In search of the real thing

  Novelist Sherman Alexie generated hundreds of tweets, puns, grammar jokes and arguments with the simple Twitter post embedded above: “Grammar cops are rarely good writers. Imagination always disobeys,” he wrote.
You wake up with a key gripped tightly in your hand.  How did you get this key?  What does it lock or unlock? Bukowski and Alexie rock!

It seems that we recognise talent far more easily when it’s accompanied by success ~ Ach, what a talented world we live in. These days, hole up in a hotel room almost anywhere in the world, turn on the TV and, depending where you are, you might soon find yourself deeply immersed in the latest episode of, say, Slovakia’s Got Talent. I know it when I see it

In our work-ethic-as-self-worth culture, we ignore the importance of laziness to a life well lived. Leisure, not doing, is so terrifying in our culture that we cut it up into small, manageable chunks throughout our working year in case an excess of it will drive us mad, and leave the greatest amount of it to the very end, in the half-conscious hope that we might be saved from its horrors by an early death. What do you do all day ---The Art of Surviving

The Voice Is All

it occurred to me
that poetry is a gate;
and you might say
that’s a given,
considering we live in
a world, fenced and
narrow, harrowing
in its complexity,
seeking simplicity,
some gentle touch.

m but what if instead
it led, not out of
the world to some
secret garden, but into
the pit of vipers, where
snipers and grifters
drift between violence
and silence, and
, dare not to dream
That simple dream

“Every journalist who is not too stupid or full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.”
There is truly a courageous spirit inhabiting Janet Malcolm

In the first half, [...Podhoretz's] thesis is that the dirty little secret among the left, among artists and intellectuals, is that they really want to make it, and they want to make it big. And they conceal that from themselves and from others. But this is really the motivating factor that is never talked about. You can talk about sex but you can’t talk about ambition and desire for success.
~ Mailer also talks about the hypocrisy of the culture industry, via Podhoretz’s “Making It”

Why do we get pleasure from the imagination? Isn't it odd that toddlers enjoy pretense, and that children and adults are moved by stories, that we have feelings about characters and events that we know do not exist? As the title of a classic philosophy article put it, how can we be moved by the fate of Anna Karenina? The Pleasures of Imagination

Writers like to be seen as “artists” who suffer for our work–this gives us a great excuse to act out our neuroses, to selfishly lock ourselves away from the rest of the world as we “gestate” and create. And yes, it’s the perfect excuse for acting childish. Maybe the metaphor is reversed. Maybe our novels are creating and raising us? Maybe it’s our stories that school us and provide structure for our worlds, bringing control to the chaos, and guiding us through life? That I could believe. Because without stories, the ones in my head as well as the ones written by others, I would have no way to make sense of this crazy world…..much less all the crazy stuff that came through the doors of my ER. Think about it. With books, we have generations of knowledge, guidance, moral lessons to help us create our society. Where would we be without the wisdom of Homer, Dickens, Shakespeare, Buck, Twain, Dumas, Bradbury, and so many others? What kind of world would we be living in if we didn’t have their stories?
What kind of world will our children live in, if we don’t give them the gift of reading and instill in them a love of stories? Scary thought, isn’t it?

Everybody Knows The Last Bookstore

Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
~ Leonard Cohen, “Everybody Knows”

Authors have always faced a tough path: chronic rejection, no job security, low pay (if you’re lucky). But there’s a new threat to add to that list of old perils: the online revenge review. Everybody’s a critic, even the tailor

My father’s father was a carpenter. I never met my grandfather, but I know from photographs and stories that in addition to farming, keeping dairy cows, and working on a cannery line, he earned money by carpentry. I also know from the sawhorses that my father inherited from his father The Last Bookstore

New biographies shed light on the cohort of Germans of Jewish descent who historians have portrayed as having served the Nazis. Before Schindler’s List, an L.A. studio boss saved hundreds of Jews from the Holocaust. Why was he alone

"I always tell my students that if the reader knows something about your psychology that you do not admit, you're in trouble. The reader will notice that you're an asshole because instead of going to your mother's deathbed you're out buying really nice designer boots. If you don't acknowledge the assholery of that choice, then there's a rift, a disjunction between narrator and reader. And in autobiography, that intimacy is part of what readers want. They have to trust your judgment."
Mary Karr, interview, The Paris Review (Winter 2009)

Power is in the hands of ill informed event organisers

I don’t recall a time when our community has been abused so much by few thugs. A Sydney mother was allegedly threatened with legal action twice by a private parking company over a $173 fine notice that was never received for an infringement that did not occur, a court has heard. Australian National Car Parks are currently under investigation by NSW Fair Trading Paul Gyles and Victor Nudle

The strangest experience ever on Australian soil ... I understand that a number of people were not admitted to this event tonight even though they paid for their tickets at $65 per person - the bad feelings, inconvenience and waste of time are hard to express as the event was supposed to be about tolerance. This is very opposite to what film festivals run by Palace cinemas are all about as the aim is all about tolerance and shedding more light on multiculturalism, practicing inclusiveness and most of all a fun filled cultural experience.

