BobaFett's blog

The 2011 Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival will be starting THIS SUNDAY at the Elley Long Music Center, St. Michael's College, and will run through Sunday the 28th.

In addition to world-renowned musicians and composers, poet Katie Ford will be at the festival at 12:00pm on the 21st and 22nd to meet with writers on this site! Bring your ideas and poetry, discuss your own work, and learn about what it's like to write for a living.

The schedule of events can be found here, but please email me to let me know if you are interested in attending; space for some performances is limited: kfallone@youngwritersproject.org.

Come listen to great music, meet the musicians, and share your experience with everyone on this site!

To see what writers have done in the past, check out the LCCMF10 and LCCMF09 blogs.

For more information about the festival itself, go to http://lccmf.org

The short film below was the winner of the Phillips Parallel Lines "Tell it Your Way" contest. Film makers had to create a film that told a complete story using only 6 lines of dialogue that were given to them beforehand. View the video, click "read more" for the 6 lines of dialogue that were used, and come up with your own unique story that utilizes them. Use the keyword "porcelain unicorn" and comment on others' pieces. Let's see what you can create!

  Read more »

This has (almost) nothing to do with writing. But goodness, is she passionate. And this is too good not to share. If you feel equally passionate about writing, post your HEART out this weekend (not literally) and share your writing with everyone on this site.

Enjoy!

*** Author is not responsible for any side stitches or inability to breathe during uncontrollable laughter.

***

Read more »

07 The Catherine Wheel II.mp3

Music can give the imagination direction, or simply make you realize how your own words flow, mesh and bloom. The above piece -- Catherine Wheel -- 2nd movement "Rose Window" -- is  by David Ludwig, composer in residence of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and also the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival.

So here's an idea: Use this music as a prompt; start the podcast and in another tab, write whatever comes to mind. Don't think. Don't worry. Don't edit. Just get it out and let it flow. Make sure to use the sound prompt keyword; feel free to click it to see what others have done. Read more »

Comment below with your prompt ideas for the next Newspaper series.

What would you want to write about? What sparks your imagination or inspires you to put pen to paper (or in this case, fingers to the keyboard)?

Get creative! Past prompts have included everything from colors and numbers, to rants and opinions on renewable energy. Read more »

I'll never forget how the moon shone that night.

It was only a crescent, but it was enough.

Cars passed by, and as we sliced the low-lying clouds

we were as alone as we ever will be.

I reached for my coffee, but you caught my hand,

fingers intertwining in the pattern they've practiced so often before.

Slumber turned to smile, and the crinkle flowed through your beard,

up to sideburns

weaving with brown curls, soft in the warm night air.

  Read more »

YWP is starting to prepare for the next anthology of student work to be published this fall...

But, we need YOUR help!

Read more for details... Read more »

This contest prompt comes from the lovely Cheryl: master grant-writer, and procurer of funny YouTube videos when we need a laugh.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/03/134195812/grant-achatz-the-chef-who-lost-his-sense-of-taste?&sc=fb&cc=freshair

One of the best chefs in America was interviewed yesterday about what it was like to get back his sense of taste after treatment for tongue cancer.  As a chef he had spent years thinking about flavor and smell and texture, and how there's so much more to taste than the food you put in your mouth.  Describe a meal that was made incredible by what wasn't on the plate in front of you.

Choose 'description' genre, 'tasting' as keyword, and add 'podcast' keyword, if you upload a mp3 of yourself reading the piece.

The Prize: A spicy Aztec truffle, and sea-salt caramel from Champlain Chocolates! An adventure in taste, to fit the contest.

Write, read, give feedback, and have fun!

  Read more »

The highlight for me, what summed up not only Matan Porat's artistic process but also "The Battleship Potemkin", was a single moment. A fraction of a second. A fleeting thought.

A piece I jotted down as I was drifting in and out of sleep in the hallway at Elley Long during a rehearsal

Cup of coffee cooling in my limp hand, the dissipating steam
being enveloped by staccato notes and black piano keys.

Slowly drifting off to sleep,
red and lavender swirls pass under my eyelids.
Taking in shallow breaths of cello drones and
the rustle of music sheets against my cheeks.

Awoken

Not by the music, but by the pause.

The break.

The sharp

intake

of breath as the crescendo ends
and consciousness begins again.

A haiku by young composer Molly Joyce

Are you sure
Love heart shaped box
Fear broken triangle

A poem by young composer Gabriella Smith

Because

the krrk, crick, ch-ch-ch,
the oops, ching, clang, thu-ee

butt-clef chickens

loop the fractal hold of shaking,
breathing, murhming, choo-choo-ing
feather beds and spiral trains.

Dreamscape by Dylan Mattingly

---------------Chalk mountains
--------------------thousand autumns down cloudwinds

all West,
-----------Howland Island
-----------sometimes lowflying over Ameliaʼs marker rock

missed islands, like cloud cover
-----airstrip built, lost, bombed
“like a photograph of the earth taken coming back from the moon”
-----without ever feeling rubber

—last final shaking B fades out. snare, C, dm7, “once upon a time you dressed so fine,”
plexiglass window, citiglow shakes red trees, little lights fly, collide train horns into black, Read more »

A short story by Joshua Morris, a Young Composer at LCCMF 2010. Based on several key words associated with an interpretative drawing and expression.

1942: Photo by John Vachon of a worker at a black carbon plant. What was this man thinking at the moment the image was captured?

We are still looking for more volunteers! Join rehearsals, meet the artists, go to concerts. Write, record, create. Do you want to be considered for this fun project?

In the last week of August, 2009, 13 energetic young writers attended and wrote about the first Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival at Elley-Long Music Center at St. Michael's College. The festival was led by the brilliant violinist, Soovin Kim, and featured some of the world's finest musicians.

YWP would like to send a group of students to the festival again this year from August 22nd-29th. This is an amazing opportunity to write about what you see, hear and feel during the festival, and share it with the YWP community. Events you will attend during the week include concerts, rehearsals/practices, and the opportunity to meet with musicians and find out what it's like to play music at the professional level.

To check out what your fellow writers wrote last year, click here.

Please email Geoff: ggevalt@youngwritersproject.org
and myself: kfallone@youngwritersproject.org

if you are interested in attending. This is a fun and rewarding experience, so don't hesitate to express your interest! Read more »

Thunder and Rain

Play the podcast and write a response to the sound you hear. What setting does it make you think of? Who would be outside in this weather, or who would be tucked away indoors? Be creative, and make it your own! Choose the sound prompt genre and keyword of sound prompt #1

This used to be the background for my computer.
Funny how you notice the little things the
little tuft of fuzz on those clenched wings
When you're looking from afar.

This picture used to be much bigger to me.
It's amazing what your eyes can see when you
take the time to realize that
whats behind is just a little fuzzy.

This picture used to make me smile, was one I'd gaze at for
a long, long while.
But that big yellow eye is looking away, keeping watch or
looking, searching, yearning for something to say.

Writing used to be this person's friend, Read more »