Decemberists' 'The Crane Wife' 10th Anniversary Special Re-release

Can you believe it's been ten years since The Decemberists released their album, based on Japanese fairy tale The Crane Wife? There's a whole new special re-issue box-set for enthusiasts being released on December 9th, 2016, and for Decemberist fans, sounds like it's more than worth adding to your collection.

For those wondering what The Crane Wife album, and upcoming box set, has to do with the fairy tale, here's a couple of excerpts from a long interview with Pitchfork, explaining the influence of the story, the importance of stories and narrative and how it was the central thread for this definitive album, which many critics hail as being The Decemberists best work:

Pitchfork: Can you amplify the symbolism of the crane wife? Not the album, but the actual story. 

CM: It's a story about a peasant living in, I assume, rural Japan, it being a Japanese folk tale. He finds a wounded crane on the road as he's walking one night. It has an arrow in its wing, and he pulls out the arrow and revives the crane. A couple of days later this mysterious woman shows up at his door and he brings her in. Eventually, they fall in love and are married. Although they're poor-- she's a seamstress, a weaver-- she suggests that she can make this cloth that he could sell and make money. But the one condition is that when she's weaving he can't look into the room at her weaving. This goes on for awhile, until eventually the peasant's curiosity gets the best of him and he looks in. It turns out that the woman is a crane, and she's pulling feathers from her wings and putting them into the cloth, which is what makes it so beautiful and soft. Apparently, having looked in at her breaks the spell and she turns permanently back into a crane and flies away. 

Pitchfork: Wow. That's almost identical to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, isn't it? Where he's leading her out of Hades and he's not allowed to look back, and finally his doubt and curiosity get the best of him, and he looks, and she fades away forever. It's the same narrative arc unfurling in a different culture. 

CM: Yeah, and having read the crane wife story, it's tough to pull a lesson out of it. It has something to do with greed, or curiosity, but why his looking in at her breaks the spell is a little ambiguous. The thing that I could tie it to was the Greek myth. It's interesting how they can be divided by centuries and continents, and these stories still manage to say these same things. It just shows you the universality of certain stories. 

Pitchfork: You seem as interested in the basic forms of storytelling, the way narrative elements play out toward an inevitable denouement, as you are the stories and characters themselves. Do you think the two constructs-- stories and how they're told-- can even be bifurcated that way, or are they inextricable?
CM: As important as it is, in novels or short stories, to have well-developed characters, it's just as important to abide by a strong narrative arc, where you have development and crisis and conflict and resolution. I think it's just another universality, that people like to have their stories given to them that way. So yes, the way the story is told is really important, because I think the story then dictates the lives of the characters. 

Pitchfork: Are you interested in classical tale cycles as well, the tales-within-tales thing? I'm thinking of things like Boccaccio's Decameron and the 1001 Arabian Nights. It seems to have a lot of utility for records like The Crane Wife, being filled with trapdoors that plunge you deeper and deeper into the story.
CM: Yeah, I read that stuff in school; I don't know if I've gone back to it. But I think it's a nice literary concept. 

Pitchfork: The Crane Wife also features a reappearance of what seems to be one of your favorite themes-- the doomed, star-crossed lovers divided by class and fate, who wind up horribly. What is it you find so resonant about this very Shakespearean concept? 

CM: I don't know, it's just a universal idea that's lasted over time. It's an archetypal storyline, so it means a lot; it carries a lot of baggage. You can draw a line through it to a hundred other stories. I've always been attracted to that sort of tragedy. 

Pitchfork: It seems that this is really where your interest lies-- these archetypes that are timeless and cut across cultures, occurring in different formats with the same narrative arc. 

CM: And hopefully that's what makes it something people can relate to. Because it's programmed into our heads to relate to these stories in certain ways.

Music folk will be interested in the whole article, which you can find HERE.

