Wednesday, July 13, 2016

BACK AT THE POETRY CAFE...

A NIGHT TO CELEBRATE "A YETI WAY OF THINKING..."


Hello beasties!

This week we're going to looking at my recent gig at The Poetry Cafe - I won't be going into too much depth as I am hoping to release an episode of THE SHY LIFE PODCAST concerning the evening and so I'll be discussing it in greater length then. All the same - I'd like to share with you some photos from the night - a little bit about the other people who came to read and also, as usual - I aim to list the poems that I read. Firstly I'll just list them and then go back in greater detail afterwards, although as you may well get to hear them on the podcast there isn't really any need to describe the pieces themselves...


A YETI WAY OF THINKING... THE SHOW

The Poetry Cafe, London - Friday 8th July 2016

SET LIST

First Half

DISCO YETI
THE TRUE LIGHT
THE SORRY TALE OF FRED THE DINOSAUR
OH, FLORENCE!!
A LEARNING EXPERIENCE
THE KING OF RHYME
BLUE EYED LOVER (GREEN EYED FREAK)
BLACK-EYED GROWL

JOHN/RICH

THE ANSWER'S NO
ARE THEY AWARE I'M A WEREWOLF
A HARMLESS PRANK
AUTUMN WON'T HAPPEN
I AM NOT A FAN OF THE METAPHOR
TIME IS THE THUG
BECOMING MORE CAT-LIKE

INTERVAL

Second Half

THE GREAT BOOKSHOP IN THE SKY
FURRY FROM THE DEEP
BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD
THE DREADED LURGY
THE ONE
PICCADILLY IS A RUBBISH CIRCUS
YOU'LL DO

JOHN/RICH

PRACTICAL PSYCHOPATHY
JOHN, I'M ONLY RHYMING
THE CAFFEINE QUEEN
I'M FAR TOO IMPORTANT TO KNOW YOU
WE WERE GOING TO BE WED (WHEN WE BOTH HIT 40)
I WILL EAT PIES

THE END...

In all I read 28 poems/stories/prose-pieces...



THE GREATER DETAIL...

SET LIST

First Half

DISCO YETI / THE TRUE LIGHT / THE SORRY TALE OF FRED THE DINOSAUR / OH, FLORENCE!! / A LEARNING EXPERIENCE / THE KING OF RHYME / BLUE EYED LOVER (GREEN EYED FREAK) / BLACK-EYED GROWL

Pretty much everything that I read from the first half of The First Half was early material which is collected together in my collection SHY YETI RULES OKAY (2009) which is available from:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/paul-chandler/shy-yeti-rules-ok/paperback/product-20175515.html

These are poems from my first dozen collections or so - from JUNK/FOOD in 2002 until THE SHY LIFE in 2009, all but THE SORRY TALE OF FRED THE DINOSAUR was written in the 00s, whilst FRED dates from right back to 1992. After these poems John Smallshaw read for a while, followed by a new poet at one of my shows, Rich Harris, who I have known for a while online, but never met. Rich has agreed to let me interview him for the podcast - so there will be more to come from him and hopefully he'll come to another show in the future. I think our styles complement each other well in the same way that John's poetry also fits in very well into a yeti show. Rich has a new book out - but more about that at the end. I'm hoping to include poems by both Rich and John in the podcast episodes that was recorded on the night - but that won't be out until late July/early August.

JOHN/RICH
THE ANSWER'S NO / ARE THEY AWARE I'M A WEREWOLF / A HARMLESS PRANK

I returned after John and Rich had read and the next three pieces were from my most recent collection - A YETI WAY OF THINKING; the first two being poems and the third one being a short story. A YETI WAY OF THINKING is available from:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/paul-chandler/a-yeti-way-of-thinking/paperback/product-22585324.html

AUTUMN WON'T HAPPEN / I AM NOT A FAN OF THE METAPHOR / TIME IS THE THUG

At the moment these three are only available here on the blog - although they are due to be collected together with other writings posted here between 2015 and 2016 sometime early next year.

