Fires in the Skies and the Streets.

Today it rained all day. There was also wind. My umbrella is going to be in recovery for a long time. Thought i'd put up a little creative recount of the this month's Guy Fawkes/Bonfire night festivities. My friends and I, along with most of the city, booked it out to Glasgow Green to watch the fireworks. Fireworks in winter are kind of a new phenomenon for me. They started going off in the streets right around daylight savings time (Glaswegians really know how to make use of the extra darkness).
I have accompanied it with photos gleaned from the Flickr account of a certain Terry Clerkson whom I thank very much. They were taken from a different location than mine but I think they are beautiful and also give a glimpse of the Gorbals. Yeah, there is a part of town called the Gorbals. Look it up.

Bonfire Night

Winter is in the grass on the Green

The cold seeps upward

Through sole and sock

All the city is out

Breathing into November’s early black

As smoke drifts

Across East End sky

And a mist hangs on the Clyde

Where reflected fireworks bloom and sparkle

Lamps light faces

And carnival music plays

Over the hush of the crowd

Hands held for warmth

But more for the fear of losing them to the night. 

Okie doke. That's pretty much it. Oh, and this song. A Scottish-Amurican alliance in music. I am all over this! AberDEEEEEEEEEN! I saw them perform this song here and it was neat. 

Aberdeen - Cage the Elephant by Guns Go Bang

Scribble and Scratch.

So I have had lots of adventures. This is true. And I will of course put up more photos with endless enthusiastic commentary. But I thought I would post some artwork as that was the purpose of this endeavor to begin with. I have done this since getting here. I suppose it is not much for a month, but I was feeling rather accomplished.

I suppose inspiration was drawn from all over. Olivia's nifty use of handwritten script, tattoo shtuff, and the beauteous Dan Felton. Here is a photo of the real deal. 

It's not really the same but eh. I can deal. And now the award for the best song and dance involving a velvet crop top and corvette goes to the band Girls. This is currently my jam. Watch it. And if his swagger doesn't do it for you maybe the beautiful shots of mist shrouded SF will. 

O HOW I LOVE THAT CITY!

p.s. apologies for photo quality. The lighting in my bedroom is a wee bit janky. 

Keep Calm and Cèilidh On.

The other day the rain and wind let up. Took a walk in the park with my camera. Everyone was so happy to be out in the sunshine, the mood was palpable. Here are some photos. Also the title of the post is from a tee shirt that I saw, which I thought was very clever.

The prettiest fountain. 

This old man just wound up in the photo. He is kind of grimacing, although this is not representative of the people I  came upon as a whole. 

A little back alley of houses I came upon. I really loved these rooftops. And chimneys.

Looking the other way. The layers of row houses are really beautiful. 

A fierce statue. 

The beautiful brown river. 

A little fellow on his way home from school. 

The park, and skatepark, and houses on the hill. 

Other news from the land of Scots. I attended my first cèilidh which was good fun, and the band was amazing. I also tried Haggis. I had the vegetarian version (scoff if you will, it was delicious and didn't make me half as nervous, although I did have a nibble of the regular kind). Progress is being made. And now for a tune! Yeah yeah I know he's Irish but this song is transcendent!

I Caught The Sun.

Feeling a wee bit jet lagged, and consequently having some early morning hours to kill, I will be dutiful. Don't worry, it won't last. But here for anyone interested, are a few photos from my first days in Scotland.  I like it here. It's pretty. 

My neighborhood in Glasgow. 

My school!

View of school through Kelvingrove park. 

A little fella in a kilt in Edinburgh. 

The old town in Edinburgh. 

 

Old town in the sunshine. 

Here's a video. I had this song stuck in my head all day as we walked about in the sun and then caught the train home. They aren't Scottish but their name is. 

The Room Where Summer Passes.

Well I have been doing a lot more of nothing lately. I started this:

Based on this photo:

From this groovy ad campaign featured here.

And then I drafted this:

At The Close

The sister leaves on the train

As afternoon fog crests the hills

I think of you

Buried in the years now termed “ago”

I buried you again

By a river in Russia

And sat on the bridge

To mourn

Oh, but all this I have forgotten

I do not think of it

On the way home

Or falling to sleep

In the room where summer passes

All the while listening to this:

and this:

and never ever doing my homework. 

If I Wasn't Such A Zero.

I do things. I swear. But not enough. Embarrassing.......

A sketch of a silly feline I did for a friend's tattoo. Meh-eow.
Oh. This is a real good song. The video is horrible, don't watch it. Just listen.

Ink.

Making up for lost time. This is a piece I drew two or more years ago as a Christmas present. Strangely enough I am still fairly pleased with it.

