So this book was billed, by no less than Augusten Burroughs, as a laugh-til-your-stomach-hurts novel, and the tweedy fellow I spotted with it was laughing out loud.  But I never once laughed reading this book.

Sure, the characters were amusingly larger than life, but I felt the core conflict, between fraternal twin sisters and the coolly cruel man who marries one while in love with the other, had too much emotional weight for the ridiculous situations to be funny rather than poignant.  The novel, with its twins, one a nymphomaniac, the other secularly celibate, reminded me of Half-Life, by Shelley Jackson*, which I really loved.  Half-Life is narrated by one of a pair of conjoined twins, in a world in which such pairings are increasingly common due to nuclear fallout, and the desire to be separated and finally live alone.  The narrator of National Book Award Winner has a similarly love-hate relationship with her twin, who completes her and yet imprisons her in their yin-yang dynamic.

An enjoyable read, but it doesn’t live up to its billing (though it does have really bad weather, so maybe a good pick for the next big snow).  My next Subway Book Club pick, The Collector, is waiting for me at the library when I return from my holiday vacation.  In the meantime, I’ll do a little personally selected reading, starting with Byron in Love: A Short, Daring Life.

*You may recognize her name from her Skin project, in which she enlisted 2095 volunteers to each have a word from her short story tattooed on his/her body without knowing what the whole story was in advance.

I visited London on Monday for 24-hours to distribute some presents and receive some too. The day started badly thanks to the wintry weather as my flight from Dublin was delayed two hours but when we finally got airborne and flew over England, it was worth it. The white landscape below was just perfect, like a model or a child’s playmat, segmented by fally-down fences or walls, glittering hedgerows and snaking roads. This is PROPER winter weather.

Walking out onto the tarmac at Stansted, it was as though I had arrived in Iceland as the flat area all around the runways was completely snowed under. The slush crunched under foot and the air was snapping about my ears as I rushed inside. I love this weather but I had to hurry, as the delay was in danger of ruining the surprise I was to receive.

I met Mikey and Joe at Liverpool Street Station, rushed into the underground and reached the stop where the Natural History Museum is – South Kensington, I think…? Mikey handed me a card and told me to open it: Inside was a ticket to the ice-rink at the Museum. Ice-skating in the snow was a concept which excited me no end – we had only a half hour left of our hour-long session thanks to Ryanair, but no matter. And I was hopeless, having not skated for probably ten or twelve years, but no matter. I held onto Mikey for dear life as Joe (being a dancer and, thus, more balanced and show-offy than us!) whizzed ahead of us.

On to Byron, a really nice grill in Soho with a very pretty waitress and top-notch onion rings, skin-on chips and hamburgers. They did have a weird mural of videos of people eating which made me vaguely self-conscious about how unattractive we look when we eat – even “Baywatch” models can look while shoving a burger down their gullets. But it proved both a tasty and reasonably-priced dinner. But Mikey paid all the same!

We walked back out into the December air and, as we had eaten quite early, I suggested either a pub or back to Mikey’s house for a warm night in with some board-games or cards. The others paused on Shaftesbury Avenue to consider this before Mikey handed me a second card and again told me to open it. Inside was a ticket to “A Frisky And Mannish Christmas”. I leapt about ten feet off the ground.

Now, for those of you who don’t know them, Frisky and Mannish were THE act to catch at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, sweeping 5 star reviews from every side, packing out their venue in the Underbelly and amazing audiences with their mash-ups and mix-ups of music in their show “School Of Pop”. They link every song title they can think of which is a question, they put Kate Nash singing Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”, they duet as Lily Allen and Noel Coward, and demonstrate the stalkerish nature of certain song lyrics. The show was a stunning display of musical artistry and comedic intelligence.

The Christmas show was a great mix of FandM’s own performances with those of some of their buddies from the cabaret circuit: Bruce Airhead, who clambered into a balloon in a leotard, danced and then popped the balloon to reveal he was fully-clothed as Santa Claus; a hula-girl who displayed remarkable stamina and skill in wowing the audience with her hula-hoop tricks; anti-stand-up comedian Angelos of “Shooting Stars” fame; Des O’Connor (not THAT one) who was our suave host and ukelele player; and the divine Puppini Sisters whose close-harmony singing of familiar favourites, not to mention their stunning good looks and beaming smiles, made for a superb climax to the night.

It was a lovely day in snowy London, full of lovely surprises and presents. I’ll link you to Frisky and Mannish, and to the Puppini’s as well. If you get snowed in this Christmas, at least you’ll have some songs and smiles to warm your cockles. Now, if only it would snow in DUBLIN, I’d be able to crack out my thermal cockles…

It’s funny though. I only got Mikey some socks.

Frisky And Mannish: http://www.friskyandmannish.co.uk/Frisky_and_Mannish/Frisky_and_Mannish.html

The Puppini Sisters: http://www.thepuppinisisters.com/

A good friend once told me the hardest job I’ll ever have is being myself. They also told me it would be the one I would fail at, always. Being someone who doesn’t like to fail, I laughed and called them crazy. Looking back, I was the crazy one for not listening and grasping such a simple concept.

I am many different things but rarely am I ever myself. When I am most myself I’m lost. If I am to be honest about who I am, I would find words fail me. Like they do when I pose the question to myself. Words rarely fail me so the thought seems alien even as I think it. But then, questions are rarely old friends because they find us only when we need them.

“Who am I and why?”, a phrase I have said in jest many times over my years. Yet truly, who am I and why is not a question I can answer. Part of me says I’m not alone in my questing for answers. The quest sadly leads to more questions and fewer answers. What aspect of us is truly us and not a conglomeration of those who has influenced our lives?

