Thursday, 9 August 2012
David Lee Guss Mexican funeral bier, 1890's-2009
Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957) was an English poet and novelist. His masterpiece is "Under the Volcano" (1937), set in Mexico where he lived from 1936 to 1939. Like many celebrated writers, he was an alcoholic. "Volcano" has been placed at number 11 by The Modern Library's Best Novels of the 20th century. "Under the Volcano" was made into a 1984 motion picture by director John Huston. It explores one day in the life of an alcoholic British diplomat on the eve of WW2 and the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration. As with Huston's "Night of the Iguana," "Volcano" was shot by the Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (1907-1997). @2009 David Lee Guss Mexican funeral bier, 1890's-2009 Read more
Pierre Alechinsky,: Pour Malcolm Lowry
Pour Malcolm Lowry. Farbradierung auf BFK Rives-Velin. 39,5 x 48,2 cm (Plattenrand); 49,5 x 64,2 cm (Blattgröße). Signiert. Auflage 150 num. Ex. (1969). Rivière 392.
Prachtvoller, farbfrischer Druck mit dem vollen Rand.
Andrzej Brakoniecki Eridanus 1998 - 2004
Consuls Vision |
Bedřich Dlouhý Přítomnost Pompejí: Malcolm Lowry: Světová literatura 1964
Přítomnost Pompejí: Malcolm Lowry: Světová literatura 1964 (illustration) |
Wistbook 005 “City Hospital”
loscil
“City Hospital”
Sound report on Malcolm Lowry’s
novella “Lunar Caustic”.
Registry no. Wistbook 005
Edition series. 100
Format. 3″cd and novella
Released Feb 29
http://wistrec.com/wistbook-005/
Has anyone got a copy of this as I missed it?
Professor Chris Ackerley – The Nordic vision of Malcolm Lowry’s In Ballast to the White Sea
Thanks to Nicolas Labbe for informing me that Chris Ackerley's paper was now available as a podcast.
Listen to the above paper delivered at the conference below HERE
Event Date: 18-20 July 2012
Hotel Solstrand
Solstrandveien 200, Postboks 54,
5201 Os, Norway
Modernism, Christianity, and Apocalypse
A conference organised by the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Bergen, Norway; funded by the Bergen Research Foundation through the ‘Modernism and Christianity’ research project.
Professor Chris Ackerley – The Nordic vision of Malcolm Lowry’s In Ballast to the White Sea Malcolm Lowry’s re-discovered novel, In Ballast to the White Sea, is set in the 1930s and depicts its central character as caught between a vision of Cambridge Socialism (Russia) and a Nordic vision (Norway); but the latter is complicated by the Nazi appropriation of the Aryan ideal and the Axis desire to create a sphere of influence throughout the Baltic countries. This political theme is complemented and mediated by the literary one: Lowry’s deliberate adoption of Nordic themes and allusions, most notably from Nordahl Grieg, The Ship Sails On and Johannes Jensen, The Long Journey, but many others as well. These constitute a dialogue between Grieg’s socialism, Jensen’s advocacy of a Nordic vision, and Lowry’s attraction to both, despite their incompatibility; an attraction that led him to a complex understanding (often acute, sometimes incongruous) of the political climate as he perceived it to be in Norway, and with reference to himself.
Chris Ackerley is Professor and previous Head of English at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. His speciality is annotation, particularly of the work of Samuel Beckett and Malcolm Lowry, He has two full-length annotations of Beckett’s Murphy and Watt (republished Edinburgh U P, 2010), and with Stan Gontarski is author of the Grove Press and Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett (2004, 2006). He is currently working on a study of Samuel Beckett and Science, and annotating three texts in the EMiC (Editing Manuscripts in Canada) project, one of which is Lowry’s recently re-discovered novel, In Ballast to the White Sea.