BECOMING MORE CAT-LIKE

This is one of my favourites - which is available from my SHY YETI STILL RULES OKAY compilation at: http://www.lulu.com/shop/paul-chandler/shy-yeti-still-rules-ok/paperback/product-20399409.html

INTERVAL

Second Half

THE GREAT BOOKSHOP IN THE SKY / FURRY FROM THE DEEP / BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD

These three are from 2009's SHY YETI RULES OKAY compilation - although the poems were originally from different collections.

THE DREADED LURGY / THE ONE / PICCADILLY IS A RUBBISH CIRCUS / YOU'LL DO

These four are also from A YETI WAY OF THINKING, published earlier this year. This was followed by further poems by John and Rich.

JOHN/RICH
PRACTICAL PSYCHOPATHY

This was probably the most recent piece - published on my blog a month or two ago.

JOHN, I'M ONLY RHYMING / THE CAFFEINE QUEEN / I'M FAR TOO IMPORTANT TO KNOW YOU

These three are from some of my collections from the late 00s or early 10s - but they were compiled together for 2012's SHY YETI STILL RULES OKAY.

WE WERE GOING TO BE WED (WHEN WE BOTH HIT 40) / I WILL EAT PIES

These two are from the same book - one I sort of read because of its vague wedding theme, with I WILL EAT PIES being the piece that I usually finish my shows with.

THE END...


Thanks especially to John Smallshaw for performing a splendid set of poems. He had a pretty busy long weekend - when I saw again on Monday afternoon it was at his wedding reception and he'd just married his girlfriend, Reet! Thanks also to Rich Harris for reading - and also for agreeing to let me interview him for the podcast in the next few weeks. He has a book out, by the way - it's called Dark and can be found at:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Rich-Harris/dp/1533336547?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

It's available in paperback and e-book format.

I would also like to thank everybody who came along, especially to Nick and Aly Goodman who drove all the way up from Salisbury and to Aly again for driving me back again so that I could spend the weekend with them and also see my parents...

As for when the next show will be - well, I'd like to have said October - but I've just heard back from the Poetry Cafe that they are under-going refurbishment from September and it sound like they could be closed until, at least, the new year. They did mention that they might be looking into alternative performance space - or it might be that I can find somewhere else to do a show - but I'm afraid that I don't have anything definite for you at the moment.

Before I bid you farewell, here are a few photos from the night...

Next time, I will probably have a new podcast episode to discuss - and I may also be posting something about my trip back to my home town... I also have a few yeti scripts stored away - but you might have to wait and week or two more for those...

Don't forget - my 12-track "lost" 2012 recording, THE KISS ME QUICK E.P. was recently released on Bandcamp at: https://shyyeti.bandcamp.com/album/the-kiss-me-quick-e-p and is available for just £2.

More soon!

Yeti hugs,

Paul xx

SHY YETI PROJECTS UPDATE - JULY 2016:

THE SHY LIFE PODCAST episodes published: 

Episodes 1 to 7, plus the original pilot episode are available from iTunes, Acast and Soundcloud (under SHYYETI)

Books in formatting: 

HOT STUFF - 2, KENSINGTON GORE - 2, BEAST OF FRIENDS - MOVIE SCRIPT

Books awaiting formatting: 

HOT STUFF - SEASON 3, KENSINGTON GORE - SEASON 3, HOT STUFF!! SEASON 4

Books currently being written: 

HOT STUFF!! SEASON 5, KENSINGTON GORE - SEASON 4, THE SHY YETI SKETCH-BOOK, GETTING BLOGGY WITH SHY YETI

I have recently begun work on new seasons of both HOT STUFF!! and KENSINGTON GORE. THE SHY YETI SKETCH-BOOK is a new collection of scripts about Shy Yeti - some of which have already been published on this blog. I am aiming to release a collection of these later in the year. GETTING BLOGGY WITH SHY YETI is a collection of all the prose pieces and any new poetry that I debuted on the blog between the start of 2015 and the end of 2016. I am intending to release a collection in early 2017.

