Poetry, trying to “get it”

Unlike some people, I “get” Jazz and I “get” Prog Rock but despite numerous attempts I can’t seem to “get” Vic & Bob. Also on my “I don’t get it” shelf is poetry.
I felt it was time to move poetry to somewhere else in my mind space (no chintz allowed) and that’s why I find myself attending a poetry evening at The Craiglands Hotel put on as part of the Ilkley Literature Festival.

I have a barely suppressed feeling of entering a familiar but somehow different reality as I sit down and wait for the fun to start. People are chatting about poetry, poets and their personal favourites and I feel apart, left out and bereft of conversation. To me “iambic pentameter” sounds like a device Walter Bishop would invent on the sci-fi programme Fringe and I feel slightly uncomfortable. Then, horror of horrors, the person next to me asks me a question about the poets appearing tonight… now I know how a rabbit feels heading towards speeding wheels. Neatly dodging the question by asking one of my own, the evening starts.

Tonight, three poets are reading from their collections.
First up is Paul Bentley. Brought up in the South Yorkshire coalfields, his first reading is a section of a long and powerful poem about the miners’ strike. He finishes with a football related poem regarding traditional team rivalries. I think I would need to study Paul’s poems on the written page to appreciate all that he was conveying tonight.

Paul is followed by Jonathan Davidson and his poems are personal, nostalgic and humorous with the unexpected appearance of death and mortality in a lot of them. So much so, that I can imagine Pratchett’s Death sitting at the back (thinking in capitals of course) and nodding sagely whilst wearing a beret and puffing on a Gauloise.

The final poet is Ian McMillan. Another of the Barnsley professional Yorkshiremen alongside Dickie Bird and Michael Parkinson, Ian’s poems, when he can fit them in around an almost non-stop raconteur patter, are funny and observant. He’s fast becoming another national treasure.

The evening ends with a Q&A session and then I reflect on three poets with completely different approaches to the medium and all of them making me stop and think about subject matter and observation.

So, do I “get “ poetry now?

Nope, but I am starting to appreciate the breadth of what poetry can be and a desire to understand more. Where to start is the issue.

Now, where did I put that Shooting Stars box set 

Village Update - more like a catch up!

The Scout Hut is no more :-(
Scouts and Beavers/Cubs are now meeting in "temporary" venues until the Parish Council and the local leaders can determine a permanent venue... I don't think I will hold my breath over that after the acrimonious debacle over the Parish Council "providing" a new alternate venue...seems local politicians are no different from those on a larger stage.

Access to Ilkley Grammar School for Addingham residents was eventually resolved, for now, but the spectre of future problems looms. Attention now moves to the possible redevelopment of the IGS site with the "best" solution from a bad bunch being a new purpose-built campus in Ben Rhydding. Needless to say, there is local opposition in Ben Rhydding to increased noise/traffic issues and concern in Addingham that the school is even further to travel to - possibly meaning further catchment area issues. Ho hum.

Here's a link to Education Bradford's website on the programme. Given that IGS is in phase 3 and phase 2 is only just getting under way; we may have a long wait for a new school wherever it may be.

Occasional Musings...

Very occasinal given that there has been no blog for over a year!
God knows ewhat I'd do if I had to twitter.

Village Fault Lines Appear...

and they're nothing to do with the recent UK earthquake.

Last week it was announced that around 17 children from Addingham Primary School were not allocated places at Ilkley Grammar School. The impact of this on the local village community is likely to be large.
Whilst the Ilkley Gazette article last Thursday touched on some of the issues, there is a danger that the fact that the children are being offered places at Greenhead school in Keighley will raise the spectre of racism due to its' location and catchment area.

Ilkley Grammar School has been the school of choice for children in the Wharfe valley for a long time, in fact some people would be hard placed to determine a state-run alternative. The Staff at IGS have worked hard to provide exemplary teaching standards in a school wanting for space and investment from Bradford Met. The school is regularly one of the highest achievers in the district and even attracts sixth-formers from the private schools in the area.

However, space is limited and now there are not enough places for this years prospective attendees. The end result is heartache for local children who are now told they can't go to their school of choice alongside their classmates because of where they live in the village. At the time of blogging this, there was no evidence of similar issues in Burley or Ben Rhydding.

A line has effectively been drawn within the village.

How will this affect the education of those affected?
Unfortunately, Greenhead is under "Special Measures" and the other offered alternative of Airedale has only just come out of "special measures" - significant for those school's existing pupils let alone the families of children who expected to go to the local Wharfedale school.

How will this affect housing?
Well, spookily Addingham has always been seen as feeder school for Ilkley Grammar and people have moved into the village to take advantage of this (there's a surprise)...the recent decision is likely to have a significant impact on housing decisions in future years!

How will this affect the village?
Alongside the house price apartheid issue, initially I thought it would split the village but now we seem to be seeing a pulling together of the community in opposition to the decision and the future ramifications.
There's a meeting at Addingham Primary School on Thursday 13th March for concerned people to meet with Education Bradford.

