alisonboston.com

The artist of course, is Janis Joplin. People have compared me with her. I was stunned the first time a young American man compared me to her after hearing me sing in Big Bang. He said: “I thought Janis was alive again. I heard you singing this radical anti-war song - […]

So, I put together this event with Phamie whom I met on one of the rare evenings that I left my bike at home and decided to walk. She was playing in the street.

That’s a custom-built, one-of-a-kind harp she’s playing. She’s sponsored by Camac Harps, France.
She plays on this […]

Coming just two weeks after the New Music Voice festival at Open Space, and a week of voice workshops with three different artists, I’ve just immersed myself in yet another workshop. This time a four-day intensive SoundScape residency with Hildegard Westercamp.
This has been an ear-opening experience. I was able to participate […]

Yup, it’s true. I’m back in Canada.
In keeping with this site’s focus on my daily cultural activities, I feel some sort of comment is in order.
Yesterday I took my 88-year-old father for a stroll in his wheelchair through downtown Victoria. A few observations I made (besides how very odd it feels to […]

Poet, performer, visual artist, socio-cultural commentator seeks patron. (For Real)
Description:
Provides financial/material support necessary to maintain a comfortably luxurious lifestyle befitting a modern day, mature female artist. Immediate needs include a bright, sunny, warm, quiet place to live and work with a water/green view and ready access to pleasant running trails.
This place should […]

The Godor Klub is home to Globefest this weekend. Essentially a left-thinking, consciousness-raising event where they screened The Corporation and held discussions to find solutions. The talks are continuing today.
I stopped by there last evening and spoke with a young woman who is involved with Centrum Group, a collective […]

Canadian politician and humanitarian Dr. Lloyd Axworthy spoke here in Budapest the week before last at Eötvös Loránd University, by invitation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. I went to hear his talk and it has provoked some interesting reading and thinking.
It’s difficult to summarize his talk; he […]

Since first writing the preceeding post late last evening, I’ve gone back and edited it two or three times, refining my words. It still isn’t where I want it to be, but rather than tampering with it any further, I’ve decided - for the time being any way - to continue my thoughts on […]

Since first writing this, I’ve thought about both films some more and really, what I’ve written here is quite pathetic, and both films deserve a much deeper discussion.
Wim Wenders/Sam Shepherd ‘Don’t Come Knocking’ has a young man singing with a wonderful voice, and he has an equally vibrant actress playing his girlfriend. d […]

I haven’t posted much in the past couple of weeks. I’ve had a cold and I’ve been thinking. Colds are good for that, don’t you think? They make us hibernate, and with hibernation comes reflection.
I performed my poetry last Saturday evening at a private party. It was great. The […]

In the two years I’ve sat in concerts here in Budapest I’ve heard a lot of technically sound musicians.
Sometimes when I listen to musicians I know they’re connected to the creative center of the universe and when they play, they just open their third eye and go for it. Richard Bona is one […]

As usual, this week’s Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone opens my ears to unbelieveably unique music, but even more so, he brings me another mind-expanding story about a musician. This week he introduces me to Vashti Bunyan - a true blue 60’s hippie singer songwriter - she was even a friend of Donovan […]

listening to the program reminds me of the live show I saw last evening on the Columbus Jazz Boat. Andre Ochodlo and the Jazzish Quintet from Sopot, Poland are nothing like these ‘out there’ musicians. They come from extreme opposites of the musical spectrum. Where Kevin Blechdom (who is really a woman) performs with an outrageously raw energy, accompanied by music that challenges the boundaries of what is music, Andre Ochodlo and his quintet sing and play with absolute precision.

…I went to Kultiplex tonight. Gimmeshot had about 8 MCs on the program and I thought it would be a great way to get to know some of Budapest’s mikers. Besides, Senna - who fronts Kamu - was on the bill and I wanted to hear her in this version. […]

I went to hear Varga Zsuzsa last night on the a38 concert boat. This was the second time I’d heard her with her new band - the Stopsonic - (the first being during Sziget Festival) and I was even more impressed than when I first heard her in her more poppy incarnation […]

People are always asking me why I chose Hungary.
Today, as I was searching my files for the poems I’ve written since I came here, I stumbled on one titled Canadiana. It was hidden in a folder called poems that need work. I opened the file and […]

People ask why I call it a slog rather than a blog.
Here’s why:
slog (slŏg)
v., slogged, slog·ging, slogs.
v.intr.
1) To walk or progress with a slow heavy pace; plod: slog across the swamp; slogged through both volumes.
2) To work diligently for long hours: slogged away at Latin.
I go with the latter, although the first also applies during […]

Once I got to the off-festival after-party venue on Kazinsky Ut, I discovered that not only was the festival showing films and putting on free concerts, but there was also a multi-media, and sound workshop taking place in the same building - along with a performance from Welsh poet Peter Finch who was last […]

the text is rooted in a story about Austrian physicist Lise Meitner whose Nobel Prize winning research was attributed to one of her male colleagues!

She was wearing low cut jeans, with a belly top and a gold chain around her svelte, young midriff. She was first pawed by one man in a suit, then she was pawed and had her ass squeezed by another man.