Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Hunting the Nemicorn

The Storefront at Lulu

Er...i got carried away. i'll have the purchase link for the City Store up tomorrow. For now, i am tired.

Even God rested on the 7th day.

Tomorrow is the Festival of Lovers, the one day, every year, when i make it a point to go to lunch or dinner with a woman i am interested in (when married, a simple enough feat...between relationships, sometimes daunting). i have made no plans for lunch or dinner tomorrow...we shall see what the fates have in store for me...

or, to quote Cat Stevens..."But i might die tonight".

Hope not.

Weird, i just noticed that i have not capitalized my i's in this entry. Truly odd.

But the damn CD is done. And it sounds (and looks) great.

Long Live the NEMICORN


The NEMICORN comes into the world, long live the NEMICORN.

Here is the final track list for my new CD, NEMICORN, available starting this Friday, November 3, either through the City of Legends Bookstore, or through the publisher (lulu.com) or you can hope to snag one at any of my public events. Ten bucks, 17 works, that's a pretty good deal.

I'd like to thank two sets of people. First, those whose inputs were so crucial to my making the final few tracks decisions, Matt Hinton, Daleen Berry, Alan MacDonald, Aberjhani, E.J. and Pam Fries.

The second group is perhaps even more essential: People whose inspiration, directly or indirectly, lead to the works contained: Nancy, Peri, Nordette, Carole, Mary, Jennifer, Sarah, Ann, H. R. Giger, Kristina, Crystal, Jan, Jade, Brigit and Karla. I pray long and joyful lives for you all.

Here's the final list of tracks (followed by duration of final version)

Damascus 3 (1:09)
The Nosferatu's Quandry (2:37)
Right Set of Lips (2:12)
Falling and Fallen Angels (2:59)
Brisant Revelations (3:10)
Joining the Machine (2:42)
Texture of Your Tongue (2:40)
The Faerie (Strange but Beautiful) (3:15)
Theocricide (5:02)
Thunder Out of Valhalla (3:28)
Pink Jade - Soft as Dawn (2:16)
Love Gods (Multivox) (3:58)
Thetis (3:06)
Wild and Defiled, Along the Way (4:04)
Darfur (Jesus Wept) (3:55)
Once Again, The Nemicorn (4:08)
A Passion, Unrelenting (3:00)

Total running time, just a hair under 54 minutes.

There it is. Thanks to all. Now to finish up THE NAKED READS. So many projects, I shall never reach my nunc dimittis.

a few fragments of a random morning...Happy Halloween, by the way

I have often joked about how Halloween is an unlucky day for me, several anecdotes about misfortunes in my life focusing on that day. The truth is, it is merely coincidental awareness, not a pattern. So, the odds of my still being alive tonight are pretty good.

I am still assimilating the votes on the tracks for NEMICORN. Fascinating to look at the comments and what they reveal that I do not know about friends, peers and the general public. I try to avoid taking people's comments too seriously, otherwise I'd be insane by now, just from the internal conflicts...er, I'm not already insane?

Neurotic, not psychotic. One of the joys of being a creative artist, you are expected to be a little off the beaten path. Considering some of the paths I've seen, lately, I'm delighted to be out of that mainstream.

E.J. wrote up a release about my current projects, the HGTV quote and next week's poetry event at Barnes & Noble. Then he sent it out under my email. I will have to flog him, publicly. I realize using my mailbox might open a few more doors, but I run the risk of looking nuts when I refer to myself in the third person. It didn't help Bob Dole. Of course, neither did the Viagra ads he took on...while his wife was prepping to run for President...did we really need to know about her husband's penis while she was trying to get us to take her seriously?

Dante called this morning...three times in less than a week, after 13 years of no calls. I am, in a word, delighted. My children are precious to me in a sense that I have no words for me (which is pretty alien, considering my talents and temperament).

Monday, October 30, 2006

The latest returns are in...nemicornemodium reigns

The votes are still pouring in for the tracks for NEMICORN. I am delighted by the passion of the previewers!