Meet The Gatekeepers at WIZO's Gala Event | WIZO NSW. www.wizonsw.org.au 28 August 2013 at 6:00pm in UTC+10. Ballroom ATC Randwick Racecourse . It was, as they say in the world of documentary and non-fiction, a great Filmmaker Dror Moreh convinced all six surviving former heads of Israel’s notorious secret service, the Shin Bet, to sit down for a series of interviews reflecting on their time in the top job To be frank DROR MOREH would be saddened by Sydney Randwick Racecourse Treatments ~ For the first time in history, all the former heads of Israel's internal secret service, Shin Bet, have joined together to send a message to the Israeli people—the window of opportunity to negotiate a peaceful solution with Palestine is closing Review of note which compliments pamphlets at Verona ~ Great documentary films often force you to look at things you thought you knew about in a different way. ~~~ Out of Shadow

Anthony Loewenstein on extremists

You’re Only As Good As Your Last Prolonged Period of Self-Loathing

Only in dreams, in poetry, in play do we sometimes arrive at what we were before we were this thing that, who knows, we are.
— Julio Cortázar, born almost 100 years ago in Mittleurope of Belgium - he was a modern master of the short story and according to my four sisters the best looking Argentinian Spanish boy on jackets oftanya of his books

The painful Absurdity of my life is reflected not just in the escape across the Iron Curtain but also the strange experiences at the Bear Pits ... Every year new stranger and taxier stories come out few with happy endings as this one - Robert Vaughn in his memoir becomes concerned about a Czech-born production assistant with the unusual name of Pepsi Watson - her father became a Czech citizen and named her after the one thing from the West he missed the most. In the days after the invasion she handed out anti-Soviet newspapers, even though people had been shot for this.
Both actors recount that at the International Hotel she went up to the balcony and hurled a Russian flag like a javelin at the tanks below. Gazzara says it followed an argument. Vaughn ties it to Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubček's speech after he returned from Moscow, clearly having been tortured. It was the speech where Dubček mentions that the situation in Czechoslovakia will be "normalized." ?.. "Like everyone else in Prague, Apolina wanted to leave once the Russians came, and the Gazzaras were ready to help" Comic Tragedies

Two wonderfully funny essays on the crafting of Cold River by Graeme Cameron Guided By Voices and You’re Only As Good As Your Last Prolonged Period of Self-Loathing
"It's difficult to accept what your psyche or history dooms you to write, what Faulkner would call your postage stamp of reality. Young writers often mistakenly choose a certain vein or style based on who they want to be, unconsciously trying to blot out who they actually are. You want to escape yourself."
~ Mary Karr, interview, The Paris Review (Winter 2009)

Hear from veteran bestsellers and first time authors whether or not they feel parental toward their literary creations Is Your Book Your Baby?

This chapter and verse comes from the voice of Czech born writer and Anglicky bred preacher Sir Tom Stoppard Listen now Front Row - Elysium review

Not long before Jesus’ death, a rich young man asked him what good thing he should do to have eternal life. Jesus told him to keep the six commandments that Jesus then listed for him. The youth, replying that he had always kept them, then said, “What do I still lack?” Jesus replied, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell whatever you own and give to the poor, and you will have a treasure house in heaven, and come follow me I'mRich Yet I have no Love of Money

From Another Tongue: the story of the human race is war

"This evening heard Carmen on the radio, and reflected how hard it was to vamp a man while singing at the top of one's voice. That is the operatic problem; the singer must keep up a head of steam while trying to appear secretive, or seductive, or consumptive. Some ingenious composer should write an opera about a group of people who were condemned by a cruel god to scream all the time; it would be an instantaneous success, and a triumph of verisimilitude."
Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (courtesy of Paul Moravec - from Morava River?)

What (if anything) gives literature value? Not originality or profundity, says Terry Eagleton. Great literature requires great criticism. How to Read Literature
Needing nothing less than a miracle to save myself Of I value Scrivener templates too
Arion Press is the only full-service letterpress left in America. From its cavernous workshop emerges that rarest thing: the perfect book A “peculiar slant / Of memory
Political power, said Mao, “grows out of the barrel of a gun.” His fondness for bloodshed should not blind us to the accuracy of his observation *** Anthony Less or Lesser *** Why Violence Works
Melville’s marginalia. His gifts weren’t born in a vacuum, but of a relentless rereading of the great books. Forget that blog is just one letter away from bog, or that the passel of burgeoning “literary” websites is largely a harvest of inanity with only the most tenuous hold on actual literature. "So many people write because they lack the character not to."

