in search of the blah blah bar!
i like a good spoken word gig just like the next person. so when i knew for certain that it wasn't some sort of creul prank and i was actually going to go on a ten week trip with my family to at least nine amazing countries of which i had only been to two before, i was extatic!
my first move was to search for spoken word events in all of the countries we would be at for more than three days. spoken word, for some, conjures up the thought of a poetry only zone and that has been the case at some points of time i suppose. however i consider thegenre to include all sorts. sure there is a lot of poetry in the mix, from the short forms such as haiku
"the game is afoot
a foot, a third of a yard.
my yard is a world."
and limeric like things...
"oh delvene dog,
i call you sprog,
and sometimes try to hump you.
oh silly me how can that be,
only other dogs should pump you!"
to stand up and/or character comedy, sung words (often called songs), slam poems with a 2 minute time limit and epic pieces broad and grand in their construct. i'll include mime in the mix 'coz it is communication as well so you can see there's a lot to the spoken word palate!
i found two venues offering a chance to listen and reat at in our first port of call Cape Town.
the first i found was at the "touch of madness" restaurant in the appropriately named suburb of Observatory.
here's the story of my first overseas read since the Ubud readers and writers festival slam in 2011.
i hop in a ranshackle taxi (not uncommon in Cape Town) and off i go. the driver eventually gets me there and i must say i'm glad i've cottoned on to the setting a price for the trip before you go thing because there was a bit of exploratory work by dudley the driver at the end there.
comedy,
the restaurant is a bit flash but not whiz bang by Bree St/ Kloof St and Surrounds standards. there's a verandah out the front for a few sundrenched drinky poo's and the bar is in the front room of the establishment. right away i notice a similarity to Wild Words in Darwin, theres a mob of folk musicians hammering away at their instruments in the corner of the bar! in D-town they are on the verandah and we are inside near the bar but here they are next to the bar and the poets are in a small side room just down the corridor from the bar. that's where i head to next.
i close the door behing me to shut out the sounds of the quiz going on in the bach section of the restaurant and check out the room. the age demographic is a but weird for me. seven or eight well retired ladies and gents and two late twenties ladies. i pull up a pew near hugh who is the coordinator of the gig and put my name on the list for a read.
the two youngest ladies get up and leave. i figure they were off to the bar and i realise my hand is empty. i head to the bar to get one of the locally made craft beers and strike up conversation with the ladies. turns out they didn't feel at all welcome. i can understand that coz the other dudes all seem more than a bit reserved. they aint giong back in so i give then a private read. i start with "i love you dear" which goes down well and then move on to the "delvene dog" trilogy! there's nothing like the trilogy (see above for verse one) to either get jaws dropping or people rollong on the floor. the bar staff were almost in the second category and i got a free beer out of it. the girls were happy with a personalised read and i headed back to the older poets. Abu Bakr Solomons was just about to kick off as the feature reader. he reads of places and emotions in a romantic and pastoral way as befits an ex school principal and i just know the dog poems will get a run to balance things out! he reads about eight poems from his new book and after that there is a rather cerebral Q&A. i head back to the bar for another cleansing ale. all that analysing is too anal for my tastes so i drink the replacement ale in the bar while listening to the quiz, i get a few right and help out one of the teams with a question about australia (what is the current name of ayers rock?). too easy!
back to the poets. all but one of the audience read one or two poems, mostly by other writers which i find a bit strange.
it's my turm at the end of proceedings because i got on the list last and it's quickly apparent that we come from different backgrounds re our writing styles. i ease them in with "sometimes the ideas come so fast" and my only love poem to date. i mix it up with a few haiku's and then hit them with the delvene trilogy!! there are a few jaws moving south but to their credit the final verse gets a few chuckles. the youngest of the other patrons who read a cat poem seems downright amused and is scanning the room covertly to see the reactions. i like her style!
thats it for the nights read and i head off back to the flat confident that if i don't get there the next week for a return read i won't be missed by some of them. das ist das leben methinks.
i get back and Jane is just about to head off to dreamland. i'm too hyped from the reads so i head off to find the second venue i have seen on the web for Cape Town reads. its just up the road in Kloof St and is called the Blah Blah Bar.
its up the hill and i thank David and Judy for the walking stick they gave me for christmas last year. i get up to Da Vinci's the ritzy pizza bar we call our local. i ask one of the street people for directions and he misdirects me in the most loving way possible for the princely donation of ten rand.
hmmmmm, oh well...
there are three varieties of street folk in C-Town. one waves a plastic cup at you and looks dejected/hopeful. the next offers a craft item of some sort, a bracelet or a tin toys or a song. the last asks not for money but for food and you end up spending 100R on powdered milk.
the search goes on for the BBB until i meet Trinity who belongs to the second variety of stret person. she is in her late twenties and slim and attractive. i don't need to but a bracelet so i ask her if she knows about the BBB. she does!! but the problem is it is now called The Vic and i have walked past it twice! no reads are on there till the end of the month so i have made some progress. Trinity seems up for a chat and leaves her friend and joins me on the walk back down Kloof.
she unloads some of her story on me about her four year old daughter and street life with a child (yeah, i know, where is this child). i give her some of my story and read her a poem or three. she sings me a tradirional south african song in a clear and confident voice. we hit the intersection where Kloof becomes Long St which is the night life street. i dissapoint Trinity by only giving her 20R but thats life, i gave her a few tips and that's gotta help some.
The night is almost over for me but i have enough energy for the Habana bar with it's banging loud reggae and grab two beers and a scotch while watching the passers by both in and outside.
thats the story of my night of poerty and chance encounters, i hope it happens again during our journey and as is my habit...
i hope you all have a sporting chance. big love fred.
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| this shop caught my eye on the wat to the blah blah bar... |
i like a good spoken word gig just like the next person. so when i knew for certain that it wasn't some sort of creul prank and i was actually going to go on a ten week trip with my family to at least nine amazing countries of which i had only been to two before, i was extatic!
my first move was to search for spoken word events in all of the countries we would be at for more than three days. spoken word, for some, conjures up the thought of a poetry only zone and that has been the case at some points of time i suppose. however i consider thegenre to include all sorts. sure there is a lot of poetry in the mix, from the short forms such as haiku
"the game is afoot
a foot, a third of a yard.
my yard is a world."
and limeric like things...
"oh delvene dog,
i call you sprog,
and sometimes try to hump you.
oh silly me how can that be,
only other dogs should pump you!"
to stand up and/or character comedy, sung words (often called songs), slam poems with a 2 minute time limit and epic pieces broad and grand in their construct. i'll include mime in the mix 'coz it is communication as well so you can see there's a lot to the spoken word palate!
i found two venues offering a chance to listen and reat at in our first port of call Cape Town.
the first i found was at the "touch of madness" restaurant in the appropriately named suburb of Observatory.
here's the story of my first overseas read since the Ubud readers and writers festival slam in 2011.
i hop in a ranshackle taxi (not uncommon in Cape Town) and off i go. the driver eventually gets me there and i must say i'm glad i've cottoned on to the setting a price for the trip before you go thing because there was a bit of exploratory work by dudley the driver at the end there.
comedy,
the restaurant is a bit flash but not whiz bang by Bree St/ Kloof St and Surrounds standards. there's a verandah out the front for a few sundrenched drinky poo's and the bar is in the front room of the establishment. right away i notice a similarity to Wild Words in Darwin, theres a mob of folk musicians hammering away at their instruments in the corner of the bar! in D-town they are on the verandah and we are inside near the bar but here they are next to the bar and the poets are in a small side room just down the corridor from the bar. that's where i head to next.
i close the door behing me to shut out the sounds of the quiz going on in the bach section of the restaurant and check out the room. the age demographic is a but weird for me. seven or eight well retired ladies and gents and two late twenties ladies. i pull up a pew near hugh who is the coordinator of the gig and put my name on the list for a read.
back to the poets. all but one of the audience read one or two poems, mostly by other writers which i find a bit strange.
it's my turm at the end of proceedings because i got on the list last and it's quickly apparent that we come from different backgrounds re our writing styles. i ease them in with "sometimes the ideas come so fast" and my only love poem to date. i mix it up with a few haiku's and then hit them with the delvene trilogy!! there are a few jaws moving south but to their credit the final verse gets a few chuckles. the youngest of the other patrons who read a cat poem seems downright amused and is scanning the room covertly to see the reactions. i like her style!
thats it for the nights read and i head off back to the flat confident that if i don't get there the next week for a return read i won't be missed by some of them. das ist das leben methinks.
i get back and Jane is just about to head off to dreamland. i'm too hyped from the reads so i head off to find the second venue i have seen on the web for Cape Town reads. its just up the road in Kloof St and is called the Blah Blah Bar.
its up the hill and i thank David and Judy for the walking stick they gave me for christmas last year. i get up to Da Vinci's the ritzy pizza bar we call our local. i ask one of the street people for directions and he misdirects me in the most loving way possible for the princely donation of ten rand.
hmmmmm, oh well...
there are three varieties of street folk in C-Town. one waves a plastic cup at you and looks dejected/hopeful. the next offers a craft item of some sort, a bracelet or a tin toys or a song. the last asks not for money but for food and you end up spending 100R on powdered milk.
the search goes on for the BBB until i meet Trinity who belongs to the second variety of stret person. she is in her late twenties and slim and attractive. i don't need to but a bracelet so i ask her if she knows about the BBB. she does!! but the problem is it is now called The Vic and i have walked past it twice! no reads are on there till the end of the month so i have made some progress. Trinity seems up for a chat and leaves her friend and joins me on the walk back down Kloof.
she unloads some of her story on me about her four year old daughter and street life with a child (yeah, i know, where is this child). i give her some of my story and read her a poem or three. she sings me a tradirional south african song in a clear and confident voice. we hit the intersection where Kloof becomes Long St which is the night life street. i dissapoint Trinity by only giving her 20R but thats life, i gave her a few tips and that's gotta help some.
The night is almost over for me but i have enough energy for the Habana bar with it's banging loud reggae and grab two beers and a scotch while watching the passers by both in and outside.
thats the story of my night of poerty and chance encounters, i hope it happens again during our journey and as is my habit...
i hope you all have a sporting chance. big love fred.
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