The impact of rain

Rain makes me feel
emptiness
deep oblivion
and nothing

Rain sounds on roof
coldness too
and the open-ended glide
that eases into my mood

copters

Today I am posting a poem from the next booklet to be produced by bluewater books. This booklet is due out in the next couple of weeks.

copters


gardens of gardenia blooms
of second glances never sent
melancholic sycamore copters
spinning at my feet.


nose-caught scents of cow-slips
which recall beechams empty bankments
steam gone, are now held together
by the bankments of the sea-side place.


recollections make me age
make me youthful again and yet
awareness of years spinning faster
closer to ground the staleness of age.


second glances never as strong as the first
once seen is enough to myth
is too much to revisit and demystify
like tyntowyn now not canute's cave.


private symbols are not the language
of public words but the comparison
of fates leaves us spinning together
like copters on an autumn afternoon.

77/78 - Television and Suicide

Yesterday I bought a couple of new albums from my local Music Zone. This store has radically changed the pricing of CDs in the UK. By selling CDs cheap, they work on the basis that the customer will buy more items. Small margins but big turnover. It works. As a result, over recent months I have been buying lots of music that I used to listen to on vinyl a long time ago. I will happily pay £5 to £8 for these on CD - but not much more than that. The pricing policy of Music Zone has had a big impact on the bigger music stores who have radically cut prices on back catalogue material.

Anyway, this entry wasn't going to be an advert for a record shop. I bought two fantastic albums which sound as good today as they did when I first heard them. Television's first album, 'Marquee Moon' came out in 1977, just as punk was taking hold in the UK. I remember being really impressed with their attitude, the guitar work, the sharp lyrics, and the tightness of the music. It still sounds fresh and alive after nearly 30 years. There is a re-issue of this CD with bonus tracks, but I went for the basic album which is just an excellent exercise in economy and precision. As a band, their tightness of form and total sharing of the space in the music reminds me of jazz rather than rock. All four musicians are working away in every second of the music - but it's music at the heart of rock's new wave of the late 70s, forming a neat bridge between the excesses of late prog rock and the primitive naivete of punk.

A year later the first album by Suicide was released - another band from New York. I bought both their first two albums as they were released, being really excited by the newness of their sound. They were minimal, proto-punk, and yet listening now it's obvious that they were also deeply rooted in rock 'n' roll. The first album is now a double CD with bonus tracks, and two extras on the second CD in the form of a live gig at CBGBs in New York and a live cut from Brussels. The live material is really interesting showing as it does the two extremes of reaction to their work. They live up to the idea that reaction is better than apathy. The crowds that saw their early worked reacted with passion or hatred. There didn't seem to be any middle ground. The Brussels concert ends in chaos.

Suicide's music still sounds cutting edge today - their experiments are still unsettling. The epic track 'Frankie Teardrop' still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Songs for Emotion

I spent last night listening to a selection of great songs, taking the opportunity to pull at the emotions. Great songs should do that. I listened to:

Damien Rice - eskimo
Nick Drake - One of these things first
Johnny Cash - One
Neil Young - Like a Hurricane
REM - Night Swimming
David Byrne - Au fond du temple saint
Tears for Fears - Pale Shelter
Prefab Sprout - Steal your thunder

A couple of beers to go with it, and the result was a fantastic evening.

NaNoBlogMo Phenomenon

Well, I have stared writing the 50,000 words of novel for the National Novel Writing Month. It's going painfully slowly. I was struggling to find the motivation to get the thing moving along steadily. I had set up a separate weblog to post some of the material I create, and to post comments as I go. It can be found at mywrinomo.blogspot.com . Well, after a few days it appeared on the nanoblogmo site (nanoblogmo.blogspot.com). I think it appeared some time on Saturday, and within hours I was receiving a huge hit rate. This is excellent - just the motivation I need to get writing some more...

So I will then...

