Now, of all times, it’s a good time for us to be able to talk about life and death and happiness and sadness. INTERROBANG‽ is very happy to welcome lively up-and-coming poet Rachel Rankin to our virtual Death Café before her appearance at our show for Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief’s Good Death Week.
Welcome, Rachel – pull up a chair!
Rachel is a poet and writer from Coatbridge. She is based in Edinburgh, where she is following the poetry strand of the MSc in Creative Writing. Rachel has had both poetry and book reviews published in Gutter, Antiphon, The Nordic Riveter and the anthology It’s Got A Heartbeat: A Collective of Spoken Word Poets on the Page. She was a recipient of a Dewar Arts Award in 2017 and was shortlisted for the 2017 Jane Martin Poetry Prize, organised annually by Girton College at the University of Cambridge. She loves Scandinavia and is fluent in Norwegian.
INTERROBANG‽’s show for Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief’s Good Death Week is primed to bring its audience some fresh perspectives on what it means to be alive. And also the opposite of that.
If you’ve had the pleasure of enjoying Stuart Kenny’s work on the spoken word scene and elsewhere, you’ll know that fresh perspectives are what he does. As evidenced by his responses to our Death Café-style questions.
Perspective on Stuart provided by Perry Jonsson and our pals Loud Poets
To mark Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief’s Good Death Week, INTERROBANG‽ is joined by some of the most enjoyable writers and performers around to present a new show, Live and Let Die.
So, INTERROBANG‽ thought, what a great bunch of folks to ask some Death Café-style questions, right‽ RIGHT!!!
First up – Jay Whittaker
For example, Ricky Interrobang attended the launch of Jay Whittaker’s brilliant first full-length collection, Wristwatch last year. The poems Jay shared that evening brushed up against death and grief and brushes with death and many other things, so she’s the perfect guest to kick off our virtual Death Café…
It’s the last INTERROBANG‽and the last 404 INK event of the year tonight, and we’re both going out with a bang! For the 404 INK Christmas Party, we’re going to be joined by one of the best practitioners of live lit in the country, KIRSTY LOGAN!
Kirsty Logan and a rather nice cameo necklace
Kirsty’s featured in issue three of 404 Ink’s literary magazine – POWER! She lives in Glasgow and is the author of The Gracekeepers, A Portable Shelter, and The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales. Her fourth book, The Gloaming, will hit the shelves in May 2018. It’s a queer mermaid love story set on a remote island that slowly turns its inhabitants to stone. She’s currently writing a collection of horror stories called The Night Tender.
“The Ambassador’s parties are known for their exquisite good taste…”
Ross McCleary is still from Edinburgh. He has had work published recently by Five2One and Cease, Cows. He is an editor of the spoken word podcast Lies, Dreaming – which has a new call for submissions out – helps run Inky Fingers, and is overjoyed by the return of the Edinburgh Watch twitter account. His novella, Portrait of the Artist as a Viable Alternative to Death, is published by Maudlin House.
Saltire Society First Book Of The Year-winner Helen’s The Goldblum Variations is already to order as part of 404 Ink’s zine series with a limited run, and said award-winning collection On The Edges of Vision and her new collection Mayhem and Death are forthcoming in 2018.
And this is not least because we get to hear from one of our favourite writers and a star of 404 INK’s legendary Nasty Women, KAITE WELSH.
Kaite Welsh: Superpower – being awesome
Kaite is an author, journalist and professional lesbian. Her debut book The Wages of Sin, the first in a series of Victorian feminist crime novels starring fallen woman, medical student and amateur sleuth Sarah Gilchrist, was published in 2017. The second novel, The Unquiet Heart, is due out in August 2018. She covers LGBT issues for the Daily Telegraph, agitates for LGBT rights on national radio and has a colour-coded five year plan.
And these are her reflections on POWER…
‽: Knowledge is power. But if you could have any superpower, what would it be?
KW: Honestly, I’d settle for being to do 100 squats without wanting to cry.
‽: Oof! That’s bringing a tear to our eye. Moving on…! We love a launch. Can you remember what it was that launched you on your literary adventures?
KW: These two plaques in the University of Edinburgh old medical school building – one to Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, and one to Sophia Jex-Blake, one of the first women to study medicine at Edinburgh. The idea of a crime-solving lady doctor in the 19th century was born then… (see the answer below for what happened next)
Unrecorded Sophia Jex-Blake talent: building narrative tension…
‽: It’s the festive season. What, other than a copy of 404 Ink’s POWER, would make a good gift for a loved one?
KW: A copy of my debut novel The Wages of Sin, out now from all good publishers. [Well, *certain* good publishers! ? – Ed.] Plucky Victorian heroines! Horrible Victorian medical procedures! Feminism! Murder!
‽: Ricky Interrobang’s partner has already powered through it! Oh well. Back to the drawing board…. There are loads of great songs with the word Power in the title. Do you have a favourite that powers you up? Or failing that, a power ballad that’s a guilty pleasure?
KW: The entire Girl Power album by 90s pop heroines Shampoo. The title song is this poppy anthem about violence and drinking and female friendship – you think it’s going to be this Spice Girls-eque lipstick and glitter version of womanhood and actually it’s this incitement to violence on alcopops.
(note: Kaite endorses neither violence or alcopops – it says here – unless it’s the cranberry Archers they used to do in 2001.)
‽: People are telling us how much they’re looking forward to the launch of POWER. Without giving too much away, can you tell us a little bit about what you’ll be sharing with us?
