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If you get a chance to check out the Jan issue of Outdoor Photographer and the Feb issue of Popular Photography each has one of my images in it. Popular Photography did a really nice write up on my night photography. Thanks for all the support over the years. I really appreciate it.

Hey guys,

 

as you may have guessed already, yesterday 6 years ago I posted the very first picture on my photo stream. (I know I am a day late. Somehow I have missed it. :O )

As every year, I’d like to thank all of you for your continuous support. Since it has been a while since my last tag picture, three years, to be correct, I thought, I’d give you a little update on that.

 

So here we go. Another 100 facts about me, including some updated older ones.

  

About me in general

 

1. I am now 20 years old.

2. I’ve been posting photos on Flickr for 6 years now, which is more than 25% of my lifetime so far.

3. I started studying media design one and a half years ago.

4. For my studies I have been creating a lot of interesting projects, including advertisement campaigns, event planning, creating a website and an animated short film.

5. Sadly, the clip was never published, though the company we did it for said so and even paid for it (though that took some words of persuasion).

6. While I have postponed the idea of becoming a director for now, I am still interested in writing my own stories and who knows, maybe I’ll get back to it later.

7. I switched from Windows to Mac a while ago, because of university and I have to say I can work much better with a Mac than with a PC.

8. Along with my hardware my software saw great improvements and I now have the professional and full version of photoshop, which does make editing photos much easier.

9. While I used to take photos with three cameras, now it has come down to only one, the Pentax K-5.

10. Most of the time I use macro lenses like a 35mm or 100mm lens.

11. For those who wonder, the camera I build for the photo is not my Pentax, but my secondary camera, a Fuji X100, which I don’t use for photographing Lego, but which certainly looks great.

12. I have developed a certain fondness of using a low aperture when taking photos, it seems.

13. I have committed myself to a healthier lifestyle for a while now. For example I stopped drinking sugar filled soft drinks and try to eat less meat. Also I plan on taking up some sort of sport as a hobby.

14. I met a lot of nice people at university and have made a whole bunch of new real life and online friends over the time, which is nice.

 

My hobbies

 

15. One reason there have not been to many builds last year is, that I have taken up a lot of new hobbies, at least it feels that way.

16. I still play the guitar, though, I don’t get around to it to often anymore.

17. I actually have been starting to learn how to play the piano a bit.

18. I even composed some little songs, though, I have not yet shared any of them.

19. Also, I have put much effort into drawing recently. I am still far from where I want to be with my art, but I have certainly improved a lot.

20. If you want to have a look at my drawings, head over to my DeviantArt gallery.

21. Also, for more art related stuff and crazy fandom discussions, you can also follow me on Tumblr.

22. Drawing takes up a lot of time, but still is more flexible than building, so it is perfect for short periods of free time during the semester.

23. If you are interested in learning how to draw, I highly recommend watching some of Sycra’s videos on YouTube. I learned a lot from him and he even goes over some motivational issues one might have when starting out.

24. I have also gotten a graphic tablet for digital drawing, which is a lot of fun.

25. When drawing digitally, I work in Photoshop.

26. I have developed a certain interest in art books and am somewhat building up a little collection of them.

27. While the most prominent theme in building remains Star Wars, my drawings are mostly Korra fan art pieces. I think the range of themes for drawing might soon expand, though.

28. I am thinking about starting a webcomic at some point in the future.

29. For those who are interested in webcomics, I can highly recommend The Silver Eye and Romantically Apocalyptic.

30. While writing an assignment on design theory, which dealt with comics, I used the latter as an example.

31. As you can see, I have been getting very much into art as a hobby. But don’t worry, I won’t neglect Lego in the future.

 

Series and movies

 

32. Since movies and series are a big part of my hobbies, I will make this a separate category.

33. My interest has slowly shifted from live action to animated movies and series in the last few years.

34. One of the main reasons for that was re-watching Avatar: The Last Airbender with my good friend Mr. Grievous. I was amazed by the series and it soon led me to watching The Legend of Korra, too.

35. The latter has become my favorite TV series.

36. After reading some stuff about the production of Korra, I turned to watching all series by Shini’chiro Watanabe, who heavily influenced the team behind ATLA and LoK. While the three series he made so far do not have much in common, they all are true masterpieces. If you are curious, he is responsible for Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Terror in Resonance.

37. Be warned though, that the latter will emotionally crush you at the end. :D

38. This is one thing that I think animation is especially capable of. Breaking down emotions to the core and displaying them in the most relatable and simplest way possible is an asset of animation, that live action movies are bound to miss, since they always rely on actors or actresses and their abilities.

39. Besides animated series I have been watching more and more animated movies recently.

40. While I am still working on watching all 22 Studio Ghibli movies, I have seen all movies by Makoto Shinkai by now, who became my favorite director over time.

41. Shinkai’s best work in my opinion is „5 cm per Second“, which is only about 60 min long, but has become my favorite movie.

42. For those of you not familiar with Shinkai, he mostly creates reality based stories with breathtaking visuals, which let you question whether it is still an animated movie or a live action film sometimes.

43. I could now go on and tell you to watch about 40 animated movies, which I think are awesome, but I guess I’ll save that for another time. If you are interested, don’t hesitate to ask me in the comments about it, though.

44. Most recently I watched the online series RWBY by Rooster Teeth. While I knew the soundtrack was awesome, I never expected the series itself to be that good. It takes a while to get used to the style of animation, but once you are accustomed to it, it is really engrossing.

45. It also is still in production, which makes being a part of the fandom a lot of fun.

46. While I am mostly into animated movies right now, let’s not forget about my ever extending collection of live action films. Some recent movies I can recommend are „If I stay“, „John Wick“, „Ex_Machina“ and especially the new Star Wars episode.

47. While I was a bit worried at first, Episode 7 of Star Wars turned out to be amazing, with only a few minor flaws. One of those would be the character Supreme Leader Snoke, who really weakened Kylo Ren’s position as the main villain and also is called jellyfish lord by Mr. Grievous and me now. I mean, come on, his CGI head looked like a jellyfish, didn’t it?

48. Now I am curious about Rouge One later this year and of course most hyped for Episode 8 in 2017.

 

Music

 

49. Coming from movies, I think it is a good point to put music next. I certainly have discovered a lot of great music in the last few years, of which some might be worth mentioning.

50. First, let me say that, even if you don’t watch RWBY, you should definitely listen to the amazing soundtrack by Jeff Williams and Casey Lee Williams. It is a good mix between different genres and astonishingly well made.

51. If you are familiar with the series, you should listen closely to the lyrics and count how many references to the events of season 3 you can spot. There has been a lot of foreshadowing, in my opinion at least.

52. You should also listen to the soundtrack of Cowboy Bebop, which is a kind of modern Jazz.

53. Overall my collection of soundtracks surely has grown over time. Sometimes I seem to prefer instrumental music over something with lyrics.

54. As for other music, I have of course continued listening to my favorite artists MGMT and Florence + The Machine, as well as Kanye West and others.

55. One mentionable discovery of mine would be the British rapper Scroobius Pip. His lyrics are just amazingly poetic and always on point. For everyone interested in rap or just in good lyrics, his stuff is a must have. After all, he might even have become my new favorite solo artist.

56. While I have discovered much new music, my favorite song of all time still remains „Time to Pretend“ by MGMT. I hope I can write this down again after the next three years. :D

 

Gaming

 

57. Next up on the hobbies list is gaming, a hobby which importance has certainly decreased over the years.

58. Not too long after my last tag picture, my PC started slowing down, making gaming almost impossible.

59. When I switched to Mac, it was clear that I’d also had to switch to a console for gaming. So I got a PS4 after a while.

60. I do not have many games for it yet, but I am cool with that for now.

61. My favorite game for it so far is the Legend of Korra game, which I know by heart by now, closely followed by the new Star Wars Battlefront, which is just amazing.

62. Another nice little game I may recommend is „Child of Light“. It is mostly hand drawn and also has a great soundtrack.

63. I miss my PC sometimes, especially since I never got around to finishing Knights of the old Republic. Also, I’d like to play some games like Mass Effect, Remember Me or the older Assassin’s Creed games again some day.

64. One game I am curious about is Life Is Strange. Also, I can’t wait for Horizon: Zero Dawn.

 

Literature

 

65. I have mostly given up reading Star Wars novels, especially after the new canon was proclaimed.

66. I still enjoy reading some of the older Star Wars novels, though I don’t do that too often.

67. In general my interest in books has shifted more towards works about drawing and animation, especially art books, which explain the production process of animated movies and series.

68. Also, I have started reading the books on Hayao Miyazaki’s Work (Starting Point and Turning Point), which are really interesting and motivating.

69. After all I don’t get around to reading too often anymore, since I do so much other stuff.

 

Lego

 

70. Whoohoo! Lego! Who thought I would bring that up? :D

71. While Star Wars remains one of my most built themes, I have been getting increasingly involved in other themes, especially The Legend of Korra.

72. Somehow my motivation seems very high when building something Korra related, which leads to me having built some of my best models for it, I think.

73. All in all, I can see that my building skill has improved over time, but I know there is still a lot to learn.

74. I still enjoy writing long descriptions for my builds, though recently they have become shorter and shorter somehow.

75. I still have some issues with building cockpits. I guess that will only change with very much practice, which I am not very eager to invest yet.

76. While building, I still have the goal of achieving zero visible studs, which I have become quite good at, I think.

77. I have become rather liberal when it comes to actually connecting certain parts to the main build. Some pieces tend to just loosely lay on top where they are needed, if no connection is possible.

78. Just as in 2012, I displayed some of my builds, including the Erinye, at the Lego Fanwelt in Cologne in 2014 and I plan on being there again this year, with my Korra builds and hopefully another SHIPtember entry.

79. I have lost interest in most sets produced and usually only stop by at the store to get some PaB cups by now. Sets, especially Star Wars sets, are just to expensive and to heavily focused on the figures these days.

80. The last set I bought was the UCS Slave 1, a set I have been waiting for all my life. And it does not disappoint.

81. My Lego collection is coming close to exceeding the storage capacity of my room, so there is not much of a chance for getting more sets anyway.

82. While I have a habit of planing very big builds, I have been resorting to rather small scenes and vignettes recently, due to time limitations.

83. I often have the problem of having time at my hands, but not being inspired to build something.

84. Then again, during the semester, when even taking out a box of bricks would take too much time, I have a hundred good ideas a day, of which almost none can be realized.

85. Also, interestingly, I am more often thinking of funny scenes these days, while I used to stick to dramatic or action packed scenes in the past.

86. I have officially given up on trying to keep up a constant stream of uploads, after last year. I’ll just build as much as I can and upload it when I can.

87. I have quite a lot of fun taking close up photos of minifigures, so you might see some of those, when there is no build for a while.

 

The Future

 

88. So, just as last time, I’ll give you a little overview of things I have planned for the future.

89. As for my personal life, I am really happy with the field of study and work I have chosen and I hope everything will go on just as smoothly as it did so far.

90. When I am done with my bachelor thesis, I might even continue studying and obtain a master some time.

91. As for my hobbies, I certainly want to get much better at drawing and, as mentioned, even start a webcomic at some point.

92. If that works well, I may even try my hands at animation some day, though, that will be a lot of work, as I experienced in my university project.

93. I still want to make more music and compose some songs. I should definitely get my hands on a good keyboard and sample program (like Logic or Cubase).

94. I am continuously working on my own story ideas, whether it be for Lego, a comic, a movie or a novel. One day, I’d like to finish and publish one of those stories, in what ever form suits it best.

95. Considering Lego, I still plan on continuing my story Uncertain Ways, though I have no idea, when I will do so.

96. Also, I want to test out even more different themes and maybe come up with some original ideas every once in a while.

97. Furthermore, the kind of funny scenes I started posting recently are really worth building upon. So, there will probably be more stuff like that in the future.

98. I swore to myself to stop promising things I can not live up to, so consider all these things to be vague ideas or sketchy plans.

99. I do not plan on doing another tag picture in the next three years. This one was hard enough with all these facts, without using any of the old ones.

100. I never thought these 100 facts could be more text than last time, but it seems they have become about twice as much.

  

All that’s left to say now is: Thank you my friends!

 

Without you I could never have kept this up for a whole 6 years.

 

As always, a very special thank you goes to my good friends n7mereel and Mr. Grievous.

 

If you are curious about the camera I built, a closer look will be uploaded soon.

 

So, here’s to another six or more awesome years.

 

Cheers,

 

Ordo

Published in Diva, sep-08

 

architecture: ashiq thobani@MonzaInc

on black

 

i was on the way to work when i saw this plumbago's branches had dropped to the ground. i had to lie down on the sidewalk to get a low POV, getting all messed up.

 

i used to want to look impeccable and now nothing matters except getting the picture i want.

 

i've got less than 90 images to go on this year's project and i'm feeling dissatisfied. i look through my contacts' images, wonderful galleries and a refreshed explore and i see amazing, thrilling imagery. how i wish i could stretch out and create something truly unique, emotional and expressive.

THE BIG PICTURE

LATE HARVEST

This farmer near St. Claude was blowing the snow out the back of the machine December 6th while harvesting corn.

Published by Harry H. Hamm

 

Printing by Curt Teich, 1914

title.

Afternoon airport.

             

I went to England in 2015.

I have already uploaded many photos of London.

But they are still part.

this time.

I will continue it.

This time is 10 pieces.

 

I hope you enjoy it.

  

Mitsushiro.

                

( Lumix G3 . shot)

             

London. England. 2015. shot ... 10 / 10

(Today's photo, unpublished.)

          

Images.

Everything But The Girl - Before Today

 

youtu.be/Nei8tPxN_l4

         

The image of the next novel.

Still would stand all time. (Unforgettable'2)

(It will never go away)

            

_________________________________

_________________________________

Profile.

In November 2014, we caught the attention of the party selected to undertake the publicity for a mobile phone that changed the face of the world with just a single model, and will conclude a confidentiality agreement with them.

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2019/02/2019-profil...

 

youpic.com/photographer/mitsushironakagawa/

_________________________________

_________________________________

   

_________________________________

_________________________________

  

Interviews and novels.

About my book.

  

I published a book in old days.

At that time, I was uploading my interview on the net on the net.

That Japanese and English.

 

I will make it public for free.

Details were explained to the Amazon site.

 

How to write a novel.

How to take pictures.

Distance to the work.

 

They all have a common item.

I made a sentence about what I felt, and left it.

I hope that my text can be read by many people.

Thank you.

 

Mitsushiro.

  

1 Interview in English

「interview_eng.pdf」

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...

 

2 novels. unforgettable 'English version.(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)

「novel_unforgettable_eng.pdf」

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...

 

3 Interview Japanese version

drive.google.com/file/d/1w5l2hrV5a6lraDiC_Lz2tG_HqatqUCO5...

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...

 

4 novels. unforgettable ' JPN version.

「novel_unforgettable_jpn.pdf」

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...

 

5 A streamlined trajectory. only Japanese.

「streamlined_trajectory.pdf」

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

  

iBooks. Electronic Publishing. It is free now.

 

0.about the iBooks.

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2017/03/about-digit...

 

1.unforgettable '(ENG.ver.)(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)

itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216576828?ls=1&...

  

2.unforgettable '(JNP.ver.)(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)

itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216584262?ls=1&...

 

3. Streamlined trajectory.(For Japanese only.)

itunes.apple.com/us/book/%E6%B5%81%E7%B7%9A%E5%BD%A2%E3%8... =11

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

My Novel >> Unforgettable'

 

(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)

  

Synopsis.

 

Kei Kitami who aims at university.

A 6 year old older event companion woman. Meet Kaori Uemura on SNS.

 

The dream of Kaori who has moved to Tokyo.

It is to be a friend of the artist.

 

The producer of the radio station for that. The existence of Ryo Osawa was necessary.

Live on the radio.Osawa talks to Kaori.

 

"I have a wife and a child, but I want to see you."

Kei’s classmate Rika Sanzyou who is thinking of him.

She was searching for Kaori.

 

※ Supplement

I use Google Translate.

  

Mitsushiro Nakagawa

All Translated by Yumi Ikeda .

www.fotolog.net/yuming/

  

images.

U2 - No Line On The Horizon Live in Dublin

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKwnkYFsiE&feature=related

  

Main story

 

There are two reasons why a person faces the sea.

One, to enjoy a slice of shine in the sea like children bubbling over in the beach.

The other, to brush the dust of memory like an old man who misses old days, staring at the shine

quietly.

Those lead to only one meaning though they do not seem to overlap. It’s a rebirth.

I face myself to change tomorrow, a vague day into something certain.

That is the meaning of a rebirth.

I had a very sweet girlfriend when I was 18.

After she left, I knew the meaning of gentleness for the first time and also a true pain of loss. After

she left, how many times did I depend too much on her, doubt her, envy her and keep on telling lies

until I realized it is love?

I wonder whether a nobody like me could have given something to her who was struggling in the

daily life in those days. Giving something is arrogant conceit. It is nothing but self-satisfaction.

I had been thinking about such a thing.

However, I guess what she saw in me was because I had nothing. That‘s why she tried to see

something in me. Perhaps she found a slight possibility in me, a guy filled with ambiguous, unstable

tomorrow. But I wasted days depending too much on her gentleness.

Now I finally can convey how I felt in those days when we met.

  

1/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24577016535/in/dateposted...

2/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24209330259/in/dateposted...

3/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/23975215274/in/dateposted...

4/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24515964952/in/dateposted...

5/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24276473749/in/dateposted...

6/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24548895082/in/dateposted...

7/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24594603711/in/dateposted...

8/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24588215562/in/dateposted...

9/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24100804163/in/dateposted...

  

Fin.

  

images.

  

U2 - No Line On The Horizon

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKwnkYFsiE&feature=related

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

Title of my book > unforgettable'

Author : Mitsushiro Nakagawa

Out Now.

ISBN978-4-86264-866-2

in Amazon.

www.amazon.co.jp/Unforgettable’-Mitsushiro-Nakagawa/dp/...

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

The schedule of the next novel.

Still would stand all time. (Unforgettable '2)

(It will not go away forever)

Please give me some more time. That is Japanese.