War and marriage. After World War I, survivors craved stability, not passion. After World War II, love (and sex) was prized above all Times are a changing ~ Moritz Erhardt had been interning with investment bank Merrill Lynch Magic Roundabout ~  A public-spirited chap called Adam Andrzejewski got fed up with the lack of governmental transparency and decided to do something about it.  Hence his invaluable website Open the Books, a project of For the Good of Illinois, Inc., a non-partisan, non-profit organization founded by Mr. Andrzejewski in 2007. The goal of Open the Books is something that the Obama administration came to office promising but never delivered: transparency.  Hence its motto: “Every dime. Online.” Every Dime. Online

"There are very few of us who are strong enough to make circumstances serve us."
Somerset Maugham, The Circle

Your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace

"Crocodiles are easy. They try to kill and eat you. People are harder. Sometimes they pretend to be your friend first."
— Steve Irwin 

"Crying does not indicate that you are weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you are alive."
— Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

Once you find an agent you would like to represent your book, the pitch letter is the next step in the traditional publishing process. 23 Literary Agent Query Letters That Worked

We are fixated on the prospect of our own demise, believing in a world that can’t possibly go on without us. Call it apocalyptic narcissism. A certain Slav hasn’t been home in seven years. He thought he could stay away forever ... You Only Live Twice

i’ve got 99 problems and being a decaying organism that’s born to die in a society run by money that i can’t escape is one of them ...

Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about ourself.
— Introduction to Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

"You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace."
— Frank McCourt from Angela’s Ashes (Pilhov is captured in this phrase my grandmother's mind was a castle ;-)

I am a Dreamer on Rakhi Day

"I intend to live forever. So far, so good!"
~ Steven Wright (Wrong Steve? It might have been the Godfather Steve M ;-)

“Every story has already been told. Once you've read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel. Except that each writer brings to the table, if (he) she will let (himself) herself, something that no one else in the history of time has ever had."
― Anna Quindlen [Wisdom atCommencement Speech; Mount Holyoke College, May 23, 1999]”

Hills. Arnhem land. Meadow grass of Vrbov - Mamka's & Gitka's deserts - the world after a snow fall - wood chips from my dad's workshop - Aga's love for doors and windows - the smell of the forest after the rain - spring and fall seasons - roasted pumpkin and chestnuts - cognacs and Bawa's single malts by a fire - ocean air - stones and pebbles - leather - wood - shadows and reflections. The random things I love. Antiques. Old tools. Mitchell road. Malchkeoun's secret garden ...

Ideal HOme ~ Vintage inspirations ~ amazing Home ~ Old farm ~ via Micasaessucasa ~ minimal wood ~ Every saint has a past ... via oyster dirt ~ Tour de France ~ bungalow ~ silence

“Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.
This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose...
...Describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty - describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember. If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is not poverty and no poor, indifferent place. And even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s sounds – wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories? Turn your attentions to it. Try to raise up the sunken feelings of this enormous past; your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance. - And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it. A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

Expanding Cultures: Google+: Kelly Saks' Story

News from Google Blogger ...

From time to time, we like to highlight bloggers who successfully use Blogger and other Google products. Today we're featuring how Kelly Saks from Kelly's Kloset reached a wider audience with Blogger and Google+. All about Kelly:  Kelly Saks, the blogger behind Kelly’s Kloset, is a fashion and beauty expert based in Miami, Florida. 4 Million fashionists

Australia could face a growing threat from large nations with huge populations but diminishing food and resources, a new study warns. Strategic analyst Dr Robert O'Neill said those threats could be akin to those which confronted weaker states in the 18th and 19th centuries Expanding Down Under

Hat tip to Mitchell in Beijing:
Chinese workers have stepped up their campaign to scupper India’s largest acquisition of a US company, warning of continuing disruption at a joint venture that is a central element of the $2.5bn cross-border deal. The Chengshan Group operates a large factory in Shandong province with Ohio-based Cooper Tire, which accepted a buyout offer from India’s Apollo Tyres in June.
Chinese workers at the joint venture went on strike shortly after the deal was announced, and late last month Chengshan asked a local court to dissolve the venture with Cooper. It is the first time Chinese industrial action has targeted a large offshore acquisition involving two foreign companies, exposing a new risk for multinationals operating in the country.

