Dreams of a Dead Man

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!