"The Verb"

[Lateralthinking1]

Friday 6 May 2011

The details of this week's programme:

(Not all the links and extracts are discussed in the programme. They are included to provide an introduction to, or reminder of, those featured.)

Bard of Barnsley Ian McMillan presides over another evening of words live from the Radio Theatre:

Singer-songwriter Chris Difford from Squeeze performs two songs.

Happy Once Again - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-z4w...eature=related

Writer Jane Harris reads a new commissioned work.

Dear God, It Was a Gobaloon! - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006...ardianreview22

There's rap from Adisa the Verbaliser.

Adisa World - http://www.adisaworld.com/main.html

Toby Litt presents a guide to aphorisms accompanied by tap dancer Simeon Weedall from Stomp.

Why I Write - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008...tt.why.i.write

Ancient Rhythm Modern Groove - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEs5GgsZ0-w

The Verb - This Friday, 9.15pm-10pm, Radio 3

Also available for 7 days on BBC I-Player

[Lateralthinking1]

THE FIFTH MONTH OF TWELVE

Gentle Creature in Late Tulips - http://myfirst5k.files.wordpress.com...ers_hg_clr.gif

A Hazy Beltane at Cerne Abbas - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X949B...eature=related

Now That's What I Call An Epic - Volume 1 - Maj by Karel Hynek Macha:- http://www.lupomesky.cz/maj/may.html



Picture - May Tree

Bee Gees - First of May : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP4Z0...eature=related

Cat 345BL Excavator - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trZMQox1rG4

Live Gas Line Service Disconnect - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMKiQ...eature=related

[Lateralthinking1]

Friday 13 May 2011

The details of this week's programme:

(Not all the links and extracts are discussed in the programme. They are included to provide an introduction to, or reminder of, those featured.)

Ian McMillan presents Radio 3's language cabaret:

There's a Verb commission from Tessa Hadley, who writes about families and relationships in a way that is subtly subversive and difficult to pin down.

The London Train - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011...n-train-review

Jane Draycott reads from her new translation of The Pearl, the fourteenth century poem by the unknown writer of the Gawain poem, and talks about how she recreated the imaginative intensity of the original.

Single Lens - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puo3JwtrzSQ

Storyteller Daniel Morden breathes new life into the tale of Sleeping Beauty as he performs the opening of his new version which concentrates on the themes of love, separation and reunion.

Storyteller - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqTRBPKPVBs

May sees the 70th birthday of Bob Dylan, and conceptual poet Ira Lightman celebrates his lyrics, and illustrates them on the ukelele.

Subterranean Homesick Blues - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx3kqsYS7tc

The Verb - This Friday, 9.15pm-10pm, Radio 3

Also available for 7 days on BBC I-Player

[Lateralthinking1]

There will not now be a review of the edition broadcast on 13 May. However, a review of the programme of 20 May will follow shortly. A quick plea to anyone who might have responsibilities for Radio 3 programming. It would be very helpful if access to each edition of the programme on the I-Player could be extended. It is a great pity that each programme is only available for one week. Any chance then of making the last two or three editions available in the future?

[Lateralthinking1]

Friday 20 May 2011

The details of this week's programme:

(Not all the links and extracts are discussed in the programme. They are included to provide an introduction to, or reminder of, those featured.)

Ian McMillan presents:

The poet and former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen and the poet Ruth Padel who launch the Proms Poetry Competition. Entrants need to submit poems inspired by music included in this year's Proms and Michael Rosen has had a go himself. He'll read a new poem commissioned by The Verb about a piece in the 2011 Proms programme while Ruth Padel introduces some of her favourite poems about music and offers top tips for aspiring poets.

We're Going On A Bear Hunt - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytc0U2WAz4s

Survival of the Fittest - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmFsU12V2mA

The author of 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' Mohsin Hamid who introduces a new short story.

Occupational Hazards - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/aug/11/fiction.bookerprize2007

The writer Taiye Selasi who makes a plea for fictional portrayals of the African middle-class which she says are lacking in contemporary novels.

Taiyeselasi.com - http://www.taiyeselasi.com/

Joe Bone with an excerpt from a new theatrical piece, Bane 3.

Bane - http://www.whiteboneproductions.com/Bane.html

The Verb - This Friday, 9.15pm-10pm, Radio 3

Also available for 7 days on BBC I-Player

[Lateralthinking1]

Review of "The Verb" broadcast on 20 May 2011 - Part 1

On this week's edition, the admirable Michael Rosen, once Poet Laureate for children, and Ruth Padel, ex Poet in Residence at the Proms, joined Ian to discuss a new competition. The Poetry Proms Competition presents the opportunity to write a poem inspired by a piece of music at this year's Proms. Michael and Ian will be the judges and, as Ian put it, the unusual poems will float to the top. In a demonstration of the unusual, Michael read "In Pursuit of the Woman With The Feathered Hat", a poem he has written on a piece by Weather Report to be performed at the Proms by the Matthew Barley Ensemble.