Chengshan managers and the joint venture’s workers complain that they were not adequately consulted over the Apollo offer. They also argue that the deal will burden their prospective Indian owner with too much debt and result in a clash of corporate cultures. The union representing the joint venture’s 5,000 workers said they would “not welcome” senior Cooper managers assigned to the factory. The workers agreed to resume their shifts at the weekend, but insisted that they would only produce Chengshan tyres while boycotting any work on Cooper Tire branded products. “People are angry that Cooper Tire has refused to respect the union and employees’ right to information, to make suggestions and to participate in democratic management of the factory,” the workers said in a statement. “As long as [Cooper] does not respond to our legitimate concerns in a reasonable and satisfactory manner, the strike will continue.” Chinese try to derail India-US tyre deal

Jeremy Outen: Top fraud investigator quits UK crime agency role

Note to TF: Lou this is an amazing ship

The man appointed to co-ordinate the fight against financial crime in the new National Crime Agency will not be taking up the top job, in the latest setback for the government and its shake-up of the service. Jeremy Outen, a former KPMG partner, was announced as the new director-designate of the NCA’s Economic Crime Command by the Home Office in April.
He gave up his role in July with the forensic team at KPMG – where UK partners are paid an average of £580,000 – to take up a position at the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which will be rolled into the NCA when it launches this year.
However, Mr Outen has unexpectedly stepped down from the directorship, the Financial Times has learnt, despite his appointment being announced with fanfare by the Home Office only four months ago. His departure comes two weeks after the resignation of Sir Ian Andrews, chairman of Soca, who failed to declare that he owned a security consultancy with his wife, ahead of giving evidence to a parliamentary committee. Getting a senior leadership team in place

Creative Music For Soul: California rapper Raashan Ahmad and Bohemian Sarsha Simone

“We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams.
World-losers and world-forsakers,
Upon whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world forever, it seems.”
― Arthur O'Shaughnessy, Poems of Arthur O'Shaughnessy

Once upon a musical time Louis Armstrong said: “There’s two kinds of music; the good and the bad. I play the good kind”.

Not sure how many people have heard of Niels Bohr, the Danish Nobel Price winner. He noted that if individual souls are not shocked by quantum theory, they do not understand it ;-) That is what I feel about good soulful music. Such music should go deep and it should be disturbing. My hope is that many people will be disturbed, and acknowledge they have seen creative wrestle on you tube in "Music" by Rasashan & Sarsha. To deny that cute and playful creativity is happening in front of our eyes is to lose a fundamental, powerful part of the song.

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

Media Dragons are subjective and try to bring to surface good music such as “Music” which is the new single and video from Raashan Ahmad, and it features Ty and Sarsha Simone. The song comes from Ahmad's current album Ceremony. The visuals for the track “Music” that features UK verteran TY were shoot by Ashton Blessing, the man behing the equally great L’orange video for “Alone" - Czech out the simple yet complex song Music ~ Lady Gaga, I never expected to quote someone as young as her, said -" Let the blood and the bruises define your legacy.” ~~~ "The mind is everything. What you think you become." Sasha: Melodic Child of the Velvet Revolution Belgium Influence ~ “Those who dance are considered insane by those who cannot hear the music.” ― George Carlin Grandfather's Polish connections

Coda: The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses Anthropological Roots Of Slav(e)s

CHAPTER & VERSE penned by Sarsha: 1. I Came In The Form Of The Rays Of The Sun
Rise Of The Moon Sound Of The Drum
All In The Tune No Words To Speak
Kiss Of The Soul Smile On Your Cheek
Rocking The Beat And I Cant Even Choose
Finding The Good And The Joy In The Blues
Digging You Girl Can You Be My Muse
Travel The World See My Shoes
Dancing Feet Party And Play It’s A Passionate Week
Taking The Beat From The Sacrifice
Chop And Loop Make A Passionate Life
With The Music Sick To My Soul
Living In Love And Its Out Of Control
Feel Like A Drug I’m Addicted To Flow
Rush Of The Track High Of The Show
The Feeling Come On And The Higher We Go
Feeling Come On And The Higher We Go
Shockin And Clockin And Droppin The Toxin
The Whole World Is Watching

Music CHORUS VERSE 2. E.t. Bmx New Handlebars
Travel Light Hope You Can Handle Ours
New Music Air Drum Cinema
Take A Seat Grab A Drink And A Candy Bar
It Travels Far Like Zanzibar
I Keep It Close Like A Heartbeat
When You Feel Lost In The Matrix
Strap Yourself Into The Car Seat
Something For The Most Low Most High
Doesn’t Really Matter Let Your Soul Fly

