From Y to Z and never again

 

Got featured in "copywriting experts share their personal website tips" piece on Boxmode

 

Sometimes I get the chance to talk about the thing I do for the living - marketing. This time - I shared my thoughts on showcasing freelance copywriter's value proposition via personal website. 

***

The link: https://blog.boxmode.com/copywriting-experts-share-their-personal-website-tips/

***

“Focus on the value you can deliver.”

Search Engine Optimization is tough for freelance copywriters. The competition is too tough. Because of that, it is better to focus on the showcase pieces and do them as if you were commissioned (in case if you don’t have real texts). Proper SEO on such pieces will certainly attract some SERP attention and, subsequently, a potential lead.

Keep navigation easy to follow, especially on the portfolio. Outline the categories with topics and themes to be instantly understandable.

When it comes to landing pages, you should focus less on hardcore SEO keyword onslaught, but rather on explaining the value you can deliver and how you can solve the client’s pains.

Good photo from November 8th

Here's me caught off guard in the midst of not doing anything of particular urgency. Hairstyle brought to you by midday power nap. Photo by Julia Bilyk

Spotlight on Penguins in Chris Rice Cooper's Backstory of the Poem series

 

Great news! My poem Penguins got a spotlight in Chris Rice Cooper's long-running series Backstory of the Poem. 

I've been following this series for quite a while, so being featured in it is a great honor to me. The whole thing was a great opportunity to get back and reflect on an old piece and tell the story behind it. 

The link: https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2020/11/volodymyr-bilyks-penguins-is-219-in.html

Phantasm 1978 opening card: Anagramming the hell out of it

 

This is an opening card of 1978 horror cult classic Phantasm. It is a dictionary description of the word "phantasm". It also outlines major themes of the movie - a nice and simple way of setting the viewer's expectation on the right track.

And since there is a whole lot of text - why not do some anagrams with it?

That's what i did. Except it is not really a dictionary definition anymore - it is story of an impression warped in words.

L7/U2 Mashup album

Woke up from a dream in which the world was mesmerized by L7 and U2 mash-up album. It wasn't released because of copyright infringement and was instead leaked as a gesture of defiance.

The story goes - I was on the lunch break, drinking coffee. Everyone talked about this mash-up album and what it meant "for the culture" as if it was a big deal and not just another on the nose jest.

I remember someone saying "wargasm-bullet the blue sky comments on the commodification of war and peace and cognitive dissonance by weaving together dissonant elements of lyrics".

What makes me wonder is why i had this dream? I don't like U2 and I haven't listened to L7 for over a decade. I don't remember reading about plunderphonics lately - then what caused this stupid dream?

Introduction for Francesco Aprile's Code Poems

Good news! Post-Asemic Press had released Francesco Aprile's new book Code Poems. 

I was honored with an opportunity to write an introduction. Really good read if you dig inventive blend of writing and technology in unusual ways.

The link: https://www.amazon.it/dp/1734866217/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_2UgkFb0Q8HY3W

Here it is just in case.

***
Never underestimate the grind of the technological progress. You never know what is coming, but you will be crushed by sheer laws-of-physics-defying weight of the surprise. That's the thing you need to be aware of upon reading this book.

One of the benefits of writing poetry is that you don't really need to write what is generally considered to be poetry. In one way or another, you need to explore and apply aesthetic qualities and features of languages and use whatever tools that can help with accomplishing that task.

From this perspective - computer code is pretty much a perfect medium for making poetry. You need to do anything else and if everything comes together just right - poetry happens.
Just like a swiss army knife poetry can transform code in a way that moves deeply into territory of unknown.

Code poetry is a leap beyond. Paul N. Edwards wrote "computers are language machines", except their understanding of language is more practical. Code is utilitarian, functional, it has a definite purpose. It makes sense.

But when code is applied not as a functional element but as a thing-in-itself - it moves above and beyond. The result is something different, something that resembles regular code but is fundamentally different in its modus operandi.

In a way, code poetry creates a paradox - it is a poem written in programming language that operates beyond the programming language's function and designed for outsider's perspective. That kind of beyond is within the reaches of the human mind but you have accept it for what it is.

In the human mind, code poetry is like desolate remains of borderline unknown, misinterpreted or semi-studied civilizations. The only thing you are left with are speculations and ruminations.

As such, you need to go into this book open-minded. Let it do its job and make you surprised.

Six pieces on ComposTXT

Good news! Some of my placeholder redacted pieces were posted on ComposTXT. It was an experiment in destroying poems with the transformative typeface. 