_________________________________

_________________________________

  

2020 exhibition.

 

theme.

So Near, So far.

 

place. Tokyo Big Site.

www.bigsight.jp/

 

Sponsoring. Design festa.

designfesta.com/

  

2021.

Date unknown.

  

DIC Kawamura Memorial Art Museum attached gallery.

kawamura-museum.dic.co.jp/

 

place. Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture.

 

theme.

From that day, forever ...

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

My Works.

 

1 www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/48072442376/in/dateposted...

2 www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/48078949821/in/dateposted...

3 www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/48085863356/in/dateposted...

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

Do you want to hear my voice?

:)

 

I updated Youtube.

It is only in Japanese.

I explained comments on photos etc.

If your time is permitted, please look.

:)

 

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw

 

1

About the composition of the picture posted to Flicker. First type.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw

 

2

About the composition of the picture posted to Flicker. Second type.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=443

 

3

About when I started Fotolog. Architect 's point of view.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=649

 

4

Why did not you have a camera so far?

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=708

 

5

What is the coolest thing? The photo is as it is.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=776

 

6

About the current YouTube bar. I also want to tell, I want to leave.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=964

 

7

About Japanese photographers. Japanese YouTube bar is Pistols.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=1059

 

8

The composition of the photograph is sensibility. Meet the designers in Milan. Two questions.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=1242

 

9

What is a good composition? What is a bad composition?

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=1482

 

10

What is the time to point the camera? It is slow if you are looking into the viewfinder or display.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=1662

 

11

Family photos. I can not take pictures with others. The inside of the subject.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=1745

 

12

About YouTube 's photographer. Camera technology etc. Sensibility is polished by reading books.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=2144

 

13

About the Japanese newspaper. A picture of a good newspaper is Reuters. If you continue to look at useless photographs, it will be useless.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=2305

 

14

About Japanese photographers. About the exhibition.

Summary. I wrote a novel etc. What I want to tell the most.

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=2579

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

  

I talked about how to make a work.

It's really long, but I want to leave everything, so please ask. (^ O ^) /

 

Japanese only.

  

About work production 1/2

youtu.be/ZFjqUJn74kM

  

About work production 2/2

youtu.be/pZIbXmnXuCw

 

1 Photo exhibition up to that point. Did you want to go?

 

2 Well, what is an exhibition that you want to visit even if you go there?

 

3 Challenge to exhibit one work every month before opening a solo exhibition at the Harajuku Design Festa.

 

4 works are materials and silhouettes. Similar to fashion.

 

5 Who is your favorite artist? What is it? Make it clear.

 

6 Creating a collage is exactly the same as taking photos. As I wrote in the interview, it is the same as writing a novel.

 

7 I want to show it to someone, but I do not make a piece to show it. Aim for the work you want to decorate your own room as in the photo.

 

8 What is copycat? Nowadays, it is suspected to be beaten. There is something called Mimesis?

 

ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimesis

kotobank.jp/word/Mimesis-139464

 

9 What is Individuality? What is originality?

   

It is a flow of.

 

If you have time, please listen.

:)

 

www.youtube.com/user/mitsushiro/

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

  

Explanation of composition. 2

   

I used the following cameras.

  

Nikon coolpix 8700

  

I defeated two of these cameras.

It was a very nice camera.

I took many photos with this camera.

  

Today's photo.

It was also taken with this camera.

 

I explained the composition in detail in the text at the time of shooting.

 

I have taken a lot of pictures until today.

Among them, this photo is the result of sharpening my sensitivity.

 

I will explain this composition in a video.

But they are all Japanese.

  

Is there a Japanese beside you?

Is there anyone who can understand Japanese beside you?

  

Please have them translate.

  

I leave an important story about composition.

I hope they will reach many people.

    

October 22, 2019, midnight.

Mitsushiro.

   

1.Composition explanation 2 ... 1/4

youtu.be/yVbvneBIMs8

 

2.Composition explanation 2 ... 2/4

youtu.be/LToFez9vOAw

 

3.Composition Explanation 2 ... 3/4

youtu.be/uTR0wVi9Z7M

 

4.Composition Explanation 2 ... 4/4

youtu.be/h2LjfU6Vvno

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

   

Miles Davis sheet 1955-1976.

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2019/05/post-70842e...

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

flickr.

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

YouTube.

www.youtube.com/user/mitsushiro/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

instagram.

www.instagram.com/mitsushiro_nakagawa/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

Pinterest.

www.pinterest.jp/mitsushiro/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

YouPic

youpic.com/photographer/mitsushironakagawa/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

fotolog

www.fotolog.com/stealaway/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

twitter.

twitter.com/mitsushiro

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

facebook.

www.facebook.com/mitsushiro.nakagawa

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

My statistics. (As of May 16, 2019)

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2019/05/post-199d28...

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

Japanese is the following.

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/

 

Title of my book unforgettable' Mitsushiro Nakagawa Out Now. ISBN978-4-86264-866-2

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

#新宿 #Manhattan #USA #London #UK #Paris #アンチノック #Milan #Italy #LUMIX #G3 #FUJIFILM #MothinLilac #MIL #GFX50R #B&W #Mono #Chiba #Japan #Exhibition #Flickr #YOUPIC #gallery #Camera #collage #Subway #street #Novel #Publishing #Mitsushiro #Nakagawa #artist #NY #Interview #Photograph #picture #How #take #write #novel #display #art #future #designfesta #Kawamura #Memorial #DIC #Museum #Fineart

 

For insta

#新宿 #Manhattan #London #Paris #アンチノック #Milan #MothinLilac #LUMIX #MIL #FUJIFILM #GFX50R #B&W #Fineart #Japan #Exhibition #Flickr #YOUPIC #Camera #Subway #street #Novel #Publishing #Mitsushiro #artist #Photograph #picture #novel #Fineart #future #designfesta

 

For twitter

#NY #London #Paris #Milan #LUMIX #FUJIFILM #新宿 #B&W #Exhibition #Flickr #Camera #street #MIL #MothinLilac #Mitsushiro #artist #アンチノック #designfesta #Fineart

         

タイトル。

午後の空港。

                 

僕は、2015年にイギリスへ行きました。

すでに僕はロンドンの多くの写真をアップロードしてきました。

しかし、それらはまだ一部です。

今回。

僕はそれを続けます。

今回は10枚です。

 

あなたが楽しんでくれることを僕は望みます。

  

Mitsushiro.

         

( Lumix G3 . shot)

          

ロンドン。イギリス。 2015. shot ...   10 / 10

(今日の写真。それは未発表です。)

       

Images.

Everything But The Girl - Before Today

youtu.be/Nei8tPxN_l4

         

次の小説のイメージ。

Still would stand all time.(unforgettable'2)

(いつまでもなくならないだろう)

          

_________________________________

_________________________________

プロフィール。

2014年11月、たった1機種で世界を塗り替えた携帯電話の広告を請け負った選考者の目に留まり、秘密保持同意書を結ぶ。

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2019/02/2019-profil...

 

youpic.com/photographer/mitsushironakagawa/

_________________________________

_________________________________

  

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

インタビューと小説。

僕の本について。

 

僕は、昔に本を出版しました。

その際に、僕のインタビューをPDFでネット上へアップロードしていました。

その日本語と英語。

 

僕は、無料でを公開します。

詳細は、アマゾンのサイトへ解説しました。

 

小説の書き方。

写真の撮影方法。

作品への距離感。

 

これらはすべて共通項があります。

僕は、僕が感じたことを文章にして、残しました。

 

僕のテキストが多くの人に読んでもらえることを望みます。

ありがとう。

 

Mitsushiro.

  

1 インタビュー 英語版

「interview_eng.pdf」

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...

 

2 小説。unforgettable’ 英語版。

「novel_unforgettable_eng.pdf」

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...

 

3 インタビュー 日本語版

drive.google.com/file/d/1w5l2hrV5a6lraDiC_Lz2tG_HqatqUCO5...

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...

 

4 小説。unforgettable’ 日本語版。(この小説は未来のアーティストへ捧げます)

(四百字詰め原稿用紙456枚)

 

 あらすじ

 大学を目指している北見ケイは、SNS上で、6歳年上のイベントコンパニオン、上村香織に出会う。

 上京してきた香織の夢は、有名なアーティストの友達になるためだ。

 そのためにはラジオ局のプロデューサー、大沢亮の存在が必要だった。

 大沢は、ラジオの生放送中、香織へ語りかける。

 「僕には妻子がある。しかし、僕は君に会いたいと思っている」

 ケイの同級生で、彼を想っている三條里香は、香織の動向を探っていた。。。。。

  

本編

 

人が海へ向かう理由には、二つある。

 ひとつは、波打ち際ではしゃぐ子供のように、今の瞬間の海の輝きを楽しむこと。

 もうひとつは、その輝きを静かに見据えて、過ぎ去った日々を懐かしむ老人のように記憶の埃を払うこと。

 二つは重なり合わないようではあるけれども、たったひとつの意味しか生まない。

 再生だ。

 明日っていう、曖昧な日を確実なものへと変えてゆくために、自分の存在に向き合う。

 それが再生の意味だ。

 

 十八歳だった僕には大切な人がいた。

 

「novel_unforgettable_jpn.pdf」

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...

 

5 流線形の軌跡。 日本語のみ。

「streamlined_trajectory.pdf」

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

iBooks.電子出版。(現在は無料)

 

0.about the iBooks.

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2017/03/about-digit...

 

1.unforgettable’ ( ENG.ver.)(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)

itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216576828?ls=1&...

For Japanese only.

  

2.unforgettable’ ( JNP.ver.)(この小説は未来のアーティストへ捧げます)

itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216584262?ls=1&...

 

3.流線形の軌跡。

itunes.apple.com/us/book/%E6%B5%81%E7%B7%9A%E5%BD%A2%E3%8...

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

僕の小説。英語版 

My Novel Unforgettable' (This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)

 

Mitsushiro Nakagawa

All Translated by Yumi Ikeda .

www.fotolog.net/yuming/

   

1/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24577016535/in/dateposted...

2/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24209330259/in/dateposted...

3/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/23975215274/in/dateposted...

4/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24515964952/in/dateposted...

5/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24276473749/in/dateposted...

6/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24548895082/in/dateposted...

7/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24594603711/in/dateposted...

8/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24588215562/in/dateposted...

9/9

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24100804163/in/dateposted...

Fin.

  

images.

U2 - No Line On The Horizon Live in Dublin

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKwnkYFsiE&feature=related

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

Title of my book > unforgettable'

Author : Mitsushiro Nakagawa

Out Now.

 

ISBN978-4-86264-866-2

in Amazon.

www.amazon.co.jp/Unforgettable’-Mitsushiro-Nakagawa/dp/...

_________________________________

_________________________________

次の小説の予定。

Still would stand all time.(unforgettable'2)

(いつまでもなくならないだろう)

もう少し時間をください。それは日本語です。

_________________________________

_________________________________

  

2020年の展示。

 

テーマ。

So Near , So far.

 

場所。東京ビッグサイト。

www.bigsight.jp/

 

Sponsoring. Design festa.

designfesta.com/

    

2021年。

日時未定。

DIC川村記念美術館付属ギャラリー。

kawamura-museum.dic.co.jp/

場所。千葉県佐倉市。

テーマ。

あの日から、ずっと…

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

僕の作品。

 

1 www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/48072442376/in/dateposted...

2 www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/48078949821/in/dateposted...

3 www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/48085863356/in/dateposted...

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

あなたは僕の声を聞きたいですか?

:)

 

僕はYoutubeを更新しました。

日本語だけです。

僕は写真などの解説をしました。

もしも、あなたの時間が許されれば、見てください。

:)

 

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw

  

1

フリッカーへ投稿した写真の構図について。1種類目。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw

 

2

フリッカーへ投稿した写真の構図について。2種類目。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=443

 

3

Fotologを始めた時について。 建築家の視点。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=649

 

4

なぜ、今までカメラを手にしなかったのか?

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=708

 

5

何が一番かっこいいのか? 写真はありのままに。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=776

 

6

現在のユーチューバーについて。僕も伝え、残したい。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=964

 

7

日本人の写真家について。日本のユーチューバーはピストルズ。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=1059

 

8

写真の構図は、感性。ミラノのデザイナーに会って。二つの質問。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=1242

 

9

良い構図とは? 悪い構図とは?

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=1482

 

10

カメラを向ける時とは? ファインダーやディスプレイを覗いていては遅い。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=1662

 

11

家族写真。他人では撮れない。被写体の内面。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=1745

 

12

ユーチューブの写真家について。カメラの技術等。感性は、本を読むことで磨く。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=2144

 

13

日本の新聞について。良い新聞の写真はロイター。ダメな写真を見続けるとダメになる。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=2305

 

14

日本の写真家について。その展示について。

まとめ。僕が書いた小説など。僕が最も伝えたいこと。

youtu.be/b1o6Xf-Mjhw?t=2579

  

作品の制作方法などついて語りました。

すっごい長いですが、すべて伝え残したいことなので聞いてください。(^O^)/

日本語のみです。

  

作品制作について 1/2

youtu.be/ZFjqUJn74kM

 

作品制作について 2/2

youtu.be/pZIbXmnXuCw

  

1 それまでの写真展。自分は行きたいと思ったか?

 

2 じゃ、自分が足を運んででも行きたい展示とは何か?

 

3 原宿デザインフェスタで個展を開くまでに、毎月ひとつの作品を展示することにチャレンジ。

 

4 作品とは、素材とシルエット。ファッションと似ている。

 

5 自分が好きなアーティストは誰か? どんなものなのか? そこをはっきりさせる。

 

6 コラージュの作成も写真の撮り方と全く同じ。インタビューに書いたように小説の書き方とも同じ。

 

7 誰かに見せたい、見せるがために作品は作らない。写真と同じように自分の部屋に飾りたい作品を目指す。

 

8 パクリとは何か? 昨今、叩かれるパクリ疑惑。ミメーシスとは?

 

  https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ミメーシス

  https://kotobank.jp/word/ミメーシス-139464

  

9 個性とはなにか? オリジナリティってなに?

 

おまけ 眞子さまについて

 

という流れです。

お時間がある方は是非聴いてください。

:)

 

www.youtube.com/user/mitsushiro/

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

  

構図の解説2

   

僕は以下のカメラを使用していました。

 

Nikon coolpix 8700

 

僕はこのカメラを二台使い倒しました。

とても素敵なカメラでした。

このカメラでたくさんの写真を撮りました。

 

今日の写真。

それもこのカメラで撮影しました。

  

この構図について、僕は撮影した当時詳しくテキストで解説しました。

 

僕は今日までたくさんの写真を撮ってきました。

その中でも、この写真はもっとも僕の感性を研ぎ澄ました結果です。

 

僕はこの構図について、動画で解説します。

しかし、それらはすべて日本語です。

 

あなたのそばに日本人はいますか?

あなたのそばに日本語がわかる人はいますか?

 

彼らに訳してもらってください。

 

僕は、構図について大切な話を残します。

それらが多くの人へ伝わることを望みます。

  

2019年10月22日深夜。

Mitsushiro.

     

1.構図の解説2 ... 1/4

youtu.be/yVbvneBIMs8

 

2.構図の解説2 ... 2/4

youtu.be/LToFez9vOAw

 

3.構図の解説2 ... 3/4

youtu.be/uTR0wVi9Z7M

 

4.構図の解説2 ... 4/4

youtu.be/h2LjfU6Vvno

    

Nikon Coolpix 8700

 

1 アマゾンの評価

www.amazon.co.jp/ニコン-E8700-J-ニコン-デジタル...

 

2 ニコンの情報

www.nikon-image.com/products/compact/lineup/8700/

  

#写真 #構図 #カメラ #イタリア #ミラノ #中央駅 #2005年 #ニコン #クールピクス8700

#Photo #Composition #Camera #Italy #Milan #Central #Station #2005 #Nikon #Coolpix 8700

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

Miles Davis sheet 1955-1976.

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2019/05/post-70842e...

 

_________________________________

_________________________________

flickr.

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

YouTube.

www.youtube.com/user/mitsushiro/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

instagram.

www.instagram.com/mitsushiro_nakagawa/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

Pinterest.

www.pinterest.jp/mitsushiro/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

YouPic

youpic.com/photographer/mitsushironakagawa/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

fotolog

www.fotolog.com/stealaway/

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

twitter.

twitter.com/mitsushiro

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

facebook.

www.facebook.com/mitsushiro.nakagawa

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

僕の統計。(2019年5月16日現在)

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2019/05/post-199d28...

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

「日本の経営者は奇跡的無能」

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2019/06/post-926bf5...

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

Japanese is the following.

stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/

 

Title of my book unforgettable' Mitsushiro Nakagawa Out Now. ISBN978-4-86264-866-2

_________________________________

_________________________________

 

#新宿 #Manhattan #USA #London #UK #Paris #アンチノック #Milan #Italy #LUMIX #G3 #FUJIFILM #MothinLilac #MIL #GFX50R #B&W #Mono #Chiba #Japan #Exhibition #Flickr #YOUPIC #gallery #Camera #collage #Subway #street #Novel #Publishing #Mitsushiro #Nakagawa #artist #NY #Interview #Photograph #picture #How #take #write #novel #display #art #future #designfesta #Kawamura #Memorial #DIC #Museum #Fineart

 

For insta

#新宿 #Manhattan #London #Paris #アンチノック #Milan #MothinLilac #LUMIX #MIL #FUJIFILM #GFX50R #B&W #Fineart #Japan #Exhibition #Flickr #YOUPIC #Camera #Subway #street #Novel #Publishing #Mitsushiro #artist #Photograph #picture #novel #Fineart #future #designfesta

 

For twitter

#NY #London #Paris #Milan #LUMIX #FUJIFILM #新宿 #B&W #Exhibition #Flickr #Camera #street #MIL #MothinLilac #Mitsushiro #artist #アンチノック #designfesta #Fineart

     

僕は、2015年にイギリスへ行きました。

すでに僕はロンドンの多くの写真をアップロードしてきました。

しかし、それらはまだ一部です。

今回。

僕はそれを続けます。

今回は10枚です。

 

あなたが楽しんでくれることを僕は望みます。

  

Mitsushiro.