While this poem was based on the four beat rhythm of the music, the contributors to the programme considered a variety of approaches to writing about music. You could, for example, write about the performers, focus on the composer, base your poem on personal memory or use your imagination to take the music on to an entirely different place. The poem “Jazz Fantasia” by Carl Sandburg imitates the sounds of jazz but also a Mississippi steamboat; Philip Larkin’s “For Sidney Bechet” describes music as inspiration; “Music Swims Back to Me” by Anne Sexton concerns the loss of memory and the ability of music to bring it back; James Schuyler “Faure’s 2nd Piano Quartet” finds a link between music and location in a New York flat; and an untitled poem by Emily Dickinson considers the honesty of music but also asks where music can take you. Further information about the competition can be found here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/features/poetry-competition/.



Photo: Michael Rosen

Mohsin Hamid’s novel “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, which was shortlisted for the 2007 Booker Prize, takes place during the course of one evening in a Lahore cafe, where a Pakistani man called Changez tells a nervous American stranger about his love affair with, and eventual abandonment of, America. In his short story on “The Verb” entitled “Lieutenant Colonel Retired”, Mohsin introduced us to an old military man who had never made his way to the very top of his profession. Not merely unusual but to my mind rather creepy, the gentleman seemed to spend his days worrying about whether servants could be trusted to undertake assigned duties and noting obsessively the deterioration of his body while attempting to maintain a keep fit regime.

While in terms of external affairs, his interest was on the need for newly hatched eggs to be collected from a coop and for a pile of mounting rubbish to be discarded, these were arguably distractions. More broadly, one sensed that the atmosphere was disturbing as vagrants inhabited the surrounding streets and bombs exploded nearby. So this was essentially a tale about the feelings of losing authority and one of the principal messages was that life goes on, however an individual’s circumstances may change or violence ensues. The author drew parallels with the diminishing authority of the Pakistani army, while emphasizing that any symbolism was not overtly political.

Mohsin mentioned too that he had attended a workshop with Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison who had advised that good writing often depended on a “half heartbeat ahead” pace. The reader shouldn’t know what is about to happen next but when something does happen it should be seen as inevitable. The contributors felt that building up a rhythm of sound was also helpful for dramatic effect. While we use our eyes to absorb a story, we read principally with our ears.

Some other Pakistani writers were discussed briefly. Mohammed Hanif was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novel “A Case of Exploding Mangoes” which provided a fictitious account behind the real life plane crash which killed General Zia and considered the military generally with humour. Jamil Ahmad, a 79-year-old Pakistani has given hope to all aspiring writers by publishing his debut novel “The Wandering Falcon” about the war-torn tribal areas of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. Given current politics and the rather mixed perspectives on Pakistan internationally, it may just be that fiction can provide new insights into the thoughts of the Pakistani state and its people.

[Lateralthinking1]

Review of "The Verb" broadcast on 20 May 2011 - Part 2

Joe Bone is an actor and comedian who in character as Bruce Bane inhabits the neon-lit world of the private eye. However, while it would be easy to define Bone’s principal interest as being “film noir”, he describes that as a fulcrum in which to spin a wide range of film genres. Bane, the performance, "slightly more serious than spoof", has already travelled some distance, as Bane 1 and Bane 2. Now, in Bane 3, the character is about to give up his role as a hired hand, change his name to Bill Black, and live the quiet life in suburbia.

From the extract of Bane 3 performed on the programme by Joe Bone and his co-performer Ben Roe, it is clear that both have excellent timing and their range of characterisation, with voices to match, is equally impressive. There was almost a cartoon-like quality to the presentation of suburban life with accompanying media and a hint, I thought, of the film "The Truman Show". Bane 3 is to be premiered at the Brighton Festival on Saturday 28 May. On the basis of what we heard, expect it to be fast-moving, humorous and entertaining.



Photo: Joe Bone

The last contributor on the programme was Taiye Selasi, a novelist who challenges the literary stereotypes of Africans as victims, heroes or exotic. Her family was originally from Ghana but she was born in London and raised in Boston before studying for an M. Phil in International Affairs at Oxford University. Noting that the Penguin African Writers series only includes authors who wrote at least fifteen years ago, she hopes that her own writing will be able to bring a fresh, contemporary, approach to African life. Her starting point is that family should be at the centre of any story rather than civil war and the nation state.

Selasi has coined the term "'Afropolitan'" to define a new generation of African immigrants, arguing that previous models and monikers no longer apply. Her debut novel, "The Sex Lives of African Girls" was a complex, layered, work which focussed on middle class, unremarkable lives, and a further novel "Ghana Must Go" is to be published next year. Ian asked Taiye whether her books were intended to reflect Africa to itself or the world. Her answer was both these things for while domestic affairs have been frequently overlooked in African literature, the same was true in other regions.

