BATMAN versus SUPERMAN versus JUKE: Superheroes/Villains Special Edition…

 

P R O L O G U E

March 2016 will welcome the first of two major “Superheroes Decide to Start Punching Each Other For Some Reason”movies when Batman and Superman finally return to the big screen and…basically punch each other in the face a lot then become best pals who join forces to punch somebody who will punch us all, if they don’t punch him first (oh sorry, is that a spoiler?)

T H E      M A I N      E V E N T

…March 2016 also welcomes the return of…

,

JUKE: Every third Tuesday of the month…Cardiff…Open mic at Little Man Coffee Company…Organised, overseen and hosted by RENN

See below for a recap of the February 2016 JUKE, with pics by Paula Hughes (or was it Marty McFly?), then…

CLICK HERE for details of the next JUKE, Tues, March 15th…The theme is WAR and the feature performer is RACHEL HELENA WALSH…But First…

February JUKE…Superheroes and Villains…

Hosted by…THE RENN

Fresh from saving Cardiff City from the schemes of the dastardly Doctor Future, The Renn swooped in to welcome all to another wide ranging banquet of wordy goodness

Me, looking like a complete tool!

Skits were skitted…verses were versed…poems were poemed…songs were songed…Having previously growled out Do Not Go Gently Into That Dark Knight at JUKE I nearly did it again, but went with something written specifically for the event, Silly Sarcastic Superhero Song…

Many tackled the hero/villain theme and presented wildly different takes on heroic/villainous activities, and the real heroes of our lives, family and doctors were not forgotten…unlike the often deserted tragic heroine of Fran Murphy’s heartfelt song, left alone, down on her luck when evildoers run amok, her other half shows lots of pluck, but where is he when she wants to…hug?

Humour and heartbreak and harsh experiences fed the words heard at JUKE. It was a glorious night…Until The Renn’s sworn enemy Doctor Future burst in to interrupt proceedings…. and had to be dealt with in the only way possible…RAP BATTLE!

The Renn Sprays Syllables to Floor Her Nemesis…

Doctor Future Rhymingly Retorts…

The good people at JUKE saw a clear victory for The Renn. The Evil people at JUKE saw matters differently, which just  goes to show that the whole good versus evil thing is sometimes a matter of personal perspective…

E P I L O G U E

Thanks Renn and The Renn (never seen in the same place at the same time, for some reason) and as usual, the event was skilfully tweeted live, by Vincent Thomas

Thanks for the pics, from camera wielding, song singing and poetry slinging Marty McFly costume wearing Paula Hughes!

Had a cool night at JUKE again, and was pleased by the reaction to  my Silly Sarcastic Superhero Song…then stutteringly flustered as I returned to my seat, when The Renn asked if I would write her a theme song. I did write one and it may be heard publicly, if trouble comes to Cardiff City again, prompting the Return of The Renn…

NEXT JUKE MARCH 15th…details here

Me looking a complete tool

 

My Website

A Humbling Moment in Ten Words

JUKE OPEN MIC…FREE EVENT…SUPERHERO AND SUPERVILLAIN THEME…16.02.16

JUKE IS BACK AND THIS TIME…IT’S HEROIC!!!   (AND VILLAINOUS)

Renn will be your organiser and host and I’ll be there offering some nonsense or other….themed material is welcomed but not compulsory, do you have a spoken word performance piece or dynamic duo of poems you wish to perform….or if you just want to be entertained by a great variety of voices and performance styles to tease and tantalise…be there or regret it forever…are you coming?

Write up/pics from January, of previous,

Bowie Tribute Themed Juke

MY WEBSITE/E-BOOK INFO/OTHER STUFF

HEY, JUKE…19/01/2016…Spoken word night with some tributes to The Thin White Duke

“It was a reasonable request

From Renn, who’s flamboyantly dressed

Bring a tribute to David B

For this evening at J, U, K E…”

With this affectionate (and slightly cheesy) reworking of the opening of Life On Mars I began my slot during the open mic at…

Will say more about my own Bowie tribute  after the following…

JUKE is a free monthly open mic spoken word event organised and hosted by Renn…

Via JUKE (held at The Little Man Coffee C0, third Tuesday every month), Renn aims to provide a showcase for spoken word performance and poetry that explores, stretches and even sometimes breaks the boundaries and delivers the unexpected to the impressive audience numbers JUKE attracts…

Much of the evening is open mic but there are always feature performers and this month they were…

Gemma June Howell, author of ROCK LIFE

and

Beatbox Hann

Gemma’s reading, mostly from Rock Life, played with, argued with and embraced the stereotypical images often portrayed of people from the valleys, filling her words with the realities of life as lived by people who are more often than not mocked for merely existing and being poor. As a council estate born kid who ended being taken into care along with my sisters, I certainly appreciated the humour and fire of poems demanding people consider that there might possibly be more to people from whatever their circumstances are than meets the headlines of our national press

Beatbox Hann, as his name suggests, produced simultaneous sounds from what seemed to be his entire body  assembling grimy heavy beats element by element until there was so much going on at once that the audience reaction can only be summed up as ‘Holy Shit!’

