only a paragraph long. It's a small step, but I feel proud to be a published literary translator in
any sense of the title. If you didn't already know, translating fiction and journalism is something I really want to get in to,
so it's nice when an opportunity comes up to do it. You can get a copy from the
Young, Fresh and Relevant site.
18.11.11CALLEJA TWO BANDS // VEFFEKT // IT'S ALL IN THE DELIVERY
SAUNA YOUTH at Yes Way
FINALLY I have started a new band with the spectral delight that is Liv Willars. I am drums and vox,
she guitar and vox. I haven't played drums properly since Run Red Riding Hood (and that amazing King and the
Olive Fields show playing full drums as opposed to just floor tom when Phil's nan said she thought I was amazing)
and we're talking one or two years ago. We are called
Feature. Second rehearsal tomorrow, we have written one song, I'm in love.
Liv Willars via text message: 'That was the best first practice I've ever had! Very excited for Sat. Yeeahh!'
I'm now an official member of
Sauna Youth. What does this mean? It means that my dreams have come true because I love
Sauna Youth and all the men that make up Sauna Youth. There's a new line-up, the same as the Male Bonding
show, as Reza has to continue his mind-bending studies. Rich is now permanent front-man and drummer, I am backing vox
and noise technician. We're playing a number of shows in the next few weeks.
Joe Hales will have finished designing
Verfreundungseffekt by Christmas. I cannot wait. I'm updating the blog before I go out, have a look.
We're going to launch the first (and probably only) issue in February, and today I started bugging one of
Heimat Museum to let us have an exhibition/gig for the launch at their place. I will continue to bug her Mon-Fri.
It's All in the Delivery, edited and designed by the ex-Print Editor and ex-Head Designer at Tate galleries
is now available to buy. I wrote my short story
The Cowey Relief Principle especially for it. It's about autobiographical art (and dinnertime).
09.11.11DAY OF THE DEAD
Taryn Simon at Tate Modern
I've started properly writing for my commentary/review blog
Niew View. I'm going to add a review of two art exhibitions
and a lecture this week too, wow. I entered my first collection of poetry
Receipts for the Eric Gregory Award,
I had to really. To me, the poems are far from the disparity they suggest at a glance and work satisfyingly
well as a collection. I've been wanting to get productive
and have the opportunities I knew existed and now I've moved, I'm well, I'm settled, new leaf, new life.
30.09.11SUMMER // SPRINGZINE
So the day after playing Yes Way I woke up with a migraine. By the third day after Yes Way
the pain was unbearable and I couldn't move. I ended up in hospital and had a spinal tap. Got out
of hospital, still with the migraine, and spent the next THREE WEEKS lying down with a continuous migraine,
then the odd one or two killer ones for THREE WEEKS after that. No idea why, but it meant I had no summer and
did less than nothing. Moved to London though. Matthias Scherer, who writes for
Loud & Quiet and who has contributed
to (soon to really exist)
Verfreundungseffekt is creating a zine about Bruce Springsteen, which I've written a poem for. The poem's
mainly about my migraines, but also about what
Dancing in the Dark would have sounded like if it was as
dark as its lyrics.
15.08.11NEW JOB // IT'S ALL IN THE DELIVERY // SAUNA YOUTH AT YES WAY
I'm not 'doing' my penultimate day at work today as I have my first migraine in twelve years. WOAH that
was almost like a blog post. Tomorrow is my last day ever working at American Apparel in Brighton. That job
gave me the flexibility and funds to do my internship at Tate, my MA and allowed me to do an
average job with above-average human beings, extraordinarily talented artists and musicians, who all kept me
motivated throughout my retail years (eg. Alice Dipper, Chris Pell, Megan Pearce, Stevie McCusker,
Chris Murphy (Positive Press), Fran Goncalves). Chris Pell hates poetry. My new job will be as a sort of in-house translator at the
American Apparel Headoffice in Soho mainly dealing with the online store. I'll get the afternoon off to carry on
with my MA which is rad too. We're moving back to London in two weeks, which means I'll have two weeks off
to finish and print
Verfreundungseffekt, do some writing and catch up on sun and swimming.