We read something in passing, think about it, and go about our business. Yet, with that simple act we have added a new peice to our unending puzzle. I have loved Robert Frost from the first day I read him. I’ve added Goethes sage words and Byrons force to Blakes endless questing. All of them, now, are aspects of who I am. The power of their words captivated my soul and inspired me in ways I can’t explain. I know I carry those words with me, reflecting on them in moments of doubt and hesitation.

Funny how such simple words, said or even written once upon a blue moon, can cause such soul searching. It must come with the shimmering cold and quiet solitude of being snowed in. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll contemplate purple clown noses and squishy green globs of gelatinous ooze.

One has to treasure oneself for all the simplicity they are while holding tight to who they were.

Right now we’re up to 13″ of snow outside with more falling as we speak.  We put a tarp over the chicken run last night before the started, and good thing… they’d have nowhere to move if we hadn’t.  Also, for your enjoyment, Byron and Scruffy sniffing out the rats weathering the storm under the shed.

Start Date and Time: 7:10 AM on Wednesday, Spring Day 4
End Date and Time: 11:48 AM on Friday, Spring Day 6

Updated Pages: Characters and Quests [RF2]

I set my record for playing Rune Factory 2! I literally lost track of time and spent at least an hour straight farming, mining, logging, and petting dangerous creatures. It all paid off in the end! I was very surprised to discover that Byron has crazy-fast workers standing by… I requested a four story barn a little after 7:00 PM, and the entire structure was built by the time I took a gander at 7:00 AM! Who are these people? I sure would love to find out and get them working on some other construction projects!

I completed all of the quests on the bulletin board, and am now settling in and figuring out how to level up my skills in a somewhat even manner. The first floor of my barn is filled with monsters who are surprisingly docile. Who would have figured that a fancy glove could work such wonders? Ha! As always, I am enjoying the variety of activities to do within the game. I set up something of a routine as far as waking up, farming, and socializing are concerned. The rest of the day is spent working on my different skills, as well as a nice trip to the Wisdom Bathhouse! Quite a bargain price for what those waters do. How I envy Julia, who probably spends her off-time soaking away! That sounds like a good idea…

Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.
Lord Byron

Start Date and Time: 8:56 PM on Monday, Spring Day 2
End Date and Time: 3:15 PM on Tuesday, Spring Day 3

Updated Pages: Characters and Items [RF2]

After a very fulfilling rest, my second day in Rune Factory 2 began. My little plot of Pink Turnip Seeds was watered, and I took a moment to realize that my farm is in dire need of some more crops! Alas, the little seeds are quite expensive to buy from the Pumpkin General Store, and I was hoping to come across some more gold. The answer? Visiting De Saint-Coquille Park! The bulletin board was a lifesaver in terms of finding easy ways to fill my moneybag.

As to the topic of being a good neighbor in Alvarna, it most certainly pays off! Those characters who were very hostile towards me to begin with were quite thankful. Barrett still seems to have a problem speaking with me, but he hardly gets along with his own father, Byron! I expect he will warm up in time. I was able to have a short conversation with everyone except for Yue… What an elusive lady she is! Hopefully she will turn up soon.

I also acquired some Toyherb Seeds, and want to plant those before the day comes to an end. So much to do, and so little time! I truly am enjoying Rune Factory 2, even if I qualify as the world’s slowest gamer!

Mad, bad and dangerous to know: that is they dubbed Lord Byron, the English Romantic poet. Byron scandalised respectable society of the early 19th century but his poetry and his belief in liberty (he fought for the freedom of Greece) live on.

Paul Valery (top), Polonius & T.S. Eliot

The last 100 years have seen more pedantry in poetry than in any other age.

Remember when poetry as a topic brought out the best in thinkers?

Socrates may be a villain to many poets, but Platonic arguments are grand, necessary, and…poetic.

Horace and Aristotle laid groundwork so vital we can overlook their pedantic natures.

Dante’s Vita Nuova is without the pretence of pedantry.

Shakespeare, another enemy of pedantry, made it a popular trope: Rozencrantz, Guildenstern, and Polonius in one play alone.

Pope and Swift fought pedantry as a natural impulse.

Burns, Byron, Keats, Shelley and Poe were against it in their souls.

Yeats, at his best, displayed a hatred of pedantry: “Old, learned respectable bald heads edit and annotate lines…”

These artists are practically defined by their opposition to pedantry.

Something went wrong in the 20th century, however, as Manifesto-ism became a way to get attention in a field of diminishing returns

Here’s Scarriet’s Top Ten Pedant List:

1. Yvor Winters

Claimed the formal is moral, while convincing himself that Allen Tate’s poetry was better than Shelley’s.

2.  Harold Bloom

A pedant’s pedant’s pedant.   Shakespeare’s great—OK, we get it.

3. Jacques Derrida

One part Nietszche, one part William James, one part Analytic Philosophy, one part New Criticism, one part absinthe.

4. Ezra Pound

“Make it new” is a very old pedantry.

5. Cleanth Brooks

Ransom and Warren kept him around to feel like geniuses by comparison.

6. T.S. Eliot

Hated Hamlet.   Afflicted with Dissociation of Verse Libre.

7. Allen Tate

Modernism’s Red-neck traveling salesman.

8. Helen Vendler

A drab sitting room with a Wallace Stevens poster.

9. Charles Bernstein

“Official Verse Culture” was in his own mind.

10. Paul Valery

Always too correct.  Proves the rule that Poe sounds better in French than modern French poetry sounds in English.

BONUS—11. Charles Olson

Take a deep breath.  And blow.

Want your boy to be mad, bad and dangerous to know?  Give this poetic appellation to your son.

Thanks to Photoquilty for suggesting Byron as Name of the Day.

There’s noting particularly romantic about Byron’s meaning.  It’s one of those Old English place names, still on the map as Byram and Byrom – both of which reference cow sheds.

