I will sing your fears if you sing my neurosis

[sovay]

This is the week of random fantastic presents. oldcharliebrown's late and most welcome holiday gift arrived in the mail: the Dresden Dolls' vinyl single of "Good Day" (b-side, "A Night at the Roses"). Since "Good Day" was the first Dresden Dolls song I ever heard, when I was trying to find my seat at the 2002 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony and wondering what on earth I was listening to, this is most appropriate.* The cover illustration and the faces printed onto the label are terrific, in one of the ways that makes me wish I had an actual talent for visual art. And besides, it's vinyl. I'll have to borrow my parents' turntable to play it, but this is still immensely cool.

Hm. Most likely I am the last person in the universe to find this out, but their new album has a name: Yes, Virginia, and it's due out in spring 2006. This makes me happy. I also see that it contains "Sex Changes," "Dirty Business," and "Mandy Goes to Med School," which are three of my favorite so-far unreleased songs (others are "Boston," "The Sheep Song," and recently "The Gardener" and "My Alcoholic Friends"; if I were to count the ones collected on A Is For Accident, that list would expand like crazy) and includes some I haven't heard yet, like "Me and the Minibar" or "Sing." There are about three bands I follow actively, and the Dresden Dolls are one of them.

Now all I need is a new Jill Tracy album and my need for weird cabaret will be (temporarily) fulfilled. I keep meaning to see the short film of "The Fine Art of Poisoning" or the films in which she appears, but I haven't yet. I need an actual slice of free time to set aside for tracking down oddities by favorite artists of mine. (Hey: compilation. Ah, the internet. Aiding free-association since . . .) I need free time, period. And I need not to use it staring at CDs I can't afford.

My poem "In Sight of the Seasons" (Not One of Us #34) has been nominated for the 2006 Rhysling Award, Short Poem. I am starting to feel guilty.

*I went home with that song stuck in my head, despite the presence of a theremin in the opening ceremonies and the performance of "Christopher Lydon" that eventually found its way onto A Is For Accident. It was the "I took out the trash today and I'm on fire . . ." bit, because I hadn't been able to catch most of the other lyrics. My parents were very patient with me. And years later, I was able to attain semidemisortagod status in the eyes of an adolescent girl on the subway back from the 2005 WFNX Best Music Poll, dressed in serious black and chaperoned by her mother, who looked at me wide-eyed and said, "You were really there?" and I could feel for a moment like some veteran of the war at Troy (or pick a heroic epoch of your choice) before I realized how weird that was . . .

Comments

[ethereal-lad.livejournal.com]

for further dark cabaret, try Hannah Fury and Abby Travis....

[sovay]

Cool. Thank you!

What do like about each of these?

[ethereal-lad.livejournal.com]

Hannah Fury is darkly romantic. She writes songs full of romantic despair, a song cycle based on "Wicked", and has a beautiful, whispery voice (http://www.mellowtraumatic.com).

Abby Travis is campy, fun punk-cabaret. She's a bassplayer, and has an Ute Lemper like alto. Her music lush and comic...

[sovay]

I've downloaded the Hannah Fury songs available at her site. Hmm. I may rather like.

[larryhammer]

Guilty, why?

---L.

[sovay]

The usual: that many people can't possibly like my poetry, can they?

[kraada.livejournal.com]

Yes, they can. You write well. Really well. You know all that praise? You deserve it because you're good. Don't feel guilty for having a gift and using it.

And incidentally: you aren't the last person to know. I'm behind you at least . . .

[larryhammer]

You feel guilty because they like your work?

Leaving aside the obvious logical holes in that statement, that sounds more like embarrassment than guilt.

---L.

[sovay]

I never said it was logical! Being complimented usually leaves me wanting to hide under the table: I never have any idea what to say.

[kraada.livejournal.com]

Well, there's a difference between complimenting you and complimenting your writing ability.

Should Michael Jordan(*) feel guilty for being told he's a very good basketball player? Should Tiger Woods(*) be ashamed of the fact that he can hit a golf ball in ways that most people can't? Of course not.

It is a simple fact of life. Sonya Taaffe writes really good stuff. The stuff you write is better than the stuff most people write. You should smile and be proud. There are a million others who would trade you for that ability in a heartbeat.

(*)Note: These players were chosen not necessarily because I think your writing has reached that comparative level, but had I picked people like Mark Price or Anika Sorenstam or Robert Varkoyni you probably would not have reecognized them. Even though they're all amazingly good at what they do.

[sovay]

Well, there's a difference between complimenting you and complimenting your writing ability.

I am working on it, all right? I no longer blither like an idiot when people express a liking for my stories. (I just want to hide under the table. I haven't, so far . . .) One of my students turned up yesterday reading Singing Innocence and Experience in the McDougal Center and I only thanked him profusely for contributing to the Allow Sovay To Afford A Non-Sketchy Apartment Fund and, once he'd located a pen, signed it thus for him. I just still feel weird about multiple nominations. There must be other, more worthwhile poems out there, aren't there?

but had I picked people like Mark Price or Anika Sorenstam or Robert Varkoyni you probably would not have reecognized them.

