You were young and beautiful,
the long red hair, dyed
but not vibrant, not outlandish
or gaudy, just beautiful
which matched your eyes
in a playful, yet stern like feature, a Cleopatra
as she maintained order and brought
generals and leaders to their quivering knees;
you were beautiful and for a while
I was lost in your young eyes
dancing in alert fashion
on the way to Waterloo.
It was only as I went to leave
the bus that I noticed the old man,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
First they tell the artist that their work is just a pastime, next they tell the writers they are being foolish, they have always decried the poet but when they start on the musician, there is nobody left to defend them. All art is under attack by those without imagination, by those who seek to undermine the process of creativity; for the artist suffers and like the coal miners in which Matt Dunbar speaks so eloquently of, once they are done with that spark of genius or labour, they will then come after everybody else.
It takes an artist of brilliance
to understand the pain
and suffering of living inside a man made rock,
to become one with the shell
and survive a week
and come out blinking out the new formed light
and standing weakly for a while
whilst the legs take back control…
…ask many a politician to come out from under the rock
and see them insist
that they understand the suffering of the poor,
the forgotten and the damned…
I salute Abraham
as I wonder who kicked the other rock over
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
There are those demons who take possession very seriously, who wander through the valley of spirits undisturbed by the reckless, the beige and the ones suffering in their own denial. They wander until the right person comes along with a plan of action formulating in their mind, their sense of belief burgeoning, pulsating in time with the heartbeat of the Universe; the demons find their target and give the artist the meaning behind their often enjoyable and tremendous live appearances.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are those who see honesty as a virtue, as the cleanest response to a world which celebrates the liar and the thief with equal applause, it is to be admired and seen as the value of the person that they will confess their sins or speak the truth when all around them is cowering in a bucket load of lies. There are those, however that sees the Honest Man as dangerous, as treacherous to the cause of furthering ambition and is the reason why those who seek power quake silently at the questions asked in frank, candid expression.
I remember when the king fell.
I remember being told
of his passing and my world crumbling apart,
no final goodbye, no conclusion
to any conversation that we had
had before, no ultimate
declaration, no absolution
just something that became terminal.
Goodbye my King,
I think of you everyday
however on this unhappy day,
I always endeavour to be the squire
you imagined I would be, a knight
I am not yet worthy, a king
in your place I decline and pass
Your book is taunting me.
Bright blue cover, hidden meanings
inside a passage, inside a word,
an attic inside a loft, inside a castle
and I barely find my way out of the maze
in the garden, secret holes
in which wait to be uncovered, yet
I have neither knowledge nor clue
in how to peer through
the remains of the branches and leaves,
the web strewn across
from spine to leaf.
Your house, a treasure island
built on an estate,
no guards, all welcome
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The auditorium inside the Capstone Theatre has been one which has opened its extensive arms to the world of Jazz beyond its normally perceived conceptions, it has enlightened in such a way that to think of an International Jazz Festival in Liverpool without the Capstone’s involvement is to commit an act of musical treachery.
It is in its offerings that the music has flowed, it has been greatly received and has been enhanced by the surprise packages that make up the early Saturday afternoon, the tantalising glimpses into a realm of fusion, of discovery, of Jazz but in not in a sense of the normal but in the glowing sphere of breathtaking blend and union.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Jazz might get its detractors, the sneering or the snide remarks in which it has taken with grace and humour over the decades, a medium which really does not get the support it fully deserves or the appreciation of the skill involved. It is perhaps easy to be critical of something which on the face of it offers only a sense of imagination, it is though in the very heart of that sincere vision that Jazz truly gets under the skin in such a way that it ripples with intellect and meaning.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Mahershala Ali, Aldis Hodge, Glenn Powell, Kimberley Quinn, Olek Krupa, Dane Davenport.