friend of this poet's life, Kat, was kind enough to forward this article by Jenna Glatzer about clichés and avoiding them in your writing. It's a short article, but informative and enjoyable nonetheless.
is nonetheless a cliché?
what about writing a blog, is that cliché? i'm pretty damn sure that is.
oh well.
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39 comments:
blogging is not a cliche; using the word "blog" as a verb is.
good article. the hackneyed phrase is the bane of my existence (hehe).
at least we as desperate starving artists uselessly pounding at typewriters, drunk on wine, railing against the dying of the light, at least we aren't cliches.
right?
Glad you found this interesting. I did, too. But I don't know. On steriods...this is a cliche? Maybe I'm just old, too busy drinking Ovaltine and writing poems, but this is not a phrase I have heard often.
Vomit? Again, maybe I'm just out of the loop? Oh, wait! Now, that's a cliche. I'm sure of it.
good one, Chris. "blogging is not a cliche, but using the word "blog" as a verb is." like you just did? i love it. good one.
hackneyed phrases should be the bane of all of our existences. at least all of us who feign to CARE about language.
as for whether or not we are a cliche, there's nothing more cliche than asking if we are a cliche! ;)
Kat-
Ovaltine. funny.
i've decided to create, in homage to you, a new cliche: "...on Ovaltine". like "...on steroids" meaning being supercharged and powerful, "...on Ovaltine will mean being feeble and weak.
this poet's life is a blog on Ovaltine.
now THAT'S a cliche!
man, without my coffee today I'm so totally on Ovaltine.
I like it.
beautiful. a perfect example of the new cliche.
it's sure to catch on, now!
Hey!
Ovaltine is good. And it's full of all the B vitamins.
:)
Feeble and weak??? Not when I'm drinking Ovaltine every night. No way! All those vitamins make me stronger! :)
I'm serious, though. On steriods is a cliche? And vomit? Vomit is a cliche?
vomit? sure as in:
"that's so ovaltine it makes me wanna puke."
that=GW's mind; Cheney's heart; Rumsfeld's military planning abilities; the mainstream media; insert insulting govt reference here.
You guys are going to make me stop drinking Ovaltine!
Don't be surprised if you find a package in your mailbox with a jar of Ovaltin in it! Both of you!
:)
hilarious.
this thread is on Ovaltine!
i dare one of you, any of you, to write a poem with Ovaltine in it. now THAT would be high literature.
good stuff.
and i bet you're strong as steroids, Kat, with all that Ovaltine you drink.
You got it. I'm going to write a poem about Ovaltine and post it here. I may even try a form! :)
Okay....
the first line is...
I'm a poetic ninja on Ovaltine.
It's going to be a villanelle so I can keep repeating this line!
slang
"Mary, you
are so fucking
ovaltine
it makes me
like
sick
or something."
she flipped open
her cellphone
and sent a
quick text
to her list,
making sure
to tell everybody
that
Mary
is
again
off her
Myspace page.
this time for good.
Mary went home
to try and
figure out
how to be
less
ovaltine
in the future.
cc
man, with this magnum opus by CC and a villanelle coming by Kat, i guess i'll have no choice but to put out a book called The Ovaltine Poems.
here's my contribution:
Ovaltine
if Ovaltine were
money, i'd
be rich
but if Ovaltine
were love,
i'd still
be lonely
without you.
**sniff**
that's beautiful.
one more:
madness and strong drink
looking in the mirror
after no sleep for a second
night,
peeling back the corners
of red tired eyes,
sunlight oozing thru
dirty plastic slats,
mouth filled with
ugliness
and the taste of
strong drink.
mind is slipping,
mutter,
"ovaltine"
to the face
I no longer know.
cc
Kat don't forget about me?
I want my ovaltine too?
My decoder ring was a scam
though,
it said, "Don't Forget To
Drink Your Ovaltine."
wait? That was Ralphie's ring
in A Christmas Story.
I love Seinfeld but I don't remember that one...
I'm still working on my Ovaltine Villenelle. Did you know Queen rhymes with Ovaltine? :) I hope to finish it tonight and post it here later. It's really silly and bad poetry but fun!
Luis! I love A Christmas Story. One of my favorites. I want one of those leg lamps! :)
casey-
i did think of that (really i did) but i wasn't sure if others would get it (i sometimes forget how EVERYONE else isn't into Seinfeld).
that's GOLD, casey, GOLD!
another good one from Chris. so, now i have 4 poems total for the new anthology: The Ovaltine Poems.
any others willing to try their hand at an Ovaltine poem?
c'mon Luis. Casey? Kornacki? McGettrick? Let's go, guys.
Oh! And Chris, I forgot to say, your poems are much better than my Ovaltine poem. You'll see. Much better.
thanks. I myself reject the "ovaltine lifestyle" that has become so popular on this blog. I am merely reporting via poetry at this point the degeneration of our once steroid laden culture.
sad really.
that's very upstanding of you, Chris. i suppose one person's degeneration is another person ascension!
and i, for one, will not stand by idly while you denigrate my beloved Ovaltine. Ovaltine plays second fiddle to NO ONE!
Vive Ovaltine!
Okay....stop making fun of me! I'm getting a complex but I have been laughing since last night about it.
we're not making of you, Kat. we're making fun NEAR you! :)
don't get a complex, Kat. Ovaltine is good. to you. :)
and it's funny, right? i'll dedicate The Ovaltine Poems to you. next, we'll discuss my penchant for marmite. now THAT'S a delicacy.
Marmite? I'm afraid...sounds like fish.