But then there’s Lord Byron, born George Gordon Byron, one of the most enduring of all English poets and a leading figure in eighteenth century Romanticism.  He penned his take on the Don Juan legend in 1821; he lived it for years before.

George became the 6th Baron Byron at the tender age of ten.  He inherited the title from his uncle.  George’s dad was nicknamed “Mad Jack” while his grandpa answered to “Foulweather Jack.”  And the 5th Baron Byron had been known as “The Wicked Lord” ever since an infamous duel in his youth.

You get the sense that the family didn’t produce a lot of accountants.

George could even trace his tree back to King James I on his mother’s side, but noble birth doesn’t necessarily equal upstanding behavior.  Among his scandalous liaisons was a long-standing affair with Lady Caroline Lamb – she’s credited with coining the “Mad, Bad and Dangerous” epithet.

A true risk-taker, Lord Byron fought in foreign wars, including the Greek War of Independence.  He died of a fever while in Greece.  The Greek people embraced his sacrifice, and the given name Vyron was sometimes bestowed in his honor.

It’s also a surname, but unlike many last names recently promoted to the first spot, Byron has been in steady use for decades.  Some were doubtless inspired by poet, just like the parents of so many boys called Virgil and Homer.  Others may simply have liked Byron’s aristocratic feel, or used a family surname.  (Though it is also worth noting that, titled Englishmen aside, other Byrons probably tended cows, and wore it as an occupational surname – think Tanner.)

His use was fairly steady through the 20th century, including:

• Comedian Byron Allen;
• The NFL’s Byron Leftwich;
• Senator Byron Dorgan from North Dakota;
• Director Byron Haskin, remember for 1953’s The War of the Worlds;
• Former Supreme Court Justice Byron White.

While Byron might sound like a successor to the fading Brian, Byron himself is losing steam.  He peaked in 1967 at #196, but had regularly appeared in the 200s.  He stands at a distant #451 today.

His 1960s popularity could be linked to the 1957 novel and 1959 Sandra Dee flick Gidget.  Amongst the Malibu surfers in Gidget’s circle were boys nicknamed Stinky, Kahuna, Moondoggie – and Lord Byron.

Even though he’s not fashionable today, Byron remains perfectly wearable.  Lost’s Matthew Fox bestowed Byron on his son back in 2001.  (He also has a daughter named Kyle.)  

Byron would fit with Kai and Brycen.  It’s not a truly original choice, but might prove a satisfying one – perfectly familiar, yet relatively underused.

English & Italian: Means “cheerful, lively” in Italian. It is not a traditional Italian name. It was borne by a short-lived illegitimate daughter of Lord Byron. (Behindthename.com)

The main inspiration for the character Madea, Willie Maxine Perry,mother of Tyler Perry, has died.

She was 64  years old, and her date of birth was February 12, 1945 to December 8, 2009.

Tyler Perry has been quoted to say…”Madea is a cross between my mother and my aunt. She’s the type of grandmother that was on every corner when I was growing up,” Tyler said.

“She smoked. She walked out of the house with her curlers and her muumuu and she watched everybody’s kids. She didn’t take no crap. She’s a strong figure where I come from. In my part of the African-American community.

In a certain way, Mrs Perry was one of our family, brought to us in the form of Madea, as portrayed by her loving son, the talented Tyler Perry. Tyler has effectively introduced his mom to all of us in his plays and motion pictures, and in doing so, he has reminded us all of where a lot of us have come from, and that we should never separate ourselves from the leaders in our families.

The loss of one’s mother is truly a personal tragedy for anyone, no matter who you are, and I send out my condolences to Tyler and his family.

The following is a link to Tyler Perry’s e-mail message concerning the death of his mom today, and you can leave him a message of support there.

http://www.tylerperry.com/_Messages/

Follow the story here, as well as these trusted sites…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Perry

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=9292523

A couple of us decided to write  about the love of God check it out.

Todd’s view on God’s love

In this article, I will look at what love means in a biblical sense and in the worldly sense.  I will discuss the definition of love. The verses I will look at in the biblical sense are (1 John 4:8), (John 3:16), (1 John 4:19-20), and (1 Corinthians 13:4).
In addition, I would like to define how the world uses love. It is a strong positive emotion of regard and affection for someone or something. Furthermore, I would like to say that the world sees love being a lustful desire instead of selfless love of God. The world does not understand the true meaning of love.
In contrast, I would like to see what the Bible has to say about love.  1 John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” What the verse is saying is that we miss the things that God does for us because we do not have the faith and trust that would keep us in a relationship with him. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This means that God so loved us that he died ultimately for his glory and to bring us into a right relationship with him. As a result, we can believe in him and have a life that will be full of joy and goodness. We will begin to lose feels like we have regrets, hatred, and sadness. This does not mean that you are not without those negative emotions, but we can still put our hope in the unconditional love of Jesus. In addition to the love that God shows us in this life, we hold on to the promise of eternal life; which far out weights the joy and goodness of this life. 1 John 4: 19-20 says, “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” This is saying, we need to love everyone just as God does. Moreover, we can only love God because he loved us first. God’s love is everlasting, never failing, and he loves us even when we sin. This does not mean we can continue in our sins, but we can still repent to God allowing God to work in us.  1 Corinthians 13:4 says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” The word envy in this verse means discontent and resentment aroused by the desire for possessions or qualities of another. The word boasts means to talk in a self-admiring way. This says that our love should not boast or envy. 1 Corinthians 13:8 says, “Love never fails.” We know that God’s love will never fail.
In conclusion, we have looked at the biblical sense of love compared to the worldly sense. What does love look like to you?  Do you feel like you need to envy or boast? Where is your love compared to God’s love? These are things we all need to ask ourselves.

Eric’s view on God’s love

In 1 John 4, Scripture tells us “God is love.”  Most people would agree with that statement, but what does that really mean?  So, let us look at what God’s love does not mean, what it does mean, and what should be a believer’s response to the love of God.
God’s love does NOT mean tolerance.  The first part of John 15 talks about if one does not remain in Jesus, that person will lead a fruitless life.  That person will be cut off and sent to hell.  Jeremiah 16:5 states, “ For this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn My blessing, My love and My pity from this people,’ declares the LORD.” God Hates sin.  He must hate sin or else He would cease to be God.  Because God is Holy, He must love righteousness and hate evil.
How would one describe God’s love?  Ephesians 2:4 describe it as “Great.”  Jeremiah 31:3 talks about God’s love being everlasting.  Romans 8:35 says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?”  Once God has saved a person NOTHING can separate that person from Jesus’ love.  John 14:21 says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him.”  Ephesians 3 talks about Christ’s love as being so huge that no one can fully comprehend it.
Now, what does this mean for the believer?  First off, one must understand that one can only love God because He first loved that person (1 John 4:19).  How can dirty, stinky, raggy, unclean, and deserving-hell sinner love a perfect and just God?  They can’t.  While a person is still an enemy of God, He laid down His life for them.  Jesus’ love is sacrificial, and if one wants to be more like Jesus that person must laid down his life for Jesus.  1 John 3:1 states, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.”  How awesome is it to be called a child of God?  Jesus said that if we love Him then we must obey Him.  We must respond to the love of Christ with obedience.  Also, the God of love should always make one go wwwwoooohhhhoooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Have a great day!

Tell someone about Jesus today!

When I was 18 and began to study poetry for the first time, it was obvious to me the Romantic poets were far and away the best models for me in English, as I was not a student of languages then, and contemporary poets were prosaic enough to make a study of them no study of poetry at all.

Had I traveled back 2,000 years to study Homer or Sappho, I should no doubt have become a Greek scholar, but I wished to travel back a hundred years or so and be a poet like Shelley or Byron.

I was informed by my literature professors that poets who wrote in the 19th century were “old-fashioned” and no models for me at all.   Poets who were born in the 19th century, however, were modern—to follow them was the only way to succeed.

This seemed absurd to me.  I wanted Keats for a model.   Keats was…you know…good.  Keats was a poet.

The models my professors enforced on me seemed ridiculous.   T.S. Eliot was a banker—with 1920s slicked-back hair and big ears.  Allen Ginsberg was some guy with a beard and a bald spot.   Ezra Pound looked like a Satanist with his pointy beard.

But Keats as a model was out.

I had to pick “moderns.”

Banker.

Guy with bald spot.

Satanist.

The beautiful was out-of-bounds.    It was “old-fashioned.”

I had to marry the hag,  not the lady.

This was my fate if I decided to pursue poetry.

Beauty had nothing to do with it, my professors told me.

Poetry was now the property of science and pragmatic religion.  Protestant revolt and scientific specialization had supplanted the old poetry of beauty—poetry had to specialize, too—everything was breaking into specialized tasks—poetry was no longer about pleasing in a universal manner.   Poetry was now a tiny part of the branching into particulars which modernity was speedily carrying out.

My literature professors were not scientists themselves, but they somberly informed me science had grown up, and it no longer cared for poetry.

The art of poetry, in order not to fall into “amateurism,” had to leave science to the scientists and pursue its own path.

“Poetry now cannot attend science into its technical labyrinth,” as poet and English professor John Crowe Ransom put it in 1938.

Poetry had to grow up, too.

Business and religion and science were grappling with pragmatic matters of new complexity that required a coolness and flinty disposition—the poetic was no longer a help in these areas, but actually a hindrance.

We did not discuss business, religion, or science; literature professors, with a vague sociological authority, assured me these subjects had turned into technical, unfriendly pursuits for the poet; poetry as it had existed was no longer required by the scientist or the businessman or the priest—poetry must survive by turning into a labyrinth of its own.

Poetry had to be “difficult,” as T.S. Eliot (b. 1888)  put it.

Instead of being inspired by the Romantic poets directly, I had to study “moderns” like Allen Ginsberg.

William Blake had inspired Ginsberg, but I couldn’t be inspired by someone as “old-fashioned” as Blake.

I had to go to Allen Ginsberg.

I had to write like the “moderns.”

I had to listen to Ransom (b. 1888) to tell me what was “modern” and what was not—and how poetry existed as “modern.”

Only years later did I realize that “modern” wasn’t modern.  Only later did I realize that poetry and learning are not beholden to any idea of “modern” in the first place.

“Modern” wasn’t modern.    “Modern” was merely a code word for a clique of power brokers who had discovered a sophistry—”modernism”—to validate themselves.

It was a trick.

A trick of coteries and word-play.

A trick as old as the hills.

–Thomas Brady

One example will have to suffice. Let us recall, for a moment, the object fixed and dead–all those “its” out there which seem merely to sit still. for a Romantic of the Imagination, a table, a pair of shoes, a particular locution: these “things” need our life to live, they need to be reinvested with new life by the individual. But in what sense is this so? A fixed and dead table we pass every day, unimaginatively, may be having a very imaginative time of it. It may not be in our lively world, but it is in the world, and we may be merely unaware of the various contexts other than our own in which that table is having a continuous importance and life. Nor does the table, or the contexts in which it moves and has being, need any one of us particularly. It as at least as much our loss, as much as it may be the table’s or the table’s world’s loss, if we fail to find any of our life in terms of it. The table and its world will go on living without us.

