*Insert fangirl squee here.*

[railenthe]

 

What a way to welcome the Full Moon.  Truly, a gift from the Goddess.

Described by the composer himself as “something resembling poetry/but it’s not the same thing,”  Colorful Fortune is a collection of verse by American ambient/minimalist/Avant-garde composer Harold Budd.  The first half of the book contains ‘poem sketches’ previously unknown and unreleased.  The second half features work that is more familiar, from his albums By The Dawn’s Early Light, Glyph, and She Is A Phantom (with Zeitgeist).

 

Notice the little trail on the cover, like the contrails of a butterfly hopped up on amphetamine-laced nectar.  These sketches are a visual representation of the music that Budd was listening to at the time—in this one’s case, Monteverdi.  The line begins somewhere on the page, sometimes exeunt on one side, reappearing on another part of the page unbroken—a visual metaphor for the sound of music.

 

…I’ve wanted this book like burning since discovering its existence one year ago.  And a month ago, this desire came to a head.  You see, there are only two hundred copies of this book in existence.  250 if you count the hardback—the hardback is WAY too rich for my pay grade.  It was released in ‘09.

 

Yea verily, time was of the essence.  Who could say when there weren’t any more to be had?  I ordered a copy on my Nook Tablet and…

 

waited.

 

And waited.

 

I get a “zzzt!” on my phone on the way back to the apartment from dress fitting: my package was no longer ‘in transit.’  I grew antsy on the way back home, realizing: this was it.  The thing I’d been waiting for.  I got a little nervous when the super-careful packaging was stuck in the mailbox, but finally I got it home…and devoured every verse within.  I lingered over the sketches, and sort of roosted in one particular zone of the “something resembling poetry” entitled “Wings:”

 

…
Through it all

I danced toward my sun

as my soul sought to fly—

Through it all

it was you.

It was always you.

 

I actually forgot to read forward at that point.  My mind?  Blown.  I needed to find a new fuse for my mind.  Except I didn’t.  I kept reading that portion of the poem, fingers loitering on the heavy-weight superfine paper, like the memory of a lover’s touch on the palm.

 

I then began to transcribe the entire book, so that I would not harm the book by taking it outside later in search of photo opportunities that seemed to speak the very verses; while I was typing, I hung up again on that passage of “Wings.”  The entire damn book is full of such loveliness that there are passages that I despair of ever finding a fitting photo op for. 

 

I know two things about this project:

1. I’m glad I’ve got almost a whole entire year of nature to go through for this project, and
2. I’m going to pull a Genesis or a Kuja with the randomly quoting verses fairly often.

       (From:  Reflected In The Eye Of A Dragonfly: )

…

Unexplained light reflected from the spine of a

     metallic viper

I’ll seal your radiant kiss my lover

…

Comments

[ilenn.livejournal.com]

Never heard of Harold Budd, but that sounds so awesome! ^_^

No poetry in my rambles I'm afraid...

[toffeethesnob.livejournal.com]

Now that is some nice loot. I'm not even a poetry fan and I'm impressed! (I don't dislike poetry but my English Literature A-Level managed to suck all the beauty out of it by making us study a terribly dull welsh cow who thought blathering about welsh things in English was interesting and a miserable old git who decided that being bitter and grumpy and cynical was far more enchanting than anything the rest of humanity considers wonderful. I'd have killed for some Wordsworth or Keats...)

Genesis really should just move to FFIX's Gaia.... Poetry and drama fans galore!

(Also I wonder if it's right that Kuja gets labelled as a 'quoter' when it's never specified whether he's actually quoting Lord Avon's work or just making it up himself. Whilst it's more likely intended to be the former, the deeper meanings of all his speeches are far too coincidental to have been lifted from someone else's work. Plus Lord Avon's work is deliberately written in 'Ye Olde English' whilst Kuja's dramatic wafflings, pretentious as they are, all follow a sophisticated but nevertheless modern manner of speech. Hmm, I'll have to look out for that in the Japanese version of FFIX. I'm guessing Lord Avon's stuff will be written in archaic Japanese (which I have no understanding of) and Kuja's speeches will be similar to how they are in Dissidia - longwinded but ultimately comprehensible.)

Anyway back to the book - this does sound like a poet's dream and I can understand your delight over securing a copy. Take good care of it, it'll probably be worth a whole lot more than just fanatical joy someday!

Hmm, I suppose the equivalent rarity I'd really love to get my hands on would be Igarashi-kun no Hito ni Ienai Gin no Yoru (Igurashi-kun's silver evening where there are no people) since it's a rare Akira Ishida CD drama where he plays EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER INCLUDING THE WOMEN. I've checked amazon jp, cd japan and yes asia but they've never even heard of it let alone sell it. What's really frustrating is that the two clips from it that are available online do not match up so I'd love to get the real thing for myself to appreciate the genuine performance.


(This is probably closer to the real McCoy than the other one since there have been no obvious edits or cuts but the fact that the mother and father sound so different in the other version (and the answering machine has a different pitch) is making me wonder how authentic this version is.)

I WILL FIND THIS EVENTUALLY, EVEN IF I HAVE TO GO TO JAPAN AND USE ALL MY WITS TO PURCHASE IT!

[alex-damien.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! That looks really lovely, even if I'm not too into poetry :)