Wednesday 24 December 2014
Tuesday 23 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 23
We kicked off the advent calendar with a Birdbook sample from the future. For our penultimate entry, then, a Birdbook sample from the past, and our very first volume. Tis the most Christmassy of birds, the fat old robin!
Poem by the ever-compelling Bethany Settle and artwork by the very talented Katherine Leedale.
The dark day I first
Grasped intuition
Robin
You were my reward
Lesson:
That which is needed
May be singing
To you
From several miles away
I learnt backwards,
Years later,
Now
Dipdipping
Chitchitchitting
You sung me
What is
Beneath skin, feathers
Atoms
So light - reboned, rescaled
I watched me from you
How hungry we both were
Now, years later,
We sing in all directions
We are the same,
Robin. Light,
Matter has dressed you in red,
But I can put it on
(And most days, do)
Poem by the ever-compelling Bethany Settle and artwork by the very talented Katherine Leedale.
Robin
The dark day I first
Grasped intuition
Robin
You were my reward
Lesson:
That which is needed
May be singing
To you
From several miles away
I learnt backwards,
Years later,
Now
Dipdipping
Chitchitchitting
You sung me
What is
Beneath skin, feathers
Atoms
So light - reboned, rescaled
I watched me from you
How hungry we both were
Now, years later,
We sing in all directions
We are the same,
Robin. Light,
Matter has dressed you in red,
But I can put it on
(And most days, do)
Monday 22 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 22
More stocking fillers from the editors! Kirsty delves into the pillowcase today. My clearest memory of Christmas morning was the traditional orange in tin foil, which I'm beginning to think was only a tradition for my family.
Space bomb
out of space
out of wardrobe
out of stockings
take my key
take my filth away
peel the stash of magazines
the clinging pith
the parasite segment
the squirt
and leave my family
a ripe, respectable body.
Choose me, Pigtails.
A cigar of a bar
stubborn with fudge.
Choose me, Roller Skates.
Soft from central heating,
caramel melting.
Choose me, T-Rex.
A bag that is air
and air and there a sweet.
Choose me, Banana.
Stick-you peanuts
and a crust of rippled cocoa.
Choose me, Gossip.
Jelly thumblets.
Crystalled with sugar.
Choose me last, Worryball.
One vicious bite
and I'll shatter into sticks.
Orange on Silver
Space bomb
out of space
out of wardrobe
out of stockings
take my key
take my filth away
peel the stash of magazines
the clinging pith
the parasite segment
the squirt
and leave my family
a ripe, respectable body.
Selection Box
Choose me, Pigtails.
A cigar of a bar
stubborn with fudge.
Choose me, Roller Skates.
Soft from central heating,
caramel melting.
Choose me, T-Rex.
A bag that is air
and air and there a sweet.
Choose me, Banana.
Stick-you peanuts
and a crust of rippled cocoa.
Choose me, Gossip.
Jelly thumblets.
Crystalled with sugar.
Choose me last, Worryball.
One vicious bite
and I'll shatter into sticks.
Sunday 21 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 21
It's Quizmas time! Time, that is, for the last of our Sunday quizzes, the title of which is ...
Saturday 20 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 20
Stocking fillers!
Time for some brand new poems. You've done all your shopping, but! You're with a few gaps here and there. The pillowcase isn't quite stuffed. The stockings hang somewhat limply where they ought to bulge. Time for some traditional Christmas top-up gifts.
Coal
A snowman’s plucked eye,a fire nest’s dislodged egg.
Stubby underworld agent
who vanishes in the crowd.
Coal, you’re a born tumbler,
bunker to scuttle to hearth
to skin you bright with dust.
Wooden Soldier
Mercenary, partisan or deserter -young, headlong from a skirmish.
His gloss the gloss of shined boots,
of blood, of a new glass consolador.
Friday 19 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 19
Day 19 of the Sidekick Advent Calendar brings us to the final character from our series on A Christmas Carol, a ruddy-faced young man who embodies the Christmas spirit and drives Scrooge up the wall.
