Today's musical inspiration - Belle and Sebastian - Wrapped Up In Books. Love love! You can read the lyrics here. Thanks to the Blue Mountains Birdie for passing it on.
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Friday, September 10, 2010
What novelists do when they're not writing novels...
Nick Hornby moonlights as a lyricist and sometime alternative-folk-meets-deadpan-poetry-slamming-performance-artist, apparently. Check out this collaboration between Hornby, Ben Folds and Pomplamoose, one of the songs from an album they've recorded, Lonely Avenue, due for release later this month.
The song is called Things You Think and here's a grab from the musical quill of Mr Hornby himself:
'Did you know that Dickens invented 13,000 characters? 13,000! That's a character a day for the whole of his working life. What have I done today?...'
I like it. It's kinda catchy, have a listen.
The song is called Things You Think and here's a grab from the musical quill of Mr Hornby himself:
'Did you know that Dickens invented 13,000 characters? 13,000! That's a character a day for the whole of his working life. What have I done today?...'
I like it. It's kinda catchy, have a listen.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Today's musical inspiration...
Because it's one of my absolute favourite books of all time. Because Kate Bush achieves a rare feat (that no movie version ever could) in actually doing justice to the story and its two main characters. And because I've just stepped off a jet plane in England - land of the blustering moors and the legend of the Brontë sisters...
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Bono rolls the dice...
Charles Bukowski, poet, novelist, short story writer, lived in LA and wrote a lot about the ordinary 'poor' American. In 1986, Time magazine called Bukowski the 'Laureate of American Lowlife'. Have a listen to Bono's take on Bukowski's Roll The Dice.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
A rockin' read...
Haha - this is my kind of children's book! Thanks to my little friend Angus for the recommendation. M is for Metal, The Loudest Alphabet Book on Earth by Paul McNeil and Barry Divola, in which a motley crew of old rockers appears in fabulous technicolour, reinvented Spinal-Tap-style-for-kids. The Rolling Stones, Ozzie Osborne, Gene Simmons, Led Zeppelin and more metal dinosaurs get a guernsey. McNeil's artwork is perfectly pitched at the irreverent rhymes. Like this one:
"S is for Stones
That just keep on rolling
Most of their fans
Have now switched to lawn bowling"
You and your kid will laugh out loud. Not necessarily at the same thing. And I'm pretty sure you won't drift off to sleep mid-bedtime story.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Psycho!
Just in from a loaded cinematic/symphonic experience - a screening of the original version of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in the reverberant cavern of the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House.
Celebrating 50 years since its release, the inimitable and thoroughly scarifying score (by Academy Award winning composer Bernard Herrmann) was played live, and brilliantly, by the Sydney Lyric Orchestra.
They say a picture paints a thousand words but in this case its the music that turns this simple tale into simply terrifying.
Ok, it's not actually that scary in today's world (to be honest it's hilarious), but I can imagine that when audiences were pouring into cinemas in 1960 to see it, the suspense, the dramatic flair of the cast and the ghoulish special effects would have had them crapping themselves in terror. And mostly because of the music.
I can't play it here but check out these images from the film... a feast for those with a penchant for melodrama and a secret desire to start writing from: It was a dark and stormy night...
Celebrating 50 years since its release, the inimitable and thoroughly scarifying score (by Academy Award winning composer Bernard Herrmann) was played live, and brilliantly, by the Sydney Lyric Orchestra.
They say a picture paints a thousand words but in this case its the music that turns this simple tale into simply terrifying.
Ok, it's not actually that scary in today's world (to be honest it's hilarious), but I can imagine that when audiences were pouring into cinemas in 1960 to see it, the suspense, the dramatic flair of the cast and the ghoulish special effects would have had them crapping themselves in terror. And mostly because of the music.
I can't play it here but check out these images from the film... a feast for those with a penchant for melodrama and a secret desire to start writing from: It was a dark and stormy night...
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Global village goes GaGa...!
Song of South Africa trip 09 - this is what everyone is dancing to sub-Sahara. Love this global village we live in, makes me feel close to my African friends...turn it up LOUD!!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Week 1 writing wrap...
Lessons learnt during my first week of book writing:
- Glue your bum to the chair and just start writing. Cleaning light switches does not get words on the page. Neither does polishing the leaves on my ficus. Although the house looks fabulous.
- Research days and writing days work more effectively when separated.
- Fast flow writing is a great technique for getting the pen (fingers) moving and it’s mindboggling the memories and images that spring forth from your subconscious self.
- In high school it was really neat handwriting but now it looks more like hieroglyphics…hmmm.
- Writing is really, really hard! One of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It’s also liberating, exhausting, frustrating and intoxicating!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Today's musical inspiration...
Love love love this song! And the video is cool too - best pilot porn ever ;-)
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/200325/760975
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/200325/760975
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