A great idea that you should steal.
I went to a party chez Jack and Heather. They had provided a big table of books. You could take any of the books you liked. You could bring your own books and add them to the table so other people could take them. It was a bookorama, a bibliophile’s delight, a bibliophage’s banquet.
While the eager guests thumbed through copies of fascinating books, Jack and Heather made smart conversation and poured drinks. Really, how could this go wrong?
(Here’s how: ogodnowwehaveEVENMOREBOOKSyarg)
If you suffer from groaning shelves, think about Jack’n’Heather’s “Literature vs Liquor” experience TM. It’s easier to say goodbye to books if you see them going to good homes, after all.
(Thanks Jack’n’Heather!)
Oh the links we could linky
Muppet mashup – mashups, remixes, and covers of music from The Muppet Show and Sesame Street.
April Fools joke becomes real: Tauntaun sleeping bag
Hannah Montana Linux. Say what? It’s on Sourceforge, man, I dunno. Blame @johnnieingram, he has a guilty look if you ask me.
Michael Jackson tributes worth a look: Eternal Moonwalk and dance breakout in Stockholm public square
Movie stunts that stuntmen rate highly – it’s a typically-undercooked Slate article but still of interest.
Ben found this: the proposal document for The Wire. Outlines season 1 in a lot of detail – most of the beats are familiar but there’s some major changes too. Direct pdf link
And finally… Fancy Fast Food man what
Folk Music Revisited
Way back in December 2003, in what was only my 9th post to this blog, I generated a small eddy of argument over this:
Made me reflect for a bit on the absence of a ‘traditional music scene’ in Wellington, and perhaps in wider New Zealand. Traditional/cultural music groups exist, of course, but they’re pretty hard to find – I certainly never stumbled across more than one or two. (Although, now I think of it, the Cuba Street Carnival always seemed to summon them out of their shadowy corners.)
In New Zealand we have little in the way of local traditional ‘folk’ music that is shared with the community. Certainly, we have cultural music traditions that are strong – I defy any New Zealander’s spine not to tingle when a waiata rings out – but they are bounded into particular spaces and contexts. The Pacific Island musical traditions are likewise heavily tied into their particular communities. New Zealand’s European-descended pakeha seem to be largely happy to let the musical traditions of their various forefathers fade to nothing. The Asian communities are still a long battle away from being accepted as ‘part of New Zealand’ and their music likewise.
There was much discussion and a follow-up post with even more discussion. Lots of people challenged me, basically.
Anyway, I was thinking about that again when I read an interview with Stephen Fox, one of the PhD candidates at my workplace. It was printed in the DomPost a couple weeks ago but hasn’t turned up online, so here’s the excerpt I most want to quote:
He says pakeha today don’t have an equivalent to Maori and Pacific Island cultural arts. Pakeha folk arts and rituals, including annual celebrations and rites of passage, were replaced about the time of the Enlightenment, he says, although some survive in small pockets such as folk music and dance. “But they don’t have that deep core of information. With Polynesian dance, you have these massive genealogies. You are getting this massive dose on information of who you are within this cultural context.”
And that, I think, sheds some light on the position I was arguing back in ’03, and still have some sympathy for today. It also points at the value of, say, putting Maori cultural practice into play with Maori prisoners – they get information from it that pakeha wouldn’t get if someone turned up to make them morris dance, or sing “Thank You Very Much For Your Kind Donation”. (I kid because I love.)
Anyway. I really wish you could read the whole article, but you can’t. I can link you to Stephen’s website though.
Writing Update: June
Tne twelve short stories target for the year:
– Two stories (“The Tape” and “Buckets”) completed and, er, rejected by publication outlets. “Buckets” got shortlisted with some very nice words in rejection. Pleased by that. The benefit of good commentary from kind readers, there.
– Untitled walking story – still haven’t returned to this, still think it’s pretty much unsalvageable.
– “Babel” – have had good reader feedback. Needs some careful thinking and another pass.
– “The Twelve Times I Drank Too Much” – draft all typed up but haven’t sent it to anyone yet.
– “Confession” and “The Big Drive” both exist as notes and snippets only. Not good enough! Keep at it mr orgue!
Comic still progressing. Regular meetings with artist, pages slowly incrementing. Verra slowly.
Sekret writing project Marie Antoinette event – now officially announced. Rehearsals proper start Monday, yay!
Ron the Body has been back in the marketplace, too. Sample response from a UK agency: “I enjoyed this, but it’s not quite right for my contacts.” Onwards!
(Wedding thank-you cards… we are over halfway through… just)
[Last writing update]
Marie Antoinette Project – Live
The Marie Antoinette interactive theatre event is now fully live on the St James website. Very exciting! It will shortly be appearing in the next St James season brochure that is mailed out to many thousands of people.
Rehearsals are about to begin, and I’ll be giving some direction about how I want the interactivity to work in this evening. Our performers are incredible and enthusiastic and will be up for every challenge. I also need to do a bit of re-writing in response to the first cast read-through we had; I was very pleased that the script came out looking very good at the end of that, with several people specifically complimenting me on it. Believe it or not but I think working on the 48 and collaborating with an artist on a comic have both helped a great deal, forcing me to get better at cramming more content into fewer words and trusting in the performance/artwork to do a lot of communicating.
Ticket sales are open to the public – a key St James staffer was sick for a couple of weeks when they should have been hitting up corporate clients, so they’ve just thrown the doors open instead. If you’re interested, details at the webpage. (Yeah, it’s on the spendy side but it’s not that ridiculous for dinner, drinks and a show combined.) If we sell out I might even make some pocket money…
Seen: I’ve Loved You So Long (2008)
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime – French serious drama about Kristin Scott Thomas getting out of prison and she, her sister and her sister’s family, adjusting to her return.