Yes, today's guest is Fred, Scrooge's ever-optimistic nephew, in a poem written by Sidekick editor Kirsten Irving. Each card will fit a size DL envelope. Click here for the printable PDF and let the party begin!
Yes, today's guest is Fred, Scrooge's ever-optimistic nephew, in a poem written by Sidekick editor Kirsten Irving. Each card will fit a size DL envelope. Click here for the printable PDF and let the party begin!
Thursday 18 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 18
Poems from the editors #2
At Christmas it's traditional for children who are desirous of gifts to write letters to Father Christmas.
It's also traditional (arguably) for girls to write letters to skeletal phantasms declaring their devotion. Here's a stirringly fine example of the form.
Wednesday 17 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 17
Our third and final Christmas monster appears! The most dangerous yet? Quite possibly!
We're talking about The Artist. Waiting under cover of darkness to create dissident, corrupting images and weld together unnatural words, this fiend is a master of disguise.
Thankfully, Sidekick Books has published Confronting The Danger of Art, by noted scholars Ian McLachlan and Phil Cooper.* A useful guide to spotting the Artist in your town and reporting them to the appropriate authorities, this pamphlet may well become your best friend.
Here is an excerpt on the threat posed by Art to our communities, our children, our very lives.
* who are DEFINITELY NOT POETS OR ARTISTS.
Move over, Krampus!
 |
| *pant* Can't believe I ran up that big hill for *pant* this! |
While Krampus himself is easy to spot, with his frightening visage (that badass German children are totally unafraid of), this final demon is all the more terrifying because they could be anywhere. Worse: they could be anyone.
We're talking about The Artist. Waiting under cover of darkness to create dissident, corrupting images and weld together unnatural words, this fiend is a master of disguise.
Thankfully, Sidekick Books has published Confronting The Danger of Art, by noted scholars Ian McLachlan and Phil Cooper.* A useful guide to spotting the Artist in your town and reporting them to the appropriate authorities, this pamphlet may well become your best friend.
Here is an excerpt on the threat posed by Art to our communities, our children, our very lives.
* who are DEFINITELY NOT POETS OR ARTISTS.
Tuesday 16 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 16
On the 16th day of Christmas, the Sidekick Advent Calendar gives to you the jolliest boss in fiction!
In 2011, we commissioned six splendid poems to print as Christmas cards, starring characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Now we're giving each one away as a download, so you can print them yourself, and have a very moral Christmas (sort of)! Each card will fit a size DL envelope.
Today's presence is Mr Fezziwig, Scrooge's magnanimous employer, in a poem written by Wayne Holloway-Smith, host of the salons immortalised in our anthology Follow The Trail of Moths. Click here for the printable PDF and get customising your card!
In 2011, we commissioned six splendid poems to print as Christmas cards, starring characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Now we're giving each one away as a download, so you can print them yourself, and have a very moral Christmas (sort of)! Each card will fit a size DL envelope.
Today's presence is Mr Fezziwig, Scrooge's magnanimous employer, in a poem written by Wayne Holloway-Smith, host of the salons immortalised in our anthology Follow The Trail of Moths. Click here for the printable PDF and get customising your card!
Monday 15 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 15
Lots of us are planning on taking in a Christmas movie this December, which seems as good a reason as any to revisit one of our favourite Irregular Features articles, in which The Judge looks at the poetics of the movie trailer.
And by way of a segue, our gif is from The Dead Poets Society. RIP RW.
And by way of a segue, our gif is from The Dead Poets Society. RIP RW.
Sunday 14 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 14
It's time for the second of our Sunday quizzes, this time returning to the well-traversed territory of British birds. But from a new angle! These colder months are, after all, a time for filling up bird feeders to the brim, even if the only place to hang them is outside the front window in front of someone else's parking space, as in the old Sidekick HQ. The species that feature in this quiz aren't necessarily winter birds, but you may encounter a few of them on your brisk December walks.
