Word Wednesday: Word Snacks

Word Wednesday! This week I thought I might share some of my favourite literature themed twitter feeds that inject little pieces of literary goodness into days when I don't even have time to pick up a book (this does happen, much to my dismay).
I'm a new convert to twitter; I'm ashamed to admit that until a couple of months ago I thought it was only used to stalk and or judge shameful celebrities. But I am happy to admit that I was very wrong, and that there is so much good stuff out there, wonderful stories and events and photos and contests and people that I never would have heard of otherwise! Not that I need any other social media sites aka tools for procrastination, but oh well.

 Sylvia Plath Quotes:
@itssylviaplath 
This is my favourite lit themed twitter feed. All these wonderful musings by one of my most favourite writers are served up to my mobile in bite sized pieces, and they never cease to move me, and to paint the world outside my train window a little more melancholy and beautiful.

I lean to you, numb as a fossil. Tell me I’m here.

Lit Hum:
@lit_hum
Lit Hum is a celebration of literature, with a big focus on poetry, with strong roots in the humanities. I enjoy these tweets, because it is often easy to forget how poetry relates to the rest of the world. This reminds me that it will always have relevance.

The self forms at the edge of desire, and a science of self arises in the effort to leave that self behind. - Anne Carson

Poets House
@poetshouse
Poets House: a place for poetry—library, literary center, locus of poetic inspiration. Tweeting poetic fragments and things-to-know.
I really like Poets House, because it exposes me to a lot of new poets and poetry ,and I like how each tweet is only few lines (there are few poems 140 characters long), and then they provide a link to click through to the full poem.


This is the way the blues works/Its sorry wonders,/Makes trouble look like/A feather bed ~ Cornelius Eady

Readings
@ReadingsBooks
This is one for the Australians. Readings is probably the best, if not one of the last, bookstore chains left standing, and I for one am very glad that it is still around. I could get lost in the Carlton store for hours, and come away with more books that I could realistically afford. This twitter feed keeps me up to date with all the fabulous literary events they put on or are involved with, as well as upcoming releases, reviews and recommendations for books to try. Hooray!

I hope this brings some written word inspired joy into your day, but don't forget to pick up a book when you can, because there really is no substitute.

Pia Blair Collages

How pretty are these collages by Melbourne expat Pia Blair?! I wish I could collage like this

You can check out the rest of her work and life in Vietnam over at littlelandofpia

Music Monday - Wintersleep

Music Monday! This week is a song that I found whilst listening to the Emerging Tracks playlist on
We Are Hunted. I often put this playlist on in the background when I'm catching up on blogs, checking emails and the general procrastination that comes with the internet. So I often find that my brain begins to zone out, and the music becomes nothing more than a background humm in the presence of my more urgent thoughts.

However, the opening of "Resuscitate" by Wintersleep was enough to make me sit up and take notice. I love the orchestrated chaos of this song, the feeling of hurtling forward, but also the rich depth of the lead's voice, and the way the ominous lyrics are coupled with such an upbeat rhythm. I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for albums and EPs at JB.

Enjoy!

Josh Pyke - The Forum

Do you ever find yourself feeling nostalgic for times or places that you've never even lived through or been to? I do, a lot, especially through music. When I listen to Joni Mitchell, I feel nostalgic for Woodstock. When I listen to Hole, I feel nostalgic for the nineties girl punk scene, even though I was listening to Hanson in the ninties, and watching Rugrats and wearing butterfly clips, none of which are particularly riot grrrl. When I listen to Josh Pyke, I feel nostalgic for the ever elusive perfect summer. 

 This photograph seemed most fitting after the depature of the dear Mr. Sendak

I went along to his show, with my friend Holly, and her friend Hollie, at the Forum, which is the perfect venue for him, really. He's the kind of musician you want to listen to, in fields under a sprawling starlit sky, and the Forum's perpetual midnight ceiling is the closest thing we have to that in the city. 

I was excited to find out on arrival that he was being supported by Gossling, an artist I had heard and enjoyed many times on the radio, but knew little about. Well, she did not disappoint; in fact, she surpassed my expectations with her almost too adorable, pitch perfect voice. And she's also quite funny; the first thing she did after introducing herself was admit to being on our side of the stage many a time, looking up at the one Grecian statue with the rather large package. Needless to say, I came away with her latest EP, three parts because her music is gorgeous and one part because of that story. 

