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How to be Alone

If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you’ve not been alone much, or if when you were you were not okay with it, then just wait. You’ll find its fine to be alone once you’re embracing it. We can start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library, where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books, your not suppose to talk much anyway so its safe there. There is also the gym, if your shy, you can hang out with yourself and mirrors, you can put headphones in. There’s public transportation, we all gotta go places. And there’s prayer and mediation, no one will think less if your hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation. Start simple. Things you may have previously avoided based on avoid being principles. The lunch counter, where you will be surrounded by “chow downers”, employees who only have an hour and their spouse work across town, and they, like you, will be alone. Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone. When you are comfortable with “eat lunch and run”, take yourself out to dinner to a restaurant with linen and silver wear. You’re no less an intriguing a person when you are eating solo desert and cleaning the whip cream from the dish with your finger. In fact, some people at full tables will wish they were where you were. Go to the movies. Where it’s dark and soothing, alone in your seat amidst fleeting community. And then take yourself out dancing, to a club where no one knows you, stand on the outside of the floor until the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no ones watching because they are probably not. And if they are, assume it is with best human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely move to beats, after-all, is gorgeous and affecting. Dance till you’re sweating. And beads of perspiration remind you of life’s best things, down your back, like a brook of blessings. Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you. Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, they are always statues to talk to, and benches made for sitting gives strangers a shared existence if only for a minute, these moments can be so uplifting and the conversation you get in by sitting alone on benches, might of never happened had you not been there by yourself. Society is afraid of alone though. Like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements. Like people must have problems if after awhile no one is dating them. But lonely is a freedom that breaths easy and weightless, and lonely is healing if you make it. You can stand swaffed by groups and mobs and hands with your partner, look both further and farther in the endless quest for company. But no one is in your head. And by the time you translate your thoughts an essence of them maybe lost or perhaps it is just kept. Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those sappy slogans from pre-school over to high school groaning, we’re tokens for holding the lonely at bay. Cause if you’re happy in your head, and solitude is blessed, and alone is okay, Its okay if no one believes like you, all experiences unique, no one has the same synapses can’t think like you, this keeps things interesting, life’s magic brings much, and it doesn’t mean you aren’t connected, the community is not present, just take back to you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it. Take silence and respect it, if you have an art that needs practice stop neglecting it, if your family doesn’t get you or a religious sect is not meant for you, don’t obsess about it. You could me in an instant surrounded if you need it, if your heart is bleeding, make the best of it, there is heat in freezing. Be a testament. © Tanya Davis
(Audio transcript by Ryan Price)

For Mair. And for me.

Filed under  //   arts   culture   poetry   Tanya Davis   video   YouTube  

The Crayonettes with Kathryn Williams

The Crayonettes
Playing Out: Songs For Children & Robots
[One Little Indian; September 6]

Longtime fans of Kathryn Williams will know that she has plenty of weird and wonderful song ideas of her own (who can forget the early demo ‘Fandango Lasagne’?), but this debut album from side project The Crayonettes – a duo formed with fellow mother Anna Spencer, formerly of punk band Delicate Vomit – takes its inspiration from the imaginative playworlds of their two sons, Louis (4) and Lenny (3). Tired of the unbearably earnest singalongs found on your average children’s CD, Kathryn and Anna aimed to incorporate everything from punk and disco to hip hop and country into their version of a kids’ record.

“We would meet in the evenings when the kids were in bed…and play!” says Kathryn of the making of Playing Out. “It was so much fun creating with a friend. We would be crying with laughter and have to wait for the giggles to go before doing a take. When we’d written a song we would play it to the kids and get a reaction.”

The writing sessions weren’t the only fertile thing – both women became pregnant again during the project’s development; Kathryn’s second son Ted was born in April, and Anna is due in August. And to add further continuity, the album artwork is by Anna’s eldest son, eleven year old Sam.

Undeterred by their additional motherly duties, Kathryn and Anna plan to take The Crayonettes out on the road later this year. In the meantime, you can catch Kathryn playing the following dates in support of her recent album, The Quickening:

23.07.10 Trowbridge Festival, Trowbridge
24.07.10 Port Eliot Festival, Port Eliot
21.08.10 Beautiful Days, Devon
23.09.10 The Sage, Gateshead
25.09.10 Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Tracklist:
01 Robots In The Rain
02 Disco Teeth
03 Rainy Day
04 Hopscotch
05 Emergency
06 Sweet On The Floor
07 Let’s Dance On The Moon
08 Spooky Way Home
09 How Hot Is A Toad
10 Pirates On The Bus
11 Illegal

Source: Wears the Trousers:
http://www.wearsthetrousers.com/2010/06/incoming-the-crayonettes/

Original article by Alan Pedder:
http://www.wearsthetrousers.com/author/alan-pedder/

Related links:
www.kathrynwilliams.net

Marlene Dietrich, Falling In Love Again.