Saturday 13 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 13
Our Sidekick Advent Calendar strikes 13, and a small waif knocks at the door!
In 2011, we commissioned six splendid poems to print as Christmas cards, starring characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Now we're giving each one away as a download, so you can print them yourself, and have a very moral Christmas (sort of)! Each card will fit a size DL envelope.
Today's presence is Tiny Tim, in a poem written by Chrissy Williams, author of Twin-Peaks-meets-Cabot-Cove sinispectacular, Angela. Click here for the printable PDF and get customising your card!
In 2011, we commissioned six splendid poems to print as Christmas cards, starring characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Now we're giving each one away as a download, so you can print them yourself, and have a very moral Christmas (sort of)! Each card will fit a size DL envelope.
Today's presence is Tiny Tim, in a poem written by Chrissy Williams, author of Twin-Peaks-meets-Cabot-Cove sinispectacular, Angela. Click here for the printable PDF and get customising your card!
Friday 12 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 12
Time for another taste of what's to come! Ghost of Christmas Future and all that. From next year onwards, we're hoping to spend more time monkeying with digital media. As well as more of the Judge's excellent video reviews (and he'll be joined in these efforts by other critics) we'll be attempting semi-regular reportage of free events from London's never-ending literary festival.
This week, armed with a second-hand video camera and my own slightly trepidatious brand of impertinence, I set out to roughly document two unique December gatherings. Here goes nothing!
This week, armed with a second-hand video camera and my own slightly trepidatious brand of impertinence, I set out to roughly document two unique December gatherings. Here goes nothing!
Thursday 11 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 11
Christmas being a time for magic, we thought we'd share an extract from one of our first micro-anthologies, way back in 2009. Pocket Spellbook was Dr Fulminare's attempt to travel light, while retaining all of his important charms, curses and rants.
Here, we present a fireside extract to warm your cockles. Enjoy John Clegg's 'Spell For A Furnace' and the stunning illustrations of Saroj Patel.
Wednesday 10 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 10
Day 10 of our Sidekick Advent Calendar, and it's time for another ghostly visitation!
In 2011, we commissioned six splendid poems to print as Christmas cards, starring characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Now we're giving each one away as a download, so you can print them yourself, and have a very moral Christmas (sort of)! Each card will fit a size DL envelope.
Today's presence is The Ghost of Christmas Present, in a poem written by Holly Hopkins, whose work has appeared in our Birdbook series and in our games poetry anthology Coin Opera II. Click here for the printable PDF and get customising your card!
In 2011, we commissioned six splendid poems to print as Christmas cards, starring characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Now we're giving each one away as a download, so you can print them yourself, and have a very moral Christmas (sort of)! Each card will fit a size DL envelope.
Today's presence is The Ghost of Christmas Present, in a poem written by Holly Hopkins, whose work has appeared in our Birdbook series and in our games poetry anthology Coin Opera II. Click here for the printable PDF and get customising your card!
Tuesday 9 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 9
Run for the hills! We have a second visitation from a would-be Christmas monster!
Forget Gilles de Rais, Countess Bathory, Vlad the Impaler. Turn your gaze instead to sleepy Cabot Cove, lair of the one they call...
The truth is out. Poet Chrissy Williams and artist Howard Hardiman have written and illustrated Angela, a daring expose of the Artist Formerly Known As Jessica Fletcher. Make no mistake. They are one and the same, and wherever they go, there will be blood... *
*...and sausage dogs. Don't ask.
Move over, Krampus!
|
| Seriously, look how sad he is. His little face! |
Today's terror from another realm comes in a deceptively sweet guise. Do not be fooled by the twinset and half-moon specs, not the soothing keep fit videos. This soft-voiced slaughterer has left a horrifying body count in her wake.
Forget Gilles de Rais, Countess Bathory, Vlad the Impaler. Turn your gaze instead to sleepy Cabot Cove, lair of the one they call...
*...and sausage dogs. Don't ask.
Monday 8 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar Day 8
"Nothing and nowhere is more wintry than the far reaches of space."
