I’m sharing my sundeck with a very hot blackbird.  Whenever the sun is out he is there, flat on the ground, wings out and mouth gaping open.  I threw a peanut out for him yesterday, but it scared him away.  Just spotted him pecking away at it this afternoon though, so threw out a couple more for him.  As long as he doesn’t poo on my washing that’s on the line it’s all good.

I have finally managed to pump up my bike tyre.  Went to a different bike shop, as I was too embarassed to go back to the one round the corner.  Have ended up with a better pump which does the trick no problem.  I also treated myself to a delicious cherry ice cream from the italian ice cream parlour up the road… it’s quite a glam neighbourhood here! 

I have managed to get myself into a pickle today… too much glooming over the past and worrying about the future.  Gotta live in the now, that is what everyone is telling me.  Apparently my visa is still in a pile at the Manukau City immigration office waiting for processing.  Being a lady of leisure is good fun for a while, but it’s not really why I came to Auckland (it is why I am going to Australia though!) and I’d quite like to do something useful and interesting now.

by Corinna Archer

          Before David Harrower’s internationally acclaimed play Blackbird begins, the audience already knows they are about to see something different.  A new seating configuration in City Theatre’s Lester Hamburg Studio Theatre is just one of the many ways in which the design for Blackbird enhances the play’s unsettling journey and challenges the audience’s expectations. Harrower’s Blackbird is not your typical love story, but a disturbing encounter between Ray and Una, who are as surprised by what unfolds when they confront their past relationship as the audience is.  Not only do the set and costume designs make intriguing first impressions on the audience, but they also intensify the relationship between the characters and the discoveries that are made by the audience during the course of the play.  Although the design may appear realistic in a way that immediately draws the audience into the world of the play, it is also full of unexpected metaphors that address the characters’ psychological and emotional experiences, asking the audience to reconsider the way in which “appearances can be deceiving.”

            The alley seating configuration that was initially suggested by the director Stuart Carden is perhaps the most immediate surprise that the design for Blackbird has in store for its audience.  The first time this theatre has been reconfigured in almost ten years, the new seating arrangement places the audience on either side of the stage so that each audience member is not only confronting the action on stage in a new way, but also sees the members seated opposite while they watch the show.  Just as Blackbird’s characters are never certain if they can trust what they see in front of them, the audience is insecure in this unfamiliar relationship to the performance and must constantly reassess what is happening on stage.

          The seating configuration also distances the audience from the realistic design, underscoring the play’s thematic issue of appearance versus reality.   At first glance, the set, designed by Tony Ferrieri, looks like a “slice” of an authentic office break-room, complete with un-matching furniture, vending machines, lockers, and overhead fluorescents.  Realistic details like cup-rings on the table, electrical wiring running up the walls, and various food wrappers littering the set give it a “thrown-together” and non-descript look.  Like the set design, the costume design gives the characters authenticity from the very beginning of the play.  In his khakis and blue collared shirt, Ray looks like a “regular guy” who fits into the play’s break-room setting, while Una appears to be a stylish, “sexy young adult,” as costume designer Crystal Gomes described these characters.  However, while the characters and their physical environment at first seem reassuringly familiar to the audience, this sense of security is quickly shattered by the play’s unusual story.

Tony Ferrieri's set design. Photo by Suellen Fitzsimmons.

