Idling About

Endless activity keeps me busy and… well, I was gonna say “happy” but that’s not true. Being busy gives me something to do. Sometimes it makes me happy, sometimes it just something to focus on. Anyway, on with the update.

Work: One more article to complete and I’m gone for the rest of the week! Holiday starts on Tuesday.

Idle Nights 2: It went on well. I won’t call it a tough crowd. The ones who were there for it were listening, while the ones who are there because it’s Saturday night weren’t. We had some kids and they were listening so that was cool. I may not be crazy about kids in general but if they like the same things I do, they’re all right by me.

Part of me wished I wasn’t the one to do the organising because I tend to be more critical of things things I should have done differently. Even now, I’m still feeling awkward about a number of things.

However, I really enjoyed meeting Robert and Collin. I’ve really happy that I found them because of what they bring to the event as a whole.

I stumbled upon Robert’s website last month shortly after he and his family moved to Kuching. I contacted him and told him about IN. He was all for it. He’s one of those writers who write about the Malaysian life in a way that makes me feel like I’ve lived here all my life and have seen nothing. If you haven’t read anything by him, go to his website and pick up that free download.

Collin’s name was given to me by a colleague of mine who used to be in his class. His first time at a lit event and he earned the most number of dreamy female sighs from the room! (See, this is what happens when half your poetry is about the end of a relationship… we all want to take you home now.) Ribbing aside, his poetry actually made sense. They are all mini stories, and at the end of it, you get an immediate reaction.

Speaking of poetry that get an immediate reaction, Cucur Pisang Boy!! I feel sorry for those who don’t understand Malay, because it was funny!

Azreen came up with a something for the “Aku Sepasang Kasut” prompt and a flash fairy tale. I want to get copies of both. One started out pleasant and ended up sad. The other was just sinister and right up my alley.

As for me, I read a story I wrote in one hour at seven that same morning. It was a Kasut prompt as well.

Maggie reprised her crazy Zombie Maggot piece for Open Mike and gave us a couple of new ones. Robert and Collin followed with extras. I was considering doing the same but the Saturday crowd was starting to outnumber the lit crowd so we ended it there.

Fariah was a last minute stand-in for an MC but I like her style a lot. We may need her to do it again too. ;-)

Near the end of the evening, someone handed me her card and asked if she could join us for the next show. Well, yay!

They are videos but we all have to wait for me to come back from KL to sort it out with the crew. I did a quick post-mortem with them after the show. Not only did they have fun as well, they also offered to provide a mike the next time because the one in MOJO wasn’t exactly the kind you use for reading.

Thank you’s go out to everyone involved – those who posted about the event in their blogs, SMSed or emails their friends about us, and stepped into help when I ran to them crying.

Idle Nights 2

Or if you prefer something smaller:

Idle Nights – The Post Mortem

Now that Idle Nights is over, I need a new project!

But honestly, organising-wise I only did a small part. Gerald handled the venue and related logistics. British Council brought Francesca over. I only did what I’d normally do anyway… find people and coax them into doing something they may not necessarily want to do!

It was such an awesome night, I’m still shocked. One of the things I regret not doing that night is hand out a feedback form or at least, a sign-up-for-notification list. When I meet people who attended, I want to ask them how they found out about the event and what they thought.

My ex-colleagues, who came solely for the purpose of cheering me on, admitted that they were planning to slip out when things got boring. They didn’t get a chance. They ended up sitting there all night, stunned by how much they were enjoying themselves.

My other regret is that we didn’t think to engage a videographer!

Overall feedback has been positive. I think every performer has their share of people who liked them and people who didn’t. The pattern is pretty clear – some only liked the poetry, while others preferred the stories. But at least we got a good mix of the two!

Everybody loved Francesca Beard, of course. There’s really nothing not to like. As the press release from British Council promised, she broke down “old perceptions of poetry and how it is presented”.

What most of the audience members probably didn’t realise is that just hours before the show, she sat down to listen to us newbies read during our dry run. She was very generous with her praise, made some helpful suggestions on how to present our work and told us to read to the group again. If you thought we did good, you should have heard us before!

Maclean, who is no newbie at reading to a crowd, also had some reassuring words. He is a serendipitous find and I now remember how it happened. I was looking at my counter referrals and one of the incoming was a google search for Songwriters Round at MOJO. I clicked in to the search page and one of the hits was Maclean’s entry on the very first Songwriters Round when I met him for the first time. I clicked around and found his writing.

It was also great that he was more than happy to join us at such short notice. If he heemed and hawed at me, I would have just moved on.

Overall, it was a fun night… probably more fun that most people anticipated!

To those of you who shared the first Idle Night with us, thanks for your support! We’ll see you next round, eh?

These people were there:
* CatsCity Forum
* Robin
* Blog of Zack
* Samantha
* Yi Hong
* Aaron

Blogged about the event too? Comment!

Some of my photos are here.

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