Endicott Redux

The Sunday Poem

Our Sunday Poem today is "Babylon," a melancholy piece by British poet and mythologist Robert Graves (1895-1985) in which the poet laments the loss of enchantment in our lives as we move from childhood to adulthood.

And yet, though such a loss is common, it is by no means inevitable--as fans of mythic arts can attest. As proof, I'm pairing Grave's poem with a link to "All Things Froud and Wonderful" (on the Green Man Review website), celebrating two artists whose lives and work become ever more magical year by year.

(You'll find more articles on Brian Froud and Wendy Froud in the Endicott archives and on The World of Froud website. The sculpture above is by Wendy.)

João Lemos: Mythic and Fantasy Comic Book Art

An email brought me to Sete-Estrelo, the blog of Portuguese comic book illustrator, João Lemos who is currently working with associates on a killer new project, Shiki, an ecological/magical journey told in twelve parts. The little video teaser above looks very promising. Stop by the blog to see more of Lemos's work, including an homage to Peter Pan he did for Marvel Comic's "Avengers Fairy Tales" series and lots more sketches of Shiki. There's a lovely elegance to Lemos's work which strikes me as similar to some of art-deco designer Erte and his sylph-like figures. (Right side is "High Priestess of Food of the Gods Cult" and left is "Autumn.")

Celtic Myth Podshow

Years ago, we used to listen to two radio shows every Sunday night, "The Mind's Eye," which featured fabulous readings of short speculative fiction, followed by the "Goon Show," wacky brainchild of British humorists Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, and Harry Secombe. But with the advent of podcasts and video, one is now able to listen to hours of terrific programming at the click of a mouse.

The Celtic Myth Podshow is a wonderful place to while away time, listening to dramatic readings (with music!) of Celtic Myths, delivered in about 25 minutes episodes. Their series begins with the Book of Invasions, from the Irish Mythological Cycle. Each episode also comes with "show notes" which provide excellent reference materials, including maps, dramatic credits, musical credits, and additional links. There is also a fascinating blog that posts on all things Celtic -- from recent archaeological finds, preservation news, music, and materials for educators.

And if you've a hankering for a little music, consider the Irish and Celtic Music Podcasts, a free bi-monthly downloadable radio program of Independent Irish and Celtic music. The program consists of "Irish drinking songs, Scottish folk songs, bagpipes, music from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Wales, Nova Scotia, Galacia, Australia and the United States. Hosted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards."  Get out your i-pod and fill it up  -- there's tons of great stuff here.

Anyone want to recommend other favorite myth and fairy tale podcast sites? I'm thinking of putting together a collection of sites for our links page. Thanks!

Terri Windling's Studio Online At Last!

I am very excited to invite all of you to browse through Terri's terrific new website, blog, and art galleries! (The Etsy shop is coming...). It is a truly wonderful place, filled with Terri's reflections on the craft of editing, writing, myth and folklore, recommended books, and finally, all of her wonderful art available for viewing. It's like Terri, knowledgeable and generous, beautiful and welcoming -- sharing her love of the mythic arts with all of us.

Here's a list of the sections: The Studio Doorway, The Entrance Hall, The Easel (with links to galleries containing her paintings and collages), Studio Shop (art for sale), Writing Desk, Editing Desk, Inspiration Board, and Speakers Corner. The Drawing Board section is her studio blog (for news and works-in-progress) and also contains links to galleries containing some of her sketches.

The High Fashion of Classic Comic Books

Woody Hochswender has a hilarious article about the new show of Comic-book inspired high fashion, "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy," currently at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through Sept 1, 2008). This high-powered installation (designed by curator Andrew Bolton who was also inspired after reading Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) combines large splashy backdrops of comic book art with haute couture designs from the high-powered fashion houses, with the likes of super-fashion-heroes Thierry Mugler and Jean-Paul Gaultier. And what a bizarre collection of clothing it is, "dark and edgy, with themes of fetishism, domination, virility, sexual identity, and 'hegemonic masculinity'." Happily, most of these cat walk fashions won't be appearing on the racks in the future as they sure look uncomfortable -- and maybe a bit difficult to get in and out of an elevator in.

