THE BROADSTAIRS SLICE OF THE HOLIDAY...Hello folks and folkettes,
This week I'm going to be telling you about what I've been up to during my trip to Broadstairs during Folk Week there. I've also released a number of older videos that were previously only available on Vimeo, onto my MRSHYYETI Youtube channel. These six films were the first films that I ever recorded in June 2008, there are still a number of others, but I am yet to trace down the original films. Thanks to Owen C. who helped me record these back in 2008.
The films with their Youtube links are as follows and are all from my 2008 collection SHY YETI'S INCREDIBLE PIE-CRUST COLLECTION. Find out more at: www.lulu.com/content/2539199. All films are Copyright Paul Chandler 2008-12.
YOU CRAMP MY STYLE: http://youtu.be/LR4dqotWklw
Background Info: This one was written very quickly and came to me whilst I was commuting to work; I even worked on a couple of the verses whilst standing at Vauxhall bus station. I was really pleased with the finished version and it's a favourite of mine from this collection.
YETI SPAGHETTI: http://youtu.be/QUn6yKEG4Nw
Background Info: Another piece written for the postponed YETI SPAGHETTI children's collection of poems. I had the title for this a long while before the actual poem was written; as Vinnie / “Bearsoup” and I had agreed that it was a good title for the book. In the end it went through a number of versions before I settled on this.
UNGRATEFUL VALENTINE: http://youtu.be/8qpVotTW-Og
Background Info: I used to have a tradition each year where I sent my friends Julie and Jo a Valentines poem and then included them in my collections. In the end I wrote 4 or 5 of these; but this piece is written from the point of view of an ungrateful valentine who complains about the presents they are given and who is never satisfied. Contains one of my favourite words: "woo"!!
MY MOMENT IS NOW: http://youtu.be/cJb93_cTxo0
Background Info: This is another verse which celebrates discovering that things are going well in life and that it's time to get excited about it!! It has been suggested that I should read this if I ever do my Pam Bears act on stage - however, for now, the world has been saved this...
LITTLE PIG: http://youtu.be/oSVkHIVuSfM
Background Info: Another poem written during a lazy Saturday morning lie-in at my friend Vincent's house; one of my many daft poems. It's a silly animal piece, but also an anti-buIlying one and was written when I was working on new poems for my delayed children's collection, YETI SPAGHETTI. It's one of my personal favourites.
THE BALLAD OF THE GO-GO BEAR: http://youtu.be/t94PKbSoC7Q
Background Info: This continues my bear theme and looks at a furry someone who used to have a luxurious life but who falls on hard times and has to make his living by alternative methods. It could have been about a man -- but I always think writing about an animal instantly gets the reader in a daft mindset.
That's it for now on the old videos, hopefully I'll find the other batch recorded in 2008 sometime soon; anyway - now it's time for us to move on to the next stage of my holiday...
Not a lot to report today as I'd only just returned from the Lakes, although I did post the Vimeo YETI SPAGHETTI video that I recently loaded onto Youtube. The ratings have been good for all the ones that I've loaded so far and have boosted some of the ones that have rather languished back on the other profile. Other than buying a new outfit for the forthcoming seaside jaunt Dm and I didn't go far - but watched a couple of horror films, an Italian one - The Case Of The Bloody Iris and a German one, The Phantom Of Soho. That is all!
Today I headed to Broadstairs with Dan and Baz, but not before I completed and posted last week's blog post. Once in Broadstairs, after dinner, I completed the lyrics for a folk song parody which I hope to film whilst I'm down here - it's called I LOST MY HEART TO A CORNISH PASTY and I intend to perform it in the same style as last year's BALLAD OF THE PIE EATER... Managed a little editing before bed - getting the finished film down to around 20 minutes, but still have a lot to do on it!
