#imperfectible prosody

[mumblelard]

saving the world one couch nap at a time and also happy friday imaginary constructs

i dreamt i got hired to do public relations for a collective of sentient alleyways. in the course of interviewing them for their press release i discovered something startling, then i woke up

[unproduciblesmackdown]

i'll listen to some version of some album for good measure not even so much as dutiful research as "yeah i liked the music haha yaaayyy" and i just am generally like "listening to the music what in the?" so knocking back any album is like, probably me firing up the goosebumps the musical phantom of the auditorium original screen cast recording playlist again, hell yes

anyways what i remember. first of all you understand that for a while all i Really specifically knew about little shop, beyond that it existed and had a joie de vivre & je ne sais quoi & the plant, was that there was the dentist song. thanks to marble hornets (that i knew even this). and i knew Just this. so for a good decade i've at least been able to hum the chorus to myself like (be a dentist) you have a talent for causing things Pain (pain!) and i love a bicuspid lyric usage, don't tell joe iconis (imperfect rhyme)

amazed when i did hear it like i've never heard this titular song?? it's so fun. i guess i wouldn't have unless i was experiencing little shop of horrors. but now here we are like i sure remember that one. i also really enjoy The Sound of the chorus of some fun now, both the melody and prosody of it. likewise so high energy and catchy and that juxtaposes so humorously with recalling our montage of rick moranis pouting while getting sucked (the '80s gum lsoh movie novelty stickers ranked by rick moranis's sex appeal text post scrolls by at half opacity while i voice over "a tremendously boneable ricky m") which brings me to one of the most memorable parts of the feed me song being like okay really long list of "what is going on in lsoh metaphor wise (speculated or stated as intended Or as interpreted): for one, sex with the plant" like i do truly appreciate that list just as i truly appreciate someone making a post about which rick moranises are hottest in the vintage gum stickers

i saw indeed the "this is kind of sing speaking as i remember? does it count?" number seems to indeed be a song, da-doo? which works out b/c i sure recall enjoying the doo-wop style backup echoing that sing speaking, speak singing. and of course it being really funny and itself just so B movie and lord like of course choreographed in acting And cinematography and that's so powerful in juxtaposition like grabbing directors Make Your Movie Musical Have The Movieness Work With The Musicalness anyways thanks frank oz obviously. and speaking of being able to see it, is it somewhere that's green that has that like Surburbia Fantasy sequence because that was soooo fucking funny lmfao they crushed that thank god. annnnd. suppertime sequence standing out being so like No Jokes ominous & harrowing for a scene? great to have that, greatly executed. umm he sure Does look like plant food to me, is another musical moment i remember even as that was earlier and of course i remember it due to Effect like exactly, i'm there. it's like the elevation and method of expression that is A Song has effect and it pwns

umm. i mean this is turning into like "what's Everything i remember" but as i especially remember like i do recall any of the movie's required whole new closing number, as stated like also love how there's just plenty to forever pace about mulling over they die, they don't, compare, contrast, i sure don't mind having Both, or all the more opportunity to Juxtapose as much & muse. umm oh my god yeah suddenly seymour like i'm missing some big one huh. t4t happy pride. can you believe little shop had small joe iconis immediately love Musical Theatre or can you believe that for real rick moranis was just There on closing night of joe's broadway debut musical that also is a great and obviously lsoh esque musical and it was just a coincidence? he was just there? and there was already that picture of him (rick) and will when he (rick) was visiting deh and it's like ooh That's giving father & son, will roland seymour krelborn when WHEN and it's me and even as i post this i'm not That familiar with the show in the least (only seen the film once or twiceish, never a stage production) and yet. and later completely coincidentally rick moranis walks on in to closing night of broadway be more chill (chill da-doo) and later than that. finally will roland seymour krelborn. mwah

[33bowls]

Perfect Imperfection

Real music is not sterile. It is messy, expressive, dynamic.

When a piano is tuned mathematically "perfectly" with an electronic helper, the sound is dull, lifeless, tight assed.

When a piano is tuned by ear, stretch tuning, also known as liquid Moonlight, the sound becomes alive.

Frank Sinatra never needed autotune.

[countessofbiscuit]

5, 7, and 13 from your writer asks if I may! :))

Of course :3 

5: Share one of your strengths.

... but how dare you make me state something nice about myself, Muk.

