Thursday, December 25, 2008

Seasons II


By AntichristSuperstar

Winter: My Secret

Perhaps some day, who knows?
But not today; it froze, and blows and snows,
And you're too curious: fie!
You want to hear it? well:
Only, my secret's mine, and I won't tell.
(...)
Perhaps some languid summer day,
When drowsy birds sing less and less,
And golden fruit is ripening to excess,
If there's not too much sun nor too much cloud,
And the warm wind is neither still nor loud,
Perhaps my secret I may say,
Or you may guess.
- Christina Rossetti

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Seasons


by Betty

Summer is Ended (I)

Summer is Ended
To think that this meaningless thing was ever a rose,
Scentless, colourless, this!
Will it ever be thus (who knows ?)
Thus with our bliss, If we wait till the close?
Tho' we care not to wait for the end, there comes the end
Sooner, later, at last,
Which nothing can mar, nothing mend:
An end locked fast,
Bent we cannot re-bend.

(II)
Wreathe no more lillies in my hair,
For I am dying, Sister sweet:
Or, if you will for the last time
Indeed, why make me fair
Once for my winding sheet.
(...)

- Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Fade into you



I wonder how many people remember Mazzy Star with their hit Fade Into You. Or more like Fade Into Obscurity as more and more of the 90s bands are doing. I remembered it suddenly two nights ago. Not only is this song so very lovely and nostalgic but it has such a great video and the sort of poorly written Cranberries-ish lyrics that can make a lot of sense in its non-clarity.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Ageless Lolita



Wanted, wanted: Dolores Haze.
Her dream-gray gaze never flinches.
Ninety pounds is all she weighs
With a height of sixty inches.

My car is limping, Dolores Haze,
And the last long lap is the hardest,
And I shall be dumped where the weed decays,
And the rest is rust and stardust.

- Humbert's poem (from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov)

Nabokov's beautiful, disturbing work stands as one of the most impressive displays of language in American literature, as well as an awesome dissection of the complex anatomy of love. The sheer joy of its sentences, the nuance of its evocations, are certainly the main reasons it has endured and why it seems assured of a readership another 50 years from now. But it is worth exploring another aspect of that masterpiece, a moral examination that would have prompted Nabokov, who championed aesthetics above all, to incinerate with a laser glare any fool who poked round such a topic. (...)

(there is an article here that Blogger won't show, for whatever reason. Click on the line to see the article.)

- From: San Francisco Chronicle

I would really like to get my hands on Kubric's 1962 adaptation of Lolita. The best I could do for now is the 1997 re-make which I enjoy even though Lo is too old.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Way across some cold neurotic sea


by Chix0r

You were my mad little lover
In a world where everybody fucks everybody else over
You who are so far from me
Way across some cold neurotic sea
Far from me

There is no knowledge but I know it
There's nothing to learn from that vacant voice
That sails to me across the line
From the ridiculous to the sublime
It's good to hear you're doing so well
But really can't you find somebody else
That you can ring and tell?
Did you ever care for me?
Were you ever there for me?
So far from me

Saturday, November 22, 2008

because tomorrow you may have become pure light


by Masha

"Love generally but do not commit yourself to a particular love. You will become
known as sympathetic friend and faithful lover because you never really permit
these roles to seize your heart, you can practice and perfect them. But the
heart is guarded, kept free and untarnished by any simple human affiliation so
that it will reflect in glorious accuracy all the charts of the stars which the
clouds one day will part to reveal. The important thing is not to approach
anyone too close because tomorrow you may have become pure light."
-Leonard Cohen

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

More on Mrs. Parker




I finally tracked down Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle which isn't very easy to gain access to, it being an obscure choice today. I'm not sure I loved Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dottie but it captured the 20s and the blues quite nicely. Anything set in the 20s is fun, and if you're a fan of Dorothy Parker then you really must find this film and watch it.

I'm never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don't do any thing. Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don't even do that any more.
Dorothy Parker, Here Lies (1939), "The Little Hours"

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

how beautiful it is to be loved by a madwoman


by Deforma

O I will tell him to love you carefully;
to honour you with shells and coloured bottles;
to keep from your face the falling sand
and from your human arm the time-charred beetle;

to teach you new stories about lightning and
let you run sometimes barefoot on the shore.
And when the needle grins bloodlessly in his cheek
he will come to know how beautiful it is
to be loved by a madwoman.