        

E

 

Centro Habana

January 2017

Habana, Cuba

© 2017 LEROE24FOTOS.COM

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED,

BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.

Published for #post-apo.lv weekly theme "Atvērto (b)aiļu dienas". #post-apoFriday

 

Combo picture. Both photos taken with Zenit 11 + Helios-44M-4 lens and Ilford Delta 100 Professional BW film. DIY developed with reversal processing, pushed +2

Malling's "Ein Requiem für die Orgel, Op. 75" was published by William Hansen in 1902. It is dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). Listen to David Lamb's skillful and moving performance of this work on The Armley Schulze organ (via Hauptwerk):

 

www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/playlist/listen/2333

You can also find me on Instagram: tekapa_pictures

...

 

#Frankfurt#Germany#City#urban#cityphotography#urbanphotography#cityexplorer#exploringthecity#urbanexplorer#street#streetphotography#streetshot#blackandwhitephotography#blackandwhite#bw#bnw#blacknwhite#blackandwhitephoto#bwlover#bwlovers#tekapapics

   

Finally got a better photo of this one. Fabric is Anna Maria Horner LouLouThi Coreopsis.

 

My pattern in Modern Patchwork 2012

www.interweavestore.com/Quilting/Magazines/Modern-Patchwo...

 

splendorfallsmc.blogspot.com/2012/04/modern-patchwork.html

Certainly one of the highlights of the year for me was seeing a couple of the live images from last years Deacon Blue tour being used in the 2014 years tour programme.

 

Original images used are on flickr:

 

Pages 8/9: www.flickr.com/photos/markcarline/11423536106

 

and:

 

Pages 14/15: www.flickr.com/photos/markcarline/11438862415

Sunset at Long Jetty. Although there was little cloud, the muted pastel colours were quite striking.

My spider monkey photo published in the latest 'World of animals' magazine.

單燈人像:預視現場,用一支閃燈打出各種可能

 

博客來連結:http://www.books.com.tw/products/0010767307

 

隔了幾年,終於推出了第二本個人著作,這次內容偏重在單燈的運用,如果對我平常拍攝人像使用的單燈技巧有興趣,可以參考這本新作喔 :)

Published in Motorsport News 25 June 2014

 

Used as Ariel Motor Company Twitter Profile Picture

Published in "Living the Photo Artistic Life," Issue 50, Pg. 86 on issuu.com.

Model: ranum.com, water: 480_underwater_partition_01_by_tigers_stock-d4v4iuf; sky: pexels.com; spacetelescope.org; snake: Laticauda colubrina (Wakatobi).jpg, commons.wikipedia.org; photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA13122.jpg; pixabay.com/en/veil-fog-filament-constellation-swan-11144/

Online mapping website decided to use one of my picture.

Piatra Neamt, Romania

ALL RIGHT RESERVED

All material in my gallery CANNOT be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or uploaded in any way without my permission.

Published on COCO Magazine

 

Model: Claudia Marusanici

MUA and hair: Sabina Pinsone

Styling: Bruno Michael Manfuso

London - Midnight in Trafalgar Square, postcard published by Raphael Tuck and Sons. Midnight London Series 953, postmarked 24 September 1908.

You can also find me on Instagram: tekapa_pictures

...

 

#Frankfurt#Germany#City#urban#cityphotography#urbanphotography#cityexplorer#exploringthecity#urbanexplorer#street#streetphotography#streetshot#blackandwhitephotography#blackandwhite#bw#bnw#blacknwhite#blackandwhitephoto#bwlover#bwlovers#tekapapics

   

Found this in my mailbox the day I arrived back in Los Angeles.

 

They contacted me from Austria last year and this the end product. I think they did a stellar job and it's quite the honor...

American Flamingo ~ Davie, Florida

 

A South Florida beauty, there are two parts to the chemistry that makes a flamingo pink; the carotenoids in the food that provide the pigments, and there are the specific enzymes produced by the species which utilize those pigments, providing its brilliant pink color.

 

(click more comments to see 9-shot series)

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Flamingo

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamingo_Gardens

 

[Published Dec 2015 - Island Conservation - Dominican Republic]

www.islandconservation.org/get-to-know-the-real-wild-thin...

  

Published On Nat Geo Daily Dozen June 7th 2013

 

yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/daily-dozen/2013-06-07/

 

Traveling through Hindukush mountain range of Baltistan , Pakistan i find this open air school in tough winter, students are studying in tough weather conditions without proper cloths and sweaters due to poverty in region.Local people are mostly formers and didn't afford the basics of life

 

Gulaghmoli , Ghizar , Gilgit-Baltistan

In 2012 Charles A. Peabody published, "The Privileged Addict". The story tracks his descent into chronic drug addiction and the crippling depressions that ensued during periods of sobriety. He wrote the book to detail the specific set of spiritual actions that changed him forever.

 

- Put a drug in front of me and I turn into a dumpster, consuming everything in sight. I can't stop. Nothing can stop me. Mom can't stop me. Doctors can't stop me. Pills can't stop me. Nothing human or man-made can stop me. I'm screwed. And yes I know it's wrong and I'll ruin everything, but I don't care. Even if I do care and I don't want to lose my wife, job, family, savings... I go get high anyway. That's how selfish I am. After 15 years of chronic addiction, I wanted to get better but couldn't. I had no power and no solution. Getting physically sober would just send me into a crippling depression. I wasn't okay with or without drugs until one night, up North, when I had a profound spiritual experience. I was equipped with a set of actions that saved my life and have brought untold miracles. I am recovered. I wrote this story to dispel the old cliche that people don't change. People do change. I am living proof." -

 

Macro Mondays - retake

StoneRhymingZone

Methadone

 

My entry for the macro mondays pool

Johanna Constantine (Future Feminism)

Webster Hall

New York City

September 7th, 2014

© 2014 LEROE24FOTOS.COM

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED,

BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.

Published by F. Youngman LTD, Leeds, UK

Postcard published by Rudolph Bros., New York City, and postmarked Aug. 26, 1922.

 

According to the Butler Volunteer Fire Department's Web page, the Bartholdi Hose Company No. 2 was established in Butler, New Jersey, in 1908, and the postcard view of its fire engine and firehouse (above) dates to 1922 or earlier. When I checked Google Maps, I was amazed to find that the Bartholdi Hose Company, as recorded by Google in 2013 (see screen capture below), looks much the same as it did 90 years earlier!

 

Originally posted on Ipernity: Bartholdi Hose Company, Butler, New Jersey, ca. 1920.

All Rights Reserved !!!!!

No parts of this material can be published, copied, downloaded or sold without a permission from me. PLEASE ask me before you post this material in a blog or on your page ! Please respect these rules !!!!

"She relaxes after she feeds. You can actually talk to her."

Where does the story go from here?

 

She comes, the room temperature drops, and I am paralyzed. I can only watch.

 

More here:

flic.kr/s/aHsmSR3Jxf

More red and black photos here:

 

flic.kr/s/aHBqjAHG3N

Justin Morales "On Location"

March 20th, 2016

New York City

© 2016 LEROE24FOTOS.COM

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED,

BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.

The Postcard

 

A postally unused postcard that was published by Fotofolio of Box 661, Canal Sta., NY, NY. The photography was by Rollie McKenna. The card has a divided back.

 

Dylan Thomas

 

Dylan Marlais Thomas, who was born in Swansea on the 27th. October 1914, was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems 'Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night' and 'And Death Shall Have No Dominion.'

 

Dylan's other work included 'Under Milk Wood' as well as stories and radio broadcasts such as 'A Child's Christmas in Wales' and 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog'.

 

He became widely popular in his lifetime, and remained so after his death at the age of 39 in New York City. By then he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a roistering, drunken and doomed poet.

 

In 1931, when he was 16, Thomas, an undistinguished pupil, left school to become a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post, only to leave under pressure 18 months later.

 

Many of his works appeared in print while he was still a teenager. In 1934, the publication of 'Light Breaks Where no Sun Shines' caught the attention of the literary world.

 

While living in London, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara. They married in 1937, and had three children: Llewelyn, Aeronwy and Colm.

 

Thomas came to be appreciated as a popular poet during his lifetime, though he found it hard to earn a living as a writer. He began augmenting his income with reading tours and radio broadcasts. His radio recordings for the BBC during the late 1940's brought him to the public's attention, and he was frequently used by the BBC as an accessible voice of the literary scene.

 

Thomas first travelled to the United States in the 1950's. His readings there brought him a degree of fame, while his erratic behaviour and drinking worsened. His time in the United States cemented his legend, however, and he went on to record to vinyl such works as 'A Child's Christmas in Wales'.

 

During his fourth trip to New York in 1953, Thomas became gravely ill and fell into a coma. He died on the 9th. November 1953, and his body was returned to Wales. On the 25th. November 1953, he was laid to rest in St Martin's churchyard in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire.

 

Although Thomas wrote exclusively in the English language, he has been acknowledged as one of the most important Welsh poets of the 20th century. He is noted for his original, rhythmic and ingenious use of words and imagery. He is regarded by many as one of the great modern poets, and he still remains popular with the public.

 

-- Dylan Thomas - The Early Years

 

Dylan was born at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, the son of Florence Hannah (née Williams; 1882–1958), a seamstress, and David John Thomas (1876–1952), a teacher. His father had a first-class honours degree in English from University College, Aberystwyth and ambitions to rise above his position teaching English literature at the local grammar school.

 

Thomas had one sibling, Nancy Marles (1906–1953), who was eight years his senior. The children spoke only English, though their parents were bilingual in English and Welsh, and David Thomas gave Welsh lessons at home.

 

Thomas's father chose the name Dylan, which means 'Son of the Sea', after Dylan ail Don, a character in The Mabinogion. Dylan's middle name, Marlais, was given in honour of his great-uncle, William Thomas, a Unitarian minister and poet whose bardic name was Gwilym Marles.

 

Dylan caused his mother to worry that he might be teased as the 'Dull One.' When he broadcast on Welsh BBC, early in his career, he was introduced using this pronunciation. Thomas favoured the Anglicised pronunciation, and gave instructions that it should be spoken as 'Dillan.'

 

The red-brick semi-detached house at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive (in the respectable area of the Uplands), in which Thomas was born and lived until he was 23, had been bought by his parents a few months before his birth.

 

Dylan's childhood featured regular summer trips to the Llansteffan Peninsula, a Welsh-speaking part of Carmarthenshire, where his maternal relatives were the sixth generation to farm there.

 

In the land between Llangain and Llansteffan, his mother's family, the Williamses and their close relatives, worked a dozen farms with over a thousand acres between them. The memory of Fernhill, a dilapidated 15-acre farm rented by his maternal aunt, Ann Jones, and her husband, Jim, is evoked in the 1945 lyrical poem 'Fern Hill', but is portrayed more accurately in his short story, 'The Peaches'.

 

Thomas had bronchitis and asthma in childhood, and struggled with these throughout his life. He was indulged by his mother and enjoyed being mollycoddled, a trait he carried into adulthood, and he was skilful in gaining attention and sympathy.

 

Thomas's formal education began at Mrs Hole's Dame School, a private school on Mirador Crescent, a few streets away from his home. He described his experience there in Reminiscences of Childhood:

 

"Never was there such a dame school as ours,

so firm and kind and smelling of galoshes, with

the sweet and fumbled music of the piano lessons

drifting down from upstairs to the lonely schoolroom,

where only the sometimes tearful wicked sat over

undone sums, or to repent a little crime – the pulling

of a girl's hair during geography, the sly shin kick

under the table during English literature".

 

In October 1925, Dylan Thomas enrolled at Swansea Grammar School for boys, in Mount Pleasant, where his father taught English. He was an undistinguished pupil who shied away from school, preferring reading.

 

In his first year, one of his poems was published in the school's magazine, and before he left he became its editor. In June 1928, Thomas won the school's mile race, held at St. Helen's Ground; he carried a newspaper photograph of his victory with him until his death.

 

During his final school years Dylan began writing poetry in notebooks; the first poem, dated 27th. April 1930, is entitled 'Osiris, Come to Isis'.

 

In 1931, when he was 16, Thomas left school to become a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post, only to leave under pressure 18 months later. Thomas continued to work as a freelance journalist for several years, during which time he remained at Cwmdonkin Drive and continued to add to his notebooks, amassing 200 poems in four books between 1930 and 1934. Of the 90 poems he published, half were written during these years.

 

In his free time, Dylan joined the amateur dramatic group at the Little Theatre in Mumbles, visited the cinema in Uplands, took walks along Swansea Bay, and frequented Swansea's pubs, especially the Antelope and the Mermaid Hotels in Mumbles.

 

In the Kardomah Café, close to the newspaper office in Castle Street, he met his creative contemporaries, including his friend the poet Vernon Watkins.

 

-- 1933–1939

 

In 1933, Thomas visited London for probably the first time.

 

Thomas was a teenager when many of the poems for which he became famous were published:

 

-- 'And Death Shall Have no Dominion'

-- 'Before I Knocked'

-- 'The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower'.

 

'And Death Shall Have no Dominion' appeared in the New English Weekly in May 1933:

 

'And death shall have no dominion.

Dead men naked they shall be one

With the man in the wind and the

west moon;

When their bones are picked clean and

the clean bones gone,

They shall have stars at elbow and foot;

Though they go mad they shall be sane,

Though they sink through the sea they

shall rise again

Though lovers be lost love shall not;

And death shall have no dominion'.

 

When 'Light Breaks Where no Sun Shines' appeared in The Listener in 1934, it caught the attention of three senior figures in literary London - T. S. Eliot, Geoffrey Grigson and Stephen Spender. They contacted Thomas, and his first poetry volume, '18 Poems', was published in December 1934.

 

'18 Poems' was noted for its visionary qualities which led to critic Desmond Hawkins writing that:

 

"The work is the sort of bomb

that bursts no more than once

in three years".

 

The volume was critically acclaimed, and won a contest run by the Sunday Referee, netting him new admirers from the London poetry world, including Edith Sitwell and Edwin Muir. The anthology was published by Fortune Press, in part a vanity publisher that did not pay its writers, and expected them to buy a certain number of copies themselves. A similar arrangement was used by other new authors, including Philip Larkin.

 

In September 1935, Thomas met Vernon Watkins, thus beginning a lifelong friendship. Dylan introduced Watkins, working at Lloyds Bank at the time, to his friends. The group of writers, musicians and artists became known as "The Kardomah Gang".

 

In those days, Thomas used to frequent the cinema on Mondays with Tom Warner who, like Watkins, had recently suffered a nervous breakdown. After these trips, Warner would bring Thomas back for supper with his aunt.

 

On one occasion, when she served him a boiled egg, she had to cut its top off for him, as Thomas did not know how to do this. This was because his mother had done it for him all his life, an example of her coddling him. Years later, his wife Caitlin would still have to prepare his eggs for him.

 

In December 1935, Thomas contributed the poem 'The Hand That Signed the Paper' to Issue 18 of the bi-monthly New Verse.

 

In 1936, Dylan's next collection 'Twenty-five Poems' received much critical praise. In 1938, Thomas won the Oscar Blumenthal Prize for Poetry; it was also the year in which New Directions offered to be his publisher in the United States. In all, he wrote half his poems while living at Cwmdonkin Drive before moving to London. It was the time that Thomas's reputation for heavy drinking developed.

 

In early 1936, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara (1913–94), a 22-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed dancer of Irish and French descent. She had run away from home, intent on making a career in dance, and at the age of 18 joined the chorus line at the London Palladium.

 

Introduced by Augustus John, Caitlin's lover, they met in The Wheatsheaf pub on Rathbone Place in London's West End. Laying his head on her lap, a drunken Thomas proposed. Thomas liked to comment that he and Caitlin were in bed together ten minutes after they first met.

 

Although Caitlin initially continued her relationship with Augustus John, she and Thomas began a correspondence, and by the second half of 1936 they were courting. They married at the register office in Penzance, Cornwall, on the 11th. July 1937.

 

In early 1938, they moved to Wales, renting a cottage in the village of Laugharne, Carmarthenshire. Their first child, Llewelyn Edouard, was born on the 30th. January 1939.

 

By the late 1930's, Thomas was embraced as the "Poetic Herald" for a group of English poets, the New Apocalyptics. However Thomas refused to align himself with them, and declined to sign their manifesto.

 

He later stated that:

 

"They are intellectual muckpots

leaning on a theory".

 

Despite Dylan's rejection, many of the group, including Henry Treece, modelled their work on Thomas's.

 

During the politically charged atmosphere of the 1930's, Thomas's sympathies were very much with the radical left, to the point of holding close links with the communists, as well as being decidedly pacifist and anti-fascist. He was a supporter of the left-wing No More War Movement, and boasted about participating in demonstrations against the British Union of Fascists.

 

-- 1939–1945

 

In 1939, a collection of 16 poems and seven of the 20 short stories published by Thomas in magazines since 1934, appeared as 'The Map of Love'.

 

Ten stories in his next book, 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog' (1940), were based less on lavish fantasy than those in 'The Map of Love', and more on real-life romances featuring himself in Wales.

 

Sales of both books were poor, resulting in Thomas living on meagre fees from writing and reviewing. At this time he borrowed heavily from friends and acquaintances.

 

Hounded by creditors, Thomas and his family left Laugharne in July 1940 and moved to the home of critic John Davenport in Marshfield, Gloucestershire. There Thomas collaborated with Davenport on the satire 'The Death of the King's Canary', though due to fears of libel, the work was not published until 1976.

 

At the outset of the Second World War, Thomas was worried about conscription, and referred to his ailment as "An Unreliable Lung".

 

Coughing sometimes confined him to bed, and he had a history of bringing up blood and mucus. After initially seeking employment in a reserved occupation, he managed to be classified Grade III, which meant that he would be among the last to be called up for service.

 

Saddened to see his friends going on active service, Dylan continued drinking, and struggled to support his family. He wrote begging letters to random literary figures asking for support, a plan he hoped would provide a long-term regular income. Thomas supplemented his income by writing scripts for the BBC, which not only gave him additional earnings but also provided evidence that he was engaged in essential war work.

