A Mixed Tape for Beating Writer's Block

For most people, writer’s block can be a huge issue. Whether you’re staring at a blinking cursor while finishing a term paper, poem, or perhaps the next great American novel, I feel your pain. Unlike freaks of writing nature, like Woody Allen, who claims to never get writer’s block, I experience it all the time. Getting started is always the hardest part for me. Often, I’m not sure what I want to say, or if I even have anything to say at all.

Usually I turn to music. Certain songs just make me feel like I need to write; they can range from ones that I feel are some of the best written to those that are just thematically appropriate to my life, or what I want my life to be. Many times, I hear a song, and it instantly becomes the soundtrack to some picture in my mind, and I feel forced to write what I see down. I’d like to share some of the songs that have helped me break through the wall of writer’s block. Coincidentally they all folk songs, but that makes enough sense; they tell some of the best stories.

Father John Misty – “Only Son of the Ladies’ Man”

I owe this song a lot. I have no idea how many times I’ve listened to it; probably hundreds of times, but I distinctly remember one time. I had wanted to write a screenplay, but of course had no clue what the movie was to be about. I had my music on shuffle as I stared at a blank notebook page when this song came on. As soon as lead singer Tillman’s voice began to sing, I perked up and began to write. By the time the four-minute song was over, I had an outline for about half of a screenplay. When it ended, I turned off shuffle and decided to go back to the beginning of the album, “Fear Fun.” Sure enough, about three songs in, my outline was done. I was obsessed with the album for about a week after. I’d love to make a film with “Fear Fun” as the soundtrack. J. Tillman, if you’re down, hit me up!

Fleet Foxes – “The Shrine / An Argument”

This 8 minute epic tune is highlight of Fleet Foxes latest album, “Helplessness Blues.”

It’s a song that could probably be sung over creepy campfires in between discussions of family lineage and ghosts. I would say this is one of the quintessential folk songs written in the last decade. I’ve attempted to write songs that tell a story like this, but they never come out this well, not even close — in fact, I always throw them in the trash — but the point is the song makes me want to write; more precisely it pushes me to write well

Nico – “These Days”

 I heard this song for first time when I watched The Royal Tenenbaums at age nine or 10. The movie was over my head then, but that song stuck with me. I’m not sure if there is a more perfect soundtrack moment than when Margot gets off the bus to pick up Richie and the finger-picked guitar begins to play. Nico’s voice is so haunting. If you find that you just can’t write anything, take a walk around the block at night and listen to “These Days.” You won’t regret it.

Bob Dylan – “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”

           

Dylan is one of the best songwriters of all time. This song from his debut, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” is one of his greatest. It’s packed with so much material; an incredible amount is going on here. Dylan said that each line is actually the beginning of a new song, but he didn’t think he’d ever have time to write all of them so he just packed them all into one song. One of the lines I find most interesting is: “I saw a new born baby with wild wolves all around it.” The imagery here is palpable, few songwriters, if any, do this better than Dylan.

Simon & Garfunkel – “The Sound of Silence”

I’m putting this on the list at the risk of being cliché. It is one of my all time favorite songs. To me, this creepy dream song is as good as it gets. Paul Simon is one of my heroes, and all of Simon and Garfunkel’s songs mean so much to me, but “The Sound of Silence” is on a whole other level. I Listen to this almost every time I sit down to write seriously, especially when I am revising. The story told in the song is so concise, so perfect. “People talking without speaking/ people hearing without listening.” Lines like these make me want to be a better writer. Paul Simon wrote this in his bathroom while the lights were off and the water was running, if that not the coolest, most inspiring thing ever, I’m not sure what is.

These are just some of the songs that work for me. I encourage everyone to find ones that work best for them, but maybe you can give these a try!

-William Ruof

Alaska's Fiddling Poet brings fiddle, poetry to AZ

If there are two things in this world that I love dearly, they are poetry and fiddles. So I can't wait for Ken Waldman, Alaska's premier fiddling poet, to visit the Valley. He'll be bringing his fiddle, his poetry, and even some stories, to the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) for performances April 28th through the 30th.

Waldman is a former college professor and the author of 6 books of poetry, a memoir, a children's book. He's also produced 9 CDs. He travels the country, sometimes performing solo, but often with accompanists, and details his life in Alaska and around the country through song, story, and poetry.

His shows at MIM will include a mandolin player, a guitarist, and a banjo player, and will appeal to "anyone who enjoys traditional folk music, smart poetry, acclaimed storytelling, or Alaska." The performances are free with museum admission, and are a great way to wrap up your Poetry Month celebrations!

