Beat Poetess

It’s a hot, windy summer day, and I’m thrilled to be...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:49:21 -0500

It’s a hot, windy summer day, and I’m thrilled to be young and alive.

abandonedography: Todd Sipes

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:00:27 -0500

abandonedography:

Todd Sipes

"We often use technology to save time, but increasingly, it either takes the saved time along with..."

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:34:45 -0500

“

We often use technology to save time, but increasingly, it either takes the saved time along with it, or makes the saved time less present, intimate and rich. I worry that the closer the world gets to our fingertips, the further it gets from our hearts. It’s not an either/or — being “anti-technology” is perhaps the only thing more foolish than being unquestioningly “pro-technology” — but a question of balance that our lives hang upon.

Most of the time, most people are not crying in public, but everyone is always in need of something that another person can give, be it undivided attention, a kind word or deep empathy. There is no better use of a life than to be attentive to such needs. There are as many ways to do this as there are kinds of loneliness, but all of them require attentiveness, all of them require the hard work of emotional computation and corporeal compassion. All of them require the human processing of the only animal who risks “getting it wrong” and whose dreams provide shelters and vaccines and words to crying strangers.

We live in a world made up more of story than stuff. We are creatures of memory more than reminders, of love more than likes. Being attentive to the needs of others might not be the point of life, but it is the work of life. It can be messy, and painful, and almost impossibly difficult. But it is not something we give. It is what we get in exchange for having to die.

”

- Jonathan Safran Foer (via cajunboy)

Photo

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:19:07 -0500

You know I keep it classy during band practice.

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:18:41 -0500

You know I keep it classy during band practice.

"Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents and everyone is writing a book."

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:55:30 -0500

“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents and everyone is writing a book.”

- Cicero, circa 43 BC (via amandaonwriting)

Wow that little review of yours was pretentious - did you google 'egotistical synonyms' to find the term solipsistic?

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 16:21:00 -0500

“Egotistical” and “solipsistic” are completely different things. “Egotistical” is a negative term that implies self-preoccupation; “solipsism” is simply the view that the self is all that can be known to exist.

And unlike mouth-breathers like you, I learn words from books, not internet search engines.

Jackass.

Hastily Written Thoughts on Laura Marling's New Album

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:18:00 -0500

When I first bought Once I Was an Eagle, it fell a little flat with me. It seemed well crafted but its dark, richly textured mysteriousness and coded-ness seemed to verge on pretention.

It was only after I gave it a few more close listens that it really started to resonate. (I’d contend that this album is best absorbed privately, through headphones.)

It eventually occurred to me that Eagle is solipsistic, but not abstruse. Marling’s gaze is squarely directed inward on this one. None of the songs feel like radio-ready singles, and I think it’s safe to say she wasn’t writing for anyone but herself. She keeps her cards so close to her chest that her language is almost always enigmatic. (“You might not think that I care but you don’t know what I know,” she growls darkly in “I Know.”)

At first glance, Marling seems to be exploring the vulnerability at the center of her defensiveness in love. “Pray For Me” reminded me of all the times I’ve felt like throwing in the towel: “I will not love, I want to be alone!” But I have no doubt that my reading of the album’s emotional impetus will change, and claiming to know what’s in Marling’s heart/head seems futile.

Credit where credit’s due: it seems that the album was as much the brainchild of producer Ethan Johns as it was Laura’s, and I think we have him to thank for its sonic and thematic cohesiveness.

In short, I like it, and I think her exploration of the innermost workings of her heart has yielded some fascinating, if esoteric, stuff. But sometimes I do miss the Laura who sighed girlishly, “And I’m clearing all the crap out of my room, trying desperately to figure out what it is that makes me blue / And I wrote an epic letter to you! / And it’s 22 pages front and back but it’s too good to be used / And I tried to be a girl who likes to be used / But I’m too good for that! There’s a mind under this hat!” Maybe she’ll return to easily accessible work someday, but until then, we mere mortals can only sit and wonder at her meaning.

englishmajorhumor: Clean version here

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:11:38 -0500

englishmajorhumor:

Clean version here

Random fact of the day

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 13:32:05 -0500

fluffmugger:

“Blood is thicker than water”, when used in the context of family over friends, is in fact a wildly incorrect bastardisation.

