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Monday 12 June 2017

BRAIN DRAIN



Monday 5th June 2017

Lazy day due to working the weekend. Copied up blue notebook poems at Jen’s this morning. We went into Gateshead late afternoon to meet up with Sky Hawkins then down to the Corbyn rally. Pleased we got there early coz place was soon packed. Lots of positive energy. Glad to be among it. Jezza was great. Good to hear North West Durham Labour candidate Laura Pidcock as well. My ears are pretty much mashed from the PA. Forgot plugs. Hope buzzing fades to usual level over the next few hours. Back to Jen’s briefly to get changed then bus to Consett. Pit stop in Tesco then home. A £5 grab-bag of 13 zines on the mat. Some good ones in there – Telegram, Pieces, All Things Ordinary. Facebook then bed. OK. 11.52 pm.


Tuesday 6th June 2017

Should’ve been in bed half an hour ago. Sometimes it’s hard to switch off after the buzz of workshops. Looked at exercises for tomorrow on the bus home tonight. Two young men talking about an easy life in prison. I was tempted to ask them what it’s like doing a two-year stretch coz one of them seemed to think it cushy compared to life on the outside and had no problem with going back inside. Both workshops were good today. I showed someone footage of Corbyn’s Gateshead rally compared to the wide angle pix of the PM in Northumberland last month and they were gobsmacked at the fakery of the Tory campaign. A labour voter, anyway, but unaware of the extent of mainstream media bias. Sick of the fucking rain. Sick of this fucking tinnitus. Supposed to be sunny tomorrow. Probably too hot. 10.52 pm.


Wednesday 7th June 2017

I know you’re not supposed to tell people who to vote for, but fuck’s sake – lose the health service, lose civil liberties, leaders selling death machines to maniacs. You think Tories care about the working class? Those fuckers live in a different world. How many people do you know who earn over eight grand anyway?... Sessions went well today. Was wonderful to meet a workshop first-timer. One hundred years old. She wrote clear, thoughtful prose and fragments of verse… Me and Jenni watched all the pre-election news and a bit of Tonight at the London Palladium. I had six scrambled eggs on toast. Finished the day looking for good poems about places for tomorrow. Will probably stick with what I already had. 11.00 pm.


Thursday 8th June 2017

Five hours sleep. Voted Labour around quarter past seven then prepped my bag for final session of the week. Settings and Dialogue. Some great read backs. Always leave Witton Gilbert feeling relaxed. Bus to Consett. Ordered the new Henry Rollins book ‘Before the Chop Vol 3’ on my tablet in Lloyds bank. Treated myself to an all-day breakfast sandwich, came home around three. Cleared some of the clutter from my bedroom and caught the six o’clock news. Surprisingly little about the election. Watched ‘Hit So Hard’ DVD documentary about ex-Hole drummer Patty Shemel. Then ‘Silver’ – The Mission 25th Anniversary concert recorded at Brixton Academy in 2011. Towards the end of that BREAKING NEWS via Facebook: exit poll predicts hung parliament. Good start, but not getting hopes up. Leaving android tablet downstairs overnight. If tomorrow is sunny first thing I might go longboarding. 11.43 pm.


Friday 9th June 2017

Another five hours sleep. Put the computer on too early and got sucked in again. Told myself I wasn’t going to do that. Pleased Labour had strong gains. But a fucking Tory DUP alliance? If Corbyn was taking up office with extremists how would that go down? Tory hypocrisy is off the scale. Really do want to see Trexit – crying on the steps of Downing Street when backstabbed by her own, just like Thatcher before her. Tomorrow is a new day and I’m going to try to avoid it all. Got hardly anything done today. Just reading page after page of political fallout. Lots of TV coverage. Tired. Sick of it all. Aim to be asleep by half eleven. 11.06 am.


Saturday 10th June 2017

Just got on the X10 to Middlesbrough. Be good to see Toyah Willcox gig at Longlands this evening. Weather picking up. Wish I didn’t have the big coat with me, but last time I ended up sleeping overnight in National Express doorway of the bus station... Good to have a chat with Jenni about the election fallout instead of just reading stuff on social media. Tired of it occupying so much brain space at present. Will stay offline with a zine, I think. 6.24 pm.


Sunday 11th June 2017

Yeah, Toyah was mint. Good Morning Universe, Thunder in the Mountains, Obsolete, Brave New World, Danced, Mystery, Free, IEYA… Got home about 2.15 am. Jenni was still up. We watched a Meatloaf documentary then bed around 3.15 am. Surprised I managed to surface around nine. Mainly just watching TV and trying to stay awake. All the election stuff has kind of worn me down a bit. Some idiot on the bus to Consett: ‘Vote BNP or UKIP – British through and through, me like!’ Clueless. Back to routine tomorrow. 11.30 pm.

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