Sunday 30 December 2012

Jack Kerouac: On The Road (The Original Scroll)

Last night I (finally!) finished reading Jack Kerouac's cult classic, On The Road. Now, I'm not going to be naive about this and assume no-one has head of On The Road. It's one of the pillars of the "Beat Generation", and with the recent making of the film, I'm pretty sure it's been thrown back into the public eye this year. However, after taking a good, long while to read this, there is one little recommendation I would make for anyone looking to read this book, or try something new with 2013 just round the corner: read The Original Scroll version.

As you get sucked into maddened trail of Jack Kerouac's adventures hitch-hiking across the North American continent, there's something so pure, and holy (!), about reading the story in its original form. As if still smudgy with the ink from his typewriter, the dense text never lets up, and its consuming style adds to the fact that the characters haven't yet been given their fictional aliases yet. No matter how sad I was to get to the end of his excited, messy first draft, it was a pleasure to read it in its naked form.

Friday 28 December 2012

Charlotte Carpenter: Love Songs


As time has gone on, I have found myself growing a little more sceptical towards girl-and-guitar acts, because, let's face it, there are many girls who own guitars (ahem, me!), but have no idea how to write songs or play the guitar in the first place. 

However, Charlotte Carpenter is a mean guitarist and cute-as-a-button songstress that I was fortunate enough to stumble across supporting Boat to Row a month or so ago. With Charlotte, I was hooked from the first chorus of her first song. She's bold on stage, and with the added kick of a drum pedal (or something like that, I couldn't quite see from where I stood!) her songs really hammer home while her guitar prowess and sweet voice create a mixture not quite seen or heard even from the likes of Alessi's Ark (probably the closest comparable artist).

And for a few coins jingling at the bottom of your purses/wallets, you can own her latest EP entitled Let It Go, featuring the above track and a few other sterling songs. Go to charlottecarpenter.bandcamp.com to find out more.

Thursday 27 December 2012

December Deluge

So, I took a short break over the December period - what with balancing the two jobs, university course, magazine editor-ing and of course, prepping for Christmas - and instead I put together some jottings for upcoming blogposts. There's so many new finds to tell you about!

However, sitting here scanning through the lovely gifts I received and after a tiresome couple of days, I've got the blogging bug back - most probably due to a combination of missing it, and also reading through January's Company magazine, chiefly featuring some inspiring bloggers and blogesses. So here's a short post-Boxing Day update for you all, and to let you know that there'll be a whirlwind of posts on here over the coming few days.

- Besma x