I'm sure I'll reurn to this issue in the near future.

Way out of here!

Leeds Metropolitan University Union - Porcupine Tree 9th December 2007

Another trip to see PT. Supported by Anathema who were not my cup of tea but seemed to apply themselves earnestly and had a stand-in drummer - not easy for either party I guess and not sure what he was stood in :-).

This tour was billed as Tour of a Blank Planet and the set list was, as expected, focussed on FOABP but with some interesting oldies like Waiting appearing. Couple of the songs seemed a tad ragged but found myself bouncing along to Open Car and Sleep Together like, like, well like a dad that can't dance!

Moving back to things Addingham...
Today (13th December) is local Parish Councillor election day in the village and I will be down at the Memorial Hall to cast my vote later this evening. If we don't vote on these things we can't really expect to be able to complain if our elected representatives don't follow through on issues we hold dear. For me the election boils down to picking someone I don't know about or an ex-councillor I know reasonably well and who is known to be anti-Scout Hut. I guess that last sentence really tells me which way I will lean tonight. Not sure if that's a good enough reason to vote for someone I don't know from Adam but I suppose that's the nature of local politics...we make judgements on how close a candidate's views match our own rather than the bigger picture.

The saga of the Medical Centre/Scout Hut continues at a snail's pace and I wonder whether we will ever see a new permanent venue for the village.

I see in the press that Sustrans has obtained a £50M grant from the Lottery to provide further cycle paths and expect that to kick off the village civil war again over who is right and who is wrong over the proposed path to Bolton Abbey.

Village Politics - Don't Ya Just Love It?

Ho hum, already into another week with work, MBA studying and village (non) issues vying for my attention.

My company Trigold approaches it's year end; so it's busy, busy, busy with budgets and salary reviews whilst the hard-pressed accounts team prepare for repelling boarders from our auditors.

I am slap bang in the middle of the Accounting and Finance module of my part-time MBA at Bradford University and I'm battling to get balance sheets to balance and digest a fairly dry tome on A&F.

This time of year is the start of rehearsals for the Addingham village pantomime. This year we're doing Jack and the beanstalk but MBA commitments mean I'm sidelined as Treasurer (a good way of testing what I've learnt on the MBA?). Thought I was in for an easy time of it but oh no...ructions at the village hall over booking means we're all falling out. Everyone getting het up with threats of reprisals on a bunch of people trying to pull together a panto as a fundraising event. Hopefully things can be smoothed out and life can return to normal.

To cap it all, the village Scout Hut is rapidly decomposing in front of us and the start of the build of the new medical centre approaches with not permanent scout meeting place sorted...time to lock horns, in a nice way, with the Parish Council again. Pity they're too busy dealing with cycle tracks (echoes of Zimbabwe "land grab" according to the Ilkley Gazette) and the location of a bus stop! Yes, it's all high drama in Addingham, anyone would think we live in a cross between the Trueman Show and Emmerdale.

Finding solace in music seems to help and currently I'm rifling through my Rush and Porcupine Tree back catalogues following the recent Rush concert trip and an impending trip to see Porcupine Tree at Leeds Metropolitan University. A chance for a gorup of PT fans from work to see the band before they, the band, take a year off.
If you're a King Crimson fan, then ensure you get Tony Levin's new album Stick Man onto your Christmas list. It's the nearest we've got to KC recently and bodes well for the likely KC return in 2008, although Robert Fripp's soured relationship with UK music press means we're unlikely to see them live I'm afraid.

Interweb revalation of the week for me...
Found this DivX site, which is great for downloading music videos to play on my Archos 605 www.stage6.com

Village Fault Lines

Well,
some 4 or 5 months since the election of a new Parish Council, how far have we progressed?

The Addingham/Bolton Abbey Cycle Route
Continues to divide the village with a significant amount of bad blood and feeling being whipped up by the Ilkley Gazette. The next step is probably the daubing of doors with slogans by one or other of the parties involved or maybe a hunt, by local landowners on horseback, of the pro-route brigade.

The Addingham Medical Centre
Inches forwards. At least now we have a doctor in the frame to build it and I understand the tendering process has started...albeit on the proviso that the Scout Hut will be demolished on time and a home can be found for Beavers/Cubs/Scouts. Not sure where the kids who smoke/drink behind the hut will go, maybe a local councillor will invite them round for tea and crumpets?

The Addingham Community Pavilion
Started as a new Scout Hut and is now an all-singing, all-dancing community facility costing a significant amount of wonga.
Whilst the facilities for organisations using it (Scouts, football, tea dances...) will be superb, it seems a lot of money. Can't help wondering whether the Youth Centre could be extended/refurbished for a lot less?

Thought we had reached the nadir but then....
Bus Shelter Blues!
It seems there's now an argument over the siting of a bus shelter in the village and, yet again, feelings are running high and letters are pinging off to the Ilkley Gazette. Glad to see that the important matters in the world are being dealt with by the village.