- from Song of Patience by Leonard Cohen: Let us Compare Mythologies

Monday, November 10, 2008

What you had and what you lost



Now here I go again, I see the crystal visions,
I keep my visions to myself, Its only me
Who wants to wrap around your dreams and
Have you any dreams youd like to sell?
Dreams of loneliness, like a heartbeat,
drives you mad...In the stillness of remembering
what you had...
And what you lost...

- Fleetwood Mac, Dreams by Stevie Nicks

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

As small as a world and as large as alone


by: constipateddreams

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

- e e cummings

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Blue



Listening to this album makes me feel like it's May. It's the one that has A Case of You.

Joni Mitchel: Blue

The wind is in from africa/Last night I couldn't sleep/Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here/But its really not my home

- Carey (live)

Oh will you take me as I am/Strung out on another man?

- California

Just before our love got lost you said I am as constant as a northern star/ And I said, constant in the darkness?/Wheres that at? If you want me Ill be in the bar

- A Case of You

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Wild horses and silver springs


by Crystal Wallingford

I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you've decided to show me the same
But no sweet, vain exits or offstage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind

Wild horses couldn't drag me away

I know I dreamed you a sin and a lie
I've got my freedom, but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken, tears must be cried
Let's do some living after love dies

Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we'll ride them some day

- The Rolling Stones

Monday, October 27, 2008

Heathen




In case you've stopped following Bowie into the later decades, do note that he keeps getting cooler and cooler. His 2002 album Heathen is exceptional. It feels like being picked up in the middle of sleep and driven on a highway to somewhere unknown. I'll post the songs I can find but it's really worth having. He even covers Pixies' Cactus.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Wuthering Heights




I hear that there's going to be 400th adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights starring Natalie Portman. Thank the stars that it's not Kiera Knightley. I don't think I could tolerate her and her obnoxious mouth as Cathy.

"That is how I'm loved! Well, never mind. That is not my Heathcliff. I shall love mine yet; and take him with me: he's in my soul." - Catherine Earnshaw

“The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her” - Heathcliff

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Vicious, she hit me with a flower


By Czujeczacze

She's electric
She's in a family full of eccentrics
She's done things I never expected
And I need more time

Monday, October 13, 2008

90s Mix Tape!


By Mayi

I thought I'd be nostalgic and compose a mix tape of favourite 90s radio hits (don't you miss doing this for your friends?) And since it's Thanks Giving for us Canadians, I suppose I'm giving thanks for the 90s. I'll spare Wonderwall since it's painfully obvious.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Losing


photo by Complejo

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

- One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

Sunday, September 28, 2008

I remember you well at the Chelsea Hotel


And when you say you love me,
I don't want to think you really mean New York City
And all the fun we have in it

- from Chelsea Walls, a film by Ethan Hawke

A film I don't recommend and a setting I'm enamored with

Saturday, September 27, 2008

One Headlight



So long ago, I don't remember when
That's when they say I lost my only friend
Well they said she died easy of a broken heart disease
As I listened through the cemetery trees

Hey, come on try a little
Nothing is forever
There's got to be something better than In the middle
But me & Cinderella, We put it all together
We can drive it home
With one headlight


Everyone seems to have forgotten how much they loved this song in the 90s.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Poetry is a verdict


"Lever les Yeux"

"Poetry is a verdict not an occupation...Once the fire celebrated Light, the
dirst Humility, the blood Sacrifice...Once, for a while, he seemed to serve
something other than himself. Those were the only poems he ever wrote. They
were for Shell. He wanted to give her back her body."

- from The Favourite Game by Leonard Cohen

Friday, September 19, 2008

In your art, your beauty


photo by Suisea

Through the yard of blonde girls
Through the river and the sea
Gold sharks glittering
A tree of white
Breaks the earth
The streets where Lola played

Its in your heart
Its in your art, your beauty
Even in this world of lies
Theres purity

- from Yard of Blonde Girls by Jeff Buckley

Dear reader, is this the most beautiful Jeff Buckley song? I think this is one of the very few for which he did not write the lyric. My favourite composition. Certainly not one of the famous ones, this one is on Sketches for my Sweetheart, the Drunk.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Will you still recall my name and the month it all began, will you release me with a kiss?




So you face it with a smile
There is no need to cry
For a trifle's more than this

Have I tried to draw the veil?
If I have, how could I fail
Did I fear the consequence?