Currently, for example, we hear of the push towards democracy in the Middle East in political terms but the ordinary lives of individuals there remain something of a mystery. Only in learning about those can we really ask ourselves what is and isn't acceptable in the 21st Century and help to turn very difficult political situations around. This, of course, also tied in well with the perspectives of Mohsin Hamid and, as we heard, even Bane was learning to adapt to the ordinary. Who knows - there could just be a piece of music in this year's Proms that inspires a poem along similar lines.

[Lateralthinking1]

Friday 27 May 2011

The details of this week's programme:

(Not all the links and extracts are discussed in the programme. They are included to provide an introduction to, or reminder of, those featured.)

Ian McMillan's cabaret of the word. This week's programme includes:

New short stories from Jon McGregor, the shortest of which is just ten words long. Jon's first novel, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things was awarded the Betty Trask Prize and a Somerset Maugham award. His writing has been praised for its quiet but lyrical style, which captures the everyday world around us.

Even The Dogs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBMERKTpH7Q

Laura Dockrill reads a letter to Dolly Parton - from Jolene's point of view.

Echoes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOaeN...eature=related

Poet Eva Salzman, a self confessed science fiction nut as a teenager, visits the new Science Fiction exhibition at the British Library - and in thinking about other realities is inspired to write a new piece of fiction for the Verb.

With Ian and the Foyle Young Poets - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i7mZbcA2wA

And in the month that Chas 'n' Dave bow out of live performances, Ian and musicologist Laurie Stras discuss - is this the end of the Cockney Song?

Sunny Days - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BuaL6ezf8s

The Verb - This Friday, 9.15pm-10pm, Radio 3

Also available for 7 days on BBC I-Player

[Lateralthinking1]

Friday 3 June 2011

The details of this week's programme:

(Not all the links and extracts were discussed in the programme. They are included to provide an introduction to, or reminder of, those featured.)

Ian McMillan returned to the Verb literary salon with:

The best of new writing including poems in performance from Jean 'Binta' Breeze.

Homecoming - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acnzs...eature=related

Niven Govinden who presented a short story about the unseen night work which goes on in tropical beach resorts.

Graffiti My Soul - http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...en-431154.html

An Eartoon extravaganza by Peter Blegvad.

Biography at TrouserPress - http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=peter_blegvad

The Verb - This Friday, Now starts at 10pm, Radio 3

Only available until this evening, 10 June, on BBC I-Player

[Lateralthinking1]

Friday 10 June 2011

The details of this week's programme:

(Not all the links and extracts are discussed in the programme. They are included to provide an introduction to, or reminder of, those featured.)

Ian McMillan returns with Radio 3's language cabaret of the air featuring:

The writer William Boyd with a master-class on screen-writing and a sneak preview of his adaptation of his own novel Restless.

William Boyd - Ordinary Thunderstorms - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009...rstorms-review

The poet and critic Fiona Sampson pays tribute to the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz in the centenary year of his birth. And, the first chance to here the Verb New Voices, emergent talent on the spoken word poetry scene.

Fiona Sampson - Rough Music - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011...gh-music-eliot

Czeslaw Milosz - Biography at The Poetry Foundation - http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/czeslaw-milosz

And, the first chance to here the Verb New Voices, emergent talent on the spoken word poetry scene.

The Verb - This Friday, Now starts at 10pm, Radio 3

Also available for seven days on BBC I-Player

[Lateralthinking1]

Reviews cancelled.

[Lateralthinking1]

Sadly, there will be no more of the usual postings on this thread. Thank you to all who have enjoyed the past few months of the programme and reviews. Lateralthinking1.

[Chris Newman]

Hey, Lateral,

Don't give up! The best interval items at the Proms come from The Verb. Maybe we need to think of a different approach. I am a supporter of The Verb as my favourite instrument is the VOICE which includes speech as well as music.

[french frank]

Lat's taking a bit of a break but - he will be back! In the meantime, Chris, you could deputise to keep the interest going ...

[Lateralthinking1]

Many thanks to Chris and french frank. Yes, to quote Richard Strauss, “The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but it is the most difficult to play".

Next week, expect a preview, a review, perhaps a counterview. One can always hope. Tonight, though, our own enjoyment, or our own ease is, in every particular, our ruling principle. That could almost be Jane Austen speaking if she hadn't been so obsessed with the written form.

So tune in at 10.15pm to hear the man who was named Bloodaxe. It made it easier for his Mum when calling him to the tea table. There's a spooky submariner, an oxymoron on the keyboards and a bloke who bizarrely is called Geoff.

As Norman Wisdom once said: "I play drums, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, french horn, piano". Only one of these six voices is played by Geoff on the programme but I am told he is ridiculously good.

If that were not enough, there are more of the excellent Verb New Voices. “New" on three is now the new word for "young". Youth though is wasted on the youngsters. So come on all you oldies. This might be your baddest item. Join Ian for a game of football in the mews, then beans on toast in the reading library. With HP and RP, I certainly will be. Ruhe, meine Seele!