Excess thoughts and Mental Waste

Who Killed Amanda Palmer?

expertdoublex — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:06:29 +0000

This is part one of my two part segment about Who Killed Amanda Palmer? (It should be three, music, book, film, but I cannot get the film.)

Book Review Monday:

Who Killed Amanda Palmer • • • • •

Who Killed Amanda Palmer is as the opening page says “A Collection of Photographic Evidence” It contains photos of Amanda Palmer (The musician, who performs both solo and (Past tense?) with the Dresden Dolls) dead. It seems morbid, it is morbid, and contains a rather large amount of nudity, but the book is incredible, the photos are artistic gold, with beautiful colors, scenes, poses and of course, the beautiful Amanda Palmer to make them lavishly stunning. The book begins with a eulogy by Neil Gaiman, it’s morbid, well written, and ends strangely. “If you see Amanda Palmer on the street, kill her, said the graffiti under the bridge in Boston. And beneath that somebody else wrote, That way she’ll live forever.” He turns her death into Rosewell, a mystery. It then proceeds to short stories which are at the height of modern literature, some fashioned after fairy tales, others from the strange and elaborate minds of Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer, intertwined with photos and song lyrics from ‘Who Killed Amanda Palmer’

As for personal favorites, an unnamed and quite indescribable piece of literature, which I shall name ‘I painted her eyes on myself.’ Is a stunning hit in my opinion, filled with innuendo and a slight touch of mental illness creates a perfect story. Next the story about the typewriter, it is a perfect example of the use of irony and black humor. And I quite connect to the main character. The Sword is also a striking hit in my opinion, though I personally am not the hugest fan of Sci-Fi type stories, I found this has good use, as usual extremely well written, with an important message delivered perfectly by Neil Gaiman, Art without Compromise. The next story, an adaptation of a fairy tale which mixes in the modern underside of life, black humor and of course, eventual death for the heroine. The rest are gems as well (No pun intended) With the short stories of Neil Gaiman, the lyrics from Amanda Palmer’s Album, and photographs, it’s an incredible hit with the combined works of genius minds. I shall cut it short before I gush about this book more, and it deserves no less than a 5 star review.

Bendik og Årolilja

expertdoublex — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:50:15 +0000

Today is Bendik og Årolilja, It’s poetry, music and history.
It’s a Norwegian Folk Ballad with origins in 1200-1300 area, it was first ‘published‘ in 1852.
It’s a love story of sorts, Bendik goes to Trondheim (I believe) to find a wife, he meets the kings daughter, they fall in love, they go to the forest and misplace their virginity. After that the king builds a gold tower to keep people away, and say’s he’ll kill them if they enter. Bendik goes in anyway, dressed as a maid, he’s caught, the king goes after him after being begged not to by Årolilja and her mother. In this time Årolilja kills herself, the king comes back and is blamed for her death. In one last desperate attempt to keep them apart they bury them at opposite ends of the church. Last but not least one of the most beautiful images from history in my opinion, lilies grow from their grave up on the church and entangle on the top, the last line says that ‘only the lilies can stand to judge the king‘.

Personally I’m not a huge fan of love stories, I find them generally all too puritanical. But this story has something different, rebellion against oppressive old systems were class is important, sex before marriage, suicide, murder, cross-dressing, and finally finishing with an image that is beautiful but meaningful. It’s a timeless story about oppressive systems, expectations, and love.

As for the text look here: http://www.gmsys.net/teachers/norsk/litteratur/folkeviser/bendik.htm

The Epic First Blog

expertdoublex — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:13:47 +0000

To celebrate the cracking of champagne over my brand new shiny blog, I shall say a few words about Blogs:

Blogs are the people’s media, a form of modern journalism that isn’t censored.