Sunday, January 20, 2013

One Inch Rock: Issa's Sunday Service, #154



One Inch Rock by T. Rex on Grooveshark 
In case of wonky widget, Drink Me

 
What could be more natural for the Sunday Service and Lilliput Review than "The One Inch Rock?"  Hard to believe I've been doing this all these years and have missed it until now. It would seem that the moral of this tale is don't mess with the Liquid Poetess: 
 

The One Inch Rock
 
Met a woman she's spouting prose
She's got luggage eyes and a roman nose
Her body is slung from side to side
Need a lift she said much obliged
I'm riding piggy-back
Then I come to her shack
We go inside the place is a mess
She said my name's the Liquid Poetess
She unties her mouth
And her buckskin dress
She drinks from a bottle
labeled tenderness
I'm in one hand in the other's a can
She puts me in the can
And smiles through the wall
I got the horror's cos I'm one inch tall
Next thing I know's a girl by my side
Dressed in a bayleaf she's trying to hide
I asked her name she said Germaine
Do the rock do the one inch rock.


This naturally put me in mind of a couple of things, first being The Incredible Shrinking Man. Here's a montage of clips from the fantastic film version of Richard Matheson's novel, kind of oddly set to the song "No New Tale to Tell" by Love and Rockets. 



 
 


And here's some more shrinking (and growing) from the 1903 version of Alice in Wonderland, oddly set once more this time to the tune of a Django Reinhart's "Improvisation." 
 
 
 
 
Finally, of course, there's Gulliver's Lilliput, courtesy of Dean Swift and, in this case a parcel of animators, from the 1939 full screen version of Gulliver's Travels, which you can watch in its entirety (do notice the Hokusai influenced waves at the beginning) here:

 
 
 
 
 
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Wood block by Hokusai




Little snail
climb Mount Fuji,
but slowly, slowly
Issa
translated by Robert Hass




best,
Don
   

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Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 154 songs
at

7 comments:

  1. Charles GramlichJanuary 20, 2013 at 11:07 AM

    I've never heard that song. Another strange coincidence, I just posted something related to Gulliver's travels as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ed BakerJanuary 20, 2013 at 11:52 AM

    those lucky enuff to have come
    to that Liquid Poetess / Goddess
    dressed in a bay-leaf....
    and in her original shack...

    where from that instantaneous
    factured "flash" ... everything
    else emanates

    and
    what a neat name is germane Germaine ?

    I thinks so therfore She is .

    also,

    on cover of Nanao Sakaki
    (who I just missed by a few days meeting up in
    Brunswick, Maine at Gary Lawless' book-store many years ago)

    on cover of his INCH BY INCH is a nice sumo-e of that
    Snail and Mt. Fuji

    by John Brandi

    and

    Sakaki translate that poem:


    Inch by inch -
    Little snail
    Creep up and up Mt. Fuji

    as for "shrinking" ?

    as one grows older and older
    one shrinks one shrinks and
    becomes lighter and lighter

    some girl
    untying her mouth
    and her summer dress

    nice post... Rock On !





    ReplyDelete
  3. John BennettJanuary 20, 2013 at 3:59 PM

    Concerning "One Inch Rock" ... have you read Bukowski's "Six Inches"?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Issa's Untidy HutJanuary 21, 2013 at 8:24 AM

    Charles:

    Thanks for the note. I'll check out your Gulliver post.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Issa's Untidy HutJanuary 21, 2013 at 8:28 AM

    Ed, I think you hit all the bases - Germaine, that's a name!

    And here's that cover ...

    Also, as I'm sure you noticed, the Hokusai print has a 'shrinking' Mt. Fuji.

    Do the one inch rock ...

    Don

    ReplyDelete
  6. Issa's Untidy HutJanuary 21, 2013 at 8:29 AM

    John:

    Ah, Bukowski's take on Richard Matheson ... as only Buk could do.

    Six Inches by Charles Bukowski.

    Don

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ed BakerJanuary 21, 2013 at 8:44 AM

    well
    and to continue this
    public discussion:

    yes,
    I did notice that "shrinking" Fuji-san...

    Hokusai's debth-of-vision:

    give him an inch and he'll take a kilometer

    and on the cover... a rather large "snail"

    perspectives of rather large imaginations.


    the spaces
    the silences
    the pre-spect-i'ves

    all of these years not understanding
    what I was doing and not being able
    to explain;

    now that I understand
    I still can't explain the what ofs

    as for Bukowski?
    I have only ONE of his books ... never read..
    the Diary of a Dirty Old Man
    (I think)...

    ReplyDelete