Well, after the huge tome of Ken Follett’s World Without End (his sequel to Pillars of the Earth, both really good books, I might add) I embarked upon a journey into Michelle Paver’s world as told in her Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series of six books. I’ve not long finished the last of them (they’ve been part of my daily life for about 3-and-a-half months).

The first book in the series is Wolf Brother, a book recommended to me years ago by a friend of mine (howdy, Al) and then given to me as a birthday present last year (thank-you again, Dave and Chris). First I’ll give you a very quick tour of the books and then I’ll tell you what I think of them (don’t read any further if you plan to read them!).

Our hero Torak loses his father (Fa), finds a wolf cub who becomes his guide and pack-brother (Wolf). He then meets the flame-haired girl Renn and the father figure of Finn-Kedinn (and the rest of the Raven Clan who take him in). Through all this, Torak is hunted by a demon bear whom he has to destroy to save the Open Forest.

In this book, Torak discovers he’s a Spirit Walker, a dying breed who can inhabit the bodies of other living things. He travels to the sea in search of a cure for a sickness that’s threatening the Open Forest. He meets Bale and the rest of the Seal Clan including the Seal Clan Mage who turns out to be a Soul Eater, a corrupted Mage lusting after Torak’s power.

Wolf is kidnapped by a group of Soul Eater’s all hell-bent on gaining Torak’s spirit-walking ability. Torak and Renn track Wolf to the Far North where the Soul Eater’s plan to sacrifice Torak, thus enabling them to possess his power. I must mention that in this one, Renn gets stuck in a dark hole and can’t move, her arms squashed up against her sides. Believe me, I’ve had nightmares about things like that :(

At the end of the last book, Torak is branded on his chest with the mark of a Soul Eater and is banished from the Raven Clan and they, along with any other clan, are obliged to kill him on sight. All the while he is being lured by Seshru, one of the Soul Eater’s (and, as it happens, Renn’s mother). Bale, from the second book, is in much of this story.

In which Bale is murdered by a Soul Eater (Thiazzi) whom steals a fire-opal (a great source of power) and Torak swears revenge. He, Renn and Wolf travel to the heart of the Deep Forest to find Thiazzi. The Owl Mage (Eostra) steals the fire-opal at the end of the book.

The last book where our heroes travel to the Mountain of Ghosts in search of Eostra, the last and most powerful Soul Eater.

OK, so what did I think of the books in all? I’ve mixed feelings to be honest. As a whole, I’ve enjoyed them but some parts didn’t deliver. I’ll say what I didn’t like first, and then what I did.

Firstly, I hate bad English (or what I see as bad English, not necessarily wrong). Using ’smelt’ instead of ’smelled’ and ’round’ instead of ‘around’ just winds me up. I know smelt can be used but……And I absolutely detest it when author’s write something like this:

“the man reached the door, opened it.”

Puh-lease put in ‘and’ where the comma is! Not sure if this is an American thing and it seems to be a growing trend of late. I read a book by Joe Hill last year called Heart Shaped Box and it was littered with that type of writing. I almost stopped reading the book because of it. I was mortified to see an instance of it in a Neil Gaiman book I’m reading at the moment. Arrggghh……!!

I didn’t think Torak’s spirit-walking ability was used enough and I was expecting more in that department. There didn’t seem much point in having it half the time.

I also found (and this was probably the most disappointing) that the Soul Eater’s were talked up as being nigh on invincible but died really quite normally. Seshru, for instance, was shot with an arrow; not a magical arrow of any sort that was an adventure in itself to obtain, just a normal arrow. Thiazzi, the Oak Mage, about to become lord of the forests and the most physically powerful of all, fell out of a tree and died (the demon bear in Wolf Brother suffered a similar fate).

Another thing; I find it hard reading about people eating raw liver and eyeballs and drinking sinewy blood (but that’s just me). All that stuff reminds me of The Life of Pi which, if you haven’t read, is highly recommended.

