And then...

And then I hit Canberra... and thought about things....

Yeah nothing like a bit o poets interacting n talkin shiiiii...

Spending the day with amazingly super nice fellah Andrew Galan and humbling, peering-at-you-over-glasses-while-stroking-beard type guy Doubting Thomas has been a reflective thing.

Just the other day I posted about the elitist and pompous view of some poets. I rallied for success and achievement. I wanted to bring out the point that it's okay to search for meaning in your poetry, to see it reflected in an audience through their shared laughter, sadness, anger, pride etc etc

But I'm no good with blogs

and I got all second-guessiveness on it. (Shakespeare made up words too ma faaarkaaaa)

I really can't help but acknowledge that life's not all black n white.

Basically I'm trying to be as good a poet as I can be, while still having fun with it.

And that's the most important thing. You gotta have fun in your art, your life, your soul and mind.

I want to effectively bring things to a stage that I believe showcase me, my home, my heart, my friends and family, my world.

But please oh god please I don't want to be like THEM...

you know the ones?

The Lleyton Hewitts of Slam? The ones who pump the air when they get a 10 and pace the sides of the stage in an embarrassing display of... um... dick head.

But I'm really not up for the whole avant-garde, John Cage kinda I'm-gonna-stand-on-stage-and-be-really-artistic-dont-you-see-how-artistic-I-am thing.

So where does that leave me?

Wherever I am that makes me enjoy my time as an artist to be honest.

And if that means making crowds laugh and cry and cheer than so be it. I don't really enjoy confused stares and sneers. But I do enjoy challenging audiences. Poems that you can hear a pin drop. An uncomfortable silence. And then juxtaposing that with a piece that leaves you roaring.

If you've seen me perform I would hope you would say it's not all fluff and glitter.

Let's face it though:

It can, and has, already been done.

Slam's 30 years old... Poetry's OLDER. Spoken word is ANCIENT.

I'm not anything special. But I'm totally me and unique (he whispers to himself in his pillow at night... sob...)

I'm a broken record that's been playing since oral stories of Jagera elders. Since Greek theatre and colosseum's crumbled.

And I'm also some dude from Brisbane who wants to blow up stages.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Darkwing Dubs. Embrace it.

Yearly breakdown, break it down!

Oh my my... so I told you I was no good at keeping up with this stuff eh? Very unprofessional they tsk... but seriously... I'm just not good at writing all this out and sometimes it just becomes me venting or talking shit and I do enough of that on stage.

But anyway. What's happening?How's your 2012 going? Oh that's good/bad. Oh my.

Well I toured Melbourne last year. Hip hooray. Very successful according to feedback. I like doing shows more than I like writing in blogs because that way you can actually kinda know who I am. I'm a stage person. I like to move. To imbue meaning through words and action. Written poetry is very hard for me because it leaves out that part of the game that I like: the expression.

So this year, after doing woodford and melbourne, I'm going to go for big things.

No I'm not trying to take over the world pinky. But I would like to reach as many people with as many stories as possible.

I love Tim Minchin see? And Roald Dahl. And Ursula K. Le Guin.

The reason I bring them up is because you can watch or read anything by them and it is at once easily accessible and yet thought provoking (OK for Le Guin fans I know that some of her sci fi is incredibly dense and an acquired taste, but that's beside the point).

So I want to play smart, get active, and move crowds. Sounds easy but it's not.

And some poets out there, even some of my friends, love to raise their nose and say that's like selling out, it's like compromising your art, it's like, just not poetry man...

Well I find that point of view not only incredibly boooooooooooring but fuckin ironic. You see, to want to be great, you have to acknowledge certain things within yourself. You have to peer at yourself in the mirror and say "well, what are you going to say that's just SOOOO fuckin special mate? Who's going to want to hear YOU speak?"

And those questions leave you with answers you never thought were there. Nor ever considered before.

But when artists say "I DON'T DO THIS" or "I only do paid gigs" (that's always one for a chuckle) or "that's too easy... ohhh look at how difficult and thought provoking I am." You're placing limitations on yourself and your art. What you're actually saying is "I'm so far up my own arse to give a fuck what an audience thinks, their intelligence, their capability of holding meaning, joy, and all things art related." You're admitting you're an up yourself tosser who would rather be the fuckin elite.

"You didn't GET my poem? oh, poor YOU..."

So that's why I'm going to go to Canberra this week and blow up BAD SLAM! NO BISCUIT! on Wednesday 15th Feb, with my good friend Doubting Thomas.