The ex-Print Editor and the ex-Head Designer at Tate galleries have made a new magazine called
It's All
in the Delivery, and I'm in it. I wrote a story called
The Cowey Relief Principle and made a graph (like
I was talking about before, see below) where you can follow the atmospheric and extra-narrative story conditions
alongside the story, although I'm not sure whether there was room for my graph, it will be a surprise
when I get a copy.
Yesterday Sauna Youth played Yes Way in Peckham, Upset the Rhythm's three-day music festival. I played the sampler and
sang again, this time nice and comfy at the back and I bobbed about emitting my TRUE FEELINGS. It was
too hot. I really love Prize Pets and Tense Men.
17.07.11SAUNA YOUTH AT BUFFALO BAR'S 10TH BIRTHDAY // DISTRACTIONS 2
On Thursday Sauna Youth supported Male Bonding at the Buffalo Bar, and as Reza couldn't drum that night Rich had to
drum AND sing, which he did in
spectacular fashion. This was an all-comsuming effort, so he asked me to play the sampler
and to do some backing vocals and harmonies. He told me to stay completely still and to look bored because
it would be funny, but I think it gave the impression I hated doing it. I actually always secretly hope they
want me to sing at live shows, and it's just incredibly hard to look cool and mysterious if you're standing
in front of a punk band pressing a button every minute or so. Sauna Youth have released
a new Tape,
Distractions II, which features many cool things including the False Jesii Part II cover me and Rich made.
06.07.11FIRST 'SELECTED POET' ON SELECTED POEMS // FREELANCING AT MOSAIC // TEAM ON 'IT'S NICE THAT'
This is going to be quick and brief.
I'm the first ever featured poet on the Selected Poems blog. Now most of my poetry is all grouped together with
a bio and some links to the magazines I'm affiliated with, "
have a look. I now do freelance proofreading for an
agency called
Mosaic. Proofreading is defo one of my strengths and perhaps the only thing that I find relaxing. Team magazine, which
holds my story
Basking Not Bathing On Crucifix Row within its pages, is currently being featured on
It's Nice That.
Congrats Rosie and Phil.
10.06.11TEAM MAGAZINE ISSUE ONE & LAUNCH // MADE-UP POP-UP SHOP
Team, edited by Philip Serfaty and Rosie Day
After much hard work
Team magazine has been launched. I was the first of three poets (along with Sam Riviere and Jack Underwood)
reading on the night and chose four poems (two from Playground magazine, one from No.Zine and one I'd written that day
about my brother in B&Q when we were children called 'DIY'). My story
Basking Not Bathing On Crucifix Row is
the first piece in the magazine. It is a beautiful object,
would you like one?
Reading at the magazine launch at The Duke of Uke, London
MADE-UP POP-UP SHOP will be selling little pamphlets of my poetry (with little surprises inside) this weekend. It's a limited run
of 14. Thanks RP.
22.05.11BRIGHTON FESTIVAL'S PEACOCK POETRY PRIZE // MA HALF COMPLETE // SECRET BLOG
Last week I found out that I was one of two finalists in the 20-25 age category of Brighton Festival's
Peacock Poetry Prize.
Today was the prize-giving and I was announced runner-up, PIPPED TO THE POST. Oh well, free wine and cakes,
and a strange array of token gifts equals my first step into poetry prizes. Weird that no-one got to read their
poem. The head judge was Bernadine Evaristo MBE, who has previously judged the T S Eliot Prize for Poetry and the National
Poetry Competition.
I had my last exam for the year on Friday. Freedom (full-time work but free evenings) is sweet. Start the final year
of my MA in the autumn. I now have a secret blog where I put reviews, opinion pieces and other things
not fit for an anti-blog. It's called
Niew View.
11.04.11PISSED JEANS COVER // TUMBLE PRESS // POSTGRADUATE STRESS DISORDER
Rich Phoenix and I, after over a year of trying and arguing, have made a cover. It's of the greatest song ever,
False Jesii Part II by Pissed Jeans, why don't you
HEAR IT. Many people like it.
