Two Little Mermaids

I've been watching two adaptations of The Little Mermaid over the past couple of days, courtesy of You Tube. Mala Morska Vila (Czechoslovakia, 1976) and Rusalochka (Russia, 1976). They are both excellent films and I really recommend them.

Mala Morska Vila is dreamy and tragic, with beautiful costumes and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack (which was reissued a couple of years back, though the film remains unavailable on a dvd with English subtitles). If you're a fan of Valerie and her Week of Wonders you'll love it.

Funnily enough it's actually the little mermaid in the Russian adaptation who is more of a Valerie-like character. She doesn't give up her voice for the prince, though she clearly loves him just as much as the mermaid in Mala Morska loves her prince.

I won't give away the ending, yet this humourous yet also haunting film does offer an unexpected alternative.

There's something Wicker Man or Valerie like in its focus on ritual and jousts and trying to burn witches at the stake which thankfully doesn't happen.

The princess is snarky, yet likeable in Rusalochka ("It's a cruel 13th century world we live in" she tells the mermaid). So is the witch which is refreshing.

Definitely an inspiring film.

Poetry

I'm a bit behind on blogging about various chapbooks I've been loving lately. Lots of chapbooks from Birds of Lace who have a reading period right now, Kate Durbin's E! Entertainment, chapbooks from Dancing Girl Press and many more. They are all so so great.

As for writing - I have revised a couple of the poems in We Speak Girl before the final MS is due. I also have two new poems I may add into it. I'm now working mainly on my gothic influenced project which is a different approach from We Speak Girl in that the poems are all on the same topic and none of them use collaged material from other sources. So it's a new and interesting writing challenge for me.

Julia Morison and Rodarte

I was flipping through the Julia Morison exhibiton catalogue A Loop Around a Loop this morning as she has a new exhibiton showing locally right now. I was thinking that it would be really interesting to make a comparison between the Material Evidence exhibit of Morison's which includes nine giant dresses hanging in the gallery and some of Rodarte's fashions.

Carlson

I love the 1940's look of these clothes from Carlson's upcoming winter range. I wish I could make it down to Dunedin for the ID fashion show there at the end of March. Tanya Carlson, Charmaine Reveley and Company of Strangers are some of the awesome designer's showing there. It's held in the city's Victorian railway station. Plus Dunedin is such a wonderful city.

Sensation again

Ann Radcliffe looked at paintings to gather inspiration for her texts - places she hadn't visited. I'm collecting a few gothic pictures from Tumblr and the internet in general, like the one above as inspiration.

I also started reading a couple of theory books relating to the gothic and sensation novels, thinking they might be useful for my project. I'm not so sure about a comment like this one from Lyn Pykett, though: "Equally problematic would be a feminist re-appropriation of women’s sensation fiction which would simply celebrate its focus on female emotions and sensations as a form of emotionally rich womanspeak articulating female power and feeling (…) or as a form of ecriture feminine which inscribes both the female body and a feminine subjectivity. This would be to risk re-inscribing essentialist notions of the feminine, and to replicate the gendered critical discourse of the nineteenth century through which sensation fiction was mediated” – Lyn Pykett, The “improper” feminine: the women’s sensation novel and the new woman writing.

Aurora Floyd

While I was talking about the Gothic in my previous post, I should probably note that just as big an influence are the heroines of Sensation fiction. I'm currently reading the novel Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. I've read certain criticisms of the novel, but I think it's really good.

Gothic Heroines

Here's a still from the BBC version of Northanger Abbey from a few years back. I have been immersing myself in all things gothic for an as yet unnamed "gothic heroine" poetry project I'm working on. I don't really want to say much more about the project at the moment, but I'm working on it and am very excited and pleased that I have decided to focus on this after a bit of drifting between various ideas and started things lately.

Pastel Cassette

It has been awhile since I ran a music blog - but I have missed having a dedicated music spot so I've decided to create a second tumblr, Pastel Cassette to collect some of my favourite music videos. It's definitely just going to be the aural equivalent of an image tumblr - heaps of videos and a lack of restraint in posting whatever whenever. That's what I like about tumblr.

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Have been watching and reading reviews of this show somewhat late after having enjoyed the pictures on Tumblr awhile back. Definitely material for another poem. Can I look at anything without wanting to turn it into a poem these days? It's all a case of deciding what's worth pursuing in writing I suppose. I don't have to write about everything, but there's a lot I do see as being able to work into my writing.

Current Listening

A lot of music journalists seem to really dislike Best Coast and Maria Minerva. There was some snotty comment about the latter in the latest WIRE best of year lists. I've just been listening to Best Coast's album and while it's true that it's poppier than the music she made with Pocahaunted I like the album. I also just ordered the Maria Minerva album as it sounds really intriguing. It's often good to ignore bad reviews.