I like to think I can write a pretty solid drabble.

7: Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

From Nine-Tenths of the Law:

Upon these reflections, Riyo grew too upset to speak. Fox didn’t even try; he just thunked his head against her shoulder and sobbed like a drain. Time slipped away as she held him, feeding him imperfect comfort, wanting to vuln her breast that she might restore all the blood he’d shed and spilt.

I’m inordinately fond of this entire fic actually, because writing it felt like flexing something of my own natural style. Finally. There’s a pacing and a prosody to it that feels *right* and authentic to me, that gives me a certain pride to read. And this extract captures that, I think. The juxtaposition of the blunt simile of ‘sobbed like a drain’ against the more wrought metaphor of a heraldic pelican (which mirrors how I tend to write Fox vs Riyo); the alliteration (it’s how I fetch words, and at this point, I’ve stopped fighting it as a crutch and just embraced it as a feature lol); the mix of sentence structures. Not everyone’s cuppa maybe, but idk I just like it man. 

13: What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

The first thing that comes to mind is something Stephen King said (ironic maybe, because I’ve only read one King novel): “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

From experience, it just tracks. The best writers I know are always reading, whether churning through fic across a broad swath of fandoms, devouring articles about esoteric and left-field subjects, or just picking through honest-to-god classic lit. And I always write my best when I’m consistently reading a full diet — about 30% published fiction, 30% published nonfiction (across a range of subjects), 30% medley of articles and think-pieces, and 10% fic.

Not always easy to maintain, especially when I’m trying to make room for writing too, around life and other creative endeavours! (That’s when I plug in the audiobooks….)

Thanks for the prompts!

. . . . . . 

40 Questions Meme for Fic Writers

[efkgirldetective]

12 and 22, lovely 🌷❤

no YOU’RE lovely!! 

12. how do you deal with self-doubts?

well first I wallow in it FOREVER & ALWAYS & then I become self-aware of the wallowing & have to step waaaaay back…I feel like with writing of any kind but especially fanfic, the opportunity to fixate & compare & feel not good enough is plentiful and always always readily available—I’m trying (& learning) to write for myself (by writing what I would want to read!) so that any self doubt that comes from being like “is this good enough? will other people like it?” can hopefully sort of melt away—because ultimately, if I like it & good about it then any other sort of support or enjoyment is just an absolute lucky thing that I can cherish! when I feel myself wallowing I really have to snap right out of it & remind myself that I write fic to feel good/have fun, not be constantly wondering if the writing is good enough—or if I’m good enough, for that matter! obviously this isn’t foolproof, I think any fight against doubt is imperfect & I’m constantly self-conscious & worried—BUTi continue to practice the anti-wallow, & that’s what works best for me :)

22. how many drafts do you need until you’re satisfied and a project is ultimately done for you?

UMMMM AN EMBARRASSING AMOUNT!!! Usually it takes me a long while (few days at least) to arrive at a (shitty) *full* first draft—& after that, there is no telling how many dozens of micro drafts exist between the original and the final…I could obsess/edit forever, if I let myself! I hate that! But thank GOD for sweet Senem @keepingupwithpotters who is such a thoughtful/keen beta—I get too caught up on the prosody/language/diction sometimes, and completely neglect, like, the plot…so all said, I’m rarely ever fully satisfied with what I’ve had before posting, but I think the reality of art is it’s not perfect, it shouldn’t be perfect, and I will always, ALWAYS find myriad things I want to change after the fact of posting when I reread like a month later**

**many of which are “form” where it should be “from”

& now done is a terrifying word and something I STRUGGLE with intensely—but when I started writing fic again this summer my one steadfast goal was to finish all the projects I set out on, so I’m sticking to it! my next fun goal is finishing a project prior to posting…we’ll see how that goes…lol

[afroboydyke]

100 Interesting Word Prompts

1. Eccedentesiast - noun. A person who fakes a smile

2. Clinomania - noun. Excessive desire to stay in bed

3. Effervescent - adj. Vivacious and enthusiastic, bubbly, fizzy

4. Equanimity - noun. The state of being calm, stable, and composed, especially under stress

5. Nyctophilia - noun. Love of darkness or night, finding relaxation or comfort in the darkness

6. Escapism - noun. The tendency to escape from daily reality or routine by indulging in daydreaming, fantasy, or entertainment

