The most famous painting by Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory

He uses bizarre dream imagery to create unforgettable and unmistakable landscapes of his inner world. Recently, I took some time to look through one of his many paintings, and surprisingly,  it was very fun looking through them. Every aspect of his paintings felt like they were there for a reason and actually as if they had a purpose of being there, which I found to be really cool.

What I really love about Dali is the extensive symbolism in his work. For instance, the hallmark “soft watches” that appear in The Persistence of Memory (painting on the right) suggest Einstein’s theory that time is relative and not fixed. It’s great to know that there is atleast some sort of meaning or reason with a surrealist painting….

“I am painting pictures which make me die for joy, I am creating with an absolute naturalness, without the slightest aesthetic concern, I am making things that inspire me with a profound emotion and I am trying to paint them honestly.” —Salvador Dalí, in Dawn Ades, Dalí and Surrealism

“It is hopefully clear at this point that Recordism is not an entirely new way of eating cheese. It is instead an entirely new way of eating leftover potato salad!” ~ William A. Davison

“My mother used to say that children, poets and schizophrenics all use language in a similar way”
~Gil Adamson

I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice,
I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused, or following,
Sounds of the city and sounds out of the city, sounds of the day and night,
Talkative young ones to those that like them, the loud laugh of work-people at their meals…

Writing is like the beat in music. In poetry, rhythm implies that certain words are produced more force- fully than others, and may be held for longer duration. The repetition of a pattern of such emphasis is what produces a “rhythmic effect.” The word rhythm comes from the Greek, meaning “measured motion.” What I learned from this was that a poem does not have to rhyme to have rhythym, but merely just flows, which is what a very important aspect in everything e do such as the music we listen to and even reading a novel (meaning it makes sense). Cool.

An idea I’d like to talk about is the use of a protagonist in a poem, but more specifically, a marginalized protagonist. A great example of a poet that does this is for example, Margaret Atwood. In Martgaret Atwood’s poems, I’ve realized that the women in the poems might start out just fine, but by the end of the story, they have had to face one or more power struggle situation. She incorporates power struggles when she creates situations in which women are burdened by the rules and inequalities of their societies, discover that they must reconstruct braver, self reliant personae in order to survive. I think that the use a marginalized protagonist is a great method because I don’t know about most people, but it makes me feel trusted and reliable in the information that they are sharing with me. I think this is because I believe that the character is a honest as opposed to a character that would be high in class. Characters that are marginalized such as women, the poor or children, in Atwood’s case, women. Because the characters seem to estrange themselves from society and dissassociate themselves from it, we see them as difefrent but that tends to make us feel comfortable because we might be able to relate better because of that. Well what can I say, the human psyche….

          The Landlady

I know, he's gorgeous..

Now, this man happens to reside on my desktop, appears on my tv screen every week on mondays at nine on global (and yes, global is a good network and not that crappy canadian stuff that people think it is), appears every time I close my bedroom door,  and is on my mind pretty much every minute throught the day. And well, I’d hate to admit (not really), but I guess you could say that I have an abnormal obsession with him, and frankly, its true. But enough of me, lets’s talk about him whom is the reason why I had just woken up from a perfectly great dream : Hugh Laurie. Yes……oh yes, the cheese of my macaroni indeed, and I do love admiring him, in fact, it would be my profession if  it were possible, but it’s not, which is somewhat upsetting. But you know what’s better, finding out facts about Laurie, yes I know right! Totally stalker- tastic !

Now, let’s explore a few little-unknown and interesting facts about Mr. James Hugh Calum Laurie <3:

- Though he was raised in the Scottish Presbyterian Church, Hugh has since become an Atheist

-Hugh is a life-long member of the Leander Club, which is among the oldest of all rowing clubs in the world. His father, W.G.R.M. “Ran” Laurie, was once the club’s Executive President.

-When he was initially cast to play the role of Dr. Gregory House, Casting Director Brian Singer was unaware of his English accent

-Hugh is the humbly published author of The Gun Seller, released in 1997

-His son, Bill, auditioned for the role of Harry Potter, only to be told that he was simply too young for the part.

