Some notes on the importance of the multi-media
As if you needed any more reasons to stretch beyond the written word, here are a few non-poetical aesthetic pursuits I have enjoyed of late:
1) eMusic. My downloads just refreshed yesterday, and of course I'd been stockpiling albums for download, so I've just about 19 out of 100 downloads left. This is a pretty usual occurrence. On the rotation today:
Artist: Great Lakes Myth Society
Album: Compass Rose Bouquet
I love their unabashed embrace of waltz and march. A note of The Decemberists in that tendency, I suppose, but I hear more of an indie-pop makeover of Stephen Foster. And I DO love Stephen Foster art songs. "March" is my favorite overall, thus far.
Artist & Album: Bloc Party
Good solid British post-punk. Well-produced, but enough of a rough edge to make one feel sufficiently on the fringe. Great for washing dishes to.
Artist: Jens Lekman
Single: "Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo"
Lovingly surreal and sentimental. Jens bears the irony of the 70s era decor of a greasy spoon with the easy grace and sincerity of those maple leaves he keeps singing about. And who doesn't love em some Norsk? I eagerly await his next full-length.
I'm also quite in love with Charlotte Gainsbourg's 5:55, particularly the title track. Unfortunately, I had to cross over to the dark side (iTunes) to pick up this one.
...
2) Cinema. Admittedly, I am terrible at keeping up on movies. If it's still in theatres, odds are slim I've seen it and good that I've never heard of it. But if something catches my eye, I'll see it eventually. Being so humble in my appreciation of the artform opens me up to being very liberal in my application of that appreciation. Case in point: last night I actually sat through Snakes on a Plane. And enjoyed it. Ditto for Hot Fuzz, which, being British, feels slightly less hoi polloi than the former. Although, it was well worth the endless gore just to hear Mr. Jackson gleefully yell...well, you know the line. Yeah. Hurts so good.
Tonight's feature appeases my desire to claw my way up to intellectual middle brow. I'll be (finally) taking in Little Miss Sunshine.
...
3) Improv. Last week was my first class. Small group, a little tense, being mostly actors trying to dig their claws in and get some experience (I suppose this would be akin to a non-poet joining our poetry group just to be groovy, not necessarily with the ultimate goal of publishing a full-length mss or attaining a tenure-track teaching position). Despite the surface tension (or perhaps because of), energy was high. I was impressed by everyone's physical range and the strength of their points of view - both fairly advanced attributes, particularly when one is improvising a scene out of thin air, which is mostly what we were doing. I have a tendency to curse and deny too much. The ethos at Annoyance is great, though - essentially, be selfish with your choices and attack the top of the scene. Most folks are used to "taking care" of their scene partners, and while this also works, it's nice to just be able to take care of myself and not worry about both developing my character and feeding information to my scene partner.
There are probably about 15 people in the class, only four of us women. I'm sort of used to having the ratio reversed, so it will be interesting to note the difference in dynamic between this and other experiences I've had in the arts.
...
And, well poetry-wise, I just received an acceptance from Contrary - I should have something in their fall issue. Yay!
1) eMusic. My downloads just refreshed yesterday, and of course I'd been stockpiling albums for download, so I've just about 19 out of 100 downloads left. This is a pretty usual occurrence. On the rotation today:
Artist: Great Lakes Myth Society
Album: Compass Rose Bouquet
I love their unabashed embrace of waltz and march. A note of The Decemberists in that tendency, I suppose, but I hear more of an indie-pop makeover of Stephen Foster. And I DO love Stephen Foster art songs. "March" is my favorite overall, thus far.
Artist & Album: Bloc Party
Good solid British post-punk. Well-produced, but enough of a rough edge to make one feel sufficiently on the fringe. Great for washing dishes to.
Artist: Jens Lekman
Single: "Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo"
Lovingly surreal and sentimental. Jens bears the irony of the 70s era decor of a greasy spoon with the easy grace and sincerity of those maple leaves he keeps singing about. And who doesn't love em some Norsk? I eagerly await his next full-length.
I'm also quite in love with Charlotte Gainsbourg's 5:55, particularly the title track. Unfortunately, I had to cross over to the dark side (iTunes) to pick up this one.
...
2) Cinema. Admittedly, I am terrible at keeping up on movies. If it's still in theatres, odds are slim I've seen it and good that I've never heard of it. But if something catches my eye, I'll see it eventually. Being so humble in my appreciation of the artform opens me up to being very liberal in my application of that appreciation. Case in point: last night I actually sat through Snakes on a Plane. And enjoyed it. Ditto for Hot Fuzz, which, being British, feels slightly less hoi polloi than the former. Although, it was well worth the endless gore just to hear Mr. Jackson gleefully yell...well, you know the line. Yeah. Hurts so good.
Tonight's feature appeases my desire to claw my way up to intellectual middle brow. I'll be (finally) taking in Little Miss Sunshine.
...
3) Improv. Last week was my first class. Small group, a little tense, being mostly actors trying to dig their claws in and get some experience (I suppose this would be akin to a non-poet joining our poetry group just to be groovy, not necessarily with the ultimate goal of publishing a full-length mss or attaining a tenure-track teaching position). Despite the surface tension (or perhaps because of), energy was high. I was impressed by everyone's physical range and the strength of their points of view - both fairly advanced attributes, particularly when one is improvising a scene out of thin air, which is mostly what we were doing. I have a tendency to curse and deny too much. The ethos at Annoyance is great, though - essentially, be selfish with your choices and attack the top of the scene. Most folks are used to "taking care" of their scene partners, and while this also works, it's nice to just be able to take care of myself and not worry about both developing my character and feeding information to my scene partner.
There are probably about 15 people in the class, only four of us women. I'm sort of used to having the ratio reversed, so it will be interesting to note the difference in dynamic between this and other experiences I've had in the arts.
...
And, well poetry-wise, I just received an acceptance from Contrary - I should have something in their fall issue. Yay!
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