Here are the special 10th anniversary box-set details:

The Decemberists will reissue their fourth album, and major label debut, The Crane Wife, as a five-disc vinyl set packed with B-sides and demos, and featuring essays from Hamilton mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda and Rolling Stone's David Fricke....The set will collect the original 2006 album on two LPs, while the other three discs will feature B-sides, bonus tracks, unreleased outtakes, alternative versions and frontman Colin Meloy's solo acoustic demos. Among 
those demos is a version of the three-part "The Crane Wife" together as a single song in its original sequence.An accompanying 20-page booklet will feature Miranda's essay alongside new liner notes from Fricke. The collection will also include a Blu-ray featuring the Decemberists' 2006 concert at Washington D.C.'s 9:30 Club, which was filmed for NPR's second-ever webcast and had previously not been given an official release. 

The Crane Wife 10th anniversary box set is available to pre-order now via the Decemberists' website. The band is also offering a special version pressed on marbled red vinyl, limited to 500 copies. 

You can read the extensive track list for the five albums HERE.

There's also a short trailer showcasing the new package and some of the artwork. Enjoy:

Northlore Series Open Call for Submissions!

We just recently posted a review by OUABlog reviewer, Leena Naidoo, HERE, for the first volume in this series, "Folklore" and now an exciting opportunity from Nordland Publishing has arisen.

Here's the announcement from the official website:

Open Call for the Northlore Series 

  

We are pleased to announce the second open call of the series: Myth. 

We are looking for short stories between 3-8000 words and Poetry of any length.
This collection will contain the secret history of the Norse gods.
“Over a period of 400 years, Christianity came to the Scandinavians, sometimes at the point of a sword.  

Slowly it spread, until only small pockets of the old religion persisted. 

The gods of the North understood their time had come. They withdrew from the world, disappearing into the realm of myth. 

But they did not die. This is their story.” 

Three books, three themes, one vision: Northlore.

 

Before you submit your work, please be sure to follow the publication guidelines.

New (Beautiful!) Trailer for Gibran's "The Prophet" Released

If you haven't yet heard of the film, Gibran's "The Prophet" you really need to check it out. It's the passion project of Salma Hayek, who wanted to make a beautiful, poetic and family-accessible film, based on one of the most popular books of poetry around the world, ever published. Contrary to popular thought I grew up with, it's not a religious work at all, but a philosophical and poetic one.

Roger Allers, director of The Lion King is the (lead) director for the project but Hayek (who voices one of the characters as well) also brought together a number of award winning animators and directors from around the world to create special "chapters" or "mythic sequences" using different styles of art and animation, throughout the movie. On every level, this project has masters involved.

It's in the official selection for Cannes and is highly anticipated all round. It's more than a little unusual in that it doesn't fit neatly into a genre and although it's incredibly artistic, it's not an 'Arthouse' film, and though it has popular and mainstream filmmakers and talent involved, it's not mainstream either. Like poetry, it's been designed to speak differently to different people, to allow the audience to take away whatever they see in the film that resonates with them.

Here's a little more information:

(Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet is) the animated adaptation of the world-renowned volume of poetry, produced by Salma Hayek and directed by Roger Allers (The Lion King), with animated sequences by a panoply of animation luminaries including Tomm Moore (Song of the Sea), Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues), and Bill Plympton (Cheatin’). The movie will be released in theaters on August 7, 2015.

SYNOPSIS 

The Prophet, by celebrated Lebanese author Kahlil Gibran, is among the most popular volumes of poetry ever written, selling over 100 million copies in forty languages since its publication in 1923. Gibran’s timeless verses have been given enchanting new form in this painterly cinematic adventure about freedom and the power of human expression. 

This breathtaking animated feature, produced and spearheaded by Salma Hayek, was an official selection at Cannes and made its North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival. Written and directed by Roger Allers (The Lion King), the film intersperses Gibran’s elegant poetry within stunning animated sequences by filmmakers Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea), Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues), Bill Plympton (Guide Dog), and a host of award-winning animators from around the world.