There is a text, but it is lost and you can only perceive the lengths of the slabs.

https://compostxt.blogspot.com/2020/08/volodymyr-bilyk-six-pieces.html

Live at Three Rooms Press 2020 Virtual DADA Festival

Ceci n'est pas Volodymyr sitting at his desk as usual. This is Bil Sabab performing live at Three Rooms Press 2020 Virtual DADA Festival. Captured in-between reading poems in a language no one else can understand with his blistering blazing baritone croon. As photographed by Julia Bilyk. Thanks to Peter Carlaftes and Kat Georges.

You can watch the video here: 

 

Three pieces in Datura #9

More Great news! A trio of #DetournementCrusade pieces founds its way into a new issue of Datura magazine. THX 2 Walter Ruhlmann. 

You can see the magazine right here - my works are on pages 32-33-34 https://issuu.com/mgversion2/docs/issue_9_10_20

New version of an old poem on Mad Swirl

Great news! I'm back on Mad Swirl with a good old poem based on a conversation based on a dare to get weirder. The story got even weirder when i translated the poem into english. it became a ghost of another world.
{ AN } Eel ( Neal D. Retke ) did a recording of one of the versions of this piece years. 

http://madswirl.com/poetry/2020/10/been-talking/

Noncewords as brandnames are nothing new. But hey, this one is really good dont you think? 

The trick is that it looks like the word "chocoboom". But it is not, because it is written in ukrainian using ukrainian letters that look like english letters. 

It actually reads "сносовоом" aka "snosovoom". I really the way this word sounds - it is like a spell that sucks you into that haunting state where everything is still and you understand the connections between the things.

Three works in Traversa/Nerini project

 

Great news! Back in 2012 I did a series of typographic collages built around female figures. The idea was to blend dada overload collage with pulp aesthetics. It was intentionally sleazy and nonsensical.

Now several of these pieces were posted on Romeo Traversa and Rebecca Nerini project Send Me Nudes Letters. Thanks for the opportunity to revisit these works. 

 

You can see the works here: https://www.sendmenudeletters.com/volodymyr-bilyk

 

New Track: Bil Sabab / Batacat - Paradiss/Nevidome

Meanwhile, Andr Batonchik and I did a little song together. The music is by yours truly while the lyrics are by The Great Batacat.

The composition started back in 2013 when we were working on an album together. Various circumstances prevented us from moving forward then, but the idea persisted and we were slowly but surely solidifying the vision and now it is finally getting released. 

This composition is the first glimpse.

batacat(aka störpunkt) · PARADISS/НЕВІДОМО Bil Sabab&batacat

Sex Pistols – 1977 US “Never Mind the Bollocks” Cartoon Promo Poster

Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bollocks had a cartoon promo poster made by Warner Bros' Records. It is a quick and snarky recount of their history. 

Cool bit of history. 

Heard a few thoughts on Republica's Ready to Go

 

Someone outside is listening to a playlist of numerous versions of Republica' Ready to Go. 

That person also heavily comments everything, so the only times you can hear the music is when the chorus kicks in. That dude is listening to it as if it is hallowed. 

Here's what I have found out from the comments:

- the original version sounds as if KLF decided to seduce Toni Basil with the prospect of collaborating with Sparks during their wilderness years. Because it is unknowable. 

- The song's arrangement is at dissonance with its genre and that's why it sounds special.

- Sometimes he thinks that the american mix sounds like The Smiths if they gave the drummer some and embraced madchester. But that's a fleeting feeling. 

- Usually he thinks the compression is too overwhelming, but that might be because of the emotional impact the song has.

- also, the american mix is the better one because house grooves and rock guitars have that particular effervescent kink that generates the indelibility of the groove by doing double exposure and deepening the sonic texture, so that it feels more propulsive. 

Also - I'm very tired.

Kiss Series at Utsanga.it

Great news! There is a new utsanga.it issue in town, and there is one new piece of mine in it.
 

The series is called Kiss, and it is an erasure piece that processes numerous screenplays of classic melodramas into abstract glimpses of situations. 

I want to thank Francesco Aprile for including it. 

https://www.utsanga.it/bilyk-kiss-series/

New works at The New Post-Literate

Giving straight lines some notoriety. in all its grimy glory on
Asemic Writing: The New Post-Literate blog. THX2@Michael Jacobson.

https://thenewpostliterate.blogspot.com/2020/09/hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-by-volodymyr-bilyk.html

Neal Retke performs my poem "THE TURTLES - BUZZSAW"

Great news! Neal D Retke recorded his performance of my "THE TURTLES - BUZZSAW" poem. And what a piece that is - disorienting sound collage that circles around and slaps back.

