Weird Tales for Winter & things that go Mugwump in the night

Weird Tales for Winter

airing Jan 25 - Feb 1 2010
every night at midnight


(tones by the time attendant)

WTFW newsletter #1

WTFW newsletter #2

'Joe Sent Me' on Collin Kelley's Best of the Decade Top Ten

I'm deeply & immensely honored to be included in Collin Kelley's top 10 best of the decade list. Collin's aesthetic is reflected in his album choices: a heartbeat of Rock 'n Roll & the pulse of Poetry ...

The List:

Aerial - Kate Bush (2005) An epic double album 12 years in the making and one of the best albums ever. Combining electronica, rock, flamenco, classical and sampled bird sounds, it's a rich, multi-layered, emotional work. Worth the wait and then some.

The Fame/The Fame Monster - Lady Gaga (2008/09) Proving that an American artist still knows how to make hooky, dance music.

Vespertine - Bjork (2001) Dreamy, sampled soundscapes and some of her best songs - "Pagan Poetry," "Unison" and "It's in Our Hands" -- are all here.

Deep Cuts - The Knife (2003) Swedish brother and sister duo Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer's brilliant collection of electropop, including one of the best songs of the decade, "Pass This On."

Joe Sent Me - Vanessa Daou (2008) Jazz, pop, and poetry in this smokey, sexy album.

Read the full list on Collin's Blog

The Chillcast with Anji Bee: Chillcast Top 20 Podsafe Tracks of 2009

I'm honored to be on Anji Bee's to 20 list for 2009. Anji Bee's Chillcast is a must for those whispered nights when candles burn, phones are off & grooves are slow -

XOV

Vanessa Daou: 'Love Among the Shadowed Things', new music & poetry for 'Weird Tales for Winter', a collective radio series on Resonance 104.4 FM, UK

Vanessa Daou: Love Among the Shadowed Things

Coming soon: New poetry, sound & music for 'Weird Tales for Winter', a collective radio series curated by Jonny Mugwump for his always mind altering Exotic Pylon radio show on Resonance 104.4 FM

Broadcast January 31st 2010
Total playing time 30 minutes

Other featured artists contributing to the "hauntological dream project":

Moon Wiring Club
West Norwood Cassette Library and Matthew de Abaitua
Dolly Dolly
Belbury Poly and Lawrence Norfolk
Radio Joy
Mordant Music
John Foxx

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Collin Kelley & The Importance of Being Venus

To give voice, to be the voice, to have a voice: Collin Kelley's Conquering Venus has less to do with what happens and everything to do with what the characters say and the consequences of their words as they are set into motion.

Words are things, and while it is possible to forget how much they matter & become inured to their potency as a result of the perpetual influx of our streaming Tweets and feeds, every once in a while, we read a poem or book, hear a voice reciting verse or prose, and we are reminded of the potency of words and are left to reflect on the invisible residue of their meaning.

Paris and The Louvre come alive in CV, providing the scenic as well as symbolic backdrop for what is a beautifully written and absolutely riveting story about Love, Desire, and the conflicts that ensue as a consequence of conflicting desires.

A central theme that runs through the novel is the statue of the armless Venus de Milo; it is both subject of various key scenes and object of the characters' commingled desires. The statue's armlessness projects a sense of helplessness, one that has been triggered by a violent breaking, yet, Venus' beauty and sensuality remain intact.

We are left to wonder; it it Venus herself who, in being so admired and defiant, is doing the conquering? How does conquering Venus play into our understanding of the fictions we create about ourselves and the tenacious objects of our own desires? Perhaps part of this conquering involves re-constructing one's unique reality into a mythical picture that projects one's own fictive life, not unlike the aptly imagined twin-limbed Venus de Milo on the cover of Conquering Venus.