I know you're not making total fun of me. And like I said, I've got two older brothers and two older sisters...I'm used to it! :)
And Ovaltine is good. It just is.
marmite is a british delicacy made from yeast. tastes horrible. there's another called vegemite that Aussie's like. equally nasty.
so, there you go, Kat, i think Ovaltine is infinitely better than both of those! :)
Kat:
I was going to add something about the leg lamp, but I didn't have my Ovaltine & had the carpal tunnel syndrome. But yes I want a leg lamp too & don't forget the Emily Dickinson thing with rhyme:
such as,
Valentine and Ovaltine...
I HEARD A FLY BUZZ
AND THEN IT DIED;
FELL INTO MY OVALTINE,
AND IT MADE ME CRY
IT WAS MY FAVORITE FLY;
I NAMED IT VINCENT PRICE;
HELP ME, HELP ME, IT CRIED,
OH, BROTHER, LOOK AT
WHAT JUSTIN MADE ME WRITE.
Kat:
Remember the bosco episode?
Ever put some bosco into
your ovaltine & make it
extra chocolatey?
Oh, cliches? That's what
got this started...
Ovaltine is sooo gay, I mean soo yesterday. (cliché taken care of – wait is that a cliché as well – ohh myyy god – another one – I just can’t help myself – ahh another one – help)
Broval and boiling water is the special forces of night time drinks, goddam it people get with the programme
and marmite, mate, jesus, shit spread for toast – next you’ll be admitting to drinking butter milk.
Gone:
she used the
ovaltine jar to
stick the post-it
to
‘you boring fucker,
have a nice life.’
I’d miss her sense
of humour,
but that was
about all.
You guys suck, you know that, right?
Casey-still laughing at your poem.
Luis-I guess I'm not that much of a Seinfeld fan because I also don't remember the bosco episode. I love the chinese restuarant one and the Soup Nazi, though.
Brian-
so gay? Ovaltine is NOT gay.
I'm working on my villenelle. Do you know how hard it is to write even a bad one? Horrible.
"quite the oval teen.."
now that's damn funny.
nice work kids, this anthology is shaping up nicely.
what the hell is Broval? do you eat it with marmite?
good poems casey and brian. good stuff. like chris said, this thing is shaping up nicely.
maybe it should be The Oval Teen Poems...
very clever, casey, very clever.
apologises one and all –
that should be Bovril – I have no idea why I was attempting to spell it the way I did – mind you I was on a half day from work and running out the door to buy books and get so drunk that I’d be capable of time travel.
anyway, all things Bovril:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovril
ah yes...
never heard of the stuff. not sure if it's sold here.
maybe we should write some poems to Bovril?
what rhymes with Bovril?
I had heard of this from reading the Adrian Mole Diaries. In my head it was soup...I'll go see what it really is.
Okay so it's like Boullion (Not sure I'm spelling this right.) cubes. Those little squares my mom used to start soup.
Kinda Kat ‘cept Bovril is a semi liquid gloopy thick stuff – and honestly people mix it with boiling water for a drink. strikes me as a utterly British or more English thing – it’s the type of thing where the rest of the world goes ‘what? no, ahhh, that’s rank’ and rightly so – a little like Scotland’s delicacy of deep fried pizza or Mars Bars or our own, all be it very mild form of food terrorism, liking for gravy chips from a Chinese take away – only in northern Ireland.
man, you folks eat some nasty shit. not chinese nasty (live squid, bird nest soup) but nasty nonetheless.
Bovril sounds absolutely putrid. what does it taste like? like boiled steak or something?
crazy folks. though, i suppose seeing as my maternal grandfather came over here from Ireland when he was a teen; and that Barrett is an Irish surname, i can't complain. i am of the same stock.
don’t know j – and God willing I will never find out what Bovril tastes like.
must admit, yep, we eat some weird stuff but after a night out or even as a late night snack, from time to time, nothing beats a gravy, or come to that, a curry chip from the local chinkers.
if you’re ever in this part of the world it’s required eating.
Brian--
tell you what. if i ever make it over there (and brother, i hope i do sometime) we WILL get right drunk and i will partake in this gravy (what do you mean by gravy?) and curry chips. i love curry, so that sounds fine.
maybe the wife and i will plan a trip to Ireland one day and we'll get to live this dream of drink and gravy. :)
ok, how to describe a gravy chip – this is a yoda like task – but I’ll try to be quick – Sunday roast dinner, maybe your mother uses the pan juice of the roast mixed with a little stock (stock cube, fresh, whatever) reduced and adds whatever Mums add and you end up with a light coloured, delicately flavoured, liquidity gravy or maybe a little corn flour, water and bisto and you end up with a dark, thicker, stronger gravy – well it’s neither of these. It’s some wild concoction that only a person arriving from the Orient to Norn Iron could invent and we here all go ‘Yes, I see what you’ve done there and I want to eat it.’
certainly sir, if you and your good wife are visiting one the finer cities of Europe, Paris or Rome say, please feel free to travel on over to the left armpit of Europe which is Norn Iron on Easyjet or Queasyjet as it is endearingly referred to or better still Ryan Air – Irish aviation at its best –
http://www.guardian.co.uk/airlines/story/0,,1742657,00.html
and we will partake of good Guinness and gravy chips. Seriously if you ever are over this side of the planet, you’ll be more than welcome at ours.
oh, like gravy, the term curry has also been used lightly – don’t think mild, creamy, Indian restaurant curry – think more hot, burning, yellow, thick liquid, curry type thing poured over fried potatoes and you'll have a fairer idea.
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