The poem was inspired by the aforementioned piece by The Turtles. Here's how it happened: I've heard the song and thought "Well, I can do something like that".

However, the inspiration went awry very soon and I switched to Ukrainian to get it done. The resulting text was Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft kind of doo-wop. It had that verbose elegance you only get when hacking Ukrainian language.

The text was then backward translated into English and it became that Daliesque nightmare jagged jade jam. The text is forced into spontaneity - it expresses itself as it goes with no deliberation.

New works in ABC Avantgarde Boot Camp

Great news! I've got featured on ABC Avantgarde Boot Camp with a selection of cyberpunk poems.

The whole thing is an exploration of sensory overload, information oversaturation and attempts to make sense of it.

I want to thank Sylvia Egger for making it possible. You're doing a great job.

The link: https://abc.perspektive.at/bil-sabab-phantom-pains/

Detournement Crusade exhibited in Jekabpils

Great news! Several of my #DetournementCrusade pieces were shown at the open-air exhibition in Jekabpils.

Many thanks to Raimonds Vindulis for making it happen.

Kodifikaciju Maksla Part Deux

Back in March Gundega Strautmane organized in exhibition of text codification in Liepaja. Recently the exhibition traveled to Lūznava manor. The exhibition opened on July 17th and will be there until August 17th.

Here are some photos of my stuff. Courtesy of Dagnija Bernāne.

Stephen Berkman - Woman Hand-Knitting a Condom

This is a photography of a woman hand-knitting a condom. Ok. If you wonder whether it is practical or not - try not to think too hard about it. The dating is presumably late 19th century. People loved to photograph stupid things then.

The photo was made by Stephen Berkman for his book Predicting the Past—Zohar Studios: The Lost Years. It is a collection of stylized photographs that tells the story and shows the ouevre of Zohar Studios. The story goes - its founder Shimmel Zohar immigrated to United States in the 1850s and opened his photo studio on Lower East Side. He intended to capture the gist of the time he lived in. The studio was popular among the locals and managed to capture the weirder side of its clients.

It is a simple yet effective premise to showcase some inventive retrophotography while avoiding being mid-2000s hipster pretentious. It is also a good way to smoothly immerse the viewer into the world. Having a narrative behind a collection of images is much more engaging than just dumping a bunch of oddball images with no context.

The book is a great example of hauntology done right. From the aesthetic standpoint, you have a combination of early photography quirks (after all, one of the most prominent photos of the early years was an autoportrait as a drown man) with 20th century subversive explorations of psyche as seen in the works of Joel-Peter Witkin with an oddity grounded by the way of Diane Arbus. 

Things get weird, but not weird as a statement or weird for the sake of weird - the scenarios fit the narrative "oh yeah, this thing would be fun". And it is a tough balancing act because of temptation of going overboard. 

The other great photo from the book is classic bodypart substitution called "Obscura Object" in the head of a woman in a strict dress is replaced with a train whistle. While it is closer to things Man Ray was doing in 1910s-1920s

William Carlos Williams' This is Just to Say: The Game. On Calum Rodger's "Gotta Eat the Plums"

 

Poem as a point and click adventure. Given the fact that pretty much every walking simulator "art game" is trying to evoke those "poetic" "instances" and generate "poetic experience" by its non-gameplay - it would have been obvious just to adapt a poem into a game.

At the very least, adapting the text into a game mechanic and interpreting the plot would be a good creative challenge - definitely more focused than usual nondescript "pushing through some images and feeling feelings doing that".

But for some reason, I've never seen such projects up until now. I've seen interactive poetry, I've seen games that quote poems, but no game adaptations of poems (Dante's Inferno doesn't count).

And now Calum Rodger did just that with "Gotta Eat the Plums". William Carlos Williams' poem This is Just to Say (aka the one about being sorry about eating the plums) is probably the best candidate for such experiment.

In the recent years, This is Just to Say had experienced a resurgence because of twitterbots doing procedural variations of the text and numerous parodies trending on social media (even i did a variation last year). It is easy to see why the poem is popular - it is relatable and easy to follow.

We all had moments like this, so the poem soaks all those experiences and permutates with each reader' reflection. On the other hand, it retains boundary-pushing drive of modernist poetry while almost poking fun at other poets of its time like of Ezra Pound, Hart Crane, Basil Bunting or e.e. cummings. It does the same things but in a simpler and more efficient manner.


