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Released 2013-06-19 11:03:51 -0400
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Son, it's time to get fitted for your clothes.

No! Dad, don't make me!

Why must we go through this every time?

But, dad, the stitches from my last fitting still haven't healed.

It's a rough few years, son, but you'll be through them soon.

But, dad... PLEASE!!!???

What? If I allow you to skip your fitting, and other parents did the same for their children, then soon the entire international industry of hand-me-downs would be down-the-drain. Besides, the Taylor’s Biomedical Union would be knocking down our door in protest and the Surgical Seamstress Syndicate would have us in court before you could blink. Now, get in there!

But it hurts, dad!

Of course it hurts. That's why we call them growing pains.

But dad, why do we get fitted for our clothes? Couldn't the clothes be fitted to us instead?

Tradition, son. We mustn’t ignore tradition… and the law. We have no room for new ideas in this crowded world and its time you got used to that.

But, dad...

Man up, boy! We all had to go through it, and so do you.

The horror! The horror!

Oh, quit being so melodramatic.

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Are lyrics merely words for tunes not yet
Conceived by those who make their art in note?
Is music more profound - words merely set
Aside as minor once the song is wrote?
Do p...

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2013-06-11 08:01:30 -0400
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A spacious booth stands just outside a busy hospital next to a

large electrically operated garage-type door. It rests on rails

which lead beneath the closed door inside t...

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2013-06-11 07:57:29 -0400
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Thomas Nash wrote this in 1592/3 ot thereabouts (it wasn't published) for The Earl of Southhampton,  Henry Wriothesley, who was nineteen or twenty years old at the time. William Shakespeare also wrote for the same Earl at the same time, dedicating Venus and Adonis to him. This relationship of the two poems is what first attracted me to Nash's Dildo (to put it tongue-in-cheek - although that also has its own weird meaning now that I think about it when such a phrase is associated with a dildo - oh well).
Apparantly, these two long poems were written at the young Earl's personal request seeing as how they both seem to have the same general theme of passionate and mysterious sex. That Nash and Shakespeare were using the same patron at the same time kind of shows that Nash and Shakespeare probably knew each other pretty well.
It's in the public domain, and I got the text of the unpublished manuscript (it's actually two unpublished manuscripts written years after Nash wrote it - apparantly copied by fans of the poem for preservation - these original manuscripts are in the Bodleian Library and the Inner Temple) from a few different sources on the web. Its official title is The Choice of Valentines. Its subtitle is The Merry Ballad of Nash His Dildo. If you can't understand my reading (I only made a few minor errors, like saying 'stipes' instead of 'stripes,' and at one point in my reading chose to repeat a word for emphasis) and wish to find the text to read yourself, I'm sure you may do so by searching the internet using your favorite search engine.
I found the poem to be funny. That's why I decided to do a reading of it. Perhaps I'll do my own reading of Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis at some point in the future, but I found this one to be a little more entertaining and enjoyable than that one. It was difficult to tell at times which of the characters was speaking in my almost nineteen-minutes reading, so I made an effort to be vague about that as I read it. In some cases, either of the main characters could have been saying the words, and they have a slightly different meaning if you choose to hear one or the other character as the speaker. I like this ambiguity, but at the same time wish Nash had been a little more clear.
I also found Nash's reference to Tamberlaine ('Tomerlin', as he wrote it) in his poem to be a reference to Christopher Marlowe. I think this reference has some intrigue which I plan to explore further.
I also found his reference to "dancing school" to be interesting. The term, "dancing," as I have learned, was a euphamism for sex in the 16th century. Seems it wasn't much different back then from what it is today.
Nash's use of "he" and "him" (and "her" and "she")throughout this poem does not always refer to a person - I thought I'd mention that just in case you get a little confused about the meaning of those particular pronouns.  Nash makes great use of other words such as 'spirit,' 'soul,' 'nectar,' 'mouth,' 'hill,' 'wheels,' and many others in this poem which are also not used with their surface meaning. Oh yeah, I should mention that "hackney" is a horse for rent. "Jade" also refers to a livery stable horse for hire.
I don't think there is much opportunity to remix this one, though you are welcome to if you wish. I suppose you could act it out - but if you did it would have to have an NC-17 rating - it would probably even get an "XXX" rating in the US, even though its literary value is without question. I suppose one could do an animation and apply symbolic representation of things, but I think that would detract, since the words already do that. Still, there is probably a way to remix this, and if you are encouraged by my reading to do so, I'll take it as the compliment it is!
I performed it merely for your entertainment, that's all. It's a very long poem, but no longer than any sitcom on TV today. My suggestion is you listen to this poem after you flip through the channels on TV and find nothing on the 600 or more channels you have available, since I'm almost certain (provided you are not a Nash Scholar) you've NEVER heard this poem before, and it is bound to just as good as a re-run of an older TV sitcom that you have seen already.

2013-05-01 18:09:53 -0500
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A: I want to write a story.

B: Then write it.

A: But I want people to read it when I'm done.

B : Ah! That's a whole 'nother ball of worms.

A: But I al...

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2013-04-21 18:23:09 -0400
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An ink stain blots the page and it begins:
The meaning starts to crumble from the start
And further dissipates once marks of pens
Pierce eyes of others, passing through their hear...

