"This is a moon without a tide" -The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Show Your Bones

This is the acoustic version of one of my songs. It tells a true story of a spider that I once met. This was the fastest song I have ever written; it was finished within half an hour though the spider hung about being spidery for a matter of days. Before dissapearing that is, as I remember it the web stayed a while longer and then was gone also. He was a nice spider.

I saw a spider at my window
I tried to leave, but I couldn't go
All I could do is stop and stare
As he pulled his throne out of the air

And after a while he stopped to wait
I tried to leave but it was fair to late
I find it odd but I can't despise
Such a beautiful creature amid his web of lies

He spoke to me and said he's watching the world as he hides
Deep at the front of his web of lies
But what does he see, what does he hear,
What does he do when he catches fear?

And as I watched he caught a bee
But he just waited a while and then he set it free (True!)
I want to know what's in his mind
Is it odd that for our kinds?

He spoke to me and said he's watching the world as he hides
Deep at the front of his web of lies
But what does he see, what does he hear,
What does he do when he catches fear?

What would you do?
Anansi spoke to me,
He said what would you do?
What would you do?

As a note, Anansi is a well known spider from West African traditional stories. He himself was synonymous with skill and wisdom in speech. Anansi came to occour in many other cultures subsequently.

"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light." - Albus Dumbledore, Prisoner of Azkaban

The following is just creative writing. A mess from my mind tumbling out too fast and too lazily to find a rhyme scheme. I hope you find it has integrity.

Have you ever looked into the sky, just to find that it is the eyes of another? If you turn your back on the world that surrounds you do you think you can forget where you are? Can you lie to yourself with such conviction that you can be transported to a dimension where it is just you and the owner of those sky-eyes? When you remain in so close a proximity that the flow of Time himself is cut out of your domain, do you use that moment wisely enough? Is too little implied, too much? Am I asking too many retorical questions? Can you answer them?

In this moment there is an understanding for every word, a delicate compasion for each sentence; though you may not relate to the whole. It feels to be a universal feeling.

Each movement is absorbed and you know you will never miss a thing. The annoyance remains however: though you understand everything while it is tangiable and before you, its grasp will flitter away later leaving you with the absence and lonliness after such comprehension. This can only be filled with doubt as you analyse those whisps of memory that remain. Those teasing fragments that cannot bear justice to what you knew you witnessed.

There is always a focus for these memories though - they cannot escape us completely. You may be left with a lingering touch on your skin, a smell just out of your reach perchance. For me this time it was a smile. His smile stays with me and flashes before my eyes when I close them. It did not melt me like a book would have one believe, or have me curdle into girlish nonsence. This smile merely left an impression, deep into my mind. A first glance would show none of the complexities that lay behind this smile, and they are never present when you look for them.

It was not a smile I had seen him wear before. This smile was so complex and so simple and so contagious. It was a natural smile, a smile of a genuine nature. Involentary and honest. It is a smile I will remember for the rest of my life, in fleeting images and beautiful moments like a half remembered dream. It was a beautiful smile.



Congratulations if you bothered to read all of that. It's very raw; there was no processing of words between mind and canvas hence it's being a stickler for reading.

"You've got a vampire on your neck, everybody knows what happens next." -KT Tunstall, Tiger Suit

The Magpie Jewler

There was a girl with dreams untold,

With heart of light, young and bold

Sing she would to the birds, and fly

With them through a lullaby.

Then one day as her song was sung,

Her song was heard and in turn undone.

Her joy and beauty had filled the sky

To be spied by a certain Magpie.

Now this Magpie was not as would seem,

Heart dark with greed for what he'd seen.

This girl to him, so delightful

Brighter, prettier than all sweet metal.

"Girl," he'd cry, "none else so sweet sings,

Live with me, sing for me and I'll give you rings,

Necklaces silver to gleam when you twirl,

Come with me and I'll give you diamonds and pearls."

So each time she sang the bird gave her a ring,

A necklace, a pearl, a beautiful thing
He loved her so and when he saw her
He called her, his sweet, his Magpie Jewler.

All was well, most fine with the Magpie

She could never starve and never die,

But as days wore to weeks and then into years

The girl found she missed the solidity of fears.

Wanting once more to share her song,

She decided to go back to where once she'd belonged.

But the Magpie's gifts now held her down,

She couldn't walk for her Jewler's crown.

Wishing to leave she begged him for goodbyes

But the Magpie, he turned and plucked out her eyes.

She sang of her sorrow and broken heart,

Slowly, carefuly, her spirit broke apart.

But inside her, all held on one hinge,

The desire, the call out for revenge.

So slowly the girl worked as she'd sing

For that loathsome bird that'd give her rings.

Though little was the Magpie to know,

That deep in that girl, a plan was to grow.

She worked away at her beautiful things,

The necklaces, bracelets, diamond filled rings.

She welded them to with her passionate heart

Full of anger and pain for that bird's part

In trapping her will and claiming her mind;

What she made was a cage of jewels combined.

She trapped him there within his cage

Of gifts he'd given her, they hadn't aged,

The metal strong and sweet - it held him fast

And the girl at last, frowned, then laughed.

"You know that I will not miss you

Though it seems what you called me once now is true."

She smiled and turned, that was last he saw her,

His sweet, his beautiful Magpie Jewler.

.oOo.

A story that I met in my head a long while ago now. It is the Magpie whose character is quite defined in my mind, the Magpie Jewler herself is rather an annomaly however. This started as a song, but the story outgrew it and now I am trying to tame it into some tangiable form. I wouldn't call it finished, I'd call it bottled and maturing.

The image used at the top is another of my own that I feel is a part of the fabrication of this tale - hence the inclusion. The paint is acrylic and there were many materials included in its making, (kitchen roll, book pages, snakeskin and grit to name a few). The canvas itself is 75cm x 1.5m roughly.

"Like to try one? Go on, go on. Have a bite." - Queen, Disney's Snow White

Thought I'd put the finished product up here for anyone who was interested. This is a picture of my final piece for the art project that has been discussed a little previously. It it is on a roughly 1.5 x 1.5 meter board canvas in Oilbars. If you have not come across this wonderful medium, think of them as oil paint in a stick form that is suitable for both painting and drawing.

I will admit that it only looks impressive large and close up. I was rushed in completing this work and so there are many little flaws with scale and proportion that I sadly just didn't have time to smoothen out however I am very aware of them.

Hope you all like it! Critisism welcome. Also thanks to everyones input once again, especialy my models and Harri for 'lend' of the apple and for helping to choose the image I went on to use for my final piece.