The Basement Tapes: Hold That Tiger

Monday, May 21, 2012

Hold That Tiger

A tyrant can shoot down a tiger but shakes in fear when someone whispers a poem.

A poem whispers down a tyrant but shakes when a tyrant shoots a woman.

A woman is a tiger shooting poems through a tyrant's dreams.

Twice in the chest, once in the shoulder, and once in the head at point-blank range.

Hold that tiger, hold that tiger...

- Mark Mordue

1 comment:

woodpecker said...: '...burning bright.'; May 30, 2012 at 11:15 PM

TAKING MY PULSE

Art - "Marrickville Paintings" by Nick Fintan
Book - "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" edited by W.Y. Evans-Wentz
Music - "22" by Taylor Swift and "Tabula Rasa" by Einsturzende Neubauten
Television - "Grand Designs" (I'm turning my home into the Sistine Chapel with nothing more than dirt, moss, sandstone bricks from the convict era, a rotting beam from a nineteenth century barn and a series of self-designed convex windows distilled from my own formula and cast from hand-made moulds that have cost more than I expected) (it's getting stressful)
DVD - "Game of Thrones Season 2" (I haven't started watching it yet but I am looking forward to more horse beheadings, the discovery of the missionary position and setting fire to the living dead in a dark, snowy forest).
Film - "The Master" by Paul Thomas Anderson (Why didn't it get the Academy Award for Best Film? Because it was too good.)
Miscellaneous - more migraines; pain like a star at the base of my spine; the miracle of the osteopath; giving up drinking; driving around in the car with my kids; the passage way between life and death where we sleep, dream and imagine.

PASCALL PRIZE

On 22nd May 2010 it was announced at the Sydney Writers' Festival that Mark Mordue was the winner of the Pascall Prize: Australian Critic of the Year. It is the country's most prestigious award for critical writing and reflections on the arts, and carries with it a $15,000 prize. In coming to their decision the judging panel released a statement:

"Mark Mordue is the judges’ unanimous choice for winner of the 2010 Pascall Prize. In a very strong field of contenders, Mordue’s writing stood out both for its style and for its passionate commitment to its subject matter. His beautifully written and moving review of the film The Road (entitled ‘Towards Love’) exemplified the characteristics of his writing that most impressed us. Mordue brings to his arts journalism his own personal experiences and insights as well as an impressively broad-ranging knowledge of literature, film and music. His sensitive engagement with his subject matter, his lively mind and his delicious turns of phrase are a gift and a delight for the reader.

"Mordue’s reviews, interviews and essays never come across as token efforts or intellectual exercises but always as opportunities the writer has taken to explore deeper issues of the mind’s intellectual and emotional life. His own personal experiences and reflections illuminate his subject matter, drawing the reader into an expansive conversation that is intellectually and emotionally engaging and thought-provoking. As one judge put it, his writing has ‘a certain intellectual freedom, an unembarrassed insistence on feeling in the life of the mind’ that is ‘utterly engaging’. Another judge commented on the ‘impression of a keen mind, refusing to look away from what’s striking, confronting’. Mordue’s writing is writing that enriches the heart as well as the mind."

'HIGHLY COMMENDED' FOR THE PETER BLAZEY FELLOWSHIP 2011

Mark Mordue was runner-up for The Peter Blazey Fellowship 2011, an award for innovative life writing, biography and autobiography. All submissions to the Fellowship required an outline of your vision and a 5,000 word preview of your manuscript. Judges comments:

"Mark Mordue is one of the most exciting commentators of contemporary Australian culture. His highly commended manuscript offers an immediacy and vibrancy which draws musician and writer Nick Cave into the spotlight. Mordue’s writing is poetic and taut, and this biography will engage the reader not only with Cave’s life but also with the surrounding social and cultural context of recent decades."

Pinups

Roberto Bolano, Chilean born refugee of the Pinochet regime, Mexico inspired joker and dark-eyed dreamer, novelist and short story writer extraordinaire. Wild and original (and that don't happen nearly as often as it is claimed), with a pattern grabbing recklessness like no other. Check out Last Evenings on Earth first and keep diving in. I've never read anyone who can map your head so well, those perceptual shifts and intuitions and obsessions that are so much a part of living with other people and yourself. He's also pretty funny when he wants to be. If you don't mind sloppy generalisations, I'd describe him as a South American Jack Kerouac, a free genius at the hub of a whole cultural shift in the language and what it can do, and perhaps more importantly, what it's feeling. Though as soon as I write that I think, No, that's not right, he's more like a politicised, ghetto-dwelling F. Scott Fitzgerald yearning for his own green light, or a Jorge Luis Borges caught in a hippie Charles Bukowki's life, or.... what is he? Someone looking for a home? Some peace of mind? The guy is a planet all to himself, a singer for lost souls.

Copyright Notice:

The material on this website is copyright to Mark Mordue. Information on this website may be accessed and read for personal reasons only. The material may not be copied or communicated to other parties without permission. For use of material in relation to educational purposes, refer to the statutory licences granted to Australian educational institutions under the Copyright Act (these licenses are administered by Copyright Agency Limited / CAL). All images reproduced on this website are copyright to their original owners. They are either in the public domain or available for limited use under ‘fair dealing’ practices. Every effort has been made to credit and source images. Please contact me in the event of any oversights or incorrect attributions.

The Basement Tapes

Monday, May 21, 2012

Hold That Tiger

1 comment:

Fiction

Non-Fiction

Poetry

Blog Archive

TAKING MY PULSE

About Me

Dastgah: Diary of a Headtrip (USA)

Dastgah: Diary of a Headtrip (Australia)

Meanjin on Rock 'n' Roll: All Yesterday's Parties

PASCALL PRIZE

'HIGHLY COMMENDED' FOR THE PETER BLAZEY FELLOWSHIP 2011

Well Connected

Pinups

Hanging Loose

Copyright Notice: