JUNO CHILLING IN THE WORD TENT
Well, it was my first muddy Electric Picnic - the other times I went there was no mud, so that was new...and difficult to drag a baby's buggy through. I have muscles on my muscles. Not sure I'd go with a young baby again - nowhere to change nappies in comfort, general dirt and piddly smells, cold breezes and open-air feeding, gazillions of potentially dangerous drunk people falling about. Somehow Flat Lake wasn't as stressful. Anyway, I did enjoy it but Baby can stay home next time, I think.
My reading went very well - my first reading from Nude. I read 'Woman in the Waves' - something amusing and punchy for the EP age profile (!). It went down well. I also read a few poems. I enjoyed the reading (a more frequent occurence since leaving pregnancy behind) and the audience looked and acted alive despite their collective hangover.
ANDRÉ KAPOR
A barefoot and sunlassed André Kapor from Sarajevo was one of my fellow readers and he delivered a very slick set that the audience loved. Very spoken wordy and seamless between-poem chat and start-of-poem delivery.
DELTA O'HARA
Delta O'Hara from Mexico also read/performed. I liked her funny poems about being a sex line phone operator in Dublin, complete with impressions of her scanger boss and his inane mobile phone conversations. Good fun.
We wandered about for a bit, exploring the MindField and beyond: Oxfam had their charity shop again, and there was stall after stall of yummy veggie food and handcrafted jewellery and clothes. There was a new Green Craft area where you could weave flower garlands, make a silver ring or carve a wooden spoon, among lots more.
BILLY RAMSELL
Back at the WORD, Cork poet Billy Ramsell delivered his usual wry and excellent set. Some new poems too, one of which was like a modern Yeats epic. Billy is always worth a listen - go see him if he's playing a village near you. I think he's pretty unique - a highly literary poet who commits his poems to memory and delivers them with style.
MAIGHRÉAD MEDHBH
Maighréad Medhbh and Miceál Kearney read in the same set as Billy. Maighréad the original Irish performance poet was consummately professional as always. Miceál is new to me and I enjoyed his concise pseudo-crabby farmer poems.
MICEÁL KEARNEY
Apart from that we wandered, chatted to friends, writers and strangers; missed things we wanted to see, saw things we didn't expect to see; heard the sublime Lisa Hannigan sing and carried Baby and dragged the pram through the muck. Fun!
17 comments:
OMG! I just love that photo of Juno, how chilled out is she?!
I admire you taking baby, I'd be hard pushed to take me ;-)
Reading sounds great and I love 'Woman in the Waves'...
x
She has a great knack for falling asleep at readings when she should. A good little girl!
Thanks ;) N x
Is your daughter wearing mini skirts already??? ;) She's adorable. The first of only two readings I've ever done was interrupted by my 10-day old daughter who should have been still in utero; it made everybody laugh which was the kind of light relief I needed as I was horrendously nervous. At the rate I'm going, I might have the same problem with grandchildren, the next time I read.
Sounds like you did a great job. Well done.
Missed you completely. Saw some great stuff, some planned, some not. Blog later.
Rach - she's often lying across me as I blog, so I know that feeling. Best place to be - Mommy's lap!
Jo - a Mom at the school gave me a huge bag of cutie clothes for Baby - the skirt came from her. Sweet!
Funny re your Baba. And you will be reading LOTS when that novel is done and dusted.
EW - missed you too! Next time. There was just so much on and the place is so vast. Looking forward to your report.
Do any of these guys perform around Ireland? André Kapor/ Delta O'Hara? I was working at Electric Picnic and didn't get a chance to take a proper wander in the Mindfield this year!
Agh! That Juno pic is too cute. She's nicely layered up too.
Hi Polarbear, Yes, all of the above perform around Ireland. Not sure how you'd find out - set up a google alert for their names, maybe?
The MindField was class - I barely left it. I'm such a nerd sometimes...
Eimear! How are you? I trust B&N is treating you well and that you are having lotsa fun in general. Layers are the way to go at a festival, right?
I missed you there! I'd been there earlier in the day. I left early Sunday afternoon - what an epic to get home!
Juno looks cute.
You're right, mud did detract a bit - don't know how you managed with the buggy!
It was a disaster with the buggy, B - never again! Hope your reading went well. Going over to check out your blog report now. N x
How can a little baby be SO cool ? I want some of what Juno's got.
Anna May x
Thank you for the full report sister dear!! Sounds like you enjoyed it despite the hardships. Juno looks SO festival fit, she is like a little dolly, SO perfect.
What's this MindField?
She is such a dolly. I must email you a total dolly pic.
The MindField is the spoken word area of the festival. It used to be called...er, I can't remember...
I would of loved to have attended something like that. The only time I've ever read anything I've written in public has been at poetry meetings. I found it to be a very surreal experience.
Cool, thanks a million! Heck, the Mindfield is awesome! My great find last year, in what was the Spoken Word, was Jinx Lennon so i swore i'd find someone new and amazing in it this year but didn't get to explore as much as i should have! My mission isn't over yet though! =)
Coeminalone - you get used to it. Kind of. I'd always be nervous before reading but am fine during and after.
Polarbear - Jinx Lennon played Flat Lake in August. Maybe he'll be back there next year? If you are into lit it is the coolest festival. Much less frenetic than the Picnic but just as fun!
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