Bah! Foiled in my Literary Quest!

I have been looking for the book below for quite some time now. I read a review of it (A.S.Byatt?) in the Guardian Lit supplement about a year ago, in which it was described as a mind-blowing, life-changing hidden gem of a book, and besides all the hyperbole it sounded a lot like the sort of thing I would like. It is a book of 14 (not 19) short stories by a Canadian poet.

Mark Anthony Jarman - 19 Knives

But though I searched, I could not find it anywhere! Amazon, abebooks, Powell's, all the places which really ought to yield me up this book have failed me. Even the publishers don't sell it, and even if they had it in stock they only quote Canadian dollars.

I need this book. This is what it does: it "employs dazzling linguistic verve and staggering metaphoric powers in every sentence"; the stories "grab on and then pedal on imbalance; they tilt and stay dizzyingly tilted, careering, not necessarily toward any kind of resolution, but toward the marrow of a character's psyche"; and moreover, "like a quart of hand-picked berries, the stories offer sweet stabs of delight with enough grit and pesticide to set your teeth on edge". Nice, ha?

Where can I find it?? Does anyone have any ideas? I am frustrated.

E.T.A.: They are apparently reprinting this volume at the end of the summer, what with all the over-excited reviews. Kaia tracked it down for me; what a good girlfriend she is :)

Midsummer Night's FABULOUS

Moth, Cobweb, Puck, Peaseblossom (Disco-tastic: tutus, stacked heels, fishnet shirts and dance routines)

I've been spending spring break with Kaia in her home town of Ashland, Oregon, which is a delightful small town full of friendly hippyish people. It is also home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which runs plays in town February through November at several theatres and is quite famous. Last night we went to see a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream which had a distinctly disco-camp aesthetic. It looked so cool and was so well done I thought I'd post some pictures.

Oberon (set was all neon stars, climbable light-up curvy things, giant squishy flowers; and a VW van)

Hippolyta and Theseus (Theseus was basically the Fonz.)

Titania and Bottom

Lysander, Helena and Demetrius (the most un-tepid Lovers of any Midsummer I've seen)

Oberon and Puck

Titania and Oberon (Cyndi Lauper style-person and the most manly man ever)

Demetrius, Lysander and Hermia

As you can see from the above picture, the four mixed-up lovers - Demetrius, Hermia, Lysander and Helena - gradually had all their clothes spirited away by the fairies, and then their white underwear changed into neon colours. One of many neat touches demonstrating the fabulous-ification effect of the fairy world. The set, the acting, the casting the music, the costumes, the stage direction, the giant disco ball over the audience: everything was just perfect. It was so much fun.

We also saw a wonderful production of August Wilson's Fences, which was great since I just studied Jitney from the same play cycle in my American Drama class.

Apologies for lack of posting or communication lately, it's been a full and fun time in Ashland. Heading back to Portland tomorrow...

My Whole Life Was Like a Picture of a Sunny Day

Carrie Brownstein, ex awesomeness-provider of Sleater-Kinney, is apparently spending her time making funny little videos with a mate of hers and posting them on the internet. Alright for some, isn't it?

I heart you, Carrie Brownstein. Your friend probably has some nice qualities too.

Visit ThunderAnt for more. I cannot watch said videos because my laptop is fucked and it is forbidden to do anything noisy in the library, but do tell me if they're any good.

The Green Man Forms a Rock Band

Caribou, Watercolor, 2006

I present the work of Diana Sudyka, who I came across in the Fall 2007 issue of Venus Zine, looking all winsome and indie and expressing the DIY culture aesthetic, as everyone does in Venus Zine. She works out of Chicago, and makes a living selling prints, designing concert posters, doing general odd job illustration work. She's also big into the printmaking process: "She likes printmaking because it involves process, labor, and a touch of populism. 'You’re creating artwork that’s affordable and gets out to a lot of people,' she says. 'There’s something very democratic about that.'" Yay for people who love printmaking; she is "proud to have ink under her fingernails".

Sudyka seems to specialise in animal/human hybrids, and flora and fauna that comes out looking visceral or winsome, or somehow both. No wonder The Decemberists are fans of hers (see the concert posters below): after hearing The Crane Wife I think the band and the illustrator have a similar aesthetic.

The Decemberists with Alasdair Roberts, 5 screen poster on manila, 2007

The Decemberists with Lavender Diamond, 4 screen poster on manila, 2007

Holiday Card, 5 colour screen print, 2006

2 Pigeons, 2 colour copper etching, 1998

Crowded House, 5 colour screenprint with silver overprint, 2007

Feist with Grizzly Bear, 4 screen poster, 2007

Flight Lesson, 4 colour copper etching with chine colle, 1996

The Atari Star album art, ink drawing, 2006

Another cool thing about Sudyka, at least I think it's cool and not gross, is that she volunteers one afternoon a week at Chicago's field museum as a taxidermist. She stuffs a plethora of birds who have died of natural causes, and then she does little watercolours of them in her blog, The Tiny Aviary.

