While Kit's away, the mice will play ...

Postcard from Kit Kelen - he's away in a distant land. 

Check out more images at http://e-l-s-e-w-h-e-r-e.blogspot.com.au/

Issa Haiku

world of man-- 
in a little stone field 
catching fleas 


Issa 1827 

.人の世や小石原より蚤うつる 
hito no yo ya ko ishiwara yori nomi utsuru 

David Gerard: A field of stones seems an unlikely place to catch fleas, yet in this “world of man,” this happens. According to the Pure Land Buddhism to which Issa subscribed, we are living in a corrupt age. Issa implies, with a sly smile perhaps, that our time is even corrupt in the smallest of ways

Bob Dylan made honorary member of US Arts Academy

US singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has been made an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Dylan, who was unable to attend the New York ceremony, said he felt "extremely honoured" and "lucky" to be admitted.

The 71-year-old said he looked forward to meeting the other members of the "pantheon of great individual artists".

more to read HERE

Words of Virginia Woolf

“We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep. It’s as simple and ordinary as that. A few jump out windows, or drown themselves, or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us are slowly devoured by some disease, or, if we’re very fortunate, by time itself. There’s just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds & expectations, to burst open & give us everything we’ve ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) know these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning, we hope, more than anything for more. Heaven only knows why we love it so.”

― Virginia Woolf

Thank you to Moniques Passions for this and other lively quotes and art. See more at http://moniquespassions.com/

Artscape: Trailer: The A to Z of Contemporary Art, 10pm Tuesday 11 June, ABC1

/arts/stories/2013/05/09/3755723-mediarss.xml

 

Coming up next on Artscape, Artscape: The A to Z of Contemporary Art screens 10pm Tuesday, 11 June on ABC1. Don’t know your biennale from a triennial? The A-Z of Contemporary Art is a guide to the often-impenetrable contemporary art world.

The A to Z of Contemporary Art screens 10pm Tuesday, 11 June on ABC1.

Link:The A to Z of contemporary art ANDREW FROST offers a crash course in bluffing your way through art.

'Space Oddity' - Chris Hadfield performs onboard ISS

If you haven't seen this yet, I hope you enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc8BcBZ0tAI

Win tickets to see the Tokyo String Quartet

ABC Classic FM

Everyone knows haikus, but do you know what a tanka is?

Write one for us and you could win a double pass to see the grand masters of the string quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, in their Australian farewell tour.http://bit.ly/12whX99

After more than 40 years the undisputed grand masters of the string quartet are bidding a graceful farewell. Playing a famous collection of Stradivarius instruments, their last concerts in Australia will include some of the pieces which cemented their stellar reputation.

Read more about the tour here.

Join Classic Breakfast this week for your chance to see the Tokyo String Quartet on their farewell tour during May/June.

We have three double passes to win for each city on the national tour. For your chance to win, we'd like you to try your hand at the oldest and most popular form of poetry in Japan, tanka. Your tanka must include the word "Tokyo". Good luck!

Tanka is a Japanese poem consisting of five lines, the first and third of which have five syllables and the others seven. Traditionally tanka has had no concept of rhyme. For example:

Beautiful mountains
Rivers with cold, cold water.
White cold snow on rocks
Trees over the place with frost
White sparkly snow everywhere.

from http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2013/03/01/3756322.htm?WT.mc_id=Radio_Radio-ClassicFM-Breakfast|Tokyostringquartet_FBP|ABCClassicFM

Latest TRANSNATIONAL LITERATURE Issue now available FREE and online

Lots to read! Excellent - TRANSNATIONAL LITERATURE at http://fhrc.flinders.edu.au/transnational/current.html

Flinders was an explorer and so is this ever-evolving online magazine from the university named after him.. Take a look.

The dog poem that made Johnny Carson cry

Plucked from the TV archives: Watch as actor Jimmy Stewart shares a poem about his beloved dog, Beau.

By

Michael Graham Richard

MONDAY, MAY 13, 2013

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Jimmy Stewart (left) reads his poem about his dog, Beau, on 'The Tonight Show' in 1981. (Photo: johnnycarson/YouTube)

Back in 1981, legendary actor James “Jimmy” Stewart, the star of  “It's a Wonderful Life” and too many other classics to list here, went on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” to share his hobby: poetry. The piece that he read was titled "I’ll Never Forget a Dog Named Beau" about Stewart’s golden retriever.

 

At first, the poem made Johnny and the audience laugh, but it had a very different effect in the end. Describing it can’t do it justice; it’s something you have to see — and feel — for yourself, so check out the video and read the text below.

 

 

Here’s the text of the poem:

 

He never came to me when I would call

Unless I had a tennis ball,

Or he felt like it,

But mostly he didn't come at all.

 

When he was young

He never learned to heel

Or sit or stay,

He did things his way.

 

Discipline was not his bag

But when you were with him things sure didn't drag.

He'd dig up a rosebush just to spite me,

And when I'd grab him, he'd turn and bite me.

 

He bit lots of folks from day to day,

The delivery boy was his favorite prey.

The gas man wouldn't read our meter,

He said we owned a real man-eater.