The Voyage That Never Ends
Malcolm Lowry’s heavily annotated working typescript of his most complete articulation of his life’s work: his plan for an epic that would rival in scope the great literary undertakings of the 20th century of Proust, Joyce, and Pound. It is the immediate precursor – with substantial variations – to a foundational document of Lowry scholarship housed in the Lowry Archive at University of British Columbia. Read more here
Luis López Loza Serie Ilustraciones a Poemas de Malcolm Lowry
Luis López Loza was born in Mexico City in 1939. He studied in the “Esmeralda” School of Painting and Sculpture, in the Center of Applied Arts, both in Mexico, and the Pratt Graphic Art Center in New York. In 1966 he received Honorary Mention in Casa de las Américas, in Havana, Cuba, and in 1969 in the Triennial of Woodcut in Modena, Italy. In 1973 he received the Biennial of Printmaking Award in Tokyo, Japan, and the National Printmaking Award in Mexico in 1977. In 1975 he was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Read more
Mario Canali Under The Volcano
Born in Milan, Mario Canali began his artistic career in 1975, devoting the first ten years of his career to painting. Shortly thereafter he turned his attention to electronic and digital art and is considered one of the pioneers of that art form. Second to John Lasseter at Ars Electronica in Linz for two consecutive years and winner of numerous awards at the national level (Nastro d’Argento, Rome) as well as internationally (Imagina, Monte Carlo) in the field of computer graphics and 3D animation, Mario Canali pioneered immersive virtual reality (Satori, 1992) and interactive installations, using body parameters to probe people’s emotional states. Canali’s studies and research in digital media, new paradigms of science, psychology and neurology earned him teaching credentials at Accademia di Brera in Milan "Virtual Reality and Paradigms of Complexity” and NABA Academy of Arts and Design in Milan “Emotional Scenes and Cognitive Environments”. After twenty years of experience with new media, Canali returns to painting to create new and exciting spaces for expression, communication and research. Read more
Young Fresh Fellows 'Back Room of the Bar.’
The band The Young Fresh Fellows recorded a song inspired by Lowry’s Under The Volcano called 'Back Room of the Bar.’
Canadian Poetry Magazine Volume II Numbers 1 and 2
These two magazines both contain poems by Malcolm Lowry. Number 1 has 'Sestina in a Cantina'. Number 2 has 'Old Freighter in an Old Port', 'Port Moody', and 'Indian Arm.'
Thanks to James Reynolds
'Infinitas Gracias'
'Repellent,' the Consul said, isn't Guanajuato the place they bury everyone standing up?" Under The Volcano
If you missed the recent Wellcome Foundation exhibition on Mexican Miracle Paintings then yu get a book of postcards of some of the exhibits from here.
Mexican votives are small paintings, usually executed on tin roof tiles or small plaques, depicting the moment of personal humility when an individual asks a saint for help and is delivered from disaster and sometimes death. 'Infinitas Gracias' will feature over 100 votive paintings drawn from five collections held by museums in and around Mexico City and two sanctuaries located in mining communities in the Bajío region to the north: the city of Guanajuato and the distant mountain town of Real de Catorce. Together with images, news reports, photographs, devotional artefacts, film and interviews, the exhibition will illustrate the depth of the votive tradition in Mexico.
Usually commissioned from local artists by the petitioner, votive paintings tell immediate and intensely personal stories, from domestic dramas to revolutionary violence, through which a markedly human history of communities and their culture can be read. The votives displayed in 'Infinitas Gracias' date from the 18th century to the present day. Over this period, thousands of small paintings came to line the walls of Mexican churches as gestures of thanksgiving, replacing powerful doctrine-driven images of the saints with personal and direct pleas for help. The votives are intimate records of the tumultuous dramas of everyday life - lightning strikes, gunfights, motor accidents, ill-health and false imprisonment - in which saintly intervention was believed to have led to survival and reprieve.
'Infinitas Gracias' will explore the reaction of individuals at the moment of crisis in which their strength of faith comes into play. The profound influence of these vernacular paintings, and the artists and individuals who painted them, can be seen in the work of such figures as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, who were avid collectors. The contemporary legacy of the votive ritual will be present in the exhibition through a wall covered with modern-day offerings from one church in Guanajuato: a paper shower of letters, certificates, photographs, clothing and flowers, through which the tradition of votive offering continues today. The sanctuaries at Guanajuato and Real de Catorce remain centres of annual pilgrimage, attracting thousands of people to thank and celebrate their chosen saints.
