Spring 2010 Issue of Goblin Fruit is Live!
(cross-posted from my LJ, and you'd better believe I'm doing this over and over to show off different icons!)
It's our 4th anniversary! It's so strange to say, to think we've been doing this for long enough to say years.
This season we bring you poems by Susannah Mandel, Karen Berry, Nicole Kornher-Stace (wirewalking), Shweta Narayan (shweta-narayan), Zoe Gabriel, Sonya Taaffe (sovay), Seanan McGuire seanan-mcguire), Jaime Lee Moyer (stillnotbored), Stephanie Parent, Maura McHugh (splinister), Peg Duthie, and C.S.E. Cooney (csecooney).
So, a few days ago I suggested that people go taunt Mike Allen. The poor thing is now all but embroidered with knitting needles, as is meet and proper, so the time has come to reveal what is, to me, the most impressive audio contribution we've received yet -- and given how amazing our readers have been, this is saying alot. Please listen to shweta-narayan's audio accompaniment to "The Bone Harp Sings Nine Moods."
When I read Shweta's poem, I was dazzled by it and its connection to "The Twa Sisters" murder ballad without understanding the significance of its section titles; I supposed they were moods, as the title indicated, but had no idea that they were also musical modes. When Shweta explained it to me, I got excited; when she said that she might be able to get someone to sing the ragas in her titles, I flailed fit to thresh wheat.
The result is something that makes me happy on many levels. First, having read the poem, I can now listen to this audio and hear the mood change from section to section through the gift of Sangeetha Ayyar's singing; second, I've learned more about ragas, and through gleeing over this audio to other friends, learned about Qawwali and its connection to Arabic; third, have I mentioned the whole is just sheer gorgeous? But mostly, this delights me because it's so much of what I want Goblin Fruit to do, to enrich our understanding of many different cultures through myth and language and music, to explore connections between stories while reveling in the differences between tellings. I love when poems teach me things, when my enjoyment of a piece of art can be deepened by research, an explanation, a new thing learned.
Now, my lingering on this at length is in no way meant to diminish the rest of this issue's audio: csecooney's rendition of "The Sea King's Second Bride" is a rollicking, echo-y, grin-inducing ride of wave after wave; Peg Duthie's "The Wailing Well" is quiet and spare and threatening; wirewalking's "Two Views from the Shore" is likewise full of gently-spoken danger, and a first line that sticks to my brain like a burr: "that white stone chain-smokes girls..."
Ach, please just go read it before I inadvertantly write a review of my own 'zine. Do tell us what you think, lovely people, in comments or your own posts!
Oh, but, lastly, see my shiny new icon? It's thanks to talkstowolves working her mighty magic on Oliver Hunter's art. There's a whole gallery of icons for you to make merry with in the Mischief this issue, and I hope you find something to tickle your fancy there. Go for the icons -- stay for the toothsome cupcakes. You'll see what I mean.
It's our 4th anniversary! It's so strange to say, to think we've been doing this for long enough to say years.
This season we bring you poems by Susannah Mandel, Karen Berry, Nicole Kornher-Stace (wirewalking), Shweta Narayan (shweta-narayan), Zoe Gabriel, Sonya Taaffe (sovay), Seanan McGuire seanan-mcguire), Jaime Lee Moyer (stillnotbored), Stephanie Parent, Maura McHugh (splinister), Peg Duthie, and C.S.E. Cooney (csecooney).
So, a few days ago I suggested that people go taunt Mike Allen. The poor thing is now all but embroidered with knitting needles, as is meet and proper, so the time has come to reveal what is, to me, the most impressive audio contribution we've received yet -- and given how amazing our readers have been, this is saying alot. Please listen to shweta-narayan's audio accompaniment to "The Bone Harp Sings Nine Moods."
When I read Shweta's poem, I was dazzled by it and its connection to "The Twa Sisters" murder ballad without understanding the significance of its section titles; I supposed they were moods, as the title indicated, but had no idea that they were also musical modes. When Shweta explained it to me, I got excited; when she said that she might be able to get someone to sing the ragas in her titles, I flailed fit to thresh wheat.
The result is something that makes me happy on many levels. First, having read the poem, I can now listen to this audio and hear the mood change from section to section through the gift of Sangeetha Ayyar's singing; second, I've learned more about ragas, and through gleeing over this audio to other friends, learned about Qawwali and its connection to Arabic; third, have I mentioned the whole is just sheer gorgeous? But mostly, this delights me because it's so much of what I want Goblin Fruit to do, to enrich our understanding of many different cultures through myth and language and music, to explore connections between stories while reveling in the differences between tellings. I love when poems teach me things, when my enjoyment of a piece of art can be deepened by research, an explanation, a new thing learned.
Now, my lingering on this at length is in no way meant to diminish the rest of this issue's audio: csecooney's rendition of "The Sea King's Second Bride" is a rollicking, echo-y, grin-inducing ride of wave after wave; Peg Duthie's "The Wailing Well" is quiet and spare and threatening; wirewalking's "Two Views from the Shore" is likewise full of gently-spoken danger, and a first line that sticks to my brain like a burr: "that white stone chain-smokes girls..."
Ach, please just go read it before I inadvertantly write a review of my own 'zine. Do tell us what you think, lovely people, in comments or your own posts!
Oh, but, lastly, see my shiny new icon? It's thanks to talkstowolves working her mighty magic on Oliver Hunter's art. There's a whole gallery of icons for you to make merry with in the Mischief this issue, and I hope you find something to tickle your fancy there. Go for the icons -- stay for the toothsome cupcakes. You'll see what I mean.