"Gotta Eat the Plums" lets you to experience the poem from inside out, to get the poem. It is an attempt to recreate the thought process, the drama roiling behind the text. You play as William Carlos Williams up at night, hungry. He came down to "investigate" the kitchen for something to eat. That's the first part of the game.

 

You can turn the music on if you want. The soundtrack is Erik Satie's Gymnopedia #1, because of course, ye olde vaporwave vibe, pal. It gets maddening after a while. You can also look in the window and contemplate the starry night sky. There is also a cat walking around, expecting to get his piece of the action. You can look at his dish, but there is nothing for a poet. You can consider the asphodel as a solution.
But the main task is to search the kitchen cupboards for consumables. You don't want to cook anything so you are left with no choice but to open the refrigerator.

There you find an icebox with plums.

That's where the gear shifts gears and turns into a battle of will and hunger.

The thing is - the plums are not yours and it is probably a good idea to suck it up and find a way out of without making grounds for the conflict.

You can wrestle with your conscience for some time, but the hunger is stronger and the only way you can proceed is to eat those plums.

And then, overwhelmed with guilt, you'll write the note, that is actually a poem the game is based on. Curtains.

"Gotta eat the plums" makes "This is just to say" new. That's how you do an adaptation of the piece. Enough said.

Never Be Game Over

Believe it or not - this is not related to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and one of its characters - Quiet. It is a snapshot from one of the final issues of Matt Fraction / Chip Zdarsky Image comics series Sex Criminals (aka the one that went out with one hell of a whimper). But it fits really well into Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain lore and sentiments in the aftermath of Quiet's Exit.

Five years too late.

Mark A. Lewis - The Thaw (2009) Review

"The Thaw" is 2009 Canadian horror film directed by Mark A. Lewis and written in collaboration with Michael Lewis. In a nutshell, "The Thaw" is like X-Files episode "Ice" combined with some John Carpenter's "The Thing" vibes.

The film is a representative of an ecological horror niche, so it is less about the thrills and kills and more about constructing a hypothetical situation and exploring themes.

The film tells the story of Canadian Arctic research station on Banks Island that studies the effects of Global Warming. The group is led by renowned environmental activist David Kruipen (played by Val Kilmer), who tries to warn everybody that things are dire and if we don't take any action soon enough - it would be too late. You know - just what global warming guys are usually saying. For the most part - he is not very successful in his quest, but he is respected well enough to maintain his research.

Banks Island is an example of severe effects of climate change. From Kruipen's point of view - it is a middle of a war zone. In the past it was covered in ice and now there is only small patch of it left. The island manages to look both unassuming and horrifyingly devastated at the same time. Desaturated colour scheme also contributes greatly to the overall devastation/desolation feel

The film opens with the team making a breakthrough discovery. While observing a polar bear who for some reason came back to an island - they discover the remains of the woolen mammoth buried in the ice. The thaw brought it back to the surface and polar bear found it. But that's not all.

Then things go off the rails, as the polar bear falls ill and dies. Then members of the team start to succumb to the unknown disease. This leaves Kruipen with some tough choices to make.

In the meantime, the station expects a group of students to arrive for science practice. Kruipen used this as an opportunity to patch things up with his estranged daughter Evelyn. At first he pulls her in thinking that he is going to share with her his greatest scientific triumph. She reluctantly agrees. Then, upon realizing that things are going southward, Kruipen tries to prevent her from coming in. Due to pre-existing conflict between the two, Evelyn disregards the latter attempts and comes in regardless.

When the group arrives, they find an empty station. After some walking around they find a body of dead polar bear. The discovery is suspicious enough for them to try to contact Kruipen's group on the radio. But the radio conversation leaves more questions than answers and the only thing the group is left to do is to wait until Kruipen's party comes back.

Meanwhile strange things start to happen. Students are attacked by strange insects and one of the Kruipen's colleagues arrives to the base alone and severely ill. It appears that she killed Kruipen to escape from something.

To make things worse, for some reason she breaks the helicopter equipment so that no one could get out of there. After a while she succumbs to the unknown illness. It becomes clear that those insects are related to it - they infest the host and breed inside the body slowly consuming it.

This throws the group into a frenzy. Two of the students and a pilot are already  infected and it is a question of time when the rest will follow suit. Paranoia gets better of them and things get bloody. Then Kruipen reappears and it seems like things are going to get under control. However, Evelyn discovers his notes and tapes and finds out her father's real intentions regarding his discovery. And that's where the film stops being just another low-budget horror film and does some high drama.

