Feb 22, 2010 1
George’s Next Jamboree – March 8th 2010
Please come along!
Nov 24, 2009 1
A Trilogy of Misery
Good afternoon Cynthia (hope it’s warmer in California) and Xander (Cup of tea/cider/merriment this afternoon?)
Three new ones:
High Street Girl
She looked at me
with a wonder of uncertainty
as to how mad I must be
to double take her
and her loud laughter of distress
as her size 7’s washed
around
in her size 11 shoes
and she spins round
with her mac entangled in arms;
her ruck-sack falling
from the shoulders
in her rush
to nowhere.
Misery
The misery of Winter’s
dreaded arrival
becomes clear
when the fun of
kicking crisp
Autumn leaves
up into the air
results in wet, rotted
black stuff
on the chin.
Rock’N'Roll
On the bus
on route
to Job Centre Plus
- attempting to avoid eye contact
with the stoney grey
clay
faces of Anthony
Gormley’s figurines
and not really feeling
like I’m part of a
‘Rock’n'roll Movement’
necessarily.
_________________________
Thanks for reading poems from the last day or so.
George’s Festive Gig Action:
DECEMBER
Friday 4th
The Gallery Sessions
in a cafe or a gallery, not sure
@ Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple, North Devon
(in association with Apples & Snakes)
Zena Edwards – Headlining
Sunday 13th
Family Friendly Festive Cabaret of Music, Mulled, Mince and Aliterative Poetry, Possibly…and Pies (for the Mince)
(not sure what they will call this event but probably not the above; all tbc, details to follow.)
@ the Vaults & Gardens on the High Street, Oxford
Monday 14th
GEORGE’s JAMBORREE of Music, Poetry and Comedy
- An Open Mike (Michaels are actually welcome – the poster was a joke – stop asking!)
@ THE CHESTER ARMS, Chester Street, OX4
Last month was delicious, packed to the rafters and rocking with talent. Open-Mic spots fill up quickly so get in early if you want to strum, tap, bang, whistle, read or recite. Starts at 8:30 sharpish so please sign-up by 8:15 at the latest. Hope you and your friends can make it. People of all abilities are very welcome. FREE ENTRY.
Tuesday 15th
“Georgie’s doubling up“:
First Stop:
Doing an intermission slot for an event @ Albion Beatnik (a bookshop on Walton Street), Jericho, Oxford. Organised by Lion Lounge Press. Will be there till 8:30/9 ish. Details TBC -so please check http://www.lionloungepress.com/ for info closer to the time.
Next stop:
“CREATIVE TUESDAYS” – CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
@ Bar Tarifa, on’t Cowley Road, Oxford from 9pm onwards but it starts earlier (seen some brilliant musicians there in the past and the beer is lovely, called Mahou).
___________________________________________
Right, better get on and write application letters, hoorah!
Cheerio and thanks again for reading.
Yours,
George
Oct 21, 2009 0
Big Issue Bin Men
I started the day with two weetabix, two rashers of smoked back, four slices of Warburtons thick white sliced, two cups of tea, a cup of coffee and a fag. Diet of Champions. Shouted at the bin-men and then signed “Mary the Virgin” for a parcel for the downstairs flat. The postman looked bemused.
Once shoe laces were tied I headed to the train station to buy a ticket for tomorrow’s gig in East London and so meandered past my favourite Big Issue sellar on Cornmarket, the high street bit of Oxford. He is a comic performer and quite often as I walk up Cornmarket, he is hurling mild/moderate abuse at the stupid public. Anyway, on this occasion, three pensioner women in their early seventies were walking past the Big Issue Man and he said “Morning Girls!” to which they replied,
“Ooh, we like girls!”
“Comin’ out dancin’ with me tonight?” he retorted
“Oh, not sure ’bout that!” they giggled.
“POLE DANCING!” He blirted.
They strode on looking more shocked than amused. But it certainly tickled me.
Anyway, got the train tickets: not too expensive for only one day in advance. However, I always debate the point of buying a ticket for the return journey because there are never guards on the train back from Paddington after 11pm. I’m not gonna risk it this time…or am I? Answers on a postcard (of a fat, lard-white woman sprawled across a tar black beach in Torquay, please.
George’s Gigs:
tomorrow
london
Saturday 24th Oct
London Poetry Systems @ The Isis Tavern, down on the river, Oxford.
Starts 6pm
Wednesday 4th November
A strange authors night
me and other people
@ The Corner Club, 16 Turl Street, Oxford
8pm upstairs.
Wednesday 11th
Cafe Tarifa, Cowley Road, Oxford
short slot
December 4th Friday
Organised by Apples & Snakes @
Queens Theatre,
Barnstaple, North Devon
8pm
…run out of sloes. Off to the Rusty Bicycle.
bye, g xx
Jan 14, 2009 2
George’s Journey
FEBRUARY
Monday 2nd
“Jam On That?”
Open-Mic at the Jam Factory (Arts Centre)
near the train Station in Oxford
8pm
(trying out a small bit of new stuff )
Wednesday 4th
“Songs In The Dark”
8pm. Upstairs at The Betsey Trotwood
56 Farringdon Road,
London, EC1R 3BL.