Tumble Press, the creation of Helen Randall at Camberwell College of Art, is publishing my short story
List of Power Stations in their first writing anthology
Young & Restless coming out in June. Thanks to them and to Clinic (who posted the
call for submissions) for publishing young writers and for publishing us in a dignified way.
I have three weeks to write five thousand words on Freud's critique of religion and two a half thousand words on how
Der Blaue Reiter Expressionists were influenced by primitive, folk and children's art. After that I have to revise for exams on Elfriede Jelinek's novel
Die Liebhaberinnen, and Dada photomontage. I probably don't seem outwardly stressed, but I am internally constantly
tense and it is exhausting.
23.03.11V&A READING ROOMS TAKEOVER BY SELECTED POEMS // SHEBANG ZINE LAUNCH
A month has not gone by when I haven't mentioned bloody
Selected Poems, the passionate poetry blog created by Alex MacDonald;
one of three people who got me into taking writing poetry seriously. It started off as a way of recording a
weekly writing challenge for Alex, Sam Riviere and myself, but it turned out that a poem a week is impossible even
for professionals. Instead, more poets stepped in to fill our long pauses, and before you know it, a space had been
created for young poets to throw a poem in here and there amongst Alex's thoughts and finds. The news is that, after
a meeting with the V&A last week, they're going to give Alex and Selected Poems their own poetry night once a
month starting in May in the V&A Reading Rooms. Congratulations to Alex, and hopefully
you'll get to see many of the poets featured on the blog reading at the V&A from this summer.
Next week, Wednesday 30th March, the once-Brightonian club night Eagle Legs put on by the duo behind Shebang zine is
launching at the Macbeth in London. And, I'm DJing at it. Weird. I'm pairing up with Liam O'Neill under the banner of Off Modern.
If things go to plan, the new issue of Shebang will also be in attendence, freshly printed for you to buy. Inside is
my review of the Lucian Freud retrospective accompanied by an illustration by Rich Phoenix, you can buy the new issue here.
15.02.11PLAYGROUND 5 OUT // NO.ZINE 4/5/6 OUT
Poor Peacock in Issue 6
I'm in all of these amazing things. Designed by Joe Hales and innovatively edited by Carianne Whitworth who took over my
internship at Tate,
Playground has a sweet Z-fold, is risograph printed in blue and orange and has had rave reviews.
No.Zine is critically acclaimed and probably the best way to spend the contents of your zine-account (until issue 1 of
Verfreundungseffekt comes out).
01.02.11*(O)
For PP's birthday last August I wanted to get a record by one of his favourite bands, Veronica Falls.
I obviously left it too late, so thought I'd settle for, you know, covering one of their songs with ex-members
of Fall of Efrafa and Seven Arrows in Your Bastard Heart (Stevie McCusker on bass, Wes Goatley on guitar and mixing,
and me drumming and singing). We recorded it at their old, cold house The Black Lodge, and it has found its way
onto the internet:
Jen Calleja and the Gentlemen
24.01.11YEAR'S NOT LONG
Whole year of the anti-blog has happened. I got a nice little mention in
Loud & Quiet just before Christmas
as Sauna Youth got Tape of the Year. It includes (pretty much is entirely) 'beautiful short story' and 'young writer Jennifer Calleja'.
It's small but it's quite life-affirming. I got my two essays in, which is an eighth of my MA done.
I'm moving back to London in August. That's all the news. Oh, and I went to R M Phoenix's first solo exhibition
at AND/OR gallery on Mare Street, round the corner from London Fields station. It's on until the 3rd February. His works
are sparse and subtle, or confrontational and heavy. I'm annoyed that someone from Modern Painter magazine bought the one I love that
channels Van Doesburg. It's like De Stijl for adults.