That's why I'm going to perform in the installation art of Julie-Anne Milinski, the staircases, the elevator and the street corner at Metro Arts this Saturday (18th Feb) night for BEAF.

That's why when JAM JAR Poetry Slam (26th Feb) comes along I'm going to do my best to entertain, provoke and lift my game. Move. Engage the stage. Create great things through words. Because when you do that you're saying "I care about my audience and I want to give you the best. I want to tell you a story I find important. And most of all, I'm going to have a ball doing it. Because I love it and it's fun."

And I'll get paid bugger all, be out of pocket, be hungry and be lost for where to go next. And I will fail. I'll do really lame stuff. And I'll do stuff that I don't think is that good but people will like it.

I WILL TAKE RISKS!

And I'll love every step on this starving path.

And there might be dragons!

Welcome to 2012.

Jumping rainclouds

Armidale, your heart is cold but your beds are warm.

Just did a series of pieces for Beyond Empathy in Armidale and their Just One Less program. You can check out the vid here. I'm one of the first artists to get involved with their work so far, so make sure you show them some love! Check their youtube account out (again) for some of their other work, they're doing some pretty forward thinking arts stuff and it's all amazing!

It was great to hang with some old Armidalien mates and get up to mischief in this small town. It's got to be one of the most picturesque and beautiful places in the country. Cold but. BRRRrrrrrrrrr.

In a small moment

I’m not trying to tell you what to do but...

You’ve gotta make something bigger than yourself

In a small moment.

You’ve gotta see the moon through the eye of a needle

and splash oceans when jumping puddles

You’ve gotta give the finger to meteors who just wanna

rain on your parade

You’ve gotta take a shot and

pin robin hood to the fuckin tree

Dip your fingers in a bubbling pot of

make believe

and lick the bowl clean

Be sated.

You’ve gotta make something bigger than yourself in a small moment.

Hand David a small rock

and teach him how to throw it

Make a deal with Medusa just so you can taste her venom.

Ask him if he knows where god is

Ask her if she’s spoken to father time

You gotta tell a scientologist “hey man, you might be right…”

and ask jesus to fix that wobbly leg on your dining table

you gotta rewind a melody secretly hopin you will

hear the devil speakin.

You’ve gotta make something bigger than yourself

In a small moment.

Tell him you love him like the mountains love to caress clouds

Tell her she makes you believe in

porn again

Stick a toothpick in the earth and move mountains

Move a tongue and move history

shoot epiphanies out of clichés and rock the walls with a slingshot

You gotta perceive love in a sentence

hate in a question mark

read between the lines

but burn the fuckin paper nonetheless.

You’ve gotta make something bigger than yourself

In a small moment.

DWD 2011

Jumping waterfalls!

Wallaby Ck Fest made me remember why life is for living for another year. My 3rd year at Wallaby Creek and the festival's tenth anniversary, what a blast.

Bands like Kooii and Barons of Tang are a fundamentally vital part of Australian music. (Also: everything else that was there.) I've got a real soft spot for those guys n gals, we've done the festival together for a couple of years and it was great to jam again. Poets and musicians jamming, it works beautifully. It's called songwriting fools! Ha.

So anyway: waterfalls, streams, trees, forest, butterflies... you get it?

Jumping rainbows man!

The last few weeks have been a surreal and impressive series of events squished into my soul.

First off, please know - I effin love these guys. Yeah, the ones to the left there on the page. They're awesome.

Although I will humbly admit the hairy one and the female one are a bit more impressive than me.

WE, yes WE as BRC went to Canberra recently for the first national Australian Poetry Slam summit. We got to hang out heaps and do guerrilla poems on the streets of Canberra with random beatboxing kids called SlimTim.

Oh, and then the poets arrived.

It was great to perform and be a part of workshops with heaps of amazing Australian poets as well as Ken Arkind and Jive Poetic from the States.

If you wanna know what's happening with slam over the next few years, well we're gonna have a few extra rounds for the finals in Sydney. And that's really it!

It puts us in a bit of a good spot with similar rules as the states, which - it was talked briefly about - could tie in with the Oz contingent for future international slam things.

Dated 1832

Smooth sailing

down the coastline

scurvy and chlamydia in plentiful supply

We will take the head back

to England

for display

Fortune shine on us

there may be a few in for a hunt!

Those eyes when we entered the channel

Falling whispers

Otherwise smooth sailing

down the coastline