 

He set the house on fire

But the story's long to tell.

Suffice it to say that he survived

And the house survived as well.

 

On the evening walks, and Gloria took him,

He was always first out the door.

The Old One and I brought up the rear

Because our bones were sore.

 

He would charge up the street with Mom hanging on,

What a beautiful pair they were!

And if it was still light and the tourists were out,

They created a bit of a stir.

 

But every once in a while, he would stop in his tracks

And with a frown on his face look around.

It was just to make sure that the Old One was there

And would follow him where he was bound.

 

We are early-to-bedders at our house -- I guess I'm the first to retire.

And as I'd leave the room he'd look at me

And get up from his place by the fire.

He knew where the tennis balls were upstairs,

And I'd give him one for a while.

He would push it under the bed with his nose

And I'd fish it out with a smile.

 

And before very long He'd tire of the ball

And be asleep in his corner In no time at all.

And there were nights when I'd feel him Climb upon our bed

And lie between us,

And I'd pat his head.

 

And there were nights when I'd feel this stare

And I'd wake up and he'd be sitting there

And I reach out my hand and stroke his hair.

And sometimes I'd feel him sigh and I think I know the reason why.

 

He would wake up at night

And he would have this fear

Of the dark, of life, of lots of things,

And he'd be glad to have me near.

 

And now he's dead.

And there are nights when I think I feel him

Climb upon our bed and lie between us,

And I pat his head.

And there are nights when I think I feel that stare

And I reach out my hand to stroke his hair,

But he's not there.

 

Oh, how I wish that wasn't so,

I'll always love a dog named Beau.

 

A book titled “Why We Love the Dogs We Do: How to Find the Dog That Matches Your Personality” published in 2000 contains some information on what happened to Beau, Stewart’s beloved dog. Sadly, the poem isn’t fiction. Wikipedia summarizes it:

 

“While shooting a movie in Arizona, Stewart received a phone call from Dr. Keagy, his veterinarian, who informed him that Beau was terminally ill, and that Gloria sought his permission to perform euthanasia. Stewart declined to give a reply over the phone, and told Keagy to ‘keep him alive and I'll be there.’ Stewart requested several days' leave, which allowed him to spend some time with Beau before granting the doctor permission to euthanize the sick dog. Following the procedure, Stewart sat in his car for ten minutes to clear his eyes of tears. Stewart later remembered: ‘After [Beau] died there were a lot of nights when I was certain that I could feel him get into bed beside me and I would reach out and pat his head. The feeling was so real that I wrote a poem about it and how much it hurt to realize that he wasn’t going to be there any more.’”

 

I’m sure all you dog lovers out there know exactly how that must have felt.

 

Hat tip to the Reddit community for unearthing this gem!

from http://www.mnn.com/family/pets/stories/the-dog-poem-that-made-johnny-carson-cry

from the desk of Felicity Haynes ...

Thank goodness for the Washington Post's annual neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

Some of the winners this year:

Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you
have gained.

Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat
stomach.

Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent


Thanks, Felicity.

'Well Versed' for UWA's Historical Society

'lemon oil' by Jackson - book launch

2:30pm Sunday 19 May 2013.

 Hear acclaimed poet and novelist Tracy Ryan launch Jackson’s 

second full-length poetry book lemon oil, 

published by Mulla Mulla Press. 

Hear Jackson perform poems from the book. Hear the exciting 

new poetic voices of special guests Andrea Barnard, 

Elio Novello, Elizabeth Nicholls and Keren Gila Raiter. 

MC: Zan Ross. Drinks & light refreshments. 

At Mattie Furphy House (Fellowship of Australian Writers), 

Allen Park Heritage Precinct, 

88 Wood Street, Swanbourne. 

Contact Jackson at lostpoetjj@gmail.com or 0406 624 578.

The History of Typography

Art & Design

The history of typography, in a stop-motion animation made of 291 cut-paper letters and 2,454 photographs. Pair with a peek inside the sketchbooks of the world’s best type designers and 10 essential books on typography. 

http://exp.lore.com/post/49522138627/the-history-of-typography-in-a-stop-motion

23 Words 15,000 years old!

Words that last

By Wilson Andrews and David Brown, Published: May 6, 2013

A research team led by Mark Pagel at the University of Reading in England has identified 23 “ultraconserved words” that have remained largely unchanged for 15,000 years. Words that sound and mean the same thing in different languages are called “cognates”. These are five words that have cognates in at least four of the seven Eurasiatic language families. Those languages, about 700 in all, are spoken in an area extending from the British Isles to western China and from the Arctic to southern India. Only one word, “thou” (the singular form of “you”), has a cognate in all seven families.

Read related article.

Voiced by Rebecca Béatrice Grollemund, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Reading.

Editor: Oh it is all so interesting! But I can't give it all away here for technical and copyright reasons, so go to the site now and take it all in. Linguists disagree among themselves, but it is fascinating.

Bernard Carney 's Beatles Singalong - Come one and all!

Beatles night at the Workers Club returns for the 2013 heritage festival.

Bernard is a good entertainer - I guarantee you a fun night :-)