In the Labyrinth

Happy Fourth of July: Madrid, NM circa 1924 to 1932

 

As we all prepare for the various holiday festivities, I thought it would be enjoyable to share with you photos of Fourth of July festivities from the small mining town of Madrid, NM between 1924 and 1932. (I am not always sure of the dates on some of the photographs.) I have posted about Madrid, NM before (here and here) and every time I go back and look at the CD disk of 600 photos sent to me by Pinky Werner, the granddaughter of Oscar Huber, owner and superintendent of the mine, I am amazed at the obvious community spirit of the small town. Famous for its Christmas light shows, Madrid certainly didn't stint other holidays that brought the community out together to have fun and enjoy the day.

 

These photos show how Madrid did it up on the Fourth of July -- from parades of cars, decorated carts, floats, and bands. The baseball field was turned into a place for horse races, bronco busting, boxing matches, and Taos dancers. What is perhaps most wonderful about these photos is that they are a far cry from "ghost-town" images we now have of Madrid -- and I think it important to remember the place as it was -- alive, working, and celebrating together.

In the Office...

I am so used to getting those "out of the office" replies to email that alert me to the fact that the person I am in a hurry to contact is unavailable. In my case, I shall be taking a ten day break from the blog (unless something too good to miss passing on comes up) for the reason that I shall be "in the office" working like mad to get the final, bone-slashing, brush-cleaning edits on Except the Queen done as soon as possible. Jane's finished her pass at it, and now it's my turn to wield the unsympathetic red pen...

Fantasy and Nature Inform Fashion from Europe to Ethiopia

Have a look at the work of fashion photographer, Frances J Melhop (a New Zealand native now living and working in Italy). Her work is primarily for European fashion magazines and she uses her fantastic and fairy tale images to depict everything from ghosts selling shoes, Thumbelina selling itty-bitty lingerie, shapeshifting women to sell ? and tiny photographed fairies on embroidered backgrounds to sell designer fabric. Browsing through her site is really interesting and I think you will find some of the whimsical combinations compelling.

 

On the other hand, have a look this astonishing collection of photographs by Hans Silvester of the Surma and Mursi people of East Africa's Omu Valley -- a place that inspires unique fashions from its lush and abundant natural beauty. You can view a slideshow of the photographs here -- and I would recommend the book as well, Ethiopia: Peoples of the Omu Valley, in which Silvester chronicled the daily lives of the people in the Omu Valley, from children's games, rituals, parades and even battles, and a second more recent book Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration From Africa, which also gorgeous.

 

With special thanks to Masha for the Hans Silvester link and Hillary Blackwood for the Frances Melhop link.

Catherynne Valente's "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship of Her Own Making"

I am kicking myself for I meant to post on Monday about this terrific new online project by the inestimable Catherynne Valente. Every Monday Valente will post a new chapter in her YA novel, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Valente is one helluva talented and fearless storyteller, and I am always amazed by her work -- the first chapter, is wry and wonderful!  And there is an audio version of it as well...how cool is that?

While the novel is being offered for free, readers do have an opportunity to donate whatever they think might be fair. Let me encourage you to donate to this remarkable writer for the pleasure of her work -- and you can go here to find out why Valente's entrepreneurial spirit in the face of adversity should be supported and celebrated.

"Muslim Voices, Western Ears" and The Adventures of Amir Hamza

I have been writing so much lately about The Adventures of Amir Hamza and its epic sequel Hoshruba, The Land of the Tilism so I was thrilled when I read in today's WSJ an article by Melik Kaylan on the 10 day festival of Muslim Voices, staged around New York City. Kaylan mentions specifically a terrific performance of The Adventures of Amir Hamza by The Asia Society.  Here's a quote:

"To take another example: At the Asia Society, "Dastangoi: The Adventures of Amir Hamza" was performed simply by two storytellers in white silk outfits sitting on a low wood platform with cushions. They were joined by Naseeruddin Shah, an Indian film actor and celebrity, who provided the evening's star turn. As they explained with fluent poise in perfect English in the introduction, these were centuries-old oral tales derived from Persian epics that relate the near-occult adventures of Amir Hamza, a purported uncle of the Prophet. The traditions attained a peak in 19th-century Lucknow, India, when thousands would turn up for days to hear the verse-epics of love, war, betrayal and sorcery. The last old-time Dastangoi, or practitioner of the art, died in Delhi in 1920.

"Faced with two hours of nonstop Urdu, I expected the worst. But the performance proved riveting. The perfectly pitched musicality of the voices, by turns lyrical and humorous; the astonishing plasticity of facial expressions; the infinitely varied hand-gestures -- suddenly, I was staring down the centuries at a civilization's golden moment. This, I thought, is how all those figures in miniatures would sound and act if they came to life."

I have been thinking a good deal about the novel's origin as an oral performance -- master storytellers enthralling their audiences with tales that would have been very familiar. I'll try to put out a post in a few days with some reflections about how the novel still "reads" in a storyteller's voice. It's interesting, I think. And in the meantime, check out this fabulous blogsite dedicated to Dastangoi: The Art of Storytelling. It's photo and information rich and really gives one a sense of the liveliness of a performance.

Téa Obreht: "The Tiger's Wife"

The best reason to run out and find a copy of The New Yorker's Summer Fiction Issue, June 8, 2009 is for the debut of a brilliant new writer,Téa Obreht and her story "The Tiger's Wife."  I don't want to say anything about it -- hoping that you might experience the same pleasure of reading it as I did, with no expectations beforehand and afterward, utterly gobsmacked.  However, I have discovered I am not the only one over the last week to sound the horns for this remarkable young writer and if you want to read more about the story you can peek here and here. The best part is the short piece is an excerpt from a novel of the same name due out in 2010. Keep Téa Obreht on your radar. And while waiting, you can read an interview here.