          The design never lets the characters, or the audience, get comfortable, underscoring the tension between Una and Ray that is present from the very first lines of Blackbird. The alley seating configuration forces the set into a long, narrow corridor that becomes even more box-like and closed by the low-hanging fluorescent lights and beams that place a “lid” on the stage.  This pressurized space makes the intensity of the action on stage even more threatening and suspenseful: the audience never knows when the lid might blow.  The break-room itself sets the tone of the play with its cold blues and grays, which Ferrieri chose to support the apprehension and distance felt by Una and Ray during their initial interaction.  The harsh, bare fluorescents also help to make the space uncomfortable, both for the characters and the audience.  Like the play itself, this set is hard to look at in a powerful and provocative way.  Just as Una and Ray must face an unpleasant reality in this small, stark break-room, so must each person sitting in the house of the theatre, forced to confront the difficult questions that Blackbird poses.  The costumes add to the tension by clearly contrasting the way Ray and Una present themselves and relate to the set.  Ray, who tries to remain anonymous, wears his work clothes as a kind of office “camouflage.”  Una, on the other hand, sticks out in her trendier, darker city look, and has no way of hiding on stage.  Like the checkerboard pattern on the floor, Ray and Una are even visually in conflict with one another, engaged in a complex game throughout the play.

Steve Pickering and Robin Abramson in costumes designed by Crystal Gomes. Photo by Suellen Fitzsimmons.

          As the play progresses, the design moves further away from reality to metaphorically address the play’s various themes and questions that relate to the emotional and psychological state of the characters.  The trash left on stage, for example, which at first only appears to be another element of realism, making the space feel “lived-in” by Ray’s coworkers, becomes an effective visual metaphor for the issue of abandonment that arises during the course of the play. Other prominent issues, such as who to blame when ordinary rules and values cannot explain what happens, whether or not you can trust who someone says they are, or what it means to be in the wrong place at the wrong time are all underscored by Blackbird’s surprising design.  Just as the play’s compelling yet disturbing story asks the audience to reconsider even the most instinctive values such as right and wrong or real and false, Blackbird’s design challenges the audience to experience the play in a new way that enhances the power of Harrower’s unique but troubling love story.

There’s a Blackbird

singing high notes of joy.

Is it singing for me

I wonder.

Turning its small head

left and right.

Looking for danger

on the ground.

It looks down at me

with bright black eyes

From its perch

on the fence.

It’s still singing

Bringing pure joy.

His tiny black body

filled ,nay bursting

with pure happiness.

Sharing it with me.

Wanting to share

his happiness with

whoever wants to stand still

and listen.

These days Ferrari logos seem to appear everywhere: On leather jackets, pens,sneakers, and even cars that aren’t Ferraris. The latest, sanctioned non-automotive item to bear the famed “Prancing Horse” is The Blackbird Rider Carbon Fiber Travel Guitar.

Donning a sticker price of $1,500 and multiple Ferrari accents including a “Ferrari-red” A-string and Scuderia shield, the axe is made out of carbon fiber and serves Blackbird’s commitment to making small, lightweight traveled-sized guitars.

However, if you want one, you’ll have to search eBay as the all of the produced units sold shortly after being put on sale. Below is a video of Blackbird’s founder talking about the guitar and the collaboration.

Via and via

this is a re-post of a nu.soul /jazz/brokenbeat/house track produced by Fes (010spaceman) ft Blackbird a female vocalist and Chris Ramos on guitar
enjoy



Diamond Lake, OR – August 31st, 2009

Female Brewer's Blackbird

Male Brewer's Blackbird

Two girls who live down the hall had a poetry reading in their room tonight. Tea, pumpkin bars, a stool and spotlight for any poem that needed to be read.

I am not one to sit in silence and politely snap my fingers. I took a little notecard cut into a two by two square with me, with every intention of sharing something, even if it was just barely a sentence long -basically nothing compared to what others had read.

I didn’t read it.

Crawling into bed, I opened up a message from a friend –someone who has the power to make me laugh and cry in the same breath, someone who always seems to know when I need to hear from her, someone who, given the nearness, seems so far away– and tried to get through it without crying.

It didn’t work.
I read as far as the fourth line before I stopped shaking and just let myself cry.

Standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, wondering if it was safe to go back, or if I’d be asked questions about why my eyes were so red, I realized that even if no one else needed to hear the poem I had brought tonight, I needed to hear it. Looking down at my notecard, imperfect now from the crease my pocket left it with, I read and reread:

V.