Just the Worst of Times: Denis Johnson Goes Iambic
A teacher at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop once asked his student Denis Johnson what he’d been reading in his spare time. “I only ever read one book,” he responded, Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano. Slackers love Denis Johnson and his cast of degenerates, so this Spicoli-style answer feels appropriate in tone. It’s also spot-on in content, since Volcano anticipates the author’s central theme.
Read full article by Dan Duray on New York Observer
Garden of Evil 1954
I thought the title of this film had a certain ironic ring, thinking of Under The Volcano, given that it was supposed to have been filmed in the mountains around Cuernavaca according to some commentators! Log 24 Some sources state it was filmed in Uruapan west of Cuernavaca. Gary Cooper Scrapbook
Garden of Evil (1954) is a Western film about three somewhat disreputable 19th-century soldiers of fortune, played by Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, and Cameron Mitchell, who are hired by a woman, portrayed by Susan Hayward, to rescue her husband. The movie was directed by Henry Hathaway.
En route to California to prospect for gold, Hooker (Gary Cooper), Fiske (Richard Widmark), and Luke Daly (Cameron Mitchell) stop over in a tiny Mexican village. The three men and Vicente Madariaga (Victor Manuel Mendoza) are hired by a desperate Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) to rescue her husband John (Hugh Marlowe), who is trapped in a gold mine in hostile Indian territory.
During the harrowing journey, the party's already frayed nerves are aggravated when the men become attracted to the woman. The group then arrives at the mine site — called the "Garden of Evil" because the Indians regard it as the domain of evil spirits. They find an injured, but living John Fuller.
As they leave, they are pursued by Apaches. Eventually, only Hooker, Fiske and Leah are left alive. At a narrow point in the road, the two men draw cards to see who will stay behind to hold off the Indians while the other two ride to safety. Fiske "wins" and succeeds in killing or driving off the enemy. After seeing that Leah is safe, Hooker returns to talk with a dying Fiske, who urges him to settle down with Leah.
On another romantic front, Mitchell became infatuated with Hayward. However, Hayward, who was in the process of divorcing her husband, Jess Barker, was not interested in Mitchell. During a New Year's Eve celebration of cast and crew in nearby Cuernavaca, a slightly intoxicated Hayward leaned over to Mitchell and ran her fingernails down his cheek, drawing blood and forcing director Hathaway to delay filming until the facial wounds healed.
On another romantic front, Mitchell became infatuated with Hayward. However, Hayward, who was in the process of divorcing her husband, Jess Barker, was not interested in Mitchell. During a New Year's Eve celebration of cast and crew in nearby Cuernavaca, a slightly intoxicated Hayward leaned over to Mitchell and ran her fingernails down his cheek, drawing blood and forcing director Hathaway to delay filming until the facial wounds healed. Wikipedia
Under The Volcano Books, Mexico City
Under The Volcano Books
Cerrada Chiapas 40-C
Col. Roma Norte
Del. Cuauhtémoc
Distrito Federal
MEXICO 06700
http://underthevolcanobooks.com/
Mission
To establish: an embassy for the soul of the English-speaking world - its literature - in Mexico; an educational resource for Chilangos learning English and eager to explore the artistic reach of the language; a foundation for an international literary magazine, Mexico Review, appearing in 2013; a web-free, Kindle-less island of analog time in the digital sea; a community center for Commonwealth and American expatriates in the most exciting, vibrant and accessible city on Earth; an institution that will pay tribute to that city's magnificence with the best our native culture has to offer.
