Blood Harmonies

If you’re only going to subscribe to one new blog this week…

Here’s a quick round up of some of the blogs I’ve especially enjoyed this week, or am simply intrigued by.

In no particular order…

PELICANIMAGES PHOTOGRAPHIC BLOG

What Lee says about his blog: “I remember when I was small; looking up in a snowstorm and following snowflakes as they fell onto my face.  I wondered then that no-one else in the world was seeing what I was seeing.  From mountain bikes in the UK to door knobs in Beijing, photography lets me share the details and scenes that stop me in my tracks.  The infinite interactions of precision technologies and natural moments will keep me experimenting and figuring out the details for a long time yet.  I still watch the snowflakes too…”

What I love about Lee’s blog: I should perhaps begin by declaring an interest.  Lee is a member of the same invitation-only camera club as my husband, and also a close friend of ours.  So in addition to being able to enjoy the work he chooses to put on his website, I have had the privilege of seeing a wide range of his work projected on to the big screen at various private viewing evenings the club has held.

If writers have voice, what do photographers have?  Vision?  The ability to slow the world down to the point where it’s possible for us to see what they see?  Apart from the undeniable skill involved, what really moves and amazes me about Lee’s work is the seemingly effortless way it slips between a kind of Zen-like stillness (http://pelicanimages.smugmug.com/Places/outerHebrides/10562711_G3ALY#734474195_E7esV), and a breathlessly frenetic energy that makes you half expect the film to start rolling again (http://www.photoshelter.com/c/slikimages/gallery/Parkour-and-Free-Running/G00001kAGDVusIRI)

As you can see, I’m a fan.  And so I’m delighted to be able to tell you that Lee has agreed to be one of the Quintet of photographers who will be shooting my Cello-Out-The-Window-Project.  Will the results be Zen or Frenetic?  Only Lee knows for now…In the meantime, here are a few more Lee links to whet your appetite.  If you wait a second on the link below, it runs a slideshow of unbelievably moving portraits.  Why aren’t more wedding and baby photos like this?!  http://www.pelicanimages.com/peopleGallery/peopleIndex.html#

And here’s a link to a gallery of shots from a recent trip to Sinai Lee went on to cover a luxury resort hotel.  I find the skulls hypnotically beautiful, does this make me weird? http://pelicanimages.smugmug.com/Places/Sinai/11142286_nugbf#780897821_YpR7M

SEXUALLY I’M MORE OF A SWITZERLAND (aka The London Review of Books Personal Ads)

Okay, so not really a blog so much as an utterly compelling Twitter feed.  But since it fulfils all the core criteria of a brilliant blog, I’ve decided to permit myself some editorial licence.

What LRB Personals say about their tweets:  “Personal ads from the London Review of Books. Yes, they’re real...”

What I love about LRB Personal’s tweets:  These are voices from the frontline of interpersonal mayhem that lurch from making me shake with laughter to feeling a lump in my throat.  The way people manage to open their veins on the page in a few short lines never ceases to amaze, and if you’re in the market for writing prompts then look no further.

http://twitter.com/LRBpersonals

THE HOOCHERS – A TWEET OPERA

What Canuckuk says about her blog:  “The Hoochers is like The Archers, but in a Canadian parallel universe.”

What I love about Canuckuk’s blog:  I like soap operas in general, and The Archers in particular.  I like Canadian content in general, and off-the-wall, hilarious Canadian content in particular, and I like Twitter.  The Hoochers is the place where these three things meet and somehow manages to be so much more than the sum of its parts.  It’s a Tweet opera – which is to say a soap opera, but written in strings of no more than 140 characters.  From what I can gather, the author is a Canadian (I’m not sure where from, but taking a wild guess, I’d say B.C.) who is currently based in the UK. Again, I have no idea how long they have been in the UK, but I am guessing not long terribly long, since they are still able to spot the absurdities of life in the UK with a clear eye and fire them back out with a keen wit.  So at least part of the joy I take in reading The Hoochers is the way it brings home to me just how far I’ve ‘gone native’ here without actually noticing it.  But more than this, I admire the way the author has managed to develop such an elaborate narrative, in a highly believable world, given the constraint of 140 character strings.  It’s rapier cultural comment, delivered as rollicking good fun.

I’d be very interested to know what you make of it, and whether, like me, you think the author should be sending us more news from Bumbridge asap?

http://www.thoughts.com/index.php?_action=blog_view&id=334895&type=1

SIX SENTENCES

What Robert says about his blog:  “What can YOU say in six sentences.”

What I love about Robert’s blog:  It’s a bit like a less structured Haiku, in which narrative is given room to breathe.  So the premise is intriguing in itself.  The results take seconds to read, yet continually amaze me for their ability to feel like more than what they are.  While I generally find flash fiction unsatisfying, this six sentences form, which could, in some ways, be seen as a radical distillation of flash, manages to feel fresh and inspiring, over and over again. It’s like Flickr for writers, where you can quickly scan and sample weird and exciting new voices with no cost and high reward.  I urge you to take a look; you won’t regret it.

http://sixsentences.blogspot.com/

I hope you enjoy these sites as much as I do, and I am very much looking forward to hearing your reactions.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 13:30 and is filed under It's dark o'clock in the morning again. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.