It was inspired by Aubrey Beardsley, tattoo art, auto painting, and who knows what else was floating around in my subconscious. Also here's one of the sexiest songs ever. I like it. Lots.

On Saturday I was An Angel Shining Fair.

Here are some photos from a long time ago per usual. Campus in winter with a yellow theme.

   

 (an adorable member of the infamous gang of Berkeley squirrels.)

  

I posted this video for the sake of the song, The Boy Done Wrong Again by Belle and Sebastian, which is beautiful. I know nothing about the movie from which the clips are culled, except that it looks interesting, is called Boy A and it made me realize that every time I watch Andrew Garfield and think to myself that I don't like him I realize that in fact I like him a lot. Not sure where the initial distaste comes from. It's weird.

It's a Drag.

Despite the loveliest of sunshine these past days, things seem to be dragging. Summer couldn't come fast enough as far as I am concerned. This is a little sketch I did very closely based on some photographs by Andreas Laszlo Konrath, a photographer my sister introduced me too. His portraits remind me of how great faces are. You can see them all here under stories: http://www.andreaslaszlokonrath.com/

There is a very bizarre sort of perspective going on here, and they are strangely conjoined at the shoulder, but I am okay with it. It's not very original to draw someone else's photographs but I couldn't resist. Someday I will draw my own. 

And the song of today is.....

Soaked to the Bone.

Its been a rainy, lackluster spring break. Haven't done much of anything. Here's a little bit of a work in progress, taken up immediately after watching Jules et Jim. Oskar Werner has the face of angel. 

The drawing was inspired by this photo of him. The movie poster is also rather incredible.

And this is a rainy day song, performed by a very young Yves Montand. 

Halfway to 40.

I wrote this about 2 weeks before my actual birthday, when I was feeling a little strange. I felt better about the event while it was actually occurring but I would say these sentiments are still valid. Anyway, I know you aren't supposed to write your own birthday poem, but I did.

Poem For My 20^TH Birthday

Campus twilight chases the pinkest of airplanes

Across sunset pinched sky

February is making up its mind to March

I am making up my mind to loneliness

I will put the college age feminist cuff in my Levis

And swear you off

Swear you into oblivion

Kissing off this dusky breeze

Jump into liquid night

The 10 minute homeward stride

To lighted windows

Uphill to age 20

We could all shed tears

For a 17^th year beating a hasty retreat

But we don’t

We’ll pillage the future

Before it even cracks a smile

Such are the years of the glorious inbetween

 And now for a couple songs that kept this week movin along. 

note: Yes. The first song is a cover of Mazarin. I like both versions.
I could not find a video for the We Barbarians song I really wanted to post, but every song on their new album is perfect so in the long run I decided it didn't matter.

For The Lovelorn.

Feeling uninspired on this damp and exclusive holiday, I thought I'd give a little shout out to the lovelorn by means of this poem, written by Alexander Blok in 1910 to the devastating poetess, Anna Akhmatova. Translated from the original Russian by Paul Schmidt.


To Anna Akhmatova

I sent you a rose in a glass of champagne
while the gypsies played as the gypsies do.
Then you turned to the man you were with and said:
"You see his eyes? He's in love with me too."

That night you left me a look in the mirror-
a look I've had too much of.
And the gypsy singer kept jangling her bracelets
and singing of love, and of love, and of love.



That so eloquently said. Here's hoping your Valentines day looks a little something like this:

 Crystal Renn, photo by Ellen von Unwerth


And now a song for us all, in and out of love, courtesy of the one and only Nina Simone.

Misery Is The Worst Company.

Although I greatly enjoy rainy days, and sad, sad, songs I should be honest. When actually miserable, enhancing the mood is not always a good idea. That is why I am glad that I live in California where I can take photos like this in January:

and spend days at the beach with people like this:

And now for a song with a little sunshine. Courtesy of those beautiful, often bearded boys, The Avett Brothers. 

Hopefully I will have more writing up soon, writing that is not so blatantly about myself that is. 

Hello There.

In the New Year

Walking through winter with an orange in my pocket

Impaled with a gasp

By the whitest of mornings

I have fully left midnight

Velveteen and drunken

Tangled all in the branches behind

Gone away and I am glad

This is not cowardice

Creeping like death in the cold

It is a wind-stung

Cautiousness

Natural when so brand new

This is the hesitant first stanza of my first poem of this still new-ish year. I mostly put it up because I want to get this thing up and running. More may follow, although possibly not. Just to clear any confusion this poem is not titled after The Walkmen song In The New Year, although they do share a title. It is a song very much worth listening to however. Give it a look right here.