I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendos,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

(Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird –Wallace Stevens)

I tend to dwell in the exhale just after a content sigh, the silence just after the blackbird’s whistle, the reminiscent perfection of a year well-spent, the memories of smoke and sand and singing in cars.

I think I ought to change that though. To delight in the laughter now instead of looking back on the pictures later, to realize the power of a perfect chord before it has ended, to love where I am at now instead of looking back and realizing how great it had been.

I want to prefer the blackbird whistling.
But I also want to delight in the moment just after.

Current Sounds: Blackbird -Sarah McLaughlin
Current Words: Hunting For Hope -Scott R. Sanders

Wenn du dich für endlich hältst

fürchtest du immer um dein Überleben

Wenn du im Morgen oder Gestern wohnst

hast du den Augenblick verloren

Prüfe niemals das Erleben des nächsten Moments

Unterliege nicht der Illusion des Mangels.

Löse dich auf

in deiner Sehnsucht

nach Ganzheit.

Fac parte dint-o trupa(daca se poate numi asa)de muzica rock.Cant chitara electrica(rhythm) alaturi de Vlad Alexe(tot chitara electrica – lead guitar).”Trupa”a luat nastere cam la 2 saptamani dupa 1 ian 2009.Initial am fost 3:Eu,Alexe Vlad si Ionescu Alin,toti trei avand chitare electrice.L-am convins pe Alin sa cante linia de bass,pe chitara electrica.Am inceput sa cantam la Vlad acasa sub numele de “Bile”.Am scos primele 3 cover-uri:Lustra-Scotty doesn’t know,Metallica-For whom the bell tolls si Metallica-Am i evil(la randul ei melodie cover dupa Diamond Head).Dupa o vreme,Alin s-a lasat de chitara si atunci l-am inlocuit cu un alt basist(de data asta cu chitara bass) Radu Cristi.A fost absent o perioada si de aceea intre timp cu noi a cantat Stefan (numele de familie imi este necunoscut si acum ).De aproximativ 4 luni cant doar cu Vlad,in aceasta perioada compunand cateva melodii si facand cateva coveruri (Metallica-Master of Puppets,Seek and destroy,Children of Bodom – Somebody put something in my drink),mai nou ne numim “Blackbird”dupa legendarul avion de vanatoare .

SR-71 Blackbird

Lucram in continuare(eu si Vlad) si compunem foarte mult.Voi reveni cu noutati.

Una has found a photograph of a man in a magazine advert who she had an affair with fifteen years ago, when she was twelve years old, and decided to track him down at his workplace. She wants some answers and during the course of an hour and three quarters of this highly charged, claustrophobic two hander, played without an interval, she gets them. They are not the kind of answers which lead to certainty or a resolution of the damage which has been done to her self esteem and her capacity to love, and they are not the kind of answers which will make up for the social stigma which she was left with. They are the kind of answers which simply lead to more questions and more confusion. Her abuser, Ray, has spent the fifteen years since the affair reinventing himself with a new life and a new long standing relationship, and the answers which she needs have to be dragged out of him painfully, little by little. She makes him repeat the word abuse as though to validate what they have told her, since it didn’t feel like that to her at the time, and also to make him understand the consequences of his actions, consequences which he never had to see. She is still painfully confused. Nothing is simple. You can see her enjoying the power she still has over him and mourning a relationship which she felt was real love, and at the same time trying to understand the confused, damaged twelve year old that she once was. She may even want him back. The affair came to an end suddenly, when Ray ran away in guilt and confusion after taking her away to a small hotel and she was left to face the court case alone when he was prosecuted, and be made to re-evaluate what she had felt was love in front of a psychologist. She has carried her pain with her for a long time and there is only one place where she has a chance of dumping it and moving on. Ray is a frightened and broken man, afraid of what he might hear and terrified about what might come next. Neither of them are strong enough to prevent more confusion and indecision stirring up strong feelings and resentments which have been hidden under the surface of their lives. There are no rights or wrongs here, and no neat endings for me to spoil, just two confused, flawed, deeply unhappy people locked into the past and trying to make sense of what happened to them.