Readings from Wheeling Motel

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Franz Wright recently collaborated with Los Angeles musicians/producers Daniel Ahearn (Ill Lit) and Michael Rozon (Brazzaville, Melvins) to produce Readings from Wheeling Motel, a musical exploration of the poet's new work. The New York Times Book Review has already praised Wheeling Motel, Wright’s tenth collection of poetry, as "uningratiating, bumptiously witty...and routinely surprising," and this marriage of Wright’s poetry and Ahearn and Rozon’s music is sure to cross the boundaries of literature and music and appeal to fans of both.

Wright himself recites the selection of poems amidst the original music Ahearn and Rozon produced in collaboration with six other musicians: Josh Grange, Michael Whitmore, Eric Wood, Mindy Gaspar, Aaron Embry, and David J. Don’t expect violin crescendos or bongos playing in the background here; the music, directly inspired by the poetry itself, serves as a dreamy counterpoint to Wright’s distinctively husky voice. This project demonstrates Wright’s status not only as an artist but also as an inspiration, offering us an opportunity to experience this world-class poet in a uniquely personal and direct manner.

You can listen to “Wheeling Motel” and “Day One,” here or watch this Youtube clip of Wright reading “Night Flight Turbulence,” all of which are featured on the Readings from Wheeling Motel record. Wright’s recitations were all recorded in his home, as the Youtube video shows. I, for one, was intrigued by his flowered wallpaper and the CDs, papers, and books spread in disarray on his carpet.

Readings from Wheeling Motel has been released in digital form only and is available now through iTunes, Amazon and Bandcamp.

Hay Fever! Tonight

Tonight, November 14 at 7 pm, HFR will host the first event in its ongoing reading/performance series called Hay Fever! at The Trunk Space in downtown Phoenix. The event will showcase local talent in a variety of genres, and will also benefit HFR. Cost is $5 at the door, which will get you a copy of the current issue or half off a year's subscription. We will also be raffling off art, back issues, and other prizes. The economy is bad, but art, writing, friends and our President-elect are all good, so we must celebrate!

Performers are:

*Kim Porter, playwright, performing an excerpt from a hilarious solo show,"Passed Over," about her desire to be Jewish

*Kevin Vaughan-Brubaker, poet, performing poetry with DJ *ekb

*Amy Silverman, Managing Editor of New Times and KJZZ commentator, reading nonfiction

*David Nash, fiction writer, reading from forthcoming novel Van Gogh's Ear

Questions? Email HFR@asu.edu. We'd love to see you there!

Website of the Week - Cassette From My Ex

Probably the most memorable high school mix tape I ever received was from my friend Shannon. Its theme was digestive disfunction. I can't and won't try to reproduce the exact names, but Side A was a colorful description of vomit, and Side B was a distinctive rendering of the other stuff. Both titles barely fit on their skinny white stickers, and contained adverbs. Gross? Or genius?

So that stories like this one (except cooler, longer and more articulate) won't be lost forever, we have the website Cassette From My Ex, wherein writers, artists and musicians tell the story of their most memorable mix tapes, and then post the songs for us all to enjoy. Tapes called "The Pressure of Life" and "OBLITERATION" bring back high school memories, as does food poisoning, in my case.

Devendra Banhart, Poetry Lover

My beau and I have been listening to Devendra Banhart's new song, "Carmensita" all week. It's pretty amazing. The video - featuring his new girlfriend Natalie Portman - is some kind of ode to Bollywood. It's puzzling, but mesmerizing. After watching it a few days ago, I actually Googled the lovebirds and - through a series of still photos - watched them walking their dogs in the park. I'm not usually into celebrity stalking. But something about these two is fascinating to me.

Then I find out this morning that Devendra is also a poetry-lover! This month, New Directions is issuing the "most eclectic and wildly eccentric" works of poet Kenneth Patchen in a single volume, called We Meet. The book features some of Patchen's drawings, and an introduction by Devendra.

The introduction so begins:

"I came across Kenneth Patchen the way one dreams of a tumbleweed rollin’ on by, leaving trails of luminosity from within its prismatic pit. The world is, of course, that damn tumbleweed with Patchen’s riddle wrapped around itself, now here, now gone, like the marriage between "Hi!" and "So Long.” We are left born before a new kind of page, the shit kicked out of us, and nothing is sweeter.... Blessed be this shitkicker."

Oh, Devendra. I still love you.