Meanwhile hits to this weblog pour in steadily - I will soon be reaching my 300th visitor. And I will soon be posting my 100th post too, which surprises me. When I started this, I wasn't sure how long it would last for. At the moment it feels like something that is ongoing, that is adapting and adjusting to my tastes as I progress, and taking in different things as I go.

Troy vs Mona Lisa Smile

This weekend the whole family sat down twice to watch films on the DVD player. On Friday evening we watched 'Troy' starring Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, Diane Kruger, Peter O'Toole etc. Now, when I watched this film I had read no reviews of it whatsoever, and had been vaguely aware of all the hype surrounding it. So, I began watching with a totally open mind. It's very long - 160 minutes. With some films that would be a good thing - with this one, it was too much. A bit of editing would have been helpful. Some of the dodgy lines, and over-egged scenes could have been cut. The battle scenes looked like remakes of the best bits of 'Lord of the Rings' without the strange creatures. I did enjoy watching the film - sort of! But it was so poorly scripted, and crass in its use of standard dramatic plot-lines. Does Hollywood really have to use the same formulas all the time - even when they are working with one of the oldest and greatest mythical narratives we have in the western world? The presence of a baby (Hector's son) as the dramatic prop designed to make us feel the impending dread of the invasion of Troy, was just too manipulative. All in all it could have been so much better than it was. With such an amazing story it should have been a better film. Mis-casting, and over-acting combined with dodgy direction to make a really clumsy film. If you want to see the worst bit, cut to Brad Pitt as Achilles staggering across the floor as he dies, pulling arrows from his chest. Please! It was just too much like a really awful spaghetti western.

Last night we sat down again and watched 'Mona Lisa Smile'. This time I was impressed. I'd heard this film described as 'Dead Poets Society' with women instead of boys. The comparison is inevitable, but I found the theme of feminism and the status of women in 1950s America really well handled. Julia Roberts was brilliant in the lead role. She underplays beautifully, giving space to the rest of the cast, leaving a clear impression of this character that she plays, someone who is struggling against a system, but with a share of doubts.

The scenes in the classroom are really well put together. The cast of girls (Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ginnifer Goodwin) in the class that she teaches 'Art History 100' to, are brilliant. On the DVD there is a short documentary film where the actresses give their reactions to some of the art that is in the film. It's interesting to see them being interviewed - and see the changes from character to actress. And Juliet Stephenson as the school nurse is brilliant - dismissed from the film far too soon. This is a film well worth watching - and I didn't find myself laughing at scenes that weren't meant to be funny, which I did with 'Troy'.

As I type this I am listening to 'Genevieve' by Scott Walker - marvellous! It's amazing to be alive with so much culture around me to absorb.

WFMU live online

OK - I am working at the laptop. Sitting alone here - sometimes feeling a little cut off from the big world out there. So...I have a live feed coming into the computer, playing the latest programme from WFMU station on the net (www.wfmu.org).

As I type this the DJ, Ken, is online playing "Freeform radio for the chronically impatient. Avant-garde pop, poppy avant-garde, loud guitars, lots o' Japanese and 45's played slow. Playlists posted in real time on the web so you can play along at home or work." It's great fun - Stina Nordenstam has just been playing. Apparently later today their DJ Kenny G (who has worked with People Like Us - see earlier posting) is doing a 3 hour show with 360 half minute songs on it! Sounds a bit like The Residents gone crazy! I love this surreal, comic, mad, 'because it's there' approach to things.

Sometimes it's easier to speak

There are days when the words don't want to come forward. I surf across weblogs on the net (some are over on the right) and find some bloggers who post every single day. How do you do that? There are days when life gets in the way. There are days when emotions get in the way. And there are days when I just get in my own way, because I am not getting my own way!

Enough said!

Bartok Tick Tock

The rain is lashing down on the conservatory roof near my desk, as I sit listening to the piano music of Bela Bartok played by Zoltan Kocsis. I'm not sure whether it is the music, or the relentless sound of the rain, but I have an overall feeling of listlessness today. Things could certainly be better.