Not only did features set up the mood for the open mic sections, they also returned at the end to combine their talents, with Hann providing the backing for some soulful singing from Gemma…

Gemma and Hann created the frame for the evening and now it is time to fill in the rest of the picture…firstly, given the Bowie tribute theme of the evening, special mention must go to…Fran Smith

A lifelong fan of Bowie, Fran turned up having gone ‘The Full Ziggy’ make-up wise and backed up her costume, as did Renn when she opened the night, with poetry constructed from references to classic Bowie hits. Renn and Fran, each of them a Star, Man 🙂

And now, with pictures from Fran and me, an overview of the evening…

Memorable in some ways you had to be there to truly appreciate, Renn’s January  JUKE welcomed a head spinning variety of approaches to the written and spoken word from the warm, to the icy, the intellectual, to the surreal, moments of edginess, hilarity and drama in the verbal selection box that is JUKE. Many thanks to Renn and the venue for what has become a very popular night out!

JUKE will be back in February at The Little Man Coffee Co…

ADDENDUM: My own Bowie Tribute…

Being not the flamboyant type generally, I pushed the boat out according to the parameters of my rather self-conscious personality and deliberately, recklessly wore…

Odd Socks…

Having got a (small) laugh from the audience out of that, in response to the death of Bowie I mused on mortality with Post Mortem Blues and put out hope that people don’t merely aspire to be like their icon of choice, but work to complete the picture of themselves, for themselves, with All Stars Will One Day Die

Then, at severe risk to my dignity, I attempted theatricality,  asking the audience to pretend I was capable of communing with the departed Thin White Duke  and through me he would sing my attempted Bowie style tribute to…

Odd Socks

No pair

Mismatched

Together…

Beneath a

Suit so sharp

That it severs…

Persona, conceal you

Peel back surface, reveal you

You got no one, you got no one

You got no one but each other…

Odd socks, odd socks,

We’re all

Odd socks, odd socks…

We got no one, We got no one

We got no one but each other…

MY WEBSITE

 

New Year…New JUKE…Bye Bowie…

 

FREE OPEN MIC EVENT, 3rd TUESDAY EVERY MONTH AT LITTLE MAN COFFEE CO. CARDIFF…NEXT JUKE WILL BE ON TUES JAN 19th 2016, for details see HERE

JUKE is a free open mic spoken word event organised and hosted by this person, whose name is Renn…Renn’s JUKE event wants to push the boundaries of spoken word performance and all kinds of verbal shenanigans will be found there, from guest performers and the open mic section. Come along, look, listen, put your name down if you have five minutes of stuff to share or want to try out your stuff and your style on living and breathing audience members! COME ALONG, IT’S FREE AND THE NIGHT IS SURE TO BE A BLAST!!!

The recent loss to the world of David Bowie has led Renn to suggest participants may if they wish pay tribute in whatever fashion  suits them, in word or clothing choices. I plan to have a go at that, and when I opened the evening last time for the Christmas JUKE, my slot included my face looking like this…

I’ll be making more faces Tuesday nght, and below you will find lots of other faces in photos from the night of the Christmas JUKE , like all of these in this blog, provided by poet and singer Paula Hughes…

So roll up, roll in and join JUKE, to listen, to take part or both!! FUN WILL BE HAD SO BE GOOD TO YOURSELF AND COME TO JUKE!

 

MY WEBSITE (with details of my three e-books and other wonderful things))

JUKE…New Cardiff Spoken Word Launch…Special Guest Performers and Open Mic

J U K E

NOVEMBER 17th 2015 from 7.30pm

IF YOU AREN’T COMING

TO

LITTLE MAN CAFE

FOR THIS

YOU BETTER BE

DOING SOMETHING

TRULY AMAZING

BECAUSE THIS

WILL BE

AMAZING

FOR SURE.

CREATED AND HOSTED BY RENN

A GENUINE LIVE WIRE

POWERING

JUKE

OPEN MIC PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS 

MAB JONES, ROSEY BROWN

FRANK THOMAS AND WILL FORD (yikes, me!)

My own performance will feature A Very Morrissey Christmas (after all, it is mid November and the Christmas lights are shining), A Gentle Whisper (to the despondent), Customer Service for Slave Owners, T.O.B.E.V.O.L, Batman and more.

Booty Booty Bum

Booty Bum Bum Booty

The night will be fun

And moving

And fruity

my website