The story goes. In the past, David Kruipen was an environmental activist. The lack of impact of activism turned him into a radical and it led him to blowing up an oil pipeline.

This made him something of a legendary figure in the community.  After that he moved on from radicalism into more reasonable ways and tried to make difference with facts and research.

However, the more he tried to uncover the effects of global warming and convince people to make changes - the less he accomplished. No one cared. You have to agree that when you are trying to change people's opinion on an important subject matter to no avail over and over again - that might be quite dispiriting. And you what that does to people - it makes them desperate. The thing with desperation is that it makes people go to extremes.

Kruipen was desperate to do something that would have a long-lasting effect. And when he discovered mammoth remains and found out about the parasites inside - he knew he was onto something. His grand plan was to infect himself with parasites, get back on the mainland, start an outbreak that will kill a lot of people and after the outbreak is contain - this will convince everybody that they need to take care of ecology and change their ways of life.

It is quite far-fetched, but seems plausible from the standpoint of a man who has no idea how to prove his point after so many failed attempts.

This character arc elevates the film from standard isolated horror to fall from grace narrative. Kruipen is barely in the film but his shadows lingers over it. We see his plan roll out in a microcosm of the research station. And then we get the big kick - Evelyn finds out her father's real intentions and confronts him about that and he agrees with her but goes on with his plan. Kruipen is aware of how misguided and delusional his plan is - but he proceeds because it might work out this time.

And he fails because things are bleak enough to get some retribution.

Sometimes the film is more than sum of its parts. This happens when the film manages to build enough substance around itself. And it expands the film beyonds its actual scope. This aspect can make you appreciate the film even more despite its apparent flaws. That's pretty much what "The Thaw" manages to do.

Michael Winterbottom - I Want You (1998) Review

Michael Winterbottom is one of the most interesting British filmmakers of the past 30 years, even though he doesn't really get the respect he deserves. Nevertheless, his films are full of the creative invention one can be amazed.

Here are several examples.

• 24 Hour Party People is the pitch-perfect music scene biopic that meticulously mixes fact and fiction to generate the authentic vibe of the times it depicts. 
• On the other hand, A Cock and Bull Story, his adaptation of Lawrence Stern's Tristram Shandy. It adopts the storytelling techniques of the source material to create yet another narrative layer about the film crew making a film adaptation. 
• There are also 9 Songs - a near-abstract exploration of an intimate relationship combined with a bunch of fancam concert recordings that coincidentally provide a contextual commentary over what is going on in-between. 

And then there is I Want You.

Due to a variety of reasons, it is one of the lesser-seen films in Winterbottom's body of work. This film was made right after Winterbottom made his breakthrough with Jude and Welcome to Sarajevo, and yet I Want You suffered from distribution issues, which made the film hard to come by.

I Want You is a brooding, expressionist melodrama built upon the conventions of the neo-noir genre. It is a story of two people trying but unable to move on. A young man Martin is coming back after a stint in jail and trying to get his life back together. He was involved in a horrible crime, but now it is behind him. OR so it seems. And then there is a young woman named Helen. She and Martin were previously in a relationship. But now she seems to have moved on only to be haunted by her past once again. OR so it seems.

On the surface, it seems like a pretty standard kitchen sink melodrama full of pondering and rumination and a little bit of reflection here and there. But it turns out to be something else. For the lack of the better word, the film camouflages itself as a brooding melodrama while there is this dark backward roiling over. Here is where Neo-Noir thing kicks in. Subversion is one of the great things about the Neo-Noir film genre. By design, neo-noir film does things differently, and that allows them to move beyond the conventions and explore different kinds of narratives within a recognizable template.

That what I Want You does. It is a master class in misdirection and subversion. The term that best describes what this film does is "sleight of hand." You have a surface plot going on, and it never seems to be a ruse, because it is not. It is just interpreted differently due to a lack of cohesive context. We get bits and pieces of context along the way, and it fits together well. Except, there is more to it. The dramatic action gradually escalates to the boiling point, and upon reaching the climax, everything comes into place, except it is different. The puzzle that was coming together until then turned out to be something else.

Here's what is going on. Martin is a broken man, riddled with guilt and in search of closure. He doesn't really know where he is going and what he is going to do. All he has left are festering ruins of a relationship he tries to cauterize. On the other hand, Helen is deeply traumatized by her experience with Martin. She is a victim, a survivor. While she is trying to maintain a semblance of a normal life, she is unable to have a proper relationship with other men. So, for the most part, she just tries to trudge along with life from day to day.

