The final panel

The last panel was the one Luke chaired, which was held in class. It was set-up like a current affairs program and he was the right-wing bigot-host railing against the guest writers, Freya and Chris. It was HILARIOUS.

Talkin' bought my generation

Maddy's panel was held exactly a week after mine, at the 5 Islands Brewery by the beach. The topic was "Talkin' Bought My Generation" and the panelists, Steph, Bridget, Laura and Paloma, talked about, you guessed it, representations and implications of this generations in writing.

After the panel a few people (ie. CLAIRE) performed songs.

zine zine zine

I didn't want to write about these things out of order, but the photos from the two student panels remain trapped on my digital camera, so I guess in the meantime I will write about how things are going with the zine: last Sunday I got together with Bridget and Laura from class at the Flame Tree Music cafe in town, and together we went over all the submissions and did some editing. Not much, mostly just a spelling and grammar check, fixing stray commas, stuff like that. In most cases there was scarcely anything that needed fixing in those areas anyway.

Next up I need to make the changes in the word documents, then I can get printing. I have a rough plan of lay-out in my head already, and today I settled on what the text on the front cover will say. I won't reveal it here, people wanting to know will have to buy a copy, ha ha.

June 2 is the day it all has to be ready by. I won't lie, I am quite stressed about it, not because I don't think I can get it done, but because there is just so much to do, both for this subject and others and it is quite overwhelming.

I have a half-table booked for the day, and I am planning to also sell copies of Tide for the uni, as well as maybe jewellery and other small items that I have made myself, assuming I have time to y'know, make them.

the creative extravaganza

The past few weeks have been so jam-packed with events that I have fallen behind in updating this in only a matter of days.

Friday May 18 was the Creative Extravaganza, held at the Hideaway Cafe in the Wollongong mall, The turn-out was pretty big, and tonnes of people read, sang, or performed their original works, to the delight of the crowd who really got into it all.
The judges were Paloma, Laura and Freya, with Samira announcing the acts. Prizes were CDs, books and bottles of wine, all donated by local businesses, which were won by (in order):
Claire Garett, who got first place with a performance of a song
Luke Johnston, who got second place for his poetry
and Dane Naoum, who won third with his performance poetry that involved the audience.

Special mentions went to Daniel East, Adam Norris and Maddie Phelan, and my very own special mention goes to the chicken and sun-dried tomato risotto, which was delicious but too huge to finish.

Panel photos

The guests arriving


During the panel. Left to right: Samira, Alida, me, Lauren, Madeline.

Kind of blurry. My camera really sucks. Perhaps in future I'll draw pictures in MS paint instead of posting photos.

Poetry reading

Five days late, but still just as good... except for the whole "flash not exactly working, so I had to edit most of these in photoshop" thing. Sorry about the poor quality, guys.


Bede Payne, the guy who created and runs the poetry collective, giving his introduction.


Claire and Dane who were in the audience. They both also read.


Patrick Lenton doing a reading


If you squint, you might just be able to make out Daniel East behind the mic

It was at this point my camera was stolen by a crazy woman, who somehow used all the battery without taking a single photo and thus ended the nights photo taking.

chillax

I am eating cookies as I write this. Cookies left-over from the panel which we held tonight. For tonight at least, I can snack and watch TV without feeling guilty, because today achieved something and can reward myself, hurrah.

The panel was suprisingly the easiest, and least stressful, part of the whole process. With all the hard work done, it was a breeze. In fact, we got so relaxed sitting up there that everyone talked slower than when we'd rehearsed and went overtime.

I don't know what else to say. It all feels a little surreal, for such a stressful event to be over with so little fuss.

stress brings out the colour in my eyes

You may have noticed I sometimes make promises I don't keep. Like, that I'll upload photos from Friday night's poetry reading and then don't. SOON I PROMISE. F'real this time.

More importantly: our panel is TOMORROW night.
After class we plan to spend the day doing practise runs. There will probably also be tea, and maybe tim-tams. And hopefully a discussion of what to wear, because I really don't know. Clothing of some kind, obviously. (I am having one of those moments of regret, thinking back to a perfect dress I once owned and foolishly gave away, having never worn it.)

What's that, I am rambling and distracted? Well, it is 1.22am.

time draws near

There is something black and nasty on my sock. Is it a stain? Lint? Poop? Honestly, I don't know, I don't want to look too closely at it. It's really just a disgusting distraction from the stress that has built up in my shoulders. It's like wearing a jacket that is too small; to fit in it I cannot relax and so I sit hunched with my shoulders around my ears.
We have four days till the panel.

Today was one of our last panel meetings, two and a half hours after class this afternoon. Alida provided tim-tams to liven things up, but we got a lot done. Things are falling into place at last, with a format decided, questions planned, and points to be made. Hurrah.
We all have much work to be done this weekend, but it's a relieving kind of work, satisfying because we all know we're nearing the end.
(Everyone in the group harbours a hope that next week during class, we will be given time to work on the panel. We will of course be done with it, and shall instead go buy coffees and chillax. Haha.)

In the meantime, I am getting stage fright already.
I should go to bed now. In the morning I'll post photos (and a review) of the poetry reading I attended tonight.

Group shot of the panel.
Left to right: Madeline, Lauren, Samira, me, Alida