It’s a nicely-drawn film if a bit too neat in some of its angles, e.g. how it works the cute-children and lovely-grandpa lines shamelessly. It all works well, however, largely thanks to the incredible presence of Scott Thomas. She is amazing to watch, utterly believable, heartbreaking and frustrating by turns.
I never quite fell into this film, but it definitely paid its way. If a moody, melancholy drama in the unhurried French style sounds like your cup of tea, this will not disappoint.
One Day We’ll Find Linky
One literary passage, translated by two different people. Interesting if you read translated lit and wonder about how well the sense of the work survives.
Awful Library Books – librarian snark at books being stripped from the collection.
This one is not safe for work, not because of violence or nudity but because of a bit of Japanese-cultural sexual weirdness. But actually I think this is even less safe for your sanity. It can only be: RoboGeisha
(from Al) On a cruise, no-one can hear you scream
100 characters from science fiction drawn in the Simpsons style.
Writer types: ten fiction editors talk about what they look for in submissions.
And finally… Got that not-so-fresh feeling? Afflicted by a sense of unnameable dread at your insignificance against the eldritch depths of space? Here’s the product for you!
Michael Bay
When I get frustrated at how Michael Bay* does visual storytelling, waving my hands and shouting “coherent sequence of images” and “not crossing the line” and “ignorance of a film grammar built up through trial and error over a century” while flecks of spittle fly across the room and my eyes get progressively more bloodshot…
…I sometimes wonder if this is how people felt when their kids started listening to rap music**.
And this thought bothers me.
* no i have not seen transformers 2 and probably wouldn’t go even if Pearce bought me a ticket like he did for the first one
** or Elvis, or jazz, or whatever
Exquisite Corpse
This entry is part of an on-line exquisite corpse – a short story told in 10 installments by 10 different authors. My 250 word installment is below; if you’re interested in writing the next part, scroll down to the bottom of this post for details on how this all works…
— — —
4.
easy to see much of anything.
“They’re probably in a gully. Lost their feet, face-first into the mud,” Dianne said.
“We’ll find them.”
Dianne felt crowded in by the bush and the mist and Peter’s eyes. The cemetery had bothered her. The statues there had seemed too familiar.
“Good exercise anyway,” Peter said, mostly in jest. “And hot cocoa later. I’m sorry, you know.”
Something rushed past Dianne’s cheek, the thrum of its big flat wings in her ear. It was already too dark to see properly, but she knew it was some kind of insect, something big.
“Get away,” Peter said, swatting as the bug came back. More amused than anything. “Go on now.”
“That thing sounded like a helicopter,” Dianne said as the dusky calm reasserted itself.
“I wish. Search would get done a mite quicker if it was.”
She felt it crash into her back. She flinched. Her clothes yanked and gathered as insect feet grabbed for purchase. She could feel it scratching through her layers, and the pull of its weight – she started to flail, trying to scare it away but it only seemed to tighten its grip and she suddenly became terrified it would leap up and get tangled in her hair.
Dianne turned sharply and saw Peter’s eyes. They were big and afraid.
Then her feet lost their way in the mud. They kicked up into nothing as her centre of gravity shifted, and she felt herself pitch over the side of the path
— — —
This is part 4 of 10. You can find the other installments here (but DON’T DO THIS YET if you want to join in):
1. www.sleep-dep.blogspot.com (26 June 2009)
2. www.multi-dimensional.blogspot.com (27 June 2009)
3. www.deb-onair.blogspot.com (29 June 2009)
4. www.additiverich.com/morgue/ (1 July 2009)
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
WANT TO READ IT? Jump back to the previous entries using the links above.
WANT TO JOIN IN? This exquisite corpse operates on a first-come, first-served basis. If you want to write the next installment, FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS:
1.IMPORTANT – Don’t read any of the previous entries! Read only the one you see here.
2.ALSO IMPORTANT – Post a comment here, saying “I claim the next entry”, followed by the URL/web address of your blog. If you don’t do this, we’ll never know where to find you.
3.Copy the text of this blog entry into a new post on your blog, but DELETE THE CHAPTER and write your own as the next installment. Start with the chapter number as I’ve done here, and start exactly where the last chapter left off (in mid-sentence if necessary).
4.Your entry should be EXACTLY 250 words long, unless you are writing chapter 10, in which case you must bring the story to a conclusion in 250 words or less.
5.At the end of the chapter, where the text reads: “This is part X of 10”, change this to the number of your chapter.
6.Add the URL/web address of your blog and today’s date onto the list below that, so people reading later entries can jump back to your chapter.
7.Finish your chapter and post it within 24 hours of claiming your place. There – it’s freaking easy! You can go back and read the rest of the story now.
8.IF YOU’VE JUST FINISHED ENTRY #10 and finished the story, DELETE THESE INSTRUCTIONS from the bottom of your post – they’ll just confuse people. ALSO, let CG know by posting a comment on the first entry (on www.sleep-dep.blogspot.com), or sending him an email on squid.mohawk@gmail.com. CG will assemble a full version and send it round to all of the contributors.
News Roundup
Bernie Madoff thrown in the klink. Good. Dude may just be the sacrificial goat for the sins of an industry, but still feels mighty satisfying.
The strange, sad story of Bastareaud, the French rugby player who claimed to have been violently attacked here in Wellington by a gang of angry locals, gets stranger and sadder as he is admitted to a psychiatric unit after attempting suicide; the injuries that he covered up with his story of being assaulted may have come from his own team-mates. Horrible. I hope the guy finds his way right.
Women tennis players who make noise are now “grunters”. Am I the only one who wonders what men would be called if this was about them? “Roarers”? “Shouters”? “Growlers”? Okay maybe not that last one.