Hochswender has so much fun in the article -- both admiring the avant garde experience and poking fun at the "fashion-academese" used to explain the works. "The world of fashion, we learn, like that of comics, is a world of 'signs,' and that 'logos serve to ensure the body's passage into the field of the symbolic and representational.' Holding the thought and passing into the field of the Spider-man exhibit, we learn that "just as Superman's costume proclaims him a superman, Spider-Man's costume proclaims him a spider man.'" His further observation is that these clothes for the most part are "strictly for indoor wear, perhaps to answer the door for your dominatrix."

Definitely stop by the Museum's website to see more images from the show and to read their short essays about the show.  And here's another review from the Wall Street Journal, with an accompanying slide show.

Get out the vote

I know we're all in a voting mood these days, so here's a chance to vote for one our (and we hope yours!) favorite new authors, Christopher Barzak. Chris wrote to us to let us know that he and his award-winning novel, One for Sorrow, have been nominated for MTV Network's NewNowNext "Brink of Fame: Author" award. How cool is that? Here's what Chris said about the voting procedure:

"One for Sorrow, has recently been nominated for a NewNowNext Award, sponsored by MTV Networks LOGO channel, which focuses on bringing GLBT friendly programming to television.  I've been nominated for "Brink of Fame: Author" and it's an award that anyone can vote on just by clicking over to their site, marking my book as the one you want to win, scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking the vote button.  There are a variety of other categories to vote for, and you can do that as well, but if you only care to vote for my category, that'd be most welcome."

Best of Luck of Chris! The awards will be broadcasted Saturday, June 7th at 9pm on MTV's Logo Channel.

Catherynne M. Valente, A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects

I was privileged enough to write the introduction to Catherynne M. Valente's A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects, a terrific new collection of fairy tale and mythic poems. There were just so many moments that took my breath away as Valente deftly combined the visceral material of traditional tales with the turbulent issues of identity confronting women today. I thought I would include my introduction here -- in the hopes that it might encourage many of you to seek out this amazing collection. (And special kudos to Connie Toebe who won the competition with her gorgeous cover art.)

"Catherynne M. Valente is one of the most inventive young writers in the modern mythic arts movement. She is an accomplished story teller and a master of language, especially those poetic dialects spoken by the women in A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects. There is a gentle irony in the title for there is nothing fragile about the rich, organic language of these poems, their images deeply rooted in the senses and in nature. Here Rapunzel grows into the wild rampion of her origin, a fox wife wears two skins, a housebound woman evolves slowly into a tree, and an abusive husband transforms into a taloned crow. The seven devils of California push up from the land into the bodies of immigrants, leaving behind the taste of salt, sage, gold, sulfur, and iron...Read more>>

Bunnies on the auction block!

I've just sent this painting off to the framers for an exhibition and auction at Monks Withecombe Gallery in Devon at the end of this month. All the works in the show (including these little sleepy fellows) have been donated to raise money to preserve the beautiful Commons in the Devon village where I live. There will be work by many other local artists as well, including Brian Froud, Alan Lee, Marja Kee Kruyt, Katherine Lightfoot, Chris Chapman, Susan Derges, and Stephen Dooley. If you're in the southwest of England and would like to attend the auction, contact the gallery for  dates, times, and other information.

The painting is called "Nap Time on Chagford Commons," 20 x 12 inches (unframed), oil paints and pencil on canvas paper. It's based on a similar image I painted last year which was damaged by a printing company. This exhibition gave me the excuse to re-create it, and all for a good cause.

Arthurian Britain

   

If, like me, you're a fan of Patrick McCormack's work, then you too have been eagerly awaiting the third and final volume of "Albion," his Arthurian trilogy. The third novel, The Lame Dancer, is now available -- for free! -- online, posted (with the author's permission) on the site of Professor Howard Wiseman, an Australian academic with a passion for British history.

McCormack is an Oxford-trained historian who lives on Dartmoor. His "Albion" series, set in 5th century Britain, is rigorously researched and does a fine job of bringing the society of the Dark Ages to life -- which is precisely why there are so many fellow historians among McCormack's fans. The books are dark, robust, heroic -- but there's also plenty of magic here, deeply rooted in myth, and the distinctive mysticism of the British landscape. If you haven't yet read McCormack's work, start with the first two books in the series: The Last Companion and The White Phantom. Now, I wish someone would bring this trilogy out in an American edition....