Yesterday a few interesting things happened on the poetry side of things. I bumped into one of the leaders of our local poetry group, First Thursday, who told me that they want me to do a reading next March. I'm really pleased about this - it will be the third time I have done a reading at this group. I will probably present some material from 'the alice conversations'. It seems a long way off, but I am looking forward to doing it.

I also had a letter from Suffolk with details of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival's tour, which includes a performance in Manchester - I'm currently considering whether to go to that. I just might. The letter also included a CD of poetry from the festival, which I've dipped into a little this morning. I need to be in the right mood to listen to this. It is available for free by following the link (www.thepoetrytrust.org). This whole mailing looks like a marvellous idea. It must be really well funded to be able to do this.

The third thing which happened was an email from Australia. I had sent an email to Alison Croggon earlier in the week, commenting on her plans to put her weblog on hold for now. I've enjoyed reading this weblog in the past, and wanted to thank her for the work she had done on it over the months. She wrote back to me, which was nice. I really like her work, especially 'Mnemosyne', a chapbook produced by Wild Honey Press.

Blue Wild Angel

Over the last weekend I have been buying music again. God, I'm a cd junkie! I bought:

1. Tom Waits - Real Gone
2. Jan Garbarek - In Praise of Dreams
3. Jimi Hendrix - Blue Wild Angel: Jimi Hendrix Live at the Isle of Wight
4. Various Artists - Cash Covered (cover versions of Johnny Cash, from latest Mojo magazine)

There is so much great new music around at the moment. I'm dipping into the new Tom Waits album a bit at a time. Like most of Waits' recent albums, it needs time and small bursts before you 'get it'. The melodies are hidden away in subtlety. There is some amazing guitar work on this album from Marc Ribot. I first came across his work on the David Sylvian 'Dead Bees on a Cake' album where he brought the blues to Sylvian's work.

I've been a fan of Jan Garbarek's work since I was 16 and have collected 20 albums by him over the years. I've also seen him live a couple of times. He is a true musical visionary, producing his own soundscape and musical worlds. A few years ago I read Michael Tucker's 'Deep Song' which is a great book introducing Garbarek's work and its influences. This new album has Garbarek on saxophones, synthesisers, samplers and percussion. He is accompanied by Kim Kashkashian on viola and Manu Katche on drums. It's a very sparse album, filled with real beauty in its melodies. The interplay of saxophone and viola works perfectly. Garbarek has a great ability to work well with collaborators. This album is up there with Officium and Mnemosyne which he made with the Hilliard Ensemble. The way that the saxophone and viola work together reminds me of those two earlier albums. Truly magical.

The Hendrix album was a real bargain, picked up for £8-00 - a double album documenting the 2 hours of concert at the Isle of Wight festival not long before Hendrix died. I've not had time to get to the end of this album yet - got stuck in the middle of the drum solo! The versions of familiar tunes - 'Purple Haze', 'Hey Joe' and 'All along the Watchtower' are all brilliant, and it is good to have a decent booklet included too.

The Johnny Cash tribute album has a wide mix of artists doing their take on the music of Johnny Cash. It's a great piece of work - Mojo magazine are giving away some brilliant cover discs. Recently they had an album of music that influenced Led Zeppelin which was also fantastic - included Robert Johnson, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Spirit, Howlin' Wolf, John Fahey.

As I type this I am listening to the album 'Finn' from 1995 - an album by Tim and Neil Finn. I'd forgotten how good this album is. There's a new album out by the brothers, and they are on tour at the moment. I've heard a few tracks from the new album - sounds good. As I said earlier, there's so much good music around - makes me wish I got freebies from the record companies. Well, I can wish, can't I!

another butterfly emerging

The plans are emerging for the Novel Writing month coming up. According to the rules it's OK to plan and prepare outlines before the writing starts. (Never forget that rules are made to be broken anyway!) I'm thinking that I will do some more work to pull together what this whole 50,000 words is going to be about, to make the job a bit easier.