Soul Glow Oh My
Help Me Deal With Life As It Goes By
Fame Is But The Be All End All
Drag It Down Take Notes Transcendor
Other Mediums Cover Bpm’s
Late Night Drum Machines Yeah We Be Them
With Those Tasty Ingredients
Kicks And Snares Must Be Obedient
I Feel A Rush It’s Immediate
With Out This I Could’ve Been An Idiot

There are many fools or idiots in this world who are seduced into obsession, thanks to what behavioural scientist and Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino calls “selfsignalling”. This is the willingness to go to what seems like risible lengths to secure an object because the process of doing so demonstrates that they are imbued with certain qualities they hold dear, which in this case is insiderness and an understanding of value. It’s the same urge that underpins the entire luxury industry; as various executives I talk to always say, they aren’t selling anything anyone needs, so they have to sell “the dream”. THE DREAM

Strangely, the heards tend to follow the noise emanating from empty vessels - I read recently that more than a million copies of the hit song featuring rapper Lupe Fiasco have been sold in the US since its release in August last year. Although written by Sebastian, the song was released as a Lupe Fiasco song featuring Guy Sebastian, to capitalise on Fiasco's strong profile.
It appears the move has worked and to celebrate the achievement, Sebastian has indulged in a glass of Lous XIII de Remy Martin cognac - that retails at Dan Murphy's for just more than $A3000. Battle Scars

'This Did Something Powerful to Me

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.
--V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River

Have a look a two dozen famous authors when they were teens When we were wee wild

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
- Anaïs Nin

I know you already know this, but it's nice to see it affirmed with Disney video clips and cool photos: 10 Reasons Why Real Books Are Better Than digital ebooks
Here are some great first lines that impressed great first line writers A Literary Life in Sentences ...

“Poetry is mostly hunches.”
- John Ashbery

Salon tackles the immortal question: what’s the difference between literary fiction and other fictions? Literary Friction

When Gary Shteyngart writes "the novel fell on my head like a bowling ball and knocked me the hell out", I sincerely hope he is giving us an account of a book falling from a high shelf and causing concussion." John Repp on Andrea Barrett’s Archangel: “At the end of each of these five tales, realizations occur that can only be sublime, everything preceding them consisting of the mundane stuff of the world transformed by the alchemy of story.” Alchemy of the Absurd ~ What is good for life is not necessarily Good for blogging

Novelist Leighann Dobbs took three spots on our Self-Published Bestsellers List this week with her cozy mystery, 3 Bodies and a Biscotti ~ To help GalleyCat readers discover self-published authors, we compile weekly lists of the top eBooks in four major marketplaces for self-published digital books: Amazon, B&N, Apple iBookstore and Smashwords. You can read all the lists below, complete with links to each book Currents of Self Publishing Rivers

"It's easy to be lonely when all your friends are human"
~ Jane Yeh, "On Being an Android."

Among the Immortals

The memorial involved piling between 50 and 60 tonnes of stone ~ Art of Rock

This 12-year-old Egyptian boy is putting together some very complex arguments against the Muslim Brotherhood's attempt to grab power in Egypt This young Egyptian Boy Flabbergasts An Interviewer

Author, Susan Hill, talks about writing people into crime fiction for a writing how-to series 'One of the most useful things a writer can do is sit about in coffee shops and pubs, alone, with a newspaper as cover' Czech out the Sydney bible and Susan's helpful story Like many green scribblers Media Dragon is grateful to Susan whose blog and emails managed to Give birth to Cold River

Eleanor Catton, a lecturer in creative writing at Manukau Institute of Technology, has been long-listed for the 2013 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for her novel The Luminaries

I’ve always been drawn to the end of the road, to the edges of where one might be allowed to travel, whether blocked by geographic features, international borders, or simply the lack of any further road

Fallen Idols: Nothing Like Being Scared

“You love the end product, but you don’t really want to know how it’s made.”

“If we didn’t read people who were bastards, we’d never read anything,” says Mary Karr. “Even the best of us are at least part-time bastards” Fallen Idols

When it comes to ideas, be a flirt, says Ben Kafka. Make everything unstable, uncertain; test the limits of your knowledge. Risk a slide into dilettantism. What sorts of explanations do we offer,” Kafka writes, “what sorts of anecdotes do we share, what sorts of ridicule do we heap on that man or woman on the other side of the desk or telephone?” He regards paperwork as one of the most ubiquitous, least understood forms of media in modern history

Portrait of madness. Shirley Jackson experimented with voodoo and tried to raise the devil. Her writing conveyed its own shock Nothing Like Being Scared

Comanchero boss Jay Malkoun sells up for new life overseas

Once a Media Dragon, Always a Writing Dragon. Start Now!

