and totally great guy who sat down to talk music and literature with me. How does he do it all? Why Wilco? Does he want you to kill yourselves? The answers to those questions and more you didn’t even know you were asking! Listen below and visit the Let’s Get Lyrical site for more action.
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Ryan chats with writer, musician and former nuclear physicist Doug Johnstone about lyrics, writing, poetry and the art of being creative. Part of the Let’s Get Lyrical campaign, a celebration of words in music running all through February. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle of the Scottish Poetry Library. Produced by Colin Fraser for Lets Get Lyrical, http://www.letsgetlyrical.com and Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature.
Our friend and musical darling Hailey Beavis talks songwriting and lyrics and shares her new track ‘Jennifer’ played with Wax (featuring Jed Milroy, Jenny Hill and Cammy Sinclair.) How lovely it is to have Hailey in your ears — all part of this the ‘Let’s Get Lyrical‘ events happening throughout Edinburgh and Glasgow. Talk about your own favourite lyrics or listen to other podcasts featuring Simon Frith (Mercury Prize Judge), Iain Rankin, Ziggy Campbell and more more more…
Never too Late for Paul Muldoon, Norman McBeath & Hailey Beavis
In a sign of just how back-logged I’ve been since the beginning of the new year, here’s a podcast from Christmas which I barely promoted at the time. However, I think it fits in with the ‘Let’s Get Lyrical‘ campaign running through Edinburgh and Glasgow this month. You can read about other people’s favourite lyrics and songs or add you own — here on the ‘Let’s Get Lyrical’ site.
See, this podcast has a timeless track from our friend Hailey Beavis (which, if you haven’t heard, you simply must) but also Paul Muldoon wrote songs with the legendary Warren Zevon.
Warren Zevon is just about my favourite songwriter and the only person I know of ever to use the word ‘Brucilosis’ in a lyric. This from a song Zevon wrote in response to Lynrd Skynrd’s ‘Sweet Home Alabama’
“Grandpa pissed his pants again / he don’t give a damn” is still what I consider to be rock’s greatest opening line. Anyway, Muldoon wrote a few great songs on Zevon’s penultimate album. Here’s one of the songs Muldoon wrote with Zevon. Of course you’ll note it sounds pretty Irish but it is also a sardonic, cynical and super macabre tale with semi-dated references to NASDAQ and dot.com companies.
This is all on Zevon’s penultimite album — ‘My Ride’s Here’ — a pretty portentious title considering Zevon died of a rare form of lung-cancer in 2003. That year he released his final record — ‘The Wind’ — forgoing treatment in order to complete the record. After he died a tribute album was released which found Bruce Springteen coving Muldoon / Zevon’s song ‘My Ride’s Here’
I am always happy when Springsteen calls Zevon one of the “great, great American song-writers’. He had a fantastically noir tone and a fearlessness when it came to subject matter mixing the biblical with the pop, he could do sensitive geek and cowboy killer, he was a magician, he was a mutineer. Here’s a glimpse of his last performance on Letterman where, when asked if he knew something about life and death, Zevon replied, “Not unless I know how much you’re supposed to enjoy every sandwich.”
.There are so many great lines in this song from the opening ‘yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum’ to the absolute tenderness of the lyrics. I want to be a Mutineer!
Anyway…The Podcast!
This was released around Christmas but the interview was done in summer and Hailey’s song is timeless and awesome so what difference does it make that I’m posting it now? I think you’ll enjoy it no matter what you think about Warren Zevon. It features the effervescent and insanely talented Paul Muldoon as well as the brilliant photographer Norman McBeath both of whom are legends. Better late than never, right?
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We start off with the marvellous Hailey Beavis and Jed Milroy with their track “Snow”. For mains we present Paul Muldoon and Norman McBeath talking about their poetry and photography project Plan B. And there might be a special something at the end…
Paul Muldoon was born in 1951 in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, and educated in Armagh and at the Queen’s University of Belfast. From 1973 to 1986 he worked in Belfast as a radio and television producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Since 1987 he has lived in the United States, where he is now Howard G. B. Clark ’21 Professor at Princeton University and Chair of the Peter B. Lewis Center for the Arts. In 2007 he was appointed Poetry Editor of The New Yorker . Between 1999 and 2004 he was Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford, where he is an honorary Fellow of Hertford College…
Norman McBeath is a photographer who specialises in portraits and reportage. The National Portrait Galleries in London and Edinburgh hold fifty of his works in their permanent collections. Recent solo exhibitions include Oxford at Night at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford with an introduction by Jeanette Winterson; Evidence at Edinburgh Printmakers with an introduction by A. L. Kennedy and City Stories at the French Institute, Edinburgh with an introduction by Janice Galloway. His work has been shown widely in the UK and overseas, including Beyond Beirut – an exhibition commissioned by the British Council which toured the Middle East and North Africa. Plan B – a collaboration with the Pulitzer Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon, which exhibited here at the Scottish Poetry Library in summer 2010 – is his latest exhibition. He lives in Edinburgh.
‘How Pedestrian’ is a vibrant and unique poetic resource featuring random people in random places reading poems. I was flattered that Katherine Leyton chose to celebrate the release of my first ever collection of poems (Tomorrow, We Will Live Here) by featuring strangers reading my poems. For those of you who haven’t bought the book, you can read and hear samples of my work and, if you dig it, please consider buying a copy here.
