alisonboston.com

One of these days I’ll update this site and put an audio widget on it! Until then, you have to go to DigitALIS to hear my latest track.
It’s about my father posted the day before his birthdate.
The track is a remix of a performance of the poem/song Easier Said recorded live […]

An excerpt from a post I wrote in an interesting thread we have going over at Rebecca Fine’s forum:

Tonight I manifested one of the targets set during the course. I sang on stage at the WTF jam at Jamboree. This is famous Barcelona jam session and I have been going there for […]

Same Rain: Different Town
I’ve managed to get to four small music festivals in-between my 6 weeks of work here in England this summer, and each has provided something unique.
At Finsbury Park’s FREE Rise Against Racism Festival earlier in the summer, it was three poets and a French duo (names and photos to follow). A […]

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 […]

It’s time for me.

Ari Up and Paul Zasky of Dubblestandart on stage at the Bayou Bar
….plus MPG at Fisherman’s Wharf (keep reading….it’s there)
Austria’s Dubblestandart had an instant crowd of dancers last night at the ICA Folk Fest in Victoria. It was great to hear this band live and move to the rhythm. When Ari Up joined […]

Tumi and the Volume delivered a jazz-punk-hip hop fusion that had the Victoria audience hopping on the Bayou Barge at ICA Folkfest. Even the security guards couldn’t stand still. Cute website (cute? hip hop? Yeah really - check it out.) The Volume
Okay, so I have to learn how to […]

Niyaz (USA/Iran) were the closing main stage act last night for the opening of the Victoria ICA Folk Festival. Azam Ali entranced the audience with a sweet voice spinning poetics of Sufi wisdom. Even the most reluctant dancers were on their feet moving to the seductive rhythms of this blend […]

So it seems I’ve been sampled. Listening Pearls features Technotoys Blues - which by the way is actually called Techno Toys Blues (three words, not two). They credit Anima Sound System with the song and neglect to mention the writer and vocalist - who just happens to be me - Alison Boston - […]

Two more workshops and one evening of performance later….
Yesterday afternoon I did a Sound Poetry workshop with Paul Dutton. This ended up as a great opportuntity to experiment with my resonating apparatus as just that: a resonanting apparatus.
Paul started the workshop by talking for about 50 minutes about Sound Poetry, including a discussion about overtone […]

I’ve uploaded some pics from this performance I did as artist-in-residence at Sziget Festival, Art Agora, 2004. Go here Sziget Silk Fire to view.

Raday Street Performance Delivers Hope and Forgiveness
HOPE: A collaborative effort
We wanted to perform the piece we have been working on Georgi, Andras and I, before I leave so, we gave a performance last night in a cafe on Raday utca. I was lucky to get a room at the last minute, several places we […]

AppleSeed, a work in progress, Making New Waves Festival workshop performance, February 2006, Photo:Kai Niggemann
View more photos of me in performance here
View more Kai Niggemann photos from the festival here.

I don’t have much writer in me these days even though I’ve been out and about and have things to write about. In fact, I have a CD that was given to me over a month ago that I haven’t written about. Not because I don’t like it; on the contrary - I love […]

…that’s the name of the compilation CD I am on. My first CD. Now I have to join one of those songwriter’s associations so I can get my 50% of 1/13th of proceeds (after all the admin type people have taken their bite) from the sale of the CD. I need a manager […]

I performed at Labyrinth’s monthly reading on Friday night in Vienna to a packed house at Cafe Kafka. My poems were very well received. I performed: Wake up Time, Tribute to Ani, Easier Said and Bad Choices.
Rebecca Fromherz, an opera singer from Vienna, read some of her own poems during […]

Alison–
I clicked the link immediately and read it start to finish. Your poetry is like eating M&Ms. Can’t stop ’til they’re gone. I’ve always been kinda stupid where poetry is concerned, so I probably don’t even get it all, what it means, but it did make me feeeeeeel! And that’s the […]

I wrote Hope in 1989 when I was living in Montreal, Quebec. All through the 80’s I had written angry, feminist poetry and I said “No More!” I want to write something beautiful and hopeful. So I locked myself in my Fabre Street apartment on the Plateau, Montreal and scoured my notebooks […]

“..to the ends of Being” is like the soul. Remember we talked about the soul? The soul is and the soul never ends.”

She nodded and drew the infinity symbol on her paper, and said: “Does it mean this?”

Mike Austin Stirs the Fire
Since coming to Budapest, Hungary I have developed strong bonds with the poetry group Labyrinth, the Association of English Language Poets in Vienna. On my many - yet not frequent enough - visits to Vienna, I have always enjoyed the conversation of Mike Austin.
Mike’s funeral is on […]

This was a photograph of a squirrel sitting next to a piece of chocolate layer cake. I manipulated it using ACDSee FotoCanvas 2.0. I have never read the instructions.

Squirrel Flower digital artwork, copyright Alison Boston
Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary - which I encourage my English students to use because it includes a handy dandy audio component […]

Last Saturday, after looking at Tamas Waliczky’s animations at Millenaris, I went to Godor Klub to hear Balaton Club - creation of Hungarian film score composer (Bela Tarr’s films), singer-songwriter, and writer Mihaly Vig.
I had never seen himperform - mostly because anytime they were playing before 2:00AM I was somewhere else.
Balaton Club is a […]

‘Sculptures’ Tamas Waliczky
A 20-year retrospective of Hungarian media-artistTamas Waliczky’s work opened this evening (Saturday) at Millenaris Park. It’s his first major exhibition in his home town, having left Budapest many years ago for the advantages of living and working in London, Paris, Tokyo and Berlin. Tamas is currently a professor in […]

Image: Courtesy Quiz Farm
QUIZZICAL NONSENSICAL FUN TO WASTE TIME WITH!
Well, well, well…it’s been confirmed, I am indeed a Faery! and it’s not surprising that being a mermaid runs a close second as I have always thought that I must have been a dolfin in a previous life. I get no kick-back for linking […]

I was awed by Dennis’s performances: slide shows accompanied by readings from his writings - presented with the unshakeable confidence and surety that he had a right to be there and do what he was doing. And I’ve always remembered the words he spoke to me after my first performance at Gallery 101 - a reading of my work called ‘Nurse Mary Meets the Sassy Squash’ - accompanied by slides of some surrealist drawings I had done. He said -in that very direct and matter-of-fact way he had of speaking - that made even me pay attention:

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 […]

I performed last evening on stage at the a38 as a member of Hungary’s newly formed National Howling Theater (Nemzeti Orditoszinhaz). As the only non-Hungarian in the 8 member choir, I feel like last night’s premier was a kind of rite of passage. I’ve performed on Hungarian stages with Hungarian jazz musicians, […]

I went to hear Steve Coleman at Trafo last Wednesday (Nov. 30th). With the warm up act it was almost four hours long! For this European tour, Steve has invited four Hungarian musicians to join him on stage: Zoltan Lantos (violin), Mihaly Borbely (reeds), Miklos Lucacs (cimbolom) and Gabor Winand (vocals).
We […]

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 […]

I was talking to my mother earlier this week via Skype and at the end of the conversation she read me a monologue she had written about her feelings about my father’s illness.
You know, my father - the Reverend Henry Boston - who spent the last 30 productive years of […]

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’ve just finished a two and a half day theater therapy workshop. I met a lot of beautiful people and shared some intense moments and did not come away unchanged.
The workshop was organised by the European Treatment Centers for Drug Addiction as part of the International Conference on Alcoholism and Addictions. […]

By Sunday evening, I was completely drained by the BOF festival (9 days of concerts culminating with Courtney Pine) and opted for a fluffy fashion show, but got sidetracked by an unexpected performance from Kiss Erzsi…

Zoltan Lantos’s Mirrorworld played last night on the Columbus Jazz Boat as part of BOF.
I wrote pages and pages (12 and half) in my note book (19.5X14cm). It really needs editing, but here are my first few words, written during the first few minutes of the concert:
“…it’s a stream of notes
swinging from trees
jumping […]

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 […]

I talked with guitarist-composer Gábor Brezovcsik and drummer András Mohay after Plastic Septet’s concert at Millenaris tonight and I basically said everything to them…
It goes like this:
I wrote two short narratives listening to Plastic Septet tonight. One is a crime story, the other is about a lonely motel. I’ve never […]

…Inspired by the playing of:
Pandit Rajeev Janardan - sitar
Dr. Kamala Shankar - shankar-guitar
Pundlik Krishan Bhagwat - tabla
at Trafo Arts Center, Budapest, Hungary on October 17, 2005-10-17
Part of the Budapest Autumn Festival
now available for reading in PDF format via the Poems page.

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 […]

Another techno leap accomplished - I think I will go in for the Techno Steeplechase
I managed to get one poem converted to PDF before the thing refused to convert anymore telling me to check my printer or reinstall printer driver. Will probably have to do the latter. I tried closing everything down and […]

His guitar has inspired some of the most beautiful poetry I’ve written here in Hungary. Private Little Gold Mine is one poem from that collection.

I’ve also written about Zoltan Lantos here (do a search) and a link to an article I wrote about him is on my non-fiction links page. (01 November, 2004, 21 String Violin Opens …) Zoltan’s violin has inspired me to write some very unusual nature poetry.

Here’s a few lines from The Perfect Place written by Ann, sung to the music of Baron’s Sunshower:

“…once he said
‘trust me,
see the perfect place for butterflies’,
and in his arms I travelled far,
the heat was real and wonderful.”

So, in true anarchistic style, they had a party and invited everybody to come down to the Gödör Klub - which has its own political cross to bear- and find out what they are all about.

The Budapest (Őszi) Autumn Festival, dedicated to showcasing avante garde art, has already presold 25% or double the number of tickets than last year.
I haven’t yet gone through the program to choose the events I want to see, but my first cursory glance has zeroed in on a sitar concert at Trafo.
The […]

P.S. I feel very privileged to receive so many wonderful poems from the Magyar Muse. I think it lives in the Danube because I find the Columbus Jazz Boat to be a particularily fertile spot, and have received one serendipitous poem while an Israeli musician was playing there.

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.

she sent Peter a recording of her singing the songs with music put together by different producers. Peter played the recording for his ad-hoc band and they learned the music and after two rehearsals with Pat put on the show.

Weather permitting, I will give a reading/performance of my poetry this coming Saturday, September 24th, in Vienna at Theseus Temple as part of the Labyrinth Poetry in the Park series.
*L A B Y R I N T H*
Association of English-Language Poets in Vienna
presents
10th annual festival
*Poetry in the Park*
2 summer afternoons
of verse, music and song
featuring […]

I started writing poetry when I was ten years old. The first poem I wrote was called “C”, and was about the ocean I had left when my family moved from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick. It started “Down by the sea, that’s where I long to be…”. I still have […]