Pending projects: 

The next Mouse Of Commons book of short stories and novel... Date of publishing: Unknown.

Future projects: 

SHY YETI'S GRRR-EASTEST HITS

This is a revised and compiled volume of all my favourite self-written poems over the last 25 years which I hope to release early in 2017..

I definitely intend to write a 6th season of HOT STUFF!!, but do not definitely have plans for a 5th season of KENSINGTON GORE yet, not that this necessarily means that I won't be writing more of this series.

Projects published in 2016, so far: 

HOT STUFF - SEASON 1, A YETI WAY OF THINKING, THE KISS-ME-QUICK E.P., KENSINGTON GORE - SEASON 1

This post and all content are Copyright, Paul Chandler 2016.

Sunday, July 03, 2016

THINGS FROM THE PAST...

GAZING BACK OVER OLD PHOTOGRAPHS...


Hello beasties!

Yes... The baby is me! By my side is my best friend, at the time, Panda... What a wonderful first friend he was to have! I was a lucky kid... I think I'm the only person I know who actively used to insist on showing his school friends his baby photos whenever they came over for tea.

ANYWAY! Before we go anywhere I must just let you know about two new podcast episodes - one of mine, but more importantly there is that new episode of THE SMELLCAST that I feature in... I've mentioned it before and I'm terribly excited about it!

SC 414 There's A Shy Yeti On the Telephone

Toppie interviews Paul Chandler, the Shy Yeti  Plus Listener Interaction and Stick It Out Your Backdoor. The Shy Life Podcast can be found on iTunes, as well as a number of other podcasting locations eg: Acast!

Write to Toppie at Smellcast@aol.com. Leave a comment on Toppie’s blog. Follow him on Twitter (as @Smellcast) and on Google+. Look at kooky stuff on smellcast.tumblr.com.

https://smellcast.wordpress.com/2016/06/29/sc-414-theres-a-shy-yeti-on-the-telephone/

I even feature in Listener Interaction and Stick It Out Your Backdoor! It's a real yeti-filled episode!!

There is a second episode coming up in a week or so too! More on that when it happens. Anyway, until then episode 414 is a really fun episode to listen to - so do! Yes, I know, I would say that!




The other podcast that I want to mention is a new episode of THE SHY LIFE PODCAST... 
THE SHY LIFE PODCAST - 7:
I JUST CALLED - TO SAY... SHY YETI!!

Here we are for episode SEVEN!! This time Mr Yeti catches up with an old friend over the phone and shares a couple of dark stories from his blog. Yeti Uncle John finds himself lost and Dameus Twinklehorn has a challenging new role! Not only that but we're back in vinyl vault, hear what Mr Yeti carries around with him and also say a quick hello to an old guest-star! All that and we've a funky (and slightly awful) new tune to dance around the living room to! Thanks again to my special guests this episode - we'll be back again soon - hopefully in the next week to 10 days... Please email me at shyyeti@yahoo.co.uk if you have any comments. The music was by Shy Yeti. This episode and all contents are Copyright Paul Chandler, 2016. Episode 7 was recorded between the 21st and the 23rd June 2016.

You can access the show on iTunes and Acast - or also on Soundcloud...


During my Shy Yeti sketch set in Amsterdam last week I posted some clean-shaven photos of me from around 1998, give or take a year. They were behind the scenes shots taken in black and white by my friend Lee F., during the filming of a series of SUTTON PARK episodes from around that time. I don't actually have that many photos from this period, as I was always so busy behind the camera filming or in front of it showing off; but these pictures are an exception. Here is a link to that post to remind you of the photos that I mean - scroll down to the bottom, to where the script is:

http://thedaffypoet.blogspot.co.uk/2016_06_26_archive.html

Anyway, using these photos on the post gave me the idea to post a number of screen-grabs that I took whilst recording sound clips from old S.P. episodes for the podcast recently. I present them here and have also written a little piece to go with it... The photos are coming up, but firstly I'll try and explain the context of them and roughly when these episodes were filmed...

