Tim Jones's Blog, page 25

The Joy Of Influence: Light Rail Coyote to Tuesday Poem

The original Light Rail Coyote: Portland, OR, 2002



Last week, I was the editor of the hub Tuesday Poem, and I chose Helen Lehndorf's fine poem Oh Dirty River, for reasons I detail below the poem itself. But there's another angle to the story that I didn't know at the time I posted the poem.



Wellington readers will know that there's a lot of debate about the future of Wellington's transport system at the moment. Whereas the Government has decided (quite rightly) to back an expansion of Auckland's rail system, it wants to drape Wellington in motorways and flyovers instead of backing a light rail system for Wellington.



Seeking a bit of light relief for a Facebook post I was making on the topic, a couple of days after I'd posted Helen's poem, I included a link to the Sleater-Kinney song "Light Rail Coyote". I played it to check that it had loaded correctly, listening with half an ear - and thought I heard the phrase "oh dirty river". I checked the lyrics online - not always a guarantee of accuracy, but there it was again, right at the end of the song, not long after the coyote makes an appearance. (Excellent lyrics, too!)







It couldn't be a coincidence - could it? I contacted Helen Lehndorf, and she said that yes, the title of her poem came from Sleater-Kinney's "Light Rail Coyote", and that it was one of her favorite songs. So an adventurous coyote (pictured above) that climbed into a carriage of Portland, Oregon's Light Rail Max system in 2002 inspired the Sleater-Kinney song, which contained the line "oh dirty river", which inspired Helen's poem, which inspired me to post it. Influence isn't only a source of anxiety!



If Wellington does get a light rail system - as it should - I think it will deserve a song of celebration. "Light Rail Tuatara", anyone?


You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: Oh Dirty River, by Helen Lehndorf

I'm the hub Tuesday Poem editor this week, and the poem I've chosen is "Oh Dirty River" by Helen Lehndorf. Check it out at the main Tuesday Poem blog, and don't forget to check out the poems in the sidebar as well!You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: Sigh No More, by William Shakespeare, Performed by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon

I'm looking forward to the Joss Whedon film of "Much Ado About Nothing" which has just been released in NZ and the UK, opens in Australia in July, and will form part of the upcoming NZ Film Festival and then (I hope) get a theatrical release here.



I loved the 1993 Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson version, but from what I've heard, Joss Whedon's version, with Amy Acker (pictured in the video) and Alexis Denisof as Beatrice and Benedick, makes sure to shine a light on the other characters who tend to get shoved aside by the Beatrice/Benedick story: and thereby darkens the narrative, because the story of Hero and Claudio is framed to address "slut-shaming" that's all too contemporary.



Here is Maurissa Tancharoen singing "Sign No More" from the new film, and Shakespeare's words below. It helps to know that 'nothing' was Elizabethan slang for 'vagina', which also puts Benedick's name in perspective.











The poem:




Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more.


    Men were deceivers ever,


One foot in sea, and one on shore,


    To one thing constant never.


Then sigh not so, but let them go,


    And be you blithe and bonny,


Converting all your sounds of woe


    Into hey nonny, nonny.




Sigh no more ditties, sing no more


    Of dumps so dull and heavy.


The fraud of men was ever so


    Since summer first was leafy.


Then sigh not so, but let them go,


    And be you blithe and bonny,


Converting all your sounds of woe


    Into hey, nonny, nonny.

You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: Sign No More, by William Shakespeare, Performed by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon

I'm looking forward to the Joss Whedon film of "Much Ado About Nothing" which has just been released in NZ and the UK, opens in Australia in July, and will form part of the upcoming NZ Film Festival and then (I hope) get a theatrical release here.



I loved the 1993 Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson version, but from what I've heard, Joss Whedon's version, with Amy Acker (pictured in the video) and Alexis Denisof as Beatrice and Benedick, makes sure to shine a light on the other characters who tend to get shoved aside by the Beatrice/Benedick story: and thereby darkens the narrative, because the story of Hero and Claudio is framed to address "slut-shaming" that's all too contemporary.



Here is Maurissa Tancharoen singing "Sign No More" from the new film, and Shakespeare's words below. It helps to know that 'nothing' was Elizabethan slang for 'vagina', which also puts Benedick's name in perspective.











The poem:




Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more.


    Men were deceivers ever,


One foot in sea, and one on shore,


    To one thing constant never.


Then sigh not so, but let them go,


    And be you blithe and bonny,


Converting all your sounds of woe


    Into hey nonny, nonny.




Sigh no more ditties, sing no more


    Of dumps so dull and heavy.


The fraud of men was ever so


    Since summer first was leafy.


Then sigh not so, but let them go,


    And be you blithe and bonny,


Converting all your sounds of woe


    Into hey, nonny, nonny.