Oh, you're such a pretty one
And the naked thrills of flesh and skin
Would tease me through the night

Now I hate to leave you bare
If you need me I'll be there
Don't you ever let me down

- from Narcotic by Liquido

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Monday, September 8, 2008

Curse your star


photo by Haruniji

Lady, go and curse your star,
Thus Love is, and thus you are.

- Dorothy Parker, To A Much Too Unfortunate Lady

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Changes



daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
and moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
and found myself alone
alone
alone above a raging sea
that stole the only girl I loved
and drowned her deep inside of me

Following this tangerine theme are two more songs and two great cover versions:

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Zeppelin never goes out of style




Dearest to my heart are:

Tangerine, Tangerine, living reflection of a dream

I was her love, she was my queen

And now a thousand years between.

Thinking how it used to be

Does she still remember times like these?

To think of us again?

And I do.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Vive la France



My personal theme this week is French ‘60s pop-star France Gall. Fabulous kitsch item of my heart. She has made her way from horrible eurovision performances to being taken advantage of by the grotty and lecherous Serge Gainsbourg to lasting into the 80s and 90s. In fact, I had not realized until recently that it was she who sang that song Ella, Elle L’a that was a big hit in the 80s, in Europe anyway. Here’s to Mademoiselle Gall, I have got to get a greatest hits album of hers.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

We could be heroes!


photo by Bruna Kazinoti

I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
And you, you can be mean
And I, I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers, and that is a fact
Yes we're lovers, and that is that
----
I hadn't realized just how many artists have actually covered Bowie's1977 hit "heroes''. I'm not surprised that it's one of the most covered rock songs of the latter half of the century; it's so BIG, it always finds a way to get stuck in your head and I never get tired of hearing it. Even Nico and Phillip Glass did it.
Here are the versions from my favourite artists:
------
The Wallflowers (1998, Godzilla soundtrack)
Blondie (recorded live 1980)
Oasis (1997 B-side)
King Crimson (2000, live recording)
Original by David Bowie (Co-written by Brian Eno)

Monday, August 18, 2008

Secret


designed by Luna

In my Secret Life - Leonard Cohen

A cover - by Katie Melua

When the day is short
And the nights are long
It's a different world
Where the rules are wrong


When the Day is Short - Martha Wainwright

Friday, August 15, 2008

Great Expectations




I'm not going to tell the story the way it happened, I'm going to tell it the way I remember it

The 1998 film adaptation of my favourite book, Dickens' Great Expectations is also the most gorgeous film I've ever seen. Number one on my list for years and criticized by many for not following Dickens book precisely and rigorously which was not the goal. You probably don't remember it as it was overshadowed by the Titanic. Now, 10 years later, buy it, be enchanted and watch it as its own entity apart from the novel. Cuaron keeps the themes and the soul of Dicken's classic and paints his own utterly beautiful portrait with a simple script and dazzling cinematography.

The sound track is as brilliant as the film:

Thursday, August 14, 2008

So Far Away From Me



People in the south of Croatia (Dalmatia) where I am at the moment have never overlooked Dire Straights. As underrated as they seem to be in Toronto , Knopfler and the homies can count on ardent fandom here where everyone knows who they are. I suppose there's a similarity in Dire Straits' musical style and that of a lot of Croatian rock music.

  • 5:15 am - Mark Knopfler (just listen and ignore the video, I had trouble finding a recording)
  • Vino Noci - Neno Belan (ignore this video too only because it's terrible)

Monday, August 11, 2008

Lingering


Photo by Aubrey

If I could make the world as pure
And strange as what I see
I'd put you in a mirror
I'd put in front of me
Linger on your pale blue eyes

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Lolita, qu'ai-je fait de ta vie?



"I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita."


I'm promoting Nabokov's Lolita to stand among my top three favourite books along with Great Expectations and The Favourite Game. Time spent between the pages of Lolita feels like a transitory haze. Its gorgeously written with so much precision and command for the English language. You really must read it, it's beautiful, hilarious, frighteningly clever, allusive and textured. A total sigh - the product of a literary genius.