One of the many things I love about Josh Pyke's music is that he has an amazing handle on words; his lyrics are unsurpassed for their ability to tell stories, expertly weaved into melodies that are of equally good quality. One is never sacrificed for the other, they are perfectly complimentary. So when he's standing right there in front of you, unravelling these story songs, you can't help but be transported to another place, somewhere where houses are living organisms, people run around without shoes on, sand and salt is stuck to everything, and love is a tangible thing you can hold in your hands, even if it's just for a short time. That's how I feel when I listen to his albums, and it's multiplied by about one hundred when experiencing it live.

Although this was the third time I'd seen him, this time had to be my favourite,  in terms of venue, vantage point and setlist. This wasn't an album tour, this was a Josh Pyke tour; he played a lot of songs from his first EP, Feeding the Wolves, including Beg Your Pardon, which is still one of my favourite songs of his, and chose a lot of quieter, more melancholy tracks over more upbeat numbers or the 'hits', songs like Vibrations in Air, Follow Me Down, and an amazing rendition of Punch in the Heart, with Gossling coming out again to do an exquisite job of Katy Steele's part; urgh, just thinking about it now gives me shivers. It was almost like a pied piper-esque adventure (minus the children stealing), him leading through the maze of his back catalogue, and us following , anticipating  but very unsure of which song he was going to play next. There were songs in there that I hadn't listened to for months, and it was like discovering them again for the first time. He did choose some crowd favourites, however, like 'The Summer', 'Memories and Dust' and of course 'Middle of the Hill', all of which stirred up some rather moving sing a longs. And he can entertain a crowd just by speaking; his banter included a story of how he smashed his two front teeth, and used the insurance money to take a trip to Europe instead of getting them fixed properly, and a hilarious impression of Richard Mercer from Lovesong Dedications. I'd love to pick his brain one day, but my nerves turn to jelly any time I'm even in the same room as someone I admire this much.

All in all I had a wonderful time, and I am sad that he won’t be touring for a while now, as he's off to work on another album. But once that's out, I urge you to jump on some tickets as soon as you can,
and in the meantime, give his any of his records a spin. And then let me know what kind of places they make you feel nostalgic for. 

Highlights: Punch in the Heart feat. Gossling, Sew My Name, Love Lies, Beg Your Pardon, Middle of the Hill, Feeding the Wolves, The Summer, The Lighthouse Song. 

Self Dating for the Creatively Exhausted

So yesterday I had a full day off from work, and I decided that I needed to take a break from writing as well, to replenish the creative well that of late has been a little overdrawn. So I let myself wake up naturally ie no setting the dreaded alarm, made myself some eggs and a cup of tea, and then headed off into the city to take myself on a much needed date.

First stop was Cinema Nova. I like going to movies on my own, sometimes, and for certain movies that I just want immerse myself in.
I originally wanted to see the Artist, but turns out I missed the last showing by a day (curses), so I picked the movie Trishna, based on what I had learn from At The Movies by Margaret and David (they both liked it very much, which can only be a good sign), and the fact that it's based one of my all time favourite, Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
If you're a regular reader, you will know my love hate relationship with Thomas Hardy, in that I love everything he writes desperately, but hate the fact that it always makes me feel so desperately sad. Actually, that’s not true, otherwise I wouldn't keep going back, book after book, tragedy after tragedy. Sometimes it feels good to just wallow in the sadness for a paragraph or two.
Anyway, having read Tess numerous times, and sat through the entire BBC telemovie (Gemma Areton and Eddie Raymond!! Swoooon!), I knew what I was in for. But Michael Winterbottom's adaption was a fresh take on the story which I thoroughly enjoyed; for one, it's set in India, and two, the characters of Alec and Angel have been combined into one main antagonist. At first I was a little wary of this, because my feelings towards Angel and Alec are so polarised, but by the end I was completely converted to the idea of the dual archetype, as it seems a more realistic portrayal of humanity. Sadly, there was more Alec than Angel in Jay, but this was key in playing out the progression of Hardy's original story.
But Trishna (Frieda Pinto) was gorgeous, of course, and so was the sweeping Indian landscapes and cityscapes, it really made me want to travel there. One day...

After the movie, I needed a little pick me up, so my next stop was Readings bookstore. This place is everything Boarders should have been if it wanted to survive; the selection of books there is unsurpassed, and the atmosphere is so cheerful and comfortable. There were so many things that I wanted to buy, but I exercised enough self control to only come away with one book: Woolgathering by Patti Smith. I am two pages in, and already it has surpassed my most whimsical expectations.