A second thought: I was furious that The New Yorker didn't offer a free online version of this story -- but encourage folks to sign up for a "free" preview of the digital edition, so as not to missout on this story. Really, you won't be sorry. Turns out you can only read the most current issue...aaaargh..I'm a few days too late!

Thirty Years and Still Sweet...

Happy Anniversary Mister! We look so earnest, so young, and so in love hanging on to each other. I made my wedding dress two days before the wedding -- a Vogue pattern of an Albert Nippon dress, fabric was $1.39 a yard. The most expensive thing in the wedding we paid for was your suit -- which is still hanging in the closet...a 70s classic, just like us!

Here's to the next thirty years....

Amanda McKittrick Ros: Ireland's Worst Author Still Reigns Supreme

Any day you think your own writing might, you know, suck, treat yourself to this hilarious article by Miles Corwin from the Smithsonian on Amanda McKittrick Ros, still considered the undefeated title holder of the "greatest bad writer who ever lived." The Inklings (C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien) used to see who could read her fiction aloud with a straight face the longest. And with passages like this from her novel Irene Iddesleigh, I don't think I would have lasted very long:

"Speak! Irene! Wife! Woman! Do not sit in silence and the blood that now boils in my veins to ooze through cavities of unrestrained passion and trickle down to drench me with its crimson hue."

You go Amanda! And for a couple more dubious accolades and examples go here and here.

Madonna and Brian Froud

  

Well, now there's a pairing. And yet I couldn't resist thinking it when I saw a notice on Art News Blog about an exhibit of Martin Schreiber's photographs ** at a Brighton, England gallery called "The Impure Gallery" (which identifies itself as "a naughty little gallery"). Included in the show is a nude photograph of Madonna sitting, taken in 1979. It's really a rather nice image -- mostly because it is sensual, but also because she pulled her hair up and away from her ears, and it almost seems as though she has pointed ears. In her pose, she looks so much like a Brian Froud fairy woman -- especially the one below (minus the wings and riotous background!) -- a voluptuousness combined with that slightly cloaked expression. Go see for yourself...you will need to scroll down just a bit past the awful painting of Guy and Madonna. ( **Probably NSFW and if you are picky about what your kids see...)

 

Actually, I have a fascination with pairing contemporary imagery with fantastic and mythic art. It's easy with fashion of course -- which often presents clothing as mythic ritual (right down to the weird gait of the catwalk) or fairy tale. Those you can see here, here, and here. But I also love the work of photographer Pierre Gonnord, whose contemporary portraits have the same haunting intensity of portraits painted centuries before. You can see more them here.

Revisions: Except the Queen To Get a Make Over

"Revision is just as important as any other part of writing and must be done con amore."

--Evelyn Waugh

Jane Yolen and I have just received our revision notes from our editor for the new novel Except the Queen. Not too bad -- but there is a matter of 15,000 words that need to be edited out to create a more compact manuscript of 110,000 words. And there are the suggestions that some sections must go while others must be built up. And then of course the niggling confusing plot issues that eluded us while we were focused on the BIG picture.

I know it's good and right to do. I know it has to be done. But I might need a day or two to find the love that Waugh recommends.  I tend to think that revision like revenge is a "dish best served cold" -- it requires cool, emotional detachment to murder the darlings and precious phrases that once seemed so admirable.

*art is "Fairies Among the Mushrooms" by Thomas Heatherley

Calamity and Creativity: Twin Forces of Writing

Two compelling online offerings, one from the WSJ and the other from Ted.com :

"It Was Like, All Dark and Stormy," is a fascinating article by Katie Rophie for the WSJ on the very dark and violent (and yet redemptive) trends in contemporary teen fiction: "Until recently, the young-adult fiction section at your local bookstore was a sea of nubile midriffs set against pink and turquoise backgrounds. Today’s landscape features haunted girls staring out from dark or washed-out covers. Current young-adult best sellers include one suicide, one deadly car wreck, one life-threatening case of anorexia and one dystopian universe in which children fight to the death. Somewhere along the line our teenagers have become connoisseurs of disaster."

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love gives a brilliant lecture on nuturing creativity. Consider it a must for all writers -- even successful ones like Gilbert who suddenly found herself in the spotlight with a bestseller book and her creativity crouching under a rock. She uses myth as a way of disconnecting the author from the tyranny of publishing expectations, and offers a way to embrace the inner genius we all have to allow us to create. Great stuff! (via Terri and Amal with thanks!)

The Sublime Stu Jenks

Longtime friend of the Endicott Studio, the Journal of Mythic Arts, and Mythic Journeys, Stu Jenks, a Tucson photographer, got a terrific write up by Geoff Notkin in the local Tucson Citizen's blog today. And well deserved it is. Stu's photographs of nature are not only gorgeous, but also spiritually rich, supernaturally charged, and mythic. Endicott did an article on Stu a few years back, which you can read here, and Stu's website is full of gallery images of his remarkable work -- from the brooding Megaliths of Scotland to the anagogical imagery of Circles, Hoops and Spirals of the Southwest. And stop by his wonderful blog where he shares so much more of his art, his writings, and his reflections on the life of an artist.  And stop by here to have a look at the new book, Flame Spirals, available at Lulu in paperback or downloadable versions.