Now my moans are out of the way, I’ll say some nice things :)

I love the way that all things have a spirit of their own. An example would be a fire which was ‘woken up’ or ‘put to sleep’. The trees, birds, mountains and rivers all had their own spirits. It reminds me of the Native American Indians and their outlook on life and, like them, the inhabitants of Torak’s world used everything from a hunted animal and nothing went to waste. Thanks were also given up to the spirit of the killed creature, a kind of respect sadly missing in today’s society.

The drawings (by Geoff Taylor) were beautifully rendered and remind me of Gustav Dore’s wonderful engravings.

Being a lover of wolves, I loved Wolf and his lupine ways and his take on some things (the stars were described as the moon’s cubs which I thought was a wonderfully warm perception to have). To learn more about wolves and their ways, author Michelle Paver went to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust in Reading. I used to be a member of this organization about 15 years ago (I’ve still got all the magazines stashed away somewhere) and it put me in mind of doing something I wanted to do all those years ago, and that’s to go and see some wolves for myself (I’ve never seen a live one). I must look into it. I know you can go to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust and see them there so I may treat myself this year. Apparently Paver does writing workshops there for children and one of the wolves (whom you can adopt) is called Torak. So now you know :)

The ending of Ghost Hunter was rather quite beautiful and has become one of my favourite endings to a book (no ending has yet beat Titus Alone, though). Definitely the highlight of the whole series. I know I’m soft, but I do like a happy ending :)

Have you ever read a book and parts of it seem related to your own life in some ways? These books did it now and again and it certainly adds to them. I also loved the insight of how, as often happened with Torak and Renn, things left unsaid brought a silence and tension between them (they always seemed ratty with each other these two!).

My favourite of the books were Soul Eater and Oath Breaker (I much prefer the forest to the sea or icy mountains where some of the other books take place).

Well, I think that’s everything. Actually, no it’s not. I think these books would make better films, though I know there’s always things you can’t convey that you can in a book, so we’ll have to wait and see. I believe Ridley Scott (Bladerunner, Alien, Gladiator etc.) has been signed up by 20th Century Fox to produce a film of Wolf Brother.

Before I think of anything else, I’m outta here.

Jimbob

I knew there was something else I wanted to say in the last post. That’s what I get for writing late at night when I’m tired!

I just wanted to mention that I was rather pleased when I went to Groningen to see the Waterhouse exhibition last year that Miranda (the small 1916 version above) was owned by Nicky and Roma Ryan, Enya’s producer and co-songwriter respectively. Miranda, btw, is from Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

See ya,

Jimbob

Sorry, couldn’t resist that title. When a load of punk bands do Enya covers, that’s gotta be the name of the album.

Anyways, I put a video on You Tube a week or so ago where I tried doing Enya’s Watermark on keyboard. Watermark is the first song off of her 1988 album of the same name. God help me, I think on average ever since, I’ve listened to that album every day! I know her music can be a bit samey at times and I wish she’d do some stuff a bit more like her first album that she did for a BBC documentary back in 1987 called The Celts. There were more traditional instruments used on that album as opposed to the more synthesized sounds she uses nowadays. That said, I still love loads of her stuff and she’s sang me to sleep more times than I care to mention.

My favourite song of hers without question (and probably my favourite song, full stop!) is ’s fagian mo bhaile, Gaelic for ‘and I leave my home’. It’s the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard and it’s beauty is tied irrevocably to to the memory of a loved one and a place that will remain sacred always, both of which lie deep in my heart. For that reason, I know it won’t mean much to anyone else. This isn’t the first time I’ve put this song on here and nor will it be the last. I’ve put it up now ‘cos it’s gone over the 10,000 Views mark which I was rather pleased with. I know all those views are for the song itself but still, it’s nice to know the video I made for it has been watched that many times; it was filmed in the afore mentioned sacred place.

Here’s the vids anyway:

Well, I’m sure there’s more I wanna say but it’s late, so I’m off to bed for a read before sleep. Long day tomorrow….