KW: Vlogmas with a difference. And by ‘difference’, I mean ‘cursed advent calendar’.
Sounds scary! But we’ll all get through it with an alcopop or two. Find out what happens when Kaite opens the doors of her cursed advent calendar at the launch party for 404 INK’s Issue 3: POWER this Friday, 8 December from 7pm at Summerhall. Get your tix here while you can.
It’s less than a week till the most exquisitely tasteful event of the festive season – THE AMBASSADOR’S RECEPTION!
But how does one put together such a function? Today, we’re going all Lifestyles of the Rich Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous as The Butler of the great event talks with Andrew Blair.
He was very happy to take a few minutes away from the preparations
‽: The Ambassador’s Receptions are noted for their host’s exquisite taste. How do you spoil the guests at one of these famed functions?
TB: Care and affection. Creating a calming and welcoming environment, where all guests can flourish.
Then we play The Resistance and yell ‘SPY!’ at each other until someone falls over.
The game of secret identities, deduction, and deception
‽: If you were a chocolate confection, what chocolate confection would you be?
TB: Right, so first you need a baguette. You cut the end off and put it to one side. Get a big one and cut both ends off if you’re cooking for two. With the middle bit, make whatever savoury sandwiches you want with the big bit, and once you’ve enjoyed that, you tear out the bread from inside the baguette end, then get a packet of Lindt and take out one of every kind, put them inside the baguette end, stuff the bread back in, then microwave it for 20 seconds (800W). Congratulations. You’ve now had a delightful savoury sandwich and finished off the meal with a bespoke, handmade pain au chocolat.
I’m aware this doesn’t technically answer the question.
‽: The holiday season approaches. Can you give us an example of a seasonal advert that makes you want to rush out and conspicuously consume/throw up*? (*Delete as applicable)
TB: The Coke advert. It’s like a fucking Judas Goat.
Don’t get in the truck, kid. It’s bad for your teeth.
‽: From James Last to Demis Roussos to Rene and Renata, continental Europe is famed for its contribution to popular music. What’s your favourite Europop?
TB: I just heard this in a film called My Life as a Courgette, which you should watch if you like heartwarming animations about overcoming trauma.
‽: We’re beginning to get the impression that modern butling isn’t what we expected at all.
Finally, The Ambassador’s Reception will be filled with luminaries from the worlds of politics, diplomacy, and art. Who are you hoping will turn up?
TB: The person who is reading this..
That’s YOU. Come toTHE AMBASSADOR’S RECEPTION and find out what it is to be lavished with care and affection in a calming and welcoming environment absolutely free of death and murder. There certainly won’t be any intriguing murders to solve as part of an immersive theatrical whodunnit. ____________________
THE AMBASSADOR’S RECEPTION will take place in one°below at six°north on 24 November at 7:30pm. Space for this exclusive event is limited and tickets are going fast, so book your place now.
In case that all sounds a bit highfalutin, we thought we should introduce you to a few of the A-listers who’ll be there. But first, here’s an INTERROBANG‽ Interrogation with the bodyguard to the establishment, Mauricio Bustos Rivas.
The Bodyguard With A Body To Die For
It’s Mauricio’s job to be inconspicuous, so he’s asked us to use a stock photo. And his words are spoken by INTERROBANG‽ co-host Ricky Monahan Brown. They’re very… interesting…?
‽: The Ambassador’s Receptions are noted for their host’s exquisite taste. How would you spoil the guests at one of your parties?
MBR: I’d probably tell them a few interesting stories about the history of diplomacy. Mother says my stories are always interesting. For example, did you know that some of the earliest known diplomatic records were letters written between the Egyptian pharaohs and the Amurru rulers of Canaan during the 14th century BC. Fascinating, right?
We tried to warn you
‽: If you were a chocolate confection, what chocolate confection would you be?
MBR: Well, they used to say that if Graeme Souness was chocolate, he’d eat himself. And I am the The Bodyguard With A Body To Die For, so I should pick something I ‘d like to eat. A Clif energy bar, I think. That would be sensible.
‽: The holiday season approaches. Can you give us an example of a seasonal advert that makes you want to rush out and conspicuously consume/throw up*? (*Delete as applicable)
MBR: My body’s a temple, so I wouldn’t want to conspicuously consume. I do love those John Lewis adverts, though. The covers they do of those classic songs are great!
My ears! For the love of god, make it stop!!
‽: From James Last to Demis Roussos to Rene and Renata, continental Europe is famed for its contribution to popular music. What’s your favourite Europop?
MBR: Oh, that’s easy. James Last’s Mornings at Seven. It’s Mother’s favourite.
‽: Music for die ersten Stunned des Tales, right enough. Finally, The Ambassador’s Reception will be filled with luminaries from the worlds of politics, diplomacy, and art. Who are you hoping will turn up?
MBR: I can’t really talk about the guest list. But from the world of art, I’d love to meet Phil Collins.
Thanks to Mauricio for those riveting answers to our INTERROBANG‽ Interrogation. We’re sure that when you come to THE AMBASSADOR’S RECEPTION you’ll be in safe hands, and there won’t be any intriguing murders to solve as part of an immersive theatrical whodunnit. ____________________
THE AMBASSADOR’S RECEPTION will take place in one°below at six°north on 24 November at 7:30pm. Space for this exclusive event is limited and tickets are sure to go fast, so book your place now.