The film establishes this narrative and reinforces it each time Martin and Helen bump into each other.

Martin is not supposed to see Helen. That would violate the terms of his parole, and he would go back to jail. But for reasons of unresolved feelings, he still tries to reconnect with her. Every time they meet - it is an awkward and odd dead end. Martin tries to come forward, but Helen rejects his attempts. Time after time, he tries to talk; she doesn't want to. Even after he saves her from being raped. Martin is depicted as an obsessive stalker. But it is more than meets the eye.

It is then revealed that Helen's reaction is such that Martin had killed her father back in the day. So her reactions are reasonable in this context. And Martin seems to acknowledge that. He just wants to get over it and move on. And so things are kind of settled. Eventually, they have sex to get closure, and that's it. Martin is moving away to the other town, Helen seems to move on with the other relationship. The story's done.

That's where the kitchen sink drama would stop. Everything's wrapped up. But it is not. Martin comes back one more time to set things straight.

But if the conflict is exhausted, there is no real tension left - why this whole thing still goes on? If Martin accepts what he had done and moves on if Helen is over it - why the narrative just resets and starts the last beat all over again? Is it going to amp up the melodrama part to wrap things up the hard way? Why bother with such an overwrought ending? It doesn't make much sense at the moment because it is so predictable. But it is more than meets the eye.

And that disorienting disquieting annoyance of obviousness is by design. Martin is unable to move on, and so he comes to sort things out. Because Helen just wants to get rid of Martin once and for all, she seems to act with preventive aggression. Her line of thinking - give him what he wants and get over it. She coerces Martin into forcing himself on her only to be stopped by the boy who also happened to be in the house.

That's where neo-noir subversion kicks into high gear.

Martin reveals that Helen actually killed her father, and Martin took the hit for her only to get a cold shoulder afterward. Helen bludgeons him in retaliation. With the boy's help, she disposes of the body just like she did with Martin years ago.

It is the plot twist that doesn't really function as a plot twist because while it adds new information to the story, it doesn't change anything.

The revelation shifts the dynamics of the story. Martin was the complicit victim all along, and he tried to cope with it. Helen becomes a much more proactive character in retrospect. We don't know who Helen's father was - so there is a question whether Helen's family was dysfunctional. Judging by Helen's tendency to disobey what other men want her to do - we can assume that her father was a controlling one, and she strived for independence. We can assume that murder was probably not premeditated and committed on impulse.

In other words, Helen replaced her supposed victimhood of the dysfunctional family with the other victimhood by committing a murder and feeling the guilt over avoiding retribution. The murder got her a certain level of independence and rendered her unable to enjoy it fully. With that baggage, she naturally wanted to pretend all of that was in the past. Martin threw a wrench in that, and so the story repeated itself.

It is a grand narrative trick. On the one hand, it recontextualizes the story. At the same time, it doesn't discard anything that happened before reveal - it just adds another dimension to the story that significantly expands the characters and their motivations. It shows how destructive such actions can be.

And that's something worth admiring.

Featured in The Small Machine Talks Episode 61

Great news! Amanda Earl of AngelHouse Press and Experiment-O Magazine got me featured on her podcast Small Machine Talks. The other contributors are Joel Chace (who is always cool), Marco Giovenale, Pearl Pirie, James Sanders, and Steve Venright.

http://smallmachinetalks.com/index.php/podcast/the-small-machine-talks-episode-61-experiment-o-readers-part-iii/

Here's my feature. It is a poem mostly made out of spelling experiments culled together from different Spongebob Squarepants voice synthesis tests. Yes, it sounds ridiculous but why not.

***
pus sea seal eel elk!

glumly daisy flavor - shadow fragile
frown

pffft pffft XY? 4:16
La La La La Lo
ayu yu Tsuu A Xie Xie

("paa", "fuku", "chiki")

No No No Ha! Ha! Ha!

Blaze beep chug - tart rictus
– Ever-Roving Eye
jamais vu elk yowl

Iko Iko - Nzznzzzznnznznnn
Fifi o - Uum Ni-Ni- Budub
PPPPPP - XXOO Go Go Go Go Go

Gash, Gloria:
Ear Spin; Smile
Oww rrrrrrsssssstttttt O

***

New work in Revenance 8

Great news! Got a piece in the new issue of Revenance #8. It is a piece spawn from my long and winding translation of Vasilisk Gnedow's Death to Art.

The link https://monoclelash.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/revenance-no-8/

Thanks, Olchar.

