Aberdeen Word Festival Line-Up Announced

[KarmaTsunami]

Programme - Word Festival, University of Aberdeen

A cracker this year. Going to Alan Warner, Iain Banks, Rhona Cameron and the poetry one with Henry Hart (my creative writing professor!)

[Alan Cynic]

I might go to the one on George MacDonald.

[pete_inthehills]

also check this out ...

Wordfringe: A new writers' festival for Aberdeen and North-East Scotland

Its happening all through May, with loads of things going on. There are several local poets and writers are contributing.

Pete

inthehills

[A.Pel]

Bernard MacLaverty! Excellent, but whats Irish studies without some Seamus Heaney? And Scottish crime without Chistopher Brookmyre?

This is a really good line-up actually.

[KarmaTsunami]

Went and got a couple of tickets for the Roddy Woomble event too.

I mean, they're FREE!! Why the heck not? Cannot WAIT to hear Alan Warner reading.

[Larsen B]

I got tickets for Roddy Woomble, the 100 best scottish poems talk, and the thing with john's burnside and others.

[andrew.]

where is it you get tickets from?

[Angusr]

where is it you get tickets from?

At Booking Form - Word Festival, University of Aberdeen

Angus

[Alvin Starclusk]

I'm slightly disappointed that this isn't just loads of people saying "fit", "quine" and "loon" for a week or two.

[KarmaTsunami]

Apparently missed out on Iain Banks tickets Got for everything else I wanted though!

[Metarie]

Programme - Word Festival, University of Aberdeen

A cracker this year. Going to Alan Warner, Iain Banks, Rhona Cameron and the poetry one with Henry Hart (my creative writing professor!)

I investigated some of Hart's poetry to see if I could suck up to him for the class and I wasn't hugely impressed. But having a poet read out their own poems is usually really interesting, even if the poetry itself isn't. Might come along too.

[Larsen B]

According to Word programme Roddy Woomble is "fresh and articulate". To me he was neither of these things, let alone particularly intelligent and he seemed to be in over his head. Plus he gave unconvincing answers to questions, particularly my own one.

[Rob]

According to Word programme Roddy Woomble is "fresh and articulate". To me he was neither of these things, let alone particularly intelligent and he seemed to be in over his head. Plus he gave unconvincing answers to questions, particularly my own one.

what was your question? and his answer?

[KarmaTsunami]

Really enjoyed Rhona Cameron, she was very warm, funny and intelligent. Her reading was really touching as well.

But Alan Warner, John Burnside and A.L Kennedy was absolutely brilliant. I went for Alan Warner who was fantastic, but A.L Kennedy was a definite hightlight for me.

Unfortunately due to tiredness and laziness the next day i missed Roddy Wooble and the poetry in the morning

[framheim]

According to Word programme Roddy Woomble is "fresh and articulate". To me he was neither of these things, let alone particularly intelligent and he seemed to be in over his head. Plus he gave unconvincing answers to questions, particularly my own one.

hmm, that's kinda unfair. i thought he was quite witty in places and self depracating. he certainly didn't come across as dim. he seemed pretty relaxed and gave good long answers to some fairly dull questions.

was your question about the album representing scotland yet featuring mainly glasgow bands? i felt it was a fairly redundant question which they'd covered early on in the interview.

[Larsen B]

hmm, that's kinda unfair. i thought he was quite witty in places and self depracating. he certainly didn't come across as dim. he seemed pretty relaxed and gave good long answers to some fairly dull questions.

was your question about the album representing scotland yet featuring mainly glasgow bands? i felt it was a fairly redundant question which they'd covered early on in the interview.

He actually failed to answer my question entirely, he failed to tackle the part about the folky side of some of the music being an attempt to compensate for the glasgow-centric aspect of Scottish music. To make an album which is a collaboration between Scottish writers and musicians, and then claim the aim is purely to make 18 good songs (an aim the album also fails to achieve), is totally pathetic. You make such record then automatically, whether you like it or not, and whether it was the intention or not, it becomes part of the culture by which people will define your country. Roddy just anwered as if I said it wasn't representative because there weren't people from every corner of Scotland on it, and then proceeded to ramble on about tartan and shortbread as if i suggested that it would have been more representative of Scottish identity if it features these kind of things. I'll admit that speaking in front of the room full of people I might not have been as articulate as I'd wished, but I think judging by some of the the subsequent questions that some people they knew what I was getting that, perhaps people who were there more generally for the festival than the starstruck fanboys.

[Larsen B]

Seconded. I thought the question was fairly redundant within the context on the talk. He also answered it fairly well and stated that the bands that were on it were the acts that came up with the goods promptly and well. It just so happened that didn’t include some northern acts. It’s not rocket science. What was he suppose to justify to you?

Personally, I really enjoyed his talk. He did come across as being slightly nervous, but wouldn’t you in the same situation?

You clearly didn't read/understand what i said above. Other things which disappointed me were the fact he didn't vote and wouldn't comment on politics in any way and the stupidity of his comment that lyrics aren't poetry except those by Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, without giving any explanation as to what the distinction.

Like I said, regardless of whether or not there was a "masterplan" for Ballads of the Book, the fact that it was a collaboration (at least almost) exclusively between Scottish writers and bands must at least have aspects worth discussing above whether the songs are just good or not and how logistically the whole thing came to together. It is a product of Scottish minds, and clearly some of those minds involved in it has some grander intentions for it, not least Alasdair Gray with his suggested titles, his artwork and the quote he contributed to it, which has strong political implications behind it. The fact that Roddy would only say that there was no masterplan for it and not discuss it's significance any further rather undermines the collaborative nature of the album. Where Scotland is defined by stereotypes of what our nation is, ie tartan, kilts, haggis etc, Ballads of the Book was great opportunity to portray through, some of our best bands and writers, what modern Scotland is really like, or at least to discover what our modern day artists own perceptions of our nation are. In some individual songs this is case, but Roddy Woomble just seems to view it as a novel approach to make some good songs and this to me makes Ballads of the Book, conceptually at least, a rather empty gesture.