Set in a Mediterranean sea-side village, Kamila (Salma Hayek) cleans house for exiled artist and poet Mustafa (Liam Neeson), but the more difficult job is keeping her free-spirited young daughter, Almitra, (Quvenzhané Wallis) out of trouble. The three embark on a journey meant to end with Mustafa’s return home – but first they must evade the authorities who fear that the truth in his words will incite rebellion. Featuring music from Damien Rice, Glen Hansard and Yo-Yo Ma.

And here is the beautiful trailer:

You may be wondering why this I'm highlighting it on a fairy tale blog. Well, firstly, it's mythic and anything considered mythic across various nations should be in the 'general knowledge backpack' of fairy tale folk. Being poetry, wisdom and philosophy as well as using mythic imagery, you'll find it overlaps a lot with the issues and themes you find in fairy tales and how people view and interpret tales in pop culture. 

There's a fascinating interview with Salma Hayek and why she chose this project and her approach to storytelling and film HERE (the first 15 minutes are the most relevant to the project, though she does get into production details around the 20 minute mark again - fascinating for all filmmakers and animation fans out there).

Here are the online links for The Prophet:

Official website

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Instagram

"Glass Cages" - Lisa Stock Takes An Adventurous Look at Beauty & the Beast

"Glass Cages" by Lisa Stock
InBytheEye

Mythic filmmaker, Lisa Stock, of InByTheEye, just released a lovely new image, once again taking us on a mythic journey. (I strongly recommend seeing it large HERE, where it's far more luminous!) This one, though, isn't from the realm of the mystical and otherwordly but is far more at home in a cityscape (at least, the concept is, even if the players themselves are not..).

Although not driven to creation by the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast, this easily falls into the category for contemplating that parallel, just as its inspiration, King Kong, has, since it first hit the silver screen.

Those fairy tale folk who love Beauty and the Beast will have seen King Kong discussed in the context of this fairy tale many times before, so I won't re-hash any of that. What I do want to draw your attention to, however, is how Lisa has framed her musings (literally!) on the connection between the two.

On her blog HERE, she discusses her image, the inspiration and the concept of adventure, not primarily (although it can include) the safari-type. She's talking about The Great Adventure: the grand quest of Life (to find one's own true form, true reason for being and all that means) and also of Love (in all it's forms).

From Lisa's blog:

[“King Kong” (1933)] ...opens with an Arabic proverb, “And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty. And it stayed its hand from killing. And from that day, it was as one dead.“

This is a story about one’s changing nature, and the impetus that causes it. In relation to Kong, they put that responsibility on Anne Darrow (“Twas Beauty killed the Beast”).  In relation to the other characters, it starts with the ship’s adventure, daring to go into the unknown and then having to deal with what you find.

It was beauty killed the beast: Esther Hannaford in King Kong (stage show - Australia 2013)

The lovely thing about Kong and Anne's story in relation to the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale is that there are so many different ways to look at it. Though the juxtaposition of their sizes (and their species) means a true happy ending (or any form of marriage) is not possible in this version, it does, by this distortion, bring into focus some of those issues which the fairy tale holds.*

In true mythic form, this talented filmmaker says it all in one image.

To read her whole post on creating Glass Cages, click HERE.

*Lisa's note, about dream-casting Andy Serkis, points out a missed opportunity that would have been perfect... You'll have to read what she says, to see what I mean.

Fearless Folkloric Foxes: Mining the Unexpected Mythic in (Assumedly) Ridiculous Pop Culture (& You Know What They Say About Assume...)

Norwegian folk art - and tricksters - have gone mainstream.

First of all: I did NOT EVER expect to give the source of this a second thought but it turns out, a ridiculous, bizarre, annoying and hugely successful viral internet music video has produced a stunning folkloric work that's unbelievably mythic. (If you've seen some of the the text and are thinking "whaaa...?", just keep reading and concentrate on the artwork.)