Henry - Eraserhead Alternate Soundtrack by Cat Temper

Check out this thing - an alternate soundtrack for David Lynch's seminal midnight movie classic Eraserhead composed by Cat Temper. The original Eraserhead sound track is one of the progenitors of then-emerging Dark Ambient genre.
Now things come full circle and we get full-on dark ambient interpretation of the music for the film. It reminds me of Lustmord's alternate soundtrack to Tarkovsky's Stalker.

https://cattemper.bandcamp.com/album/henry-an-electronic-soundtrack-to-eraserhead

Let's Be Cosmonauts

 

Check out this piece of vintage propaganda nonsense. It's a children's book about space titled "Let's be Cosmonauts". Because that's a career you really want to have despite it totally being lame. 

The book consists of some zany lyrics and sheet music, because why not. Here's the title song "Let's be cosmonauts". It is insane in its innocuous straightforward primitive vibe. It doesn't really build up being a cosmonaut, it doesn't even try to make it anything but a nondescript adventure. Which is weird because space mission are anything but nondescript. Anyway, if Ad Astra had this song on the soundtrack - i would have liked it much more.

Oldschool flarf up on Internet Poetry.

Oldschool flarf up on

Internet Poetry

.

https://internetpoetry.co.uk/image/616769902997618688

AC/DC - TNT Sheet music aka The most beautiful thing in the world

Some types of merchandise are not like anything else. Case in point - this thing. It is a promotional booklet for AC/DC fan club. It features some cheeky illustrations, questions for hardcore fans, and also some sheet music. Because that is what you are looking for when you are looking for AC/DC merchandise.

The thing is - AC/DC is probably the last type of music you would expect to be transcribed into sheet music. It just doesn't combine that way. AC/DC is too awesome for this antique concept of sheet music. Writing it down is like freezing a breath so that you would have a document of a breath. It is an interesting concept on paper, but it just doesn't really work beyond an entertaining thought.

AC/DC is all about willing the cool into the realm of real - it is not carved in stone like sheet music, you don't need to learn to play exactly like it was recorded by the band - if you really want to appreciate AC/DC - you need to go the other way - it is like catching the wind and doing aeolian things.

But this particular piece of sheet music is really cute. Looking at TNT as sheet music got some sort of morbid curiosity factor. It feels like one of those Martin Creed artworks - totally counter.

My works in new Maintenant

 

Great news! Got featured in the new issue of Three Rooms Press' premier magazine Maintenant. Lots of cool folks are there too. There's even Bob Holman, who did United States of Poetry many years ago. 

MFT: Oreo Sound Poem

This one nearly killed me grinning. Imagine a situation: you've been out of Facebook for a meaningful amount of time and now you are getting back to post an update. And the first thing you see is this image:

Well, for a moment I thought there is hope on Facebook. But you know there is no such thing there. Anyway.

5 poems from The Song of the Great Tits at IceFloe Press

Great news! Five poems from The Song of the Great Tits were published by IceFloe Press. The Link.  Many thanks to Robert Frede Kenter.

The poems showcase morbid visceroid globster of a mess that persists after experiencing overexposure to neverending stream of information. Not a straightforward read - think about it as a sculpted text - it grew as i was websurfing and seeing, reading, hearing various things.

Da Eel PDF

You can read PDF-version of my book Da Eel here.

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE performs my Melody Poems

What is the better way to celebrate one's birthday than performing one's work? tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE did just that with my Melody Poems. I'm very thankful for that. It is a great honor.

If you want to check the original text - it was featured in The Otolith back in Issue 56. Here's the link https://the-otolith.blogspot.com/2019/12/volodymyr-bilyk.html

Here's what tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE says about the thing: "When I got to Volodymyr Bilyk's "Melody Poems" I thought it would be fun to play the pieces on the piano & to link to a movie of this as a part of the finished review. Since the "Melody Poems" basically just list note names without specifying octave or rhythm, etc, I decided that it would be fun to play them in ways that most people would find 'unmelodic'. This is the result. As you will no doubt notice, I also tweaked it a bit further. I made entirely too many mistakes & took some liberties so the result is probably a bit far off from Bilyk's imagining of the melodies but, hey!, I still went to the trouble of actually approaching the "Melody Poems" as a score. "

That time i pitched a novel and things got real for a bit

A couple of years ago, I had a chance to pitch a novel to the publisher despite not being interested in doing prose or writing novels or anything like that. I just had a conversation with the publisher, and it was fun enough that I was asked to pitch something "if you feel that way" - it was basically a bet. 