Failing in love again
Never wanted to
What am I to do?
Can't help it

Love's always been my game
Play it as I may
I was born that way
Can't help it

Men flock around me
Like moths around a flame
And if their wings burn
I know I'm not to blame

Failing in love again
Never wanted to
What am I to do?
Can't help it

Love's always been my game
Play it as I may
I was born that way
Can't help it

Men flock around me
Like moths around a flame
And if their wings burn
I know I'm not to blame

Filed under  //   arts   culture   media   movies   music   YouTube  

Who Am I? Revisited

Do not be fooled by me.
Do not be fooled by the face I wear,
For I wear a mask, I wear a thousand masks.
Masks I am afraid to take off.
But none of them are me.
But do not be fooled.

I give you the impression that I am secure,
That all is sunny and unruffled with me,
Within as well as without,
That confidence is my name, and coolness is my game,
And that I need no one. Don't believe me,
Please.

My surface may be smooth,
But my surface is my mask,
My varying, ever-concealing mask.
Beneath lies no smugness,
No complacence.
Beneath dwells the real me,
In confusion, in love, in fear. In hope, in truth, in beauty. In raw, naked emotion. In loneliness.

I idly chatter with you in the suave tones of surface talk.
I tell you everything that is really nothing,
Of what's crying within me.
So, when I am going through my routine,
Please do not be fooled by what I'm saying.
Please listen carefully, Try to hear not what I am saying,
But understand what I am not saying,
And listen to what I would like to be able to say,
What for survival I need to say,
But through fear,
I cannot say.

Only you can call me into aliveness,
Each time you're kind, and gentle, and encouraging.
Each time you try to understand because you really care,
My heart begins to grow wings.
Very small wings, very feeble wings, but wings.
With your sympathy and sensitivity,
And your gentle, quiet understanding,
You can breathe life into me,
This I want you to know and understand.

I want you to know how important you are to me,
How you can be a creator of the person that is me if you choose to.
Please choose to.
Do not pass me by.
It will not be easy for you.

My long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls.
The nearer you approach me, the blinder I may strike back.
I fight against the very thing I cry out for,
But I am told that love is stronger than strong walls,
In this lies my hope.
My only hope.

Who am I, you may wonder.
I am someone you know very well,
I am a hurting member of your family,
I am the hurting person sitting beside you in this room,
I am every person you meet on the street.

Please don't believe my mask,
Please come behind it to glimpse the real me.
Please speak to me, share a little of yourself with me,
At least recognise me.
You might just catch a glimpse of who I am.
Please.
Because you care.

© Ryan Price 1999-2010

Revisited July 13th 2010 for Ben.

Filed under  //   arts   creative writing   culture   literature   poetry  

Travelin' Thru by Dolly Parton

Check out this video on YouTube! It's Travelin' Thru by Dolly Parton, featured in the film 'TransAmerica' - lyrics below...

Well I can't tell you where I'm going, I'm not sure of where I've been
But I know I must keep travelin' till my road comes to an end
I'm out here on my journey, trying to make the most of it
I'm a puzzle, I must figure out where all my pieces fit

Like a poor wayfaring stranger that they speak about in song
I'm just a weary pilgrim trying to find what feels like home
Where that is no one can tell me, am I doomed to ever roam
I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' on

Questions I have many, answers but a few
But we're here to learn, the spirit burns, to know the greater truth
We've all been crucified and they nailed Jesus to the tree
And when I'm born again, you're gonna see a change in me

God made me for a reason and nothing is in vain
Redemption comes in many shapes with many kinds of pain
Oh sweet Jesus if you're listening, keep me ever close to you
As I'm stumblin', tumblin', wonderin', as I'm travelin' thru

I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' thru
I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' thru

Oh sometimes the road is rugged, and it's hard to travel on
But holdin' to each other, we don't have to walk alone
When everything is broken, we can mend it if we try
We can make a world of difference, if we want to we can fly

Goodbye little children, goodnight you handsome men
Farewell to all you ladies and to all who knew me when
And I hope I'll see you down the road, you meant more than I knew
As I was travelin', travelin', travelin', travelin', travelin' thru

I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin'
Drifting like a floating boat and roaming like the wind
Oh give me some direction lord, let me lean on you
As I'm travelin', travelin', travelin', thru

I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' thru
I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' thru

Like the poor wayfaring stranger that they speak about in song
I'm just a weary pilgrim trying to find my own way home
Oh sweet Jesus if you're out there, keep me ever close to you
As I'm travelin', travelin', travelin', as I'm travelin' thru

(Dolly Parton)

Here's a trailer from the film:

Thanks to Benjamin Lane

Filed under  //   arts   culture   dolly parton   film   media   music   YouTube  

Dust by Ivor Cutler

"I do not know what dust is, I do not know where it comes from, I only know that it settles on things. I cannot see it in the air, or watch it fall. Sometimes I'm home all day but I never see it sliding about looking for a place to rest when my back is turned. Does it wait 'til I go out? Or, does it happen in the night when I sleep? Dust is not fussy about the places it chooses, though it seems to prefer still objects. Sometimes, out of kindness, I let it lie for weeks. On some places it will lie forever. However, dust holds no grudges and once removed it will always return, in a friendly way."

