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...AND A BRAND NEW PROSE PIECE...Hello beasties!
This week I want to share another new piece that I finished just before Easter... But first of all - what do you think of the yeti that illustrates this particular post? Awesome, isn't it!?
It's another illustration by Adam M Botsford and it's for a daft ditty called ANOTHER YETI POEM from NOT AS SHY AS I WAS... You'll be seeing a lot more of Adam's work over the next few months, as I'm glad to say that he's accepted some more of my commissions for other poems, having completed the first six. More news as it happens, then but keep an eye out for Adam's blog: www.adambotsford.com as he often discusses all the projects that he's working on - not just mine; they're all very interesting and it's cool to see what he's up to.
I mentioned last week that I hoped to be filming in Derbyshire over the bank holiday weekend, so what exactly did I get up to? Well, I finished MY SELFISH CAT, which I began last Sunday on Box Hill - I also recorded another poem THE PICK-POCKETTING FOX in two sections. Location-wise I filmed near Tideswell, Belper and Monsal Dale. Annoyingly there is a poem from THE AUTUMNAL E.P. which was inspired to by walking the Monsal Trail back in 2003. I didn't have the text with me, but might get away with reading the actual poem in some other location and cutting it into all the footage that I took in Monsal Dale on Bank Holiday Monday. I do hope you enjoy all this - I climbed at least three hills this weekend! The episode is still not finished - I need to record, at least, one more poem and do a yeti dance and maybe a daft sketch too. Not sure quite when I'll finish this one - but hopefully sometime during May. There's no rush! I have plenty of other episodes to release first! I'll post a few photos from this filming session next week, once I've downloaded all the material. I'll also try and decide on an exact title for this episode too, by then!
That's about it for this week, except for the new piece at the end of this post which is called A CULT FOLLOWING and won't be published in one of my collections until next year now.
Next week we'll turn our attention to a new SHY YETI ON LOCATION episode called SHY YETI'S SEARCH FOR SPRING...
More soon!
Yeti hugs,
Paul xx
A CULT FOLLOWING....
They tell me that I have a cult following...
I’m pretty sure that means that pretty much nobody liked me at first…
I'm the sort that gets ravaged by the critics because they don't understand me...
They think that I'm a mess... Well, I am a mess – but at least I’m fun...
But they don't like me, really rage against me and in my day I'm pretty much ignored...
But then, over time, they return to me – think again and may even change their minds...
Eventually, after half a dozen viewings they’ll declare me a masterpiece – a work of art!
Although, it's often in a slightly ironic sort of way; like some kind of guilty pleasure!
Even then it's still only a fond few that really know me who consider me a classic...
Still... Adoration is adoration and it shouldn't be scoffed at!
They tell me that I have a cult following...
Excited fans meet up to discuss me in hotels and get charged a fortune for doing so!
Some of them get drunk and dance enthusiastically at the very mention of me...
Some dress like me; I'm a Halloween favourite – I'm Dracula only more obscure...
Occasionally they invite me along to sit on a stage and to answer questions about myself...
It's a weird thing to do – but I guess I am hardly the first to undergo such interrogation...
Sure, I wasn't keen at first, but once I actually got there I really rather liked it...
They took photos of me, recorded me on their smart phones and asked for my autograph!
Best of all they applauded loudly at pretty much anything that I had to say...
A couple of men in their 40s, wearing tight jeans, even swooned when I walked by...
They tell me that I have a cult following...
Occasionally I am unearthed and commemorated…
I still have the sort of following that can work up a reasonable audience...
Enough to fill a large church hall or perhaps a carriage or two on the Orient Express...
People who have precious little knowledge of me still pretend that they know who I am...
But they only really do so because they don't want to look stupid,
I'm a name that they feel they should know but whom they’ll never bother to get to know...
When one of their crowd says my name wrong; they don't correct them, just think, “Idiot!”
I have the ability to conjure up excitement in some, yet most just couldn't give a damn.
I'm often mistaken for that other guy – the one who died, but was more famous than me.
They tell me that I have a cult following...
Students study me in minute depth on University courses...
They write essays and dissertations about me and nod knowingly at my lesser-known work.
They read academic tomes breaking me down into a list of major themes and sub-texts...
They analyse me in far greater detail than I have ever done myself...
Maybe there is more to me than even I ever realised – it is good for the ego, I guess.
Over-time I begin to appreciate myself a little more as I hear their conversations...
As they quote me enthusiastically around tables in small badly lit Union bars...
Their shared knowledge of me draws them closer to one another...
Occasionally it might even get them laid.
A CULT FOLLOWING will appear in Paul Chandler's first collection of 2014, exact title yet to be decided. All Content of this post is Copyright Paul Chandler 2013.
