PHOTOGRAPH BY W. ROBERT MOORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
BONUS: Song of the Day
Houses, What We Lost
‘Well I was born of the Earth
With my hands to the sky.
And I’ll die in the dirt
On the fourth of July.
And my body will burst
Into millions of sparks.
And I’ll hang like a ghost
In the trailer park until I’m gone.’
via natgeofound.tumblr.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY GILBERT M. GROSVENOR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
I first found out about Tarkovsky in my teens: one of my very cultured friends at the time had a membership for Cinematiket in Copenhagen (a bit like the Danish version of the BFI), and I used to join her for some of the screenings she had picked. There, I found about about Michael Leigh, Luchino Visconti and weird Russian films. Including Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’ and ‘Mirror’, which were two of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen, from a cinematographic point of you. I remember thinking that each shot could be an award-winning photograph.
I’ve decided to revisit both films and share some of the best stills:
From ‘Mirror’, 1975
‘The images and sequences – some in colour, others monochrome, some newsreel footage of wartime Russia, Germany and China – are presented in a collage. Very often, these images are transcendentally brilliant, particularly those shot in crystalline black and white.’
- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
From ‘Stalker’, 1979
‘Because of the exact nature of this most beautifully cryptic of films will always be open to debate, it will also be forever linked with Chernobyl – Tarkovsky’s 1979 vision of the eerie, depopulated “Zone” on at least one level an uncannily prophetic vision of the “zone of alienation” thrown up around the ruined reactor number four after its conflagration seven years later.’
-Danny Leigh, The Guardian
‘It happens because Russian life is itself at the core fantastical. Sometimes in order to resolve a particularly complex mathematical problem, you have to put an imaginary entity into the equation. Similarly, in order to explain the situation in Russia, sometimes what you have to do is take an element of imagination, of fantasy, enter it into this equation and then the entire situation somehow unfolds and becomes much clearer.’
- novelist Olga Slavnikova on why science fiction is so popular in Russia.
Here’s what I’ve been listening to this month:
Includes artists: Blue Hawaii, Houses, Timber Timber and James Blake.
Enjoy!
Hristina Hristova
I haven’t been blogging for a while as I’ve been busy being awesome elsewhere. A kind email from WordPress telling me to renew my domain reminded me I have a blog that I haven’t updated it in ages. I’ve been working on a poetry sequence, my novel and an essay, but it looks like I will have time just to read for pleasure (and research) next month. So here’s a list of what I’ll be reading in May.
Magical realism, Zen Buddhism, extreme bullying, World War II kamikaze pilots, the California tech bubble, prostitution, the 2011 Japan tsunami, quantum physics and suicide. What’s not to look forward to?
The Teleportation Accident is a singular novel — singularly clever, singularly audacious, singularly strange — from a singular, and almost recklessly gifted, young writer. This is not fiction for everyone. But for those who stick with it, it’s a wild and wonderful ride.
(via entertainment.time.com)
Set during the Japanese occupation, The Garden of Evening Mists follows young law graduate, Yun Ling Teoh, as she seeks solace among the plantations of the Cameron Highlands. Here she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the secretive Aritomo. Aritomo agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice “until the monsoon” so that she can design a garden in memorial to her sister. But over time the jungle starts to reveal secrets of its own…
(via themanbookerprize.com)
Remember to follow me on Twitter for more up-to-date stuff.
These are not necessarily all albums released in 2012 but the artists I’ve discovered (rediscovered) in the last year. Subscribe to my playlists on Spotify or follow me on SoundCloud for more.
1. Youth Lagoon
Released in 2011 but it hasn’t left my headphones since.
2. The Antlers
by liivia
via thelabyrinthwithin.tumblr.com
Track this week:
No Widows, The Antlers
If I’m stuck out here alone,
If I’m stranded here all year,
With just nothing left at home,
No widows disappear
Hristina Hristova