~ Ivor Cutler: 'Dust'

Filed under  //   arts   culture   Ivor Cutler   literature   media   music  

exclusive: premiere of new kathryn williams video

Kathryn Williams releases ‘Just A Feeling’, the second single from her critically acclaimed seventh album The Quickening, on Monday and One Little Indian have been kind enough to give us ('Wears the Trousers' Magazine) the exclusive premiere of the accompanying video.

In this suitably dreamy promo, live performance footage is overlaid with images of the natural world – migrating birds, palm trees, raindrops, autumn leaves, clouds etc. – and the effect is borderline hypnotic as Kathryn’s lulling voice coos and questions, “What if love is just a feeling?”.

You can view the video here:
http://www.wearsthetrousers.com/2010/05/exclusive-premiere-of-new-kathryn-wil...

The digital single comes backed with exclusive non-album track, ‘Timer’, which you can preview here:
http://www.7digital.com/artists/kathryn-williams-1/just-a-feeling/

Article courtesy of 'Wears the Trousers' Magazine and Alan Pedder:
www.wearsthetrousers.com

Follow Kathryn Williams on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/kathryncaw

Or follow 'Wears the Trousers' on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/trsrstweets

Or me!
www.twitter.com/uselessdesires

Filed under  //   arts   culture   kathryn williams   music   press   the quickening  

Noteable Mark Twain Quotes

"Write without pay until somebody offers to pay you. If nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for."

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

"People born to be hanged are safe in water."

"Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person."

"Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to."

"Only presidents, editors and people with tapeworm have the right to use the editorial 'we'."

"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."

"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."

"I don't give a damn for a man who can spell a word only one way."

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

"God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board."

"All kings is mostly rapscallions."

"It is not best that we all should think alike, it is differences of opinion that make horse races."

"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them."

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself."

"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter."

"Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

"Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed."

"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said, "I don't know."

"Familiarity breeds contempt - and children."

"It is by the fortune of God that, in this country, we have three benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never to use either."

"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them."

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man."

"By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean."

"I have a higher and greater standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie but I won't."

"Denial ain't just a river in Egypt."

"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company."

"I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting."

"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example."

"I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position."

"Get your facts first and then you can distort them as much as you wish."

"Golf is a good walk spoiled."

"I refused to attend his funeral. But I wrote a very nice letter explaining that I approved of it."

"The Bible has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies."

"It takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech."

"To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence."

"Truth is more of a stranger than fiction."

"Wagner's music is better than it sounds."

"We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read."

"There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact."

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

"There is nothing so annoying as to have two people talking when you're busy interrupting."

"When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear."

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But, when I got to be twenty- one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."

"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform."

"Let us endeavor to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."
"Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense."

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."

"The first half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity."

"The principle of give and take is the principle of diplomacy - give one and take ten."

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress."

"A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."

Filed under  //   arts   culture   humour   literature   scraps  

Glee: The Music, Volume 3 "Showstoppers" Due May 18th ~ Exclusive Track-listing & Artwork

Freshly leaked from Sony to day (source withheld), here’s the tracklist for Glee: The Music, Volume 3 – Showstoppers (and Deluxe Edition). Since the Madonna songs were all released on the separate The Power Of Madonna EP, none of them will be featured on this volume. Due for release on May 18th 2010 worldwide. 

1. Hello Goodbye
2. Gives You Hell
3. Hello (featuring Jonathan Groff)
4. A House Is Not A Home
5. One Less Bell To Answer / A House Is Not A Home (featuring Kristin Chenoweth)
6. Beautiful
7. Home (featuring Kristin Chenoweth)
8. Physical (featuring Olivia Newton-John)
9. Total Eclipse Of The Heart (featuring Jonathan Groff)
10. Lady Is A Tramp
11. One
12. Rose’s Turn
13. Dream On (featuring Neil Patrick Harris)
14. Safety Dance
15. I Dreamed A Dream (featuring Idina Menzel)
16. Loser
17. Give Up The Funk
18. Beth
19. Poker Face (featuring Idina Menzel)
20. Bad Romance

(Deluxe Edition tracks are listed in bold.)

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Glee#Track_listing
for full info on Music from Glee, including listings and release dates

Filed under  //   arts   culture   diary   Glee   media   music   press   scraps