For the sake of laziness the videos are all below but definitely check out the How Pedestrian site. It is a great way to introduce yourself to very high quality contemporary poetry. I cannot recommend it enough! Thanks Leyton!
Here are my videos (links will get you to a page where you can read the poems as well).
In New York and featuring poems from Tomorrow, We Will Live Here, the new collection from Conneticut-born poet Ryan Van Winkle. This reading was shot at International House in Manhatten. Do any of you recognize the music?
In this video, Ryan reads “My 100-Hundred-Year-Old-Ghost” while on tour with The Golden Hour in London. A big thanks to Ericka Duffy for shooting the video.
It was super amazing to meet Mike Scott of The Waterboys and to discus ‘An Appointment With Mr Yeats’, his fabulous two hour show where he has transformed the poetry of WB Yeats into rock songs. He also denies the rumours that he’s working on adapting my work into rock songs. Dang. Enjoy the interview and check out more on over at ‘Let’s Get Lyrical’ featuring Janice Galloway and many more!
at…
Margins Book and Music Festival presented by Cargo and Forest Publishing
February 19th, 2011
Stereo, Glasgow
4pm – 6pm
£1
Readings From: Ryan Van Winkle — Long stories and short poems from The Scottish Poetry Library’s Reader in Residence. His book ‘Tomorrow, We Will Live Here’ was recently published by Salt.
Nick Holdstock — The prose writer and journalist holds his strong meat. His fiction has appeared in The Southern Review, Stand and Northwords Now. He has written about China for the London Review of Books and N+1 and his book on China (The Tree That Bleeds) will be published by Luath Press in early 2011.
Ericka Duffy — hot new prose from this photographer, film-maker, poet and general renaissance woman.
So, the fine Keir Hind from The Skinny asked me to do something humiliating. He asked me to write a review of my own book, ‘Tomorrow, We Will Live Here‘, in the style of the brilliant film ‘The Five Obstructions‘ by Lars Von Trier. In the film Lars asks a director to re-create his film but with five different constraints. It was frustrating and humiliating for the director, Jorgen Leth, and for the poet — me.
2) Skip the ‘review’ and just go on and buy the book.
3) Skip both of these things and learn more about ‘The Five Obstructions’ below by enjoying the original version of one of the finest short films of all time.
Endor – They sing and play drums, guitars, glockenspiel, harmonica, melodica, organ, rhodes, portasound , sticks and stones. They like science, books and the flashing of cameras.
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Manje – time travellers/musicians on a quest to discover altered states of musical adventures.
From Tuesday the 1st of February Blackhall Library will be my poetic home away from home.
I’ll be semi-based in Blackhall Library hosting free poetic events and workshops! You can come and meet your Reader in Residence on 1 February or join our Nothing But the Poem workshop on 24 February at 14:30. The month will also feature a display with my favourite poetry collection. It should be a brilliant month so come along to any of the TOTALLY FREE events mentioned below or feel free to pop into the library and see what excellent poetry books are on offer!
Meet Your Reader in Residence
Tue. 1 Feb. 16.00 – 17.30
Ryan Van Winkle is Reader in Residence at the Scottish Poetry Library and Edinburgh City Libraries. He is also a working poet who’s work has appeared in Northwords Now, New Writing Scotland and The American Poetry Review. His first collection from Salt is titled, ‘Tomorrow, We Will Live Here‘.
Poems Aloud
Wed. 16 Feb. 14.30 / Fri. 25 Feb 14.30
Do you have a favourite poem? Do you love hearing poems read aloud? Come to our poems aloud session where we’ll be sharing the poems we carry with us, in our hearts and even in our pockets. Bring any poem you’d like to hear and share and we’ll read a few from our roving poetry collection.
Nothing But the Poem
Thurs. 24 Feb. 14.30
Fancy a poetry chat? Nothing But The Poem is a relaxed and informal way to meet and discuss poems. Moderated by ECL / SPL Reader-in-Residence Ryan Van Winkle. * We read a poem * We discuss the poem * Only the poem we’ve read. * No Jargon * No experience needed * Nothing to fear * Nothing but the poem.
Poetry Month also features a unique poetry display of our favourite and most accessible collections.
Never too Late for Paul Muldoon, Norman McBeath & Hailey Beavis
Paul Muldoon was born in 1951 in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, and educated in Armagh and at the Queen’s University of Belfast. From 1973 to 1986 he worked in Belfast as a radio and television producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Since 1987 he has lived in the United States, where he is now Howard G. B. Clark ’21 Professor at Princeton University and Chair of the Peter B. Lewis Center for the Arts. In 2007 he was appointed Poetry Editor of The New Yorker . Between 1999 and 2004 he was Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford, where he is an honorary Fellow of Hertford College…
Norman McBeath is a photographer who specialises in portraits and reportage. The National Portrait Galleries in London and Edinburgh hold fifty of his works in their permanent collections. Recent solo exhibitions include Oxford at Night at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford with an introduction by Jeanette Winterson; Evidence at Edinburgh Printmakers with an introduction by A. L. Kennedy and City Stories at the French Institute, Edinburgh with an introduction by Janice Galloway. His work has been shown widely in the UK and overseas, including Beyond Beirut – an exhibition commissioned by the British Council which toured the Middle East and North Africa. Plan B – a collaboration with the Pulitzer Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon, which exhibited here at the Scottish Poetry Library in summer 2010 – is his latest exhibition. He lives in Edinburgh.