The source I'm talking about, if you're still in the dark on this one, is the bizarre/nonsense music video by Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis, "What Does the Fox Say?" (link takes you to the video). Turns out, even before the video went viral with its bear and squirrel costumes, that they had plans to produce a beautiful and mythic work of home grown folk art in children's book form, to be released in the wake of an "intentionally bad" song (their words). They even had an illustrator in mind, Svein Nyhus, a very famous Norwegian author and illustrator, and approached him about the project but he was very busy with other priority deadlines and the timing just didn't appear to be good.


While the song was supposed to be a quick way to draw annoying, but also amusing, attention to the pair and their talk show, what they didn't count on was just how popular their "bad song" was going to get (well over 300 million YouTube hits to date), or just how many dollars from the viral success of their video produced, making for a hit on the song alone. To quote the duo: "It's just so stupid. But stupid dollars are the same as smart dollars." As the YouTube hits started stacking up, Nyhus (the illustrator) called them back and agreed to take on the task of illustrating the, er, "text".

And now they also have a gorgeous book, which is not only a #1 NYT best selling children's book but also sold out on its first day on Amazon.com. It's also been rumored as being under consideration for Children's Book of the Year (unconfirmed). The book is hardcover, 32 full color pages and only contain the lyrics - no other story, but then, that's where you get to write your own... ;)

You can read a full color PDF version right HERE. (Highly recommended - although, you'll likely want to go grab a print copy too. Just a heads-up.)

I'll admit I was completely taken by surprise by the beautiful (stunning!) folk art the book contains, making me look at this pop-culture "phenom-sense" with a whole new set of eyes. (I never could figure out if the song was supposed to be silly and whimsical or sneakily subversive. Perhaps it's both!) However I felt about the music video, I was immediately and irresistibly drawn to the book.

While the comedy duo clearly meant their music and video to be a ridiculous stunt, it would seem that  - at least initially - they unintentionally tapped into their mythic roots and translated them playfully for pop culture - no skin off their nose if it didn't take. But it did take, showing that people - MANY people - had a positive and playful gut resonant response to the video images, even they couldn't explain, which in turn proved the importance of playful nonsense. It's this very trickster-like mentality that is reaffirmed in the excellent illustrations. In fact the whole presentation of the book tends to bring the mythic aspect to the forefront - and it's blowing people away (in a good way!).

I admit to having some shame now, for dismissing something so ridiculous, even though, somehow, it appeared to be resonating with hundreds of millions of people; and that's without/before the filter of the artwork, even if it was only on a playful level. Although I consider myself more open to pop culture and children's odd obsessions and trends than many, I have to wonder: did I dismiss this disguised trickster and the power of nonsense due to some unrealized snobbery (and ass-umption) on my part?! It certainly appears that way, and I almost missed out on something amazing as a result. Shame on me! I have some serious reassessing to do...

That said, I still can't handle repeat views of the video. The book, however, has me wanting to put the pages on display.

Someone else made a different connection with the book as well. Though my own revelation took me down forests paths of fox myth-masks and trickster stories, this person stumbled on a darker side to the images which I found fascinating. Here's the comment the person who uploaded this video (book images to a very different soundtrack) added:

DISCLAIMER: THIS VIDEO NOT INTENDED TO BE LISTENED TO BY CHILDREN - I had discovered that "The Fox" by Ylvis was so mainstream that a children's book was to be made featuring the lyrics of the hit song. Upon viewing the illustrations I was reminded of something eerie... something not native to Earth. If you're familiar with John Carpenter's "The Thing", just look at the illustrations and compare the Fox with the alien.(Basically I was almost passed out one night while on a website chatting with people when I saw this book while "The Thing" theme happened to be playing. Needless to say, it creeped the hell out of me. Crazy Swedes.)

Have any of you been treasuring this book on your shelves, secretly worried that you'll be outed? You can breathe a sigh of relief now.
This book is "mythic approved".

Additional sources: HERE, HERE & HERE