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
François Righi Under The Volcano Volume 4 2009
François Righi Under The Volcano Volume 4 2009 |
Read more on Arts Libris
Peter Bies Into the West
“(…) he dreamed a moment of battles his soul survived to wander there.” Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
this is how it works:
soft plastic phantoms of the past
assembling proleptic flashes of sub-poetry
& retrograde evidence & representations
of my edited emotional history:
your languid shape
backlit against the flat sky
your pregnant drawl
shallow & corporate
in scientific locution/
my memory of you
jells into fiction
blotting out over
& beyond the live flesh
& the cold shadow
of your hands
See more on ARTDOXA
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Lowry Lounge 27th October 2012
This year's Lowry Lounge will be longer than last year with more contributors.
Details below:
The 2012 Lowry Lounge
11.00am - 6.00pm
Saturday 27th October 2012
The Bluecoat
School Lane
Liverpool L1 3BX
The Bluecoat's annual celebration of Wirral-born writer Malcolm Lowry (Under The Volcano) comprises a pyschogeographical walking tour of Liverpool with artist Colin Dilnot (11am - 1pm) and afternoon at the Bluecoat (2-6pm), including the launch of The Firminist No. 3, an occasional journal of all things Lowry, performances, talks and music.
Tickets: Tour £5 (places limited, so book early)/ Lowry Lounge £3/Combined Ticket £6
Contact The Bluecoat 0151 702 5324 or www.thebluecoat.org.uk
Hope to see you there!
Gutted Arcades of the Past Update
My Gutted Arcades of the Past project continues to grow - I have passed the 300 posts mark with a huge amount of work still to be posted.
I am still making new discoveries about Malc's life and work which mean continual updates to Gutted Arcades. My latest discovery is the exact route Lowry took on his 1927 voyage to the Far East on board the Blue Funnel ship Pyrrhus. This has provided many clues to references in Malc's work especially in Ultramarine. I have now completed several posts on the ports he visited in 1927 - the most recent being on Kobe and Keelung:
http://guttedarcades.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/kobe-japan.html
http://guttedarcades.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/keelung.html
Please drop over!!
Under The Volcano @ The Railway, Tithebarn Street , Liverpool 20/8/12
Literature in Pubs is a community book group searching for literary stimulation in the relaxing atmosphere of a cosy pub. The next meeting will featuring Malc's Under The Volcano:
6.00-8.00pm
Monday 20th August 2012
The Railway
Tithebarn Street
Liverpool L2 2DT
Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. His debilitating malaise is drinking, an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul's life-- the Day of the Dead, 1938-- his wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse.
She is determined to rescue Firmin and their failing marriage, but her mission is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.
"Under the Volcano" remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition, and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.
Thanks to Gill Dong for letting me know about the night.
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
The Belle of New York
I recently posted about Lowry attending a performance in Torquay in 1933 of this musical comedy on Gutted Arcades of the Past.
Below is a synopsis of the The Belle of New York:
Act 1
Ichabod Bronson is a wealthy hypocrite who preaches virtue to the young, so as to leave more scope for dissipation among the old. His son, Harry, is a feather-brained spendthrift, engaged to Cora Angelique, the Queen of Comic Opera. After a riotous stag night, Harry ends up with Fifi, the daughter of Fricot the confectioner. Ichabod discovers them together and disinherits Harry. Deserted by all but Fifi, Harry wanders into Chinatown in New York, where his fickle fancy is taken by a young Salvation Army woman, Violet Gray. She finds her vocation difficult because, though she tries to persuade men to follow her blameless ways, they persist in following her blameless figure. Ichabod discovers that Violet is the daughter of an old friend and announces his intention to leave his huge fortune to her.
Act 2
Harry has taken a job as a salesman in a candy store on Broadway. Violet and her Salvationist colleagues enter the shop, all decked out in short skirts. She knows that Harry is engaged to Cora and wants the couple to be happy. She tells Harry that she is going to change Ichabod's mind about leaving his money to her. On the beach at Narragansett Casino, she sings a risqué French song, scandalising an audience including Ichabod. The effort of performing the song causes her to faint. Matters are further complicated by the persistent attempts of a German lunatic to kill people, particularly Ichabod, and by the quarrels of Portuguese twins, who keep trying to fight duels with one another. Harry has indeed been much influenced by Violet's virtue and has fallen for her. He explains to his father why Violet has behaved so uncharacteristically, and Ichabod forgives him his earlier sins on condition that he marries Violet, which he is now happy to do.
