Issa's Untidy Hut: Amanda Palmer

Friday, March 8, 2013

Small Press Friday: Amanda Palmer

If Amanda Palmer ruled the world, with some wee assistance from her able consort, NG, I would be a very happy person, indeed.

I was late to the party, arriving around the time that her EP of Radiohead covers, accompanied by ukelele and voice, was released (it's available here for a dollar). Her offering to let the listener, first, listen to the entirety free, and, second, pay what s/he wished for the recording intrigued me.

Which is how this all ended up on Small Press Friday.

Why, you might ask, Small Press Friday?

Well, the lesson here is universal, in its own way, and if you think it's "I need a Kickstarter to keep my press afloat, publish my book of poems, promote my album, feel in your need here ______," you've got the wrong end of the stick (and perhaps are not even in the correct wooded area).

Sure, there are lots of things to be cynical about, but Amanda Palmer's passion is not one of them. Her intent, too, draws a bye. One thing to perhaps be cynical about is talent.

Amanda Palmer has it. Do you.

So this week's Small Press Friday assignment is to watch the TED video, above. For me, it is brilliant, in intent, execution, and, most of all, in heart. It is my understanding it's gone super-viral, and was passed on to me by a friend. And so I pass it on to you.

How's that song go - you've gotta have heart?

And for the truly skeptical about Radiohead on ukelele, here you are (this builds, darlings, yes, it is a shaky handheld in the beginning, but all of that will fall away in a mindblowing finale):

--------------------

Art by Kuniyoshi Utagawa

traveling geese--
the human heart, too
soars

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

PS. Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 159 songs

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Don't Stand So Close to Me: Issa's Sunday Service, #74

Nabokov via www.hrono.info

Running up as we are on Halloween, it's creep week on the Sunday Service. This week's selection comes from The Police, is one of the more affected tunes on the Jukebox: "Don't Stand So Close to Me." A tip of the hat to Humbert Humbert:

It's no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabakov

Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me

The Nabokov reference has the right feel considering the teacher's "dilemma:"

Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she's waiting
His car is warm and dry

Though perhaps not as explicit as in the totally repulsive "Every Breath You Take," this song broke ground by talking about something that is in the headlines regularly. These songs, put to catchy pop melodies, run counter expectation, to the point that some have used the stalker tune "Every Breath" for their wedding. Mr. Sumner is perhaps to be congratulated for expanding the narrative boundaries of pop (as a former teacher, he draws from some sort of experience), yet still, to me, they have more than a bit of an exploitative feel (the accompanying background vocal to the chorus, with Sting accompanying himself, has got ambivalence all over of it).

Of course, I'm talking about rock being exploitative as if this was some sort of news.

Well, if you're going to sing about creeps, maybe this is the way to go:

-----------------------

Next Tuesday, I will be talking to a group of lifelong learners about haiku. Sketching in the background, I'll be talking a bit about Japanese history, culture and concepts, such as wabi-sabi. Here's a great illustration of that very concept by the great upper New York state poet, W. T. Ranney, from Lilliput Review #110, April 2000: