I have just spent entirely too much time on this website: http://betterbooktitles.com/
I read about it in the Guardian. Basically a comedian and writer has taken some of the worlds greatest pieces of literature and re-named them so that people can find them more easily in bookshops. Here are a couple of my favourite examples. Can you guess the real titles?
It may not be big or particularly clever, but they do make me laugh.
(Redesign and titles by Dan Wilbur)
Did you all have good Easters? I had a lovely Easter.
I accidentally got a job at one of the best ice-cream shops in the world; definitely the best ice-cream shop in England. It's called Boho Gelato and we make all the ice-cream downstairs and the mojito sorbet will make you believe Jesus is risen. By the end of the summer I'm going to have one giant, muscular scooping arm and one weedy little money taking arm, but i don't really care.
Yesterday i spend the day in the park with some friends drinking alcoholic ginger beer and reading Victorian ghost stories, then had a BBQ at my house, then went to a friend's gig. Brighton in the summer is too lovely, it makes writing dissertations very difficult indeed.
I also got an email from virtual-godmother extraordinaire Cristina Thorson, asking for new music to listen to in the summer months, which prompted me to make a pretty spectacular mix CD for her, which might just be the soundtrack of my summer. Those of you who are facebook regulars have probably noticed the 30 day song challenge thing that's sweeping the Internet. I've resisted thus far, but i thought i could maybe post it up here for the next month, with music videos, in case any of you want some new music to listen to.
So, number 1 on the list is your favourite song. This is nearly impossible to answer. Mine changes every day, but the one I've been listening to pretty consistently for the past few months, and which never fails to bring a smile to my face is Underwear by Pulp. I've already posted a video for that up here, so I'll go for my next favourite, which i have loved for longer, even if i now listen to it slightly less often. Enjoy.
Oh, and the title of this post is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, but is it about Jesus, or is it about the fact that the new series of Doctor Who has started? That's for me to know, and you to ponder.
By now you all know of my love for Amanda Palmer. Her music speaks to me in a way few other artists do. I may not listen to her stuff as frequently or as openly as i do other musicians, but if I'm feeling down, or angry, or in any way diminished then she is the one who i know can set me right. On her blog yesterday she wrote a post about a play she saw, and this part I thought was really beautiful.
This is something we do together. This is what theater does, what it’s for. Catharsis. We’ve been doing it for thousands of years. We go to the darkest places to feel things to the marrow, and think about them in a space made for thinking, feel in a space made for feeling. Where it’s safe.
It was part of a post she wrote about seeing a play based on the Columbine school shooting, which happened 12 years ago yesterday. The play was a highschool play which the school banned the students from performing, until a local theatre allowed them to perform on their stage.She went on to write about the importance of allowing young people to express themselves through the arts. The end of the post i found particularly moving.
after everything we’ve learned….really?
really, shut the kids up? shut them up for trying to tackle real art? for trying to say real things? really, try to stop them from making art that doesn’t apologize and pander, art that swears, art that’s dark and mean and reflects like a jagged mirror? really clamp your hand over their mouths when they decide to put on a play about the things that are ACTUALLY meaningful to them? really? ….really?
marilyn manson said, when asked by michael moore in (“Bowling for Columbine”) what he would say to eric harris and dylan klebold if he’d had the chance to talk to them: “I wouldn’t say a single word. I would listen to what they have to say, and that’s what no one did.”
do not stop listening. if you don’t listen, they notice. if you don’t listen, they get angry. if you don’t listen, they turn the darkness inside out. eventually, if you don’t listen, they shoot at you. listen. everywhere. all the time. until you fall dead in the ground, until your fingers fall off and your head hurts: give the darkness an airtime, a venue, a canvas. listen. look. listen. you will hear what you what you need to hear.
So I'm feeling slightly better today. Freaking out slightly less. Staying in bed pretty much all of yesterday eating yogurt and watching Buffy definitely helped. (Yes mum, I took your second piece of advice and wallowed. No exercise for me!)
I still have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, and it terrifies me, but i realize I'm unbelievably lucky, and that i have many many options, and that I'm mainly scared of choosing what to do first. I'll figure it out.
As for right now, it's the sunniest day of the year so far, I'm covered head to toe in sunscreen, and I'm on campus, in the library, reading about clones. Such is life.
So yet again any semblance of a plan i had for the coming year has fallen through and I'm back to homeless, plan less square one. It's getting mildly frustrating and more than a little scary.
I was going to work the the union, then that didn't work out, then i was going to buy a house, but that didn't work out, so i was going to live with my friend, but now that hasn't worked out either. All this means that when my lease ends in August I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do.
This could be a freeing feeling, I'm now free to move anywhere in the world I want, do whatever i want to do, but instead i just feel more trapped. I really just want someone to tell me what to do. My brother is having fun travelling and being a bit of a drifter, and i can see the appeal, but it's not what I want to do. I love being busy, I love knowing everyone in the building I work in, I don't want to have to move somewhere new and start again, away from everyone I know. At the same time, there are no jobs in Brighton, and the only reason i was staying was to live with Lily. I could move to London, or San Francisco, or anywhere else I want. I'll be equally adrift anywhere i pick, so it really makes no difference.
On the brighter side, my dissertations are going well. I have an email interview with Dave Eggers which will constitute about 2000 words of my 8000 word English dissertation, so a quarter of my work about him will actually be written by him. An ingenious way of doing less work, I think. My film dissertation is still limitlessly depressing and fascinating, so that's fun too.
In my endless search for procrastination materials I came across this video, which is so beautiful and made me cry. I hope it brightens your day.