Contributor Spotlight: Christopher Watkins

I Want You -or- On Influence & Inspiration: The Ache To Write -or- How A Musicianer Came To Love And Need The Word

I wanted to write songs like Bob Dylan wrote songs. I wanted to keep one foot in tradition, and one foot in the void. I wanted to be raw, visceral, elemental, yet I wanted also to be cerebral, hallucinatory, and transcendent. I wanted to sing with my voice, my wild untutored, untamed voice, yet I wanted to be tuneful, tasteful, and classic. He was my first songwriting hero. Some days I love his early acoustic work, his blues, the brutally compelling folk of "The Ballad Of Hollis Brown":

You looked for work and money/And you walked a rugged mile/You looked for work and money/And you walked a rugged mile/Your children are so hungry/That they don't know how to smile

And other days I love his surrealism, his obfuscation, the almost mind-numbingly decadent lyricism of "Subterranean Homesick Blues":

Get born, keep warm/Short pants, romance, learn to dance/Get dressed, get blessed/Try to be a success/Please her, please him, buy gifts/Don't steal, don't lift/Twenty years of schoolin'/And they put you on the day shift/Look out kid/They keep it all hid/Better jump down a manhole/Light yourself a candle/Don't wear sandals/Try to avoid the scandals/Don't wanna be a bum/You better chew gum/The pump don't work /Cause the vandals took the handles

and still other days I love his utter simplicity:

I want you, I want you,/I want you so bad,/Honey, I want you.
—
I grew up in an academic household (my father is a Professor of Literary Criticism), and I was fortunate enough to be exposed to great writing from a very early age, with works of poetry often included in my reading. My father was friends with a number of noteworthy poets, writers as diverse as John Silkin, Diane Wakoski, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and W.S. Merwin, and I had regular access to their books. But despite these luminaries' presence in our lives, it was music that really captured me, and particularly songs that featured richly crafted lyrics. Many of my early songwriting influences (Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen), were not only widely considered to be "poetic" lyricists (some had even published books of poetry), but they were substantially and self-admittedly influenced by poetry as well. Through music, I discovered and/or re-discovered, and certainly found new appreciation for, poets like Dylan Thomas (the inspiration for one Robert Zimmerman to change his name to Bob Dylan), Allen Ginsberg (who performs on a song I love by the great English band The Clash called "Ghetto Defendant"), and Arthur Rimbaud (often cited by Jim Morrison of the band The Doors as a major influence).

Regarding Dylan Thomas, I had no idea back then what a villanelle was, but the hypnotically circling and repeating mantras of his "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" were certainly able to work their poem-magic on my music-minded mind with easy ease:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

While trying to alphabetize our record shelf, I found an LP of Thomas reading this poem (it was slotted just after Them's first album, and right before my Thompson Twins record!), and hearing that sonorous, booming baritone rippling from our antiquated speakers (not to mention the photo on the cover, which was of the rather younger Dylan Thomas; not the portly drunkard of latter years, but the raggedy-haired youth with the long lashes and depthless eyes who made wearing sweaters and smoking cigarettes seems both guttural and beautiful) was an experience more than enough compelling to convince me that Dylan the songwriter had been spot-on in being captivated by Dylan the poet.
—
On The Road was not my bible. That honor went to The Dharma Bums. Foolish as it may sound, the book changed my life. I began to camp, to hike, to study Buddhism, to drink wine instead of whiskey. Reading The Dharma Bums also led me to Gary Snyder (who is thinly disguised in Kerouac's novel as the character Japhy Ryder), which would prove to be an even more momentous discovery. The first book of Gary Snyder's that I read was Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, and between its pages I discovered one of the great poetic heroes of my life, Han-Shan. His "Cold Mountain Poems," a selection of which are translated in Snyder's book, are some of the most beautiful pieces of writing I have ever encountered in my life. It sounds so oddly flat to say that, but I have no better words to clarify just how strongly those poems moved me upon my discovery of their richness and power. Here is Gary Snyder's translation of one of Han-Shan's most stunning pieces:

Clambering up the Cold Mountain path,
The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on:
The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,
The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass.
The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain
The pine sings, but there's no wind.
Who can leap the world's ties
And sit with me among the white clouds?