22.12.1024
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
If the flat will be this cold for the next few weeks, I won't be able to write either 'The construction of
mid-nineteenth century American nationhood in the fiction of Nabokov and the fantasy of Disney' or 'Embodiment in Thomas Mann's
Der Zauberberg'. It's literally as simple as that. When I am writing I want to be writing stories, or diaries, or taking
photos (I don't love photography, but I haven't taken a photo in over six months) or drawing or editing or reading. I'm used to production guilt,
especially the kind when you think about doing stuff and end up doing nothing to give your brain a rest. The next
issue of Playground includes three of my poems (
Tash and Teeth :
I Tried :
Daring to Share), I wish I'd got some work
in for the Clinic poetry competition but the deadline clashed with my two-day birthday. The next three issues of No.Zine,
one piece of my poetry or short fiction per issue, is back from the printers.
01.12.10SELECTED POEMS, RECEIPTS and SAM RIVIERE
My poem
Getting Myself a Walk which I read at Ladyfest Ten is on
Selected Poems. Many ongoing thanks to Sam Riviere
who has been reading over some of my writing for a small collection of my work called
Receipts.
I appreciate Sam's efforts to help me. This isn't the right space to discuss his work, but his poetry has what
I want in others' and my own poems: a command of attention, ironic ambiguity, gentle human absurdity, a wholly real person
standing behind it.
28.11.10SAUNA YOUTH IN-DEPTH on FUTURESOUNDSTEMPORARY
'This platform traverses the profane to the divine'
I'm a 'mad storyteller'. Stephen Smith has deconstructed and analysed SY all the way. Me along with them.
I wonder if he knows that the creator of the 'bizarre transcendental backing vocals' that sound like an 'angelic choir
reaching out towards God' and the writer of a story with 'masturbatory beginnings' and a 'fluid, spewing ending that sticks
like hard matter to your mind' were one and the same person. I've previously appeared in SY's press as
'an aquaintance' and as a 'girlfriend', so thanks for giving me a name and everything. Click above for the full
feature and to hear the recording of
List of Power Stations.
15.11.10VERFREUNDUNGSEFFEKT CONTRIBUTORS
Still from Lindsay Corstorphine's Berlin documentary 'Living Ultra' featured in the magazine and up on the
blog.
All the submissions are in for Issue 1, now we just have to do them justice. The blog's where stuff's always
happening by the way. The following excellent contributors will feature in the first magazine: Amadeus Gregor Böhm,
Amy Quayle, Gordon Macrae, Hanni Leisek, James Deavin, Joe Hales, Josephine Porath, Kat Mammone, Lindsay Corstorphine,
Matthias Scherer, Norbert Schmidt, R. M. Phoenix, Rich Phoenix, Sarah Cotterell, Simon Marsham, Mary Douglas and Wes Goatley.
09.11.10READ DIRTY TO ME at LADYFEST TEN // TEAM MAGAZINE
Read Dirty to Me: Josephine Porath, Laura Tenschert and Laura Jung.
I'll be reading some of my work as part of
Ladyfest Ten with the Read Dirty to Me group this Saturday at
Holloway Resource Centre, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA, Seminar Room 2. Nearest tube is Holloway Road, event's running 2.30-3.30.
Here's a short and sweet interview with Read Dirty to Me by
For Book's Sake.
I've sent off a short story about building a row of giant crucifixes in the sea for the first issue of
Team magazine which has, up to now, had submissions that are beyond incredible from artist
R. M. Phoenix, photographer
Andreas Lazlo Konrath,
photographer Tom Hall and the guys from
Variable 4.
05.10.10IT'S ALL IN THE DELIVERY (TATE) // READ DIRTY TO ME (THE ITCH) // LUMBERS
The reading I have to do for my MA is sometimes hard to get a hold on, I admit that.