 

In February 1941, Swansea was bombed by the Luftwaffe in a three night blitz. Castle Street was one of many streets that suffered badly; rows of shops, including the Kardomah Café, were destroyed. Thomas walked through the bombed-out shell of the town centre with his friend Bert Trick. Upset at the sight, he concluded:

 

"Our Swansea is dead".

 

Soon after the bombing raids, he wrote a radio play, 'Return Journey Home', which described the café as being "razed to the snow". The play was first broadcast on the 15th. June 1947. The Kardomah Café reopened on Portland Street after the war.

 

In May 1941, Thomas and Caitlin left their son with his grandmother at Blashford and moved to London. Thomas hoped to find employment in the film industry, and wrote to the director of the films division of the Ministry of Information (MOI). After initially being rebuffed, he found work with Strand Films, providing him with his first regular income since the Daily Post. Strand produced films for the MOI; Thomas scripted at least five films in 1942.

 

In five film projects, between 1942 and 1945, the Ministry of Information (MOI) commissioned Thomas to script a series of documentaries about both urban planning and wartime patriotism, all in partnership with director John Eldridge:

 

-- 'Wales: Green Mountain, Black Mountain'.

-- 'New Towns for Old' (on post-war reconstruction).

-- 'Fuel for Battle'.

-- 'Our Country' (1945) was a romantic tour of Great

Britain set to Thomas's poetry.

-- 'A City Reborn'.

 

Other projects included:

 

-- 'This Is Colour' (a history of the British dyeing industry).

-- 'These Are The Men' (1943), a more ambitious piece in which Thomas's verse accompanied Leni Riefenstahl's

footage of an early Nuremberg Rally.

-- 'Conquest of a Germ' (1944) explored the use of early antibiotics in the fight against pneumonia and tuberculosis.

 

In early 1943, Thomas began a relationship with Pamela Glendower; one of several affairs he had during his marriage. The affairs either ran out of steam or were halted after Caitlin discovered his infidelity.

 

In March 1943, Caitlin gave birth to a daughter, Aeronwy, in London. They lived in a run-down studio in Chelsea, made up of a single large room with a curtain to separate the kitchen.

 

The Thomas family made several escapes back to Wales during the war. Between 1941 and 1943, they lived intermittently in Plas Gelli, Talsarn, in Cardiganshire. Plas Gelli sits close by the River Aeron, after whom Aeronwy is thought to have been named. Some of Thomas’ letters from Gelli can be found in his 'Collected Letters'.

 

The Thomases shared the mansion with his childhood friends from Swansea, Vera and Evelyn Phillips. Vera's friendship with the Thomases in nearby New Quay is portrayed in the 2008 film, 'The Edge of Love'.

 

In July 1944, with the threat of German flying bombs landing on London, Thomas moved to the family cottage at Blaencwm near Llangain, Carmarthenshire, where he resumed writing poetry, completing 'Holy Spring' and 'Vision and Prayer'.

 

In September 1944, the Thomas family moved to New Quay in Cardiganshire (Ceredigion), where they rented Majoda, a wood and asbestos bungalow on the cliffs overlooking Cardigan Bay. It was here that Thomas wrote the radio piece 'Quite Early One Morning', a sketch for his later work, 'Under Milk Wood'.

 

Of the poetry written at this time, of note is 'Fern Hill', believed to have been started while living in New Quay, but completed at Blaencwm in mid-1945. Dylan's first biographer, Constantine FitzGibbon wrote that:

 

"His nine months in New Quay were a second

flowering, a period of fertility that recalls the

earliest days, with a great outpouring of poems

and a good deal of other material".

 

His second biographer, Paul Ferris, concurred:

 

"On the grounds of output, the bungalow

deserves a plaque of its own."

 

The Dylan Thomas scholar, Walford Davies, has noted that:

 

"New Quay was crucial in supplementing

the gallery of characters Thomas had to

hand for writing 'Under Milk Wood'."

 

-- Dylan Thomas's Broadcasting Years 1945–1949

 

Although Thomas had previously written for the BBC, it was a minor and intermittent source of income. In 1943, he wrote and recorded a 15-minute talk entitled 'Reminiscences of Childhood' for the Welsh BBC.

 

In December 1944, he recorded 'Quite Early One Morning' (produced by Aneirin Talfan Davies, again for the Welsh BBC), but when Davies offered it for national broadcast, BBC London initially turned it down.

 

However on the 31st. August 1945, the BBC Home Service broadcast 'Quite Early One Morning' nationally, and in the three subsequent years, Dylan made over a hundred broadcasts for the BBC, not only for his poetry readings, but for discussions and critiques.

 

In the second half of 1945, Dylan began reading for the BBC Radio programme, 'Book of Verse', that was broadcast weekly to the Far East. This provided Thomas with a regular income, and brought him into contact with Louis MacNeice, a congenial drinking companion whose advice Thomas cherished.

 

On the 29th. September 1946, the BBC began transmitting the Third Programme, a high-culture network which provided further opportunities for Thomas.

 

He appeared in the play 'Comus' for the Third Programme, the day after the network launched, and his rich, sonorous voice led to character parts, including the lead in Aeschylus's 'Agamemnon', and Satan in an adaptation of 'Paradise Lost'.

 

Thomas remained a popular guest on radio talk shows for the BBC, who stated:

 

"He is useful should a younger

generation poet be needed".

 

He had an uneasy relationship with BBC management, and a staff job was never an option, with drinking cited as the problem. Despite this, Thomas became a familiar radio voice and well-known celebrity within Great Britain.

 

By late September 1945, the Thomases had left Wales, and were living with various friends in London. In December, they moved to Oxford to live in a summerhouse on the banks of the Cherwell. It belonged to the historian, A. J. P. Taylor. His wife, Margaret, became Thomas’s most committed patron.

 

The publication of 'Deaths and Entrances' in February 1946 was a major turning point for Thomas. Poet and critic Walter J. Turner commented in The Spectator:

 

"This book alone, in my opinion,

ranks him as a major poet".

 

From 'In my Craft or Sullen Art,' 'Deaths and Entrances' (1946):

 

'Not for the proud man apart

From the raging moon, I write

On these spindrift pages

Nor for the towering dead

With their nightingales and psalms

But for the lovers, their arms

Round the griefs of the ages,

Who pay no praise or wages

Nor heed my craft or art'.

 

The following year, in April 1947, the Thomases travelled to Italy, after Thomas had been awarded a Society of Authors scholarship. They stayed first in villas near Rapallo and then Florence, before moving to a hotel in Rio Marina on the island of Elba.

 

On their return to England Thomas and his family moved, in September 1947, into the Manor House in South Leigh, just west of Oxford, found for him by Margaret Taylor.

 

He continued with his work for the BBC, completed a number of film scripts, and worked further on his ideas for 'Under Milk Wood'.

 

In March 1949 Thomas travelled to Prague. He had been invited by the Czech government to attend the inauguration of the Czechoslovak Writers' Union. Jiřina Hauková, who had previously published translations of some of Thomas' poems, was his guide and interpreter.

 

In her memoir, Hauková recalls that at a party in Prague, Thomas narrated the first version of his radio play 'Under Milk Wood.' She describes how he outlined the plot about a town that was declared insane, and then portrayed the predicament of an eccentric organist and a baker with two wives.

 

A month later, in May 1949, Thomas and his family moved to his final home, the Boat House at Laugharne, purchased for him at a cost of £2,500 in April 1949 by Margaret Taylor.

 

Thomas acquired a garage a hundred yards from the house on a cliff ledge which he turned into his writing shed, and where he wrote several of his most acclaimed poems. To see a photograph of the interior of Dylan's shed, please search for the tag 55DTW96

 

Just before moving into the Boat House, Thomas rented Pelican House opposite his regular drinking den, Brown's Hotel, for his parents. They both lived there from 1949 until Dylan's father 'D.J.' died on the 16th. December 1952. His mother continued to live there until 1953.

 

Caitlin gave birth to their third child, a boy named Colm Garan Hart, on the 25th. July 1949.

 

In October 1949, the New Zealand poet Allen Curnow came to visit Thomas at the Boat House, who took him to his writing shed. Curnow recalls:

 

"Dylan fished out a draft to show me

of the unfinished 'Under Milk Wood'

that was then called 'The Town That

Was Mad'."

 

-- Dylan Thomas's American tours, 1950–1953

 

(a) The First American Tour

 

The American poet John Brinnin invited Thomas to New York, where in 1950 they embarked on a lucrative three-month tour of arts centres and campuses.

 

The tour, which began in front of an audience of a thousand at the Kaufmann Auditorium in the Poetry Centre in New York, took in a further 40 venues. During the tour, Thomas was invited to many parties and functions, and on several occasions became drunk - going out of his way to shock people - and was a difficult guest.

 

Dylan drank before some of his readings, although it is argued that he may have pretended to be more affected by the alcohol than he actually was.

 

The writer Elizabeth Hardwick recalled how intoxicated a performer he could be, and how the tension would build before a performance:

 

"Would he arrive only to break

down on the stage?

Would some dismaying scene

take place at the faculty party?

Would he be offensive, violent,

obscene?"

 

Dylan's wife Caitlin said in her memoir:

 

"Nobody ever needed encouragement

less, and he was drowned in it."

 

On returning to Great Britain, Thomas began work on two further poems, 'In the White Giant's Thigh', which he read on the Third Programme in September 1950:

 

'Who once were a bloom of wayside

brides in the hawed house

And heard the lewd, wooed field

flow to the coming frost,

The scurrying, furred small friars

squeal in the dowse

Of day, in the thistle aisles, till the

white owl crossed.'

 

He also worked on the incomplete 'In Country Heaven'.

 

In October 1950, Thomas sent a draft of the first 39 pages of 'The Town That Was Mad' to the BBC. The task of seeing this work through to production was assigned to the BBC's Douglas Cleverdon, who had been responsible for casting Thomas in 'Paradise Lost'.

 

However, despite Cleverdon's urgings, the script slipped from Thomas's priorities, and in early 1951 he took a trip to Iran to work on a film for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The film was never made, with Thomas returning to Wales in February, though his time there allowed him to provide a few minutes of material for a BBC documentary, 'Persian Oil'.

 

Early in 1951 Thomas wrote two poems, which Thomas's principal biographer, Paul Ferris, describes as "unusually blunt." One was the ribald 'Lament', and the other was an ode, in the form of a villanelle, to his dying father 'Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night". (A villanelle is a pastoral or lyrical poem of nineteen lines, with only two rhymes throughout, and some lines repeated).

 

Despite a range of wealthy patrons, including Margaret Taylor, Princess Marguerite Caetani and Marged Howard-Stepney, Thomas was still in financial difficulty, and he wrote several begging letters to notable literary figures, including the likes of T. S. Eliot.

 

Margaret Taylor was not keen on Thomas taking another trip to the United States, and thought that if he had a permanent address in London he would be able to gain steady work there. She bought a property, 54 Delancey Street, in Camden Town, and in late 1951 Thomas and Caitlin lived in the basement flat. Thomas described the flat as his "London House of Horror", and did not return there after his 1952 tour of America.

 

(b) The Second American Tour

 

Thomas undertook a second tour of the United States in 1952, this time with Caitlin - after she had discovered that he had been unfaithful on his earlier trip. They drank heavily, and Thomas began to suffer with gout and lung problems.

 

It was during this tour that the above photograph was taken.

 

The second tour was the most intensive of the four, taking in 46 engagements.

 

The trip also resulted in Thomas recording his first poetry to vinyl, which Caedmon Records released in America later that year. One of his works recorded during this time, 'A Child's Christmas in Wales', became his most popular prose work in America. The recording was a 2008 selection for the United States National Recording Registry, which stated that:

 

"It is credited with launching the

audiobook industry in the United

States".

 

(c) The Third American Tour

 

In April 1953, Thomas returned alone for a third tour of America. He performed a "work in progress" version of 'Under Milk Wood', solo, for the first time at Harvard University on the 3rd. May 1953. A week later, the work was performed with a full cast at the Poetry Centre in New York.

 

Dylan met the deadline only after being locked in a room by Brinnin's assistant, Liz Reitell, and was still editing the script on the afternoon of the performance; its last lines were handed to the actors as they put on their makeup.

 

During this penultimate tour, Thomas met the composer Igor Stravinsky. Igor had become an admirer of Dylan after having been introduced to his poetry by W. H. Auden. They had discussions about collaborating on a "musical theatrical work" for which Dylan would provide the libretto on the theme of:

 

"The rediscovery of love and

language in what might be left

after the world after the bomb."

 

The shock of Thomas's death later in the year moved Stravinsky to compose his 'In Memoriam Dylan Thomas' for tenor, string quartet and four trombones. The work's first performance in Los Angeles in 1954 was introduced with a tribute to Thomas from Aldous Huxley.

 

Thomas spent the last nine or ten days of his third tour in New York mostly in the company of Reitell, with whom he had an affair.

 

During this time, Thomas fractured his arm falling down a flight of stairs when drunk. Reitell's doctor, Milton Feltenstein, put his arm in plaster, and treated him for gout and gastritis.

 

After returning home, Thomas worked on 'Under Milk Wood' in Wales before sending the original manuscript to Douglas Cleverdon on the 15th. October 1953. It was copied and returned to Thomas, who lost it in a pub in London and required a duplicate to take to America.

 

(d) The Fourth American Tour

 

Thomas flew to the States on the 19th. October 1953 for what would be his final tour. He died in New York before the BBC could record 'Under Milk Wood'. Richard Burton featured in its first broadcast in 1954, and was joined by Elizabeth Taylor in a subsequent film. In 1954, the play won the Prix Italia for literary or dramatic programmes.

 

Thomas's last collection 'Collected Poems, 1934–1952', published when he was 38, won the Foyle poetry prize. Reviewing the volume, critic Philip Toynbee declared that:

 

"Thomas is the greatest living

poet in the English language".

 

There followed a series of distressing events for Dylan. His father died from pneumonia just before Christmas 1952. In the first few months of 1953, his sister died from liver cancer, one of his patrons took an overdose of sleeping pills, three friends died at an early age, and Caitlin had an abortion.

 

Thomas left Laugharne on the 9th. October 1953 on the first leg of his trip to America. He called on his mother, Florence, to say goodbye:

 

"He always felt that he had to get

out from this country because of

his chest being so bad."

 

Thomas had suffered from chest problems for most of his life, though they began in earnest soon after he moved in May 1949 to the Boat House at Laugharne - the "Bronchial Heronry", as he called it. Within weeks of moving in, he visited a local doctor, who prescribed medicine for both his chest and throat.

 

Whilst waiting in London before his flight in October 1953, Thomas stayed with the comedian Harry Locke and worked on 'Under Milk Wood'. Locke noted that Thomas was having trouble with his chest, with terrible coughing fits that made him go purple in the face. He was also using an inhaler to help his breathing.

 

There were reports, too, that Thomas was also having blackouts. His visit to the BBC producer Philip Burton a few days before he left for New York, was interrupted by a blackout. On his last night in London, he had another in the company of his fellow poet Louis MacNeice.

 

Thomas arrived in New York on the 20th. October 1953 to undertake further performances of 'Under Milk Wood', organised by John Brinnin, his American agent and Director of the Poetry Centre. Brinnin did not travel to New York, but remained in Boston in order to write.

 

He handed responsibility to his assistant, Liz Reitell, who was keen to see Thomas for the first time since their three-week romance early in the year. She met Thomas at Idlewild Airport and was shocked at his appearance. He looked pale, delicate and shaky, not his usual robust self:

 

"He was very ill when he got here."

 

After being taken by Reitell to check in at the Chelsea Hotel, Thomas took the first rehearsal of 'Under Milk Wood'. They then went to the White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village, before returning to the Chelsea Hotel.

 

(Bob Dylan, formerly Robert Zimmerman, used to perform at the White Horse; Dylan Thomas was his favourite poet, and it is highly likely that Bob adopted Dylan's first name as his surname).

 

The next day, Reitell invited Thomas to her apartment, but he declined. They went sightseeing, but Thomas felt unwell, and retired to his bed for the rest of the afternoon. Reitell gave him half a grain (32.4 milligrams) of phenobarbitone to help him sleep, and spent the night at the hotel with him.

 

Two days later, on the 23rd. October 1953, at the third rehearsal, Thomas said he was too ill to take part, but he struggled on, shivering and burning with fever, before collapsing on the stage.

 

The next day, 24th. October, Reitell took Thomas to see her doctor, Milton Feltenstein, who administered cortisone injections. Thomas made it through the first performance that evening, but collapsed immediately afterwards.

 

Dylan told a friend who had come back-stage:

 

"This circus out there has taken

the life out of me for now."

 

Reitell later said:

 

"Feltenstein was rather a wild doctor

who thought injections would cure

anything".

 

At the next performance on the 25th. October, his fellow actors realised that Thomas was very ill:

 

"He was desperately ill…we didn’t think

that he would be able to do the last

performance because he was so ill…

Dylan literally couldn’t speak he was so

ill…still my greatest memory of it is that

he had no voice."

 

On the evening of the 27th. October, Thomas attended his 39th. birthday party, but felt unwell, and returned to his hotel after an hour. The next day, he took part in 'Poetry and the Film', a recorded symposium at Cinema 16.

 

A turning point came on the 2nd. November. Air pollution in New York had risen significantly, and exacerbated chest illnesses such as Thomas's. By the end of the month, over 200 New Yorkers had died from the smog.

 

On the 3rd. November, Thomas spent most of the day in his room, entertaining various friends. He went out in the evening to keep two drink appointments. After returning to the hotel, he went out again for a drink at 2 am. After drinking at the White Horse, Thomas returned to the Hotel Chelsea, declaring:

 

"I've had eighteen straight

whiskies. I think that's the

record!"

 

However the barman and the owner of the pub who served him later commented that Thomas could not have drunk more than half that amount, although the barman could have been trying to exonerate himself from any blame.

 

Thomas had an appointment at a clam house in New Jersey with Todd on the 4th. November. When Todd telephoned the Chelsea that morning, Thomas said he was feeling ill, and postponed the engagement. Todd thought that Dylan sounded "terrible".