…The world in which we move, in other words, carries many lives beyond our own. It was a failure of imagination in certain Romantics not to see the life of Pope’s and Dryden’s poetical diction. Indeed, it was a specifically Romantic failure, because the whole point, in one sense, of Pope’s verse is to show that the meanings of words and events are often “acquired characteristics,” and hence that we cannot merely do with them what we will. they have their own wills and life, which they have gained in the context of long use.

A pair of shoes is not simply a pair of shoes. If they are not ours, they are–or have been, or will be, or might be, or might have been–someone else’s. In any case, they have a human meaning, though our own limited perspective may close us from that meaning…

We do not have to depend solely on our imaginations. the world is more benevolent than that, or perhaps more chastening…

Jerome J. McGann, Don Juan in Context (1976)

But grief should be the instructor of the wise;
Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most
Must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth,
The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.

- Lord Byron, Manfred

So, we’ll go no more a roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we’ll go no more a roving
By the light of the moon.

The poem begins with ‘So . . . ‘ and ends with ‘moon.’ Imbedded in every word, in every phonic echo, is the central subjectivity that says, ‘Too bad.’ We’ll go no more, that’s the key element. This ‘no more’ is the end of love, of youth, and ultimately the ‘no more’ that comes at the end of life. The poem captures the cold, utterly without irony, punctum (i.e., piercing) of the simple lacerating fact that something,  ‘it,’ is over. ‘It’ is at its end. We will go no more. This is the lyric pared down to the heart’s longing and the moon’s inconstancy.

Like Byron himself, Byron’s poems often strain against constraint. This poem proceeds by way of a cascade of opposites: a-roving/loving (seeking versus the sin qua non of love, the steadfast remaining faithful); night/bright; sheath (contraction)/breath (expansion); breast (breath heaving)/rest (death). The poem ends with a chiasmic reversal of the beginning. The end-rhymes of lines one and three in the first stanza — a-roving/loving — are flipped and become, in the first and third lines of the third and last stanza, loving/a-roving. Each line undergoes some transformation. The moon/bright in line four of the first stanza becomes light/moon in the last line of the last stanza. And so the poem goes forward. Of the many reversals and inversions, all can be read as stand-ins for the reversal of fortune of a possible fractured twosome and/or the retirement of the pack of once-active rovers that makes up the ‘we.’ Even the idea of night as the end and day as the beginning gets reversed. Now day is the ending. When night becomes day, we will go no more. We once did. We won’t any more.

It doesn’t make the poem any less poignant to know that ‘roving’ in Byron’s back-in-the-day day meant sex. We’ll go no more because we are all worn out. That’s sad too. Although that kind of exhaustion is remediable. It seems to me the exhaustion in Byron’s poem is more than sex. Its note of resignation is too cutting. The central lyric dummy who speaks for all of us — that’s the lyric mode — doesn’t only speak for the sexed-up moments but for the ponderous click of a casket lid. And the moment of falling out of love. And the moment of letting go and giving up on the unrequited. We, women and men in all combinations of coupling, or even those who are facing late night post-coital estrangement, we are, all of us, all done-in. The poem may be a cautionary tale as well as a dirge. When we lay down our metaphoric scabbard and put to bed our metaphoric priasmic sword with no hope of rising again, then we truly are no more. We are over.

[Regarding the persistence of the poem in popular music and literature, see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So,_we'll_go_no_more_a_roving. The Wikipedia article also refers to the poem’s possible sources, most convincingly the Scottish poem, “The Jolly Beggar,” published in 1776]:

He took the lassie in his arms, and to bed he ran,
O hooly, hooly wi’ me, Sir, ye’ll waken our goodman!
And we’ll go no more a roving
Sae late into the night,
And we’ll gang nae mair a roving, boys,
Let the moon shine ne’er sae bright.
And we’ll gang nae mair a roving.

Mary Jo Bang is the author of six books of poems, including Elegy, which was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her most recently book is The Bride of E (Graywolf Press, 2009). She teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.

This piece was first published by Poetry Daily.

 ”If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don’t listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.” – Lillian Hellman  

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” – Lord Byron   

“Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.” – Oscar Wilde 

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart…” – William Wordsworth 

“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.” – Stephen King 

“All good books have one thing in common – they are truer than if they had really happened.” – Ernest Hemingway  

“If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water.” – Ernest Hemingway

“For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.” – Ernest Hemingway 

Writing is by nature a solitary experience. When I need a little company, I find that quotes about writing by my favorite authors connect me to something larger than myself.  When I write, I like to immerse myself in words and all things writing. This satisfies the obsessive part of my nature. Reading the words of those who inspire me,  I am inspired to forge ahead, and to above all, keep writing. – Suzie

Trupa byron va sărbatori 3 ani de existenţă în mijlocul fanilor săi. Aceştia sunt invitaţi luni, 30 noiembrie, în Club Fabrica, începand cu ora 22.00, să participe la un concert special, din care nu vor lipsi surprizele. Playlistul va fi unul de sărbătoare, iar deschiderea va fi şi ea specială. Va cânta trupa F.A.M, câştigatoarea concursului Byron Rock Your High School. Tot luni va fi lansat noul site la trupei, care aduce un aer proaspăt în peisajul site-urilor trupelor de la noi. Site-ul, realizat de WebStyler, este interactiv şi prietenos cu utilizatorii săi.

Nu ştiu când au trecut 3 ani ! Au fost ani frumoşi, ani plini, în care ne-am sudat ca trupă şi am câştigat un public deosebit, căruia îi suntem recunoscători. Concertul de luni este dedicat în special fanilor noştri. E modul nostru de a le mulţumi pentru că ne-au fost alături. Vom continua să cântăm şi, sperăm noi, să încântăm publicul, la fiecare concert pe care îl vom susţine.

Dan Byron, solistul trupei

Trupa byron este alcătuită din: Dan Byron (voce, chitară acustică, flaut), 6fingers (clape, voce, chitară acustică), Vlady Săteanu (bas), Costin Oprea (chitară electrică), Cristi Mateşan (tobe).

Sper să ne vedem acolo, un asemenea concert nu trebuie pierdut.

At first I poured scorn on this event mostly because they didn’t ask my mates Vince and the Vipers to play anywhere but as soon as I touched base out at Mullum I knew this day/night was going to be a good one and it was a cracker. Well organised, didn’t see a cop or a security guard just people moving from event to event happy and free. Like it should be at every music festival. The star of the day was undoubtedly the charismatic Tex Perkins and his band. They played his old music loud and hard and the audience including a man and his dog (yes it was a black dog sitting in the front row) loved it all, especially the girls who still swoon at old Tex.

Tex wasn’t the only quality act of the day for me. JoJo Smith was wonderful as was Lucie Thorne and Leah Flanagan and I danced my little feet off as did everyone else to Oka but it was also about the people of Mullum, their style, Jim and his Magic Bus and low key nature of the whole event. Very Stylish and easy. Congratulations Glen and all the others who work to make this thing happen the way it does. I had one of the best days of my life!

Jim at the helm of the Magic Bus!

Rene and her shining smile and style at the Bowlos. Note the pink Frangipani in the sandle. Whoever saw such style at the Bowlos…only at Mullum Music festival. Incidentally does anyone know why men must doff their hats at Aussie clubs and not women?

And the seriously multi-talented and good-humoured Jimmy Willing.

These legs and boots were made for walking.

In an attempt to project an image of “old curmudgeon,” I thought about starting this article with the phrase “I don’t really understand all the fuss about this Twilight movie thing…” but realized that I actually do understand all the fuss. Sure, the trailers for the movie look like ads for Abercrombie & Fitch, with the obligatory topless young kouroi flaunting their six-pack abs and genetically enhanced dentition, but in our glossy celebrity-focused culture, this is par for the course.

New Moon kouros

The majority of Twilight fans are either teenage girls or moms reliving their teenage years, and ogling attractive young men in various stages of undress is hardly abnormal. It’s no different from my watching the spectacularly bad Bandidas (2006) solely because it has Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz, or sitting through the vapidly banal Barb Wire (1986) just to marvel at the gravity-defying qualities of Pamela Anderson Lee’s frontage.

Bandidas (2006)

Barb Wire (1996)

The other element that makes the New Moon movie so appealing is the presence of male vampires. Without going into an extended psychoanalytical thesis, all you need to know is that as far as women are concerned, vampires are HOT. And by “hot,” I mean sexually charged and erotic. Although I’m acutely aware that feminists may hate me for saying this, a woman can get the chills thinking of being dominated by some dark, handsome vampire whose intentions are less than honorable and who are quite happy to use their sexual charisma (something vampires appear to have in spades) to take their wicked pleasures.

Anyone who actually does want to read a thesis on sexuality and vampires should pop out and buy a copy of the deliciously decadent romp by Camille Paglia called Sexual Persona. Ms. Paglia takes on the whole of western art and uses a psycho-sexual knife to pare it down to its roots – which turns out to be shockingly erotic and so mired in sex that a walk through the masterpieces in the National Gallery of Art in Washington turns out to be no different from an afternoon in a back-street porno theater with a bucket of buttery popcorn. Admittedly she spend more time talking about the notion of the female vampire or “femme fatale,” but to connection between vampirism and sexuality is explicit.

So anyone claiming they “don’t understand what all the fuss is about” is either woefully unable to understand women or lying just so they can seem to be intellectually aloof. And anyone pretending that they’re watching the movie for Oscar-winning performances by giants in the field of acting is simply suffering from the American disease called Puritanism. As a friend of mine told me many years ago, “America was founded by Puritans – and it still shows!” I’m with H.L. Mencken when he says that Puritanism is “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere is having a good time.”

As to understanding the word itself, vampire - or vampyr - is of Slavic origin. It exists in Czech, Polish, Russian, and Serb, as well as vapir and vepir in Bulgarian and vepyr in Ruthenian. Other variations include vopyr, opyr, upir, upyr and upior. The OED defines one as follows:

A preternatural being of a malignant nature (in the original and usual form of the belief, a reanimated corpse), supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking the blood of sleeping persons; a man or woman abnormally endowed with such habits. (OED, Vol.XIX, p.422)

In 1796, the word is used in something called the Harleian Miscellany. The full – and well-worth repeating – title is Harleian Miscellany: A collection of scarce, curious, and entertaining pamphlets and tracts, as well in manuscript as in print, found in the late (Edmund Harley, second) Earl of Oxford’s library. Sounds like a forerunner of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. In the relevant passage, the writer says, “These Vampyres are supposed to be the Bodies of Deceased Persons, animated by evil Spirits, which come out of the Graves, in the Night-time, suck the Blood of many of the Living, and thereby destroy them.”

By 1813, the vampire had become a thing literary comment, with Lord Byron including the following sentence in his poem, The Giaour; “The freshness of the face, the wetness of the lips with blood, are the never-failing signs of a Vampire.” Interestingly, Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote the poem Christabel in 1797 (with the second part in 1800 and the third part never appearing), which is clearly about a female vampire but without the word actually being used.

Christabel and Geraldine

The publishing of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1897 marked the birth of the “modern” vampire, who is male, urbane, and a Romantic figure. Rather than being an ugly, evil, tortured spirit, the modern vampire is more along the lines of being “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” By the end of the 20th century, thanks to the writing of such authors as Anne Rice and the Hollywood movie machine, vampires had become romantically heroic. There’s even a whole sub-culture (or sub-cultures) of people who are convinced that (a) vampires are real and (b) they are vampires!. Take a diversion to the Vampirewebsite.net to find out if you are a vampire, how to “come-out,” and how to meet other vampires for fun, friendship, profit, and blood-letting.