(12 and half minutes of my best stuff)
Friday 6th
“Bingo Masters Breakout”
8pm at St Aloysius Social Club, Phoenix Road
Euston, London, NW1 1TA.
(Guest Poet and Bingo Caller)
…And no other dates set in stone until…
APRIL
Saturday 11th
Part of OXFRINGE 2009 John Hegley and Spacial Guests
(me)
7pm in The Jacqueline De Pre Building (part of St Hilda’s College), bottom of High Street and Iffley Road, just off the Plain (roundabout), Oxford.
Tuesday 14th
So I won the “Utter!” Ajar Mic Competition 2008 in Camden. Part of the prize is to host my own “Utter!” night which will be on Tuesday 14th April, 2009 at The Green Note, 106 Parkway, Camden, London, NW1 7AN. 8pm start.
Featuring: John Hegley, Tim Key (and others TBC)
going to eat now.
Bye x
Oct 16, 2008 0
sausages and love
Just before you say it, I know, I know. It’s almost like I’m writing a fresh blog every hour because I’m just so committed to keeping you, my adoring, stalker followers in touch with the every (bowel) movement of Charles Street’s next Poet Laur…Ooh, hold on a sec. (Second passing). Arhh, that’s it – nothing quite beats the refreshing, lip-smackin’, thirst quenchin’, great tastin’, motivatin’, good buzzin’, cool talkin’, high walkin’, fast livin’, ever givin’, cool fizzin’ slirp of a well chilled can of Carling after a sweaty slog of a shift at the sausage restaurant, that started two hours after eight hours at the SUPERmarket. Um, I don’t understand why I have Irritable Fucking Bowel Syndrome, Eczema, 27 other dermatological conditions, torn clothes, a shit haircut, sore cock, a self-obsession orientated personality disorder and hypochondriacy. But all it is, is I need to do something, anything because no one apart from my best mates at i-tunes have e-mailed me and even I’m getting a little bored of watching (myself on) You Tube and of course there’s absolutely bugger all on tv, so…
…oh, I’m going to bed..
[3 days later]
Morning, um, before I forget, I’m assisting in the promotion of and will be introducing on the night, a guy called Jean-Philippe Riopy. He’s not Welsh but French and a pianist who will be playing at The Jacqueline De Pre Building, Oxford on Friday 7th November. He plays Classical pieces but improvised with jazz in his own passionately distraught and unique style. Well worth the £8 or £5 as a student. He is bloody good!
In my last blog you can see the next dates that I’m performing and in addition to them, I will be performing in the ‘Ajar Open Mic Final’ on Tuesday 9th December at The Green Note, Camden. The event is called “Utter”, hosted by Richard Tyrone Jones. The prize is £1,000,000. Or was it £100? I can’t remember. Last Tuesday I performed at the aformentioned venue and have never felt so nervous in my life, nearly, but carried it off ok..ish, I think. Got the laughs but noted as I went through the set, how many things I would do differently and that the Senyru entitled ‘Window-Licker’ is a definite ‘no-no’ for any future audience.
[about 15 days later...Wednes 21st Nov]
God, I feel diabolical. But I don’t know why i’m telling you because you’re a carpenter; rather you were a carpenter…that’s if you ever.. Well, anyway, I feel like shit. It’s a mint tea day and a day of self-doubting, worrying about money, worrying about leaving the security of a secure job although, granted, a job that (like a lot of people have) was making me miserable but needless to say less miserable than being hungry and now I don’t even think I have the ability to be a waiter in a fucking sausage and mash restaurant! Perhaps I never was a good waiter? Perhaps people just had that perception in their head because I fooled them into thinking I was good because I can/could always appear confident, loud, mildly amusing and moderatly entertaining. Perhaps my Grandpa did shag John Cleese’s mother, nine months before he was born and two months before he met my Grandma..? But the entertaining thing was only actually as a result of the fact that I used to find the whole experience so incredibly stressful. Food that’s overcooked, raw, uncooked, unclean, too clean, too soft, too hard, too rare, not rare enough, “where’s the mustard?” “Any forks?”
“Um, sorry to trouble you but we ordered our coffees twenty minutes ago…”
“You, table 29?! Coffee? Haven’t you gone yet? Fucking coffee! I thought the tops on your creme fucking brulees weren’t fucking hard enough! Why didn’t you piss off after that dis-heartening state of circumstance; that earth shattering fact. Here’s your bill! I haven’t got time to make you fucking coffee. Piss off!”
Here is George’s Gig-List:
Tuesday 25th November, 2008
LPS (London Poetry Systems)
The Flea Pit
49 Columbia Road,
Shoreditch/Hackney, London
at 8:30pm
Thursday 27th November, 2008
John Hegley, Tony Curtis and George Chopping
The Thunderbolt,
Totterdown, Bristol
at 8:30pm
Wednesday 3rd December
Comedy Night
Johnathon Elston, Ivo Graham, Rachel Boxall, Broderick Chow, George Chopping,
Tom Goodliffe (MC)
Corner Club
16/17 Turl Street,
Oxford
Doors 7:45pm (8:15)
Members: Free
Non-Members: £5
Tuesday 9th December
“Utter!”
The Green Note
Camden, London
All sorts of stuff – comedy/poetry/music possibly
(please google event for time/cost/address)
Ok, off to the market.
Bye,
G x