7. Concupiscible - adj. Worthy of being desired

8. Concupiscence - noun. Any yearning of the soul for good

9. Cataglottism - noun. Kissing with tongue

10. Orphic - adj. Mysterious and entrancing, beyond prdinary understanding

11. Viridity - noun. Naive innocence

12. Logolepsy - noun. An obsession with words

13. Vernorexia - noun. A romantic mood inspired by spring

14. Elysian - adj. Beautiful or creative, divinely inspired, peaceful and perfect

15. Basorexia - noun. The overwhelming desire to kiss

16. Amaranthine - 1. adj. Undying, immortal, eternally beautiful 2. adj. A deep purple-red

17. Eutony - noun. The pleasantness of a word’s sound

18. Thantophobia - noun. The phobia of losing someone you love

19. Sillage - noun. The scent that lingers in the air, the trail left in water, the impression made in space after something or someone has been and gone, the trace of someone’s perfume

20. Mistpouffer - noun. A mysterious sound heard over the ocean in quiet, foggy weather

21. Bibliophile - noun. A lover of books, one who loves to read, admire, and collect books

22. Serein - noun. The fine, light rain that falls from a clear sky at sunset or in the early hours of night, evening serenity

23. Abditory - noun. A place into which you can disappear, a hiding place

24. Lypophrenia - noun. A vague feeling of sorrow or sadness seemingly without any apparent cause or source

25. Catoptromancy - noun. Divination by a mirror or by crystal gazing.

26. Atelophobia - noun. The fear of imperfection, the fear of never being good enough

27. Dalliance - noun. A brief romantic or sexual relationship

28. Kismet - noun. Fate

29. Prosody - noun. The rhythm and pattern of sounds of poetry and language

30. Gossamer - adj. Sheer, light and delicate like cobwebs

31. Maudlin - adj. Sentimental

32. Puissant - adj. Powerful

33. Extant - adj. Still existing

34. Mendacious - adj. Lying, untrue

35. Lugubrious - adj. Very sad

36. Harrowing - adj. Extremely distressing, terrifying

37. Gustatory - adj. Affecting the sense of taste

38. Coruscating - verb. To emit vivid flashes of light, sparkle, scintillate, gleam

39. Temporal - adj. Of relating to time

40. Garrulous - adj. Very talkative, wordy

41. Hiraeth - noun. A homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning the grief for the lost places of your past

42. Mellifluous - adj. A sound that is sweet and smooth, pleasing to hear

43. Ineffable - adj. Too great to be expressed in words

44. Limerence - noun. The state of being infatuated with another person

45. Epiphany - noun. A moment of sudden revelation

46. Aurora - noun. Dawn

47. Syzygy - noun. An alignment of celestial bodies

48. Oblivion - noun. The state of being unaware of what is happening around you

49. Ephemeral - adj. Lasting for a very short time

50. Dulcet - adj. Sweet, sugary

[you-had-me-at-e-flat-major]

not to crush your hopes and dreams abt people assuming you're a native speaker of german: your vocab/ your use of vocab is pretty good (though you use an uncommonly high amount of imperfect tense in your spoken language for someone your age) but your prosody is so far off!! don't get me wrong that's not a problem at all and it doesn't affect your intelligibility but it most definitely means that most people will recognize you're not a native speaker even if they can't tell why they think so

hm fair fair. ack

[worth-my-while]

Were I to sweep every morning this shrub’s spiky leaves off their harbouring ground, I would then have a perfect metaphor for the reason why I’ve come to unlove you. Were I to wipe clean every morning this window pane and feel beyond my reflection the distracted transparency of nothingness, I would see the shrub is but a small inferno in the absence of the decasyllabic flame. Were I to look every morning at the cobweb woven between its branches, I would also understand the imperfection that eats at its thread, from May to August, disarming its geometry, its colour. Were I even now to see this poem in the manner of a conclusion, I would notice how its lines grow, unrhymed, in an uncertain and discontinuous prosody unlike mine. Like slow wind, eroding. I would also learn that longing belongs to a web woven in another time, a memory of some insistent beauty perched on some neuron of mine: the fire of a funeral pyre. The most perfect image of art. And of farewell.

