It's Opera, doc. What did you expect, a happy ending?
This just in from Arts Journal;
Arts Journal
Well, The Tragic Ending's There For The Taking
The composer who created a surprise hit opera from The Jerry Springer Show is setting his sights even lower, planning an opera based on the life of former Playboy centerfold and general train wreck Anna Nicole Smith. "The production, still in the early stages of development, is intended to be shown on the main stage at the Royal Opera House, accompanied by a 90-piece orchestra." The Telegraph (UK) 04/04/08
Those are the things opera is made of.
For me, the day will consist of kitchen projects.
I heard back from the guy I sold the cars to, he's getting a kick out of the Bristol.
That's good to hear.
Speaking of cars Here's some semi-haiku from a piece I wrote about my favorite internal combustion engines.
For wind quartet and piano.
Six Mechanical Haiku.
1, For Karl;
Adventure
Bertha Benz drove a car
Down to the chemist's shop
In eighteen eighty five
2, For Rudy;
Commerce
If you squeeze air it becomes
hot enough to burn
Add fuel
Bang!
3, For Henry;
Joy
Bouncing, Rattling
Model T Ford
Banging, popping
The ragtime car
4, For Enzo;
Freedom
Isn't it lovely
Bright red paint
Twelve cylinders
We go very fast
5, For all the drivers in the world;
Traffic jam
Look at that road
All those cars
Damn, I'm late
Honking only makes it worse
6, For a few brief seconds;
Escape
Quarter mile...
Four seconds...
Not enough time...
Haiku, lowku, you decide.
Real Haiku, yer s'posed to reference the appropriate season.
Also, syllable count is different in Japanese.
Not that I've even got that right.
So, once again, our brief union is rent asunder by the intransigent exigencies of hard cruel fate.
Well, The Tragic Ending's There For The Taking
The composer who created a surprise hit opera from The Jerry Springer Show is setting his sights even lower, planning an opera based on the life of former Playboy centerfold and general train wreck Anna Nicole Smith. "The production, still in the early stages of development, is intended to be shown on the main stage at the Royal Opera House, accompanied by a 90-piece orchestra." The Telegraph (UK) 04/04/08
Those are the things opera is made of.
For me, the day will consist of kitchen projects.
I heard back from the guy I sold the cars to, he's getting a kick out of the Bristol.
That's good to hear.
Speaking of cars Here's some semi-haiku from a piece I wrote about my favorite internal combustion engines.
For wind quartet and piano.
Six Mechanical Haiku.
1, For Karl;
Adventure
Bertha Benz drove a car
Down to the chemist's shop
In eighteen eighty five
2, For Rudy;
Commerce
If you squeeze air it becomes
hot enough to burn
Add fuel
Bang!
3, For Henry;
Joy
Bouncing, Rattling
Model T Ford
Banging, popping
The ragtime car
4, For Enzo;
Freedom
Isn't it lovely
Bright red paint
Twelve cylinders
We go very fast
5, For all the drivers in the world;
Traffic jam
Look at that road
All those cars
Damn, I'm late
Honking only makes it worse
6, For a few brief seconds;
Escape
Quarter mile...
Four seconds...
Not enough time...
Haiku, lowku, you decide.
Real Haiku, yer s'posed to reference the appropriate season.
Also, syllable count is different in Japanese.
Not that I've even got that right.
So, once again, our brief union is rent asunder by the intransigent exigencies of hard cruel fate.
posted by Lane Savant at 10:11 AM
2 Comments:
Wow, I loved your Hiaku, your ode to the East, through the mechanical guts of the West. Hiaku has Always mystified me. Endeavoring to emulate a syllable count of 5, 7, 5, in a foreign language has always seemed to me to be the height of absurdity, and yet Dougie, you have smeared it with your mechanic's magic, your sardonic wit, your creative and unique vision. I posted it immediately on FFTR. Someone out there will get a bang, a kick, or a buzz out of it.
Haiku (俳句, Haiku?) listen (help·info) is a kind of Japanese poetry. It was given this name in the late 19th century by Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki from a combination of the older hokku (発句, hokku?) and the haikai (or verses) in haikai no renga. Haiku, when known as hokku were the opening verses of a linked verse form, haikai no renga. In Japanese, hokku and haiku are traditionally printed in one vertical line (though in handwritten form they may be in any reasonable number of lines). In English, haiku are written in three lines to equate to the three parts of a haiku in Japanese that traditionally consist of five, seven, and then five on (the Japanese count sounds, not syllables; for example, the word "haiku" itself counts as three sounds in Japanese (ha-i-ku), but two syllables in English (hai-ku), and writing seventeen syllables in English produces a poem that is actually quite a bit longer, with more content, than a haiku in Japanese). The kireji (cutting word or pause) usually comes at the end of either the first or second line. A haiku traditionally contains a kigo (season word) which symbolizes or intimates the season in which the poem is set with some reference to the natural world.
Because Japanese nouns do not have different singular and plural forms, "haiku" is usually used as both a singular and plural noun in English as well. Practising haiku poets and translators refer to "many haiku" rather than "haikus".
Some English Haiku found out there:
old pond
a frog jumps
the sound of water
the first cold shower
even the monkey seems to want
a little coat of straw
Snow in my shoe
Abandoned
Sparrow's nest
--Jack Kerouac
Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
In the April wind.
Coming from the woods,
A bull has a lilac sprig
Dangling from a horn.
--Richard Wright
lily:
out of the water
out of itself
--Nick Virgilio
bass
picking bugs
off the moon
--Nick Virgilio
See what you have stirred up there with your batch of haiku?
Anna Nicole Smith, actually Vickie Lynn Smith's whole life was a "soap" opera. Why would it not make as good an opera as many others? Or a hit Broadway musical? Or a reality TV show? Oh yeah, it was that while she was still fat, enit?
What a joy for the old Butchie Boy to be on the same page on the same day as Sir Lane Savant. What rapture, what bliss. Hey, did you notice that Ms. Janet Leigh, the poet, responded to my poem about Alex, titled SHAPIRO'S RITES? We are attracting the attention of celebrites like honey on ham, enit?
My first weekend in Texas, while it snowed here, I lay about in the a 500 buck a day suite, while Melva attended to her conference business. Breakfast in the hotel, consisting of two pieces of French Toast, and one thin slice of ham, and 8oz of orange juice cost $30.00. I was certainly a fish out of water in that joint. I took a book to read but ended up hanging in the sports bar shooting pool; mostly against myself, who I had a hard time beating. I think the other guy was cheating, but could never prove it.
And that, Doc, is whazzup!
Glenn
Hallo, nochmals, Y'all:
The Japanese bombed us in 1941; now they are bombing us with haikus.
Tschüß,
Anonomann
P.S. The LL will bomb me if I don't send her (and my) greetings to you, Meredith, and Keth.
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