All I have so far is that it will be a sequel to 'the butterfly principle' and that it will have Alice as a main character, and probably Jim too. I need place, incident and some sort of plot ideas to get things moving.

I'll do some more work on it tonight.

The challenge has been taken up and is being absorbed into my consciousness as a 'can do this' image.

November novel - butterfly sequel

I signed up for the National Novel Writing Month initiative today (www.nanowrimo.org). I have only the vaguest idea as to what I will write about when it starts on 1st November, but then I think that is partly the point!

I thought I would produce a sequel to the first novel which I wrote - "the buttefly principle" - which is still unfinished. I guess I ought to finish the first one before the end of this month, as a warm-up and to get me back into the characters from that book.

The objective of the initiative is to encourage the writing of 50,000 words in one month. I just need to settle to produce 1,700 words each day to achieve this. It's going to good fun - and a bit of a haul too.

I'll keep updates coming here...

Internet Archive 2 - Sound Tribe Sector 9

I mentioned in an earlier post that there is an amazing internet archive including thousands of live music shows. I am in the middle of listening to a couple of concerts from this archive today. The first one, a Grateful Dead show from the mid-90s is really good. I'm not familiar with much of their work - I have the Live Dead album which I think is excellent. The show from the archive which is over 2 1/2 hours long is amazing.

The other show is the one I really want to write about though. It's by a band I hadn't heard of - Sound Tribe Sector 9. They have a website at www.sts9.com which has some info. The music is made up of a series of lengthy jams - sometimes they sound like the experimental fractals of King Crimson music from the Projekcts albums. Other times they sound like techno-ambient and at times the music takes on a jazz improv feel. Altogether it makes for a brilliant couple of hours of music. There are nearly 200 concerts on the archive website - plenty to choose from. I picked a concert from last month, the most recent one to be uploaded. This whole project is a marvellous way to bring music to a wider audience than it might otherwise achieve.

Listening to:

Last weekend I put together 100 songs as a soundtrack for a party. It went really well! I'm in the process of transcribing the list and may post it here soon. In the meantime, here's a list of some of the stuff I have been listening to this week:

1. Porcupine Tree - In absentia. Heavy heavy heavy.
2. Marc Almond - Stranger Things. Luscious sounds.
3. Okna Tsahan Zam - shaman voices. Already raved about this album on this blog.
4. King Crimson - Lizard. Second album by this band, a bit dated but good fun to listen to.
5. String Cheese Incident - tracks for download from their site (http://www.stringcheeseincident.com/copy.sounds.htm). Incredibly talented band in the Grateful Dead and Santana mould. A friend brought an album back from the US this summer - heard it and thought Wow! Had to get hold of some stuff.
6. Gong - Other side of the sky: a collection. Double CD collection, reminds me of the albums I used to have and why I raved about them, even the silly bits!
7. Tortoise - Standards. New discovery for me - in a field of their own!
8. Various Artists - Wein, Weib und Gesang (Download from Kikapu Records at www.kikapu.com). Five hours of music for transferring to an mp3 CD.
9. Tom Waits - Blood Money. This is a brilliant album. I'm listening to it to gear up ready for buying his new album 'Real Gone'.
10. Sigur Ros - Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do. Spectacularly weird mini album from a collaboration performance with Merce Cunningham and Radiohead.

No wonder I'm feeling good at the moment!

Note to Self

Across poetry sequences, pieces of fiction and other creative processes, there are a number of key characters and images that repeat. These are:

- Blue
- Alice
- Aslan
- Kingfisher
- Water

These have a deeper range of meanings, and are 'characters' that I can work with through diverse contexts. Bringing them back again and again lends strength to the creative process.

Last week Blue re-emerged in a poem called '21st Century Blue' which I am now working on.

Two preoccupations for my poetry - process and content.