Ana Luísa Amaral, from “The Most Perfect Image

[asksabhaniblog]

RETROSPECTIVE: THE VOICE OF EARLY CINEMA

Singing has become his legacy, but Saigal was also a nuanced actor; among the many roles he played was the titular character in the 1935 version of Devdas | Still from the film Singing has become his legacy, but Saigal was also a nuanced actor; among the many roles he played was the titular character in the 1935 version of Devdas | Still from the film This story has its real beginnings in Calcutta [Kolkatta], because while our hero, K.L. Saigal, was born in Jammu on April 7, 1904, Calcutta was where he flowered. Here Rabindranath Tagore had set a new trend in music, free of the strict rules of the classical mode and more sophisticated than folk music. Folk music was sweet and captivating, but lacked the sublimity and stateliness of classical music. Tagore adopted a middle course, and with the advent of Western orchestra, this new form of music appealed to the common and busy man.

A voice such as Kundan Lal Saigal’s — untrained, but unrestrained — was a boon for a new venture such as cinema. Saigal started out in1933 inclined to the classical mode, but by 1943 the rushing inflections and high and low pitch were straightened out, and in the songs of the film Bhanwra he sang to chorus and orchestra what we recognise most easily as a film song. If I were made to choose only two songs by Saigal, I would choose ‘Tara Pata Beete Dina Rain’ — a song saturated with sheer pathos, yet with an effortless and high crescendo — from 1934’s Chandidas, and ‘Bina Pankh Panchi’ — in which Saigal could seamlessly accommodate a variety of modes — from the 1943 film Tansen.

On Jan 18, 1947, Saigal passed away at Jallandhar, leaving behind an enviable legacy. A film, Amar Saigal, was made in Calcutta in 1955 as a tribute, and thereafter the books followed.

Raghava R. Menon came out with K.L. Saigal: Pilgrim of the Swara in 1978. Menon was the only biographer to have actually met Saigal. However, his main contribution is not biographical details, but exposition of Saigal’s singing style: “The ragas were always taught by ear, always remembered by their characteristic progressions and bhavas, rather than by the knowledge of notes. Notes were taught long after the raga was part of the ear and feelings of the student.”

Singing has become his legacy, but Saigal was also a nuanced actor; among the many roles he played was the titular character in the 1935 version of Devdas | Still from the film

After giving us the secret of Saigal’s success, Menon focuses on one particular song to bring out the individuality of Saigal’s talent: “Remember ‘So Ja Raj Kumari’. You can call it crooning if you like, only it is not. It is sung as fully and as completely as the opening lines of ‘Diya Jalao’. It is sung at a low volume, and not at a low pitch. It is somewhat like the wick in a lamp. The wick has been lowered and so the brightness of the light is lowered. The fire within the holder is burning exactly as it would if raised... Saigal lowered the volume of his voice not by constricting his throat, but by lightening the breath upon his vocal cords, just as a violinist would lighten the bow upon the string. In ‘So Ja Raj Kumari’ observe the texture of the voice on the words so ja [go to sleep] in the last repetition of the refrain.”

Har Mandir Singh “Hamraaz” and Harish Raghuwanshi gave us Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya in 2004, a collection of articles to which every contemporary of Saigal, from Jamuna Barua to Suraiya Ahmed Sheikh, contributed. From this book, we learn that the proprietor of New Theatres, Birendranath Sircar, the music director Rai Chand Boral and the star singer Pankaj Mullick all claimed to have introduced Saigal.

Apart from this controversy, the book recounts some very interesting anecdotes: “‘If I ever set my camera on him the lens will crack. Why, he is uncouth!’ Nitin Bose had snapped when I [Boral] first requested him to give Saigal a chance, but Saigal was to work later in most of Nitin’s hit films.” In an aside, it was Bose who introduced Dilip Kumar to Saigal on the set of Milan.

Mullick, himself a peerless singer who had been Saigal’s music director too, gave the reason for the singer’s success: “This was mainly [because of] his peerless tenor voice with a wonderful command over the three octaves and a special capacity for maintaining unvarying pitch without the least effort.” Hamraaz and Raghuwanshi also record Bengali actor and singer Pahari Sanyal’s opinion of Saigal’s Bengali songs: “He was the first non-Bengali artiste who put new life into Bengali songs as no Bengali songster could or did.”

A voice such as Kundan Lal Saigal’s — untrained, but unrestrained — was a boon for cinema.