You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Regeneration Anthology Now Available For Pre-Order

My story "Rescuing the Airmen" is one of those included in the new anthology Regeneration: New Zealand Speculative Fiction II, which will be launched in early July. Check out the marvellous cover by Emma Weakley - and get in quick by pre-ordering the anthology in print or ebook formats.









Regeneration is available to be pre-ordered as a paperback with free ebook ($24.95) or ebook only ($9.95) from the Random Static website: http://www.randomstatic.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=53



Here's the Facebook event for the launch in Wellington at 6pm on Friday 12 July.



More information from the Random Static website:




Regeneration

by Anna Caro & Juliet Buchanan (editors)




Some things are gone forever; but that is not the end. There are new lives to be lived, new discoveries to be made, changes to be fought for, enjoyed, or feared.



Experience worlds where existence continues beyond death and much-wanted babies become something else entirely. Where humanity endures in hostile environments, societies adapt to new challenges and inventions, and strange creatures live secretly among us. Travel from a curiously altered Second World War to other universes at the end of time, taking in diverse visions of New Zealand and worlds beyond along the way.



Regeneration, the second volume of New Zealand Speculative Fiction from Random Static, presents 22 original works of science fiction and fantasy by Kiwi authors. Stories of loss and renewal, of fantastic technology and mysterious transformations, of supernatural predators and survivors building new futures. Life always goes on, but seldom the way you'd expect...



Featuring stories by Matt Cowens, Tim Jones, Mary Brock Jones, O.J. Cade, Grace Bridges, I.K. Paterson-Harkness, Kylie Thorne, Debbie Cowens, J.C. Hart, Jennifer Compton, Simon Petrie, Anna Smith, Rebecca Harris, Elizabeth Gatens, Jonathan James Todd, A.J. Fitzwater, Fran Atkinson, Anna Caro, Dan Rabarts, Lee Murray, Grant Stone, and Toni Wi.



Title: Regeneration: New Zealand Speculative Fiction II

Author: Anna Caro & Juliet Buchanan (editors)

Publisher: Random Static

ISBN: 978-0-473-24188-9

Format: 129mm by 198mm Paperback / ebook

RRP: NZ$9.95 (ebook) / $24.95 (paperback)
You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Edit ALL The Poems: This Is The Last Day To Submit To "The Stars Like Sand"

From http://memegenerator.net/instance/38338315 and ultimately http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html



This is it, folks - today (Tuesday 4 June) is the very last day for Australians (resident and expat) to submit to The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry, which I'm co-editing with P.S. Cottier. Get your poems in today - once you have read the full guidelines. Remember that we're looking for previously-published as well as original poems!You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: Alice Spider Discovers Surrealism, by Janis Freegard

In the upper reaches of sanity, the snow has begun

to fall. Great white clouds of fluffiness covering the

unimaginable takahe and reaching us in our

tussockland. In a hut on the hill, giant tuatara wrap

themselves in polypropylene and coats made from

plastic recycled in China. The sky has emptied.

Now there is only the soft landing of doves that

have escaped their gilded cages and fluttered

down to earth. Heaven will be like this, thinks

Alice.



For many years, we have found the knitting of

cave-spiders disturbing, and the complacency of

penguins at the edge of the world has sent us into

a tail-spin. It doesn't have to be this way, no. It

could be lamplight in krill city and thunder in the

ice-rink. Somebody, somewhere is eating a

carnival.



Too late she wandered into that laboratory,

wishing she had been taller, fitter, better at polo.

Her eyes flashed in the eerie glow of the test-tube.

Dada, she cried. Dada!



Credit note: This poem by Janis Freegard is reproduced by permission of the author. It was first published in AUP New Poets 3 (2008) and subsequently included in Janis' new chapbook, from The Continuing Adventures of Alice Spider (Anomalous Press, 2013): http://www.anomalouspress.org/books/alice.php.



Tim says: The adventures of Janis' poetic alter ego Alice Spider have enlivened many a poetry reading and form the entirety of her new, US-published chapbook. No one selection from this magical mystery tour of Alice and her environs can fully capture Alice's voice and personality, but Alice's well-merited criticism of the complacency of our flippered brethren, and that marvellous final stanza, made "Alice Spider Discovers Surrealism" pop out of the pixellated page for me.



The Tuesday Poem: Springs into action.




You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: "technical difficulties"

technical difficulties

defeat the blogger:

ten thousand freezing hells!



I had intended to post Janis Freegard's poem "Alice Spider Discovers Surrealism" - from her new chapbook ... from The Continuing Adventures of Alice Spider (Anomalous Press, 2013): http://www.anomalouspress.org/books/alice.php - as my Tuesday Poem this week, but our home internet melted down last night as I was working on the post.