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2013-04-10 09:08:10 -0400
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     My great nephew, so dubbed not only by virtue of our relationship but also by his own admirable innate individuality, was in eager anticipation of seeing ...

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2013-03-09 19:07:47 -0500
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STRAWBERRY BOOTLACE FLAVOURED SODA<...

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2013-02-03 13:27:28 -0500
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2012-12-11 20:09:15 -0500
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The best way to begin writing anything is to begin writing anything.


 


 


 


Now for some boring notes...


1. Although not...

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2012-11-24 08:30:54 -0500
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source:


page 156


The Fables of Aesop Ballantyne Press "now again edited and induced by Joseph Jacobs." LoNDON. Published by David Nutt in THE Strand, m.v.cccl.xxxix. (1889) http://www.archive.org/details/fablesofaesopasf02aesouoft


 


originally written by William Caxton in 1484

2012-11-18 17:40:35 -0500
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This is a reading out of Aesop's Fables as written by William Caxton and published in 1483. I liked the language of the whole book, which is in public domain (as obtained from archive.org), because it didn't sound as old as I thought it might, and the William Caxton's story telling style was so interesting! He kept me glued to the pages throughout the whole book because it wasn't just a translation, but it was also filled up with the author's own special way of telling a story.

Additionally, what intrigued me the most was that my Great Grandmother, who was born somewhere around 1900 (we never could get her to admit her actual birth-date for some reason) and lived for almost a whole century, used many of the words that Caxton did - particularly "hit" instead of "it." Our family on her side did come to the US from England during the early periods of colonization generations before her, and lived in the sticks of Georgia - so I imagine that the language at the time of settlement (in the 1600s) tended to remain unchanged amongst all that semi-isolation. I think that these early English settlers are the source of the "southern" accent in the US, but I am not certain about that at all.

I know I didn't exactly get all the words right, and I KNOW I have not have captured the accent properly (understand that the accent in England in the 15th and 16th century was in no way the same as it is today) but I am RECording this in order to share this ancient form of English with all of you.

I hope you find it just as understandable and interesting as I did. Let me know if you'd like to hear more readings - there are lots of fables in this book - both long and short.









Here is the text of my reading (I did make some errors - "f", in most cases, represents the ancient way "S" used to be written and "v" used to be the way to write "u." and "u" used to be written "v." IN some cases "f" actually means "f." The printing in the book I read from used the proper format which a text rendering does not allow):

(page 292)
...fable/ Of a marchaut
whiche was wedded of newe
vnto a fayre and yong woman /
the whiche marchaunt wente ouer the fee for to
bye & felle / and for to gete fomwhat for to lyue
honeftly / And by caufe that he dwellyd to longe/
his wyf fuppofed that he was dede/ And therfore
fhe enamoured her felf with another man /
whiche dyd to her mykle good/ as for to haue
doo make and bylde vp his hows of newe the
whiche had grete nede of reparacion / and alfo he
gaf to her all new utenfyles to kepe houfhold /
And within a long tyme after the departyng of
the marchaunt he came ageyne in to his hows
whiche he fawe newe bylded/ & fawe dyflhes
pottes / pannes / and fuche other houfhold / wherfore
he demaunded of his wyf how and in what
maner fhe had foude the facion and the mean
for to haue repayred fo honeftly his hows / And
fhe anfuerd that it was by the grace of god / And
he anfuerd / BIeffyd be god of hit / And when he
was within the chambre/ he fawe the bedde
rychely couerd / & the walles wel hanged / and
demaunded of his wyf he had done before/ And
fhe thenne anfuerd to hym in lyke maner as fhe
dyd before/ And therfore he thanked god as he
had done to fore / And as he wold fette hym at
his dyner/ there was brought before hym vnto
his wyf a child of thre yere of age/ or there
aboute / wherfore he demaunded of his wyf/
My frend to whome belongeth this fayre child/
And fhe anfuerd/ My Frend the holy ghooft of
his grace hath fente hit to me/ Thene anfuerd
the merchaunt to his wyf in this manere/ I
rendre not graces ne thankes not to the holy
ghooft of this / For he hath taken to moche
payne and labour for to haue it made up myn
owne werke/ And I wyll that in no maner wyfe
he medle no more therwith / For fuche thynge
belongeth to me for to doo hit / and not to the
holy ghooft.


The Fables of Aesop
Ballantyne Press
"now again edited and induced by Joseph Jacobs."
LoNDON. Published by David Nutt in
THE Strand, m.v.cccl.xxxix. (1889)

http://www.archive.org/details/fablesofaesopasf02aesouoft

(incidentally, William Caxton tells us he translated the

tales "out of Frensshe in to Englysshe" on his title page.

He finishes the book with this statement:
...tranflated
& emprynted by me William Caxton at
Wefftmynftur in thabbey / and finyffed
the xxvj daye of Marche the yere
of oure lord M cccc lxxxiiij /
and the fyrft yere of the
reyne of Kyng Rych-
ard the thyrde.")
2012-11-15 11:20:22 -0600
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I heard the choir sing and looked their way -
A glance of momentary brief duration...
An instant flash of time you just might say -
And in that slivered slice of fascination
...

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2012-11-01 11:56:36 -0400
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