See ya,

Jimbob

Just a wee word to express my pleasure at having spam-free email from Wordpress. If anyone out there uses Wordpress for their blog and is getting spam, then use the WP-SpamFree Plug-in. It’s free, it’s a plug-in and it’s erm…made of spam, hehe. I sent a comment yesterday to see whether or not it would get through and it did (which has now been deleted ‘cos I don’t want that kind of riff-raff on this very serious and thought-provoking site!).

In my next post I shall be talking about the existential and spacial parameters pertaining to the quantum episodes as experienced by the superlative frequency holograms. Please bring a packed-lunch!

See ya,

Jimbob

This is not my intended post ‘cos I’m having trouble with the one I wanted to do. In the meantime, I was writing a poem last night (I never finished it) which put me in mind of one I did a year or so ago. It was a love poem of sorts (which I don’t particularly want to talk about here) and after a little search and unearthing it from the dust, I also found I’d written another one which I’d forgotten I’d written, a tongue-in-cheek look at the environmental thing that’s everywhere nowadays. I wrote it (I remember now) in response to a slogan written on a sandstone wall in Liverpool city center; it read DO YOU CARE? It was part of an environmental message where other slogans had been spray painted. I’m all for looking after the planet, but some of it’s a bit misleading, I think.

Anyway, here’s the two poems, like or loathe ‘em.

The Earth At a Cost

Warming up is this earth upon which we live
Do you care?
Can you a little give?
That this world we may a little longer share?

You see, we live in a greenhouse
Didn’t you know?
It affects us all from man to mouse
A scientist told me so

Melt will the Polar caps of ice
And kill us all in a postdiluvian flood
But we can be saved (at a price)
Just hand over your money (it’s for your own good)

Our carbon footprint we must reduce
This CO2 is choking us all
It’s because of the smoke and the fumes we produce
And the trees we cut that once stood tall

I’ve heard it said we all will die
As well as the bear, the wolf and the panda
We’re all gonna starve or drown or fry
But I’m thinking maybe it’s just propaganda

At the Foot of Your Heart an Altar Made

At the foot of your heart an altar made
To you the song of longing
Candles burn and never fade
For the love of you and your belonging

God’s great sky could never encompass
Even the abyss would thirst for more
No reaching hand could ever possess
Even the stars will die and be no more

Twilight fades and my cheeks are wet
Words fall soundless in the deep
My empire crumbles in bitter regret
I pray for your arms in which to sleep

Yet slumber I with eyes wide open
Seeing only love where angels hide
These words the merest token
Of the lasting life I hold inside

And the day will come with a ringing of bells
When the world becomes a senseless thing
Our mortal lives as brittle as shells
On a fearful shore the oceans bring

To shatter all the lance is hurled
Lest rumour and lies forever be
And you as lamp in the darkness of the world
Before whose love the shadows flee

Well, college work beckons!

See ya,

Jimbob

Never been a fan of Valentine’s Day (which is today). I’ve never needed the existence of it to be able to tell someone I love them, to write them a card to say so or to treat them to something special, be it flowers or whatever. It’s really just a commercial enterprise and I’ve never gone for it, though I’m sure it works great for some people and good luck to ‘em. That said, I sat in a cafe today and did a little writing (and I mean a little) and I wondered afterwards if, as I wandered the rather quiet morning city streets of Liverpool, the shop displays I passed had secretly snuck into my unconscious. I think while I wasn’t looking a gang cherubs held the back door open and threw in enough red hearts to make a vampire go weak at the knees, themselves checking left and right, hoping I hadn’t noticed before closing the door firmly shut behind them. It’s the way that advertising works.