If this is the subject matter you choose you had better be able to write an extraordinary play and David Harrower has come pretty close to doing that. It won an Olivier award in 2007 and it is easy to see why. The dialogue is masterly, naturalistic and heartfelt, and avoids cliché, not easy when you have dialogue as highly charged as this. The dialogue carries almost the whole weight of the structure of the play, as there is little but words to take us through the shifts of power between the two characters and define the peaks and troughs of the narrative. It is a great opportunity for two actors to show what they can do, and Janine Hales as Una and Peter McQueen as Ray rise to the challenge well. They both give truthful understated performances which allow the play to do its work and they are also well able to let the emotion and the anger rip when it is needed.

David Harrower is insistent that Oleanna is not an influence on this play, but it is hard not to be reminded of David Mamet’s powerful and emotional two hander as you leave. There is one big difference. Oleanna sends you out onto the street ready to argue a case and potentially angry with those who take an opposite view. Blackbird sends you out of the theatre knowing that in life there are no easy answers and that right and wrong are sometimes difficult to define and too easy to pontificate about. This makes it a more truthful play, and I would suggest a greater one.

I’ve always liked autumn.

I love kicking up the brown, yellow and reddish leaves that cover the ground at this time of year and, let’s face it, doing so reminds me of being a child. But another great thing about autumn time is the way the birds are much more visible simply because of that same falling of leaves.

Blackbird

This morning, I’ve seen robin, wren, chaffinch and the wonderful blackbird. The blackbirds are very common in our garden, as they jump from ash tree branch to whitethorn top. They’ll happily perch on the outermost branches of the whitethorn, most often in pairs, their gorgeous yellow / orange beak and distinctive yellow ring around their eyes clearly visible against the low and pale autumn sun.

The other day, I noticed two in particular, clearly playing with eachother. As one would vacate a certain tree in favour of another, no more than 5 m away, so the second would follow almost immediately. I watched them circumnavigate the garden, in short hops, as if playing ‘follow the leader’ or ‘catch’.

Boas,

Depois de muito tempo sem o blog,

decidi voltar e continua-lo!

Obrigado pela força e nos aguarde

em Navegator!.

Cumpts,

This trip was carefully planned. Our research into the Chicago eating scene led us to make two dinner reservations, at Blackbird and Alinea. Blackbird was the first one out.

The menu looked good, but Naso was afraid you had to order the tasting menu in advance. Not so. So we had no other choice. And champagne while waiting.

How to find a wine to go with crab tails, frog legs, turbot and sea trout? And what on earth is squab? A quick linguistic analysis led us to believe that anything starting with sq- must be from the sea and possibly have tentacles. White, then. And why not Burgundy, Palato has not had too much of that. There was an interesting-looking Meursault, a Premier cru Perrières from Chanson père et fils.

When the wine arrived, Palato at first put up a puzzled face. But the wine was too cold. So we had the champagne with the first course. Sturgeon. Again. We are not that keen on sturgeon. Why does everyone keep serving sturgeon? It’s bland.

Second course, Alaskan king crab. Another slight disappointment. A bit on the rubbery side. It came with ricotta mayo which sparked a discussion on how to emulgate ricotta. Still unsettled, though we contacted our chemical engineer.

Next, Louisiana frog legs. It was time to taste the wine again. This time Palato and the Meursault became friends. Lots of hard-to-define smell. Flint. Smoke. After a while, even butter. And the taste does not go away! Forget about the frog legs.

When we ordered, our otherwise impeccable waiter had forgotten to tell us that we would get foie gras, which distressed us slightly. But then there was foie gras after all, which made us worry that we would need a sweet wine. But what about the poor Meursault? Before we had finished worrying, the waiter was there with two glasses of Quart de Chaumes, a new acquaintance to both of us. On the house! A botrytized Chenin Blanc from the Loire region which was excellent with the liver.