Friday, July 18, 2008

You can always say that summer had its charm


Photo by Cupid's_Tricks

Watch: Cardigans Sick and Tired
Watch: Cardigans Carnival

from the 1994 album Life by the cardigans

Monday, July 14, 2008

Not cruel, only truthful



I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see, I swallow immediately.
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike
I am not cruel, only truthful –
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me.
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

- Mirror by Sylvia Plath

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Martha Frenzy




You thought I would say “Martha Madness” but that would be a cheap alliteration. Rufus Wainwright’s little sister has long stolen my heart and these past 2 months have been a bit of a Martha Wainwright Pilgrimage for me. I saw her at the mod club in Toronto for the first time in June among middle aged gay couples who made up most of the audience. Then she gave a free concert at Harbour Front on Canada day where she informed everyone of just having gotten her period backstage and how it’s appropriate in terms of matching the colors of the festivities. She is hilariously endearing and her music is evocative of the 90s - definitely among the only new artists of the 21st century that is genuinely impressive and unique. Martha is irrefutably the young female Leonard Cohen of our generation.



This is Martha Wainwright performing her new single You Cheated Me from her latest album I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too at the mod club back in June

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Lay across my big brass bed




Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Whatever colors you have in your mind
I'll show them to you and you'll see them shine

I long to see you in the morning light
I long to reach for you in the night
Stay, lady, stay, stay while the night is still ahead

- Bob Dylan, Lay, Lady, Lay


Sunday, June 29, 2008

Darling Dottie



Godspeed

Oh, seek, my love, your newer way;
I'll not be left in sorrow.
So long as I have yesterday,
Go take your damned tomorrow!

- Dorothy Parker


I can't help but to dote on Dottie, I've been reading my portable Dorothy Parker today and I can't get enough of her darling bitterness.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Alone with my radio



His silence in pain. I have come through the fire of family and love. I smoke with my darling, I sleep with my friend. We talk of the poor men, broken and fled. Alone with my radio I lift up my hands. Welcome to you who read me today. Welcome to you who put my heart down. Welcome to you, darling and friend, who miss me forever in your trip to the end.

- Leonard Cohen



Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Hey!



I had almost forgotten about Hey the 13th track off of Pixies’ 1989 album, Doolittle. A while ago, I had promised myself not to play it so as not to wear out its potency – it's one of those paralyzing songs that pulls you in completely. I still have to skip over it on the album which I recommend highly. Most of Pixies’ albums have many throw away tracks that I find unnecessary but Doolittle is brilliant beginning to end. It’s so intense and unrefined.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Nightmares by the Sea


photo by http://triodante.deviantart.com/

Beware the bottled thoughts of angry young men.
secret compartments hide all of the skeletons.

little girl wants to make her home with him,
in the middle of the shore, she wonders
"don't know what you asked for."

All your lovers know why nightmares blind their mind's eye.
your rube is young and handsome,so new to your bedroom floor,
you know damn well where you'll go.

I've loved so many times and I've drowned them all.
from their coral graves, they rise up when darkness falls.
with their bones they'll scratch the window, I hear them call,
"don't know what you asked for"

Stay with me under these waves, tonight.
be free for once in your life tonight.
- Jeff Buckey

Thursday, June 19, 2008

In the Flesh










I finally got to see Blondie live for their Parallel Lines reunion tour. Naturally, it was bound to be a tremendously different experience than seeing them in their glory days in the late seventies but seeing them at Casino Rama was just bleak. The band itself was wonderful, Debbie still has it, her youthful vitality is still kicking and the new band members are good. It was the audience and venue that made it seem like some sort of hotel convention. There may have been about four rabid fans and the rest were seniors who were probably there as an alternative to gambling never having heard of Blondie. My friend and I attempted going right up to the stage since there were a few people standing right there at Debbie’s feet and then the 140 year old usher stopped us. She said that it was only for ground ticket holders. It was the most fascist, unfair thing for them to do since there was plenty of room up there. So it turned out I had a heart of glass but we managed to enjoy ourselves regardless of the ambiance.


Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Lazy Line Painter Jane




I’m still not clear on what “line painting” is referring to but who can keep up with Belle and Sebastian’s cryptic slang. I don’t think I can ever get sick of this song and when I realized that it isn’t on any of their albums I settled on visiting the video on youtube biweekly. THEN, just two weeks ago, I came across a little used record/book store with my friend and he found a three disc Belle and Sebastian singles set featuring Lazy Line Painter Jane! It was waiting for me. Kismet.
In case you’ve never heard the song, it will make you feel 16 and sunshinie. The track features a guest singer, Monica Queen, with an amazing girlish voice and I wish she had been an official band member. She’s like the Liam Gallagher to Stuart Murdoch’s Noel Gallagher.