I've started drawing as a way of understanding a certain aspect of what's being said in a
visual way. These are based on Rachel Whiteread's drawings (see above). Using graph and tracing paper effectively transforms the ordinary into
something logical and precise, makes it comfortably authoritative, and can turn a thousand words acting as a thousand twists in a dark
labyrinth into something suddenly universally understandable. Back in April I mentioned turning stories into tabulation like sheet music, and for Tate galleries'
Design and Print department's new publication
It's All in the Delivery I've written a story accompanied by a graph on which you
can follow unwritten factors alongside the story itself. My story
List of Power Stations which was previously performed at the
Read Dirty To Me night put on by The Itch has been chosen for publication in their upcoming zine and is
also on Sauna Youth's blog if you missed out on getting their Mad Mind tape. I'm currently writing a poem for the next Read
Dirty To Me night, and maybe I'll get to read it this time.
Lumbers aka Wes and Henry have released their EP Nacht und Nebel. I sing on the second half of their track
The Grand Inquisitor Part I.
28.09.10MA GERMAN STUDIES at UCL
A typical seminar.
So, I've started my MA. It's in Language, Culture and History with a focus on everyone's favourite foreign language. This term
I'm taking Theoretical Issues in History and Literature on Wednesdays and Reading Modern German Novels on Fridays. Next term will be
Classic Traditions in Society and Culture on Weds and Modern German Art on Fris. Second year, who knows. The course will be half
theory-based and half German, with a lot of crossovers. In a way knowing a language is like knowing a complex secret,
and some people are still hostile to foreign languages because they are mistrustful and aggressively curious of a secret they don't know.
Wanting to know a language has to do with being included in an exclusive way, I can't deny that. For me, it mostly comes
down to communicating and expressing for both personal and nostalgic reasons. When you discover that there are phrases or words in
another language that express a feeling or sentiment perfectly in a way you can't in your own language, it's like finding
another part of your personality or feeling a wave of relief that you can get something off your chest. For some reason,
I have an affinity for German.
There will be works of literature, poetry, essays and articles which could touch the lives of millions which will never be read
because of the lack of funding going into translation and the promotion of foreign (non-American/British) art and culture. Organisations such
as
English PEN do the kind of work I want to go into, and I hope I'll eventually find work as part of writing/translation charities and/or
in art galleries in a curating role while still having the time to continue my own writing. Learning a language
is hard and never ends, but it's a real challenge. I want to be able to talk with my closest German friends in their own
language without having to slip back into English.
It will help me be better at foreign languages, a better art-maker, and more aware of who I am and what
I do in the world.
27.08.10VERFREUNDUNGSEFFEKT ISSUE ONE SUBMISSION CALL // OM JOURNAL TWO
Verfreundungseffekt will be a German-English language magazine exploring German identity and culture in relation to other
cultures. We are currently looking for writing, photography and design contributions for our first issue. Pieces can be of any length, on any
subject and in any genre, so long as they are regarding the general theme. We would like pieces in either English or German,
or even a mix of both.
The deadline for submissions is
November 1st 2010.
If you have any questions, or would like to contribute, email me at:
jenniferannecalleja@hotmail.com
The second Off Modern journal is well on its way. Writing lock-down is September 5th. I'll have two pieces appearing
in its pages, and I've started proofing and editing the other submissions. The guys are going on a mini tour to
Paris and Japan, taking their pet band Fiction with them. Work hard, play harder.
12.08.10SAUNA YOUTH 'MAD MIND' CASSETTE RELEASE
4.50 postpaid from
Suplex Cassettes
Sauna Youth's newest release is 'Mad Mind' on Suplex Cassettes. Side A features NEGATIVE OBSESSIONS, MY GOLD'S BANGLA and
MILD MILD HORSES. The B side is the recording of my short story
List of Power Stations read by SY's Rich Phoenix with
music by Jonny Hill.
Vice gave it 9/10. Congrats The Forest/The Prince/The Bird and 323.75.
The release was an all ages show at the Hanover Community Centre in Brighton with SY headlining, supported by Daniel Wakeford, The Sticks
and Cold Pumas. No alcohol, only tea, juice and Coca Cola. Double microphone made it double sure to hear my MY TEENAGE MY TEENAGE
MY TEENAGE SUMMERRRRRRs on their last song of the evening.