So, I sat with my filter coffee in a loft space overlooking the rooftops of the city, my mind consciously thinking about a book I had been reading on the train over to Liverpool. The book is called The Savage by David Almond. I’d read one of his books before (Heaven Eyes) and I wasn’t impressed at all but, when I saw it in college with Dave McKean’s illustrations in it, I just had to book it out and give it a go. I’m glad I did ‘cos it’s a wonderful little story and could probably be read in an half-an-hour. It reads a bit like a comic. Here’s the blurb about it from Play.com:

‘Blue Baker writes about a savage living alone in the woods near his home. After his dad’s death, Blue finds comfort in dreaming of a wild kid who survives on berries and the hapless passer-by. But when the savage pays a night-time visit to the local bully, boundaries become blurred and Blue begins to wonder where he ends and the savage begins.’

It’s written so simply and compliments McKean’s rather grotesque illustrations beautifully in the way that both writing and drawing aren’t poured over and made complicated by being too precious about them. It’s a children’s book but, like most great children’s books, they appeal to adults as well and this certainly falls into that category (but I am just a big kid myself!).

Anyway, with Valentines Day and The Savage fresh in mind I sat and wrote and drew and watched the world go by. For what it’s worth, here’s the little bit I wrote while my coffee cooled to lukewarm, done much in the style of the above mentioned book. I kind of found it like automatic writing, writing from a kid’s angle and I really enjoyed it. Must do more of it!

The leaves in the trees woke up and spoke dryly with words I couldn’t make out as the wind rustled through them. But somehow I understood what they were saying and it almost made me cry because it was beautiful. But maybe holding the hand of the girl I love made everything shine. She shone like an angel to me. Not that I’d ever seen an angel but I kinda imagine that’s what an angel would look like. Though I don’t know if an angel could look as heavenly as she does now. Her hand was like a sweet dream in mine and I wanted to hold it forever and never let go. My heart grew wide and I thought of the swell of the deep ocean and the king of birds high in the sky. I thought of the spaces between the stars and the secrets of the Earth.

I wont win any awards, I know, but there you go.

I finished my coffee and headed home having enjoyed my morning very much and thinking how well books and coffee go together. Not for the first time it crossed my mind to open a cafe/bookshop and I know just the place. Now all I need is an accomplice!

I’m outta here,

Jimbob

I hadn’t realised it had been over 2 months since my last entry! College has been busy though, but there were a few things I wanted to do to this blog before I wrote anymore posts and have only just got around to doing them. Firstly, I upgraded my Wordpress to the latest version which I’d been putting off for too long (‘cos I didn’t know how to do it). I had hoped that this would stem the increasing tide of blog spam that I get but, all to no avail. Next (which I guess I would have had to do sooner or later) was to find a suitable spam plugin and rid myself once and for all of the scourge that stalks my email inbox nearly every time I check it. Sometimes I get about 50 in one go, mostly from Russia! It’s driving me nuts! So, all apologies to anyone (which is unlikely, I admit) who has commented on a post and it has not appeared. I have tended to delete any comments wholesale now because of all the spam. BUT, now my spam plugin has been installed, I hope to be spam free.

Now that all that has been sorted (and I await anxiously for my next visit to email country) there’ll be a few more posts peppering the months between now and the day I shuffle off this mortal coil. Hmmmm………that reminds me of a song that reminds me of some John Waterhouse paintings, hehe.

If anyone has seen the new Peter Jackson film ‘The Lovely Bones’ you will have heard this song by This Mortal Coil with the very wonderful Elizabeth Frazer from the Cocteau Twins on vocals. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! The original, btw, was by Tim Buckley.

On the floating, shapeless oceans
I did all my best to smile
til your singing eyes and fingers
drew me loving into your eyes.

And you sang “Sail to me, sail to me;
Let me enfold you.”

Here I am, here I am waiting to hold you.
Did I dream you dreamed about me?
Were you here when I was full sail?

Now my foolish boat is leaning, broken love lorn on your rocks.
For you sang, “Touch me not, touch me not, come back tomorrow.”
Oh my heart, oh my heart shies from the sorrow.
I’m as puzzled as a newborn child.
I’m as riddled as the tide.
Should I stand amid the breakers?
Or shall I lie with death my bride?

