Monkeyrack Montage
RON BAKER: I'd say my main influences were Samuel Beckett, George Orwell and Spike Milligan. I write in two styles - When angry, 'real life fiction', seriously pissed off with the whole human race and when not angry, 'real life friction', seriously trying to make people laugh.
MOLLIE BAXTER: You can often find me wandering round short story anthologies with a flask and a packet of biscuits. Currently making crumbs with Flannery O'Connor, Chandler, Sam Shepard. For longer stake-outs I like Susan Hill, Patrick McGrath, Sarah Waters, Wilkie Collins, Daphne du Maurier, Sansom...
NORMAN HADLEY: I like outdoor curmudgeons Jim Perrin & A. Wainwright, or craftsmen of the taut, political paragraph from Levin to Freedland. As a nipper, I was steeped in the peculiarly English wit and erudition of Flanders and Swann with a good glug of Douglas Adams.
SARAH FISKE: Is an ex Soho waitress, pig-farmer and literacy researcher who has spent the last ten yearrs as a writer and creative writing tutor. She co-runs Lancaster Spotlight Club with Ron Baker.
JO POWELL: Journalist, Crime Writer and Pygmy goat owner.
SIMON UNSWORTH: Tentacles.
RON SCOWCROFT:Blake is the poet who stays relevant, who challenges. I read Larkin if I want a master class in economy and structure, U.A. Fanthorpe for her humanity and gentle wit, Robert Lowell when I need a reminder of how it really should be done.
BASIL RANSOME-DAVIES: Since my central interest as a fiction writer lies in transgressive acts and problematic heterosexual liaisons I write about crime and the dark side of romance. I have learnt important lessons about writing from Poe, Crane, Joyce, Hemingway, Greene, Chandler, among others.
Monkeyrack Writers have been meeting weekly for words, wine, beer and cake for six years or so.
They started coagulating in Atticus, a pokey little second-hand bookshop tucked away in Lancaster, where they called themselves 'Atticus Writers', ate dry biscuits, drank cheap wine and read their novels, stories and poems to each other: things they'd just written, or things shoved in the bottom drawer, to the warble of the coffee machine - and the rumble of the kitchen ceiling caving in periodically.
Unfortunately, Atticus had to close down (nothing to do with the writers, these things happen, they just happened to be there, it just happened that way, see?). At least Atticus didn't turn into another chain coffee shop, but, for a while at least, it became a bead shop: 'Blue Bird Beads,' so that was something, even though the writers had lost their home. And so they took to the streets.
For a while, disheveled, wild-eyed, they wandered like Nomads... well, not quite like Nomads... no camels or tents or any of that sort of thing. They tried to settle at the Ring O'Bells, upstairs in an unsettling room that barely fitted the huge round poker table and Christmas tree, let alone six people... who were soon to become seven. This had nothing to do with pregnancy. However, no sooner had their numbers grown than the Ring O'Bells proceeded to change hands more often than a sweaty guy in a celidh. things wre beginning to crumble so they needed to find somewhere else to hang out.
Over the next couple of years, they settled up at Basil's place, up there on the Monkey Rack, Belle Vue Terrace and took on a new name: Monkeyrack. Some of them spelled it wrong, some of them didn't spell it at all. Who cared? Basil had been known to put a pinny on and Bake things and these writers liked cake. Particular favourites were the gooseberry meringue tartlets, although many prefered the obliterated-against-the-wall-by-chocolate ones. Anyway, if you wanted to sound like you had a refined palette whilst eating one of Basil's creations, you just had to go, 'Ah... do I detect... Cointreau?' You'd usually be right and everyone would nod approvingly. It looked good for awhile...
Nothing good lasts forever, least of all cake. Basil's place became off limits. (Not because of the writers - they just happened to be there...) they scattered and ran and now they meet furtively in the Sun Hotel, which, by the grace of the gods, sometimes puts on free cake - one of their first meetings there was on Mardi Gras night. Mmm! Free cake with coins in! What more could a writer want?
And to prove they meant business they published their first anthology, 'Monkeyrack' in the autumn of 2006 and are recklessly preparing a second collection to be turned loose in 2009.
Electric Free Time Machine celebrate the launch of their debut album: ’mystery with hermit foil’ with a gig at the Yorkshire house in Lancaster.
ELECTRIC FREE TIME MACHINE - Lancaster
recent sound carriers for Damo Suzuki:From fast and bulbous blues stomps and vast experimental krautrock ambient strangeness, to abrasive shambolic metal, strange time shifts and delicate acoustic folk. www.myspace.com/eftm
albums at a special launch price of £4...so thats £5 for an amazing night of music and a brand spanking new bespoke embossed digipack album...have mercy
Monday 20th October 7.30pm Matt and Phred's, Tib St, Manchester
Your queer vegan poet host DOMINIC BERRY presents brand spanking new Poetry Performance from some of Manchester's rising poetry stars
SHIRLEY MAY ... the legendary star of Manchester's stunning speakeasy night, Shirley May was winner of the North West Poetry Slam in October '99 and then part of the successful North West poetry tour SISTA TALK. As a performer, mentor, poet and spokesperson, Shirley is a true inspiration.
RACHAEL K ... an intensely moving and deep artist, Rachael K has become known as a multi instrumentalist, singer, actress and skilled crafter of words, however this set will be focusing on her exceptionally stirring spoken word works. An exploration of trans identity in the city, this provocative and emotional performance is not to be missed.
MIA DARLONE ... hilarious comic performer coming to POETS AND MASH fresh from her successful show 'Below the Belt', creator of such characters as Cockney Rhyming Slag and the flirty therapist, Mia's work is very funny and very insightful. Quickly building a strong reputation across both the comedy and poetry circuits, a show from Mia will always entertain.
Proving Art and Entertainment can be one, POETS AND MASH is an evening of love, laughter and lyrical language. Artists already established on Manchester's thriving poetry circuit take new work to a new night that examines and explores the depths of city lives. Expect a stimulating yet accessible marrying of page and theatre.
POETS AND MASH presents to you some of the most exciting spoken word artists in Manchester today. Not to be missed!
Portable Pixel Playground comes to Carnforth station
Saturday 18th October 2008, 11am-4pm,
Carnforth Station (Furness and Midland Hall), Carnforth, Lancashire
This October, the Portable Pixel Playground comes to Carnforth, and the Furness and Midland Hall at Carnforth Station. The Portable Pixel Playground is an amazing new play space for all ages created by artists working with digital technology.
A bit like an adventure playground, a bit like a work of art, and a bit like a computer game, the playground has been designed to allow young people (and inquisitive adults!) to use everyday technologies in fun and creative ways, providing them with new, interactive and hands-on experiences of art and technology.
Hey! Greetings from Berlin! - the weather has been great!
If you would like to see some of the pieces from my recent show (some of which are still up for sale) please see my blog. (www.showmesomeart.blogspot.com)