I began the day by posting my old 2008 Vimeo video UNGRATEFUL VALENTINE onto Youtube - I only have one last to post now from that batch until I find more. After this Dan and I headed to the Poetry Breakfast at Number 23, Broadstairs. It was a good turnout and I decided to read YETI SPAGHETTI and Dan recorded it as you'll see when I put together my folk week video sometime next month, which is to be christened SHY YETI'S SEASIDE SHUFFLE. I did a lot of work for that episode today - in fact there will probably be two. If you'd like to see a bit of what I've been up to so far, then I've posted a three minute preview at the following links:
Youtube: http://youtu.be/nT93KeNGTX4
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/47374431
SHY YETI'S SEASIDE PREVIEW is a preview of a forthcoming episode of SHY YETI ON LOCATION filmed on Saturday 11th August 2012 at Broadstairs Folk Festival. Shy Yeti even sings and plays guitar! Song, Music and lyrics by Paul Chandler. Incidental Music: Dan Hodges. This preview and the song contained are Copyright Paul Chandler 2012. The full episode SHY YETI'S SEASIDE SHUFFLE is next month.
So, anyway - after the open-mike, which I hope to return to during the week - Dan, Baz and I headed for the beach. Dan and I went swimming and I began work on recording my poem IS IT CHRISTMAS ALREADY? I also managed to eat two ice creams - banana and trifle flavours from Chiappinis and raspberry and wild fruits from Morellis. Which did I like best? A yeti does not tell! Ice cream is ice cream! You have to try hard to make it bad! Back at Dan's parent's house I decided to record some links for the new episode, Dan did some strumming and I pretended to be a pretentious guitarist. All this and I came up with and recorded a proper tune for the Cornish pasty song that I wrote yesterday. In fact I recorded it in several different styles - one of which you can see on the preview video. After editing that and eating more fish and chips we headed down to Broadstairs High Street to see some of the torchlight procession, which I recorded; it was all very Wicker Man!
Sunday 12th August:
Today was another busy day; but with plenty of relaxing too! I began with a little editing as usual and managed to write a whole poem before we even left the house. To be fair it was more of a lyric really and I do intend to come up with a tune for it at some stage. It's called MINE OWN MINOTAUR and is kinda inspired by a poem that I wrote late last year called NEVER MIND THE MINOTAUR that appears in ARE WE THERE, YETI!? That said I started it from scratch and it's definitely more of a song... After a swim and plenty of ice cream (apple, water melon, chocolate and honeycomb), I collected more folk festival footage - some dancing and a little sea shanty-ing. I also had a chance to finish the recording of IS IT CHRISTMAS ALREADY? and get some more Broadstairs views. Dinner was Chinese and that was pretty much it as I decided to down tools to watch the Olympic closing ceremony! Why were John Smallshaw and I not called in to save the day? Ah well... These people will never learn.
Monday 13th August:
Two full days left in Broadstairs - so I'm making the best of them and as usual I started the day with a little editing and typed up both I LOST MY HEART TO A CORNISH PASTY and MINE OWN MINOTAUR.
No swimming today, although the weather was probably good enough; however Dan and I did head down to Number 23 again for the Poetry Breakfast whilst Baz and Tony went off to do musical stuff and Helen enjoyed her coffee on the Prom. Poetry Breakfast was even more fun this morning than on Saturday, I would say and I got called up pretty early. I decided to read a very new piece - in fact I did a performance of I LOST MY HEART TO A CORNISH PASTY, which seemed to go down well. There were a lot of rhymers in today - and lot of funny pieces too, so I definitely felt at home. Dan recorded my piece, so that should appear in one of the SHY YETI'S SEA-SIDE SHUFFLE episodes once it is edited. That wasn't all though - I took a few more photos around the town and some footage of Dan playing guitar by the sea and also put the finishing touches to a piece that I started soon after we arrived here called THE BALLAD OF DEAD EYED BOB, which is also another song in waiting I would say. Our afternoon was quite leisurely and I spent some of it drinking coffee and writing down at Chiapinis and then the rest of it back at Tony and Helen's nattering to my mum and Dominic on the phone. That said Dan did record me doing a yeti dance and recording a relatively new poem called SWEATY YETI. On the way home I also bought myself a Cornish Pasty so that I could take photos of it to go with the poem. Oh... And as for ice cream, today my selected flavours were blackcurrant and cherry yoghurt!
