Tribute To Keats' Halloween Birthday

BY RENA MEDOW

In this excerpt of “Ode to a Nightingale,” Keats takes us to a moonless paradise where the narrator muses on death, and the nightingale’s melodious and ominous song.

"Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
         I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
         To take into the air my quiet breath;
                Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
         To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
                While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
                        In such an ecstasy!
         Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
                   To thy high requiem become a sod."

In ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn‘  Keats captures the bittersweet isolation of the perfection of an ancient urn. His ability to sympathize with a museum exhibit is awesomely strange and tragic. 

“O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
         Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
         Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
         When old age shall this generation waste,
                Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
         "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
                Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."


I love the first stanza of “Ode on Melancholy” for its witchy imagery of nature and the underworld.  It’s a super love poem about the relationship between melancholy and beauty. 

"No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
       Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;
Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd
       By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;
               Make not your rosary of yew-berries,
       Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be
               Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;
       For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
               And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul."

Interview With The Magical Andrea Diaz Of Superhuman Happiness

BY LISA MARIE BASILE

Lovely, talented, gorgeous Andrea Diaz, who are you?

I am a brujita living and working in Brooklyn with my two little parakeets, Sol and Luna. I'm a vocalist, songwriter, and visual artist. Dancing and reading keep me sane. I recently got a new black bicycle, which I promptly named Nightrider. For those of you who are astrologically inclined, I'm a triple Gemini--( sun, rising, and moon). So far, my life revolves around learning to accept ( or at least try to manage) all the whims, desires, and paradoxes within myself and to channel them into something worthwhile. Because of this, I took on the name DIA LUNA to help me empower myself in my creative projects.

Being around you is magical and powerful. I remember when we did a spell together on your roof. It worked. You've got such an aura. How do you approach infusing your life and music with magic? 

Thank you! I could write forever about this so please forgive me if I go full Gemini now. I've been called a romantic on more than one occasion. While I'm not particularly sentimental, but I do believe that romance is a crucial part of life and music, and that it comes from being sensitive and childlike in our relationship to the world. Truly, a lot of magic comes from appreciating and engaging with the beauty in the people and things that surround you. Those are the things that end up being my inspiration and my motivation to create. The element of play is also hugely important.

Recently, I was at St. Dympha's on St. Mark's for my bandmate's birthday party on a sunny Sunday afternoon. There were two guys playing soccer on the sidewalk, kicking the ball to passerbies. Some people ignored them, but others did not. It was amazing to see an unassuming stranger do a trick and kick the ball back to them! Right away I knew what the guys were doing: they were creating a moment, they were creating community with one tiny, silly gesture. Obviously I couldn't resist and I joined them right away. By the end of the night we had a circle of more than ten people having the time of their lives just kicking a ball around! It was simple, but exhilarating. That's how it works. I feel the best when I give myself to the moment, relish whatever joy I can, and don't take myself too seriously. 

Tell us about Superhuman Happiness, your band. 

I became the lead vocalist for Superhuman Happiness a year and a half ago. My bandmate, Stuart Bogie likes to say it's dance music for the emotionally complicated, which I find both hilarious and accurate. We're releasing a record in September and all of the tracks are pretty intense conceptually.

There are lots of questions about our relationships to technology and our relationships to one another, all set against the backdrop of day to day life in NYC. It's called Escape Velocity, which in scientific terms, is the amount of force that it takes for an object to supercede the gravitational pull of the earth and blast off into space. There's definitely a lot of intensity and the feeling of wanting to break free--it's a very introspective record in a lot of ways. We don't let anyone get too bummed out though, because the tracks are super danceable and they got the funk!

What other projects are you working on? 

I have another project called The Duchess and the Fox, with my friend, and downtown music legend, Joe McGinty. We like to call it nouveau cabaret music since it's minimal in instrumentation--just piano and voice. It's very lyrical and a lot of the songs revolve around hanging out in bars, dreaming of old flames, and walking around cities at night. We will be releasing an EP at the beginning of next year! I'm also planning on finally unveiling a solo project called DIA LUNA, an electronic pop project I've been working on under the radar. So yeah, lots of things happening in their cycles, always!

What are your inspirations?

