beautiful coincidences

i was his from the moment we first met

say what you say or just sail away

your lipstick stains

let me sail, let me sail

elope with me, miss private, and we’ll sail around the world

you're so good to me baby, baby

i'm through with standing in line

all who are weak, all who are weary

the beat goes on, the beat goes on

wake up, bloodshot eyes

i wanna be the minority

a heart that's full up like a landfill

i've been meaning to tell you

she took away all my money

baptised with a perfect name

let's start at the very beginning

jesus, jesus, jesus

while everybody else is getting out of bed

so if you're lonely

i can tell, i can tell how much you hate this

tell me how i'm supposed to breathe with no air

beautiful girls

remember all the things we wanted?

the night will come

So. What do you think, dear reader? Have I finally gone insane?


Do you know what ready-made art is? It is an "everyday object selected and designated as art; the name was coined by the French artist Marcel Duchamp." The term is also used to describe "art created from the undisguised, but often modified, use of objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function." 


What's that, dear reader? You don't care? Ah, but you should care. You see, the pathetic attempt at poetry you see above is my slightly skewed version of ready-made art. Out of sheer boredom and my inevitable tendencies towards procrastination, I decided to experiment. Here's what I did (look, it's a list!)...






The 'How to Procrastinate Like a Professional' List:

1. Have an assignment due, the sooner the better. Preferably within a two-day time period. You could try three days, but it wouldn't have the same impact.
2. Waste time on Internet. 
3. First attempt at getting some work done.
4. Waste some more time on Internet.
5. Give up on trying to get work done.
6. Go to Music folder.
7. Select all.
8. Press play. Shuffle.
9. Write first line of each song.
10. Compile into meaningless, beautiful nonsense.
11. Compose blog post focused entirely on said meaningless, beautiful nonsense.
12. Proofread til satisfied.

There you go. Figgy's patented procrastination formula. My favourite nonsense-poems are the 'standing in line' one and the last one. And what's with the sailing theme in the first and second stanzas? I didn't skip or rearrange any songs, I swear. I just wrote them down in the same order that they came up. Creepy. But in a good way. It's awesome when seemingly random and unrelated things come together to form something so perfect. Beautiful coincidences. Or ordinary miracles.

So, dear reader. Can you guess the songs these first verses belong to? I bet you can't. Well, some are more obvious than others. I enjoyed this little experiment. Expect more nonsense poetry in the future. Til then, I remain...










Yours,






Figgy.

I'm a troll...an MPH and DA troll

Dear reader,






During one of my way-too-numerous-to-be-healthy MPH trolling sessions, I came across this little book, 'Written on the Sky: Poems by the Japanese translated by Kenneth Rexroth' It's simply beautiful; a pocket-sized affair, with a single poem on each page. Even though it was so small, the contents didn't look crowded or cramped or anything; in fact, there was this elegant, minimalistic feel to it...lots of white space on each page. Of course, such a nice-looking book will inevitably come with an equally nice-looking price tag. I don't really remember the exact amount--I unconsciously block out things that are too traumatic for me--but it was something between RM 80 and RM 100. Yup. And as I was leafing through the pages, I couldn't help wondering who this Kenneth Rexroth was. On the flipside of the cover page was the small notation: other books by Kenneth Rexroth: 'Songs of Love, Moon & Wind: Poems from the Chinese'. I googled him, and it turns out he translated a French book or something into English as well. How many languages does this guy know anyway?

Anyway, there was this one haiku that I really liked...so I wrote it down. No, it's not cheating. It's not like I wrote down all the poems or anything. It's not copyright infringement either, smarty-pants reader. Not if you credit the author and stuff...I think. So here it is, I don't know what it's called...or if it even had a name to begin with

How long will it last?

I do not know

his heart.

This morning my thoughts are as tangled

    with anxiety

as my black hair.

- Lady Horikawa

             堀 

             川

             女

             后

Ahh~ So beautiful, don't you agree, dear reader? I just love those lines: This morning my thoughts are as tangled with anxiety as my black hair. Anyway. I got the kanji from--where else?--the almighty Google. And if you want to see an actual preview of the book, go here. 