Cruise and Pitt: Vampires

By extending the metaphor of sucking blood, the word vampire has also come to be used to describe “A person of a malignant and loathsome character, esp. one who preys ruthlessly upon others; a vile or cruel extractor or extortioner.” (ibid. 422)

The word can also undergo inflections: vampiric and vampirish are used to described someone as having the nature of a vampire; vampiredom means the state of being a vampire; and vampirism is the collective facts or ideas associated with the world of vampires.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a shortened form of the word, vamp, was used to describe, “A woman who intentionally attracts and exploits men; an adventuress; a Jezebel; freq. as a stock character in plays and films.” (OED, Vol. XIX, p.421). Note that this is NOT the same as the word vamp used to describe the part of the shoe or hose (stocking/sock) that covers the front of the foot. That word derives from the Old French avanpie, which in turn comes from avan(t)=before + pié=foot. It’s a great example of where two words appear to come from the same root but, in fact, don’t. This is sometimes referred to as a false cognate.

I won’t be going to see New Moon. There are only so many hours left in my life and spending two of them watching fantasy teenage angst seems a little bit of a waste. Now, where’s my Tomb Raider DVD…?

Tyler Perry must be uber successful now, because that is the only time you get lawsuits filed against you claiming copyright infringement and other such claims of fraud, abuse, and misrepresentation.

Earlier this month, Tyler decided to answer claims of coonery, launched by Spike Lee against Tyler’s work, that were never discussed between the two directors in private, or the many years that Tyler performed the plays that are the subject of his movies,which is just jealousy on the part of Spike, but a sign of Tyler’s success.

He recently donated a million dollars to the NAACP,http://www.afro.com/tabId/551/itemId/5398/Director-Tyler-Perry-Makes-Largest-Individual-Dona.aspx , making it the largest single donation to the organization from an individual.

He is truly reaching back and supporting our communities, as well as hiring a multitude of black talent , in front of, and behind the cameras. It was what we hope that all of our black celebrities would do for the audience that supports their product, and should be celebrated rather than torn down.

Today, TMZ.com is reporting that a lawsuit over copyright infringement has been lodged against Tyler Perry.

Tyler Perry used too much of the goodness of Jesus in his movie, “Madea Goes to Jail,” at least according to a new federal lawsuit obtained by TMZ.

The suit, filed by the personal representative of deceased gospel singer/songwriter Bertha James, claims Perry lifted an entire verse from a song James wrote in 1950 — “When I Think of the Goodness of Jesus.”

The suit claims Perry pilfered the verse and used it in “Madea” — specifically, “incorporating the entire Chorus in a monologue delivered by the main character in ‘Madea” referencing her deliverance from a jail sentence and leniency for repetitive criminal conduct, in a staged court proceeding presided over by ‘Judge Mabeline.’”

Bertha’s estate, which is also suing Lionsgate Entertainment, wants unspecified damages for copyright infringement.

I have fought tirelessly to protect and maintain our current copyright laws, as well as to strengthen them in order for future generations of family  to benefit off of the exploitation of our artistic creations.

I feel that in life, most artist never attain financial security from their work, so I stand on the fact that the inherited value of ones art that is gained after death, is the financial gain that we, as artist must protect for future generations of our family, in perpetuity.

The downside of that , are nefarious lawsuits such as this one, that appear to be an attempt to loosely tie in a phrase of words, into an infringement case.The standard of substantial similarity is clear, and any competent attorney could connect the dots of what is actually a protected element in a creation, and what is not, quite easily, before going to court.

In this case, it is a phrase from a song, that was not performed in the movie, but Madea may have said…”Prasise God”…in the movies.

This case will not meet that standard, and the launching of the case is whimsical at best.It will be dismissed summarily, which means that it will be thrown out of court, mark my words.

It appears to be a bid for public relations, but probably more like a sad attempt to extort money from Mr Perry, and to sully his pristine public image.

Stay strong  Tyler, the more successful you get, the more idiots will creep out of the woodwork to try to get at your wallet, no matter how good you are to our people.

Tyler Perry is the producer, along with Oprah Winfrey, for the new movie that is gaining Oscar buzz,”Precious”,that is in theaters now. Run out to see it and support Tyler against this ridiculous lawsuit.

Read the full story on TMZ.com, by clicking the link below…

http://www.tmz.com/2009/11/26/tyler-perry-lawsuit-copyright-infringement-bertha-james-jesus-praise-jesus-madea-goes-to-jail-lionsgate-entertainment/2#comments

美味しいと評判で行ってみたかったプレミアム・ハンバーガーチェーン、Byron（バイロン）。でも今まで、ケンジントン&チェルシー等ロンドン西部にしかなかったので行けずじまいだったが、私たちの行動範囲内にもオープンした。場所はSOHOのど真ん中、Wardour Street 。70年代にロックファンのたまり場だったロック／メタルパブ、The Intrepid Fox（2006年に移転）のあった建物内にある。ロックやメタルファンのたまり場だった頃と打って変わって、明るくこぎれいになった店内は、ざっと白く塗られたレンガ壁やレトロ風の時計と、ヒップな照明、ダークカラーを基調にした革張りのソファやテーブル・椅子等、モダンなデザインがうまくミックスされている。私たちが行った時は偶然オープン初日の11月25日。3時間前にオープンしたという店内は、既にたくさんの人で賑わっていた。