The tangle of self-promotion in publishing: social media and humiliation is the name of the game. In a nutshell, publishing a book, like Cold River: an escape across the Iron Curtain, is an exercise in terror. Hell is self-promotion

Great or not so great writing is one of those things that help you bring out your inner emotions, lets you vent out and feel lighter. When it comes to this, starting your own blog is a great option. It is simple, requires no investment and is really easy! It lets you communicate with so many people all over the world which you might never know otherwise. You get that precious chance to meet like-minded souls. Plus, it boosts your confidence like nothing else. Knowing you are a writer and someone can merely click on a link and read your thoughts is pretty cool! To be an effective curator of valuable content, and to keep creating interesting blog posts yourself, you need to constantly seek out fresh ideas about art, life and anything that makes this life of earth worth waking up to. Firstly you need friends like Christopher and they do not need to be Polish, you could befriend Australians like Steve or Peter W ... Once a Blogger, Always a Blogger. Start Now!
~~~ Amazing Artiste

Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf made national news recently when he published a post on his blog about the frequent irrelevancy of the Supreme Court. "A lot of what the Supreme Court does is simply irrelevant to what federal trial judges do on a daily basis," Blogger Kopf

If I’m not writing,” says Kelly Diels, founder of the popular site Cleavage, “that’s when you know I’m truly in trouble When Media Dragons Go Dark ...

The latest Technorati research reports that blogs, bloggers, and influencers rank very high with consumers on trust, popularity, and influence despite the fact that brands are not spending proportionately to their impact. Blogs actually rank among the top five for “most trustworthy” sources, outweighing Twitter in shaping opinion and Facebook for impacting purchase decision. Bloggers Are People, Too

What Are Actors For? Tränenregen” (“Rain of Tears”)

“There are moments when everything goes well; don’t be frightened, it won’t last.”
― Jules Renard quoting (Master craftsman Henry O. Studley

Life is stranger than fiction, but sometimes all you want is the not-made-up-stuff ~ In his 1992 interview with The New York Times, Cormac McCarthy said, “The ugly fact is books are made out of books. The novel depends for its life on the novels that have been written.” After scraping a living as a scullion, Irving Wardle became a drama critic for the Times. It set him on a lifelong quest to answer one question:
Gabbie in US is also asking WHAT IS THEATRE
FOR

The top ten relaxing songs are known to be 
1. Marconi Union - Weightless 
2. Airstream - Electra 
3. DJ Shah - Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix)  4. Enya - Watermark
5. Coldplay - Strawberry Swing
6. Barcelona - Please Don't Go 
7. All Saints - Pure Shores 
8. Adelev Someone Like You 
9. Mozart - Canzonetta Sull'aria 
10. Cafe Del Mar - We Can Fly What is Music For? ~ The most beautiful melody  in the world is the one that at the moment you can't get out of your head. Not in the sense of worming annoyingly into your mind, but rather of somehow capturing something important and moving to you in particular, which may or may not be something that moves the masses. For me, off and on for some time, it's been a relatively obscure Yiddish song from 1911: Mayn rue Plats, which I find passionately, sadly, hauntingly beautiful. Also subtly ironic, because I don't ultimately believe in art that flaunts its politics, even when I agree with the politics. This is a high-leftist song by Morris Rosenfeld, who was known as "the sweatshop". I always appreciate it when art violates my principles and still works. This one does. From the first time I heard it, I was transfixed. Like a haunting face, like love, that's what a great melody can do for you. The Most Beautiful Melody in the World belongs to a song written over a century ago and the song takes place in the graveyard not at the Kommunist Iron Curtain (my daughters of the Velvet Revolution are yet to pen that one), but in another brutal sweatshop under kapitalism. It was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City’s history. A dropped match on the 8th floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory sparked a fire that killed over a hundred innocent people trapped inside. The private industry of the American factory would never be the same. You know it when you hear it ;-)

Martin has the inside scoop, in part because in 2007, the GQ correspondent was hired by HBO to write an official behind-the-scenes companion to The Sopranos. He was given incredible access to the show's production of its final season. If you're watching (or re-watching) The Wire, Deadwood, Breaking Bad or Mad Men this summer, Brett Martin's book is for you Life is stranger than fiction, but sometimes all you want is the not-made-up-stuff

The Greeks believed that libraries were places of great healing, and that poetry and literature revealed deep spiritual truths. I still believe that today, that seeing alternatives played out in a novel can give you an idea of what to do in your own life, and that sometimes a made up story has more insight into heartbreak, despair, loss, frustration, and failure (and joy, and hope, and love) than any life coach-supplied affirmation or self-help to do list. The Bibliomancer