And I did, and it kind of worked for some time, and I did some preps before it all fell apart. Why did it fell apart? Money, the publisher got into hot water for taxes, and you know where it goes. I can't tell you more.

My original pitch went like this:

An affair puts brothers on the collision course, but this affair is more than meets the eye: deception, kayfabe, oneupmanship, horse marine. Unreliable narrative retold by unreliable narrator fully aware of preset suspicion - layers upon layers of the story turn into a noose that chokes the truth out of them all. 

You can't come up with anything more generic. I guess it was way too flowery for its own good, but I didn't really give a damn about it. I intended to go blatantly purple, all guns blazing. So purple Deep Purple would sue me for infringement. I thought it was a joke, so I made a joke out of it.

Two days later, I get a reply: "Ok. I want to read an expanded synopsis. Who are the characters, where the story goes? Can you do it?"

I was baffled, even stupified. It was a joke, and now the joke got its stakes raised. Challenge accepted. 

I was asked to write an expanded synopsis. Seems logical if you actually mean to sell a novel, but I had no idea what to it is about. The whole "can you write an expanded synopsis" made me really perplexed. At the same time, it was curious to figure out the way out of this mess. How to follow up a throwaway freestyle something-something? How to spin anything coherent out of it? 

One solution is to flesh out the available material. It seems like a logical approach, except what I had was so generic, I couldn't really come up with anything even remotely intriguing.  

So I kind of let it slide into oblivion. But the idea of expanding the pitch into a full story persisted. I couldn't stop thinking about it; I was trying to figure out what it would be like. 

Then I was talking with one of the colleagues about the tribulations of story construction, and it all came together. I had a story laid down in front of my eyes as if it actually happened. So I've spent an evening and a half sketching it out.

Here's what I came up with.

The novel tells the story of a writer and his brother. The writer is trying to get out of his day job. He teaches the theory of literature at the university - it is not fun enough for him. His true passion is weird fiction detective stories. His brother is not the writer but a KGB secret cooperative overseeing various artists and public persons. In his public appearance, he is a scholar researching mythology and fairy tales. 

The brother got a wife who is teaching literature at the same university as the writer. They have on-and-off workplace romance, but it is too clumsy to be taken seriously. Nevertheless, the writer is trying to maintain the affair despite not having the endgame. His brother knows about the whole thing. Since he is bored out of his mind - he conspires with his wife to make an elaborate prank on the writer's brother.

The story goes - the writer follows the rabbit into the rabbit hole. The wife sells it hard. She even reenacts some witch-craft rituals and other mystic stuff. They have trips with shrooms and weed. And then she blows it by exposing the hoax. But the writer - who was suffering from the writer's block because he wanted to sleep with his brother's wife because she was the forbidden fruit and the driving force for his existence - so he was so inspired he started to write again and was denying the fact that he was pranked.

He is in denial, or so it seems even after "you fuck my wife" argument with his brother. even more - he was convincing them that all that weird stuff was happening for real.

Eventually, the brother and the wife decide to follow through just for the sake of the laugh. They were interested in where this weirdo would lead them. In the end, they go to the Mountain (not exactly a mountain - rather a high hill) right at the moment when some enlightening apparition might occur, and nothing happens. The writer gets disappointed and says, "fuck you all" and goes away. But those two felt so terrified they ran away even faster, forcing the writer to come back finding out something.

And then he comes back to his brother and tells the story how some fairy-demon took him into the parts unknown where he talked about poetic arts and even fished the stars - it goes like a soliloquy for some pages - and then the writers look at astounded, amazed faces of his brother and his wife and say "Nah, of course, I was fucking with you." And the novel ends.

***

It is rambling and does not make much sense. Actually, this text is a compilation of bullet-point lists that I've sent instead of a synopsis. The publisher said that it was good enough for a light novel. He noted that there was a lot of stuff to work on, but the foundation was "solid." He then added that he was not kidding. 

I was baffled. How in the blue moon could I get myself into such a mess? I've spent four years agonizing on a poetry collection - how long would it take to write a novel? And how long would it take to polish it and follow to the print? The very thought of doing it made me tremble. 

But my fears dissipated a week later when I received another, more formal letter calling off the project. There was an extended explanation that it wasn't a joke. There was some kind of legal issue that froze the publishing house for the time being. 

It ended with "good luck with finding a new home for your novel." Yeah, sure. Whatever, man. 

This pitch gathered dust for years before I was trying to find the password for one of the rare movie blogs - I stumbled into it, reread it, though it was curious enough to post it here, and that's it.