Hear me sing: “Swim to me, swim to me, let me enfold you.”
“Here I am. Here I am, waiting to hold you.”

Until next time,

Jimbob

Well, college has gotten a bit more difficult with Maths, English and ICT now being thrown into the mix and it’s knock-on effect has resulted in less posts. But, I’ve at last managed to get something done after a long delay!

Our last project in college was about bookmaking, preferably with the ‘book’ not being in the traditional vein of what books usually are. Well, after experimenting with a few different ideas, I settled on an idea that stemmed from a chapter in a book by (I think) Clive Barker. I thought it was from one of my fave books ever and that is The Thief of Always but, having just looked it up, it appears not. The chapter, if I remember correctly, is called ‘Leaves From The Story Tree’, so if anyone can enlighten me, I’d appreciate it. It may be from Everville, but I really don’t know. Anyway, I liked the idea of a tree where each leaf on it was akin to a page from a book. Originally, I thought of putting a story on the leaves but, being a huge John Waterhouse fan and having written some verses about some of his paintings over the summer, I decided to do something based on him.

I won’t go into the details of how I came to the final idea for what became my final piece but, after a few fiddly attempts at creating the leaves, I finally came up with something I was happy with. Each leaf practically became a little book in itself with a front and back cover and a painting and verse within. The front of the leaf was a detail of a Waterhouse painting and the back had it’s name and the date of when it was painted. These two leaves were stitched together on one side and inside the leaf I concertinaed down an image of the full painting, on the back of which was the corresponding verse. The opposite side of the leaf where the stitching was, I joined together using velcro, which meant it could be opened and closed properly.  The tree itself was simply made from black wire twisted together and then attached to a piece of hardboard just to stop it from falling over. Hope all that makes sense; if not, the images below should explain better.

I did the veins of the leaves using thread, most of which (after my tutors suggestion) I left hanging out of each leaf, just to give it a rougher, more organic look.

If your interested, here are the verses I wrote (with a little influence from Tennyson for the The Lady of Shalott) and the paintings they are from. Not great poetry, but I had fun thinking them up.

A Naiad

Is it pleasure or is it pain you bring the sleeping shepherd boy?
Or first one and then the other?
A Naiad’s embrace and her sensual joy
Would death he then discover?

Hylas and the Nymphs

O Hylas! was the love of the nymphs too much to bear?
What became of your life in the sightless depths?
Was there aught else but a cold despair?
With a heart that remained of love bereft?

Thisbe

Thisbe, do you wear red for the blood that was your fate?
It blushing the fruit of the Mulberry Tree
Did the crack in the wall you love where love was spake?
Or more so the death that set you free?

The Lady Clare (Study)

A sketch of the Lady Clare
Wistfulness on a face so fair
What colour do you wear?
What colour rose in your hair?

Echo and Narcissus

Would Echo curse the daffodil thrown
That led the eyes of Narcissus
To see reflected a face, his own?
The hearts desire of Narcissus

Boreas

Oreithyia, the North Wind about you blown
By a love elemental at Winter’s end
Where walked you among a new spring grown
Swept away for the heart of Boreas to tend

The Lady of Shalott

Laid bare on the river’s dim expanse
That floated past the spires of Camelot
Was the pain of the Lily Maid’s broken romance
The Lady of Shalott

Well, I think that’s it for this post. I’m sure I’ll think of something I should have added later on, but there you go.

I’m outta here,

Jimbob

If anyone visits johnwilliamwaterhouse.com then you may have already read this. Otherwise, as I’m so busy right now, I just though I’d post here what I posted on the afore mentioned site in response to a question raised about why Waterhouse painted what he did. So, I did my best to answer, all the while thinking that his inspirations have become pretty much mine as well. I can only hope to do a fraction of what Waterhouse did, but if I do even that, I’ll be quite content.

