Rising Starr

Tomorrow Sean Starr celebrates the launch of his book!
MORRISSEY RUINED MY LIFE SHOW IN SF
Sean Starr will paint live to the music of The Smiths and Morrissey at the Workspace Gallery in San Francisco Saturday, February 3, 2007.

Colin Nasseri, co-author of "You, Me and Morrissey" will also be present to sign copies of the book.

Sean's "Morrissey" Series pieces will be on display at the gallery.

More details soon. Show sponsored by IFUC
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Writer Colin Nasseri and Painter Sean Starr's book You, Me and Morrissey will soon be released. The book chronicles the influence the music of The Smiths and Morrissey had on the lives of two young men as one became a writer and the other a painter. Sean is a tremendous friend to Bakery of the Poets and we couldn't be happier for his continued success. Sean's next book will contain artwork from his series based on the play by Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac. His work always connects with me on a deep level. The Morrissey collection is astounding, his Coupling series truly fascinating Check out Kurt and Courtney or Morrissey and Marr. The 10 Muses was my true introduction to his work and will always be my favorite...or so I thought.
The Cyrano paintings are unutterably moving. My pre-Starr de Bergerac conditioning plays a factor no doubt, giving me a particular perspective. Sean has managed to capture the spirit of the characters and adds to it something that is almost an artistic communion or collaboration with Rostand's overriding theme. He manages to stay true to the play, and in addition, to say something about the artistic condition and the energy of idealism.
Okay, so obviously, I'm a fan. Here's a fun story: BotP provided a small spark of his inspiration for these paintings. He had recently completed a series based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and was researching possibilities for his next. While corresponding about Bakery of the Poets' website (which Sean is redesigning) he learned the story behind our name and decided to give Rostand's play another look. The rest, as they say...The book based on the Cyrano series is due out in '07 with a preface by yours truly. You have the opportunity of owning some of the artwork before the book is published. Check out Sean Starr's website for the de Bergerac paintings and other works.

NOT in this chamber only at my birth --
When the long hours of that mysterious night
Were over, and the morning was in sight --
I cried, but in strange places, steppe and firth
I have not seen, through alien grief and mirth;
And never shall one room contain me quite
Who in so many rooms first saw the light,
Child of all mothers, native of the earth.

So is no warmth for me at any fire
To-day, when the world's fire has burned so low;
I kneel, spending my breath in vain desire,
At that cold hearth which one time roared so strong,
And straighten back in weariness, and long
To gather up my little gods and go.

--Edna St. Vincent Millay




Tags: poetry, edna st vincent millay, sonnets

The Sky Is Falling? Part 2 of Why Firing People For Quoting The West Wing Is Bad For . . . Everyone

But I do know this. As there is very little new under the sun, nothing, in fact. Writers are inspired by the ideas, words and rhythms of those who came before us. T. S. Eliot said that good writers borrow, great writers steal. This I believe.When you are sensitive to language, when you have read and read well, great words and ideas and rhythms become a part of you, inform your pattern of thought. You feel able not only to to express, but to shape language. Sitting at your little computer at a little desk; sitting with your yellow legal pad and ballpoint pen under a big tree, you are the master of words, of language, you see words move before your mind and know that . . .here, this one is wanted to evoke pain, that one, for beauty. Whether a sentence should flow like water or fall as spare and barren as a dried twig from a dying tree. Writing well, is a glorious experience, and is also a public service. As I said earlier and as King Solomon said far earlier than I, 'there is nothing new under the sun' what great writers do, whether quoting or inspired by other writers, is keep alive what is the best of us in our language and ideas and give them new significance and relevance for our lives today.

And we need great writers right now. In the U.S. at least the English language expression of ideas is devolving into sad, stupid thing. It's embarrassing. The lyrics of rap, which is (at least in it's mass marketed form) crude, unintelligent, and usually unintelligible has entered into the vernacular with all of its idiocy and none of the its eloquence. Now more than ever we need good, brave English teachers who make sure that our kids can use the language properly if the wish. But more and more teachers are too timid, placing too much emphasis on 'relating' to students rather than teaching them, too undereducated themselves to instruct young adults in using the language with confidence. And at home. Ha! Parents have all but abdicated responsibility for giving their kids the tools they need. And silly me, I'm craving eloquence? I'll settle for being able to understand them when having to face them over this counter or that desk out in the world.

Actually, no. I'm lying. I'll settle for eloquence.

The fact is that we used to read much more as a culture. We learned poetry and plays. Great writers like, Shakespeare and Whitman, Cummings and Hellman informed the American --

Truth to tell, I'm not sure whether any of this matters. Is it the education system? Is it the fact that we don't read enough? I'm not sure. I think that great writers make for great language. They hear or see something in words most others don't. They put it into a book, play or (Thanks to NBC and CBS in the cases of Aaron Sorkin and David Mamet) television show. Many people or a few, read or watch the finished product, another writer uses a version of some line in their work. A few become enamored of the book or play or TV show (ever heard of a 'Wing' Nut? As in 'The West Wing'?) And the language from that work or in it's style begins to pepper their language. What happens? They're throwing out brilliant sounding language, at the office or while standing in line for a movie. Someone hears or overhears, chuckles to themselves and thinks, 'Very clever, that's exactly what I mean to say. Hmm . . . I'm gonna use that. How did he say it again? He said . . .' and an eloquent line enters into our daily language.

Hmmm . . . well . . . So I guess we'll be fine. We'll probably be okay. The sky is not actually falling, good language isn't dead, maybe just hibernating a bit. And so long as there are still good writers out there writing and a few siren intoxicated sailors to become wrapped up in words and infect others with their beauty, the English language may not devolve completely.

So we'll be fine. So long as publishing companies, television networks and the like don't start trying to sue people for using it. You think I'm being paranoid? Possibly.
Tags: language, english, education, writing, david mamet, aaron sorkin, the west wing, eloquence