そして美味しいと噂のハンバーガー。スコットランド・ハイランド地方の小農場で牧草で育てられたという牛の良質の肉を使ったパテは、ジューシーで赤みの多いレアに上手く焼かれていて、とろっととろけたチーズ、新鮮な野菜（トマト、レッドオニオン、レタス）と相まって噂通りの味。ただ、フレンチ・フライはラードが使われているのか（ラードを使うとサクッと揚がるからと、イギリスでは揚げ物によく使われる）、ちょっともそもそしてて期待はずれ。でも、オープン初日で、何と食事代金は無料（飲み物代別）！請求書をもらってからそう言われて、もっとオーダーすれば良かったと冗談を言い合った（そんな客が多いから、お店も会計まで言わなかったんだろう）。

私たちはハンバーガーが好きで、ランチで時々食べにいく。最初はHamburger Unionにはまり、その後味が落ちたと感じてからは（その後倒産したのか、再度経営者が代わり、最近、Hamburger +という名に変わったトッテナム・コート・ロードにある店で食べたが、ひどい味になっていた）、Gourmet Burger Kitchenに心変わり。Byronもこれから、ソーホーあたりに出かけた時のレギュラーのランチ場所になりそうだ。

The premium hamburger chain Byron, known for their ‘proper’ back-to-basic hamburger, just opened yesterday (Nov 25th) on Wardour Street, SOHO. We always wanted to go to Byron but their stores are all in the west part of London like Kensington and Chelsea, and we had never been – but now it is in our territory! It is located in the building used to be occupied by 70’s rock hangout, the rock/metal pub Intrepid Fox. Refurbished and transformed, this shabby chic restaurant with roughly painted white brick walls is decorated with retro clock, hip lighting, and modern dark-colored furniture. It was the opening day we passed by and found it by accident – just 3 hours after its door was opened to the public, but there were already many people enjoying their burger.

We got their highly reputed hamburger finally on our hands. The juicy patty, made with free range grass-fed beef from small farms in Scottish Highlands, was beautifully cooked rare and had a perfect match with melted Monterey Jack cheese and fresh vegetables (tomatoes, red onions, and lettuce). But I was not impressed by their French fries – cooked with lard (widely used for frying in UK) I assume. Good surprise was that we were told Byron offered all the customers free meals (except drinks) on their opening day, when we got the check. We were joking that we should have ordered more foods and probably all the customers thought the same, but I guess that’s the thing that Byron definitely wanted to avoid.

We love hamburger and we eat it for a lunch sometimes (but try not too often). First we became a regular to Hamburger Union but we turned to Gourmet Burger Kitchen when we thought that the taste changed to worse – now Hamburger Union seems to be liquidated and its management has changed (I couldn’t find any information for it, though). We went to Hamburger + (changed the name) on Tottenam Court Road and were hugely disappointed by their awful burger and espresso. Now Byron is added to our list of lunch places around SOHO.

JLo falls onstage...then pops up and keeps it moving

Last night,Dick Clark and ABC television hosted the annual American Music Awards, where all kind of crazy and cool happenings went on,and Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert still stood out.

I like it how every year some new act feels the need to shock and push the limits of the public morals to the breaking point, and this year the winner for that category is Adam Lambert.

Adam,the runner-up for last seasons American Idol competition,decided to out do Katy Perry who kissed a girl, or at least had a hit record about it, by kissing a guy on stage.

And, as if that was not enough to get his point across, he then grabbed a male dancer, and had him kiss,…or do something like that, to his crotch. Many guys have done this on stage before,except with women.

I think the best one was that awards show on Spike TV hosted by Jamie Foxx,when he grabbed Halle Berry’s nice behind and laid a good kiss on her…remember that.

Jamee and Halle...very hotJamee hugs Halle...

Halle hugs Jamee,who hugs her back...

I know that was kind of different, but I think many will get my point. I became a bigger Jamie Foxx supporter after that one.

http://www.ballerstatus.com/2009/06/01/jamie-foxx-and-halle-berry-make-out-fondle-each-other-on-tv/

If you missed Adam’s act…we have the pictures here…

He showed up looking like this…

Edgy…or just another way to market his album…who knows.He is from San Diego, so good luck with that Adam…

Anyhow, here is a selection of the beautiful people who were there, and of course my favorites,Rhianna,Alicia Keyes, and all the other cute sexy and talented musical superstars….and oh yes, JLo fell,see image above article,watch video below before it gets deleted,and read the story in the link provided under the video…

http://www.examiner.com/x-6788-TV-Trends-Examiner~y2009m11d23-Jennifer-Lopez-falls-at-American-Music-Awards-with-video

…Oh yeah…as usual,like clockwork…Lady Gaga got down!…she is the most interesting performer out there currently, and whenever she performs…I simply can not take my eyes off of her,because of her performances.

She has way more concept than the rest of her fellow performers,and I can tell she is having a big influence on others stage shows. Good going Gaga….

Follow the JLo story here,their video may not be deleted very quickly because they got more pull…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/22/jlo-falls-video-amas_n_367094.html

Waking to a typical cloudless Northern California morning… my heart dropped.  Today’s photos would have blank lifeless skies versus dramatic cloud filled ones.  Oh well, the show must go on.  I picked up Masia from her home and as we backed out of her driveway a storm front started moving in filling the sky with big fluffy cumulus.  As I pulled over at our first location, I could see the skepticism on Masia’s face. Here?!?! she was thinking.  Yes here.  A non-descriptive field with charred railway overpass crossing a stream.  I posed the soon to be senior and took some test images.  With every shot I could see that this spot was going to be magic.  With the lights in place and exposure set, I took two images and showed her.  “WOW!”, she exclaimed as a broad smile filled her face.

The day only got better from there.  From the iconic shot against the fire engine red barn to the vintage truck photo where a beam of angelic light streams across the frame, it was a wonderful day.  I hope you enjoy the video half as much as I enjoyed making it.

Go make some pictures,

David ‘Art’