 

The poet, Harvey Breit, was another to phone that morning. He thought that Thomas sounded "bad". Thomas' voice, recalled Breit, was "low and hoarse". Harvey had wanted to say:

 

"You sound as though from the tomb".

 

However instead Harvey told Thomas that he sounded like Louis Armstrong.

 

Later, Thomas went drinking with Reitell at the White Horse and, feeling sick again, returned to the hotel. Dr. Feltenstein came to see him three times that day, administering the cortisone secretant ACTH by injection and, on his third visit, half a grain (32.4 milligrams) of morphine sulphate, which affected Thomas' breathing.

 

Reitell became increasingly concerned, and telephoned Feltenstein for advice. He suggested that she get male assistance, so she called upon the artist Jack Heliker, who arrived before 11 pm. At midnight on the 5th. November, Thomas's breathing became more difficult, and his face turned blue.

 

Reitell phoned Feltenstein who arrived at the hotel at about 1 am, and called for an ambulance. It then took another hour for the ambulance to arrive at St. Vincent's, even though it was only a few blocks from the Chelsea.

 

Thomas was admitted to the emergency ward at St Vincent's Hospital at 1:58 am. He was comatose, and his medical notes stated that:

 

"The impression upon admission was acute

alcoholic encephalopathy damage to the brain

by alcohol, for which the patient was treated

without response".

 

Feltenstein then took control of Thomas's care, even though he did not have admitting rights at St. Vincent's. The hospital's senior brain specialist, Dr. C. G. Gutierrez-Mahoney, was not called to examine Thomas until the afternoon of the 6th. November, thirty-six hours after Thomas' admission.

 

Dylan's wife Caitlin flew to America the following day, and was taken to the hospital, by which time a tracheotomy had been performed. Her reported first words were:

 

"Is the bloody man dead yet?"

 

Caitlin was allowed to see Thomas only for 40 minutes in the morning, but returned in the afternoon and, in a drunken rage, threatened to kill John Brinnin. When she became uncontrollable, she was put in a straitjacket and committed, by Feltenstein, to the River Crest private psychiatric detox clinic on Long Island.

 

It is now believed that Thomas had been suffering from bronchitis, pneumonia and emphysema before his admission to St Vincent's. In their 2004 paper, 'Death by Neglect', D. N. Thomas and Dr Simon Barton disclose that Thomas was found to have pneumonia when he was admitted to hospital in a coma.

 

Doctors took three hours to restore his breathing, using artificial respiration and oxygen. Summarising their findings, they conclude:

 

"The medical notes indicate that, on admission,

Dylan's bronchial disease was found to be very

extensive, affecting upper, mid and lower lung

fields, both left and right."

 

The forensic pathologist, Professor Bernard Knight, concurs:

 

"Death was clearly due to a severe lung infection

with extensive advanced bronchopneumonia.

The severity of the chest infection, with greyish

consolidated areas of well-established pneumonia,

suggests that it had started before admission to

hospital."

 

Thomas died at noon on the 9th. November 1953, having never recovered from his coma. He was 39 years of age when he died.

 

-- Aftermath of Dylan Thomas's Death

 

Rumours circulated of a brain haemorrhage, followed by competing reports of a mugging, or even that Thomas had drunk himself to death. Later, speculation arose about drugs and diabetes.

 

At the post-mortem, the pathologist found three causes of death - pneumonia, brain swelling and a fatty liver. Despite Dylan's heavy drinking, his liver showed no sign of cirrhosis.

 

The publication of John Brinnin's 1955 biography 'Dylan Thomas in America' cemented Thomas's legacy as the "doomed poet". Brinnin focuses on Thomas's last few years, and paints a picture of him as a drunk and a philanderer.

 

Later biographies have criticised Brinnin's view, especially his coverage of Thomas's death. David Thomas in 'Fatal Neglect: Who Killed Dylan Thomas?' claims that Brinnin, along with Reitell and Feltenstein, were culpable.

 

FitzGibbon's 1965 biography ignores Thomas's heavy drinking and skims over his death, giving just two pages in his detailed book to Thomas's demise.

 

Ferris in his 1989 biography includes Thomas's heavy drinking, but is more critical of those around him in his final days, and does not draw the conclusion that he drank himself to death.

 

Many sources have criticised Feltenstein's role and actions, especially his incorrect diagnosis of delirium tremens and the high dose of morphine he administered. Dr C. G. de Gutierrez-Mahoney, the doctor who treated Thomas while at St. Vincent's, concluded that Feltenstein's failure to see that Thomas was gravely ill and have him admitted to hospital sooner was even more culpable than his use of morphine.

 

Caitlin Thomas's autobiographies, 'Caitlin Thomas - Leftover Life to Kill' (1957) and 'My Life with Dylan Thomas: Double Drink Story' (1997), describe the effects of alcohol on the poet and on their relationship:

 

"Ours was not only a love story, it was

a drink story, because without alcohol

it would never had got on its rocking

feet. The bar was our altar."

 

Biographer Andrew Lycett ascribed the decline in Thomas's health to an alcoholic co-dependent relationship with his wife, who deeply resented his extramarital affairs.

 

In contrast, Dylan biographers Andrew Sinclair and George Tremlett express the view that Thomas was not an alcoholic. Tremlett argues that many of Thomas's health issues stemmed from undiagnosed diabetes.

 

Thomas died intestate, with assets worth £100. His body was brought back to Wales for burial in the village churchyard at Laugharne. Dylan's funeral, which Brinnin did not attend, took place at St Martin's Church in Laugharne on the 24th. November 1953.

 

Six friends from the village carried Thomas's coffin. Caitlin, without her customary hat, walked behind the coffin, with his childhood friend Daniel Jones at her arm and her mother by her side. The procession to the church was filmed, and the wake took place at Brown's Hotel. Thomas's fellow poet and long-time friend Vernon Watkins wrote The Times obituary.

 

Thomas's widow, Caitlin, died in 1994, and was laid to rest alongside him. Dylan's mother Florence died in August 1958. Thomas's elder son, Llewelyn, died in 2000, his daughter, Aeronwy in 2009, and his youngest son Colm in 2012.

 

-- Dylan Thomas's Poetry

 

Thomas's refusal to align with any literary group or movement has made him and his work difficult to categorise. Although influenced by the modern symbolism and surrealism movements, he refused to follow such creeds. Instead, critics view Thomas as part of the modernism and romanticism movements, though attempts to pigeon-hole him within a particular neo-romantic school have been unsuccessful.

 

Elder Olson, in his 1954 critical study of Thomas's poetry, wrote:

 

"There is a further characteristic which

distinguished Thomas's work from that

of other poets. It was unclassifiable."

 

Olson went on to say that in a postmodern age that continually attempted to demand that poetry have social reference, none could be found in Thomas's work, and that his work was so obscure that critics could not analyse it.

 

Thomas's verbal style played against strict verse forms, such as in the villanelle 'Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night'.

 

His images appear carefully ordered in a patterned sequence, and his major theme was the unity of all life, the continuing process of life and death, and new life that linked the generations.

 

Thomas saw biology as a magical transformation producing unity out of diversity, and in his poetry sought a poetic ritual to celebrate this unity. He saw men and women locked in cycles of growth, love, procreation, new growth, death, and new life. Therefore, each image engenders its opposite.

 

Thomas derived his closely woven, sometimes self-contradictory images from the Bible, Welsh folklore, preaching, and Sigmund Freud. Explaining the source of his imagery, Thomas wrote in a letter to Glyn Jones:

 

"My own obscurity is quite an unfashionable one,

based, as it is, on a preconceived symbolism

derived (I'm afraid all this sounds woolly and

pretentious) from the cosmic significance of the

human anatomy".

 

Thomas's early poetry was noted for its verbal density, alliteration, sprung rhythm and internal rhyme, and some critics detected the influence of the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins, had taught himself Welsh, and used sprung verse, bringing some features of Welsh poetic metre into his work.

 

However when Henry Treece wrote to Thomas comparing his style to that of Hopkins, Thomas wrote back denying any such influence. Thomas greatly admired Thomas Hardy, who is regarded as an influence. When Thomas travelled in America, he recited some of Hardy's work in his readings.

 

Other poets from whom critics believe Thomas drew influence include James Joyce, Arthur Rimbaud and D. H. Lawrence.

 

William York Tindall, in his 1962 study, 'A Reader's Guide to Dylan Thomas', finds comparison between Thomas's and Joyce's wordplay, while he notes the themes of rebirth and nature are common to the works of Lawrence and Thomas.

 

Although Thomas described himself as the "Rimbaud of Cwmdonkin Drive", he stated that the phrase "Swansea's Rimbaud" was coined by the poet Roy Campbell.

 

Critics have explored the origins of Thomas's mythological pasts in his works such as 'The Orchards', which Ann Elizabeth Mayer believes reflects the Welsh myths of the Mabinogion.

 

Thomas's poetry is notable for its musicality, most clear in 'Fern Hill', 'In Country Sleep', 'Ballad of the Long-legged Bait' and 'In the White Giant's Thigh' from Under Milk Wood.

 

Thomas once confided that the poems which had most influenced him were Mother Goose rhymes which his parents taught him when he was a child:

 

"I should say I wanted to write poetry in the

beginning because I had fallen in love with

words.

The first poems I knew were nursery rhymes,

and before I could read them for myself I had

come to love the words of them. The words

alone.

What the words stood for was of a very

secondary importance ... I fell in love, that is

the only expression I can think of, at once,

and am still at the mercy of words, though

sometimes now, knowing a little of their

behaviour very well, I think I can influence

them slightly and have even learned to beat

them now and then, which they appear to

enjoy.

I tumbled for words at once. And, when I began

to read the nursery rhymes for myself, and, later,

to read other verses and ballads, I knew that I

had discovered the most important things, to

me, that could be ever."

 

Thomas became an accomplished writer of prose poetry, with collections such as 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog' (1940) and 'Quite Early One Morning' (1954) showing he was capable of writing moving short stories. His first published prose work, 'After the Fair', appeared in The New English Weekly on the 15th. March 1934.

 

Jacob Korg believes that one can classify Thomas's fiction work into two main bodies:

 

-- Vigorous fantasies in a poetic style

-- After 1939, more straightforward

narratives.

 

Korg surmises that Thomas approached his prose writing as an alternate poetic form, which allowed him to produce complex, involuted narratives that do not allow the reader to rest.

 

-- Dylan Thomas as a Welsh Poet

 

Thomas disliked being regarded as a provincial poet, and decried any notion of 'Welshness' in his poetry. When he wrote to Stephen Spender in 1952, thanking him for a review of his Collected Poems, he added:

 

"Oh, & I forgot. I'm not influenced by

Welsh bardic poetry. I can't read Welsh."

 

Despite this, his work was rooted in the geography of Wales. Thomas acknowledged that he returned to Wales when he had difficulty writing, and John Ackerman argues that:

 

"Dylan's inspiration and imagination

were rooted in his Welsh background".

 

Caitlin Thomas wrote that:

 

"He worked in a fanatically narrow groove,

although there was nothing narrow about

the depth and understanding of his feelings.

The groove of direct hereditary descent in

the land of his birth, which he never in

thought, and hardly in body, moved out of."

 

Head of Programmes Wales at the BBC, Aneirin Talfan Davies, who commissioned several of Thomas's early radio talks, believed that the poet's whole attitude is that of the medieval bards.

 

Kenneth O. Morgan counter-argues that it is a difficult enterprise to find traces of cynghanedd (consonant harmony) or cerdd dafod (tongue-craft) in Thomas's poetry. Instead he believes that Dylan's work, especially his earlier, more autobiographical poems, are rooted in a changing country which echoes the Welshness of the past and the Anglicisation of the new industrial nation:

 

"Rural and urban, chapel-going and profane,

Welsh and English, unforgiving and deeply

compassionate."

 

Fellow poet and critic Glyn Jones believed that any traces of cynghanedd in Thomas's work were accidental, although he felt that Dylan consciously employed one element of Welsh metrics: that of counting syllables per line instead of feet. Constantine Fitzgibbon, who was his first in-depth biographer, wrote:

 

"No major English poet has

ever been as Welsh as Dylan".

 

Although Dylan had a deep connection with Wales, he disliked Welsh nationalism. He once wrote:

 

"Land of my fathers, and

my fathers can keep it".

 

While often attributed to Thomas himself, this line actually comes from the character Owen Morgan-Vaughan, in the screenplay Thomas wrote for the 1948 British melodrama 'The Three Weird Sisters'.

 

Robert Pocock, a friend from the BBC, recalled:

 

"I only once heard Dylan express an

opinion on Welsh Nationalism.

He used three words. Two of them

were Welsh Nationalism."

 

Although not expressed as strongly, Glyn Jones believed that he and Thomas's friendship cooled in the later years because he had not rejected enough of the elements that Thomas disliked, i.e. "Welsh nationalism and a sort of hill farm morality".

 

Apologetically, in a letter to Keidrych Rhys, editor of the literary magazine 'Wales', Thomas's father wrote:

 

"I'm afraid Dylan isn't much

of a Welshman".

 

FitzGibbon asserts that Thomas's negativity towards Welsh nationalism was fostered by his father's hostility towards the Welsh language.

 

Critical Appraisal of Dylan Thomas's Work

 

Thomas's work and stature as a poet have been much debated by critics and biographers since his death. Critical studies have been clouded by Thomas's personality and mythology, especially his drunken persona and death in New York.

 

When Seamus Heaney gave an Oxford lecture on the poet, he opened by addressing the assembly:

 

"Dylan Thomas is now as much

a case history as a chapter in the

history of poetry".

 

He queried how 'Thomas the Poet' is one of his forgotten attributes. David Holbrook, who has written three books about Thomas, stated in his 1962 publication 'Llareggub Revisited':

 

"The strangest feature of Dylan Thomas's

notoriety - not that he is bogus, but that

attitudes to poetry attached themselves

to him which not only threaten the prestige,

effectiveness and accessibility to English

poetry, but also destroyed his true voice

and, at last, him."

 

The Poetry Archive notes that:

 

"Dylan Thomas's detractors accuse him

of being drunk on language as well as

whiskey, but whilst there's no doubt that

the sound of language is central to his

style, he was also a disciplined writer

who re-drafted obsessively".

 

Many critics have argued that Thomas's work is too narrow, and that he suffers from verbal extravagance. However those who have championed his work have found the criticism baffling. Robert Lowell wrote in 1947:

 

"Nothing could be more wrongheaded

than the English disputes about Dylan

Thomas's greatness ... He is a dazzling

obscure writer who can be enjoyed

without understanding."

 

Kenneth Rexroth said, on reading 'Eighteen Poems':

 

"The reeling excitement of a poetry-intoxicated

schoolboy smote the Philistine as hard a blow

with one small book as Swinburne had with

Poems and Ballads."

 

Philip Larkin, in a letter to Kingsley Amis in 1948, wrote that:

 

"No one can stick words into us

like pins... like Thomas can".

 

However he followed that by stating that:

 

"Dylan doesn't use his words

to any advantage".

 

Amis was far harsher, finding little of merit in Dylan's work, and claiming that:

 

"He is frothing at the mouth

with piss."

 

In 1956, the publication of the anthology 'New Lines' featuring works by the British collective The Movement, which included Amis and Larkin amongst its number, set out a vision of modern poetry that was damning towards the poets of the 1940's. Thomas's work in particular was criticised. David Lodge, writing about The Movement in 1981 stated:

 

"Dylan Thomas was made to stand for

everything they detest, verbal obscurity,

metaphysical pretentiousness, and

romantic rhapsodizing".

 

Despite criticism by sections of academia, Thomas's work has been embraced by readers more so than many of his contemporaries, and is one of the few modern poets whose name is recognised by the general public.

 

In 2009, over 18,000 votes were cast in a BBC poll to find the UK's favourite poet; Thomas was placed 10th.

 

Several of Dylan's poems have passed into the cultural mainstream, and his work has been used by authors, musicians and film and television writers.

 

The long-running BBC Radio programme, 'Desert Island Discs', in which guests usually choose their favourite songs, has heard 50 participants select a Dylan Thomas recording.

 

John Goodby states that this popularity with the reading public allows Thomas's work to be classed as vulgar and common. He also cites that despite a brief period during the 1960's when Thomas was considered a cultural icon, the poet has been marginalized in critical circles due to his exuberance, in both life and work, and his refusal to know his place.

 

Goodby believes that Thomas has been mainly snubbed since the 1970's and has become: "... an embarrassment to twentieth-century poetry criticism", his work failing to fit standard narratives, and thus being ignored rather than studied.

 

-- Memorials to Dylan Thomas

 

In Swansea's maritime quarter is the Dylan Thomas Theatre, the home of the Swansea Little Theatre of which Thomas was once a member. The former Guildhall built in 1825 is now occupied by the Dylan Thomas Centre, a literature centre, where exhibitions and lectures are held and which is a setting for the annual Dylan Thomas Festival. Outside the centre stands a bronze statue of Thomas by John Doubleday.

 

Another monument to Thomas stands in Cwmdonkin Park, one of Dylan's favourite childhood haunts, close to his birthplace. The memorial is a small rock in an enclosed garden within the park, cut by and inscribed by the late sculptor Ronald Cour with the closing lines from Fern Hill:

 

'Oh as I was young and easy

in the mercy of his means

Time held me green and dying

Though I sang in my chains like

the sea'.

 

Thomas's home in Laugharne, the Boathouse, is now a museum run by Carmarthenshire County Council. Thomas's writing shed is also preserved.

 

In 2004, the Dylan Thomas Prize was created in his honour, awarded to the best published writer in English under the age of 30. In 2005, the Dylan Thomas Screenplay Award was established. The prize, administered by the Dylan Thomas Centre, is awarded at the annual Swansea Bay Film Festival.

 

In 1982 a plaque was unveiled in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. The plaque is also inscribed with the last two lines of 'Fern Hill'.

 

In 2014, the Royal Patron of The Dylan Thomas 100 Festival was Charles, Prince of Wales, who made a recording of 'Fern Hill' for the event.

 

In 2014, to celebrate the centenary of Thomas's birth, the British Council Wales undertook a year-long programme of cultural and educational works. Highlights included a touring replica of Thomas's work shed, Sir Peter Blake's exhibition of illustrations based on 'Under Milk Wood', and a 36-hour marathon of readings, which included Michael Sheen and Sir Ian McKellen performing Thomas's work.

 

Towamensing Trails, Pennsylvania named one of its streets, Thomas Lane, in Dylan's honour.

 

-- List of Works by Dylan Thomas

 

-- 'The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas: The New Centenary Edition', edited and with Introduction by John Goodby. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014.

-- 'The Notebook Poems 1930–34', edited by Ralph Maud. London: Dent, 1989.

-- 'Dylan Thomas: The Film Scripts', edited by John Ackerman. London: Dent 1995.

-- 'Dylan Thomas: Early Prose Writings', edited by Walford Davies. London: Dent 1971.

-- 'Collected Stories', edited by Walford Davies. London: Dent, 1983.

-- 'Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices', edited by Walford Davies and Ralph Maud. London: Dent, 1995.

-- 'On The Air With Dylan Thomas: The Broadcasts', edited by Ralph Maud. New York: New Directions, 1991.

 

-- Correspondence

 

-- 'Dylan Thomas: The Collected Letters', edited by Paul Ferris (2017), 2 vols. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Vol I: 1931–1939

Vol II: 1939–1953.

-- 'Letters to Vernon Watkins', edited by Vernon Watkins (1957). London: Dent.

 

-- Posthumous Film Adaptations

 

-- 2016: Dominion, written and directed by Steven Bernstein, examines the final hours of Dylan Thomas.

-- 2014: Set Fire to the Stars, with Thomas portrayed by Celyn Jones, and John Brinnin by Elijah Wood.

-- 2014: Under Milk Wood BBC, starring Charlotte Church, Tom Jones, Griff Rhys-Jones and Michael Sheen.

-- 2014: Interstellar. The poem is featured throughout the film as a recurring theme regarding the perseverance of humanity.

-- 2009: A Child's Christmas in Wales, BAFTA Best Short Film. Animation, with soundtrack in Welsh and English. Director: Dave Unwin. Extras include filmed comments from Aeronwy Thomas.

-- 2007: Dylan Thomas: A War Films Anthology (DDHE/IWM).

-- 1996: Independence Day. Before the attack, the President paraphrases Thomas's "Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night".

-- 1992: Rebecca's Daughters, starring Peter O'Toole and Joely Richardson.

-- 1987: A Child's Christmas in Wales, directed by Don McBrearty.

-- 1972: Under Milk Wood, starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Peter O'Toole.

 

-- Opera Adaptation

 

-- 1973: Unter dem Milchwald, by German composer Walter Steffens on his own libretto using Erich Fried's translation of 'Under Milk Wood' into German, Hamburg State Opera. Also at the Staatstheater Kassel in 1977.

 

-- Final Thoughts From Dylan Thomas

 

"Somebody's boring me.

I think it's me."

 

"Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

 

"When one burns one's bridges,

what a very nice fire it makes."

 

"I think, that if I touched the earth,

It would crumble; It is so sad and

beautiful, so tremulously like a dream."

 

"An alcoholic is someone you don't

like, who drinks as much as you do."

 

"I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in me,

and my enquiry is as to their working, and my

problem is their subjugation and victory, down

throw and upheaval, and my effort is their self-

expression."

 

"The only sea I saw was the seesaw sea

with you riding on it. Lie down, lie easy.

Let me shipwreck in your thighs."

 

"Why do men think you can pick love up

and re-light it like a candle? Women know

when love is over."

 

"Poetry is not the most important thing in life.

I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading

Agatha Christie and sucking sweets."

 

"And now, gentlemen, like your manners,

I must leave you."

 

"My education was the liberty I had to read

indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes

hanging out."

 

"I'm a freak user of words, not a poet."

 

"Our discreditable secret is that we don't

know anything at all, and our horrid inner

secret is that we don't care that we don't."

 

"It snowed last year too: I made a snowman

and my brother knocked it down and I knocked

my brother down and then we had tea."

 

"Though lovers be lost love shall not."

 

"Man’s wants remain unsatisfied till death.

Then, when his soul is naked, is he one

with the man in the wind, and the west moon,

with the harmonious thunder of the sun."

 

"And books which told me everything

about the wasp, except why."

 

"We are not wholly bad or good, who

live our lives under Milk Wood."

 

"Love is the last light spoken."

 

"... an ugly, lovely town ... crawling, sprawling ...

by the side of a long and splendid curving

shore. This sea-town was my world."

 

"I do not need any friends. I prefer enemies.

They are better company, and their feelings

towards you are always genuine."

 

"This poem has been called obscure. I refuse

to believe that it is obscurer than pity, violence,

or suffering. But being a poem, not a lifetime,

it is more compressed."

 

"One: I am a Welshman; two: I am a drunkard;

three: I am a lover of the human race, especially

of women."

 

"I believe in New Yorkers. Whether they've ever

questioned the dream in which they live, I wouldn't

know, because I won't ever dare ask that question."

 

"These poems, with all their crudities, doubts and

confusions, are written for the love of man and in

praise of God, and I'd be a damn fool if they weren't."

 

"Before you let the sun in, mind he wipes his shoes."

 

"Nothing grows in our garden, only washing.

And babies."

 

"Make gentle the life of this world."

 

"A worm tells summer better than the clock,

the slug's a living calendar of days; what shall

it tell me if a timeless insect says the world

wears away?"

 

"Time passes. Listen. Time passes. Come

closer now. Only you can hear the houses

sleeping in the streets in the slow deep salt

and silent black, bandaged night."

 

"Rhianon, he said, hold my hand, Rhianon.

She did not hear him, but stood over his bed

and fixed him with an unbroken sorrow. Hold

my hand, he said, and then: Why are you

putting the sheet over my face?"

 

"Come on up, boys - I'm dead."

 

"Life is a terrible thing, thank God."

A shot from a set taken last year while at Ardrossan beach.

 

With the shipwreck as the main focal point with the Isle of Arran to the left and the setting sun to the right.

--

Taken using a Sigma 17-70 and Cokin grad filters, f/18 @ 0.6 seconds..

--

Best seen Large on black - Press L

--

--

( Published in the Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald - Nov 14, 21, 2012 )

 

It is always nice to have a picture in the paper, but this was even better with the story and the follow up providing some historical information on the wreck, articles posted below.

Note: this photo was published in an Aug 5, 2008 NowPublic blog entitled "Waiting for iPhone 3g." It was also published in a Mar 25, 2010 Wikimedia Commons blog with the title "File:Sleeping-1-dot-jpg." It was also published in a Nov 8, 2008 blog titled "The Importance of Sleep to Teenagers." And it was published in a Jul 6, 2010 blog titled "Keep Dreaming, Kid: Rhode Island High School Tells Students to Sleep In." It was also published in a Sep 8, 2010 blog titled "Sleep less than 6 hours a night? Hello, diabetes..." And it was published ina Dec 21, 2010 blog titled "Not Just for Kids — the Surprising Health Issues of Midlife Women.."

 

The photo was also published in a Feb 7, 2011 blog titled "40代の心の危機." And it was published in a May 25, 2011 Cool iPhone images blog, with the same caption and detailed notes that I had written on this Flickr page. It was also published in a May 27, 2011 "The Daily Sleep" blog in a posting titled "Too Much Going On In Teen Life." And it was published in a Jun 29, 2011 Cool Sleep Importance Issues blog, with the same caption and detailed notes I had written on this Flickr page. It was also published in an undated (early Jul 2011) blog titled "5 Reasons Sleep Affects Your Fitness." And it was published in a Sep 16, 2011 Slate blog posting titled "Le bonheur appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt." It was also published in an Oct 12, 2011 blog titled "Donne e problemi notturni/1: il cervello lavora fino a tardy." And it was published in a Nov 28, 2011 blog titled "How to Perfect Your Sleep Cycle." It was also published in a Dec 15, 2011 blog titled "Dormi più di dieci ore per notte? Leggi qui."

 

Moving into 2012, the photo was published in an undated (late Jan 2012) blog titled "Serial dilution, or ... How to Count to a Million." It was also published in a Feb 6, 2012 blog titled "t10 Reasons It's Awesome to Be an Insomniac." And it was published in a Feb 20, 2012 "Mag for Women" blog titled "6 Signs of Sleep Deprivation." It was also published in a May 23, 2012 blog titled "Sleep Bot, la aplicación que le ayudará a tener dulcet sueños." And it was published in an undated (early Jun 2012) blog titled "効果的な予防策は?" It was also published in a Jun 15, 2012 blog titled "Dormir pouco pode aumentar consumo de comidas gordurosas, did estudo." And it was published in an undated (mid-Jun 2012) blog titled "I RIMEDI NATURALI PER LA PRESSIONE BASSA." And it was published in a Jun 14, 2012 blog titled "Dormir pouco pode aumentar consumo de comidas gordurosas, diz estudo." It was also published in a Jun 30, 2012 blog titled "Nice Healthy Gadgets photos." And it was published in a Jul 18, 2012 blog titled "How Much Sleep Do You Need To Keep Your Memory Sharp?" It was also published in an Aug 31, 2012 blog titled "Crampi allo stomaco notturni, quali sono i rimedi." And it was published in an Oct 20, 2012 blog titled "Sonno e salute, ecco 9 motivi per dormire di più." It was also published in a Nov 24, 2012 blog titled Scoperto l'antidoto all'ipersonnia, aiuterà la Bella Addormentata? And it was published in a Dec 10, 2012 blog titled "OCD and Sleep."

 

Moving into 2013, the photo was published in an undated (late Feb 2013) blog titled "I RIMEDI NATURALI PER LA PRESSIONE BASSA." It was also published in a Mar 5, 2013 blog titled "Gros dormeurs : le gouvernement vote le passage aux 25 heures," as well as a Mar 13, 2013 blog titled "Student health and effects of sleep deprivation: Best study habits include adequate sleep," as well as a Mar 26, 2013 blog titled "How to Help Your Teen Get a Good Night’s Sleep." And it was published in an Apr 8, 2013 blog titled "WHAT DO I DO IF I CAN’T GET ALONG WITH MY TRAVEL BUDDY?" It was also published in a May 25, 2013 blog titled "Feeling Sleep Deprived? Blame Facebook," as well as a Jul 29, 2013 blog titled "Nefarious NapStealers and the Importance of Sleep." And it was published in a Sep 5, 2013 blog titled "Should High Schools Have Later Start Times?"

 

***********************************************

 

Silly me: after the iPhone 3g had been out for a full week, I thought I could stroll right into the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue & 59th Street in mid-town Manhattan, and simply buy one without any muss, fuss, bother, or delay.

 

But when I arrived at 11 AM, I found a line of approximately 150 people waiting outside in the broiling sun, not seeming to move forward at all; it turned out that the Apple store "concierge" folks were letting them in in groups of ten, when the previous ten had been taken care of. When I asked the woman how long she had been waiting, she said, "Four hours" -- she had arrived at 7 AM, having already determined that the AT&T stores were sold out throughout New Jersey and Connecticut.

 

Well, I'm a gadget freak and a Mac fan, but there's a limit to my passion for such things; four hours was just too much. So instead, I decided to take a bunch of pictures of the people who were in the line. Of course, I have no idea whethere the people queued up in front of Apple stores in other cities (or at other stores here in NYC) are similar to this group ... but I'm inclined to think that they are. And if that's true, then the demographics of this group -- in terms of age, gender, nationality, ethnic groups, etc. -- is particularly intriguing. I saw only one guy dressed in a corporate uniform of suit and tie; Apple may be trying to break into the "enterprise" market, but that's not who was standing in line for all those hours in the sun...

This image is © Copyright 2017 Colin Myers. All Rights Reserved Worldwide in Perpetuity. Use of my images without permission is illegal.

 

Absolutely no permission is granted in any form, fashion or way, digital or otherwise, to use copy, edit, reproduce, publish, duplicate, or distribute my images or any part of them on blogs, personal or professional websites or any other media without my direct written permission.

 

If you wish to use any of my images for any reason or purpose please contact me for written permission.

Published in the November / December issue of the new travel magazine "Everywhere Magazine" (Issue 1) --- see http//www.everywheremag.com

 

Explore #434; October 13, 2007

Not a bad place to relax................ Ah! (View Large)

 

The Mohonk Mountain House as seen from beyond Lake Mohonk; New Paltz, New York. October 2007.

Gilbert Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. His own term for himself was "bluesologist", which he defined as "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues". His poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", delivered over a jazz-soul beat, is considered a major influence on hip hop music.

 

His music, most notably on the albums Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and foreshadowed later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. His recording work received much critical acclaim, especially for The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. AllMusic's John Bush called him "one of the most important progenitors of rap music", stating that "his aggressive, no-nonsense street poetry inspired a legion of intelligent rappers while his engaging songwriting skills placed him square in the R&B charts later in his career."

 

Scott-Heron remained active until his death, and in 2010 released his first new album in 16 years, entitled I'm New Here. A memoir he had been working on for years up to the time of his death, The Last Holiday, was published posthumously in January 2012. Scott-Heron received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He also is included in the exhibits at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) that officially opened on September 24, 2016, on the National Mall, and in an NMAAHC publication, Dream a World Anew. In 2021, Scott-Heron was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a recipient of the Early Influence Award.

 

Gil Scott-Heron was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Bobbie Scott, was an opera singer who performed with the Oratorio Society of New York. His father, Gil Heron, nicknamed "The Black Arrow," was a Jamaican footballer who in the 1950s became the first black man to play for Celtic Football Club in Glasgow, Scotland. Gil's parents separated in his early childhood and he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother, Lillie Scott, in Jackson, Tennessee. When Scott-Heron was 12 years old, his grandmother died and he returned to live with his mother in The Bronx in New York City. He enrolled at DeWitt Clinton High School, but later transferred to The Fieldston School, after impressing the head of the English department with some of his writings and earning a full scholarship. As one of five Black students at the prestigious school, Scott-Heron was faced with alienation and a significant socioeconomic gap. During his admissions interview at Fieldston, an administrator asked him: "'How would you feel if you see one of your classmates go by in a limousine while you're walking up the hill from the subway?' And [he] said, 'Same way as you. Y'all can't afford no limousine. How do you feel?'" This type of intractable boldness would become a hallmark of Scott-Heron's later recordings.

 

After completing his secondary education, Scott-Heron decided to attend Lincoln University in Pennsylvania because Langston Hughes (his most important literary influence) was an alumnus. It was here that Scott-Heron met Brian Jackson, with whom he formed the band Black & Blues. After about two years at Lincoln, Scott-Heron took a year off to write the novels The Vulture and The Nigger Factory. Scott-Heron was very heavily influenced by the Black Arts Movement (BAM). The Last Poets, a group associated with the Black Arts Movement, performed at Lincoln in 1969 and Abiodun Oyewole of that Harlem group said Scott-Heron asked him after the performance, "Listen, can I start a group like you guys?"[18] Scott-Heron returned to New York City, settling in Chelsea, Manhattan. The Vulture was published by the World Publishing Company in 1970 to positive reviews.

 

Although Scott-Heron never completed his undergraduate degree, he was admitted to the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, where he received an M.A. in creative writing in 1972. His master's thesis was titled Circle of Stone. Beginning in 1972, Scott-Heron taught literature and creative writing for several years as a full-time lecturer at University of the District of Columbia (then known as Federal City College) in Washington, D.C. while maintaining his music career.

 

Scott-Heron began his recording career with the LP Small Talk at 125th and Lenox in 1970. Bob Thiele of Flying Dutchman Records produced the album, and Scott-Heron was accompanied by Eddie Knowles and Charlie Saunders on conga and David Barnes on percussion and vocals. The album's 14 tracks dealt with themes such as the superficiality of television and mass consumerism, the hypocrisy of some would-be black revolutionaries, and white middle-class ignorance of the difficulties faced by inner-city residents. In the liner notes, Scott-Heron acknowledged as influences Richie Havens, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, Jose Feliciano, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Nina Simone, and long-time collaborator Brian Jackson.

 

Scott-Heron's 1971 album Pieces of a Man used more conventional song structures than the loose, spoken-word feel of Small Talk. He was joined by Jackson, Johnny Pate as conductor, Ron Carter on bass and bass guitar, drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Burt Jones playing electric guitar, and Hubert Laws on flute and saxophone, with Thiele producing again. Scott-Heron's third album, Free Will, was released in 1972. Jackson, Purdie, Laws, Knowles, and Saunders all returned to play on Free Will and were joined by Jerry Jemmott playing bass, David Spinozza on guitar, and Horace Ott (arranger and conductor). Carter later said about Scott-Heron's voice: "He wasn't a great singer, but, with that voice, if he had whispered it would have been dynamic. It was a voice like you would have for Shakespeare."

 

In 1974, he recorded another collaboration with Brian Jackson, Winter in America, with Bob Adams on drums and Danny Bowens on bass. Winter in America has been regarded by many critics as the two musicians' most artistic effort. The following year, Scott-Heron and Jackson released Midnight Band: The First Minute of a New Day. In 1975, he released the single "Johannesburg", a rallying cry for the end of apartheid in South Africa. The song would be re-issued, in 12"-single form, together with "Waiting for the Axe to Fall" and "B-movie" in 1983.

 

A live album, It's Your World, followed in 1976 and a recording of spoken poetry, The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron, was released in 1978. Another success followed with the hit single "Angel Dust", which he recorded as a single with producer Malcolm Cecil. "Angel Dust" peaked at No. 15 on the R&B charts in 1978.

 

In 1979, Scott-Heron played at the No Nukes concerts at Madison Square Garden. The concerts were organized by Musicians United for Safe Energy to protest the use of nuclear energy following the Three Mile Island accident. Scott-Heron's song "We Almost Lost Detroit" was included in the No Nukes album of concert highlights. It alluded to a previous nuclear power plant accident and was also the title of a book by John G. Fuller. Scott-Heron was a frequent critic of President Ronald Reagan and his conservative policies.

