Collection of poems titled ‘The Blizzard Voices’ -by US poet Ted Kooser.
It’s a set of stories in verse form, about a famous blizzard in 1880s in the Great Plains region -takes in Nebraska, Kansas and a few other nearby states – and people who survived it, remembered family stories about it. While blizzards are an annual seasonal hazard in that part of the US, this one was so extreme over a big area, even for hardened Great Plains people, that it found its way into folklore. It is also known as ‘The Schoolchildren’s Blizzard’ as it struck when village schools all over the Great Plains were full, leading to many mass tragedies and some inspiring survival stories.
They are intensely atmospheric poems(especially when reading it while weather turns to Winter in Canberra) and also have strong oral history elements. In the introduction to new edition (2006), Kooser describes some of his research for preparing to write the poems: using local historical sources, a 1940s books about it, old documents and newspapers etc plus childhood memories of older family members talking about it.
The original edition was published by an indie press in 1986 and a few years later performed as a play in a community theatre in Nebraska’s state capital city -Lincoln. The 2006 edition is illustrated with illustrations: b&w drawings and published by Bison Books/Univ. Nebraska Press.
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More information on Ted Kooser and The Blizzard Voices:
http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Blizzard-Voices,673128.aspx
http://www.omahacityweekly.com/article/2008/09/10/%E2%80%98-blizzard-voices%E2%80%99
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kooser
http://www.blueflowerarts.com/tkooser.html
Heritage news: harsh cuts to museums in the US
April 21, 2009
Gloomy news for museum lovers and all those who work in/in association with museums and similar cultural institutions:
Go to: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=17148 for the full article ‘Troubles deepen for museums: layoffs, budget cuts and cancelled shows’ in The Art Newspaper online edition.
…and all that in the world’s strongest economy – I sure hope (and as a museum lover really do give the benefit of the doubt) the museum chiefs haven’t been dining out well like the bankers who asked for bail-outs then paid themselves bonuses that could keep an entire museum ‘afloat’.
“Collaborations may be a way forward” –emphasis on may be should be made, as any carefully-considered founding process of an individual museum, plus its own history and visitors’ memory of it, won’t be easily matched to an entirely different museum, even though they’re both cultural institutions. I mean, how often do people suggest merging botanic gardens as a viable option? Super Zoo, anyone?
New reading/what I’m reading now
April 19, 2009
Another weekend trip to a branch of city library, more time in a shopping mall newsagency, so have some new reading:
- Latest issue of FilmInk magazine -has a feature on star actors who ’sank’ a whole film by bad performance and an interview-based piece on Viggo Mortensen, surely one of the more interesting and versatile A-list actors who really do deserve A-list cred;
- Collection of poems by New York-based poet John Ashbery: A Worldly Country -new poems (Ecco, 2007);
- The Writer’s Idea Workshop (2003, Writer’s Digest) by Jack Heffron -full of writing prompts and very readable style;
- Folk Tales of Pakistan – ed. L Komal
The writting book has already had some positive effect – this afternoon I kept the PC logged off for a bit longer and settled at table with notepad & pencil, did a bit of “getting it down on paper” re: making an actual record of new ideas when they’re fresh.
‘Amazing Edible Art’ -extreme cake-decorating
April 6, 2009
Hi
Just found this blog post about masterpieces of cake decoration, on an Orble blog called ‘Zentertainment:
http://www.zentertainment.com.au/amazing-edible-art/
The dragon and Yoda are two of my favourites.
Poetry-writing exercises during April
April 5, 2009
Fyi & writing exercises
Found a month’s worth of poetry-writing exercises on the ‘Poets & Writers’ site, at: http://www.pw.org/content/poetry_challenge
The challenges/exercsies are part of a National Poetry Month campaign in US. KnopfDoubleday/Random House publisher is also e-publishing a free poem each day, taken from the vast resources of their backlog and recently-published collections. Got to: http://poem-a-day.knopfdoubleday.com/?ref=poemaday_poetrynl and then to the poem-a-day newsletter space near top right of the page, for signing up for it.
fyi
Just found this site for an Australian business specialising in FairTrade coffee, so will try it some time: http://www.roastandpost.com.au/
The FairTrade range tends to be pretty limited in even the best supermarkets (though to be fair, it’s a big improvement on even 5 years ago) and I don’t always get to the Oxfam shop in Canberra’s CBD, so maybe ordering a sample pack of 4 coffees from online could be well worth it.
Mmmmm, fresh coffee… 
Cup qualifier in Sydney: Australia 2, Uzbekistan 0
April 1, 2009
Great football news! Australia won their match against Uzbekistan 2-0!
Thanks guys! This result makes it a bit less difficult to keep going on qualifying process for the Cup in Sth Africa. Special thanks to Josh and Harry for the goals! And for Pim the coach and the goalie for keeping Uz. scoreless.