Reading this poem, my breath was quite simply knocked right out of me. Its stripped-down simplicity, its rawness, its no-fat-on-the-bone aesthetic, its sense of space, the revelation in its volta, these were the hallmarks of an art so elusive I could only hope that someday I might tap just a small thread of its genius with some creation of my own.
—
I wanted to write poems like Han-Shan wrote poems. In a cave high in the Himalayas, away from the constraints of the modern world, he wrote poems on his walls that still, hundreds of years later, deliver to his readers a sense of the great spaces in the world that remain untainted by our daily trivialities, our shallow vanities, our greeds and fundamental smallnesses. To read Han-Shan is to engage in an awareness ritual. He reminds us to go outside and breathe the air, observe the moon, lick some dew off of a blade of grass, and be thankful that nature remains both benevolent and aloof.

In my first thirty years of life
I roamed hundreds and thousands of miles.
Walked by rivers through deep green grass
Entered cities of boiling red dust.
Tried drugs, but couldn't make Immortal;
Read books and wrote poems on history.
Today I'm back at Cold Mountain:
I'll sleep by the creek and purify my ears.
(Han-Shan, translation Gary Snyder, from Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems)
—
I want to put everything I love into art, into music, into poetry. Into the word. I want to love creation, and I want it to love me. I want to honor every hero I've ever had, and I want to be every hero. I want to be Han-Shan and Son House both. I want to resurrect The Beats, resurrect the Harlem Renaissance. I want to go back eleven centuries to the Chinese Mountains, eighty years to the Mississippi Delta, fifty years to North Beach. Perhaps most of all, I want to transcend my own ever-growing misanthropy, to rediscover again the faith, belief, and love that led me to the arts in the first place, led me to those heroes, to their works, to their examples. Vainly perhaps, I want to be at the center of something I believe in. Year after year, I have felt more and more a man out of time, relic in a world with no use for what I once worked so hard to learn. I want a new creation that can recreate the world I used to love.
—
I want you. I want you so bad.

Christopher Watkins is a poet and songwriter. His debut collection of poems Short Houses With Wide Porches is available from Shady Lane Press. He is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA Program at The University of Southern Maine. As a songwriter, he has released five albums under the name Preacher Boy. His most recent album is "Demanding To Be Next" (Coast Road Records). His poems are appearing or have appeared in The GW Review, Slipstream, Euphony, Talking River, and Red Rock Review, among others. He has received a Gold Record for his songwriting work with Grammy award-winning artist Eagle-Eye Cherry. Christopher's poem, "The University of Iowa Sunset Village Quonset Hut Haiku Blues," appears in issue #42.

Our First Podcast!

What better way, we thought, to further HFR’s mission of supporting emerging writers than to let a few of them speak their minds, and then broadcast that mind-speaking online! Voila the first installment of our podcast series. Poet Gabriela Jauregui and photographer Ellen Shershow-Peña talk about everything from cutting open dead birds to eating blood sausage to what projects they have up their sleeves next.

Track 01.
'To me 'The Grotesque' is not just icky, it's something fascinating.'
Ellen and Gabriela explore the difference between 'The Grotesque' and 'The Gross.'
Track 02.
'It just so happened that I was also collecting dead birds and had been for six or eight months. '

Ellen reads the description of her work (featured in Issue 42). She then discusses the inspiration for her "Inside out Bird" artwork and the process of collecting, conceptualizing, stuffing, and positioning that she carefully carried out to create those images.

Track 03.
'I kind of was fascinated by that process at the same time as I was still kind of obsessed with the pigs, and all of the sudden, you know, here was this poem.'

Gabriela reads her poem, "Blood Sausage," and discusses its origin. Gabriela, Ellen, and Beth then explore the meaning of the poem. Gabriela then describes her current projects.
Track 04.
"Looks like you could use a tissue, Paris."
Ellen describes her current project, in which she takes iconic images of pop stars and pastes herself into them. She then discusses some experiences she had while stuffing the birds for her last project, "Inside Out Birds," that is featured in Issue 42. Afterward, Gabriela describes her research for her poem, "Blood Sausage."
Track 05. 'I feel like animals have always been sort of mirrors of ourselves.'

Ellen and Gabriela explore the parallels between 'The Grotesque' and the animal world. This discussion sparks a conversation about the images of women's bodies in Grotesque writing. The podcast ends with the two writers discussing the surprising similarities between Ellen's photographs of "Inside Out Birds" and Gabriela's poem, "Blood Sausage."
Ellen Shershow-Peña lives and works in San Francisco. She has exhibited throughout the US, including SF Camerawork and Southern Exposure in San Francisco, Gallery 312 in Chicago and the Photographic Resource Center in Boston. She is a recipient of a National Graduate Seminar Fellowship at Tisch School of the Arts in New York City and a James Raymond Fellowship. She has lecutred and served as a juror at such diverse venues as Photo Lucida and a Coca Cola youth arts grant program, and acted as a nominator for the Headlands Center for the Arts Bridge Residency and the SECE award at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Ms. Shershow-Peña has a solo show opening at 31 Rausch Street in April, 2008. To view more of Ellen's work, click here.