 

Scott-Heron recorded and released four albums during the 1980s: 1980 and Real Eyes (1980), Reflections (1981) and Moving Target (1982). In February 1982, Ron Holloway joined the ensemble to play tenor saxophone. He toured extensively with Scott-Heron and contributed to his next album, Moving Target the same year. His tenor accompaniment is a prominent feature of the songs "Fast Lane" and "Black History/The World". Holloway continued with Scott-Heron until the summer of 1989, when he left to join Dizzy Gillespie. Several years later, Scott-Heron would make cameo appearances on two of Ron Holloway's CDs: Scorcher (1996) and Groove Update (1998), both on the Fantasy/Milestone label.

 

Scott-Heron was dropped by Arista Records in 1985 and quit recording, though he continued to tour. The same year he helped compose and sang "Let Me See Your I.D." on the Artists United Against Apartheid album Sun City, containing the famous line: "The first time I heard there was trouble in the Middle East, I thought they were talking about Pittsburgh." The song compares racial tensions in the U.S. with those in apartheid-era South Africa, implying that the U.S. was not too far ahead in race relations. In 1993, he signed to TVT Records and released Spirits, an album that included the seminal track "'Message to the Messengers". The first track on the album criticized the rap artists of the day. Scott-Heron is known in many circles as "the Godfather of rap" and is widely considered to be one of the genre's founding fathers. Given the political consciousness that lies at the foundation of his work, he can also be called a founder of political rap. "Message to the Messengers" was a plea for the new generation of rappers to speak for change rather than perpetuate the current social situation, and to be more articulate and artistic. Regarding hip hop music in the 1990s, he said in an interview:

 

They need to study music. I played in several bands before I began my career as a poet. There's a big difference between putting words over some music, and blending those same words into the music. There's not a lot of humor. They use a lot of slang and colloquialisms, and you don't really see inside the person. Instead, you just get a lot of posturing.

 

— Gil Scott-Heron

 

In 2001, Scott-Heron was sentenced to one to three years imprisonment in a New York State prison for possession of cocaine. While out of jail in 2002, he appeared on the Blazing Arrow album by Blackalicious. He was released on parole in 2003, the year BBC TV broadcast the documentary Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised—Scott-Heron was arrested for possession of a crack pipe during the editing of the film in October 2003 and received a six-month prison sentence.

 

On July 5, 2006, Scott-Heron was sentenced to two to four years in a New York State prison for violating a plea deal on a drug-possession charge by leaving a drug rehabilitation center. He claimed that he left because the clinic refused to supply him with HIV medication. This story led to the presumption that the artist was HIV positive, subsequently confirmed in a 2008 interview. Originally sentenced to serve until July 13, 2009, he was paroled on May 23, 2007.

 

After his release, Scott-Heron began performing live again, starting with a show at SOB's restaurant and nightclub in New York on September 13, 2007. On stage, he stated that he and his musicians were working on a new album and that he had resumed writing a book titled The Last Holiday, previously on long-term hiatus, about Stevie Wonder and his successful attempt to have the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. declared a federally recognized holiday in the United States.

 

Malik Al Nasir dedicated a collection of poetry to Scott-Heron titled Ordinary Guy that contained a foreword by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin of The Last Poets. Scott-Heron recorded one of the poems in Nasir's book entitled Black & Blue in 2006.

 

In April 2009, on BBC Radio 4, poet Lemn Sissay presented a half-hour documentary on Gil Scott-Heron entitled Pieces of a Man, having interviewed Gil Scott-Heron in New York a month earlier. Pieces of a Man was the first UK announcement from Scott-Heron of his forthcoming album and return to form. In November 2009, the BBC's Newsnight interviewed Scott-Heron for a feature titled The Legendary Godfather of Rap Returns. In 2009, a new Gil Scott-Heron website, gilscottheron.net, was launched with a new track "Where Did the Night Go" made available as a free download from the site.

 

In 2010, Scott-Heron was booked to perform in Tel Aviv, Israel, but this attracted criticism from pro-Palestinian activists, who stated: "Your performance in Israel would be the equivalent to having performed in Sun City during South Africa's apartheid era... We hope that you will not play apartheid Israel". Scott-Heron responded by canceling the performance.

 

Scott-Heron released his album I'm New Here on independent label XL Recordings on February 9, 2010. Produced by XL label owner Richard Russell, I'm New Here was Scott-Heron's first studio album in 16 years. The pair started recording the album in 2007, with the majority of the record being recorded over the 12 months leading up to the release date with engineer Lawson White at Clinton Studios in New York. I'm New Here is 28 minutes long with 15 tracks; however, casual asides and observations collected during recording sessions are included as interludes.

 

The album attracted critical acclaim, with The Guardian's Jude Rogers declaring it one of the "best of the next decade", while some have called the record "reverent" and "intimate", due to Scott-Heron's half-sung, half-spoken delivery of his poetry. In a music review for public radio network NPR, Will Hermes stated: "Comeback records always worry me, especially when they're made by one of my heroes ... But I was haunted by this record ... He's made a record not without hope but which doesn't come with any easy or comforting answers. In that way, the man is clearly still committed to speaking the truth". Writing for music website Music OMH, Darren Lee provided a more mixed assessment of the album, describing it as rewarding and stunning, but he also states that the album's brevity prevents it "from being an unassailable masterpiece".

 

Scott-Heron described himself as a mere participant, in a 2010 interview with The New Yorker:

 

This is Richard's CD. My only knowledge when I got to the studio was how he seemed to have wanted this for a long time. You're in a position to have somebody do something that they really want to do, and it was not something that would hurt me or damage me—why not? All the dreams you show up in are not your own.

 

The remix version of the album, We're New Here, was released in 2011, featuring production by English musician Jamie xx, who reworked material from the original album. Like the original album, We're New Here received critical acclaim.

 

In April 2014, XL Recordings announced a third album from the I'm New Here sessions, titled Nothing New. The album consists of stripped-down piano and vocal recordings and was released in conjunction with Record Store Day on April 19, 2014.

 

Scott-Heron died on the afternoon of May 27, 2011, at St. Luke's Hospital, New York City, after becoming ill upon returning from a trip to Europe. Scott-Heron had confirmed previous press speculation about his health, when he disclosed in a 2008 New York Magazine interview that he had been HIV-positive for several years, and that he had been previously hospitalized for pneumonia.

 

He was survived by his firstborn daughter, Raquiyah "Nia" Kelly Heron, from his relationship with Pat Kelly; his son Rumal Rackley, from his relationship with Lurma Rackley; daughter Gia Scott-Heron, from his marriage to Brenda Sykes; and daughter Chegianna Newton, who was 13 years old at the time of her father's death. He is also survived by his sister Gayle; brother Denis Heron, who once managed Scott-Heron; his uncle, Roy Heron; and nephew Terrance Kelly, an actor and rapper who performs as Mr. Cheeks, and is a member of Lost Boyz.

 

Before his death, Scott-Heron had been in talks with Portuguese director Pedro Costa to participate in his film Horse Money as a screenwriter, composer and actor.

 

In response to Scott-Heron's death, Public Enemy's Chuck D stated "RIP GSH...and we do what we do and how we do because of you" on his Twitter account. His UK publisher, Jamie Byng, called him "one of the most inspiring people I've ever met". On hearing of the death, R&B singer Usher stated: "I just learned of the loss of a very important poet...R.I.P., Gil Scott-Heron. The revolution will be live!!". Richard Russell, who produced Scott-Heron's final studio album, called him a "father figure of sorts to me", while Eminem stated: "He influenced all of hip-hop". Lupe Fiasco wrote a poem about Scott-Heron that was published on his website.

 

Scott-Heron's memorial service was held at Riverside Church in New York City on June 2, 2011, where Kanye West performed "Lost in the World" and "Who Will Survive in America", two songs from West's album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The studio album version of West's "Who Will Survive in America" features a spoken-word excerpt by Scott-Heron. Scott-Heron is buried at Kensico Cemetery in Westchester County in New York.

 

Scott-Heron was honored posthumously in 2012 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Charlotte Fox, member of the Washington, DC NARAS and president of Genesis Poets Music, nominated Scott-Heron for the award, while the letter of support came from Grammy award winner and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee Bill Withers.

 

Scott-Heron's memoir, The Last Holiday, was published in January 2012. In her review for the Los Angeles Times, professor of English and journalism Lynell George wrote:

 

The Last Holiday is as much about his life as it is about context, the theater of late 20th century America — from Jim Crow to the Reagan '80s and from Beale Street to 57th Street. The narrative is not, however, a rise-and-fall retelling of Scott-Heron's life and career. It doesn't connect all the dots. It moves off-the-beat, at its own speed ... This approach to revelation lends the book an episodic quality, like oral storytelling does. It winds around, it repeats itself.

 

At the time of Scott-Heron's death, a will could not be found to determine the future of his estate. Additionally, Raquiyah Kelly-Heron filed papers in Manhattan, New York's Surrogate's Court in August 2013, claiming that Rumal Rackley was not Scott-Heron's son and should therefore be omitted from matters concerning the musician's estate. According to the Daily News website, Rackley, Kelly-Heron and two other sisters have been seeking a resolution to the issue of the management of Scott-Heron's estate, as Rackley stated in court papers that Scott-Heron prepared him to be the eventual administrator of the estate. Scott-Heron's 1994 album Spirits was dedicated to "my son Rumal and my daughters Nia and Gia", and in court papers Rackley added that Scott-Heron "introduced me [Rackley] from the stage as his son".

 

In 2011, Rackley filed a suit against sister Gia Scott-Heron and her mother, Scott-Heron's first wife, Brenda Sykes, as he believed they had unfairly attained US$250,000 of Scott-Heron's money. The case was later settled for an undisclosed sum in early 2013; but the relationship between Rackley and Scott-Heron's two adult daughters already had become strained in the months after Gil's death. In her submission to the Surrogate's Court, Kelly-Heron states that a DNA test completed by Rackley in 2011—using DNA from Scott-Heron's brother—revealed that they "do not share a common male lineage", while Rackley has refused to undertake another DNA test since that time. A hearing to address Kelly-Heron's filing was scheduled for late August 2013, but by March 2016 further information on the matter was not publicly available.[69] Rackley still serves as court-appointed administrator for the estate, and donated material to the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture for Scott-Heron to be included among the exhibits and displays when the museum opened in September 2016. In December 2018, the Surrogate Court ruled that Rumal Rackley and his half sisters are all legal heirs.

 

According to the Daily News website, Kelly-Heron and two other sisters have been seeking a resolution to the issue of the management of Scott-Heron's estate. The case was decided in December 2018 with a ruling issued in May 2019.

 

Scott-Heron's work has influenced writers, academics and musicians, from indie rockers to rappers. His work during the 1970s influenced and helped engender subsequent African-American music genres, such as hip hop and neo soul. He has been described by music writers as "the godfather of rap" and "the black Bob Dylan".

 

Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot comments on Scott-Heron's collaborative work with Jackson:

 

Together they crafted jazz-influenced soul and funk that brought new depth and political consciousness to '70s music alongside Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. In classic albums such as 'Winter in America' and 'From South Africa to South Carolina,' Scott-Heron took the news of the day and transformed it into social commentary, wicked satire, and proto-rap anthems. He updated his dispatches from the front lines of the inner city on tour, improvising lyrics with an improvisational daring that matched the jazz-soul swirl of the music".

 

Of Scott-Heron's influence on hip hop, Kot writes that he "presag[ed] hip-hop and infus[ed] soul and jazz with poetry, humor and pointed political commentary". Ben Sisario of The New York Times writes that "He [Scott-Heron] preferred to call himself a "bluesologist", drawing on the traditions of blues, jazz and Harlem renaissance poetics". Tris McCall of The Star-Ledger writes that "The arrangements on Gil Scott-Heron's early recordings were consistent with the conventions of jazz poetry – the movement that sought to bring the spontaneity of live performance to the reading of verse". A music writer later noted that "Scott-Heron's unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists", while The Washington Post wrote that "Scott-Heron's work presaged not only conscious rap and poetry slams, but also acid jazz, particularly during his rewarding collaboration with composer-keyboardist-flutist Brian Jackson in the mid- and late '70s". The Observer's Sean O'Hagan discussed the significance of Scott-Heron's music with Brian Jackson, stating:

 

Together throughout the 1970s, Scott-Heron and Jackson made music that reflected the turbulence, uncertainty and increasing pessimism of the times, merging the soul and jazz traditions and drawing on an oral poetry tradition that reached back to the blues and forward to hip-hop. The music sounded by turns angry, defiant and regretful while Scott-Heron's lyrics possessed a satirical edge that set them apart from the militant soul of contemporaries such as Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield.

 

Will Layman of PopMatters wrote about the significance of Scott-Heron's early musical work:

 

In the early 1970s, Gil Scott-Heron popped onto the scene as a soul poet with jazz leanings; not just another Bill Withers, but a political voice with a poet's skill. His spoken-voice work had punch and topicality. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "Johannesburg" were calls to action: Stokely Carmichael if he'd had the groove of Ray Charles. 'The Bottle' was a poignant story of the streets: Richard Wright as sung by a husky-voiced Marvin Gaye. To paraphrase Chuck D, Gil Scott-Heron's music was a kind of CNN for black neighborhoods, prefiguring hip-hop by several years. It grew from the Last Poets, but it also had the funky swing of Horace Silver or Herbie Hancock—or Otis Redding. Pieces of a Man and Winter in America (collaborations with Brian Jackson) were classics beyond category".

 

Scott-Heron's influence over hip hop is primarily exemplified by his definitive single "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", sentiments from which have been explored by various rappers, including Aesop Rock, Talib Kweli and Common. In addition to his vocal style, Scott-Heron's indirect contributions to rap music extend to his and co-producer Jackson's compositions, which have been sampled by various hip-hop artists. "We Almost Lost Detroit" was sampled by Brand Nubian member Grand Puba ("Keep On"), Native Tongues duo Black Star ("Brown Skin Lady"), and MF Doom ("Camphor"). Additionally, Scott-Heron's 1980 song "A Legend in His Own Mind" was sampled on Mos Def's "Mr. Nigga", the opening lyrics from his 1978 recording "Angel Dust" were appropriated by rapper RBX on the 1996 song "Blunt Time" by Dr. Dre, and CeCe Peniston's 2000 song "My Boo" samples Scott-Heron's 1974 recording "The Bottle".

 

In addition to the Scott-Heron excerpt used in "Who Will Survive in America", Kanye West sampled Scott-Heron and Jackson's "Home is Where the Hatred Is" and "We Almost Lost Detroit" for the songs "My Way Home" and "The People", respectively, both of which are collaborative efforts with Common. Scott-Heron, in turn, acknowledged West's contributions, sampling the latter's 2007 single "Flashing Lights" on his final album, 2010's I'm New Here.

 

Scott-Heron admitted ambivalence regarding his association with rap, remarking in 2010 in an interview for the Daily Swarm: "I don't know if I can take the blame for [rap music]".[81] As New York Times writer Sisario explained, he preferred the moniker of "bluesologist". Referring to reviews of his last album and references to him as the "godfather of rap", Scott-Heron said: "It's something that's aimed at the kids ... I have kids, so I listen to it. But I would not say it's aimed at me. I listen to the jazz station." In 2013, Chattanooga rapper Isaiah Rashad recorded an unofficial mixtape called Pieces of a Kid, which was greatly influenced by Heron's debut album Pieces of a Man.

 

Following Scott-Heron's funeral in 2011, a tribute from publisher, record company owner, poet, and music producer Malik Al Nasir was published on The Guardian's website, titled "Gil Scott-Heron saved my life".

 

In the 2018 film First Man, Scott-Heron is a minor character and is played by soul singer Leon Bridges.

 

He is one of eight significant people shown in mosaic at the 167th Street renovated subway station on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx that reopened in 2019.

NME (New Musical Express) published its list of the 500 all time greatest albums this week, based on its poll of roughly 80 critics who work for it. I saw a listing on the internet of the NME top 500 and it's set out below. The stars indicate the albums that would probably make my personal top 500 and the check marks indicate albums I've listened to that don't make my personal top 500.

 

This is in my sweet spot. When a bunch of highly knowledgeable critics decide on the "best ever' I'm going to seek that music out. They've heard more music than I ever have (there are 188 records on the list that I've never listened to).

 

Still, I have some quibbles about the list. The Smiths at #1? I've never understood the appeal of the Smiths. I went back and listened again to "The Queen Is Dead" and found it just as unbearable as ever. Maybe it's a British thing.

 

Second, no Robert Johnson or Hank Williams? I'm betting this is because the list seems to ban compilation albums and Johnson and Williams recorded exclusively as singles artists. But it just seems wrong to claim that the 500 best all time records don't include Hank Williams or Robert Johnson.

 

Third, where are the great British folkies? How can there be no Richard Thompson, no Fairport Convention, and no Pentangle? [Update: I see I'm wrong and that Fairport Convention is at #110. Still, why no Richard Thompson?]

 

Fourth, the list seems to ignore most of the world (maybe there's a rule saying English language only). But you can't have a list of the 500 best of all time with no Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and not a single album from Brazil.

 

Fifth, where's WIllie Nelson?

