Toy Wars

Okay, I got a kick out of this.  I can definitely relate to the imagination.

Pull Box: Assigned Male at Birth

Assigned Male at Birth

A comic series I stumbled upon that details "The Incredible Adventures of Stephie (who happens to be trans)." Have been overall enjoying so far. Any recommendations of other things to check out? I always get excited about finding new independent works by artists to read and show support for in different ways. 

Music Monday

At April's First Friday, a local art and music celebration held once a month, I decided to sit in on a performance by the local Bach Parlay. They are a subset of members of the city orchestra, and their performance was entertaining, engaging, and educational. They provided information on the history of their instruments (the parlay uses period instruments with gut strings) and the music they performed. Here they are performing with countertenor Reginald Mobley.

Pull Box - Dykes to Watch Out for

Dykes to Watch Out for is a strip I discovered a few years after reading a graphic novel by the artist, Alison Bechdel, called Fun Home. I can not recommend Fun Home enough. Also, Bechdel recently was selected for a MacArthur grant, so I feel that only further justifies my gushing over her.  Also, responsible for is known as the Bechdel test, coined from one of her DTWOF comics, a convenient way to evaluate the role of women in films as a whole.

Music Monday

So, found out about this album that features classic rock music rearranged and featuring cellist Maya Beiser. The album is called Uncovered, and this is one of my favorite tracks from it. I am actually quite kindly taking a break from cleaning to do this blog post on it. Have been using some of the songs as background for my cleaning work. But doing this post while it is still fresh in my mind is more important than cleaning up the wreck from weeks of not feeling up to cleaning. I have my priorities and know what matters, and what matters is gushing about this album.

Pull Box - The Less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal

Okay, I feel like I am always late to some things, but that's fine, because in the case of comics it just means I get to binge read them, sometimes after the series is already complete, and I don't have to wallow in impatience and worry over what happens next. Such is the case with TJ and Amal. Don't know what the publishing schedule was, but if it wasn't all at once then waiting for the next installment would have had me up the walls. Fortunately, I found out about it way late and read it all in one or two sittings. The story is beautifully rendered and finds the beauty in some of the most common of human interactions. There is intrigue, and there are secrets and even hints of danger, but overall the story is about two men connecting and bringing out the best in each other and themselves. Weaver's drawings are vivid and detailed, and excellent at both portraying subtlety of expression as well as the awe-inspiring beauty and vastness of nature. Here's a summary:

" In the span of a single day, Amal calls off his arranged marriage, comes out to his conservative parents, promptly gets disowned, goes on a bender... and wakes up the next morning to find TJ, a lanky, dreadlocked vagrant, frying eggs and singing Paul Simon in his kitchen. 

TJ claims that the two have made a drunken pact to drive all the way from Berkeley to Providence. As it happens, Amal promised his sister he'd be there for her graduation from Brown University. And TJ, well... TJ has his own reasons. 

The agreement is simple: Amal does the driving; TJ pays the way - but a 3500 mile journey leaves plenty of time for things to get complicated. - http://tjandamal.com/about.html"

Music Monday

So, I've mentioned before how sometimes I become obsessed with one particular song and will listen to it again and again and again for days or even weeks? Well, this is another such song. I just absolutely adore it. And of course , my imagination is in full force for this one. Except, instead of imaging a video for it, I imagine a bunch of people elaborately dancing to it in costumes that are meant to invoke bird imagery. Like there's a group of people as parrots, bluejays, hawks, etc. And they aren't actual costumes, just elaborate outfits and headgear meant to allude to birds. And we're at a huge ballroom as part of a several days long festival which includes not only dancing but also fights, fencing as well as hand-to-hand, and other feats of strength and athleticism. There's a great deal of intrigue as our particular subculture may be gearing up to become involved with warring factions in the outside world and we must navigate what our vows and beliefs mean and how those should factor into any decisions we might make moving forward. But for the time being, we dance, even with those among us we disagree with with, especially because refusing a dance is seen as a grave insult.