– How can this be liver? Could you do the same to a chicken?

Definitely not. Foie gras is one of the wonders of the world. And this particular instantation was no exception. As an added bonus, Palato was suddenly proved to like beer, despite many affirmations to the contrary. The foie gras came with Saison Sophie, which we couldn´t work out on the spot. Bitter, sweet and slightly alcoholic. Beer foam! as it turns out. Then there was pecan shortbread. And an acidic touch of quince. Perfect!

Gone were all our disappointments. After this there would be no doubt. But we didn’t know that yet, so were worried how they could top the foie gras. And what about the wine?

We should not have insulted our Meursault with doubts. One sniff and there she was, right back. And as it turned out, Blackbird had a plan for us.

Now there was turbot. We thought it was a codfish, a sure sign of maltreatment. But we forgive them, for it came with a wonderful mixture of squash, ramps, mandarin and popped sorghum. Second surprise of the evening: Naso likes pop corn. When it’s made from sorghum, that is. Bittersweet and salty too. And none of us actually like mandarin.

Then came the sea trout, with niagara grapes, shaved (how did that happen?) brussels sprouts and celery root purée. No maltreatment of this fish. More bitterness and salt. We were starting to understand their strategy. Is celery the king of roots? Still disputed, but a nice pretender to the throne. This was also the course that suited the wine best. Palato’s nose had disappeared into the glass and she was drinking by the millilitre, not to get an overdose.

The waiter had told us we would need to get the wine list back. But as we had decided that squabs swim, we were in no hurry. But they don’t swim. They don’t fly either, even though they are pigeons. Because you eat them before they get the chance. All the charm of a duck breast, with an added touch of something which reminded Palato of truffles (which had cruelly been omitted from the menu, by the way). The best bird we have ever tasted.

The waiter had recommended a Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Domaine du vieux telegraphe “la Crau”, if we wanted to look into the future. By this time we had completely surrendered and were ready for time travel. The wine was excellent with the squab, but would be even better with…

We got beef rib with cauliflower and sesame gnocchi. There is something a little too solid and dependable about those parts of the ox, so it couldn’t reach the level of the bird, but it was well implemented. And good with the wine, which smelled strongly of paint. Enters the mouth discretely to take you by surprise. Fully capable of handling the fat.

Desert time. Palato was distressed. Half a glass of Meursault (still effortlessly there), and another with the telegraph wine. Now what? We probably need dessert wine.

But no. The waiter intervened. When we asked for a break to finish the wines, he refused.

– You can do as you like, of course, but I have a plan for you. You will have sorbet to clean your palates, then a Gewurztraminer from Oregon with the sweet corn bavarois and then, if you are feeling experimental, you’ll have the red wine with the manjari chocolate pave.

This was the future he had been hinting at. We obliged. And rightly so. After the palate-cleansing sorbet, this was another interesting use of sweet corn, blending nicely with the eggy bavarois. And the loveliness of maple syrup and the salty-sweet caramelized pecans.

– And you can’t send the wine back, because it’s free.

There was no need to either. Naso observed that all the two US wines he had ever liked were from Oregon.

And finally, the manjari chocolate pave. Now, Palato is a confirmed chocolate snob. She was not disappointed. Perfect chocolate. And again the salty-sweet (lime salt!) and the bitter (beet ice cream!!).

The wine experiment? Well, it brought the cocoa taste out in distilled form. Wow. The waiter had pinned us down pretty well and proceeded to recommend us five other Chicago restaurants. Good man.

• (*) TwitterBerry
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Si conocen otra aplicacion les pido la puedan postear.

Saludos!!!

Vía (*) CrackBerry y http://getviigo.com

Fuente: celularis.com

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atila1.wordpress.com ¿un cliente twitter oficial para blackberry?