20.07.10RUDE BRITANNIA AT TATE BRITAIN // TWICE-BAKED SELECTED POEMS
David Shrigley © Tate
If you read about the Rude Britannia exhibition in the Tate Guide/on Tateonline/in the Rude Britannia exhibition pamphlet you
probably died of cringing. I wrote that, they wanted it to be like that, it tells you stuff with exclamation marks
on the end. Mildly funny (punny). Proud.
I have two more poems up on
Selected Poems. I wrote
Schoolboy On A Bed, In A Bedsit from notes I
made walking around the Lucian Freud retrospective in Paris last month. The title refers to the appearance of Freud in
my poem
Bacon Sandwich which was half about the Francis Bacon retrospective at Tate Britain a couple of year's before and
half about body dysmorphic disorder. There was a photo of a shy Freud, legs protectively crossed, recoiling from the camera sitting
on Bacon's bed. You can read that poem on the left, it first appeared in
Smiths in my last year at Goldsmiths.
The second poem is called
Unterwegs, is about band rehearsals, and was previously published in
No.Zine.
17.07.10we live in WONDERROOMS
© Sarah Cotterell
In the summers we eyed folks hunting for those ad-ver-tised
bottles of water on the neighborhood. It drove us to
sing out, call out to eachother, to the people.
We wished them luck, checked if we could sip from
the grail too. The winters made us quiet, hushed up
our mouths. No one looked for nothing, it was all
here, all your questions answered, the most simple things out
of reach til the roads opened up again. The billboards
were just postcards from places we were sure weren't anywhere
at all.
JC.
I've moved in with Sarah Cotterell. Sarah just graduated with
a First in Photography from Brighton University and we want to make a foto-word book called
Wonderroooms, she foto,
me words (see above).
05.06.10AMUSE-BOUCHES
READ DIRTY TO ME // WHITHER THE WILL // THE CHAIRS
This week The Itch presented the first Read Dirty To Me at the Vintage Emporium and Tearooms on Bacon Street, London;
a night for young poets and writers to read their own works inspired by 'transgression, indulgence and regression'. My short story
List of Power Stations maps out the day of a professor living and working with escalating hypersexuality in a society where
his condition is understood and accepted. It was kindly read and recorded by
Richard Phoenix for a one-off performance on
the night in my absence, but will also appear in the forthcoming Read Dirty To Me zine alongside works by
other writers, some of which also read on the night. See
Time Out for details.
The first draft of the play (working-title
Whither The Will) for next year's Edinburgh Fringe is done. You know how
much I heart Absurdists, and Ionesco's existential black-comedy
The Chairs at this year's Brighton Fringe had everything I wanted it
to have: hysteria, imaginative direction and loads-a-chairs. Plus THE ORATOR. Best of all was the musical direction, and Vicky
Tremain's soundwork was pretty much exactly what I'd like for my play. Drone-tinkle-heartbeat-anxiety.
13.05.10SAUNA YOUTH 7" 'YOUTH'
LEARN MORE AND GET IT
HERE. Handsome boy band known for erotic dancing. My vocals are on WEIRD FRICTION, BIG BOBBLES
and (personal obsessive favourite) E2 BANG BANG, but NOT on DES ANIMAUX. I am Harper Ecke.
12.05.10DO IT DONE IT
Theo Van Doesburg © Tate
Did some eerie singing for a track
Demian Ouspensky's getting released under the name Lumbers. Gibs Frecknall's proposal
for the Edinburgh Fringe has been shortlisted and if it gets accepted I'll get to write a play for her to direct for the
festival.
Everything's come along at once:
// Finish writing for the Read Dirty To Me zine, presented by The Itch
// Start writing for second
Off Modern journal
// Write 10 minute version of the play
// Get something together for
Shebang magazine
//
Selected Poems, what?
19.04.10Tabulation Project
Going to make my stories into tabs like this. Big pen or bleach and ink drawings. I think I have a touch of synesthesia.
25.03.10Off Modern Journal Now Available on OffModern.com 
Get them while they're hot.
It's Nice That like it too.
23.03.10Off Modern Journal Launch at the ICA
I helped edit this.
