Her narcissism

So Far So Close

So Far, so Close

If Virginia Woolf came back to life today, what would she make of it? How would she feel about what’s happening to books, and to the reputation of her own books, and of the Bloomsbury group?  The acclaimed novelist Maggie Gee, whose thirteen previous books include The White Family, My Cleaner and My Animal Life, this month publishes her new novel, Virginia Woolf in Manhattan, which imagines what ensues when an author working in the New York Public Library becomes so passionate about Woolf that she suddenly materialises. In a conversation chaired by Anne Chisholm, biographer of Frances Partridge, the long-lived Bloomsbury diarist who remembered Woolf from her youth, Maggie Gee discusses her novel with Alexandra Harris, author of Romantic Moderns, which explores connections between some of the 20th Century’s greatest writers and artists, including Virginia Woolf, Eric Ravilious and John Piper, and of a short biography of Woolf. They reflect on her imaginings of both past and future, and ask what she means to readers and writers today. Is she, for women writers in particular, a hard act to follow?

We are grateful to the Royal Literary Fund for sponsoring this event, and to the Bloomsbury Hotel for supporting it.

Virginia Woolf in the 21st Century

Cinematic instrumental post-rock band from Los Angeles, California, Whale Fall is preparing to release their sophomore album, The Madrean, in late 2014.  www.whalefall.com

Overpass LA

Dinosauria, We (born like this) by Charles Bukowski (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

https://www.youtube.com/user/SpokenVerse

born like this
into this
as the chalk faces smile
as Mrs. Death laughs
as the elevators break
as political landscapes dissolve
as the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree
as the oily fish spit out their oily prey
as the sun is masked

we are
born like this
into this
into these carefully mad wars
into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
into bars where people no longer speak to each other
into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings

born into this
into hospitals which are so expensive that it's cheaper to die
into lawyers who charge so much it's cheaper to plead guilty
into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes

born into this
walking and living through this
dying because of this
muted because of this
castrated
debauched
disinherited
because of this
fooled by this
used by this
pissed on by this
made crazy and sick by this
made violent
made inhuman
by this

the heart is blackened
the fingers reach for the throat
the gun
the knife
the bomb
the fingers reach toward an unresponsive god
the fingers reach for the bottle
the pill
the powder
we are born into this sorrowful deadliness
we are born into a government 60 years in debt
that soon will be unable to even pay the interest on that debt

and the banks will burn
money will be useless
there will be open and unpunished murder in the streets
it will be guns and roving mobs
land will be useless
food will become a diminishing return
nuclear power will be taken over by the many
explosions will continually shake the earth
radiated robot men will stalk each other
the rich and the chosen will watch from space platforms
Dante's Inferno will be made to look like a children's playground
the sun will not be seen and it will always be night
trees will die
all vegetation will die
radiated men will eat the flesh of radiated men
the sea will be poisoned
the lakes and rivers will vanish
rain will be the new gold
the rotting bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark wind
and the space platforms will be destroyed by attrition
and the petering out of supplies
the natural effect of general decay
and there will be the most beautiful silence never heard
born out of that.

Born Into This (Dinosauria, We by Charles Bukowski) (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

Jan Garbarek Group, Bergen 2002 - 6 - Pan

This track is available for purchase here: https://adambenezra.bandcamp.com/track/the-busker
Or on CD here: 
http://adambenezra.com/shop 

The Busker

Background and poem text: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/06/28/amanda-palmer-reads-humanity-i-love-you-e-e-cummings/

Join me in supporting Amanda on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/amandapalmer

BACKGROUND / POEM TEXT

Amanda Palmer reads "Humanity i love you" by e.e. cummings

"When tragedy strikes our lives, time doesn’t heal wounds. Words of condolence are not enough to alleviate the painful heart, but once we start surrendering our wounded hearts to the magical beauty of music, we may just be able to find solace from within…" excerpt from SOLACE album notes.

Structured around 5 stages of grieving (Denial, Depression, Anger, Bargaining, Acceptance), SOLACE is a personal musical healing project I created to pay tribute to my father, who's life was taken away in a senseless gun violence on the south side of Chicago.  SOLACE stays close to my heart as I process and bring powerful closure to the past 25 years of silently grieving. I share SOLACE with millions of others suffering silently due to such unfortunate events. May the power of music bring us comfort and healing and enable us to seek compassion, forgiveness, appreciation and love for one another. Let's spread MUSIC and LOVE, not bullets and hatred, and make this world a better place. May God bless us all. Thank you!

Read More of SOLACE album notes on ISSUE: https://issuu.com/musicasolis/docs/solace_by_seunghee_lee_cd_booklet/1


Solace 

SOLACE

Ravel: Kaddish

Poem text and context: https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/11/20/amanda-palmer-reads-happiness-by-jane-kenyon/

Reading by @amandapalmer.

POEM TEXT

Amanda Palmer reads "Happiness" by Jane Kenyon

Poem text and context: https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/12/17/sarah-kay-astronaut-whitman/

Recorded at "The Universe in Verse: The Astronomy of Walt Whitman," hosted by Maria Popova and Pioneer Works on Governors Island, October 26, 2019. Portraiture by Rowan Renee / Brooklyn Tintype.

Amanda Palmer reads "Happiness" by Jane Kenyon

brainpicker

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