The art above is by another Dartmoor dweller, Alan Lee. Go here to see more of his drawings.

   

Interstitial Arts Foundation Auction

'Tis the season to auction! If you've a flair for it, stop by the spectacular Interstitial Arts Foundation Auction, which is currently auctioning beautiful handmade jewelry based on short stories from the Foundation's first anthology, Interfictions, such as the lovely piece above created by Sarah Evans from Matthew Cheney's story "A Map of the Everywhere." The auction opened today, with new pieces being added every couple of days. Each auction will run about four to seven days and all proceeds will go to the production of a second anthology. (The auction should run about three weeks.) For more information, stop by the Interstitial Arts Foundation Auction website.

And don't forget -- Duirwaigh Gallery is also under full auction sale with 549 items at eBay! And wow -- there's something for almost every budget. Here's one of Wendy Froud's fairy dolls which you can find here.

 

The Monday Video

Today is our May Day holiday here in Britain (even though May 1st was actually last week) -- a three-day-weekend holiday comparable (in practice if not intention) to the Memorial Day long-weekend in the U.S., but with its folkloric roots firmly planted in the pagan festival of Beltane.

In the last British census, a remarkable number of people identified themselves as pagans, wiccans, druids and pantheists. (Mind you, there was also a large contingent who identified themselves as Jedi Knights, so who knows how seriously people take these forms?) The West Country, where I live, has been a stronghold of pagan practices since ancient times, and one can still find many who hold pagan beliefs today -- not only in the young New Age community centered around places like Glastonbury and Totnes but also among the old country folk, some of whom see no conflict between adherence to both Christian and pagan spiritual practices.

Pagan and folkloric ceremonies are making something of a comeback in the UK, and various May Day celebrations, both old and new, can be found across the British Isles -- such as the Beltane Fire Festival in Scotland, the Padstow 'Obby 'Oss Festival in Cornwall, and the Parade of the Ooser in Dorset. Here in Devon, the pagan community has quietly engaged in ceremonies on hilltops and in old stone circles, while other parts of the populace celebrate with spring fetes sponsored by our village churches.

The Monday Video this week goes out to all the folks who lit Beltane fires on the hills this morning. It's a clip of the Hunters Moon Morris troupe performing at Wimborne Festival. If you go to the YouTube page itself, you'll find a short description (in the text to the right of the video) of the Morris tradition and its connection to May Day. Alas, I can't find any video clips of my very favorite Morris troupe, Beltane Border Morris, here in Devon. They're a young, raffish, slightly punky group that seems to have stepped off the streets of Bordertown, performing Morris dancing in an incantatory, deeply magical way that absolutely gives me chills. Check out their website for pictures and information on their dances. (A dancer from the troupe is pictured on the right.)

America has its share of May Day celebrations too -- the most famous and elaborate one being the May Day Parade and Festival sponsored by the Heart of the Beast puppet theater in Minneapolis, pictured here.

For more information on Beltane, read this excellent article by Heather Shaw on the Strange Horizons website -- complete with advice on how to put on May Day festivities in your own community.

Sunday Poem

Our Sunday poem this week is "It's Not a Just Situation: Though We Just Can't Keep Crying About It (For the Hip Hop Nation That Brings Us Such Exciting Art)" by Nikki Giovanni. The poem is written on the wall of a gallery at the National Portrait Museum as part of the exhibition 'Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture'. An audio loop of the poem serves as the background to Shinique Smith's mixed media installation.

Says Nikki Giovanni "This is the first generation to have everything yet to also have had everything taken away. They went to school with no books, no gym, no school play, no school newspaper, no band, no clean toilets, no grass on the playground, no hope in the eyes of their teachers.

"Yet they created. They created art, music, textiles, and technology and made their world the world the world comes to."

Nikki Giovanni is a poet, activist, and educator who has been an outspoken voice within the African American community for thirty years. Her book Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry's Rhymes and Rhythms will be available next October.

The art above is "No Thief to Blame" by Shinique Smith, 2007-08, and is a mixed media installation (fabric, cardboard, carpet, paper, ink, spray paint, used clothing, found objects, and collage). You can see details of the installation here.

