Lost in Space Archives

Interrobang Interrogation – Aurora Engine

It’s almost time to journey into inner and outer space! INTERROBANG: Lost in Space?! blasts off tomorrow – Saturday, 29th April at 2pm, to be precise.

As evidenced by our Lost in Space Interrobang Interrogations, we’ve assembled something of a dream line-up. We’ve been mad keen to have the brilliant AURORA ENGINE on the bill since we were blown away by her at the Hidden Door festival‘s contributors’ party!

(3) Awesome dresses! — Things INTERROBANG?! love: (1) harps; (2) Aurora Engine

Aurora Engine is a harpist / singer-songwriter / electronic musician living and working in Leith. Originally from County Durham, she sings in her dialect – something between Geordie and Pit Yacker. Her live performances bring harps, loops, effect pedals, vocals and synths, woven together to create ethereal sounds. She has over 100 songs, some in her head, some in the cupboard at home and some on general release.

Aurora Engine loves the north, steam trains and the stars. Which seems fair enough, right?! You can find her at www.auroraengine.com and on the Tweetie Box @AuroraEngine.

And here’s how she answered our questions:

?!: You’re packing before blasting off with the Interrobang Space Cadets. What item are you taking with you to represent the human race?

AE: A harp of course! I have a flight case.

?!: Sitting on the launch pad, you feel like you’re starring in a sci-fi movie. What’s your favourite piece of science fiction?

AE: Does Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind count? If yes, then that. If not, Batteries Not Included.

We'll have a cracking time! — Of course it counts!

?!: Bring them both – it’ll free up packing space for Interrobang! As the Space Ship Interrobang pulls away from the Earth, you look down and see the curve of the planet. You play a piece of music to accompany this incredible moment. What is it?

AE: Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach.

?!: Matthew Arnold’s poem could hardly be more a propos.

?!: The world lies before us like a land of dreams, indeed! When the track ends, you look down again and see home is a little blue marble. For some reason, you’re hit by a vivid memory of a time you lost something down there. What was it?

AE: Probably my purse and keys.

Star Child! What have you done with my keys?! — Have you tried behind the bed?

?!: Back on the spaceship, you’re looking forward to presenting a piece of poetry or prose or music to the weird-looking people you’re going to encounter with the Interrobang crew. Without being too spoiler-ific, what can you tell us about it?

AE: It’s straight from space!

Thanks a lot to Aurora Engine for indulging the INTERROBANG?! Interrogation. We want to see your faces when you hear her, so come along to INTERROBANG: Lost In Space?! at The Biscuit Factory on 29 April (admission free, £5 suggested donation). Thanks!

Interrobang Interrogation – JL Williams

Are you feeling it?! INTERROBANG: Lost in Space?! looms large on the horizon. It’s only T-2 DAYS until Saturday, 29th April at 2pm.

Fortunately, that gives us time to fit in a couple more Interrobang Interrogations. Today’s crew member donning the helmet and spacesuit is JL WILLIAMS. She’s been a dream guest for us for a while, and the timing of her appearance is most fortuitous – her timely new collection, After Economy, is out now and gets its formal launch next week. That takes place on 3 May, 6pm, at the Talbot Rice Gallery – more details on her website.

Either that, or someone's reversed the polarity — JL Williams messing with the gravity generator on the cloister level, again.

JL Williams practice incorporates expanding dialogues through poetry across languages, perspectives and cultures and in cross-form work, visual art, dance, opera and theatre. And did we mention that After Economy, her third collection, is out now with Shearsman Books? You can find out much more at www.jlwilliamspoetry.co.uk.

And here’s how she answered our questions:

?!: You’re packing before blasting off with the Interrobang Space Cadets. What item are you taking with you to represent the human race?

JLW: A pencil.

And then they all climbed out of the paper... — A pencil? That feels like it could get pretty dangerous…

?!: Sitting on the launch pad, you feel like you’re starring in a sci-fi movie. What’s your favourite piece of science fiction?

JLW: Blade Runner.

?!: Ricky Interrobang’s a big fan of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Wonder how apprehensive we should be about Blade Runner 2049?

?!: Anyway. As the Space Ship Interrobang pulls away from the Earth, you look down and see the curve of the planet. You play a piece of music to accompany this incredible moment. What is it?

JLW: Nirvana, Come As You Are.

Come to the Biscuit Factory on Saturday. We swear we don’t have guns.

?!: When the track ends, you look down again and see home is a little blue marble. For some reason, you’re hit by a vivid memory of a time you lost something down there. What was it?