Jacques Derrida
I admit the above quote is an outright fabrication but it's also totally true! Next year Sidekick will be publishing Laboratorio, an anthology of creative writing by astrophysicists at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, helmed (and edited) by their poet-in-residence Simon Barraclough. Along with fellow Sidekick collaborator Harry Man, Simon is one of poetry's biggest space enthusiasts, and his second Salt collection, Neptune Blue, includes a planets sequence. We have asked for - and been granted! - permission to reproduce his ode to the ice giant Uranus as part of our advent calendar.
Now, of course, it's well known that Father Christmas only got as far as Mars during his forays beyond our own planet's atmosphere, but we reckon Uranus would make a suitable base of Christmas operations after Earth's ice caps melt. It's a little further out, but then, gentrification is forcing all of us to make longer commutes these days.
Keep an eye out for a Jacques Tati cameo towards the end of the second stanza!
Jacques Derrida
I admit the above quote is an outright fabrication but it's also totally true! Next year Sidekick will be publishing Laboratorio, an anthology of creative writing by astrophysicists at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, helmed (and edited) by their poet-in-residence Simon Barraclough. Along with fellow Sidekick collaborator Harry Man, Simon is one of poetry's biggest space enthusiasts, and his second Salt collection, Neptune Blue, includes a planets sequence. We have asked for - and been granted! - permission to reproduce his ode to the ice giant Uranus as part of our advent calendar.
Now, of course, it's well known that Father Christmas only got as far as Mars during his forays beyond our own planet's atmosphere, but we reckon Uranus would make a suitable base of Christmas operations after Earth's ice caps melt. It's a little further out, but then, gentrification is forcing all of us to make longer commutes these days.
Keep an eye out for a Jacques Tati cameo towards the end of the second stanza!
Sunday 7 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 7
Christmas is a time for games, so each Sunday we'll be hosting an advent quiz! First up, one familiar to those who attended Seven Player Co-op, our Coin Opera II games poetry reading at the Four Quarters Bar...
Saturday 6 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 6
Day 6 of our Sidekick Advent Calendar, and, say, do you notice anything strange about that door knocker?
In 2011, we commissioned six splendid poems to print as Christmas cards, starring characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Now we're giving each one away as a download, so you can print them yourself, and have a very moral Christmas (sort of)! Each card will fit a size DL envelope.
Today's visitor is the coffin-nail-esque Jacob Marley, in a poem written by Sidekick editor Jon Stone. Click here for the printable PDF and get customising your card!
In 2011, we commissioned six splendid poems to print as Christmas cards, starring characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Now we're giving each one away as a download, so you can print them yourself, and have a very moral Christmas (sort of)! Each card will fit a size DL envelope.
Today's visitor is the coffin-nail-esque Jacob Marley, in a poem written by Sidekick editor Jon Stone. Click here for the printable PDF and get customising your card!
Friday 5 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 5
As the Spirit of Christmas Past took Scrooge back in time, so will we now whisk you back to glistening ice, opulence and crowds of people. But this is no party.
The year is 1912 and the location is the RMS Titanic. Sidekick proudly presents two extracts from drowned book and fragmentary masterpiece, The Debris Field, written by Simon Barraclough, Isobel Dixon and Chris McCabe.
Let's begin with a festive memory.
The year is 1912 and the location is the RMS Titanic. Sidekick proudly presents two extracts from drowned book and fragmentary masterpiece, The Debris Field, written by Simon Barraclough, Isobel Dixon and Chris McCabe.
Let's begin with a festive memory.
Thursday 4 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 4
What the Dickens? It must be the fourth day of our Sidekick Advent Calendar!
In 2011, we commissioned six splendid poems to print as Christmas cards, starring characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Now we're giving each one away as a download, so you can print them yourself, and have a very moral Christmas (sort of)! Each card will fit a size DL envelope (Hobbycraft does some gorgeous ones).
