Every Monday I post whatever song I can't get out of my head or just can't get enough of, because Mondays can often be less than marvelous, and music is happy--even when it's sad. If you'd like to join the party, just make your own Musical Monday post and leave a comment!
This week's song is "God Save the Foolish Kings" by House of Heroes. It comes from their new album that will be released in August. HOH is one of my favorite bands; their music is energetic and unconventional in the best way possible.
Every Monday I post whatever song I can't get out of my head or just can't get enough of, because Mondays can often be less than marvelous, and music is happy--even when it's sad. If you'd like to join the party, just make your own Musical Monday post and leave a comment!
This week's song is "Writers' Blok" by Jackson Pearce, author of the delightful As You Wishand the soon-to-be-released-but-already-being-shipped-from-online-stores Sisters Red. She posted this video on her blog last Monday when I was in the thick of final papers, paintings, and prints and really good at finding other things to do instead. It's funny, creative, and true--and I hope you like it. If you do, Pearce has put the song up as a free download here.
Enjoy! And then keep scrolling down for fun things like pictures.
Great video, yes?
Back in March I posted about my painting class and mentioned that the first assignment required me to draw inspiration from a piece of literature, and I chose Paper Towns by John Green. Lauren left a comment asking if anyone would get to see the painting. The answer to that question is "No," because it didn't turn out well. It was over-planned and too labored, and didn't end up looking that great. On the plus side, though, it was a lesson in using inspiration but not letting it control me, and I learned more about what paint can do through all the experimenting I did on that one. Lately I've been trying out different ways of applying paint and using texture, and I'm also playing with abstract figures and forms. So while you don't get to see that painting, I don't see why I can't share a couple others. The following two photos show the two paintings that I consider to be my most successful of the semester: This one is still leaning on my easel, and you can see portions of some notes I wrote myself on the chalkboard behind it.
You may have noticed that there's a headless woman in both paintings. On the first one, I just didn't feel she needed a head. (A friend jokingly informed me that this is sexist (haha!), but there's no intellectual reason for the headlessness. I just didn't think a head would fit compositionally.) On the second, I ran out of canvas. The above two paintings were completely unplanned (because I'm also playing with being spontaneous), and since I didn't know the purple shape would become a woman, I didn't know she'd need space for a head. But it worked out; she looks all mysterious now.
This woman appears in a couple other paintings, and she has a head there, as in this one, which is just a portion of the entire painting, since I'm not completely satisfied with it yet:
Over the summer I'm supposed to think about what she might mean, but all I have so far is that she's fun to paint :) I'm not sure what direction I'm going as I keep painting, and I'm not even sure that I like the direction I decided to go over the last couple months, but I'm sure I'll have an enjoyable adventure figuring all that out.
And now you know what I'm doing when I'm not reading :)
1. It's spring (not that you can tell from my banner)! The weather is more beautiful than my computer, which I have seen far too much of lately due to the three papers I turned in last week.
2. I'm finally out of my reading slump! I didn't post that I had one, but I did. While I've been crazy busy this semester, great books can usually wriggle into my schedule, but I've started and put down a lot of books over the last few months. I'm not going to jinx my shiny new literary love and tell you what it is, though, just in case it doesn't end up working out. I'm fickle.
I'm going outside. And I'm reading. (But first I have to go to class. Sigh. I want a Nature Day.) Enjoy your Monday :)
Every Monday I post whatever song I can't get out of my head or just can't get enough of because Mondays can often be less than marvelous, and music is happy--even when it's sad. If you'd like to join the party, just make your own Musical Monday post and leave a comment!
Bookduck hasn't been very bookish lately, and I apologize for that. Book-related posts can be expected again in a couple weeks, when I have Spring Break, time to take a breath, and post something besides a weekly song.
This week's song is, ironically, "Excuses" by Deas Vail.
Hi, everyone! Sorry Bookduck hasn't been very bookish lately. I'm taking quite a few credits this semester, and my freetime is small. I miss posting and reading and commenting and all that good stuff I haven't had time to do.
I have been blogging lately, but not at Bookduck; my American Lit class requires me to maintain an online reading journal in blog format. (I'm not inserting the link because it's pretty boring, unless you're dying to discuss Phillis Wheatley's poetry with me.)
In other literature-related news, my first painting assignment of the semester required me to draw inspiration from a work of literature, and I chose Paper Towns by John Green. (Which, if you haven't read it, is fantastic.) (Yes, I'm the only student who selected a work of YA fiction.) I'm finishing that up tonight and crossing my fingers for good things at critique this week.
I'll leave you with some links I've found interesting over the last few weeks:
This one is still leaning on my easel, and you can see portions of some notes I wrote myself on the chalkboard behind it.
The paper reads, "Need money to go back to Antarctica."