Right now, I have to admit, I am seeing some see-saw battles emerging. I wish I could predict what tracks people will ultimately love or hate, but I am getting many tracks that one person will love, the other will say "Absolutely no!" to. It is fascinating to watch.

"Right Set of Lips" seems the most polarizing...everyone either loves it or loathes it.

"A Passion, Unrelenting" and "Darfur" seem to be consistently loved. They are mortal locks at this point.

I'll be announcing the final line up on Wednesday, then we'll be beginning ordering by the weekend. Yes, by the weekend! Let's hear it for the digital renaissance!

Too many projects on my plate, I have to get some of them out and running.

Early Returns on Nemicorn Tracks (part II)

Wanted to share a few comments from individuals I've tapped to serve as reviewers of tracks for "Nemicorn". Some interesting things said.

Alan MacDonald, of the Alan MacDonald Band, one of the best journeymen musicians you will encounter and a boyhood friend of mine, gave one serious piece of advice: To keep "A Passion, Unrelenting".

Matt Hinton, a writer who is one of my throwback cronies from my days with the AOL Writers Club, said several things of interest about selected tracks:

*"Thunder Out of Valhalla": "My favorite of all of these. The percussion acts as the melody line, and is both compelling and effective."

*"Pink Jade - Soft as Dawn": "Good jazz. Excellent blending of narration and score."

*"Again, the Nemicorn": "This works perfectly."

*"A Passion, Unrelenting": Keep this, both for its own sake and for the nice change in instrumentation. Lovely -- among my favorites."

*"Brisant Revelations": "Ghostly -- fog music. Rhythms in the main body work well, and the ending was very good."

*"Texture of Your Tongue": "Overall, reminiscent (in a good way) of Santana."

*"Right Set of Lips": "Pleasant, evocative -- a reverie."

Pam Fries, an old friend and the person who can take credit for the idea behind my CD "The Naked Reads" said that she "surprised myself, I liked this one" over "Joining the Machine".

As you can see, the results are still early...I can tell you that right now, barring a major reversal, I would have to say that

DARFUR
A PASSION, UNRELENTING
LOVE GODS (MULTIVOX)
PINK JADE - SOFT AS DAWN
RIGHT SET OF LIPS
FALLING AND FALLEN ANGELS
JOINING THE MACHINE
and
ONCE AGAIN, THE NEMICORN

are mortal locks. Regardless of the final poll, I will almost certainly place DAMASCUS III in there, as well.

We'll know more tomorrow.

Nordette Adams speaks of Nemicorns

My dear friend and fellow writer Nordette Adams has just put up a profile of myself and a discussion of my forthcoming "Nemicorn" at her website...

www.writingjunkie.net

It is worth a look, even if I despise the photo she used of me...

confirmation of the quote on HGTV

I received this in an email this morning, from Michele Beschen, the host of "B. Original" on
HGTV...

"Good morning William!
Your mother was correct, a quote of yours was
used at the beginning of segment #1 in episode
#DBOR-158 - B. Original with Graffiti & Street Art.
It will re-air again, but I can't give you
a date until they update their program grid.
In the meantime, reply with a mailing address
and we'll see if we can get you a copy.
The quote used was:
"A quote is just a tattoo on the tongue."
- William F. DeVault

Cheers to a creative day!

michele.

b. original....today and everyday

"follow no one"

weekdays 11:00 am central time DIY NETWORK
Saturdays/Sundays 4:30 pm central time DIY NETWORK
weekdays 10:00 am central time HGTV"

So, there's my confirmation. I'll let you know if they can get me the segment (I sent them a
mailing address)...maybe I can even get permission to link to it from the site.

And, by all means, look out for Ms. Beschan's work on HGTV and DIY-TV.

Thus endeth the plug.

Not dead yet

It is a little creepy, the day before Halloween, to have someone looking up your date of death on Google.

Yes, this morning, someone coming in off of a BellSouth node in Atlanta searched for me on Google using the phrase "When was William F. DeVault born and when did he die?".