Yeah. My basic reaction to all of those people was: who?

[kraada.livejournal.com]

I know you are. But I've been trying to help for years, so I feel like I have to hold the hard line :)

You have improved, this much is true. Your writing has also improved . . . and also, you are not the ONLY nominee, are you? :)

(I mean, your poem is probably the best of the nominees out there, but it's not the only one . . .)

As to who the people are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Price
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annika_Sorenstam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Varkonyi

and apparently, I can't spell. Oh well, that's hardly news :)

[sovay]

Your writing has also improved . . .

Oh. Good. : P

and also, you are not the ONLY nominee, are you? :)

Can't be: there must also be the people I nominated . . .

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

Jill. Fucking. Tracy. oh, yes.

"Evil Night Together" rocks my socks off, and not just because I am a slavish devotee of Luc Sante.

(Despite my best efforts to draw it out, I'll be finishing Postcards... tomorrow. Slavishly fan-boy-esque review will surely follow within the next week or so.)

[sovay]

Yeah. I can't even remember how I found Jill Tracy. I think I ran across her website sometime late in college and, seduced entirely by its premise, ordered Diabolical Streak sight unseen and unheard: and loved it. I've had an addiction ever since. "Extraordinary" is one of my all-time favorite songs,* various lyrics have turned up in several of my stories, and "Little Fix of Friction" (Not One of Us #33) was partially inspired, as you might be able to tell from the title, by "Make It Burn." I can't wait for the new CD that she keeps hinting about on her site.

Slavishly fan-boy-esque review will surely follow within the next week or so.

Didn't you see the comments above? Are you trying to make me hide under the furniture?

. . . Seriously, thank you. I am really glad that you like.

*I think I slightly prefer the jazzier, more uptempo version from Quintessentially Unreal, but really I love both renditions. I have favorites from both albums, but that one's a constant.

[kraada.livejournal.com]

Are you trying to make me hide under the furniture?

If he is, I want to be around to try and photograph such an event.

Who knows, it might prove one of your few photogenic moments ;)

I can see the caption now:
The great and prolific author Sonya Taaffe hides from her legions of fans. Her red eyes fail to bother them; they knew she was otherworldly . . .

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

If he is, I want to be around to try and photograph such an event.

You will post, ja? :)

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

Are you trying to make me hide under the furniture?

Hey, I toned that down!

Though, seriously, since I've been publishing poetry since (if I've got your age right based on some quick addition/subtraction from story notes in Singing...) you were just learning to walk, I will hopefully be able to articulate exactly what it is that makes me a slavish fanboy in such a way that you will do less hiding under the furniture and more saying "huh, people find that interesting? I find it positively quotidian!" (And if you actually say that, there must be a phone post of it. MUST.)

[sovay]

since . . . you were just learning to walk

This is very possible. I was born in 1981 (October 9).

in such a way that you will do less hiding under the furniture and more saying "huh, people find that interesting? I find it positively quotidian!

That would be incredibly useful feedback, actually. As well as vocabulary-broadening. : )

[coraline]

through a strange set of coincidences (someone named tanisha wilson emailed me looking for my sister elisabeth, and mentioned in passing that you had become "a famous author") i have ended up here at your journal. i don't know if you remember me from LHS, but i thought i'd wave and say hi, and i've just ordered a copy of your book of short stories :)

[sovay]

Of course I remember you! (I hadn't realized you were on Livejournal, but I am beginning to realize that everybody is on Livejournal . . . Is Elisabeth?) Hi! : )

[coraline]

she is menolly03 though she almost never uses it (for reading or for posting).

i don't know which other members of the Vast Lexington Conspiracy you might know (most of the ones i know are older than you), though i see you've got farwing on your list.

my local "fiercely independant bookstore" will have a copy of your book for me in a couple of days! i look forward to reading it.

[sovay]

(I love your icons, in case I haven't mentioned.) Name some members of the Vast Lexington Conspiracy and I'll see who I recognize. I'm still not used to the bizarre ways in which bits of my friendlist link up. Like the friend from Brandeis who performs Gilbert & Sullivan with a member of my cousin's household; that one blew my mind for a couple of days.

my local "fiercely independant bookstore" will have a copy of your book for me in a couple of days! i look forward to reading it.

Wow. What is your local fiercely independent bookstore? I hope you like the book!

[coraline]

thanks! i have a great deal of fun with my icons.
let's see... pisicutsa, carik, wavyarms, cerivisiae, chmrr, timeslayer (my other sister), crisismatrix (though i'm sure you don't know him), girliegoalie... i think that's it for ones i know on LJ.

http://www.portersquarebooks.com/ -- fierce! see, it says so, right on the front page :)
i like them -- i want to help them stay in business, which is hard with cambridge rents...

[sovay]

Hey, I had just been wondering where carik had gotten to! (I attended about an hour of Vericon a few weeks ago and was reminded.) Thank you!

I am very fond of Porter Square Books. I may even have some kind of card there, although I wouldn't swear to it. But I also approve unconditionally of any bookstore that is willing to carry my work. : P