· stories · tales · hearsay · hypotheses ·
Just had to include this wonderful explanation of contrapuntal music by Anthony Tommasini of the NYT. What has music got to do with writing? For me, everything. Wonderful stories use contrapuntal story lines even if the writer doesn't realize it's "contrapuntal". Personally, I think all writers should learn to play an instrument.
Sometimes you see something so idiosyncratic, so beautiful, it completely changes the way you think about an art form. Like in this clip of Mathias Heymann dancing Genus, a creation of Wayne McGregor for the Paris Opera Ballet. In this clip I see a little bit of everything, ballet, modern dance, hip hop, and something more which I found hard to define until I started reading about McGregor's work: visual art, computer technology, biological sciences are all a keen part of what he does. And there is something so biological about Genus, so of the body, beautifully demonstrated by Heymann, not only in the way he moves, but in the actual formation of his dancer body, muscle and sinew matching and contrasting hypnotic music — so very riveting.
The song is called "Eisbär" and it's from Grauzone c. 1981.
The lyrics go like this:
Eisbär - Eisbär
kaltes Eis
kaltes Eis.
Eisbär - Eisbär - oh
Eisbär.
Ich möchte ein Eisbär sein im kalten Polar
dann müsste ich nicht mehr schrei'n
alles wär' so klar.
Ich möchte ein Eisbär sein im kalten Polar
dann müsste ich nicht mehr schrei'n
alles wär' so klar.
Ich möchte ein Eisbär sein im kalten Polar
dann müsste ich nicht mehr schrei'n
alles wär' so klar.
Ich möchte ein Eisbär sein im kalten Polar
dann müsste ich nicht mehr schrei'n
alles wär' so klar.
Eisbär'n müssen nie weinen
Eisbär'n müssen nie weinen
Eisbär'n müssen nie weinen
Eisbär'n müssen nie weinen.
The gist is simply "I want to be a Polar bear because then I wouldn't be crying anymore."
As if this video wasn't great enough, check the one to follow. It's Nouvelle Vague doing their own wry send-up. The singer is a vapid fashionista lounging on a Polar bear rug, singing so very languidly, "I wanna be a Polar bear".
What if you're a writer and you have a stroke and can't read anymore? Can you still write? Can you still write books? For this writer, the answer is yes!
Kartika Review just came out with their fabulous Home issue. OK, I am a little biased as my short story "The Gratitude of Bones" is included. But it is a pretty cool issue with tons of wonderful things to read, including essays by Asian American artists on what home means to them. To download the full issue, just click here! And please read my story and say something nice because I'm a pretty sad charity case and am not too proud to beg. ;)
Indulge in misery! Click Here!
Once upon a time there was a Vietnamese restaurant. And then there were two, and four, and eight, until one corner of downtown had hundreds, all clumped together and indistinguishable. (To read more about this tragic tale of pho, click here.)
Sometimes you're searching for a family and you don't even know it. Sometimes a family finds you. (To read more about a boy who collects a family, click here.)
© J.A. Pak