JLW: My first poem – it was about a blue glass bluebird

?!: Finally, back on the spaceship, you’re looking forward to presenting a piece of poetry or prose or music to the weird-looking people you’re going to encounter with the Interrobang crew. Without being too spoiler-ific, what can you tell us about it?

JLW: Poems from my new book – an exploration of the fine line between abundance and apocalypse.

Between a great set and this cover art, you'll want one — After Economy and other of JL Williams’ work will be available at the show

After Economy sounds really intriguing! Thanks a lot to JL Williams for indulging the INTERROBANG?! Interrogation. Together with Ever Dundas and Claire Askew, she’s going to be giving the spoken word aspect of INTERROBANG: Lost In Space?! at The Biscuit Factory on 29 April (admission free, £5 suggested donation) a pleasingly chewy aspect.

Come as you are. Take your time, hurry up, the choice is yours, don’t be late.

Interrobang Interrogation – Claire Askew

To countdown to INTERROBANG: Lost in Space?! continues. T-4 DAYS until Saturday, 29th April at 2pm.

We’re very happy to introduce you to our latest crew member, CLAIRE ASKEW. We’ve been fortunate enough to see her blast off into the creative heights around town, but we’re particularly excited to hear that she’s going to be treating us to some new material.

The stars in space shine for you, etc. — And the wall, it was all yellow (sorry). Photo credit: Sally Jubb Photography

Claire Askew is a poet, novelist and general dogsbody writer-for-hire based in Edinburgh. Her first book of poems, This changes things, was published by Bloodaxe in 2016, and shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award and the Saltire First Book Award.

Claire’s currently completing a debut crime novel on the cheery theme of male violence and how it affects the women who must pick up the pieces in its wake. Next, she’d like to write a zombie novel about what might happen if the humans tried to negotiate with the zombies. You can follow all of Claire’s antics on Twitter @onenightstanzas.

And here’s how she answered our questions:

?!: You’re packing before blasting off with the Interrobang Space Cadets. What item are you taking with you to represent the human race?

CA: I don’t know how well it represents the whole human race, but I can’t go anywhere without my notebook. It’s full of random observations scribbled while people-watching, so it’d probably provide a useful human field guide for any aliens I encountered…

Our new alien overlords thank you very much, Claire — And the notes are bilingual, too?! Eh? Oh.

?!: Sitting on the launch pad, you feel like you’re starring in a sci-fi movie. What’s your favourite piece of science fiction?

CA: Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, because it’s the most genre-bending book I think I’ve ever read, and it’s a story within a story within a story.

?!: As the Space Ship Interrobang pulls away from the Earth, you look down and see the curve of the planet. You play a piece of music to accompany this incredible moment. What is it?

CA: Something by Led Zeppelin, perhaps the greatest band Earth has ever produced.

?!: Mama, feast your ears, as Robert Plant might say. When the track ends, you look down again and see home is a little blue marble. For some reason, you’re hit by a vivid memory of a time you lost something down there. What was it?

CA: I try not to have regrets about things that have lost or ended… but I did once miss out on seeing Tom Waits play live, and still kick myself about it… does that count?

?!: Definitely! Back on the spaceship, you’re looking forward to presenting a piece of poetry or prose or music to the weird-looking people you’re going to encounter with the Interrobang crew. Without being too spoiler-ific, what can you tell us about it?

CA: I’m just back from a month spent on retreat on a mountainside in Inverness-shire… an experience that felt very “lost in space” at times, I can tell you! I’ll be sharing new poems written on that retreat. Some of them might be pretty NSFW, just warning you all!

Helmets on, lads! — The Zep boys have decided to join the trip now!

Thanks a lot to Claire for indulging the INTERROBANG?! Interrogation. If, like us, you want to hear a poet at the height of her powers discovering her new material, come along to INTERROBANG: Lost In Space?! at The Biscuit Factory on 29 April (admission free, £5 suggested donation)

Interrobang Interrogation – Ever Dundas

There’s not long now till INTERROBANG?! gets Lost in Space – Saturday, 29th April at 2pm, to be precise.

But if you can’t wait to hear from our awesome performers, you’re in the right place! Here’s the first of our Lost in Space Interrobang Interrogations, from the brilliant EVER DUNDAS…

*And* Ever can spell "cemetery"! — It’s a sunny day, so let’s go where we’re happy…

Ever Dundas is a writer specialising in the weird and macabre. Her debut novel Goblin will be published on Thursday 18th May. The launch takes place at Edinburgh Central Library at 6.30pm that evening. Please RSVP to Freight if you’d like to go along: info@freightbooks.co.uk. You can find Ever at www.everdundas.com, www.facebook.com/EverRADundas, and on the Tweetie Box @everdundas.