Post-Fear Project Kind of Life

   My participation in David Wellington's Fear Project has come to an end. Oh well. I can honestly say it really was just an honor to compete. I got my work read alongside some very, very talented writers and learned a lot about writing in general and horror specifically. It is helpful to have a tight deadline and be forced to be as concise as possible without letting quality falter. The prompts Mr. Wellington has been devising are exceedingly challenge which makes them extraordinarily good for developing writing in my opinion.
  Also, James Hatton was kind enough to do me the honor of using my name in his next story. I gotta say, I am excessively flattered and reading about myself getting killed off was so exciting and funny. The project has been amazing and the participants continue to deliver. Speaking of which, one is doing a series on an idea developed during the contest that can be read at: https://leeandrewforman.wordpress.com/silenceinthewillowfield/prologue/
 For now, I am focusing on poetry for the rest of April. Camp Nanowrimo is going well and I am in two poetry classes right now. One through Apiary that is based on generating ideas and forming poems from them and includes weekly feedback, and a free one sponsored by the Iowa's Writing Workshop through Canva. I haven't written poetry in a while and it is a fun and interesting experiment in being concise, focusing on imagery and action, and really looking at what is trying to be said or conveyed. Also, I am experimenting with new forms I haven't in the past including free verse and the triolet.
  Also, refocusing on a novel I've been working on for some time now, and hoping to have it query or publishing ready by July. Haven't decided on if I will query agents/publishers or publish it independently yet. But I will say it is a YA realistic book, and as of right now doesn't have a romance plot or sub-plot. I'm wondering if that might make it a hard sale if I try to go the traditional route.
  Hopefully the weather will let up and I will be able to skip over to Shakespeare in the Park. But Spring in Florida is gonna do what it wants to do. For now, back to making faint attempts at cleaning. Amazing how motivated I can be to update the blog when cleaning is the other option. Oh well, I like to make the most out of days I feel energetic, especially when housebound by the weather, as I can.

Changed: The Bait by John Donne

I credit this as the poem that started it all. And I mean really started it all. Few words have moved me as much as the opening ones of this one, and few poets have gotten me so enamored with them on the basis of one poem as John Donne. Reading this poem for the first time was like falling down the rabbit hole with no desire to stop the descent. Reading this poem made me decide that I wanted, with all my heart, to "do that."  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173350

The Bait

BY JOHN DONNE

Come live with me, and be my love,

And we will some new pleasures prove

Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,

With silken lines, and silver hooks.

There will the river whispering run

Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun;

And there the 'enamour'd fish will stay,

Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swim in that live bath,

Each fish, which every channel hath,

Will amorously to thee swim,

Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

If thou, to be so seen, be'st loth,

By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both,

And if myself have leave to see,

I need not their light having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,

And cut their legs with shells and weeds,

Or treacherously poor fish beset,

With strangling snare, or windowy net.

Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest

The bedded fish in banks out-wrest;

Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies,

Bewitch poor fishes' wand'ring eyes.

For thee, thou need'st no such deceit,

For thou thyself art thine own bait:

That fish, that is not catch'd thereby,

Alas, is wiser far than I.

Musical Monday

Few movies move me like Whiplash does. An absolutely engrossing film with an amazing soundtrack.

Short film: Doll Face

One of my favorite shorts:

Musical Monday

I like to do unplanned things often, especially when timing and finances line up to make things just so. In this instance, I found out, through a local arts and entertainment magazine, about an outdoor concert being hosted by a cellist and composer.  I got a bit lost on the way. As I was wandering a dark street with no sidewalks and wondering if a particular abandoned building might be the space I was looking for, I almost considered not going. But as I walked closer to the creepily dark building I realized there was an open space behind it, and the music I could hear drifting from it was alluring enough to get me to follow through with attending the show. I was not disappointed to have gone and had a wonderful time (even more so once I moved from the grass to one of the benches). The musician in question was Takenobu and I enjoyed the variety of styles he offered during the performance. Have you ever discovered a new musician/performer/entertainer by chance or on a whim? How'd it go?

Yellow Fever - Short film

Slightly NSFW (brief shots of pubic hair/breast).

Yellow Fever

I especially love the way bodies are used to convey tension and panic, and how the video cuts from animation to physical representation and dancers.

