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Wednesday's music: a bit of a surprise!

9/29/2013

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For the first time, our featured poet will not only be reading but will also be performing as a musician, at London Open Mic Poetry Night’s next event this Wednesday, Oct. 2nd. JAN FIGURSKI is at least as well known for his musicianship as for his poetry. He will open the event at Mykonos Restaurant at 6:30 as the lead singer/guitarist of an impromptu band of four minstrels, including GEOFF JOHNSON on piano, vocalist NINA DAVIS, and our own KEVIN HESLOP on drums. They will close the event as well. 

In an interview with London Open Mic Poetry Night, Figurski described how the one art form led to the other: “The bridge, for me, between poetry and music was my exploration of sound poetry. Like many children of the 60’s I also harboured a desire to be a musician. With sound poetry I opened my toolkit to include performance using sounds; abstract writing that tries to integrate or synthesize different modes of expression such as performance, writing (non-semantic) language, and music. It is a short leap of faith from there to playing music and singing. I was almost 40 when I decided to re-invent myself. I picked up a guitar and began to teach myself. After a couple of years, I began to play at open mic venues. I was meeting other musicians and began playing with ones who played similar music. I was most attracted to American roots music, old jazz, and vocal harmony. I began playing with an indie folk music group called Screen Door Slam. I played mandolin, harmonica, guitar, and sang. After that group disbanded, I played with a group called Paper Moon. Along the way I have found myself playing harmonica and singing with a few blues groups, more recently with the Dave Dillon Blues Band. Most recently I’ve also been doing some studio work, playing harmonica on a couple of indie recordings. The main difference, for me, between the creative processes of making music and of writing poetry is that writing tends to be a solitary experience, it is a form of expression that very few people relate to anymore; music, on the other hand for me is a shared experience, very much in the moment – you kiss the joy as it flies. And music appeals to almost everybody.”

Two members of the London band ‘Big Picture’ will be playing with Figurski and Heslop. Pianist GEOFF JOHNSON and vocalist NINA DAVIS will play during the half hour before the event and up to half an hour afterwards. (If you liked the opening music, don’t go home early.) And they will play alone during the intermission, performing original pieces. Both Johnson and Davis are songwriters, working in a variety of genres, including folk, jazz, rock and blues. 



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KEVIN HESLOP is familiar to most of us as a prolific young poet, with a very active blog on this website. He is also a member of the London Open Mic organizing committee. But we haven’t seen his musical side yet. “I've played percussion for 9 years with various high school groups including Sir F. Banting's Sr. jazz band, Concert Band and Percussion Ensemble. Outside of school I played drums for what ultimately became Tomorrow Depends, an alt. rock group which released a 6 song EP in 2010 and did some opening act stuff in London and the surrounding area.”


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GOOD STORY ABOUT US IN ‘SCENE MAGAZNE’

9/28/2013

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Just out today, the Sept. 26th issue of Scene Magazine features a positive half-page article about London Open Mic Poetry Night in it’s ‘London’s Indie Art’ section. 

The title of the page 17 story is ‘This is what the London poets are doing!’, which is maybe stretching it a bit, but we’re not complaining. 

There are a couple of quotes, one of which describes a small-but-big change we’re making: “We’ve discovered that there are local poets who are really, really good who have never even tried to get a book of their work published, and we’re starting to find those people in the city. So, we will be featuring those people too. They’re beginning to show up (at the events) and so we know who they are,” Burfield said.

Looking forward to seeing a full house at the Oct. 2nd event. Come early to get a seat and to sign up to read at the open mic, as it will be first-come, first-served from now on. Also, come early to hear the live music. (Stay tuned to see who will be playing.)
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BIG NEWS!!!!!

9/20/2013

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THE SCENE is writing an article about us! 

It will be in the Sept. 26th issue, just in time to pack Mykonos for Jan Figurski's reading on Oct. 2nd!!

So anyone who wants to read at the open mic should come early, not only to get a seat but to get on the open mic list. We're no longer picking readers at random but doing it the traditional way. You have to sign up when you come in, first-come, first-serve.

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WE NEED A PIANIST FOR OCT. 2ND!!!