Oh lord! So many! The paintings of Frida Kahlo have always inspired me because of their vibrancy. She crafted a whole universe and mythology in her work. The diary of Anais Nin was hugely influential for me as well. She's so breathtakingly precise in her description of the creative process, and in her portrayal of what it is like to live as an emotionally aware woman. Both her and Frida lived the magic and both were way ahead of their time. In terms of music, Nina Simone's recordings have been one of my pillars of inspiration since I first heard them in high school. There's one recording in particular that I found recently, which totally blew me away. She's performing "Sinnerman" live. At the end, all the backing instruments fall away and there's just her playing this crazy piano tag and singing, "Power, Lord! Don't you know I need you lord?" I mean, holy shit. It gives me shivers every time I hear it, because you hear the truth in it, and you can really feel on a visceral level, her desperation and her power at the same time.

Where can we catch you next?

We're also doing an East Coast tour to promote Escape Velocity, so if you're not in NYC, you might be able to catch us there! Check out the dates here. The next Superhuman Happiness show in NYC is in November.

Superhuman Happiness is playing on November 11th with Antibalas and Santigold at Brooklyn Bowl. Tickets can be purchased here.  Check out more about the Duchess and the Fox here.

An Introvert’s Halloween with Kiki du Montparnasse et la Bête!

BY STEPHANIE SPIRO

If you’re like me, you probably cringe at the thought of dressing up only to freeze your butt off at a party or a parade, dodging monster masks and ducking spilled cocktails. Parties exhaust me, but Halloween is wonderful. And you can celebrate in your skivvies, in the warmth of your own home.

This post is for to the pathological introvert who secretly loves the quiet and still wants to dress up in kinky clothes, sip cocktails, and bask in the magic of All Hallow’s Eve.

First, a perfect last minute costume idea: 1920 French muse, Kiki du Montparnasse. She was a model for artist Man Ray and many others who made up the Dadaist movement in Paris. There’s a lingerie shop [http://kikidm.com] called Kiki du Montparnasse in New York, dedicated to selling chic and chichi undergarments inspired by the knickers Kiki made famous in the cafes of Paris. I have visited many of these legendary cafes, and Kiki’s spirit still lingers.

Think of this: Drinking champagne at La Coupole or guzzling coffee at Le Dôme Café… you can feel the ghostly spirit of a girl with bobbed hair, fan-kicking on tabletops, the light from the windows making lace patterns along the bodice of her dress.

If you don’t have time to visit Kiki’s in New York, your “costume” can be lingerie, anything you have. Step into some fishnet, snap on the garter, and recline in your favorite chair with your new favorite book. This year you won’t be cold because you’ll be sipping warm red wine (Kiki’s favorite “tonic”).

The book I recommend is Catel and Bocquet’s graphic novel Kiki du Montparnasse, a wonderfully risqué recounting of Kiki’s exciting and tragic life.

Kiki was born Alice Prin, and unlike the famous Alice, Kiki never found Wonderland. Instead she became wonderland. Kiki inspired many a collective hallucination as a vision in surreal photos and paintings. She was “the Muse of Montparnasse.” Dancing cabaret at the Jockey, she used her body to seduce and inspire so many. She had a lifelong partnership with Man Ray, but she mostly lived in squalor, jumping from one love affair to the next, an alcoholic and drug addict, constantly tearing off her clothes and singing for her supper.  
One of the many men Kiki inspired was the poet and surrealist filmmaker, Jean Cocteau. Kiki recalled that: “Cocteau and I had the same passion for all that comes from the sea…" The fluidity and grace of Kiki’s ghostly existence made her seem like the dark side of Venus. She was an apparition of the goddess of love, rising from the sea mermaid-like on a half-shell, but never fully realizing her place as a mortal here on earth. Instead she shimmered in the shadows, dangling out of clothing, submerged in a surreal fantasy on canvas or in flickering light and shadow.  

In the following, Kiki’s watery, translucent torso is immortalized in Man Ray’s short film, Le Retour a la Raison (1923), 2 Dadaist minutes of glitter and nails:

Cocteau’s classic film, Beauty and the Beast (1946) perfectly complements the Kiki graphic novel.

La Belle et la Bête is romantic and gorgeous and twisted. You can stream it as a part of the Criterion Collection on Hulu or you can watch the full film with an intoxicating accompanying opera by Philip Glass for free on YouTube.