Changed: La Vie C'est La Vie by Jessie Redmon Fauset

"La Vie C'est La Vie" by Jessie Redmon Fauset made me appreciate how poetry, or writing in general, can build up an idyllic setting only to underscore, or contrast, it with sadness or horror or loneliness or fear or so many other emotions, and in doing so heighten the descriptions of both the setting/situation and the contrasted emotion/actions. I especially love the last two lines, as they speak to a kind of acceptance and reluctant resignation, and then counter that acceptance of life's follies with a wish, perhaps not completely serious, that life were over rather than to endure more of life's jests. This especially works well with the connection of love and pain earlier in the poem. http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/la-vie-cest-la-vie

La Vie C’est La Vie

Jessie Redmon Fauset

On summer afternoons I sit
Quiescent by you in the park
And idly watch the sunbeams gild
And tint the ash-trees’ bark.

Or else I watch the squirrels frisk
And chaffer in the grassy lane;
And all the while I mark your voice
Breaking with love and pain.

I know a woman who would give
Her chance of heaven to take my place;
To see the love-light in your eyes,
The love-glow on your face!

And there’s a man whose lightest word
Can set my chilly blood afire;
Fulfillment of his least behest
Defines my life’s desire.

But he will none of me, nor I
Of you. Nor you of her. ‘Tis said
The world is full of jests like these.—
I wish that I were dead.

Changed: The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes

I count "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes as one of the poems that made me fall in love with poetry. There were many, but this one stands out after more than a decade because it introduced me to a writer I would become devoted too to the point of obsession. I was, and am, amazed by the play of words to create a melodic flow that pulls the reader in and along. The word choice and description are so vivid that, for me, they transport the reader to the poem's setting.  The Weary Blues

The Weary Blues

Langston Hughes, 1902 - 1967

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
     I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
     He did a lazy sway . . .
     He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
     O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
     Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man’s soul.
     O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—
     “Ain’t got nobody in all this world,
       Ain’t got nobody but ma self.
       I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’
       And put ma troubles on the shelf.”

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more—
     “I got the Weary Blues
       And I can’t be satisfied.
       Got the Weary Blues
       And can’t be satisfied—
       I ain’t happy no mo’
       And I wish that I had died.”
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.

Fear Project and Camp Nano!

This week's David Wellington Fear Project is frightful indeed. Frightfully delightful in the quality of stories available and just plain frightful regarding my concerns of getting the ax. And speaking of saxophones, maybe go on over and leave a comment on "Death Punk Ska" and check out some of the other stories on offer. They are all truly a delight to read.

In other news, opening day of April's Camp Nanowrimo. A month of literary abandon, and specifically for me, a month of focusing on poetry. Or telling myself that I will and crying because I'm not Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, or Natasha Trethewey.

Music Monday

I had the pleasure of going to a Doria Roberts concert in college, and immediately fell for her sound and her way of interacting with the audience. This song still gets me every time and remains one of my favorites, though there are so many songs by her I consider favorites. What are some of your favorite performers and what makes a great concert/performance in your opinion?

Film Night

A short film by a person:

Dream Girl

Musical Monday

There are times when I will become so enamored with a song that I listen to it on repeat for hours on end. One such song recently has been "Only if for a Night" by Florence + The Machine. I discovered it through Pandora a couple of months ago, at a time when I was downer than usual, and absolutely adored it. I've been brushing up on Florence + The Machine every since, and have a Pandora station based on around this song (well, it was based around this song but things tend to get out of hand pretty quickly for me and now it is pretty eclectic). I love the lyrics and the imagery they create in my mind. Yes, I may have developed several full music videos in my mind for the song. One of which may or may not be a few lone dancers dancing in a closed-off school building covered in dust.

Fear Project!

I hope everyone takes a moment to check out the stories at David Welington's Fear Project, and comment. The story with the most comments gets immunity from elimination. I am consistently amazed at the storytellers participating. Thursday night at 11:59 p.m. EST is the deadline for commenting. I must say, as stressful as it has been, I am very much enjoying the challenges.

I'm Blogging Now: For Real This Time

I have decided this is too cool an address and blog name to squander by not following through.