Today's star is old Humbug himself, Ebeneezer Scrooge, in a poem written by Ian McLachlan, author of Confronting The Danger of Art. Click here for the printable PDF and get customising your card!
In 2011, we commissioned six splendid poems to print as Christmas cards, starring characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Now we're giving each one away as a download, so you can print them yourself, and have a very moral Christmas (sort of)! Each card will fit a size DL envelope (Hobbycraft does some gorgeous ones).
Today's star is old Humbug himself, Ebeneezer Scrooge, in a poem written by Ian McLachlan, author of Confronting The Danger of Art. Click here for the printable PDF and get customising your card!
Wednesday 3 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 3
Poems from the Editors #1
What literary advent calendar would be complete without some macabre winter poems to shiver the blood? Those of you who've acquired a copy of Kirsty's Salt collection Never Never Never Come Back (also available as an audio book) might be familiar with this one, but never before has 'Straight To You' been made freely available in video format. Never before, that is, until now! Because now it has been!WARNING: After watching, you may not want to go ice-skating at night. Alternatively, you may want to go ice-skating at night.
Tuesday 2 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 2
Hold on to your hats, because the Sidekick Advent Calendar is going to have some regular and recurring features, and also hats keep your head warm and it's getting dramatically cold out! In fact, keep a spare pair of earmuffs handy in case something exciting happens and your hands are otherwise occupied!
The first recurring feature to be unveiled is ...
Krampus is Germanic folklore's Christmas beast-demon, a counter to St. Nicholas who stuffs naughty children into his sack and spirits them away on cloven hooves. Why, we at Sidekick are forced to ask, aren't there a sweeter abundance of Christmas monsters with which to terrorise impressionable minds? Might we make a suggestion or two?
First up, one of Japan's impressive array of mythical changelings: the Aka-shita. Yokai.com describes these fearsome demons as "agents of bad luck and evil ... primarily known as punishers in water disputes".
Here it is as it appeared in our Japanese monster anthology, Obakarama, rendered visually by Michael Stone, and addressed in poetry by Adham Smart.
Traditionally, the Aka-shita is a summer monster, but there's nothing to say a little winter shift work would go amiss. Hiding in its cloud, the bright-tongued revenger would find house entry via the chimbley easy. It would then proceed to the child's bedroom and lick its sleeping face to make a moral determination. Evil or ethically-compromised minors would suffer bad luck in the ensuing present-giving, receiving the wrong edition of the latest Pokemon, Bryan Adams instead of Ryan Adams, and so on.
The first recurring feature to be unveiled is ...
Move over, Krampus!
First up, one of Japan's impressive array of mythical changelings: the Aka-shita. Yokai.com describes these fearsome demons as "agents of bad luck and evil ... primarily known as punishers in water disputes".
Here it is as it appeared in our Japanese monster anthology, Obakarama, rendered visually by Michael Stone, and addressed in poetry by Adham Smart.
Traditionally, the Aka-shita is a summer monster, but there's nothing to say a little winter shift work would go amiss. Hiding in its cloud, the bright-tongued revenger would find house entry via the chimbley easy. It would then proceed to the child's bedroom and lick its sleeping face to make a moral determination. Evil or ethically-compromised minors would suffer bad luck in the ensuing present-giving, receiving the wrong edition of the latest Pokemon, Bryan Adams instead of Ryan Adams, and so on.
Monday 1 December 2014
A Sidekick Advent Calendar: Day 1
On the first day of Christmas (which is technically the 25th December but to this end, it is the 1st), my true love gave to me ...
... a partridge in a preview from Birdbook 3. Click here to view in pdf format.
The third and penultimate volume in our ongoing series (full title Birdbook: Farmland. Heathland, Mountain, Moorland) is currently circling a definitive release date early next year, once the good doctor has finished working through snowy reams of hand-written calculations reaching deep into the catacombs. Here's an exclusive taster - the plump and chestnutty grey partridge, poem by Philip Cowell, paper-cutting by Lois Cordelia, who is also responsible for the book's cover art.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)