Oh yes... And I decided today that I'm staying until Thursday! Hurrah!
Tuesday 14th August:
Today began with a little editing and creative stuff, as usual and then Dan and I returned to Poetry Breakfast, where I read my relatively new piece JOHN, I'M ONLY RHYMING - which seemed to go down well and which Dan recorded. After this we headed for coffee and I continued to collect more folk week sights and sounds. Around lunchtime we all headed into Margate to visit the Turner Exhibition - thankfully the exhibition was free, that's all I'm saying... None of us were terribly inspired, however if anyone would like to pay us millions for our doodles then we'll be happy to oblige. I also had a nice chat about poetry and self-publishing with a gentleman who ran an antiques and curios shop! Felt bad about not buying anything, to be honest - but Dan and Baz were waiting to eat! Lunch was a delicious black pudding, bacon and apple sandwich closely followed by a cream tea a little down the road. I decided to leave the others at this point and to walk the few miles between Margate and Broadstairs. The weather was awesome and my camera was fully charged. In the end I recorded an old piece that I had considered for Poetry Breakfast, a piece inspired by my gran called GRANDMA ETHEL KEEPS THEM DECENT. The walk took about 90 minutes with about 30 mins for poetry reading and 15 for ice cream and wasting money on the slot machines! Ice cream flavour of the day, from Morellis, was banana and strawberry.
Wednesday 15th August:
The plan today was to have returned to Poetry Breakfast where I was aiming to read a piece called MY LONG LOST FRIEND. However Dan wasn't feeling well and so I decided that it would probably be more fun to play hooky and head off down the coast towards Dumpton Gap, near Ramsgate. The weather wasn't half as good today and the sea was pretty rough, so I recorded a short piece of mine, THEY DON'T RHYME THEIR POEMS IN L.A. in one of the shelters by the Prom in Broadstairs and then for the rest of my walk I just filmed scenery, the odd link and a couple of sneaky yeti dances. Not a lot else was planned during the day, except for a little typing up of poems that I'd been working on during the holiday. Ice cream flavour of the day - this time from Chiapini's was Mandarin Sorbet and Tiramasu. Yes... I know, they don't exactly go well together - but they were still nice separately.
Thursday 16th August:
Began the day with a bit of editing, getting a bit closer to finishing the next episode of SHY YETI ON LOCATION at last! This episode seems to have taken ages despite me spending quite a bit of time on it this holiday. Anyway... Today we were heading home, but there was still time to go to Poetry Breakfast before all that. I had intended to read my piece MY LONG LOST FRIEND, but as there is one line that's not quite kiddy friendly and because two kids turned up, I went with my piece A LITTLE MOUSE instead! It all seemed to go well - and Dan was able to video it, so I'm sure some of it will appear in a future video. Before heading back we had coffee on the Prom and I was able to indulge in one last ice cream from Morellis - Strawberry Shortcake and Chocolate and raspberry. Very good indeed! After that we all headed home around 1 and I made it back to Yeti Towers by about 4... Now all I have to do is to back-up all the footage before I press delete by mistake! So excuse me, if you will... Phew. It's done!
As usual I'll post a few more photos from this trip once I start editing the Broadstairs episodes. Next week, well - I'm not entirely decided what I'll be posting exactly, although I will definitely be releasing the "lost" Hollywood video and perhaps posting a few more photos... We shall see! I'm sure you'll all be on tenderhooks - more soon!
Yeti hugs,
Paul xx
This post and its content are Copyright Paul Chandler 2012.
