Sammii Su

Manic ramblings and occasional updates.

[sammiisu]

Here's a home demo of something I wrote...

SHIPSONG

Took only minutes for the fever to set in, Voices of men to turn wavering and thin. All at once, they dropped their arms - For the honey-sweet fruit of the shivering palms. Friends on the shore, arguing; "Was it a god, or a demon that drew them all in...?" All at once, they dropped their arms - Gave up their voices for the words of the deep void.

Did your hands feel weaker than your pride? While a wife back home turned pages and cried, For a man she thought she knew - And whose burden she'd bear as she grew old. Did you picture the waves in your little boy's eyes? As he wondered how long 'til they'd roll by, With the man he thought he'd grow to love - And whose hand you shook off like a glove...

Took only minutes for the fever to take hold, Morals of men to turn worrisome and old. All at once, the dropped their arms - For the bitter-sweet fruit of the shivering palms. Old friends back home, now no arguing, "It was the call of abandon that drew them all in..." All at once, they dropped their arms - Life on the sleepy side, lotus eater...

[sammiisu]

Doing an acoustic gig with this lil' shit tomorrow night at the little guy in Glebe, starting at 8pm! Sneaking in an acoustic version of a Levingstone tune which should be interesting... come along and tell Jesse to grow his hair long again. Please.

https://www.facebook.com/sammiisumusic

[sammiisu]

"Hedge Row", Angela Singer

Philosophers Deleuze and Guattari once commented that "art is continually haunted by the animal...". Whether celebrating beauty, relating anguish and pain, or perhaps expressing guilt, evidence of the truth of their statement abounds in all mediums of art; from Picasso's lithographs of bulls, to Evaristti's goldfish circling in blenders, and even direct statements such as Morrissey's "Meat Is Murder"...

This arresting piece of art is the work of contemporary artist and animal rights activist Angela Singer, who uses secondhand, vintage and sometimes donated taxidermy to create shocking yet strangely beautiful pieces such as this one, titled "Hedge Row".

Singer's work speaks to me on a number of levels, from the tragedy and horror of pieces such as Sore and Catch/Caught, to the melancholy beauty of The Inseparables - Singer's work challenges the audience to consider their relationship to these creatures we dub "animals", to ponder both their life and their demise... 

...and perhaps equally importantly, Singer allows these creatures, so mistreated and caused so much suffering, to be beautiful once more - even in death.

[sammiisu]

"Love In The Asylum"

A stranger has come To share my room in the house not right in the head, A girl mad as birds Bolting the night of the door with her arm her plume Strait in the mazed bed She deludes the heaven-proof house with entering clouds Yet she deludes with walking the nightmarish room, At large as the dead, Or rides the imagined oceans of the male wards. She has come possessed Who admits the delusive light through the bouncing wall, Possessed by the skies She sleeps in the narrow trough yet she walks the dust Yet raves at her will On the madhouse boards worn thin by my walking tears. And taken by light in her arms at long and dear last I may without fail Suffer the first vision that set fire to the stars.

Dylan Thomas, "Love In The Asylum"

I fell in love with this peculiar poem by Thomas at the age of fourteen, and its stuck with me ever since. I don't think I knew quite what it meant then, (nor do I pretend to really, truly know now), but it struck some dissonant chord that still resonates now.

There's something hypnotising about the disjointed rhythm of the words, this bizarre irregularity - and the way in which Thomas, not exactly a man grammatically challenged, uses such strange combinations of words that they read like insanity and otherness itself... Thomas is both the narrator, and the girl as "mad as birds" - the girl is simultaneously himself, another, a muse, madness, and the world...

Or maybe its none of that. Who knows?  

[thestrutny]

[sammiisu]

Evolution of a legend. 

I first fell in love with Bowie, in all his guises, around the age of thirteen. I'd discovered The Cure, and my level of obsession with this newfound thing called "music" (pride or shame?) led me to Bowie, one of Robert Smith's biggest influences (yes, I was that creepy - I read every book he ever mentioned in an interview, too.)

Bowie, along with Kate Bush, was my first introduction to the album, and music itself, as a concept -  more than just a collection of songs, with a catchy one included for the radio, with a pretty picture on the front. 

I heard Ziggy Stardust first, and it blew my mind. Here was someone who not only created a character, and explored him in a collection of brilliant songs, but he lived as him too - was he a musician, artist, actor? No, he was everything all at once, and quite stunning too, admittedly.

I found so much of myself not in Bowie but through him. 

Not only does he continue to inspire me, but I have more respect and admiration for all the newness that he created and was part of now that I, myself, am beginning to "define" myself as a musician.

Besides - he is the coolest person on the planet, right...?

[sammiisu]

This woman is my muse embodied. Unafraid and so deeply human. Thank you thank you thank you.

[sammiisu]

To be honest, I'm unsure how blogs are really meant to be used... I suppose I'll post updates here on what's happening in my musical world, which will likely be updates on my personal world too, as I seem unable to separate the two... 

At the moment, as well as writing in short, sporadic bursts, I'm working on some arrangements of songs that are very dear to me for various reasons - and working on being able to share them with you (whoever you are - if you're anyone at all).

We'll see where that leads...

Sammii

Photography by Amy Benjamin of Ask Me Makeup