Reading on the Borders

" 'If the reader, while reading a story of this kind, thinks that the waiters are playing a joke or that they are involved in some collective psychosis, then we have lost the game. But if we have been able to give him the impression that we are talking about a world in which these absurd manifestations appear as normal behaviour, then he will find himself plunged all at once into the heart of the fantastic.' " — Jean-Paul Sartre (Cafe Irreal, Issue #26)

It's always good to remember how much excellent free fiction there is out there -- brought to you by passionate and creative editors who produce terrific issues, almost every month. I'd call it "reading on the borders" (or "interstitial " for those of you in the movement!) because the fiction is unique and experimental, fantastic and magical all at once. So here's a quick round up and I hope you stop by to give all of these hardworking online journals a glance.

Cafe Irreal: publishes wonderful short-short pieces, bordering on the surreal, from an international crop of writers. Favorites from this issue (#26) are Thief of the Moon, by Srinjay Chakravarti and Selections from Fabulosae Aves, by Flavia Lobo (with whimsical drawings by John Digby, such as the one above). And then there's that fabulous quote from Sartre above that I couldn't resist.

Farrago's Wainscot: Volume II, #6 offers a range of emotionally intense self-reflective tales and road stories. Favorites here were Running the Road, by Nancy Jane Moore and Three Views of the Maiden in Peril, by Catherine Lundoff. (Congratulations on their recent award for Best New Online Magazine or Journal.)

Clarkesworld has a fabulous new story from Catherynne Valente, a mystical geographical lesson in A Buyer's Guide to the Maps of Antarctica and Garth Upshaw has a killer tale of crows and aliens in Birdwatcher.

Serendipity, specializing in magic realism, continues to offer a handful of new stories (and a competition here and there) every month. In this issue favorites were Blue, from Elaine Walker and the very quirky Party Line from Phyllis Anderson.

Young Artists Spotlight: Chantal Bennett

   

I love discovering the work of emerging artists -- the young men and women who represent the future of the mythic arts field. Today our spotlight is on Chantal Bennett, a Canadian illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York.

"I am currently finishing up my studies in illustration at Parsons New School of Design in New York City," she says, "and most of the recent work I've been doing has been heavily influenced by Celtic mythology and folklore." She also loves Art Nouveau, and illustrative art from the Victorian age.

Visit Bennett's website and Live Journal sketch blog to see more of her enchanting art.

   

Remember when blogging was new and you could catch up on your favorite blogs over morning coffee? Now there's so much good stuff out there that there's no way in heck to keep up with it all (though syndication feeds are certainly a help), and I'm even falling behind on keeping up with blogs by friends. Case in point: I only just found out that Kim Antieau has been posting wonderful little interviews with other mythic-arts writers on her newly re-designed blog; she's got interviews with Alice Hoffman, Charles de Lint, Joanna Harris, Jane Yolen, and poet Jimmy Santiago Baca so far. She has also posted an intriguing interview with herself in which 60 writers, editors, family members and friends asked the questions. You can read some good snippets from the interviews below, and go here to check them out at full length. They are little gems.

Kim to Alice Hoffman: Like many fairy tales, your stories often begin with catastrophe. Terrible things happen to your characters and to the people around them. Is it difficult to be a witness to these tragedies, as the writer? Is this emotionally draining for you as you are writing it? Or is it cathartic? Or neither?

Alice: It's cathartic to take straw and make it into gold, or as close to gold as you can get it. Also to transfigure reality and expand it. Terrible things happen in all fairy tales -- why not? They are the most honest of all literature.

Kim to Charles de Lint: Are you ever unsure of yourself or your writing?

Charles: All the time. I think a good writer is a mix of confidence (sure that what they’re writing is going to appeal to their readers) and uncertainty (what if all these words are crap?). If you’re too confident, you get an attitude that seeps through into your writing, affecting the characters and the story. If you’re too uncertain, you’ll never finish anything.

Kim to Joanne Harris: Alice Hoffman says you can tell something about a person by which book they prefer: Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre. Which book do you prefer? Why?

Joanne:Wuthering Heights; partly because I live within a stone’s throw of the place, and the landscape has shaped my childhood, and partly because of the raw poetry of the writing and the extraordinary insight the author shows into the darker mysteries of the human heart – an at such a tender age. Fantastic.

. . . And on another subject entirely, there's a good article posted on Salon.com today about Ursula Le Guin's new mythic novel, Lavinia.