Reader, Writer, Lover, Fighter.
Rodney Mullen said that.
Mullen is a professional skateboarder credited with inventing numerous skateboarding tricks, including the flatground ollie, kickflip, heelflip, impossible and the 360-flip (or tre-flip).
"The beauty of skateboarding is that no one guy is the best."
“This young Pratt-educated painter is moving toward a maximalist abstraction. The effect is a bit like a 1980s geometry textbook spazzing out and exploding on the wall. Benson works within a deliciously caffeinated language of gestures and shapes - the smear, the dripping line, rainbows, grids, circles - to create compositions that pair smooth, glossy sections with paint applied so thickly it resembles Play-Doh.”
I love her.
What are words worth?
What are words worth? Words.
Words in papers, words in books.
Words on TV, words for crooks.
Words of comfort, words of peace.
Words to make the fighting cease.
Words to tell you what to do.
Words are working hard for you.
Eat your words but don't go hungry.
Words have always nearly hung me.
What are words worth?
What are words worth? Words.
Words of nuance, words of skill.
And words of romance are a thrill.
Words are stupid, words are fun.
Words can put you on the run.
mots pressés, mots sensés,
mots qui disent la vérité, mots maudits, mots mentis,
mots qui manquent le fruit d'esprit
What are words worth?
What are words worth? Words.
It's a rap race, with a fast pace.
Concrete words, abstract words.
Crazy words and lying words.
Hazy words and dying words.
Words of faith and tell me straight.
Rare words and swear words.
Good words and bad words.
What are words worth?
What are words worth? Words.
Words can make you pay and pay.
Four-letter words I cannot say.
Panty, toilet, dirty devil.
Words are trouble, words are subtle.
Words of anger, words of hate.
Words over here, words out there,
In the air and everywhere.
Words of wisdom, words of strife
Words that write the book I like.
Words won't find no right solution,
To the planet earth's pollution.
Say the right word, make a million.
Words are like a certain person
Who can't say what they mean
Don't mean what they say.
With a rap rap here and a rap rap there.
Here a rap, there a rap.
Everywhere a rap rap.
Rap it up for the common good.
Let us enlist the neighbourhood.
It's okay, I've overstood,
This is a wordy rappinghood, okay, bye.
What are words worth?
What are words worth? Words.
What are words worth?
What are words worth? Words.
He'll stop... Don't stop... Stop.
We Never Met uses Instagram to create stories that transport you into the imagined worlds and lives of strangers. It's beautiful, heartbreaking and funny. Wish I'd thought of it.
Sometimes I get scared when I think about what I'm doing. I think we all do. (I hope we all do.) I get scared that I'm not good enough. Scared that the work isn't good enough. That the words aren't good enough. I start to think I'm fooling myself and I dig my heels in but just before I grind to a halt I remember that one day we'll all be dead and who gives a shit. Just keep doing it and "…go on your nerve."
“Ideas are like fish.
If you want to catch the little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper.
Down deep the fish are more powerful and more pure. They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful.”
I recently read David Lynch's Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity. The book is short and sweet and focuses on ideas, transcendental meditation and filmmaking. It's also full of solid gold that can be applied to pretty much any creative endeavour and to life.
For me, the best bits are when he talks about finding ideas and following them wherever they may take you. I always thought I had to have an idea before I could start - the big idea that would drive me forward and from which everything else would flow, but that's just not the way things work. It's all about the little ideas. Little glimpses. Tiny pieces that will eventually fall into place. Words, images and sounds that just seem to come around, tapping you on the shoulder asking to be remembered, to be kept in a drawer for later. Following that one little idea will lead you on to other ideas. Ideas about what to write, to read, to research, to aim for, to believe in and what to do next. But we have to have desire. Desire to create, to understand, to change and grow, and a desire to move forward. Without it nothing will happen and we'll be here forever, turning in circles, breathing in and out.
David Lynch and Annie Hall
When I was 17 and couldn't sleep, I turned on my old portable TV and watched Annie Hall while blowing cigarette smoke out the cracked window. There's one scene, where Alvy and Annie talk about their relationship, that I can never shake. Alvy says: "A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies."
"Keep moving forward" are words I’ve etched onto my bones. They're words I tell my friends when they are at the bottom. The words I tell myself when I feel like all the light has gone. If we don't have the desire to move forward, to be better, to change, to love, to live, to fuck up and try again then we've got a dead shark on our hands.
We've got to keep moving forward, trying to catch the big fish.
“Desire for an idea is like bait. When you start fishing you have to have patience. You bait your hook, and then you wait. The desire is that bait that pulls those fish in - those ideas.
The beautiful thing is that when you catch one fish that you love, even if it’s a little fish - a fragment of an idea - that fish will draw in other fish, and they’ll hook onto it. Then you’re on your way. Soon there are more and more and more fragments, and the whole thing emerges. But it starts with desire.”
Say what?
“‘Mondegreen’ means a misheard word or phrase that makes sense in your head, but is, in fact, entirely incorrect. The term mondegreen is itself a mondegreen. In November, 1954, Sylvia Wright, an American writer, published a piece in Harper’s where she admitted to a gross childhood mishearing. When she was young, her mother would read to her from the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, a 1765 book of popular poems and ballads. Her favorite verse began with the lines, ‘Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands / Oh, where hae ye been? / They hae slain the Earl Amurray, / And Lady Mondegreen.’ Except they hadn’t. They left the poor Earl and ‘laid him on the green.’ ”
Misheard words bring such joy but it's misheard lyrics that really gets the LOLZ lolling. These are some of my favourites:
"Blinded by the Light", Manfred Mann
What it actually is: “Revved up like a Deuce, another runner in the night.”
