Sita sings the blues

Back in December Roger Ebert raved on his blog about an obscure movie called Sita Sings the Blues on his blog.  The movie is described as "An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw".  Reading Ebert's description I decided I had to see this film.  But the article ends on a sad note:  "the songs Annette Hanshaw sings (composed and recorded in the 1920s!)
in the film are still restricted by copyright, and therefore no one is
free to distribute a film that uses them, no matter how brilliant the
film may be."

Then yesterday an event turned up in the upcoming RSS feed for Brighton: the local Flash programmers group are showing the movie.  It turns out the rights issues have been resolved and the film is now available for free download.

I don't yet know if the film is as good as promised but I'm excited to see the Internet is working as it should be.  You read about an odd, obscure film, then a locally organised group put on a showing.  No marketing or advertising required, just a couple of appropriate RSS feeds.

A disappointing weekend that turned out OK

I had big plans for this weekend but most of them fizzled.  I was due to meet someone on Friday to discuss a collaboration and failed to find them.  Saturday I had an appalling headache that drove me to spend the whole day sleeping.  And, because of a (almost-healed) back injury, I missed today's Sussex Beacon Half Marathon.

But this weekend has not been a disaster.  I've read some interesting books, most fascinating of which was In Praise of Shadows.  This is a book on aesthetics by a Japanese novelist, Junichiro Tanizaki.  I particularly loved the description of the effect of dark tableware on soup.  The level of detail has left me spending the weekend noting little things about the world around me. 

Downsides to the book were some unpleasant theorising on aesthetics and race, and the translator's appalling afterword.  He claims "the urge to edit Tanizaki is "almost irresistable" because his essay doesn't have the "symmetry and logical progression" expected by a "Western reader".  "His descriptions of lacquerware under candlelight and women in the darkness … are perfect jewels; but would they not stand out to better advantage removed from the company of that murmuring bowl of soup…?".  No, not really.  

(A quote I loved from the introduction to the book: "The sun never knew how beautiful it was until it fell on the wall of a building" – Louis Khan)

I woke up at 5:15am this morning feeling refreshed, so read until it was time to get up.  After lunch I visited the Brighton Zine Fair's market.  Wow.  I picked up loads of interesting reading, but could easily have come away with much more.  It was an exciting and inspiring event and I'll try to write a separate post about it.

I'm now trying to wrap up the weekend ready for Monday and will hopefully have time to write my piece for Other People's Stories, which is likely to be about high-paid commuters and cheap flats. 

Anna’s Museum

Here's something I saw on Upper Western Road: Anna's Museum.  It's a collection of trinkets and artifacts curated by a child or an adult with interesting handwriting.  It's little things like this (the Deans, the isthisyou people, the weird snowmen) I love Brighton for.

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Sunday I went to the Art Junky flea market where my housemate Kirsten was exhibiting some of her Stride Designs work.  Art Junky was awesome: good cake, fantastic stalls and a roaming band – imagine the coolest jumble sale ever.  I picked up some lovely art books by Milly Freeman and Kate Blegvad.

Apart from that the weekend has been quiet.  I hurt my back on Friday lugging heavy bags, which has meant I couldn't run today.  I'm hoping that gets better very soon.

Wordplay

I was very nervous about reading at Wordplay last night.  I was reading second, following the incredible Spliff Richards, which made me even more nervous.  As it was the audience seemed to enjoy themselves and I felt OK once I was reading (although onstage might not have been the best place for me to start improvising edits of one section).  Rachel afterwards described me as a ‘solid’ performer, which is, I think, a compliment.  It was a lovely evening, also featuring the charming Bristol poet, Nathan Filer, who reduced one woman in the audience to tears (of laughter,  fortunately).  Thank you to Rachel for inviting me to read.

Here’s a video of Mr. Filer with his poem Perfidious Albino:

Incorporating Writing

The new issue of Incorporating Writing is now out (downloadable from here).  It was guest edited by the Tight Lip team, who asked me to contribute an interview with poet Gary Goodman.  I spoke to Gary towards the end of last year at the Royal Albion hotel. 

Editing the interview into an article was interesting work.  Some fascinating responses were cut to allow the article to flow.  Halfway through we were interrupted by an accident outside, a young woman knocked off her bicycle by a learner driver.  It was a disturbing thing to watch and seemed as if it ought to be recorded, but never fitted into the interview.

The magazine is a good read, featuring some provocative articles, an interview with China Mieville and photos from Sam Collins.

A photograph I didn’t take

The best way to find perfect scenes to photograph is to come out without your camera.  I visited a friend this evening to cook pasta and drink cocktails (I will definitely be drinking sidecars again).  When I'd arrived she'd just finished mopping the kitchen and told me not to go in, the floor was wet.  Rather than suggest I get my shoes, she dried the floor…  with a hairdryer.  She leaned into the kitchen holding the doorpost, driving off the water to  making a path to the cooker and the sink.  It would have been a perfect photograph.

"Best thing is," she said, "The floor will be lovely and warm."

Video footage from Sparks Night 2

I meant to post this before Christmas, but somehow missed it in the excitement of Winterval.  As mentioned on Sparks blog, the video footage of my reading at Sparks 2 is now on youtube:

I've not actually watched this, as I can't bear hearing to my own voice (something I need to get over, particularly if I except other people to listen to it), so let me know what you think.  No comments so far which is probably a good thing as youtube commenters aren't known for their good manners and intelligence.

Also online is Vanessa Gebbie reading her story 'Gas Gangrene'.  Thanks to Jo Horsmann for putting these up. 

James at 11: an early review

I recently found a cache of old school reports.  The most interesting one was from the village school form teacher I had at 11:

"His creative writings reveal a very vivid imagination.  His stories are full of good ideas and phrases but James lacks the self-discipline to develop and shape them for the reader's benefit.  His understanding of the main rules of punctuation is good but he does not always apply them to his own work."

Some people still claim my stories are self-indulgent and that shunning the word 'that' isn't a sign of talent.  It's weird to think: all the years of education since then and I haven't improved.  My goal for 2009 is simple: to summon the self-discipline to finish my novel.  I think the punctuation's good enough though.