Wow, I just realized...I've been so active lately. Blog-wise anyway. On the other hand, my DA account is suffering from gross negligence. The last time I submitted anything was in September. I'm planning on doing a Christmas piece, though. I've been searching through the archives of previous DA entries, you know, scrounging for inspiration. But all the Christmas pieces I could find were so...chaotic and crowded. A little bit too festive, if you get my drift. Either that, or they were fan art. The bad thing about making fan art is it's only appealing to the fans, not to the general public. There was one that I really liked, though. Really simple, without the usual Christmas gimmicks. It's called 'Christmas', drawn by pu. [love her name, haha] To go to her DA page, just click on the picture.

Maybe I'll do something like that. Simple, not too detailed or intricate, yet unmistakably Christmas-ey. I'll make it a challenge: draw something Christmas-ey without using too many elements commonly associated with Christmas. I won't draw a Christmas tree...I won't draw Santa...I won't use too much red or green...and absolutely no candy canes! We'll see how it turns out, dear reader.




So, this is it for now, dear reader. I'll see ya when I see ya. Til then, I remain...









Yours,





Figgy the Troll

I have deviated

Dear Reader,

I presume you have been eagerly anticipating the appearance of my next post, so I'm sorry for its somewhat tardy arrival. I shall make up for my procrastinating ways by announcing that...I have a major announcement to make. 

I have finally, finally made a decision about something I've been thinking about doing for the past few months. After weeks of deliberation, hours of sleeplessness and considerable bowel discomfort, I have decided to...deviate. That is, I have [finally!] made up my mind to join deviantART.com. I'm sure you've heard of the site before, my techno-savvy reader, but in case you've been spending the last few years hiding under a rock on some desert island, let me fill you in on the details. 

Well, DA [as an honourary Deviant, I'm allowed to use the acronym... ;p] is an online community where artists from all over the world--aspiring and already-there--can post their works, receive feedback from their fellow deviants, and ultimately grow as an artist and improve their skills. There are just so many different forms of art, and all of them seem to be represented on DA. All the categories to choose from! There's photography, traditional art, digital art, manga/anime-style drawings, film and animation, cartoony-type art, literature...the list goes on. There's even a category called 'artisan crafts'. How cool is that? 'where ART meets application!' indeed.

I see you fail to grasp the importance of this announcement, dear reader. There you go, shaking your head in derision, thinking to yourself, 'Well? So what? This is hardly a dilemma'. My dear, dear reader. Have you ever actually been to DA? Have you seen the artwork there? I'm nowhere near to even touching that kind of quality and standard and...and...eminence. Yes, eminence.

Anyway, I took so long to make up my mind because, honestly, I was really intimidated by the sheer awesome-ness of all the artwork already on display. During my periodical reference-picture hunts, via Google Images, I would usually come across something from DA. Almost invariably. So, pretty soon, I'd just skip the Google Images part and go straight to DA if I ever needed some inspiration on a particularly difficult piece.

The thing is, my preferred media is the plain ol' pencil and paper. I'm pretty old-fashioned that way. But, my scanner broke. Beyond all hope of repair. Having said that, I do in fact have in my possession a tablet and pen tool, thus enabling me to doodle straight into the computer.But I'm still new at it, so my drawings look a bit funny. I'm still a noob at colouring. And I suck at backgrounds. In fact, I don't do backgrounds. My backgrounds are all blank.

I'm sorry if this post is sending a whiny and complainy and I'm-just-not-good-enough-poor-me kind of vibe, my dear reader. It's...it's just an abysmal, jarring, and extremely humbling feeling when you realize you're not as good as you thought you were.

I'll get over it, I hope. And there's always room for improvement. Oh, man...when I look through some of the drawings I did a few years ago, I cringe at all the flaws and all the mistakes I've made. Especially in anatomy. So embarrassing. *shudders* Yes, there's always room for improvement.

The point is, I've taken the plunge. I've joined DA. Now all I have to worry about is my compulsive tendency to dilly-dally. Speaking of dilly-dallying, I should be going now. There's something I should've finished doing already. Like, yesterday. So, until next time, I remain...

Yours,

Figgy the Deviant

P/S: Here's the link to my DA page. Just click here!