I had the privilege of interviewing Rob Rokicki for the National Writing Project’s Write Time Radio show. Rob is a musician and composer, who wrote the music and lyrics for a Broadway version of The Lightning Thief. We chatted about his work and how he composes, and the idea of story narrative in connection to music.
Peace (talking it out),
Kevin
Click on the wrench at the Rube Goldberg Machine comic at xkcd and build the machine inside the comic. Brilliant!
Peace (and gears),
Kevi
This morning’s prompt at DS106 Daily Create had to do with using an old Public Domain image of a bunch of men standing on the deck of an old, tilting house, and to imagine them as a band releasing a song. I used Canva to design their “single” track, which I called Living In A Tilted World.
I decided to go a step further, using the Suno AI Music site to create a fake song to go along with the fake band. I tried Suno out a few weeks ago and in that short time, I think it has gotten better with a new version of its algorithms (which is both fascinating and alarming, as a creative person worried about the intrusion of AI in our spaces).
I instructed Suno to produce:
an old sea shanty with the title of “living in a tilted world” about a house tilting into the ocean
Take a listen to the Suno single: Tilting Tides.
Catchy, right?
Peace (in the great fake out),
Kevi
(NOTE: This post is a tutorial as part of Write Out, April 2024)
Here is one way to create a blackout/erasure poem, particularly when the Solar Eclipse comes through and the moon “erases” or “blackens out” part of the Sun. Get it?
For mine (above), I used some text generated by ChatGPT in which it explains what a Solar Eclipse is. You may want to find some other text or perhaps the Wendell Berry poem – To Know The Dark — as your main text.
This is what ChatGPT gave me for my activity:
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the sun, obscuring the sun’s entire disk and casting a shadow on Earth’s surface. This extraordinary celestial event unfolds as the moon aligns perfectly with the sun, blocking its light and creating a temporary darkness known as totality within a narrow path on Earth’s surface. During totality, the sun’s corona, the outermost layer of its atmosphere, becomes visible, appearing as a shimmering halo around the obscured sun. Total solar eclipses are rare and captivating phenomena that captivate observers with their awe-inspiring beauty and serve as a reminder of the intricate dance of celestial bodies in our solar system.
I took that text and put it into the Blackout Poetry Maker over at Glitch. It’s a simple site to use. Just add the main text, and then choose the words and phrases that you want to remain on the screen. You can either download the final poe
This is what I came up with:
I then went into Flickr’s Public Domain image search to find a Solar Eclipse image to use as a background image. I found one that I liked, a lot.
Solar Eclipse 2017 flickr photo by Jamie Kohns shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0)
Finally, I went into LunaPic — an online image editor — and used its Blender Tool (find it under Effects) to layer my Blackout Poem with the Solar Eclipse image, creating the final project (see above).
Peace (even when the sky goes dark),
Kevin
This morning’s DS106 Daily Create prompt (one I guess I originally submitted way back when?) was to find the background code of a website and use it for art. I perused behind the scenes of the John Coltrane website for mine. I grabbed a screenshot, and then used art filters, and ended with some animation on top.
Peace (and sound),
Kevin
Just in time for April and Poetry Month, Grant Snider’s new Poetry Comics book is a beautiful addition to the collection.
Grant gathers together four seasons worth of poems in the form of comics, in his own distinct style (literally – the book is divided into four seasons), and it’s lovely for the ways that he weaves in his illustrations, perspective viewpoints and a child-like view of the world. (This book is appropriate for any aged kid or adult).
Many of the comics are free-verse but he also uses rhyming patterns here and there, and haiku and other small form poetry styles. The book could be a useful resource in a classroom, particularly for students with an artistic bent and poetic reluctance.
I also appreciate how many of the poems are about writing poems (something I am apt to do, too, with my own writing) in a way that looks at the creative process of writers and artists in a fun but thoughtful way. He even has a How To Write A Poem series sprinkled throughout the book.
Grant posts his comics regularly at his blog, too, and are always worth a look.
Peace (and poems),
Kevin
