To Quote

[source:.. http://www.skirtfulloffire.com]

"When I was a teenager, one of my favourite things was to go off with my tent, and just be alone for two weeks, and just walk and sing at the top of my lungs. There’s nothing better in the world; you can’t be any happier than that. It’s the best. I guess that’s sort of my temple. "

*
Listening to... Florence + The Machine, album 'Lungs'
review to come

a girl's inspiration: the starting line

Years and years ago...

One fine Spring day, my highschool Lit teacher, Mr. L invited a guest speaker into our classroom. She was a former student of his, currently enrolled in university and majoring in English Literature. Our class had spent the last month discussing and trying our hand at poetry, and she was there to further our appreciation for it. I'll never forget the sharp way in which she rebuked us for attempting poetry without having read poetry. To roughly paraphrase her, our awkward attempts would not be, could not be, what they should be without knowledge of what poetry had been. I recall being quite put off by her assertion. My adolescent thought process was, what did she know, really? I had to put a good five years of distance between myself and that dressing down before I could recognize the veracity of her statement.

It happened in the bedroom of Michael Hobson after a night of videogames and laughter -- an unexpected moment of unprompted poetry. As we sat on the edge of his bed, he rattled off a poem. His nasal voice took on an odd purity as his mouth shaped the words. And they struck me, they lit a fire within me, one which seemed to pour into my four limbs, into my soul. What a strange time, a strange place to have a 'come to poetry' moment! On the bed of a cute boy, in the middle of a nameless night.

I scoured the local Barnes and Noble's for 'Spoon River Anthology' by Edgar Lee Masters. Copy in hand, I spent subsequent nights reading this American classic. I love to read, typically burning through a book in a few short hours. But with this, I limited myself to 2-3 poems a night just before bed. I lingered over them, lingered over the many voices and stories and histories of a fictional town and its fictional souls. I carried Minerva, Emily Sparks and The Village Atheist into sleep, into dreams. They spoke of poetry and of fire, and then I knew it too.

That all the clay of you, all of the dross of you,
May yield to the fire of you,
Till the fire is nothing but light! . . .
Nothing but light!

A door was blown open that night, in that room, but each poem read drew me across the threshold. My opened mind sought other masterworks: Cummings, Plath, Kerouac, Rilke. With each one came a deepening appreciation for the craft as well as a recognition of Masters's flaws. Still, his work was my gateway poetry-drug and nothing can dim that fact. So, here's to the one that started it all, The Village Atheist:

Ye young debater over the doctrine
Of the soul's immortality,
I who lie here was the village atheist,
Talkative, contentious, versed in the arguments
Of the infidels.
But through a long sickness
Coughing myself to death
I read the Upanishads and the poetry of Jesus.
And they lighted a torch of hope and intuition
And desire which the Shadow,
Leading me swiftly through the caverns of darkness,
Could not extinguish.
Listen to me, ye who live in the senses
And think through the senses only:
Immortality is not a gift,
Immortality is an achievement;
And only those who strive mightily
Shall possess it.

--
currently working my way through Rhapsody's classical music section
much to the delight of my ears ^_^

a girl's inspiration: I love the silence

a girl's random pain and music

I threw out my back... Again! It's been a pain-spiked / medicated recovery for the last two and half weeks or so. Yeah, fun. I've been catching up on my 'nothing', which is even more awesome! (Please note the sarcasm.)

But just so this post isn't all about pain and pain medication (mostly 800 mg motrin with a kick of naproxen), I'll mention a few things on my imaginary 'current loves' list:

Composer, Steve Jablonsky's score for the film, "The Island" -- a lovely flick by the way, in which Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johanssen are as gorgeous as ever.

Composer, Guy Farley's score for the obscure British film, "Cashback" -- an average movie with lovely imagery and a compellingly voiced voice-over. Stay away from his score if you aren't into lush, slightly overblown drama of the orchestral kind. :)

Composer, Adrian Johnston's score for the obscure cinematic gem, "Me Without You" -- I already own the standard soundtrack but it's missing the sweetly dark strains of his instrumental work. I've been hunting it down with little success thus far but I've contacted his management group via e-mail so hopefully I'll receive a positive response soon!

For some reason this image just calls to me:

Perhaps it's the violence of the fire or the little girl,
so calm in a frock and pinafore(?) in the foreground?

-----------------------

Question: how bad is it to work for the/an evil empire to make
an insane amount of cash? It's totally off-topic of composers and
pretty things but it's a situation I'm facing in which I'm excited
by the work but turned off by the employer. Details on that
later, I guess... Maybe.

Signing off! ^_^

hey stella

For about a year now I have been frequenting
the various blogs of one, Stella Im Hultberg.


.................{happiness is a warm gun}..........

Her art blog, 'happiness is a warm gun', is routinely
updated with news on her pieces (the jpeg above
being a gorgeous example of said work) and any
upcoming shows. If only I lived near enough to attend.
Sigh.


.....................{lovely distractions}

The other blog, 'lovely distractions', is a visual dialogue
on what Hultberg finds beautiful and inspiring. The
second photo featured here is one such example. I
am so thrilled she's put together a site with a theme
like this! It is exciting to see what draws an artist, as
well as an opportunity to be introduced to artists and
photographers who I otherwise might never have
known.

Stella Im Hultberg is very talented and I invite everyone
who might traipse across this blog o' mine to give this
artist's websites (and artwork) a whirl. You won't be
disappointed!

^_^

*click pictures to explore sites