See also her main site, and the VenusZine article (both of which I quoted from above).

Venues

I just realised that these two illustrations were kicking around my uni computer account, so I thought I would post them. I drew them for the now apparently defunct music zine, The Revolution Will Not Be Amplified; they wanted a couple of illustrations of hopping Norwich gig venues.

Norwich Arts Centre, 51 St. Benedicts Street

St. Andrews Hall, St.Andrews Plain

Oh, (probably) doomed zine, I think they only managed one issue. There was really no need for me to bother doing these pictures, except for the fact that, you know, I like drawing things. Besides, Tim and I are going to produce a zine ourselves after Easter. Nyeh nyeh.

I have only ever seen one show in St.Andrews Hall (maybe also the student King Lear in the first year?), that was the weird string lady thing with Lydia. The Norwich Arts Centre, however, is like my second home. They have such awesome stuff there all the time. Love it.

Portland etc.

Buffalo Clothing Exchange, 1420 SE 37th

Hey, guess what?! I am going to my beloved Portland, Oregon for Easter. In a little more than a week I will be taking a train to London Liverpool St, a tube to Heathrow, taking a plane to Chicago, and another to Portland. (Seriously, what a faff. If Portland and, say, Ipswitch could swap places, that would make my life much easier.) So I am extremely excited, and trying not to think about the essay I have to write in the meantime, and packing, that kind of thing. What I am thinking about is all the fun Portland places I want to go to. Here are a few I have in mind:

Old Haunts:

Powell's (1005 W Burnside)

Dot's Cafe (2521 SE Clinton)

Hawthorne Street Cafe (3354 SE Hawthorne)

Twenty-Third Avenue Books (1015 NW 23rd Avenue)

Fabulous Jackpot Records (203 SW 9th, 3736 SE Hawthorne)

Bubble Bubble Cafe (4408 SE Woodstock Blvd)

The Cup & Saucer Cafe (Hawthorne, and somewhere else?)

Stumptown Coffee (Various)

Red Light Clothing Exchange (3590 SE Hawthorne, where's the other one?)

New Places:

The Little Red Bike Cafe (4823 N. Lombard)

Bar of the Gods (4801 SE Hawthorne)

Bagdad Theater (3702 SE Hawthorne, (I know, right? How have I never been?))

Reading Frenzy (921 SW Oak Street)

Pix Patisserie (Hawthorne, Williams, Division)

Museum of Contemporary Craft (724 NW Davis)

Have I forgotten anything? I know I have; help me out!

This list seems to indicate that all I care about in life is books, food, and alcohol. This is perfectly true. Anyway, the thing I'm looking forward to most is seeing my favourite Reedies, and spending some quality R&R with my glamourous American girlfriend. See you soon, guys!

(By the way: Kaia, am I allowed to be telling people this all over the internet? Oh well, never mind... Kaia is coming to study at UEA next year! I am so massively excited about this, I can't even tell you. Yay!)

The Fresh Pot at Powell's, 3729 SE Hawthorne

Costume Drama Monday

Look, because it is Monday, and I had to get up early, and it is very cold and I'm feeling pathetic, I'm just going to be really shallow for a minute. While thinking about costume dramas and also therefore history. I can be superficial and intellectual at the same time, yesss.

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), with Scarlett Johansson as Mary Boleyn and Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn

The Other Boleyn Girl (2003), starring Natascha McElhone as Mary Boleyn, Jodhi May as Anne Boleyn

So here we have the current Hollywood adaptation of Philippa Gregory's novel The Other Boleyn Girl (2001), and the BBC version which showed a few years back. I didn't see the first one, I probably won't see the film version, but this is unimportant to my main question:

Who is fitter??

Obviously the Hollywood version is supposed to be a concentration of hotness, what with Scarlett and Natalie, but they are not really doing it for me in this film (Ghost World Johansson and short-haired, SNL rapping Portman, on the other hand...) I would go for the original courtly line-up any day, largely because it includes the divine Jodhi May. Votes?

Side-note: Has anyone in tv actually seen a picture of Henry VIII? He was an ugly ginger fat bloke who only got all that tail because he was king. Henry looked like this:

He did not look like these two:

He probably smelled pretty bad, too. Just saying. (Also, could we not get at least one English person in a movie about English history? I mean, I know you get more chance of an Oscar if you put on a funny accent, but still.)