You’ve no doubt all heard the story of Al Capone, the notorious American mob personality that was finally caught because of tax evasion. He coined the audacious statement, "the government can’t collect taxes on illegal money." And whether you’re involved in organized crime or not, there’s nothing surprising about cheating on your taxes. If you’ve ever worked a job that’s mostly tip-based, for example, you’ve probably done it. But you’d better believe that some of the richest and most ethically turned people have been caught red-handed cheating on their taxes. And here they are. Check out these 10 most surprising tax cheats, and be sure to correctly file before April 17th! 10 Most Surprising People Caught Cheating On Their Taxes

Time to slow down: Have Your Garden & Eat It Too

"[Fast] Life is fired at us point blank."
~ José Ortega y Gasset, Man and People

Media Dragons choose to eat S.L.O.W foods; that is seasonal, local - as in Howell's oasis garden, organic (or at least sustainable), whole foods.  We simply go back to our Slavic philosophy of eating as close to the natural source as possible. There’s an old saying, we are what we eat.

Last year in Spring I walked the aisles and rubbed shoulders with producers trying to figure out what the food's show trends were. Of all regional cuisines, foods from the King Island or anything from Barrosa Valley or King Island tend to steal the show. Yogurt, especially Antipodean Greek style and specialty versions of goat (Malchkeon knows her slow kids ) and sheep milk, continue booming. Olive oil was everywhere, including small batch, single estate, organic and mass produced versions. Nothing ever beats oil from Elmswood Farm. This is 10,000 acres of prime agricultural land in the Upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales in Australia. It embraces the tiny town of Gundy and rises from river flats to a mountain top sometimes dusted with snow. Purchased by Phillip Adams and Patrice Newell in 1986 it’s home to numerous products. Allegedly you add a decade to your life if you have a sip of Patrice Newell aka Patri Nostro Gloria every day :-) . This oil is a threat to anything coming from Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey.

The biggest underlying theme of last year’s show was craft, artisanship and tradition versus processed foods, though there were still plenty of those. Hard to find regional ingredients are not only becoming much more commonplace, they are increasingly available in much higher quality.

Slow Food Sydney is a convivum of Slow Food, an international non-profit organization which counteracts fast food and the disappearance of local food traditions. Founded in Italy in 1986 by Carlo Petrini, our movement affirms the principle of an eco-gastronomy, which is about respecting natural rhythms of seasons and sharing food at a convivial table, with awareness and responsibility New trend to purchase only food produce which is grown less than 160 kilometres away from my Bra Gal. Ach, and taking one's time in the kitchen is apparently one of the secrets to sumptuous bohemian afroindian food.

The Slow Food Movement advocates for alternative messages to fast food messages that permeate our society by promoting local production and food making. There are a myriad of flavours to enjoy around Sydney. It has long been thought that spicy foods help to speed up your metabolism, but the information on how and how long has been varied and remains somewhat mysterious. It is thought the main element that gives chilis their heat – capsaicin – is responsible for creating this effect, as it creates heat generation and raises body temperature upon consumption. We need to talk about spicy pepper sauces as real sources or objects of pleasure :-) We need to celebrate hot ingredients that make your taste buds dance. In winter spicy food will do your soul good. And when the weather gets hot or humid, eating a huge meal is often the last thing on everyone's mind. Even if it may seem counterproductive to try your new spicy recipes in the hot summer weather, it's actually a great way to beat the heat. Spicy foods trigger your sweat glands and will make them work overtime to increase your blood circulation, and producing sweat helps you cool down faster. Cultures in the world's hottest locations - like South America, India and Africa - have long ago incorporated foods flavored with hot chile peppers and spices as dietary staples

As luck would have it the one who must be obeyed has come across recently Uncle Tyrone’s Pepper Sauce which is well known throughout the Caribbean. The secret recipe has been brought to Australia in 2013 AD by one of the founder's nephews. Uncle Tyrone Caribbean Pepper Sauce - note the free delivery within 5km of Sydney CBD: Allegedly, souls who indulge in a glass of red, a drop of olive oil, a mouthful of avocados and generous touch of hot pepper source even forget to die. People like 128 years old Ma Pampo are not unusual in Caribbean Dominica. Just round the corner, a blogger of this entry was introduced to Ms Rose Peters, a mere stripling at 117, who had sorted cacao with Pampo, still walked down the lane, chatted to everyone and prayed twice a day. Those CaRibBeans have the concentration of centenarians and Greeks are nit far behind -- they're always living longer and enjoying life more deeply The island of long life

"Music is the great cheer-up in the language of all countries."
