Ralph Waldo Eggerson Stars in "Goodbye My Chickens, Goodbye."

The deadline for the photo competition is coming up fast, so we thought we'd give you all some inspiration. Ralph Waldo Eggerson agreed to model for us in an example of a photo you might come up with for the video for "Goodbye My Chickens, Goodbye" by Anne Earney. Of course, if you want to submit something other than photos (like drawings, flash images, or music clips) that would be extremely welcome.

Here's the deal. Send us any photograph that you feel relates to the story. Anything at all! We'll choose our favorites and string them together for a fabulous video worthy of killing a radio star. We'll gladly accept your photos through email (hfr@asu.edu). Be sure to include your name and address. The deadline is NOVEMBER 30th!

Photo Contest!

Hello All!

You may remember our plea from a few weeks back asking for photos for our next HFR video project. We've decided to hold a photo contest! Those whose photos are chosen for the video will receive a copy of the new HFR #49!!

For this video project, we've decided on "Goodbye, My Chickens, Goodbye" by Anne Earney, in HFR #48. Here's the deal. Send us any photograph that you feel relates to the story. Anything at all! We'll choose our favorites and string them together for a fabulous video worthy of killing a radio star. We'll gladly accept your photos through email (hfr@asu.edu). Be sure to include your name and address. The deadline is NOVEMBER 30th!

Video Project Complete

Hello all,

We've finished the first video of the blog video project. You might recall us asking for your help by sending in images, sound clips, and suggestions for a video based on the prose poem "Modern Medicine" by Michael Brooks Cryer in HFR #48. This is the result. We look forward to working on the next one. (Click here to watch the video)

Enjoy!

Modern Medicine

-for JA

To be of help to its contemporaries, an artificial heart learned to sing during the last desperate moments before a transplant operation. The heart explained, before being placed into the human's chest, why fake hearts can sing and real hearts can only pump blood. "Real hearts have trouble singing because of their muscles don't form good acoustics. Artificial hearts, like myself, made of plastic and exotic metals, nurture sound like a cathedral or the Albert Hall. I think all fake organs should sing, especially the shy ones." A beautifully crafted pseudo-kidney sat at the back of the operating room listening to this. It had heard earlier that day a chorus of hearts practicing "America the Beautiful" in a utility closet. The kidney turned to the organ at its left and said, "This is ridiculous. I can sing. Listen to this." The testicle was astounded the kidney could talk, let alone carry a tune, so it threw itself into a bedpan and took a nap. "Will somebody shut that heart up," an anonymous organ pleaded. "Good god!" a small intestine exclaimed as a large one clapped. "I heard the eyes are learning to juggle," whispered a pancreas. "America, America..." sang the hearts.

For our next project, we've decided on "Goodbye, My Chickens, Goodbye" by Anne Earney, also in HFR #48. It came down to either "Surfer Girl," or "Goodbye, My Chickens, Goodbye," and we decided that chickens are easier to find and photograph than oceans are. However, if anyone has any other suggestions as to which story or poem we should turn into a video next, we'll gladly accept your ideas through email (hfr@asu.edu).

A Most Remarkable Video Project: We Need Your Help!

A new project is afoot at HFR, and we need your participation! We're determined to bring the latest issue to life in a new and exciting way. You've perhaps heard of music videos? You've heard—from us—about Motion Poems, and now we've got it into our heads to make our own kind of music-video-poetry, inspired by work in our current issue and with your help.

Here's the first poem chosen for the project, "Modern Medicine" by Michael Brooks Cryer:

Modern Medicine
-for JA

To be of help to its contemporaries, an artificial heart learned to sing during the last desperate moments before a transplant operation. The heart explained, before being placed into the human's chest, why fake hearts can sing and real hearts can only pump blood. "Real hearts have trouble singing because their muscles don't form good acoustics. Artificial hearts, like myself, made of plastic and exotic metals, nurture sound like a cathedral or the Albert Hall. I think all fake organs should sing, especially the shy ones." A beautifully crafted pseudo-kidney sat at the back of the operating room listening to this. It had heard earlier that day a chorus of hearts practicing "America the Beautiful" in a utility closet. The kidney turned to the organ at its left and said, "This is ridiculous. I can sing. Listen to this." The testicle was astounded the kidney could talk, let alone carry a tune, so it threw itself into a bedpan and took a nap. "Will somebody shut that heart up," an anonymous organ pleaded. "Good god!" a small intestine exclaimed as a large on clapped. "I heard the eyes are learning to juggle," whispered a pancreas. "America, America..." sang the hearts.

We'd like YOU to send photographs, sound bites, drawings, or music either inspired by this poem or that somehow speaks to the poem. Your favorite bedpan? Awesome. Your patriot rendition of "America, America"? Yes, please. Grab your camera, and get snapping! Think you know what a signing heart sounds like? Sing it!

Send these as mp3, jpg or tif files to HFR@asu.edu or through Twitter to @haydensferryrev. Sound bites should be under a minute, and images should be saved for the web (72 dpi). The deadline for your submissions is September 16, and we can't wait!

We'll choose our favorite images and sounds and create a lovingly curated mini-movie for you to view. We're certain many more hearts will be singing by the end of this.

Website of the Week - Poems that GO

The Random House Dictionary defines poh-i-tree as "the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts." Poems that GO is a project that challenges the conventions of contemporary poetry in ways that stretch and mold works into new-media aesthetics. The question presented: what makes a poem a poem? At what point do words become songs; when are visual representations of words transformed into cinema? The practice of etymology plays a critical role and impresses a technological wisdom upon new representations of what is labeled as "poetry".

This is seriously thinking outside the box, guys.

What's particularly interesting is the rhythm that naturally occurs when motion, sound, image, text, and code are mixed together. I really enjoyed the piece Nine by Jason E. Lewis, which is an interactive dynamic poem that explores different dimensions of the lives the artist has stumbled into.

Poems that GO is a brave movement that challenges this generation to soak in media as a form of expression, and to define written pieces as something louder beyond the blank page. Through new observations in motion and graphics, we can define and heighten the volume of poetry in how we make sense of modern language.

Electric Literature's Single Sentence Animations

I'm a huge fan of these single sentence animations from newbie, boat-rocking literary magazine Electric Literature. Not only because it's a cool idea (asking writers to choose a favorite sentence from their stories, and then asking artists to animate them) but because the videos are so fun to watch! The latest was posted just yesterday, a claymation interpretation from artist Donna K. of a sentence from Lydia Davis' story "Cows." Check it out here.

I considered posting the sentence to whet your appetite, but part of the joy is watching it reveal itself over the course of the video. Bet you can't watch just one.