In a letter to Jan Gabrial in the Summer of 1933, Lowry said he went to see the musical comedy because of the title - likening Jan to the belle of New York - where she was from. However, the plot had funny coincidental undertones to Lowry's life a the time - the idea mooted by Lowry later that his father was a hypocrite - dying of cirrhosis of the liver (untrue); Arthur Lowry may have thought Malc a spendthrift having just smashed up his car while staying in Torquay, the idea of disinheritance because of his behaviour haunted Lowry, a month before he had "hidden" Jan from his father when his father paid him a visit in Portmeirion though the happening end of the musical comedy didn't transpire for Lowry and Jan.
Here is a selection of songs from the musical comedy:
Ring O' Bells, West Kirby, Wirral
I have just posted about Lowry's connection to the pub on Gutted Arcades of the Past. In doing research for the post I came across a 1936 advert:
This hotel has proved a port of call and pleasant resting place for such national characters as the poets SHELLEY and KEATS, also the artist TURNER when painting his pictures of sunsets on the River Dee. It was the source for that famous song "SIMON THE CELLARER", which was composed here.
The advert made me smile as it could have been written by Malc at his mischievous best with his penchant for tall stories - perhaps he was the source for the unknowing landlord?
The song by John Liptrot Hatton, 'Simon the Cellarer' was not written in the pub but more than likely it was about the former Ring O' Bells in Bidston. Though I did think you could add it to the Malc playlist for the next Lowry Lounge!
Here are the words:
Old Simon the cellarer keeps a rare store,
Of Malmsey and Malvoisie
And Cyprus, and who can say how many more!
For a chary old soul is he,
A chary old soul is he.
Of Sack and Canary he never doth fail,
And all the year round there is brewing of ale,
Yet he never aileth, he quaintly doth say,
While he keeps to his sober six flagons a day.
But ho! ho! ho! his nose doth shew
How oft the black Jack to his lips doth go.
But ho! ho! ho! his nose doth shew
How oft the black Jack to his lips doth go.
Dame Margery sits in her own still-room,
And a matron sage is she,
From thence oft at Curfew is wafted a fume;
She says it is Rosemary,
She says it is Rosemary.
But there's a small curboard behind the back stair,
And the maids say they often see Margery there -
Now Margery says that she grows very old,
And must take a something to keep out the cold!
But ho! ho! ho! old Simon doth know,
Where many a flask of his best doth go.
But ho! ho! ho! old Simon doth know,
Where many a flask of his best doth go.
Old Simon reclines in his high-back'd chair,
And talks about taking a wife;
And Margery often is heard to declare
That she ought to be settled in life,
She ought to be settled in life.
But Margery has (so the maids say) a tongue,
And she's not very handsome, and not very young:
So somehow it ends with a shake of the head,
And Simon he brews him a tankard instead.
While ho! ho! ho! he will chuckle and crow,
What! Marry old Margery? no, no, no!
While ho! ho! ho! He will chuckle and crow,
What! Marry old Margery? no, no, no!
The references to Malmsey would resonate with Lowry fans - who would recall how Malc stated that he was named Clarence after Shakespeare's duke who died head-down in a malmsey butt; Rosemary - the name of the elephant in the short story 'Elephant and Colosseum' and of course Margery - his second wife.
Here is the song performed by Peter Dawson:
Saturday, 7 July 2012
Gutted Arcades of The Past Update
I may have been neglecting Malc on my 19th Hole Blog but I have been busy over on my Gutted Arcades of The Past blog unravelling Malc's early work and life.
I have passed the 200 posts mark on Gutted Arcades of The Past with plenty more to come. Recent posts have included a breakdown of Malc's references to his time in France in 1926 and 1933/34 plus details of those trips; a further breakdown of his 1931 trip to Norway and the beginnings of my research into the many literary allusions in Ultramarine.