9/19/2013

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If anyone knows a reasonably good piano player (with piano), please pass them on to us. We're trying to form a trio for Oct. 2nd and have a lead guitar/vocalist and a percussionist but are having a hard time coming up with a pianist. 

You can tell the person that even though there's no money in it, the Mykonos is going to be packed that night. You can bet on that. (I know something that nobody else does yet.) And we will give them a lot of good exposure on our internet sights. That aside from 60 or more artsy people in the audience. 

Please pass along my email address: burfield@live.com, or contact me on Fb. The sooner the better. Thanks.
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The videos are up!!

9/18/2013

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In September we had a great poetry reading. Frank Beltrano, the featured poet, was introduced by Ola Nowosad. Following a decision of our Committee, this event was the first one we videotaped. 

For me, it was the first time using the video capabilities of my Nikon SLR camera and found, to my surprise, that it behaved very differently from all other video cameras I had used in the past. The crash reading I had done the night before and during that day were not enough to avoid mistakes during the filming of our event.  

I made several mistakes that were extremely costly and painful. Unfortunately I screwed up the first segment, the one where Ola Nowosad introduced Frank. Everything was going quite well until for some reason I decided to change the focus, but because of the small screen of the camera I didn't realize the image had become blurry until I started editing. So that's the reason you won't see the film of Frank's  introduction.  

Then I made several other mistakes which I will not tell you about in detail or these notes would take many pages. Let me just say that I regret the fact that Frank's reading was cut short because I only had good copy of his second and third poems. Sorry.

Finally, I would like to thank Andreas Gripp, who on that evening read with such conviction and confidence, for accepting that we publish the segment which, against his instructions, I filmed by mistake. In this case, we could say it was a good mistake.

On the part of all of us at London Open Mic Poetry Night, I want to thank everyone of the readers who accepted to be filmed and also promise that in the future there will be fewer mistakes. At least that is the plan.      Erik

Stan: I take no responsibility for this. I want to say right now at the start that doing videos at the open mic was entirely Erik Martinez Richards' idea. I had no part in it. He is using his own camera. He bought the software to produce it. He is making his own mistakes. And he is causing himself a lot of anxiety while I sit here completely relaxed. And also, let's face it, he is providing a wonderful addition to the open mic. There's no getting away from it. In future anyone who liked a poem someone read, but maybe it was read too fast for them or they got distracted and missed a couple lines, will get to see it all over again, assuming the poet allowed it to be taped. And now we have archives. A Great Pyramid is being built over the Mykonos Restaurant. That's right -- in London, Ontario.
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PENN KEMP EXCELS AS PLAYWRIGHT

9/17/2013

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Here is what many of us missed: poet Penn Kemp sparkling as playwright at Eldon House. The Beat raves about it, so maybe one day it will come back. 

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Videos coming

9/16/2013

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Our videographer, Erik Martinez Richards, has found that preparing the videos of the poets at our first event, like any first attempt at anything, is much more time-consuming and difficult than expected. 

Erik had to install and learn how to use new editing software, just for starters, and then discovered that all the videos had to be put in a different format for YouTube, which takes forever, and then there`s all the detailed hassle of creating website pages, posting everything on them, writing blurbs and on and on it goes. 

It makes me smile. 

Now at least one other person is beginning to get a small taste of what it takes to keep this boat sailing. 

Anyway, have patience. The videos are well worth waiting for. And in future events, Erik will have it all down and be as quick as...as....as Erik.

This will be a wonderful addition to the open mic. In future anyone who liked a poem someone read, but maybe it was read too fast for them or they got distracted and missed a couple lines, will get to see it all over again, assuming the poet allowed it to be taped.
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Jan Figurski, our 2nd featured poet of the season

9/15/2013

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Jan Figurski will be the featured reader on Oct. 2nd at London Open Mic Poetry Night. He has already made a name for himself on our open mic stage, not only because of the quality of his poetry but also his great delivery and stage presence. 


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No Summary This First Month

9/11/2013

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Kevin Heslop has an interesting prose style, so during the easy days of summer I asked him if he would like to take over my job of writing the summaries of our open mics. Well in those lazy, hazy days of summer he thought yes that would be fun and agreed. 

Kevin didn’t really realize what he was in for until it all came down on him at once. All right after that first Sept. 4th open mic, right when he was going to write his first summary. 

