How did I not hear this song earlier? My favourite busker covered it in town on Saturday when I was with family. And then I heard it again over the radio yesterday whilst with friends.
Portrait modelling for uni students. My favourite building and a tripod-mounted DSLR. Bad cigars and okay coffee. Pirate party. Captain America 1+2. Pizza, fried chicken and melty chocolate cakes. Central Library. Getting an old coat back. Good weather and B&Js. Mother’s Day. All in all, great birthday weekend, Friday included. Live, laugh, love.
I wrote a poem today and it turned out a little too grim to comfortably share. Maybe on a slow day when I dont give a shit. Here’s one from yesterday. I dont write poems often, but I’ve been on somewhat of a binge lately (probably the most I’ve done in a month ever at a running grand total of.. five). This one’s almost a little humourous. Please excuse the Greek mythology: I dont mean to sound like a pretentious douche, I’m just a sucker for dead civilisations for some dumb reason.
I couldnt find the song I wanted to put up so instead I went with the mythology thang and chose this one. It’s by a Northwestern Brit so I’m a little partial but it’s pretty cool stuff imo. From the 2013 album Engravings, enjoy:
Labour of Words
a handful of words spill out as the axe strikes
Athena is born fully grown fully clothed
and the pressure eases for a time
then Metis the muse, no, rather the witch
begins her hammering once more
utterances reverberate in the mind
the head pains, groans for relief
clove it in two with your axe
or strike me down with a hammer
give me peace again
Sometimes when I write or brainstorm, I draw heavily on music for mood. Almost never for plot or narrative structure ideas, but just the feel of events or how characters themselves might feel. I also like to create mini-soundtracks for characters/story arcs. It gets a little trickier though because I want the playlists to consist of music the characters involved would listen to themselves.
So anyway, this song (from their 2013 album Cupid Deluxe) is basically like the centrepiece for a story I want to start working on soon. For whatever reason, the first time I seriously mulled over my idea, the entire series of events popped into my head almost immediately. Crazy how something so nearly fully formed can just jump out of your brain like that (shout out to Athena, I see you).
And on an unrelated note, a poem I just did.
Let This Warpaint Fade
The colours are faded, I revisit some old paintings
of landscapes that need tending to
and faces in portraits that have aged faster than those depicted therein
some I no longer even recognise
the skin is that cracked, the creases that deep
and the weeds so overgrown
I apply warpaint to an old friend become new stranger
then throw down my brush
no more
already no more
which idiot would willingly vandalise his own work any further?
let gardens grow and persons wrinkle
let it all stand untouched
they were young once and that is enough
I ride shotgun en route to my cousin’s wedding
with his younger brother, both of our suits worn just this once
the S-class is fresh out the shop
the interior lights match the tie and the clock says the car is younger than me
this city’s skyline flies by us
it has always looked beautiful with a red moon overhead
as ever, London has me feeling like a country boy
you’re beautiful I tell her, only miming the words through the window
the sounds are too loud, the music is smooth but the voices too uncouth
shout out to my fuckin favourite stripper
before the week is done I’ll go through her myself in a dirty BMW
Abdul J
My poems dont usually come out like that but it is what it is I guess. Sort of a perverse love-letter to London, my vacay spot and home away from home.
Does anybody remember The Raccoons? It was one of those old 80s/90s cartoons (not bothered to check which, sorry). It was so-so but I used to watch it anyway because it used to air in the mornings right before school. I was listening to the end credit/outro song again after a few years. It still sounds gorgeously 80s lol, but it immediately brings me back to those school mornings.
More info: I recently had an idea for a story and it’s basically a throwback to those 80s nostalgic kids’ summer adventure films, in terms of genre. I guess that’s worked its way into one of the characters because I can just imagine her as somebody that’s in love with those sorts of films too. And the soundtracks to those films. Add a mental tangent and that’s basically how I re-stumbled into Lisa Lougheed’s Run With Us.
Hope you like it. Better yet, hope you remember it (if you’re old enough!).
I have been very negligent of this space. The video put to this song is unsuspectingly gorgeous. I looked at the wikipedia entry (because we all know that’s such a solid source of information) to make sure I got the titling of the song correct and came across this previously unknown (to me, I mean) tidbit, which throws the song into someplace new:
It was first recorded by Otis Redding in 1967, days before his death on December 10, 1967 in a plane crash in Wisconsin that killed everyone onboard except Ben Cauley, the trumpeter in the band. It was released posthumously on Stax Records’ Volt label in 1968, becoming the first posthumous single to top the charts in the US.
I’ve never reblogged anything before, but this post I stumbled on via Facebook basically caught me right where I’m at in life right now. But I guess it goes for everyone when you consider the closing point it makes. Live young, live every day. Be.
when i was thirteen, i couldn’t wait to be eighteen. i thought i’d know it all by then- have all the answers and that prized freedom. and when i was sixteen, i planned to be married by age twenty-three with two kids. i’ll always smile to myself when i think about how time changes things. and when i turned twenty four i made a list of as many goals as i had in years. by my 25th birthday, i’d accomplished them all.
and a funny thing happens about the time you turn twenty.five. people start asking about marriage and kids and houses. and you begin to worry about savings, retirement, and health insurance. you start spending your money on plates.pots.new tires. short term sacrifices for long term gains, right? and sometimes you start to compare your 25 years with everyone else’s. you wonder if you’re on the right track because…
– Seth Godin’s Christmas Eve post about the internet summed up pretty well how I’ve been independently feeling about its effect on creative arts for some time now. I dont think there’s been a better time in the history of the world to be a creative and have the ability to share your works to the world. Especially as a mid-lister or a no-name. So many of the barriers have been knocked down. In most cases, the ability to compete with the big guns on price points and geographic availability of your works. We finally hold most of the power in our own hands. Click the link above, I found it a short reassuring and inspiring read.
– After burning through Nanowrimo (and not winning, but whatever), I finally took a few days break. I’m at around 47k and was starting to feel the burnout. I think I’ll get back on the horse again soon enough.
– Christmas comes again! Tonight is the much anticipated Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva vs Chris Weidman rematch! Last night I was telling myself that there was only one sleep to go, like a giddy child. Today I woke up at 7 in the morning and time could not be passing by any slower! Whatever the outcome, tonight isnt likely to disappoint. Been such a fantastic year for MMA.
– Pitchfork released their yearly list of Top 50 albums for 2013 a few days ago! It’s always exciting to see all the stuff I missed or overlooked. Sometimes they come off as pretentious and I hardly ever agree with their rankings (especially rap releases, where they seem to not be as capable of reviewing albums as well) but the lists themselves are always pretty solid in terms of what gets mentioned. And this year’s list was topped by Modern Vampires of the City, by Vampire Weekend! I’m absolutely pleased with that because it’s my absolute favourite album this year too. Great autumn album (was basically all I listened to for a quarter of the year lol). Check out the list, regardless of your musical tastes! The paragraph-plus lengths of album summaries means it’s pretty easy to find something suited to your own preferences. Maybe I’ll do my own Top 2013 Albums?
– In celebration of Vampire Weekend topping the list, I share a random song from their album Modern Vampires of the City. Honestly it could’ve been any song from it, they’re all brilliant. Hannah Hunt, ladies and gentlemen!
Man I dont have the remotest idea what the hell I’m doing. Damn you Youtube changes for twisting my arm into giving it another go. Feel like I’m really letting Generation Y down right about now.
abdulj. 