 

-----------------------------

★ - Would be on my personal Top 500

✓ - Have listened to album and would not be in my personal Top 500

? - Have listened to album and still undecided about it

~ - Have listened to album and it stinks

  

~1. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (1986)

★ 2. The Beatles - Revolver (1966)

★ 3. David Bowie - Hunky Dory (1972)

★4. The Strokes - Is This It (2001)

★5. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1966)

★ 6. Pulp - Different Class (1995)

★7. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (1989)

★8. Pixies - Doolittle (1989)

★9. The Beatles - The Beatles (1968)

✓ 10. Oasis - Definitely Maybe (1994)

★11. Nirvana - Nevermind (1991)

✓ 12. Patti Smith - Horses (1975)

✓ 13. Arcade Fire - Funeral (2004)

★14. David Bowie - Low (1977)

✓ 15. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (2011)

✓ 16. Joy Division - Closer (1980)

✓ 17. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back (1988)

✓ 18. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)

✓ 19. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)

✓ 20. Radiohead - OK Computer (1997)

✓ 21. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

✓ 22. Blur - Parklife (1994)

★23. David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (1972)

✓ 24. The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St. Street (1972)

★25. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (1971)

✓ 26. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1966)

✓ 27. Primal Scream - Screamadelica (1991)

✓ 28. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (2006)

★29. Television - Marquee Moon (1977)

✓ 30. Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)

✓ 31. Suede - Dog Man Star (1994)

✓ 32. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (1989)

✓ 33. Blur - Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)

★34. The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)

★35. Nirvana - In Utero (1993)

★36. Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks (1975)

✓ 37. Love - Forever Changes (1967)

★38. Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks... Here's The Sex Pistols (1977)

✓ 39. The Clash - London Calling (1979)

★40. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasure (1979)

★41. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (1988)

~ 42. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (1973)

★43. The Beatles - Rubber Soul (1965)

44. Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible (1994)

✓ 45. Blondie - Parallel Lines (1978)

~ 46. Björk - Debut (1993)

47. The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)

48. Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love (1985)

✓ 49. LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver (2007)

★50. Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis (1969)

 

✓ 51. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (1977)

✓ 52. The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (1969)

✓ 53. David Bowie - Station To Station (1976)

★54. Talking Heads - Remain In Light (1980)

✓ 55. The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers (1971)

✓ 56. Neil Young - After The Gold Rush (1970)

57. Kraftwerk - The Man Machine (1978)

★58. Pixies - Surfer Rosa (1988)

59. Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007)

✓ 60. Massive Attack - Blue Lines (1991)

✓ 61. The Clash - The Clash (1977)

★62. Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde (1966)

✓ 63. Joni Mitchell - Blue (1971)

★64. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

✓ 65. REM - Automatic For The People (1992)

66. Radiohead - The Bends (1995)

✓ 67. Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory (1995)

★ 68. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (1968)

✓ 69. REM - Murmur (1983)

70. The Libertines - Up The Bracket (2002)

✓ 71. Neil Young - Harvest (1972)

★ 72. Lou Reed - Transformer (1972)

★ 73. Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home (1965)

74. Nas - IIImatic (1994)

✓ 75. Green Day - Dookie (1994)

76. Daft Punk - Discovery (2001)

★ 77. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells (2001)

✓ 78. Suede - Suede (1993)

✓ 79. Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue (1959)

★ 80. Iggy And The Stooges - Raw Power (1973)

✓ 81. Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express (1977)

✓ 82. Carole King - Tapestry (1971)

★ 83. The Band - The Band (1969)

✓ 84. Hole - Live Through This (1994)

✓ 85. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run (1975)

✓ 86. Jeff Buckley - Grace (1994)

★ 87. The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

★ 88. Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure (1973)

✓ 89. Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill (1998)

90. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free (2004)

✓ 91. Prince And The Revolution - Purple Rain (1984)

? 92. Super Furry Animals - Radiator (1997)

93. Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf (2002)

★ 94. The Rolling Stone - Beggars Banquet (1968)

95. Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden (1988)

✓ 96. Public Enemy - Fear Of A Black Planet (1990)

✓ 97. The Smiths - The Smiths (1984)

✓ 98. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (1998)

99. The Libertines - The Libertines (2004)

100. The Smiths - Hatful Of Hollow (1984)

  

✓ 101. Kraftwerk - Computer World

102. The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

★ 103. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

★ 104. The Stooges - Funhouse

★ 105. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs

★ 106. Led Zeppelin - IV

107. Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine

108. Weezer - Pinkerton

✓ 109. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town

✓ 110. Fairport Convention - Liege and Lief

111. The Human League - Dare

112. GZA - Liquid Swords

★ 113. Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister

✓ 114. Radiohead - Kid A

✓ 115. Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque

★ 116. The White Stripes - Elephant

✓ 117. ABC - The Lexicon of Love

✓ 118. Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching or the Young Soul Rebels

119. Pulp - His 'N' Hers

★ 120. De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising

121. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92

122. New Order - Technique

★ 123. Blur - 13

★ 124. Paul Simon - Graceland

✓ 125. James Brown - Live at the Apollo

✓ 126. Beastie Boys - Ill Communication

✓ 127. Ramones - Ramones

✓ 128. The Verve - Urban Hymns

✓ 129. Neil Young - On the Beach

130. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights

✓ 131. Michael Jackson - Thriller

✓ 132. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

★ 133. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

★ 134. PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

★ 135. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP

✓ 136. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell

✓ 137. Blur - Blur

~ 138. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

139. The Cure - Disintegration

✓ 140. Nick Drake - Bryter Layter

★ 141. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Natty Dread

✓ 142. Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire De Melody Nelson

✓ 143. Bob Dylan - Desire

★ 144. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced

★ 145. The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle

✓ 146. At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command

✓ 147. Frank Ocean - Channel Orange

~ 148. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

149. Elliot Smith - Either/Or

✓ 150. The Streets - Original Pirate Material

  

★ 151. PJ Harvey - Dry

152. Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs

✓ 153. The La's - The La's

★ 154. PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love

155. The Prodigy - Music For the Jilted Generation

★ 156. Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We're Floating In Space

★ 157. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy

158. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

★ 159. Gang of Four - Entertainment!

160. Primal Scream - XTRMTR

✓ 161. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

✓ 162. The National - The Boxer

163. Neu - Neu '75!

✓ 164. Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison

165. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love In

★ 166. Pulp - This is Hardcore

★ 167. Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul

168. Portishead - Dummy

169. Dexys Midnight Runners - Don't Stand Me Down

170. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

★ 171. Talking Heads - Fear of Music

~172. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life

★ 173. Led Zeppelin - III

174. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

★ 175. David Bowie - Young Americans

~176. Rufus Wainwright - Want One

177. Mogwai - Young Team

178. The Coral - The Coral

✓ 179. Missy Elliott - Miss E…So Addictive

★ 180. X-Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents

181. Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children

182. Manic Street Preachers - Everything Must Go

✓ 183. OutKast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

✓ 184. MIA - Kala

✓ 185. Eric B and Rakim - Paid in Full

? 186. Jay-Z - The Blueprint

187. My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything

188. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

✓ 189. Todd Rungren - A Wizard, A True Star

190. Pink Floyd - Piper At the Gates of Dawn

★ 191. Elastica - Elastica

✓ 192. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

193. Ryan Adams - Gold

✓ 194. Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction

★ 195. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

✓ 196. The Stranglers - Rattus Norvegicus

✓ 197. AC/DC - Back in Black

✓ 198. Prince - Sign O' The Times

199. The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps

✓ 200. The Breeders - Last Splash

 

201. The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour

✓ 202. Tricky - Maxinquaye

? 203. Beach House - Teen Dream

✓ 204. Michael Jackson - Bad

✓ 205. NWA - Straight Outta Compton

★ 206. Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted

★ 207. Janis Joplin - Pearl

✓ 208. Chic - Risque

209. Kate Bush - The Kick Inside

★ 210. The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs

✓ 211. Grace Jones - Nightclubbing

212. Kings of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood

✓ 213. Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove

✓ 214. Air - Moon Safari

215. Massive Attack - Mezzanine

✓ 216. New Order - Power, Lies and Corrruption

✓ 217. Iggy Pop - Lust for Life

218. The Horrors - Primary Colours

✓ 219. The Jam - All Mod Cons

220. The National - Alligator

✓ 221. Marianne Faithful - Broken English

222. Fever Ray - Fever Ray

✓ 223. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

224. Echo and the Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here

★ 225. T Rex - Electric Warrior

★ 226. The Doors - The Doors

★ 227. John Lennon - Imagine

✓ 228. Pavement - Brighten the Corners

✓ 229. Public Image Ltd - Metal Box

★ 230. David Bowie - Aladdin Sane

✓ 231. Dr. Dre - The Chronic

★ 232. Leonard Cohen - The Songs of Leonard Cohen

233. Babyshambles - Down In Albion

234. Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour

235. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads

★ 236. Suicide - Suicide

237. The xx - The xx

238. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

239. Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner

✓ 240. Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties!!

241. Madonna - Ray of Light

✓ 242. Michael Jackson - Off the Wall

✓ 243. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

244. Wild Beasts - Smother

245. Super Furry Animals - Fuzzy Logic

★ 246. Nirvana - MTV Unplugged In New York

247. Glasvegas - Glasvegas

★ 248. Eminem - The Slim Shady LP

✓ 249. Prodigy - The Fat of the Land

250. Weezer - Weezer

 

✓ 251. The Beach Boys - Surf's Up

252. Grimes - Visions

253. Pussy Galore - Exile on Main St

✓ 254. The Smiths - Meat is Murder

255. Metronomy - The English Riviera

★ 256. Elvis Costello and the Attractions - This Year's Model

257. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call

✓ 258. Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left

✓ 259. Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush the Stage

★ 260. The Specials - The Specials

★ 261. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Live!

✓ 262. Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded

263. Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can

★ 264. The Beatles - Please Please Me

265. Hole - Celebrity Skin

266. Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head

267. Dr. Feelgood - Stupidity

268. Todd Rungren - Todd

269. The Horrors - Skying

✓ 270. The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society

✓ 271. The Velvet Underground - Loaded

272. Coldplay - Parachutes

✓ 273. Kanye West - The College Dropout

✓ 274. R.E.M. - Green

✓ 275. The Who - Quadrophenia

276. Echo and the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain

277. The Sunday - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

✓ 278. The Slits - Cut

★ 279. Captain Beefhart and his Magical Band - Trout Mask Replica

280. Aphex Twin - Drukqs

★ 281. Elvis Costello - My Aim is True

282. Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix

★ 283. Roxy Music - Roxy Music

★ 284. Fugazi - 13 Songs

285. Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love

286. Screaming Trees - Dust

✓ 287. Slayer - Reign In Blood

288. Stevie Wonder - Music of My Mind

★ 289. The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers

290. The Bluetones - Expecting to Fly

★ 291. The Byrds - Younger than Yesterday

292. The Cribs - The New Fellas

✓ 293. Aztec Camera - High Land Hard Rain

294. Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future

✓ 295. Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle

✓ 296. David Bowie - Let's Dance

297. Can - Ege Bamyasi

298. Malcolm McLaren -

✓ 299. The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane

✓ 300. The Who - The Who By Numbers

 

301. Arthur Russell - World of Echo

302. Daft Punk - Homework

303. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um

304. The Orb - UFOrb

★ 305. Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story

★ 306. Bob Dyan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

✓ 307. Beck - Midnight Vultures

308. Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray

309. Metallica - Metallica

✓ 310. Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstacy

311. Super Furry Animals - Guerilla

312. Cocteau Twins - Treasure

★ 313. Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years

✓ 314. Slint - Spiderland

★ 315. Big Brother and the Holding Company - Cheap Thrills

✓ 316. Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Imperial Bedroom

★ 317. Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel

✓ 318. Ice-T - OG Original Gangster

✓ 319. The Who - Who's Next

★ 320. Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones

321. Doves - Lost Souls

322. LCD - This is Happening

✓ 323. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

✓ 324. R.E.M. - Life's Rich Pageant

325. Beck - Sea Change

★ 326. Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One

✓ 327. Beck - Mutations

✓ 328. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

★ 329. David Bowie - "Heroes"

330. Portishead - Third

✓ 331. MC5 - Kick out the Jams

332. Shack - HMS Fable

~ 333. Paul McCartney and Wings - Band on the Run

334. The Avalanches - Since I Left You

335. Queens of the Stoneage - …Like Clockwork

✓ 336. Neneh Cherry - Raw Like Sushi

337. Danger Mouse - The Grey Album

✓ 338. Notorious BIG - Ready to Die

339. Pearl Jam - Ten

✓ 340. Sister Sledge - We Are Family

★ 341. Tom Waits - Closing Time

★ 342. Spritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies

★ 343. Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding

✓ 344. Eels - Beautiful Freak

✓ 345. Elvis Costello - Punch the Clock

✓ 346. New Order - Low Life

★ 347. Sonic Youth - Dirty

348. Whitney Houston - Whitney

349. Alt-J - An Awesome Wave

350. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - BRMC

  

★ 351. The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo

★ 352. The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat

353. Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas

354. Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul

★ 355. New York Dolls - New York Dolls

★ 356. Pixies - Bossanova

✓ 357. Sugar - Copper Blue

358. Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom

✓ 359. The Mothers of Invention - We're Only In it for the Money

360. The Strokes - Room on Fire

✓ 361. The Faces - A Nod is as Good as a Wink…the a Bliind Horse

✓ 362. Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty

✓ 363. Black Flag - Damaged

✓ 364. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

✓ 365. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegatables

366. Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate

367. Metronomy - Nights Out

368. Radiohead - Hail to the Thief

369. St Vincent - Strange Mercy

✓ 370. The Cribs - Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever

★ 371. Beck - Odelay

★ 372. Big Black - Atomizer

373. Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today

★ 374. Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours

375. Morrissey - Vauxhall and I

376. Sam Cooke - Live At The Harlem Square Club

377. Roy Harper - Stormcock

★ 378. Wire - Pink Flag

✓ 379. Belle & Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap

380. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

✓ 381. David Bowie - Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

✓ 382. Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water

383. The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home

★ 384. Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley

★ 385. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan

★ 386. Gillian Wellch - Revival

✓ 387. The Clash - Combat Rock

388. Tim Buckley - Happy Sad

★ 389. Le Tigre - Le Tigre

390. The Verve - A Northern Soul

391. Burial - Burial

392. Edan - Beauty and the Beat

★ 393. Prince - Dirty Mind

★ 394. Wire - Chairs Missing

★ 395. The White Stripes - De Stijl

✓ 396. Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F.

397. Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt

★ 398. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

399. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - The Lyre of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues

★ 400. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace

  

✓ 401. 20 Jazz Funk Greats - Throbbing Gristle

402. Twenty One - Mystery Jets

403. Vespertine - Bjork

404. No Other - Gene Clark

★ 405. Otis Blue - Otis Redding

✓ 406. Rated R - Queens of the Stone Age

407. Going Blank Again - Ride

★ 408. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement

409. Tago Mago - Can

410. Antics - Interpol

411. Madvillainy - Madvillain

✓ 412. Entroducing... - DJ Shadow

413. Pills N Thrills and Bellyaches - Happy Mondays

✓ 414. Dig Your Own Hole - The Chemical Brothers

✓ 415. Chet Baker Sings - Chet Baker

✓ 416. Merriweather Post Pavillion - Animal Collective

417. 1977 - Ash

✓ 418. Electro-Shock Blues - Eels

419. Let It Come Down - Spiritualized

420. People's Instinctive Travels... - A Tribe Called Quest

★ 421. Radio City - Big Star

422. Too-Rye-Ay - Dexys Midnight Runners

✓ 423. Live at Leeds - The Who

424. The Joshua Tree - U2

425. Nancy and Lee - Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood

★ 426. Goo - Sonic Youth

★ 427. Here Comes the Warm Jets - Brian Eno

✓ 428. Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen

429. Bleed America - Jimmy Eat World

430. Scott 4 - Scott Walker

431. Badmotorfinger - Soundgarden

★ 432. Tindersticks - Tindersticks

433. 2001 - Dr. Dre

434. Steve McQueen - Prefab Sprout

✓ 435. Easter - Patti Smith

436. Mirrored - Battles

★ 437. Dear Science - TV on the Radio

438. Aha Shake Heartbreak - Kings of Leon

439. The Futureheads - The Futureheads

✓ 440. Life's a Riot with Spy vs. Spy - Billy Bragg

441. Arrival - ABBA

✓ 442. Al Green is Love - Al Green

✓ 443. Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle - Bill Callahan

444. Violator - Depeche Mode

✓ 445. Tusk - Fleetwood Mac

446. The Warning - Hot Chip

✓ 447. Diamond Dogs - David Bowie

448. Sci-Fi Lullabies - Suede

449. AM - Arctic Monkeys

★ 450. Rid of Me - PJ Harvey

  

★ 451. Third/Sister Lovers- Big Star

★ 452. The B-52's- The B-52's

453. The House of Love- The House of Love

454. The Writing on the Wall- Destiny's Child

✓ 455. Vampire Weekend- Vampire Weekend

456. September of My Years- Frank Sinatra

✓ 457. Black Cherry- Goldfrapp

✓ 458. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot- Wilco

★ 459. The Black Album- Jay-Z

★ 460. Bleach- Nirvana

461. Generation Terrorists- Manic Street Preachers

462. Master of Puppets- Metallica

✓ 463. Pod- The Breeders

464. Because of the Times- Kings of Leon

465. High Violet- The National

✓ 466. The W- Wu-Tang Clan

✓ 467. The Idiot- Iggy Pop

468. Chutes Too Narrow- The Shins

469. Holland- The Beach Boys

470. Graduation- Kanye West

471. Oracular Spectacular- MGMT

✓ 472. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness- Smashing Pumpkins

473. A Storm in Heaven- The Verve

474. Tarot Sport- f**k Buttons

475. Smoke Ring for My Halo- Kurt Vile

476. Foo Fighters- Foo Fighters

477. Crystal Castles- Crystal Castles

478. Trouble Will Find Me- The National

479. The Real Ramona- Throwing Muses

★ 480. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You- Aretha Franklin

✓ 481. Smile- Brian Wilson

482. Lady in Satin- Billie Holiday

✓ 483. Blood and Chocolate- Elvis Costello & The Attractions

✓ 484. The River- Bruce Springsteen

★ 485. Good Kid, M.A.A.D City- Kendrick Lamar

✓ 486. Homogenic- Bjork

✓ 487. Sound Affects- The Jam

488. I'm Your Man- Leonard Cohen

489. George Best- The Wedding Present

★ 490. Back in the USA- MC5

✓ 491. Actually- Pet Shop Boys

492. Hidden- These New Puritans

493. Blood- This Mortal Coil

494. The Head on the Door- The Cure

★ 495. Hot Fuss- The Killers

496. Album- Girls

497. Random Access Memories- Daft Punk

★ 498. Berlin- Lou Reed

✓ 499. Star- Belly

✓ 500. Stankonia- OutKast

 

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