Though order and good government is now restored, it seems unfair to to waste the sweetness of Janis' poem on the evening air, so I shall save it for a more timely post next Tuesday. In its stead, this stanza of frustration.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

A Deadline for Australians, A Convention for All of Us

Editor's note: It's been a while since I posted a Tuesday Poem - now that I blog only once a week, the Tuesday Poem has to compete for space with other posts - but I have neither forgotten nor dropped out: expect a Tuesday Poem here next week. I also have to choose a hub Tuesday poem for the forthcoming week in which I'm the editor!



A reminder to Australian poets and writers: 4 June 2013 is the deadline for submissions to The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry, which P. S. Cottier and I are co-editing. Check out the submission guidelines, and remember: expat Australians, wherever they may live, are welcome and encouraged to submit!



And, whatever your nationality, I recommend checking out Au Contraire 2013, this year's New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention. The previous Au Contraire in 2010 was the best New Zealand NatCon I'd been to in ages - I especially enjoyed the stronger-than-usual focus on writers and writing. I'll be involved in some poetry-related programme items at Au Contraire, and I happen to know that at least three other Tuesday Poets will be involved with aspects of the Convention as well - so anyone with an interest in speculative fiction or poetry should consider coming along.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

My April Book Watch Column For The New Zealand Herald

Here is my second "Book Watch" column from the NZ Herald, published in the Herald on Sunday on 28 April. The first three reviews were used, but one of the advantages of reprinting the column here is that I can include all four!



My first column is also available on Books in the Trees.



Book Watch Column 28 April 2013








Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, by
Shehan Karunatilaka (Vintage, 2012) - see http://www.amazon.com/Chinaman-Shehan-Karunatilaka/dp/0099555689
(US $9.99 Kindle ebook; also available in paperback and hardback)




Shehan
Karunatilaka, who is a guest at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival
2013, studied at Massey University. Perhaps this is why this entertaining
picaresque about the greatest and least recognized Sri Lankan cricketer,
Pradeep Mathew, a Tamil spinner whose imaginary exploits often echo the real
exploits of Muttiah Muralidaran, is full of references to New Zealand – from
the expected (Hadlee, the Crowes, Dipak Patel) to the less expected (Anchor
Milk). And the denouement of the book takes place in and around Whanganui!




This novel weaves a rich tapestry of cricket, politics, corruption,
the Sri Lankan civil war, and a dogged journalist with a dodgy liver determined
to track his elusive quarry down. Highly recommended.




PS: Shehan Karunatilaka is a guest at this year's Auckland Writers & Readers Festival - something I didn't know when I started writing the review!







Amigas, by Elena Bossi and Penelope
Todd, published by Rosa Mira Books (2012) – see http://rosamirabooks.com/books/index.html#Amigas
(US $10.00 ebook)




Argentine writer Elena Bossi and New Zealand writer Penelope Todd wrote
this bilingual novel (that is to say, the novel exists in complementary but not
identical English- and Spanish-language versions within one ebook) after
meeting at the University of Iowa Writing Programme in 2007 - and it's an
interesting and enjoyable novel, though sad at times. It follows the chance
meeting of two teenage girls, one from New Zealand and one from Argentina, at
Rome Airport in 1969; their developing friendship, in person and then by
letter; and the threat that hangs over that friendship. To say any more would
be to enter spoiler territory – check it out for yourself!







Enter Night: Metallica: the Biography, by
Mick Wall (Orion, 2011) - see http://www.amazon.com/Enter-Night-A-Biography-Metallica/dp/B007K4FIGA/
(NZ $29.99 paperback)




Mick Wall's biography of Metallica is
very strong on their early years as progenitors of thrash metal, and on the
musical and personal significance of bassist Cliff Burton, killed in a bus
crash in 1987. But as the years and the albums go by, the book becomes less and
less informative. There's a lot more to be gleaned about their struggles as
adults from the excellent documentary Some
Kind Of Monster than there is from Enter
Night. All the same, for its eyewitness account of 1980s Metallica, this is
good reading for all Metallica fans.







Names: Poems, by Marilyn Hacker (Norton,
2010) - see 
(US $23.95 hardback, 11.66 paperback)




Marilyn Hacker is a
distinguished American poet whose work I had not previously read. Contrary to
my perception of her as a “difficult” poet, and though many of the poems in
this collection are long, I found them to be moving, engaging, beautifully
written and full of meaning. There is a sureness of voice which I enjoyed, but
without the dogmatism that can be its shadow. These poems were a very pleasant surprise
to me, and are worth the attention of any poetry lover.






Tim
Jones is a Wellington author, poet and editor. His
latest book is poetry collection Men
Briefly Explained. Find out more at http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.co.nz/You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.