A brief wander up to my favourite piece of the escarpment at Alciston revealed:

Swallow 2
Yellowhammer 4+
Lesser Redpoll 1
Chiffchaff 2+
Blackbird c. 12
Song Thrush c. 8
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Common + BH Gull c.200

The concentration of thrushes, many of which were flighty and vocal, seemed to indicate migrants rather than local birds.

Several moths and butterflies active, including a Red Admiral.

Despite our hidden city message, there are other literary magazines in the DelMarVa area. I wanted to point out and compare a couple of them who’s content are both at a very high quality level – Blackbird and The Chesapeake Reader.

Blackbird is a Virginia based online literary magazine that has strong ties to both Virginia Commonwealth University and the New Virginia Review. They publish twice a year, with a recent change in their reading period, though it is clearly stated. The rather large staff is made up of either graduate students, post-grads, instructors or writers that are associated with either of the two organizations that formed it.

The content is of very high quality. They only feature poetry and prose, any art is also connected with some form of an essay. The high quality is to be expected, though, as all of the contributors have previously been published before. Anyone who makes it into the magazine receives some form of payment for acceptance, though what that amount it could not be found. Also, make sure you have a picture of your face taken with a sepia filter. It doesn’t say it is required for getting published, but it appears so.

I have a bone to pick with almost every literary magazine when it comes to layout. It should not be hard to find a college kid with a good understanding of CSS that will make your site for next to nothing to put it on their resume, yet we still see many websites that were designed using html principles from 10 years ago. While Blackbird does have it’s “poetry, fiction, nonfiction,” tabs right at the top and easy to find (though they are very small), the rest of the site is a busy mix of text and sepia head-shots. I wish they would change the background color, the more I tried to read, the more I lost my place. It made me feel dyslexic.

The Chesapeake Reader is a whole different philosophy for the online literary magazine. They are associated with no one but themselves, and don’t claim a home base but the Chesapeake Bay area. All of the staff does reside in the Baltimore area. All are professionals, either writers currently residing in Baltimore or teachers at one of the local universities. The issues are published twice a year though they will only accept submissions during certain time periods.

The rule for the content here is quality over quantity. While it is all good, for this year they only published three stories and seven poems. There is no art. All but one of the contributors has previously been published though they did seem to be not quite as professionally established at the people accepted by Blackbird. They offer no compensation for publishing.

The site appears to be in a stock free website, that includes the default colors. Personally, if I wasn’t directly linked to this website, I would have thought I went to the wrong one and that this one had not been set-up yet. But, there can be something said for “less is more” as you will not have a hard time finding your way around the site.

Each site did have one interesting quirk. Many of the works featured in Blackbird had a link for an audio file of the author reading them. This is great. What is not so great is you have to download them. Also, then are in a RAM audio format which either requires a plug-in for Windows Media Player or the archaic and buggy Realplayer. I wan unable to get them to work.

The Chesapeake Reader has a quirk in that all of their content opens in Adobe Reader. While that does look nice and is clean and easy on the eyes it is not the quickest loading program on slow machines or with a slow internet connection.

What shines through most on these sites are the excellent stories and poems that are featured on them. Both of these sites should be commended for bringing high quality writing to the world for free. But, for online literary magazines to really start rivaling their print counterparts and be taken more seriously they need to play by the rules of the internet.

Maybe the new breed of writers that are just now graduating, and have grown up with technology, will be the ones that can really push for online literary magazines to increase in popularity. Our medium is holding itself back.

That all being said, our next issue is due out on the 31st and we have some great and simple changes planned for the site to make it much easier to navigate.

Olá pessoal,

Por este meio anuncio o fim do

blog.

Os motivos?

Visitas caíndo

Pouco tempo disponível para

postar

Falta de Patrocínio

E vários outros fatores…

Quem quiser ficar com o blog me

contate!

Cumpts

fiel mir so für ein Oktober-SPA- Thema ein. Dabei bin ich im Netz über eine für mich andere Farbkombination gestossen und mußte die direkt mal ausprobieren. Sieht auch nett schaurig aus, oder?