Most of them are from different episodes of Sutton Park - the ones where I have a goatee are from May 1996 - there are also a couple of me clean-shaved from even earlier (around 1994). Mixed up in all these there is also a photo of our cats Panda and Poppy which was taken in the late 80s or early 90s. Poppy is the grey one and she was my cat when I was growing up - she came to live with us as a kitty around the time of my 4th birthday in 1977. She was a lovely cat and used to "bump heads" to show her affection - she'd also come to see what was wrong if you were upset; I nicknamed her "my second mum". The last two photos here are of me from more recently - the one of me standing by the sea, was taken in San Francisco around the time of my 30th birthday in 2003 and the very bottom one is from September 2007, when I was in Dublin at the Guinness Museum.

For those of you who are interested I have also done a brief post over on my Sutton Park blog-site: www.suttonpark.blogspot.com It's the first one I've done there in six years and over there you'll find some of the photos from this post, alongside shots of some of the other stars of the episodes that I have recently been reviewing.

Anyway... Enjoy! Shy Yeti in the 1990s - before he had even earned that particular nick-name!!



















It's been fun to return to these old Sutton Park episodes as although I made a lot of videos between 1992 and 2000 when I was making the original series, I didn't have that many stills from these videos and so it's nice to take screen-grabs to be able to share with you now. It also led to me writing this week's prose piece which is all about looking back at old photos, although in this case the "story" is written from the point of view of somebody who is ageing backwards - from old to young. It's an idea that's been done by other people before, in different ways, but this is my chance to play around with the idea.


Next post it'll be time to start discussing July's Poetry Café show which is getting excitingly close now. July's going to end up quite a busy month, with more podcast episodes and further Shy Yeti scripts, amongst other things.

More soon!

Yeti hugs,

Paul xx


P.S. I came up with the idea for this prose piece around the 5th May 2016 and have been working on it on and off since then - with a lot of the work done on it the week before this post.

P.P.S. The illustration that follows was done by my friend Lee F back in 1996 - it's an illustration of the nick-name I gave him when I christened him my "creative gnu" rather than guru... I wrote a poem entitled that a few years back now - I really should dig it out to perform at my show!

WHEN TIME MAKES YOU YOUNGER...


There is life -
But for him it is almost over...

There he sits - alone...
A figure in the last years of a long life...
He had been born at the age of 87... 
Ever since he had been getting younger by the year...

Consider it...
A world where time makes you younger...
It is natural here...
It is the same for everyone...

There he sits - in silent contemplation...
It is rare that he gets any time to himself these days; 
For he has recently reached toddler-hood - 
Under constant observation by nannies and family members...
He will grow even more dependent as time moves on...
He will become a baby...
His memories finally fading...

Looking back across the years...
How strange it is to see himself so long ago...
So old and wrinkled...
So different to how he looks now...
Peering out of the photos with a kind of confused wisdom...
As if he, accurately as it happens,
Didn't know quite where he was...
Now, it seems that life had begun,
Just before he had lost his wife.
Beryl had kept him company through many a year...
They had begun distant -
Growing closer as the years receded.
He watched as she grew younger -
They both did, but she had been that much younger than him...
It had been fascinating to see the changes -
To witness the ravages of time slowly relaxing themselves...
She had made a good mother;
At first, independent they had grown into children...
But they are gone now - it has been years...
Soon it will be his turn...
The years that remain for him are turning to months...
He already knows the date of his departure -
For that is determined by the age he was when he arrived...
Back at his death - when everything began...

Beyond the house the world runs backwards - 
The planet grows younger...
Technology regresses and wars undo themselves...
It is just how things are...
Turning the pages one last time...
He closes the book...
It annoys him that he must rest...
His ability to read is rapidly slipping away...
Maybe somebody will come and read him a story -
And then it will be time for his afternoon nap...
He gets so tired these days;
Now that time is short...

Life -
Where the end is actually just the beginning...
And where the beginning now clearly signals the end...
Life... Now it is nearly over...

All contents of this post are Copyright, Paul Chandler 2016.