24.02.10No.Zine in Grafik // Showing off for Sauna Youth
Patrick Fry's
No.Zine is featured in
Grafik this month. In addition to my pieces in issues 2 & 3, I'll have work appearing in 4, 5 & 6.
My short story
The Binding Reach that's on Off Modern's website can also be seen on
Sauna Youth's blog under my pseudonym Harper Ecke.
I like that on different parts of the net it's either Off-Modernist fiction or a joke. That's cool, right. I also like how banjo is spelled 'bango' on
SY's version. If you click on 'showing off' you can hear Sauna Youth's own example. The band will be on tour as of tomorrow, and so will my
voice, via sampler. I wrote the story after coming across some guy randomly on wikipedia, and made stuff up about him. He found out (see above).
13.02.10King and the Olive Fields EP Release Party // Extra-Marital Singing
Philip Zavier Serfaty and Gordon John Fairbairn Macrae.
Though I moan about it, I love playing for Phil. The launch at the Duke of Uke was wonderful. We had a big dance afterwards.
Now Gordon Macrae's back in the country we've started rehearsing again, trying to work out a two-piece set up as Hipster Olympics.
We pulled it off at a show at the Deptford Arms last year as Run Red Riding Hood, and we never got over how high it made us feel. It was our first gig
on our own, Laura had laryngitis, and we didn't want to back out of the show at the last minute. We'd programmed Macrae's drum machine a few hours
earlier, and we sat on a low sofa side by side deliberating whether we should go on at all. I wore Liz Marsh's best dress, and my glasses. Gordon broke
a string in the first minute, and slickly picked up one of the other band's guitars, while I jumped around singing and shrieking. I walked into
the audience and kissed Liz on the face during the last chorus of 'Plus Tax' just before the line inspired by her. Dellow said I was I was a 'female Jarvis
Cocker'. It's good to bunny hop and sing, scream and smash cymbals, especially if people think you're making a fool out of yourself. We were grateful
that so many of our friends came, and enjoyed us freaking out. The keyboardist from Woe asked me to join them onstage to smash the cymbals. We
all ended up at the Bunker Club. Weird that I'd only started singing six months before because I started absent-mindedly humming a harmony while
Laura was singing one rehearsal, and Macrae pointed at me and said 'Keep doing that'.
I've lent my voice to Sauna Youth.
26.01.10TATE Photos // Faber & Faber Poet Sam Riviere Joins Selected Poems
Copyright James Deavin 2010
At TATE I'm editing and writing copy, assisting photographer James Deavin plan and do shoots at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and I'm
now photo editing his photos of the Collection for the Tate Online revamp. I'm in a few of them, and I took a few of them. Here's me staring
down some Kapoor, and a sneaky photo of James glaring vorticism in the face.
I'm behind on my poem a week already. Sam Riviere, whose first collection of poetry is being published by Faber & Faber (and who drums
in a sick band called Le Tetsuo) is joining Alex and I on the weekly poetry struggle.
15.01.10Alex MacDonald - Selected Poems
A.M. by J.C.
I'm accompanying the poet Alex MacDonald to write a poem or at least a verse a week from now on
to be displayed on his blog
Selected Poems. I'm hoping to comment on Alex's work as the weeks go on and look forward to having
him as an editor of my own work. He encouraged me to start reading and writing poetry a few years ago, and I continue to be
inspired by his enthusiasm and talent. He is exceptional. My first offering is up on
Selected Poems.
12.01.10King and the Olive Fields EP
1. Fireworks
2. Postcards
3. Paris/New York
4. My Heart is a Disposable Camera
5. Little Dog
Fireworks is our debut EP and to celebrate its release we've lined up plenty of wonderful shows, including an already highly
anticipated release party at The Duke of Uke ukulele shop off of Bricklane, where our handsome frontman works away his weekends.
Come along, enjoy the company of us Olive Fields, and pick up the record.
31.12.09HNY RP
Poor Peacock 2009
Biro and Gel pen on paper, collage.
For Rich Phoenix.