For starters, there was the stress of registration for his first full year at Western (English and philosophy), and immediately his first classes.  And then everything else he had jumped into. Here’s an email to me Wednesday: “Got a poem into the paper at western today, and I've got two articles going into  tomorrows and thursdays editions. And that's on top of class hours and homework   (just got back from a 3 hour class this evening). So…” And he’ll be a drummer in the university jazz band. And then there’s soccer. And not to forget his constant discharge of poems, which, though rapid, still takes time. 

So I suggested, to Kevin’s relief, that he skip this first summary. I don’t want to be the cause of some 21-year-old guy having a heart attack. Assuming that’s possible.

So no Heslop summary until after our second open mic of the season, October 2nd, featuring Jan Figurski. 

However, any day now we have a batch of videos coming out, taken at last week's open mic. Erik Martinez Richards, our esteemed videographer, is working on them as we speak. As with Kevin, this is Erik’s first shot at his new job for the open mic. It’s his on-the-job training, as he has never done this kind of fussy work before, only your normal vacation shots, etc. But his learning curve is steep, as you’ll see. 
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SEASON 2 LINEUP

9/3/2013

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I will be announcing the lineup for Season 2 at the September 4th event. It is just about complete now, with one spot left to fill, one which can’t be filled until another is finalized. 
 
My initial, fairly naive, idea of how to select featured poets was simply to find all the Londoners who had books or chapbooks published. 
 
The first problem with that is that only twenty-odd Londoners have had poetry books published. At eleven features per season, that means we would have virtually nobody left to feature during Season Three and later.

Well, we’re now entering our second year, and wising up.

For starters, anyone can pay to have a chapbook made. It says nothing about the quality of the poems inside. I may even have that done for some of mine one day. (On the other hand, self-publication doesn’t mean the poetry is poor either, especially these days when there are more and more poets applying to fewer presses for acceptance. Many of the best poets in the city have told me they have long ago given up.)

 It’s also obvious that some of the best poets in the city have no books at all published, many for the same reasons as stated above. So we are beginning to add some of these poets to our feature list. Thankfully we are a group. Decisions like this aren’t up to me alone. And the open mic is the perfect arena for these poets to show off
their talents.

 As well, we’re going to begin taking poets from areas a bit further afield. This season we will have Julie Berry from St. Thomas, but next season we will be asking the cream of the crop from as far away as Sarnia, Stratford and Woodstock.

Also, we are going to add one or two surprise poets-of-stature from even farther away, as we will demonstrate this season. But they will have to be worth it.

And also, we will eventually ask earlier featured poets to give a second appearance.

Done this way, we should be able to carry on being a showcase for mainly local talent indefinitely.
 
What I’m saying is that any local poets whom I contacted at the beginning of Season One and who have still not been featured should not fret. This is part of the grand plan. We are trying to scramble the seasons, mixing well-known poets with less-well-known, Londoners with out-of-towners, those with books with those without.

At the September 4th event, I will list and describe briefly most of the featured poets of this season. As well, I will tell you about some of our new ideas for the year. Hope to see you there.
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NEW: AN OPEN MIC ANTHOLOGY

9/3/2013

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Beginning this season, we are going to publish an annual ebook. It will be an anthology of the poets who have read during the year, including both the featured poets and the open mic readers. 

The ebook will then be available on Amazon at the end of the season, and will cost only a few dollars. 

It will contain one or two poems by each of the season’s featured poets and at least one from each open mic reader. Of course, inclusion in the ebook will be up to the poets. 

Some open mic readers read at a number of events. They can give us as many of the poems they have read as they wish to, and we will select from them for the ebook.  Or they can choose a small number themselves. The number of poems we select will depend on their length.

Of course, all poems that are included must have been read at the events during the season. 

A cautionary note: Some poets may not want certain poems to be included in the ebook because it would make them unacceptable for later publication in certain poetry journals. 

The ebook will include a short biography (up to seven lines) of each poet. This must be included with the poems. We may also add a photo of the poet reading at the event. This hasn’t been decided yet.

To keep transcription errors from creeping into the poems, the preferred way to get them to us is by email. Those who don’t use email can give us a copy at the events.

 Erik Martinez Richards will edit and publish the anthology. His email address is erikf1944@hotmail.com


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