I have presented the poem “A Little Girl Lost” by the visionary poet and painter William Blake (1757–1827), published in Songs of Experience (1794). In it, he envisages a future where children and adolescents will freely enjoy nudity and love, then the religious condemnation and parental repression of these pleasures will cause indignation. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Rhythm Heaven Megamix, known in Europe and Australia as Rhythm Paradise Megamix, in Japan as Rhythm Tengoku: The Best Plus and in Korea as Rhythm World: The Best Plus, is a rhythm game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released in Japan in June 2015, and between June and December 2016 in the rest of the world. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
In a previous post, I described a surrealistic walk that I made in 2015, starting with Ernest Dowson’s passion for absinthe, then meeting other poets, MoonCCat, Bertolt Brecht and Jim Morrison, and finally ending at Dowson’s great passion, little girls. Throughout this path I encountered the moon, which presides over the impermanence of all things.
Now I will relate my mysterious journey in the shadow of a fearful and scandalous magician: Aleister Crowley, whom the British journal John Bull called “the wickedest man in the world” and “a man we’d like to hang.” It is a secret world, which must be evoked in metaphorical language. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Everyone knows about Lewis Carroll’s friendship with Alice Pleasance Liddell, who inspired the main character in his famous books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass; indeed, after a rowing boat travelling during which Carroll regaled Alice and her two sisters with a fantastic story of a girl named Alice who had fallen into a rabbit-hole, she asked him to write it down, and so came Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, the initial version of the first book. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
The Slackers are an American ska band, formed in Manhattan in 1991. After making demo cassettes in 1992 and 1993, they released their first studio album Better Late Than Never in 1996; it was then remastered and re-released with three additional tracks in 2002. The album’s third track “Pedophilia” is a humorous piece making fun of the usual clichés: an old man peeps at a little girl, and her mother tells her to go outside. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
The British soul band Hot Chocolate was formed in 1968 by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson. It knew fame in the 1970s and 1980s, with at least one hit song every year on the UK Singles Chart from 1970 to 1980. The group was interrupted several times and its membership changed through the years. In particular Errol Brown, who was their lead singer, frontman and principal songwriter, left in 1986.
Their song “It Started with a Kiss” was released in 1982 as A side of a single, and was included as track 6 on their seventh studio album Mystery. It reached number 5 in the UK. In autumn 2004, it became voted by the UK public as one of the Top 20 love songs of all time. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
My next choice is a beautiful poem found in the part titled Songs and Ballads of Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery, John Clare’s first collection of poetry, published in 1820.
Here the poet compares the charms of his beloved with nature’s beauties: her cheek with roses and carnations, her lips with ripe cherries and red coral, her eyes with a pulpy plum and the azure sky, finally her kiss with the perfume of flowers; but each time, nature’s marvels pale in comparison to the girl of his heart. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
The Rolling Stones released the studio album Beggars Banquet in December 1968. The eight song in it (the third track on side two), “Stray Cat Blues,” was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. In it, the singer lusts for sex with a groupie aged 15 years, which illegal in both the UK and the USA. He describes the young girl as a ‘stray cat’ who isn’t shy about performing sexual acts. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
I have chosen the following soft and gentle poem as a prime example of the shy and restrained form of love found in Clare’s beautiful poetry. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
The American singer-songwriter Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is one of the most successful musicians of all time, with more than 130 million records sold worldwide.
His second LP album Just for You was released on August 25, 1967; it has never been released on CD. Its first title, the song “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 (the US pop singles chart) in 1967. Other versions have been recorded by many musicians, in particular Cliff Richard (1968), Jackie Edwards (1968), the Biddu Orchestra (1978), and 16 Volt (1998). It enjoyed a second life when the rock band Urge Overkill interpreted it for the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