In Cocteau’s version of the classic fairy tale, the beast was born gory and smokin’ hot (literally). He gorged on deer in the forest and came home covered in blood like a real, rugged mountain man. He had the face of an animal and he lived in isolation in a perfectly gruesome mansion that also happened to be the ultimate bachelor-pad. This was truly a curse.

Beast’s walls were lined with human-arm candelabras and statues with human faces and spooky moving eyes. Beast was the pearl-whisperer. Jewels collected in his palm to form gaudy and delectable treasures. Mind-powered magic doors opened on a whim and a white horse with a dazzlingly bedazzled mane did the Beast’s bidding.

When Belle went to live with Beast inside his magic world, she was transported on an enchanted conveyer belt to a bedroom with a furry-live duvet that slithered to the floor. She had a magic mirror to see beyond the bachelor pad. She cried diamonds. The beast gave her a golden key to carry in her cleavage.

We all know the story, and this rendition is glorious. It’s easily accessible online and perfect for any magical lady in a lace robe who wants to immerse herself in an eerie Halloween romance from another era.

With Kiki et la Bête in your goodie bag this year, you’ll only need to put on your highest heels and your most scandalous lingerie. You won’t be walking in the cold, introverts, so toss the candy and buy an extra bottle of warm red wine. Intoxicate yourself this Halloween, in more ways than one.

An Interview With Francesca Lia Block About Magick, Obsession & Being A Woman

How much of your writing is inspired by your actual life? Does your life entwine with the worlds you create? 

Almost everything is at least partly autobiographical. Even if  the characters and situations are different I try to find and apply the emotional truth inside of myself to the story. 

What is your writing process like? Do you need to be in a specific headspace or place?

I have two teenagers, teach four classes and am starting a business so I  have very limited time and write whenever I can. I don’t have the luxury of being in a certain headspace. 

 In most (if not all) of your books, love is the main focus or obsession--many of the characters are on a journey to discover love (within themselves and others), and often tend to manifest it, whether successfully or not, through sex and food. Why those focuses? Does the way you interact with these focuses change over your career?

I’ve never heard anyone put it that way! That’s  very interesting as I’m about to publish a Weetzie cookbook written by/with Carmen Staton and  Rough Magick, an anthology of romantic and often erotic stories  co-edited by Jessa Marie Mendez.  

I think that for me love is not only expressed/manifested through sex and food but also through other things like magic, spirituality, poetry, music, visual art and fashion.  Love is the thing I think about most often and what I live for. It’s a theme in all my books. 

A lot of people have said your work reminds them of David Lynch and Lana Del Rey. What do you think of those comparisons?  

Well I love them both, so that’s awesome. My work has been getting darker lately so it makes sense.  I like the tension of combining magic and reality, dark and light.

If you could pick one character in all of literature that you most identify with, who would it be?  

Anne Frank. And Jane Eyre. i.e.: creative, romantic, strong, sensitive females. Can I pick Emily Dickinson?

(Yes, you can pick Emily Dickinson). 

When I read Weetzie Bat, I thought about how hard it is to balance goodness and darkness. How do you balance light and dark as a person, a writer?

They are both part of us. You have to embrace both of them, give voice to both of them. You can’t have one without the other.  I rely on  the healing guides in my life and the creative process to help me process the darkness so I can stand more fully in the light. But you can’t repress the darkness or pretend it isn’t there. 

How hard is it to be a woman? Does it get easier?

This is also an interesting question. I  haven’t  really thought about it. I love being a woman. I love being a mother. I love being an artist. I think it’s hard to be a person, in general. in some ways it gets harder (aging, disease, death) and in some ways it gets easier (self-awareness, self-confidence, caring less about what others think, finding your soul circle, finding your voice).

How does the occult influence your life? I know you did an amazing, magical workshop with Amanda Yates Garcia.

I used to read tarot but now I go to Amanda for readings. She and I see magic and writing/art as being the same things, really. They are both about having a vision and manifesting it, expressing it out into the world.  

Tell us all about Rough Magick. We can't wait to read it.

Thank you! It’s  a collection of stories and poetry by my co-editor Jessa Marie Mendez, Amanda Yates Garcia, Denise Hamilton, Laura Lee Bahr,  Mary Pauline Lowry, me and a group of other amazing writers, all dealing with the darker aspects of love and sex.  There is magical realism, lyrical realism, romanticism and even horror.  It gives me chills when I read it!  

Photos by Nicholas Sage.