What it sounds like: “Wrapped up like a douche, another rumour in the night.”
"Drunk in Love", Beyoncé
What it actually is: “I’ve been drinking, I’ve been drinking…”
What it sounds like: “I’m a dragon, I’m a dragon…”
"Walk of Life", Dire Straits
What it actually is: "Do the song about the sweet loving woman."
What it sounds like:"Do the song about the senile old woman. "
"Ms Jackson", Outkast
What it actually is: "I'm sorry Ms. Jackson, I am for real. Never meant to make your daughter cry."
What it sounds like: "I'm sorry Ms. Jackson, I’m not your meal. Never meant to make your money die."
"We Built This City", Starship
What it actually is: “We built this city on rock and roll.”
What it sounds like: “We built this city on logs and coal.”
"Dancing Queen", Abba
What it actually is: “See that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the dancing queen.”
What it sounds like: “See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen.”
And this one from my mum:
"Watching You", The Police
What it actually is: "How my poor heart aches..."
What she thinks it sounds like: "I'm a pool hall ace..."
Great storytellers are everywhere and they can be anyone.
Ghostface Killah, AKA Dennis Coles, is a 44-year-old rapper and a truly great storyteller. His flow is powerful and his stories are epic and all-consuming. NPR nailed it when they called him "painterly".
He conjures worlds with his words and I can't wait to get lost in his new album 36 Seasons.
My love of collage began back in 1998 in Leeds University bookshop while I was leaning against the shelves, waiting for someone to sort their life out. On those bookshelves I found Grete Stern's photomontages and I fell in love with the super-weird, women-focused worlds. Their weirdness, and their focus on women, was explained by the fact that were based on real women's dreams.
“In 1948 Stern was offered the unusual assignment of providing photos for a column on the interpretation of dreams in the popular weekly women’s magazine Idilio. The column, entitled “Psychoanalysis Will Help You,” was a response to dreams sent in by readers, mostly working-class women. It was written under the pseudonym Richard Rest by renowned sociologist Gino Germani, who later became a professor at Harvard University. The result was a series of about one hundred and fifty photomontages produced between 1948 and 1951 that show Stern’s avant-garde spirit. In these photomontages she portrays women’s oppression and submission in Argentine society with sarcastic and surreal images. The photomontage was an ideal way for Stern to express her ideas about the dominant values.”
A lot of time passed and I eventually forgot about Grete and her beautiful dreamworlds but then I read about Beth Hoeckel in Booooooom and I was back in the game. Hoeckel conjures up her own magical worlds that take me back to recurring childhood dreams and memories I have never been able to shake. I fell in love.
I've not thought too deeply about why I love collage so much and I'm sure overthinking will kill that love. I suppose it's the combination of reality and the unreal - it's the otherworldliness.
Now my walls are packed with Beth Hoeckel, Eugenia Loli, Morgan Hislop and Sammy Slabbinck prints and their otherworldly weirdness fills me with joy.
Grete Stern
Beth Hoeckel
Beth Hoeckel
Eugenia Loli
Morgan Hislop
Sammy Slabbinck
Beautiful Barragán.
“Barragán has had a profound influence not only on three generations of Mexican architects, but many more throughout the world. In his acceptance of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, he said, ‘It is impossible to understand art and the glory of its history without avowing religious spirituality and the mythical roots that lead us to the very reason of being of the artistic phenomenon. Without the one or the other there would be no Egyptian pyramids, nor those of ancient Mexico. Would the Greek temples and Gothic cathedrals have existed?’
Further, he called it ‘alarming’ that publications devoted to architecture seemed to have banished the words: ‘beauty, inspiration, magic, spellbound, enchantment, as well as the concepts of: serenity, silence, intimacy and amazement.’ He apologised for perhaps not having done these concepts complete justice, but said ‘they have never ceased to be my guiding lights.’ As he closed his remarks, he spoke of the art of seeing: ‘It is essential to an architect to know how to see—to see in such a way that vision is not overpowered by rational analysis.’”
‘I didn’t get the money. I didn’t get the woman.’
I've loved film noir ever since I chose the wonderful 'Cowboys and Detectives' module as part of my Masters. I mean, who doesn't want to read about the Wild West and watch Chinatown?
Double Indemnity is a film I watch at least once a year. It's great film noir but it’s also just a straight-up incredible film, regardless of genre. When I watch it I get lost in the words and shadows. I go away and I can’t stop thinking about it. Lines and images get stuck in my head and I have to hold the thoughts in and not bring it up randomly in conversation. I make endless connections and relate it to unrelated things because I want it to be part of everything. C’mon, it’s Wilder x Chandler… It’s a masterpiece.
And Barbara Stanwyck, what a badass.
This little (sort of cheesy) documentary covers most of why it’s one of the greatest films you’ll ever be lucky enough to see.
Putting this here so I never forget:
‘Playfulness is what makes us human. Doing pointless, purposeless things, just for fun. Doing things for the sheer devilment of it. Being silly for the sake of being silly. Larking around. Taking pleasure in activities that do not advantage us and have nothing to do with our survival. These are the highest signs of intelligence. It is when a creature, having met and surmounted all the practical needs that face him, decides to dance that we know we are in the presence of a human. It is when a creature, having successfully performed all necessary functions, starts to play the fool, just for the hell of it, that we know he is not a robot.’ Matthew Parris article in New Statesman
Also reminds me of Kathleen Hanna in Frankie magazine – do more weird shit. (The bit about toxic people is also spot on.)