-Actress Rachel Hurd-Wood is Hugh’s niece

- His best friend is the writer/ film producer/ comedian/ journalist Stephan Fry. They also made a little british televeision series that ran through 1989 to 1995.  Here’s a pic of the adorable two…

On the right, Stephan Fry, and on the left, Hugh Laurie

And there you have it, a little insight into the life of   James Hugh Calum Laurie. You’ve either enjoyed it or haven’t , although to be honest, your satisfaction was not of any relevence to me at the moment because I was just to engulfed with glee and joy from writing about Hugh to even care^^ . Until next time, easy .

Ami Roshida- thereness of a voice

Ami Roshida is a Japanese sound poet. She made a variety of vocalisations of such a nature that was in my perspective hard to tell that the sounds were being produced by a voice at all. I believe that these sounds were at some point subtly electronically altered. So this piece was at some points creepy, but I actually liked it. . I heard sounds of inhaling, whistling and a sound that was strikingly similar to the grudge. Personally, I hate the grudge. I keep asking myself, what does this piece mean or how are some parts such as the random high pitched whistling had to do with the poem, and thats when I keep reminding myself that it doesn’t have to mean anything, because it sound, it doesn’t need a purpose. One thing that I find highly common among sound artists is repitition. Yoshida constantly goes back and forth with sounds, and I find that very effective because it almost made me forget all about the song and just kind of zone out, and feel the pattern in the music. Yoshida describes her means of producing sound as the “howling voice”, which is a quality that differs her from many of the other sound artists, and makes her unique.

Christine Duncan- element 3

The next artist I would like to talk about is Christine Duncan, a sound artists of whom her inspirations are artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin. Christine Duncan began learning her craft in church, singing gospel. This can explain why this piece is a choir, just like in church. Duncan performs nearly every conceivable musical style including jazz, R&B, blues, gospel, folk, new music, opera and even children’s music. This piece was in the beginning, just like the first piece by Yoshida, pretty creepy. After half way throught the piece, the echoes changed and I tried to contemplate what they were saying, but I couldn’t make out the words. Clearly repitition was visible in this piece as the echoes were saying the same things over and over, but also she also used different sound elements such as a violin in the beginning of her song, and various different instruments throughout. This piece actually created some form of imagery in my head in which I pictured little creatures marching, holding flamed torches, destroying everything in anything in their path, I know, funny huh? What’s distinctive about Duncan’s style is that she seems to play music, but in choirs. There is more than one voice at a time or a voice followed by a different voice, which I found pretty neat.

PART B. INVESTIGATE 2 IDEAS ABOUT SOUND

John Cage talks about sound

I really enjoyed John Cage’s ideas and outlook on sound. The biggest thing I possibly learned from this was the idea that sound does not have to mean something. Learning this almost made me feel more at ease. Perhaps it was because at times, I would wander through my house making noises with my mouth, and my parents would always say, ” What are you saying, if you have nothing meaningful to say, then stop wasting your breath”. Well, next time they say that, I’m sure to bring up Cage:) It’s weird that most of us don’t realize things like this. I mean, in this world we live in, all the things we have to do, it just really blinds us from all the great little things in life, and well, that sucks. I think that by kbowing this, we should test our boundaries and experiment with making compositions and poems without having to contain any meaning. Try it sometime. Check outCage’s video -<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcHnL7aS64Y>

Stephen Fry- The Joy of Gibberish

Well, before I begin on elaborating on this idea, I’d just like to say that I had just found out that Stephen Fry is best friend’s with my favourite actor (also the love of my life), Hugh Laurie. Yah I know right, what a coincidence, not to mention that he is the godfather of Hugh’s three children, amazing:D Anywho, Stephan Fry really was an eye opener for me. I have never seen jibberish to be of any relevence to our world and through Fry’s careful exposure of different pieces and theories, I understood its whole purpose. I also loved the piece by Mary Poppin’s as it had reminded me of my childhood days. It really was amazing to me as how Fry even thought of the idea of jibberish as something we need in our lives. Also, it was interesting to me how Fry said that as humans, we constantly attempt to associate words with meanings and purposes, even out of complete jibberish! HAHA, funny. Why do we as humans do this? I guess we were created in a way that seeks purpose and order within everything. All in all, Fry is a very intelligent guy, an I applaud him for that.