Sunday, 26 May 2013
Magnifying Glass
Since this blog started life as a poetry blog I reckon it´s time to post a poem. This one is from my collection, Midas Touch, published by Ward Wood Publishing. I have played a little trick in line 3. As is well known, there´s a certain kind of language, or diction, I should say, which is outlawed in contemporary poetry. Archaic terminology has no place in poems written in 2013. The basic premise is quite reasonable, of course, but my inner devil loves to break rules. `Greensward´ is a word that would not be accepted by most editors, quite rightly, I have to admit. Lovely, therefore, to smuggle it in as `green sword´. Heh, heh.
Magnifying Glass
At school we´ve all looked into one,
hovered it over a blade of grass
and seen the green sword´s cutting edge.
We´ve peered at the tips of our fingers,
the geography of whorls writ suddenly large,
and followed the Nile across green and yellow
to Abri, El Khandaq, Khartoum.
When the boy at the back raised his to one eye
and winked hugely, we laughed,
but the side of his face
stepped out of itself.
At arm´s length it made trees shrink
and stand on their heads,
a single leg pointing up
into a grassy sky.
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Happy with my new Kindle
I received my Kindle reader last Friday and have been getting used to it. I have to say, I´m dead impressed. I´d heard good things about them from friends who had them so my expectations were quite high, and they haven´t been disappointed. I got the most basic, cheapest model and at the moment I still think it answers all my needs, but I wouldn´t be surprised if I start to hanker after something a bit more sophisticated once I get used to the one I´ve got, and begin to find out more about the extra features on more expensive models. But let´s see.
At the moment I´m reading V.G.Lee´s Diary of a Provincial Lesbian and enjoying it enormously:
A great read. Highly recommended.
I´ve started adding volumes to the Kindle reader. Got my own novel and poetry collection, of course, and a copy of Dickens´ The Old Curiosity Shop and Byron´s Don Juan, both completely free. I haven´t had time to look at them properly yet, but at a first glance the Byron appears to be formatted quite satisfactorily. And I´ve paid for a copy of Vonnegut´s Slaughterhouse Five.
I´ve been amazed by the selection of entirely free books available. In addition, many other books are so cheap that they almost feel free. But not all. There are some titles where the Kindle version is more expensive than the paperback, which I don´t really understand.
Anyway, whilst I´m sure I will still buy and read `real´ books, I´m certainly a convert to the Kindle reader. I´m looking forward to travelling this summer with a couple of dozen books that will fit into a jacket pocket comfortably.
Monday, 4 March 2013
Sampola Monday 15 April
Here is the first part of the topic for our class on Monday April 15. This is another topic which might need a bit of research in order to talk about. There is a second part which I will put up soon.
What´s happening in Britain today?
1. Who is Mick Philpott?
What did you find out about his personality?
Did you find some details that help to give an impression of his character?
What did he do?
Why did he do it?
What was the result?
What was thought to be the first explanation and how was the truth finally discovered?
What is his present situation?
2. How and why has the Philpott case taken on political significance?
What reaction has there been to the case from the media?
How has George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer = Minister of Finance) been involved in the case?
How has David Cameron reacted to Osborne´s involvement?
Why are these issues especially sensitive just now?
3. What is the so-called `bedroom tax´?
How will the new regulations be applied?
Who will it affect?
What controversial change to income taxation was made by the Government in 2012?
What arguments have ministers put forward to justify these changes?
How does the Philpott case fit into these political discussions?
How has the media reacted to this debate?
4. Who is Boris Johnson?
What position does he currently occupy?
What is his background?
What accusations have been made against him?
Would he like to be the Prime Minister one day?
Here´s the second part of Monday´s topic:
Media Issues
For each of the following, explain what the issue is, describe how it affects people, give some examples of each and finally decide how serious you believe the issue to be.
1 Presentation of violence
2 Presentation of women
3 Stereotyping
4 Online Hate and hate campaigns
5 Privacy : And privacy of information
6 Censorship
7 Trivial nature of content and creating a story from very little
8 Bias and misrepresentation
9 Creating panics
10 Dumbing down and loss of concentration
11 Isolation and loneliness
12 Emotional manipulation of audiences
13 Exploitation of audiences
14 Tastelessness
15 Dishonesty
16 Scientific ignorance and cultural ignorance
17 Health and obesity
18 Addiction
19 Crime
20 Access of inappropriate material by the young and easily influenced
Task: Give examples of each issue. Can you add any other issues to the list?
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
Monday evening Sampola group
There is no class next Monday, the 25th, because it´s the ski holiday week.
The exact location of my favorite fish and chip shop in London that I mentioned in our last class is :
The Rock and Sole Plaice on the corner of Shorts Gardens and Endell Street, just north of Covent Garden.
Here´s some more info:
Fish and chips is quite a tradition in England, but it can vary a lot. When it´s not good, it can be pretty bad. Two key things to look out for: the batter coating the fish should be thin and crisp. If it´s thick and soggy, that´s a bad sign. Secondly, look for chips made from fresh potatoes, not frozen from a plastic bag. The meal should be cooked to order, not cooked in advance and then kept hot until somebody buys it.
As you can see, the chips are made from fresh potatoes. The fish was soft and succulent and really tasty and the batter was crisp and delicious. The Rock and Sole Plaice is highly recommended. And they have outdoor seating with heating.
How do you order your meal? Every fish and chip shop has a list of the fish on offer on the wall behind the counter. You select the type of fish you want. Some types of fish are well known to most foreign visitors: cod (turska in Finnish), sole (meriantura), haddock (very similar to cod), plaice (punakampela). But why not try something a bit different? We had rock salmon and skate. Skate is rausku in Finnish and rock salmon, or rock for short, is actually a kind of shark. Its real name is dogfish, which doesn´t sound very appetising, so they call it rock salmon, which sounds a lot more delicious. And it really was delicious. The flesh of rock salmon is very soft and white apart from some parts where there is more blood in the flesh and it´s a greyish brown colour. It has a large central backbone, but very few bones otherwise.
Friday, 15 February 2013
Here´s a tip, a free Kindle book. If you don´t have a Kindle, you can download a free app to your pc. I have a Mac and I didn´t have to download anything to read Kindle versions.
V.G. Lee's novel Diary of a Provincial Lesbian is free from today until Tuesday. It's already in the top 100 on Amazon US for literary fiction, which is quite an achievement. It's important to download from Amazon in your own country, and it's available on sites all round the world including UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Diary-Provincial-Lesbian-ebook/dp/B00BFGFKSA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360799431&sr=8-1 and US http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=B00BFGFKSA
Thursday, 14 February 2013
A haiku
I don´t write haiku very often, but I find it an interesting form because of its delicacy. This is one I wrote a few years ago which has survived several purges.
Air as still as glass.
Under the bare damson tree
a broken wasps´ nest.
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