And here’s how she answered our questions:

?!: You’re packing before blasting off with the Interrobang Space Cadets. What item are you taking with you to represent the human race?

ED: Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible.

Thanks for clearing that up, grandad — Q Magazine sez: “Not the new Gloria Estefan album.”

?!: Sitting on the launch pad, you feel like you’re starring in a sci-fi movie. What’s your favourite piece of science fiction?

ED: Film – Stuart Gordon’s Re-animator. Book – Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End.

?!: As the Space Ship Interrobang pulls away from the Earth, you look down and see the curve of the planet. You play a piece of music to accompany this incredible moment. What is it?

ED: Chemical Brothers remix of Manics’ Faster.

?!: Turn. It. UP.

?!: When the track ends, you look down again and see home is a little blue marble. For some reason, you’re hit by a vivid memory of a time you lost something down there. What was it?

ED: My eyeball wedding ring. I got married in Venice and two hours after the wedding, as I was getting out of a gondola, I caught my ring on a golden cherub and it disappeared into the canal. I’ve since broken one and lost another. Fortunately, it’s the relationship that matters and not the eyeballs you go through.

?!: So Luis Buñuel tells us. Back on the spaceship, you’re looking forward to presenting a piece of poetry or prose or music to the weird-looking people you’re going to encounter with the Interrobang crew. Without being too spoiler-ific, what can you tell us about it?

ED: Borderline was inspired by Andy Goldsworthy’s Stone House and Laura Ford’s Weeping Girls at Jupiter Artland. It was also written in response to the political climate and human rights – I was angry at the media and government’s ineffectual and often hostile response to refugees.

Image processed by CodeCarvings Piczard ### FREE Community Edition ### on 2014-06-11 09:01:50Z | | — “Houses are usually places of security, shelter and comfort for people. [BUT…]” Andy Goldsworthy

Thanks a lot to Ever for indulging the INTERROBANG?! Interrogation. If, like us, you’re very curious to hear more about Borderline, come along to INTERROBANG: Lost In Space?! at The Biscuit Factory on 29 April (admission free, £5 suggested donation)

UPCOMING: Lost In Space?! 29/04/2017

Hi, folks!

We enjoyed the INTERROBANG: A New World?! show so much, we wanted to keep shaking things up for the new show. So here’s the skinny on Lost In Space?!

Good luck with that! — #1: We’re banning Ricky from making ancient references.

Never fear, we have the traditional line-up of awesome writerly talent:

JL WILLIAMS joins us as her third collection, After Economy, prepares to hit the shelves?!
EVER DUNDAS, a writer specialising in the weird and macabre, should fit into the INTERROBANG?! vibe perfectly. Her first novel, Goblin, will be published in May. You can find out a little more about that here?!
CLAIRE ASKEW, Bloodaxe Books poet, writer in residence at Golden Hare Books, and Jessie Kesson Fellow 2017, is dropping a fresh new set. How exciting is that?!

As well as all that, we have the awesome AURORA ENGINE and MATT NORRIS bringing the choons. We’ve been angling to have them both in for a while, and having them both in the same bill is gonna be incredible!

But, wait! There’s more?! If you can’t take the Bing Crosby/Walt Disney joke again, we present an actual, honest to goodness comedian.

Beth had the good fortune recently to catch GEMMA FLYNN as part of the Dangerous Women Project, and knew we had to have her at INTERROBANG?! Gemma performs stand up comedy regularly in Glasgow and Edinburgh and is part of the alternative comedy collective Chunks, as well as host of the academic pop culture podcast Dash Kapital?!

And of course, the theatrical stylings of our resident short-form playwright, JACQUES TSIANTAR and his notorious JACQUES’ BIG TWO-HANDER! Will YOU be one of the volunteer actors who gets to be Edinburgh-famous for fifteen minutes?!

Ooft. Queen Bitch, much?! — “Yeah. Make that *Bonnington*-famous” – Andy

We’ll be releasing some awesome Interrobang Interrogations with our guests this week, but for now, know these further exciting developments:

Lost in Space?! will be on a Saturday, starting at 2pm. This means you can supplement your Interrobanging with a swing through the Edinburgh Indoor Market – great food, fab art, and Ricky’s still banging on about the candles he got last month from The Soap Farm. QED.
With the market taking place downstairs, we’ll be upstairs. If you haven’t seen the upstairs at the Biscuit Factory yet, you’re in for a treat. New INTERROBANG?!, new vibe?!

We’re looking forward to seeing you!