A great week this week, not least due to the present I bought my wife, and which eventually turned up after being waylaid by the post – an internet radio! Now I can see your faces. You’re all thinking, a present for the wife indeedy… But she was delighted – she always wanted one of those world receivers, but this is better – you can go from Afghanistan to USA with the click of a button and back again, great stuff.
But for me, it was the trip down memory lane that did it. I can now listen to BBC radio, and realized middle age had hit me with a bang when I started listening to Radio 2. I liked it. I mean, I really liked it. It was just like Radio One twenty five years ago – same music, same slots, same banter. I feel like twenty again. I also wondered what I’d been listening to for the last twenty years – not much new there, I’m afraid. Oh god, they’re playing XTC now – teenage heaven (or was it hell?).
I’ve been busy revising some of my stuff for submissions – a torturous process made a little more bearable by modern technology. I film myself reading poems using my netbook’s webcam, and then listen for the chinks in the poem – my wife thinks the films are hilarious. I’m still too shy to put one up, but I may at some date if I think you’re deserving of this torture.
Which always brings me back to that old aged question – is it any good? In Japan we went to a gallery and saw some paintings by someone who’d died recently. They were somewhat mediocre, but our reaction was a little embarrassing as the man’s widow was also there, unbeknown to us. She told us her husband worked every day for at least fifteen hours a day. Now you may think, what a waste, but on the other hand, what is the alternative? I mean, doesn’t it just go to show that at least art, even mediocre art, keeps you off the streets doing silly things to innocent passerbyes. Look at me – I didn’t go out and get into trouble, instead I sat down and wrote a poem about it. You can read it here.
I don’t believe it – they’re playing Dexy’s Midnight Runners.
Other good news this week? The volcanic cloud passing over North Europe. My commiserations to all affected travellers, but I live near to Hamburg airport, and it’s wonderfully quiet at the moment!
April 22, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Taping is a good idea, I use a small recorder. Helps you detect problems that you wouldn’t find otherwise.
April 22, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Reading stories out loud, as well as poems, helps massively with editing, but I find it really hard work on the old voice.
April 16, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Andrew,
Glad that you are feeling better.
I think that the internet radio is a wonderful idea, although it sounds as if you are enjoying it as much as your wife. Ha! “Come on Eileen!”
I think that the idea of taping yourself is perfect. I used to tell my students to read everything that they wrote aloud. It’s the best way to find flow problems, clunky word selections, etc. That being said, I don’t know that I would ever be able to post a video of myself as I hate my voice.
April 16, 2010 at 3:49 pm
My voice is terrible – sounds as if I’m squeaking through my nose. On top of that, on a webcam I look like a boiled potato with a pair of glasses. The poems sound okay, though.
Cheers,
Andrew