~ Clifford Odets, Golden Boy

There is nothing so uncertain as a sure thing

"You've never been in Sydney, have you?"

"No."

"We have quite a literary and artistic set there. Not much in my line, but sometimes I couldn't help myself. Women chiefly, you know. They talk a lot of tosh about books and then, before you knew where you were, they'd be wanting to pop into bed with you."
-- The Narrow Corner. The City of ExilesW Somerset Maugham (and gin) solve all travel problems.

‘I have the ghost of you pressing against my ribs like deep water.’
Loneliness. Its long white feathers drop and gather around my feet…’
~ End of Love

Regardless of whether you've had an amicable or tumultuous divorce, when you finally come out the other end single, the future can appear daunting Malchekeon & Media Dragopn In The Seventh Year of Bliss Does modern poetry czech its passion at the door Defending the Poetry of Affect Rule No. 1 of arts journalism, I tell my students, goes like this: "Never sleep with anybody you write about." Terry Reachout

One of my favorite scenes in modern literature is in Joe College by Tom Perrotta. The scene describes a down-on-his-luck "townie" who is standing on the sidewalk staring at a young undergrad from Yale University undressing in her dorm room. There's this great language describing a moat between the sidewalk and the dorm, and it of course represents the gulf between the Ivy League scholar and this local yokel.
When I first read the novel, this particular symbolism seemed a little too easy, so I walked down the street from my home in New Haven to check out where the author sets the place. Sure enough, there is a medieval-looking moat right where Perrotta says it is. I then walked around campus and found that the architecture of the university is largely made up of big stone walls, locked iron gates and moats (yes, moats) that wall off the school from the rest of the city. If you are lucky enough to get through a secured gate you'll find yourself in the middle of an idyllic quad surrounded by high academic buildings. A freshman waking up in a dorm room and walking across campus would never know that she was in the middle of a gritty city with an above-average crime rate. Placing Literature: Where Book Meets Map

Librarians in the movies:
Evelyn: Look, I... I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am.
Rick: And what is that?
Evelyn: I... am a librarian.

Abuse of Power in Jasper, Jarilo & Indus: ICAC's colourful cast of characters

“Like the fall of Rome, the fall of Troy. Like we'd flown too high and challenged the gods. It started out so small, just a whisper, but someone lost their nerve, someone let it slip, and suddenly it was out.” ~ In his sadly under-appreciated novel from 2000, Last Drinks, Andrew McGahan created one of Australia's notable recent works of crime fiction Like fictional character Marvin McNulty, Obeid Was At The Heart Of Power

How Bad Was It? As they say, never ever get too close to law making or sausage making proximity really can display how things really work. So It has been confirmed for outsiders of the law making process that the NSW Parliament tends to operate in extremely incestuous ways in its the corridors of power. Power everywhere be it under communism or capitalism seems to generate networks of intrigue and influence. If unczeched it is able to do business on the basis of special deals and special favours for special mates ICAC's colourful cast of characters ~ Postscript : Eddie Obeid lorded it over the Labor party for decades. Despite the smoke signals apparent for years, no one did anything about removing his influence from the party until his dishonesty and greed were exposed by the ICAC. Quite the opposite, they used his influence for their own ends Rise and Fall of the Godfather ~ Exclusive Linton Besser with Kate McClymont ~ Obeid was building a stable of young politicians who owed their careers to him A colourful figure, during the Carr years Mr Secord would tour the press gallery distributing releases and "drops" from a conveyance that became known as the "trolley of truth" Massive task ahead sorting out tainted Obeid assets ~ To wander the streets of Matrite is to witness the way Mr Obeid rules his home away from home -nMicrocosm, how a large world/society can be illustrated in the form of a small world (as opposed to a macrocosm) Matrite Microcosm ~ As always Google is peppered with links on this topic on some bloggers question whether the orchid is rotten not just the apples- when there are this many bad apples, one does start to wonder at the quality of the tree Google

As both Lord Acton and Elias Canetti have taught us, power has a way of transforming those who wield it. Even today, Obeid was in vintage form, truculently unloading on Labor colleagues. “I am a very respected person by all those that dealt with me,” he intoned. He will fight to the end.
Obeid does not appear ashamed of his actions. He doesn't even think he's done anything wrong. Perhaps in his own mind, he hasn't. In the Machiavellian world of Labor factional politics, the only values that matter are power, loyalty and mutual reward. We'll have to wait for a lengthy series of court cases to find out whether Obeid has broken any laws. But as far as the rules of the modern Labor Party are concerned, he played fair and true:

Media Dragon was at the edge of the corruption forest

Every Brutal Abuse of Power Reflects on All of Us - Jarilo

Indus