After making my purchase and hopped on the tram out to East Brunswick, to see the She Raw photography exhibition by Lilli Waters. A believer in finding magic in the day to day, Lilli has put together a stunning collection of 41 woman-centric photographs that I could just stare out for hours; each one has its own special quality, and a luminescence that draws you in to all aspects of the picture. I didn't take any photos, because my iPhone camera would not do them any justice, but she's released a few teasers on her she raw tumblr, and will be releasing a book, with half the profits going to White Ribbon, an organisation that fights violence against women. How incredible is this woman? You'll know if you take a look at her photos! The exhibition is at the Blak Dot gallery in East Brunswick until tomorrow, but you can visit lilliwaters.com to order one of her amazing She Raw photography books.

So it ended up being a day filled with my exposure to some incredibly powerful women who each left their own unique imprint on me. Leaving the exhibition, I was struck by how many wonderful creatures exist in this world, and how many of them are women, and the plethora of creativity that abounds from us. With my almost empty well now filled to the brim with inspiration, I met up with Lovely for some Friday night drinks and ended up having dinner with him, the lovely Holly, and her friend who was also named Hollie, at the Post Deng cafe, before heading off to see Josh Pyke! I'll be writing a gig blog to follow up on this later.

But in the meantime, I highly recommend taking yourself on a date, to do some things that are just for YOU! You will only come away feeling good, I whole heartedly believe it!

Drunk Monkeys: The Cycles

Hullo lovely people! This is just a short blog to let you know that my story 'The Cycles' has been published in Drunk Monkeys! Hooray! This one is about a woman and her unnatural, almost unhealthy attachment to material things, an idea that came about during my own exhausting wardrobe overhaul.

I was instantly drawn to submit to this publication by their charming description on Duotrope.

'1,000 years ago the only way to produce a Bible was for some poor monk to sit hunched over his table and painstakingly transcribe a new copy word by word. The resulting illuminated manuscripts are still among the most beautiful pieces of art ever produced-but sometimes, if you looked in the margins, you'd get a pretty big surprise.

Some of the monks doing the transcribing would get a little punchy after hours of work. When the time came to produce the artwork around the words they would draw filthy, silly doodles. Often these bizarre doodles involved monkeys playing games of chance, dressed in priests' robes, flinging poo, and getting drunk on sacramental wine.

These manuscripts sit at the conjunction of art, religion, literature, and juvenile humor. There's no better symbol of mankind's history of expression than that.

Here at Drunk Monkeys we carry on that tradition. We are open to all forms of expression: critical analysis, opinion pieces, and creative work of any type. We set snark aside in favor of appreciation for where we've been and where we can go together. '

How cool is this? If you would like to check out my story, it's up now in the Short Stories section. And then you can peruse the rest of the website, there's so much great content to check out! Personally, I am enjoying the Mad Men Season 5 recaps, although I'm already two episodes behind! Ack!

Word Wednesday: For Maurice Sendak

 
I can't remember the first time I read "Where the Wild Things Are", because it is a book that has been a part of my life as far as my memories go back. But I do remember the one copy held by my primary school library, and how on every library day, all I could think about was getting my hands on it before someone else did. Of course this didn't always come off in my favour, although I'm sure I was bratty enough to try every time, but when it did, Library Monday would easily become the best day of that whole week.

I remember knowing all the words by heart. Whenever it was selected to be read out on Playschool, I could recite it verbatim, and I would. I would half pray against, half wish for a Wild Thing to be living under my bed. I wanted to be Max's travelling companion, in my own wild animal pyjama suit, sailing that boat in and out of days. It would make me want to seek out my own adventure (as long as I could come home and still have hot supper waiting for me). I would learn that it was ok to think wild thoughts and to feel wild feelings.

But most importantly, 'Where the Wild Things Are' was the book that began the grand love affair with books that I am still engaged in today, one that I'm certain will continue for the rest of my life.

For all of this, I must thank the incredible Maurice Sendak. He will be sorely missed but always remembered by all the inner children of the world, including my own, who were affected by his rare, unique imagination.


“But the wild things cried, “Oh please don’t go - we’ll eat you up - we love you so!”
And Max said, “No!”
The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws but Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye.”  

Goodbye, beloved storyteller.