I have passed the 200 posts mark on Gutted Arcades of The Past with plenty more to come. Recent posts have included a breakdown of Malc's references to his time in France in 1926 and 1933/34 plus details of those trips; a further breakdown of his 1931 trip to Norway and the beginnings of my research into the many literary allusions in Ultramarine.
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Malcolm Lowry in Norway 1931: An Illustrated Talk 17/5/2012
As part of a week of events at my local library to celebrate Wirral's links to Norway, I will be giving an illustrated talk on Malc's 1931 trip to Norway.
Here are the details:
Malcolm Lowry in Norway 1931: An Illustrated Talk
6.30-7.30pm
May 17th 2012
Wallasey Central Library
Earlston Road
Wallasey
Wirral CH45 5DX
Here are the details:
Malcolm Lowry in Norway 1931: An Illustrated Talk
6.30-7.30pm
May 17th 2012
Wallasey Central Library
Earlston Road
Wallasey
Wirral CH45 5DX
Friday, 4 May 2012
Gutted Arcades of the Past
Gutted Arcades of the Past is an on-going project that I have been working on since 2009.
The project is an attempt to create an encyclopaedia of Malcolm Lowry’s early life and work from 1909 to 1934. The cut off date of 1934 was chosen as a symbolic one reflecting him turning his back on Europe for the New World leaving Southampton on 28th July 1934 for New York aboard the Aquitania.
I have now decided to start sharing my work in the form of a blog to sit alongside my main Lowry blog Malcolm Lowry @ The Nineteenth Hole.
Gutted Arcades of the Past will evolve as my research continues but the biggest impact in the future for the project is what will be revealed on publication of Lowry’s re-discovered manuscript of his novel In Ballast to the White Sea
The project is an attempt to create an encyclopaedia of Malcolm Lowry’s early life and work from 1909 to 1934. The cut off date of 1934 was chosen as a symbolic one reflecting him turning his back on Europe for the New World leaving Southampton on 28th July 1934 for New York aboard the Aquitania.
I have now decided to start sharing my work in the form of a blog to sit alongside my main Lowry blog Malcolm Lowry @ The Nineteenth Hole.
Gutted Arcades of the Past will evolve as my research continues but the biggest impact in the future for the project is what will be revealed on publication of Lowry’s re-discovered manuscript of his novel In Ballast to the White Sea
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
No se puede vivir sin amar
I came across this piece of music:
No se puede vivir sin amar
The person who posted the piece describes it as follows:
Semi-improvised, based on bits I played while trying to come up with something better to enter. Title is taken from Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry.
The Firminist 2
Apologies to regular readers of 19th Hole for my absence over the last few months. This is due mainly to my involvement in several other projects. I intend to get back on track with all things Malc over the next couple of weeks.
The second edition of the Firminist hit the streets in late 2011. The magazine featured the following:
Michael Romer: Malcolm Lowry's Influence on Orcadian Filmmaker Margaret Tait
Colin Dilnot: Postcards from Malc
Julia Courtney: Einstein Asks the Time in Malcolm Lowry's Under The Volcano
Sherrill Grace Remembering David Markson (1927-2010)
Plus the editorial and crossword.
You can obtain copies from the edtitor Mark Goodall:
m.goodall@bradford.ac.uk
Big thanks to Mark, Helen Tookey, Bryan Biggs, Jonny Biggs and Rob carter for another excellent issue!
Update to Chris Ackerley's Under The Volcano Website
Chris's excellent Hypertextual Companion to Under the Volcano was upgraded as follows in late 2011:
The site, in particular Chapter I, was substantially revised and expanded. Further expansions are planned, incorporating Chris Ackerley's ongoing annotations of Lowry's other works and David Large's doctoral research on Lowry.
Chris also states:
The next phase for the site is set to coincide with the ongoing digitalisation of the UBC Special Collection archives. We plan to rewrite entries in light of the discoveries and comments of the EMiC Project, which includes new editions of "Swinging the Maelstrom", In Ballast to the White Sea and the 1940 Volcano.
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