[pete_inthehills]

Wordfringe: A new writers' festival for Aberdeen and North-East Scotland

Have any of you checked out any of the wordfringe stuff? Or aren't there enough famous people doing readings?

If like me, you missed "loads of dreads, but no fears" due to its clash with Julian Cope then we all missed a brilliant performance. The next time Rapunzel Wizard is on, I'll nag you all about it. He's excellent.

hope to see some of you at Confessions and Rants at the Arts centre next Monday. That's the next one on my list. But make sure you check out something before the end of the month.

Pete

inthehills

[framheim]

He actually failed to answer my question entirely, he failed to tackle the part about the folky side of some of the music being an attempt to compensate for the glasgow-centric aspect of Scottish music. To make an album which is a collaboration between Scottish writers and musicians, and then claim the aim is purely to make 18 good songs (an aim the album also fails to achieve), is totally pathetic. You make such record then automatically, whether you like it or not, and whether it was the intention or not, it becomes part of the culture by which people will define your country. Roddy just anwered as if I said it wasn't representative because there weren't people from every corner of Scotland on it, and then proceeded to ramble on about tartan and shortbread as if i suggested that it would have been more representative of Scottish identity if it features these kind of things. I'll admit that speaking in front of the room full of people I might not have been as articulate as I'd wished, but I think judging by some of the the subsequent questions that some people they knew what I was getting that, perhaps people who were there more generally for the festival than the starstruck fanboys.

you're right, you are obviously far more intelligent than roddy woomble and he was considerably pwned by your question. get over yourself, you're no paxman and he was hardly squirming in his seat at your devilish question.

i don't see why the prescence of some folk musicians on the album is significant in any way whatsoever. particularly as the folk musicians who are on there are those who are in roddy's circle of musician friends anyway like karine polwart. i think it has more cultural significance because it had no grand plan. if they had made some kind of defined plan for a concept album based around modern scottish identity then the end result would have seemed far more contrived and forced. fair enough the album is patchy but name me one compilation which isn't. as it stands it's a fine testament to musical and literary talent within a cross section of a much larger cultural industry. no conspiracy, no concept, just some good songs.

i think part of the reason he didn't go into too much was also because once it got handed over to chemikal underground he had very little to do with it.

i admit it was frustrating that he wouldn't go deeper into the politics side of things but his political leanings are no business of ours i guess. it's a shame when it's so relevant to everything we do right now.

anyhoo, as i said before it was fairly interesting and i hope the other talks were just as interesting.

[Larsen B]

you're right, you are obviously far more intelligent than roddy woomble and he was considerably pwned by your question. get over yourself, you're no paxman and he was hardly squirming in his seat at your devilish question.

i don't see why the prescence of some folk musicians on the album is significant in any way whatsoever. particularly as the folk musicians who are on there are those who are in roddy's circle of musician friends anyway like karine polwart. i think it has more cultural significance because it had no grand plan. if they had made some kind of defined plan for a concept album based around modern scottish identity then the end result would have seemed far more contrived and forced. fair enough the album is patchy but name me one compilation which isn't. as it stands it's a fine testament to musical and literary talent within a cross section of a much larger cultural industry. no conspiracy, no concept, just some good songs.

i think part of the reason he didn't go into too much was also because once it got handed over to chemikal underground he had very little to do with it.

i admit it was frustrating that he wouldn't go deeper into the politics side of things but his political leanings are no business of ours i guess. it's a shame when it's so relevant to everything we do right now.

anyhoo, as i said before it was fairly interesting and i hope the other talks were just as interesting.

Well i thought the talk was relatively dull and uninsightful. You've basically repeated what he said about it just being good songs, and I've already stated how I find the lack of a concept behind it disappointing so there's no point in getting into that. I'm not saying I'm more intelligent than Roddy (although I probably am), I'm just saying I'm disappointed that he, as the figure head of the whole project, didn't seem to give it's content and concept as much thought as I, and others I know, have given it. Thus the talk was a lot less insightful and interesting than I hoped it would. I get what you're saying about how it might have been contrived if it had a defined concept about modern Scotland, but as I've said it needn't have had such preconceived concept for him to give some kind of analysis of what the actual end product was apart from just being good songs.

And since you ask, I think Ten Years of Tears by Arab Strap is a non-patchy compilation (although I can't think of any various artists compilations which aren't patchy).

Another thing, did you ever find the tray to hand the evaluation sheet in for the prize draw?

[framheim]

Well i thought the talk was relatively dull and uninsightful. You've basically repeated what he said about it just being good songs, and I've already stated how I find the lack of a concept behind it disappointing so there's no point in getting into that. I'm not saying I'm more intelligent than Roddy (although I probably am), I'm just saying I'm disappointed that he, as the figure head of the whole project, didn't seem to give it's content and concept as much thought as I, and others I know, have given it. Thus the talk was a lot less insightful and interesting than I hoped it would. I get what you're saying about how it might have been contrived if it had a defined concept about modern Scotland, but as I've said it needn't have had such preconceived concept for him to give some kind of analysis of what the actual end product was apart from just being good songs.

And since you ask, I think Ten Years of Tears by Arab Strap is a non-patchy compilation (although I can't think of any various artists compilations which aren't patchy).

Another thing, did you ever find the tray to hand the evaluation sheet in for the prize draw?

fair enough then. yea i was meaning various artists compilations as opposed to bands with a consistent body of work.

and no, we did not. i could do with 50 worth of book tokens as well