Gabriela Jauregui received her MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside, and is a PhD candidate in comparative literature at the University of Southern California, where she is also a Soros New American Fellow. Her first poetry collection, Controlled Decay (Black Goat Press/Akasic Books), is out in June. She lives in Los Angeles and Mexico City and is working on Ball Game, her first novel, as well as a new collection of poetry, Beast Language, which includes "Blood Sausage." To view more of Gabriela's work, click here.
The music in this podcast was composed by Andrew Ralston. He is currently working on a Bachelor's degree in Composition at Oberlin College.

Thanks to John Tynan and KJZZ for lending us the space and technology to record this.

Want to host a different kind of family Fourth of July barbecue this year? Why not go literary with your playlist!

Your family, no doubt, still has no idea what you mean when you say you're a "writer." This Fourth of July, we're suggesting a playlist to teach them a little something about that. Or about rocking out. Either way, not a bad way to celebrate America.

"Wrapped Up in Books" by Belle and Sebastian

Use this song to tell your family how magical books are, and how they keep you dry:

"We've got a fantasy affair

We didn't get wet, we didn't dare

Our aspirations, are wrapped up in books."

"I Typed For Miles" by Jets to Brazil

Jets to Brazil knows that writers are cool:

"I live in a hotel

must keep writing

if I'm to be better than everyone else."

Perhaps distract your family from the later lyrics, which paint a different picture of the writing lifestyle:

"I need a word to change my life

I've tied my ankles to the table legs with wire

he can't write so much as type"

"The Engine Driver" by The Decemberists

Even a non-book-lover whose heart is made of ice can't help but be touched by these words. Make sure your family understands that, still, you know nothing about engines.

"And I am a writer, writer of fictions

I am the heart that you call home

And I've written pages upon pages

Trying to rid you from my bones"

"Type Slowly" by Pavement

Pavement might not shed much light on what writers do, but when your family asks why your book still isn't finished, this song title might serve as an explanation. If they're still asking questions, help illuminate the differences between writers and other people with these lyrics:

"One of us is a cigar stand - and one of us is a lovely blue incandescent guillotine."

I bet that shut them up.

"Say Something New" by The Concretes

"say something new, something new.

about something you do, something you do"

Aren't all of us writers trying to do just that? And wouldn't it be nice if our relatives would do the same?

"Writing to Reach You" by Travis 

Who can't empathize with the lyrics below? Besides, any relative can understand an English degree as long as you bring up "teaching."

"Because my inside is outside

My right side's on the left side

'Cause I'm writing to reach you

But I might never reach you

I long to teach you about you"

"Book I Read" by The Talking Heads

Pretend like The Talking Heads wrote this about your MFA thesis:

I'm writing 'bout the

book I read

I have to sing about the

book I read

I'm embarrassed to admit it hit the soft spot in my heart

When I found out you wrote the

book I read

"Publish My Love" by Rogue Wave

Still not published? Let Rogue Wave explain.

"you could never publish my love

you could never publish my love

you could never publish my love

you could never publish my love"

"Everyone Needs An Editor" by Mates of State

Work with words? The first line of this song is "I feel right all the time." It's the most concise description of the need for editing ever put to song.

"Ghostwriter" by RJD2

Considering ghostwriting to make extra money? This song has no words, but let it groove you. It's also on a commercial for Wells Fargo bank. If you can get your parents to associate "writing" with "money," well, wow. 

If your family still doesn't think anyone cares about books, writers, or the relatives of writers, provide these songs as evidence:

"Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush

"Bukowski" by Modest Mouse

"Hey, Jack Kerouac" by 10,000 Maniacs

"Sylvia Plath" by Ryan Adams

"Walt Whitman's Niece" by Billy Bragg and Wilco (covering Woody Guthrie)

"Shakespeare's Sister" by The Smiths

If they still don't get it, provide this song as a counter-point. 

"My Son Spells Backwards" by The Victorian English Gentlemans Club

"My son, he spells backwards, he spells backwards, he spells backwards.

Yes, my son spells backwards, he spells backwards, he spells backwards.

And he wears sun-colored glasses. To school, to school."

At least you didn't end up like that kid.

Any songs we missed? Let us know!