Facebooking the music

Facebook is an addiction, but maybe a good one. I joined a few weeks back, and now have over 250 "friends" (see picture for example). I also have a pet penguin, that is regularly petted, and a garden in which the so-called friends can leave flowers. Presents one can exchange with anyone else on the network, in the world, include happy chipmunks and chocolate-coloured cherries.

If one wanted, one could have a countdown to when Bush leaves, a list of favourite CDs, or even, a test to see how many of your friends (them again) are like you. There is a herd mentality to the groups that spring up - appreciation societies for bands, and even one man who promised to "punch an astronaut" for every 17 new members he received....

It is zany, very fun, and really, the best new game in town - you can be a vampire, or a zombie, and attack "chumps" (friends and strangers) - or throw virtual cartoon food. You can also let everyone in your network know exactly what your latest mood, or thought is.

Is this a waste of time? Yes and no.

It is a waste of time.

But meanwhile, several poetry groups have started, such as Poetry (I am a co-founder) that have already conjoined 100s of poets. There's already a poetry competition. I have been asked for poems for journals, and indeed, submitted. I have renewed or begun correspondence with a number of variously intriguing long-lost figures, some literary, some less so.

Comments

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se. What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

Search This Blog