New Wor(l)ds 10

A little later than usual, New Wor(l)ds volume 10 is out containing the cream of my recent short fictions and poetry.
I elected a type only design this time to emphasize the power of the word over the image in writing. I am concerned that culturally we seem to be veering away from text toward sound and image. Can this really be the beginning of the end for pure literature?

I guess that as long as me, and people like me, continue to carve away our literary niches there will always be Words.

Fictions:
Tight Fist
Deep Blue Devil
Raking the Earth
Boomerang Babies
Tidiness in Purfleet

Poetry:
Ful(l)filled i
Ful(l)filled ii

Sorry seems to be the easiest word, at least in Oz

I was struck yesterday by the text of the apology made by the Australian government to aborigines for the systematic removal of generations of infants from their families and place of birth. The full text is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generations and what struck me was the certainty that we will never see a British government apologise so unconditionally; Blair will never say 'sorry' for Iraq and WMD's.

I am working on a short story based on my research into this Stolen Generation issue called 'Boomerang Babies'.

Don't twitter about it, write it.

As if writers were short of excuses not to actually get down to the business of writing, I have noticed an alarming new development where lazy writers end up writing nothing more than their own blogs... which ironically are all about writing! Because of the connectivity of the awfully-named blogosphere, these 'writers' end up in perpetual connection with each other, Twittering away about how marvellous these new social medias are and fretting over how they 'as writers' are going to fit their work around those medias, all without actually generating any new original writing, unless it is more twaddle on the 'nature' of writing in this new dangerous digital age. Christ!

Death of a Model

The sudden death of Irish model Katy French has provoked a little media flurry. I think there is something almost archetypal about this sort of minor celebrity death. These people literally do flare up like the floating cinders from a bonfire, shining independently before being extinguished, leaving no trace behind.

Death like this often inspires me to write a song, which I have already begun. I thought I might write the lyrics in Gaelic (using babelfish, for among my talents, I am not a Gaelic speaker) or perhaps even French, ironically using her surname.

Personal Information and Archive Issues

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs have lost two 'discs' which held personal details of over seven million households in Britain. Well, working in IT, all I can say is I'm surprised they are still using discs to move information around. Were they re-writable cds or dvds? Haven't they heard of the internet and fast broadband connections? Storage on discs is known to be a less than robust method of archiving data anyway, better off putting it on a little hard drive, if you have to. Did somebody have to take the discs home to do a bit of work on it over the weekend? Ridiculous!

But seriously archiving is an enormous problem for everyone nowadays, none more so I guess than for prolific artists like myself. I have untold boxes of cassette tapes, vhs tapes, floppy discs, zip discs.. all with my music projects or writing projects 'saved' at various stages. I intend to begin to archive these things properly soon, and build some sort of user interface for easy access to it all, but its a mammoth task, it really is.

I don't think it's going to fit onto just two discs!!

Ruthless Edit

I spent most of the weekend having a ruthless edit of my blog posts - do anyone else ever do this? Took out a lot of aimless woffle, and eradicated some entire posts forever (after downloading an archive of course). This has made my blog seem leaner, but also I think it suggests I am not as prolific as I undoubtedly am - Oh, well, even in this blogsphere you can't have both worlds.

Pizza Peter

Peter's pizza arrived.
Spinach spun on top.
Crusty cheese browned,
Garlic bread downed,
Pineapple chunks on ham

Peter's pizza arrived.
Olives sliced on top.
Thin tomatoes grilled,
Empty stomach filled,
Pineapple chunks on ham

Oscar's 79th Birthday

Oscar is getting too old isn't he? 79 years is a fair age for anyone, but the truly Americanized glamour of the fabled awards ceremony is looking a little worn to my eyes. Too many categories, too much glitz, too long...

I read there are now some 500 film festivals in the world. Every one of them wants a new film to Premiere, everyone of them wants some media attention... and as thin as that is to stretch amongst 500 festivals we then get all the awards ceremonies. Even more media coverage.

New Worl(d)s 9

The latest volume of my short fiction and poetry is out!

Fiction:
Pop Bitch
The Tiger Watching
Rain Guidance
Nemeses

Poetry:
10:14 am
And Now...
Condensation

The Race For Racism

Well, it's no longer a question of whether she did or didn't - the British media no longer use the word 'alledged' in connection with Jade Goody's poor choice of words on Celebrity Big Brother. I've nothing really to add on the subject except to say that I've always thought that the people one sees on the show are so horrifically over the top that I have never been tempted to write a story with one or more of them in it. They by their very nature are caricatures of humans, and I think if I fictionalized them they would render my stories unbelievable, in an un-real way, something I am always striving to do in my work.