The true, full quote is “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb,” and refers to relationships forged by choice holding deeper meaning than those of mere biology.

Given that I’ve always believed that maxim to be utter bullshit, this feels like poetic justice.

Home Sweet Home.

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 23:25:22 -0500

I really, really wanted to like Kerrville Folk Festival. And if they ever deign to hire me as a performer, I’m sure I’ll eat these words with a side of fries, but it was ultimately underwhelming.

Some of my friends painted it as this songwriter’s paradise, where fantastic original music poured from every square yard of the sprawling campgrounds. What I found instead was a bunch of tired, rotund old flower children playing watered-down Bob Dylan knockoffs. There were some young people there, but they were the kind of dumb self-proclaimed hippies who just want to be too fucked up to function at all times. Ugh. No thank you.

To top it all off, the caliche dust and cedar pollen gave me the worst allergies of my life, so I couldn’t even sing worth a damn.

I did get to see a couple of really great performers and a beautiful part of the country, but right now I’m just glad to be home, drinking those Budweiser Clamato drinks I’m obsessed with, and watching my kitten entertain herself with a tennis ball.

However, Marshall’s dad has convinced me that Burning Man is an experience on another fucking level, and I just figure, fuck it. I’m not gonna have this open schedule and flexible freelancing job forever, so I might as well pack in as many wild adventures as I can. Come August, I’ll be in the desert of northern Nevada having mystical experiences and trying to avoid heat exhaustion. God help me.

Photo

Tue, 28 May 2013 10:34:42 -0500

e.e. cummings - John Keats

Jorge Luis Borges - Julio Cortázar

Susan Sontag - Charles Bukowski

Franz Kafka - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Rainer Maria Rilke - J.R.R. Tolkien

Ralph Waldo Emerson - Leon Tolstoy

Virginia Woolf - Sylvia Plath

C.S. Lewis - Federico Garcia Lorca

Photo

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:08:05 -0500

Gah.

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:02:24 -0500

I’m presently outside Oklahoma City in the home of a successful mosaic artist and a cyclist/professor.

I like to think I don’t resent affluent people for their money, but there’s a lot of humblebragging and navel-gazing going on, and it’s making me miss my blue-collar, ungated neighborhood. Like, congratulations, you know famous people and you’ve traveled the world and you have the time to pursue all sorts of obscure hobbies. Doesn’t mean you shit creme fraiche.

Whatever. I will enjoy the designer bathmat, fluffy towels, and high-thread count sheets and be on my way in the morning.

Goin' Down the Country

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:21:53 -0500

I’m pretty much all packed for Texas, where I’ll be attending my first-ever overnight music festival.

Travel brings out the wild woman in me. Let’s do this thing.

Bud Light + tomato juice + clam juice + lime. They sound a...

Wed, 15 May 2013 21:54:20 -0500

Bud Light + tomato juice + clam juice + lime. They sound a little gross but they are unbelievably delicious.

"7. Better Yourself. Go running. Floss. Drink more water. Take vitamins. Buy food that does not come..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 01:00:41 -0500

“7. Better Yourself. Go running. Floss. Drink more water. Take vitamins. Buy food that does not come in a box. Do push-ups. Wake up at an AM hour. Do not sleep away your weekends. Stop Googling that spot on your arm. Read books. Learn an instrument. Think of others. Stop blaming other people. Stop blaming yourself. Turn your strengths against your weaknesses. Turn your hatred of every missed word or tarnished day into the next day. Do not merely need to do better; actually do better.”

- 7 Steps to Being Confident // Thought Catalog (via elizablr)

ladybitchez: kaaayrutledge: There’s a new Hyperbole and a...

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:41:05 -0500

ladybitchez:

kaaayrutledge:

There’s a new Hyperbole and a Half, you guys, and it is spectacular.

i can’t even explain how accurate this is. as a person who experiences depression, i have used these exact words to attempt to describe what it feels (or doesn’t feel) like.

Every line in this comic rings so true it hurts. That opening analogy she makes about childhood playtime is goddamn brilliant.

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:58:37 -0500

““The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.””

- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (via scribnerbooks)

My friend Christina just quit her job and I only work 2 hours a...

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:01:20 -0500

My friend Christina just quit her job and I only work 2 hours a day, so we’ve been spending our afternoons painting and drinking chilled white wine and listening to records. I painted this thing, yayyy.