Here’s the post:

“Waterhouse was born in Rome and spent, I think, the first 5 years of his life there.This was obviously and influence on him particularly in his earlier works where many of his paintings were set within Roman settings, St Eulalia being an obvious example. If I remember correctly as well, it was from Rome that he developed a love for mythology which was to be a part of his work for the rest of his life, Ovid and Homer being particular sources of information. Another influence on his work, I expect, must have been the death of two of his siblings as well as his mother. Death was often prevalent in Nino’s work as with The Lady of Shalott, Ophelia and Hylas and the Nymphs and those three examples also show, for me, Waterhouse’s greatest trait and that is his eye for, and desire to paint, beauty. I also think the Romantic ideals of the Pre-Raphaelites was a big influence.

As a direct answer to your question “why John Williams Waterhouse was inspired to paint what he did”, I could only guess that it was simply a strong desire to express beauty, be it feminine beauty or beauty in nature – usually a mixture of both – within a mythological or Romantic narrative.”

I’m currently doing a Waterhouse ‘book’ as the subject of my latest project in college for which I’ve written some verses to go alongside some of his paintings. God knows how it’ll turn out as I’ve only got about 2 weeks to get everything done!

Until next time,

Jimbob

Sorry about the late post, but decorating and the return of the college year has taken up much of my time, the latter of which provides my next post.

The last project we did in college was a 3D one and part of it entailed researching sculptors, something I know next to nothing about. So, I just thought about sculptures I’d seen in my life and really liked and wrote about them. I wasn’t much enthused at the prospect, I have to admit, but I ended up loving it.

First up was a sculpture by one Sir Thomas Brock called Eve. I remember seeing this some years ago at the Tate Modern in London the same day I first saw Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott at the Tate Britain.

Eve stood out like nothing else in the gallery, her white marble skin glowing in the dim hall where she stood. I was captivated by this piece and came back a few times to look at it. It awoke that kind of longing and other worldliness that Waterhouse nearly always captures in paint. It’s interesting to note that Eve was highly thought of in Paris where it was exhibited there circa. 1900, it’s naturalism obviously appealing to the Impressionist mindset that was so much a part of France in those days. Naturalism was something that Waterhouse leaned towards after the initial classicism of his early years, resulting in a cooling of opinion of his style from art critics; Impressionism and it’s ilk where not welcomed in the higher echelons of The Royal Academy.

Personally, I think it’s a beautiful piece of art and I think Brock has captured a feminine grace and elegance which is a wonder to behold and, as such, is timeless.

Next up, I remember a few covers from one of my fave bands Joy Division. Closer and Love Will Tear Us Apart were released in 1980 after singer Ian Curtis’s death earlier in the same year. It had already been decided on before his death what the covers of these records were to be, both of which just happened to be tombstones.

Closer, for me one of the greatest albums ever written, has one of the greatest covers as well. It’s a photograph taken by Bernard Pierre Wolf of the Appiani family tomb in the Staglieno Cemetery in Genoa, Italy. The sculptor was Demetrio Paernio. It’s was one of those works of art that immediately grabbed me and has never let go since.

Never has a record cover so well expressed the music that lay within, the deep shadows generated by Wolf’s remarkable piece of photography echoing the darkness that must have been spreading over Ian Curtis’ inner landscape in his twilight days. Here’s another photo of the tomb taken by Stan Verbeken on an unofficial Joy Division website:

The cover of Love Will tear Us Apart 12 ” bears the Ribaudo family tomb sculpted by Onorato Toso in 1910, again using Wolf’s photography.

Although this cover doesn’t have the impact that Closer had for me, I expect it was pretty strong for people when this was released just months after Curtis’ death. It’s still a beautiful sculpture though.

Below are some more of the wonderful sculptures from the Staglieno Cemetery:

These last two I found in my search are from Paris both, I think, from the Père Lachaise Cemetery. The latter of the two being used on Dead Can Dance’s album Within the Realm of a Dying Sun.

Phew, these blogs are hard work!

I’m outta here,

Jimbob