Miscellaneous Voices

Miscellaneous Press are getting behind the blogging revolution and have put the call out for the best submissions of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and artwork by Australian bloggers to be featured in their forthcoming publication, Miscellaneous Voices: Australian Blog Writing 2009. All of the details are now up on the site, so get your best work [...]

Take a ride… the sounds of Kerouac, Cohen & Bon Iver

As the clouds roll in and the humidity continues to rise, dip your toes into the sounds of these new folk sounds. Take a ride to the rugged coast of Kerouac’s Big Sur with the Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard; be mesmerised by the messianic tones of Cohen as he tames the crowd at the 1970 Isle [...]

Fallen Leaves

I step lightly over fallen leaves
bend down to gather them
between thumb and forefinger.
I carry them to the old pier
where I cast them into the river.
 
Some drift into the mangroves
some get drenched by waves from the ferry
others stick to the bow.
Still, I sail fallen leaves every day
hoping that one will reach you.
 
If you see a yellow [...]

SpeedPoets: last drinks for 2009

If you are anywhere near Brisbane this coming Sunday (November 1), and you like your poetry live, then head along to SpeedPoets. This Sunday brings the curtain down on the events eighth year and there is no plan of slowing down… SpeedPoets will take a break over summer and return in March 2010, well rested and [...]

Spoken Word – what’s in a name?

In my previous post, The Happiness Project, I used the term ’spoken word’ in reference to Charles Spearin’s latest CD:
“This is a truly unique spoken word album and one well worth delving into.”
So, I was really interested to read a response to the post by Jacqueline Turner, questioning the use of the term, because of its preconceptions.
Thinking back, [...]

The Happiness Project

I came across a copy of Charles Spearin’s Happiness Project today and feel so much richer for it. Spearin, founding member of Do Make Say Think & member of Broken Social Scene has put together an album based around the melodies of everyday conversation. For this, his first solo project, Spearin recorded interviews with people in his neighbourhood (including [...]

Happy Birthday Pablo Picasso

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
– Pablo Picasso

Happy 128th Pablo*… now over to The Modern Lovers.
Pablo Picasso
Well some people try to pick up girls
And get called assholes
This never happened to Pablo Picasso
He could walk down your street
And girls could not resist his stare and
So Pablo [...]

Blisters & Milk

How you compose me, drunk.
I am the last poem of vodka
& you dance slowly to yourself.
Like a girl who’d steal a motor-
cycle, you undress. Blisters &
rouge. How as I kiss you
a feather of blood breaks
out on your neck. Hunger or
cure? Your cat crawls between
us, soft muzzle of nonchalance.
How each morning, thinking of
an old poem, you [...]

Another Beat Generation Poet Passes On…

Lenore Kandel, shining light of the San Francisco poetry scene, author of the notorious, The Love Book has died aged 77. The Love Book, a small pamphlett made up of four poems, was seized by police in 1966 as hard-core pornography and book sellers were arrested for its sale. It was often said, Kandel saw the [...]

The New Folk pt III

Right now, the Spring sky is as wide open as the weekend. And as always, I’m colouring my Saturday morning with a burst of that new folk sound. Hope it paints your sky as big as you like…
 

Ten Paces Away – The Gin Club
The belting first single from Brisbane’s folk/country/rock collective The Gin Club’s last album Junk. These guys are [...]