Thanks to the Resolve Foundation for inviting me to be a mentor on their 2022 Fellowship Program! This year’s theme is Wellbeing Reimagined. Excited to find out who my mentee will be and meet the other mentors!
Resolved!
Tag: Mental Health
Proverse Autumn Reception Nov 18!
I had a blast attending Proverse Publishing‘s Autumn Reception at the Helena May last Thursday, mixing and mingling with the winners and finalists of the 2021 Proverse Poetry Prize! Congrats to all and to Proverse for organizing such a fun event! I’m also excited to be interviewing a couple of them for my next series of Mental Ideas, which will broadcast in 2022. S2 explores the relationship between mental health and imagination in a psychedelic way! First up is the incredible Vishal Nanda, who blew me away with his lively speech and inspired poetry book Please Stand Back From The Platform Door. Vishal is a fellow ‘bipolar bear’ (as he signed his book to me), but I’m certain that’s the least interesting thing about him. He is donating ticket sales from his upcoming book launch on Dec 8 to mental health charity Mind. Don’t miss it!!!
Transference surpasses more Mental Milestones!
Transference keeps on keeping on surpassing mental milestones: the indie feature film I helped co-produce (through Mental Ideas) is fast approaching 3.7M views on YouTube! Thanks to everyone who has watched and supported it! Had we charged a cent a view, we’d have actually broken even! But of course the film’s purpose was to raise awareness of important mental health issues, not to make money (as I continue to console Raff…🤣 🤣 🤣)
Can’t WAIT to see Raff‘s latest ingenious film Little Boxes, shot entirely on Zoom in lockdown! It’s racking up an impressive array of awards nominations, despite still being in post-production! Congrats Raff, producers Lee Boardman (my old flatmate in London billions of light years ago!), his gorgeous wife Jennifer James and the talented group of actors they train and mentor at their Manchester-based acting school/ company Actor Tribe who star in the film!
I’m hoping to catch up with Raff and Lee for a chat (on Zoom – ironically…) about the film on S2 of Mental Ideas on RTHK Radio 3! You can watch Lee playing Arron Banks in Brexit: An Uncivil War on HBO in Hong Kong now!
Breakfast with CBAA Australia!
Excited to have been invited to perform an episode of my RTHK humour column Sharp Pains on Australian radio network CBAA‘s Breakfast Show. I’ll also be chatting to the show’s presenters about fighting mental health challenges with humor. Big thanks to CBAA‘s Abe Killian for inviting me! We’ve not fixed a date yet so keep checking this space for details of how you can tune in live or download it as a podcast!
Sharp Pains has been running on RTHK Radio 3’s 123 Show for A YEAR!!! Some episodes have been published by the South China Morning Post and inspired a collection of short stories for two anthologies. The first, After the Storm, is set to be published by the Hong Kong Writers Circle and launched at the 2021 Hong Kong International Literary Festival Nov 12.
Catch me on VYP Oct 18!
War of Voices will be on the Voice Your Passion poetry channel on YouTube Oct 18! Thanks to Dr. Ahmed Elbeshlawy for inviting me to read and for sending me his latest poetry book, Unappeasable Ghosts. Looking forward to interviewing Ahmed for Mental Ideas soon!
You can listen to me reading War of Voices for VYP below and buy the poetry anthology in which the poem was first published here!
Transference Cruises to 2.2M Views!
More Mental Ideas!
My Mental Ideas Podcast (Oddcast??) will be back on the air @ RTHK Radio 3 in weekly episodes with a new twist, a live studio format and an electric mix of local and international guests in 2022!
The new series explores the impact of mental health on relationships in a humorously irreverent, offbeat, poignant & uplifting way. Meanwhile, stay tuned for news of S1’s release on other platforms and a possible TV spin-off!✌️
AIB Virtual Awards Event Nov 13!
You can watch the 2020 AIBs live TOMORROW (Fri 13 – ha!) and next Monday (Nov 16) in a 2-part virtual awards show webcast at 11pm HKT/ 3pm GMT! My cheeky little Mental Ideas Podcast for RTHK Radio 3 is a nominee in the Factual Podcast category. As rank outsiders go, we are the rankest. (The program booklet below certainly provides evidence of that!!!) But I am giddy with bewildered awe just to be a nominee!
#2020 AIBs #Association for International Broadcasting #Mental Ideas #RTHK
War of Voices Wins Place in 2020 Proverse Poetry Prize!
In a daze to learn my first (and only) poem, War of Voices, has won a place in the 2020 Proverse Poetry Prize and will be published in Proverse Publishing‘s 2021 anthology next April! Which place (last place?) will be announced at a reception in Hong Kong Nov 19.
My late grandfather, a poet, who also dabbled in banking, would be proud! I’d love to say he was an inspiration but since his legacy is all in Welsh (and it’s a sin to translate Welsh poetry into English) it’s impossible for me to tell if he’s been much of an influence or not.
Thank you, Proverse! You have made a wannabe poet with more issues than Vogue very happy.
Crazy – Mental Ideas Podcast
Crazy is a cheeky little fiesta of madness and the last episode of the first series of Mental Ideas so DON’T MISS IT!!! You can download all the episodes from this series here!
A HUGE thanks to all my mental guests: Mat Ricardo, Christina Yung, Larry Feign, Florence Wong, Ruben M, Josh Walters, Dan Davies, Kiki Wong, Jackie Chan, Philippe Joly, Eugenia Kim, Raffaello Degruttola, Ifat Hyndes, as well as to Nick Samuel for composing the mental music, Angie and Noz for all the support!
Mental Ideas will be back! Until then, you can catch me presenting my new humour column on RTHK Radio 3 from September 29!
Crazy on RTHK Radio 3
https://mentalideas.org