Writer and dramatist Balwant Gargi dilated upon Saigal’s style. “In his first recorded song ‘Jhulna Jhulao’ he made one innovation; he did the alaap in pure Asawari [morning raga] and sang in Gandhari.” Another vignette in the book comes courtesy of film director Phani Majumdar: “I remember, one day, he (Saigal) offered me a lift to the studios. I politely turned it down and asked him to give Pankaj Mullick, who was just alighting from a tram, a ride. And as usual, I walked. But as I reached the studio there came Saigal, chugging away. He was alone. He stopped, greeted someone and casually got off the (motor) bike. I asked him where Pankaj was and Saigal looked stunned. He had given Pankaj a lift all right, but the man had fallen of the pillion midway.”

What these editors and enthusiasts have rendered is an invaluable service. They have preserved for posterity all the primary material not only about Saigal, but about the whole era during which film and recorded music could pervade the consciousness of the common man of the time. We find lesser comment about Saigal the actor than Saigal the singer, but he won the highest praise for his screen performances as well. It all comes back to ‘So Ja Raj Kumari’ from the film Zindagi and actor Dilip Kumar in his interview described the pathos that Saigal brought in the scene when the heroine (Jamuna Barua) was dying.

Pran Nevile’s K.L. Saigal: Immortal Singer and Superstar, published in 2004, is a large, lavishly illustrated book with valuable black-and-white photographs contained within. Nevile later published an abridgement titled K.L. Saigal: The Definitive Biography. Both contain the main details, but here we shall discuss the larger book. Nevile does not document his sources as Hamraaz and Raghuwanshi have done; his contribution focuses on different approaches to Saigal and his art with chapters on the film Devdas, on ghazals, on the poetry of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, on all the heroines Saigal starred opposite and on the songs written by Saigal in the Urdu language.

The chapter on Devdas is quite definitive, to use Nevile’s own word, because this film serves not only as a basis for comparison, but also traces the evolution of cinematographic art in India. Watch side-by-side the scene of Devdas striking Parvati with his cane, and each of the three actors who have played the titular role — Saigal, Dilip Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan — make congruent arcs. There is a continuity in the first two versions as they are in black and white, and Bimal Roy, cameraman of the Saigal-starring 1935 version was director of the Kumar-starring 1955 version. The only redeeming feature of the colour version is the performance of the hero; otherwise the onslaught of glamour is overwhelming.

In Nevile’s book, the first chapter is about Saigal’s concert at Minto Park [Iqbal Park], Lahore in 1937 that the author attended. Thus, while he may not have met Saigal as Menon did, Nevile has seen the singer in person. Nevile’s chapter on Saigal’s heroines, from Ratan Bai, Jamuna Barua, Kamlesh Kumari, Leela Desai, Durga Khote, Kanan Bala, Uma Shashi, Khurshid and Suraiya is a historical index in itself. The chapter on Ghalib is also interesting as even before coming into films, Ghalib’s poetry was part of Saigal’s repertoire and two of the most lilting ghazals he sang were by Ghalib: ‘Mein Unhein Chherrun’ and ‘Aah Ko Chahiyay’. In the chapter on ghazals, Nevile gives star billing to the poet Arzu: ‘Matwalepane Se Jo Ghataa’. The matla [first couplet] has an imperfect rhyme — very surprising in the verse of a master of prosody — but in the grammar of music it is perfect. Ghazals were in Saigal’s repertoire because he himself wrote lyrics in the Urdu script. Nevile gives the image of one poem ‘Pardes Mein Rahne Wale’ and two geets ‘Mein Baithi Thee Phulwari Men’ and ‘Humjolion Ki Thien Toliyan’ written by Saigal. The geets were featured on the two-volume LP selected by Nevile and titled The Greatest Love Songs of K.L. Saigal. Nevile recalls Saigal having sung Allama Muhammad Iqbal’s Kabhi Ai Haqiqat-i-Muntazir. It is a revelation; perhaps it can surface from the Lahore collection of Alauddin Mazhar, nephew of the poet Hafeez Jalandhari and a Saigal devotee, or Saigal’s almirah which was sent by his relatives from Bombay [Mumbai] to Jallandhar, and which no one has yet opened

Dr Muhammad Reza KazimiThe writer is a retired associate professor of Islamic History at Government National College, Karachi