I'm not dead yet. My lovelife, maybe, but there's still time for a resurrection there.

It looks like the same person searched for information on me using a nickname I had for my daughter. Curious. Probably someone I knew in a previous decade.

But, creepy nonetheless. Wonder if it was Michael Meyers or Freddy Krueger. I didn't know either one of them Googled.

Early Returns from the Voting in the City of Legends

Early returns from the panel previewing the tracks for Nemicorn:

Locked in:
Darfur (Jesus Wept)
The Nosferatu's Quandry
Pink Jade - Soft as Dawn
A Passion, Unrelenting
Right Set of Lips
The Faerie (Strange but Beautiful)

Definitely there:
Fallen and Falling Angels
Damascus, Movement 3
Love Gods (Multivox)
Thetis
Thunder Out of Valhalla
Wild and Defiled, Along the Way

Maybe there:
Theocricide
Amomancy
Texture of Your Tongue
Again, the Nemicorn
Brisant Revelations
Joining the Machine
Brigit

So, what does that mean? Nothing. Yet. I am waiting for further input before making any final decisions and will release the lineup on November 1st. The CD will be available for order on November 3rd.

Nordette Adams sent me an advance of an article she is doing on me. Lovely, but I am not sure I recognize that guy. To me, I will always been that gawky kid who had to ask 12 girls to get a date to his church's "Sweethearts Banquet" in high school, not the guy who gets indecent email propositions from strange but beautiful women, with pictures.

I'll post a link when she finalizes the article.

Tonight's the night I am boycotting NBC's programming because they spinelessly refused to run ads for the documentary "Shut Up and Sing". I will miss "Heroes" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"...but such is life.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

A Passion, part III

A good day, wrapping up with the posting of the latest edition of the "From Out of the City" podcast at Radio City of Legends and Apple's iTunes Music Store.

In this installment I talk about upcoming releases, and I present two different versions of "A Passion Unrelenting"...one is a "naked" read, the other is with full band and engineering. Check them out and let me know which you prefer.

Nine days until the US elections. If you are registered to vote, make sure you do, in an informed and intelligent response to the issues that are important to you. If you are in the Morgantown area, join us that evening for the open microphone reading of politically-themed poetry at Barnes and Noble.

Wednesday is November 1. We all know what that means. If not, you are a newcomer to my sphere. Stick around, let's see what happens. I am completely uncertain, but cautiously optimistic.

Be well. I am right now impatiently awaiting the responses to my various tracks I have requested friends and peers to review. I'll let you know what I hear as feedback.

"A Passion", part II

Well, everyone is on my butt about the fact that I am giving serious consideration to putting "A Passion Unrelenting" on the "Nemicorn" CD.

The argument seems to be triptych.

First, "A Passion Unrelenting" is good, both as a poem and as a musical/poetry fusion (anyone come up with a better term for it, something less awkward, I'll send you a free book). Okay, I will grant you that it is very good.

The second point is that changing the lineup on a CD just days before it is released actually makes a point about the power of the modern technologies within the digital renaissance to be agile to a level unprecedented (the main point of the "1st" renaissance was that movable type meant you could put out a new book in weeks or months instead of years). Agility and malleability are major points of a legitimate renaissance.

Finally, it makes for high drama. We can change the lineup of the CD so quickly that there is no chance for anyone to be certain what the final product will contain. Hmmm...that can be both good and bad.

In any case...I may allow a leak of the piece later today to let people sample it, and see what they think. Perhaps...

a passion, unrelenting...grumble grumble

He'll laugh as he reads this...but can I hate him now?

We're in the middle of finishing touches on two books ("Ronin in the Temple of Aphrodite" and "Psalms of the Monster River Cult") and two CDs ("The Naked Reads" and "Nemicorn") and what does William F. DeVault do? He sends me a soundfile...a new interpretation of one of his works, set to music...done in his "spare time".

It's called "A Passion Unrelenting" and was inspired when, right after his separation from his second wife, an old lover called to check on him and offered comfort he could not take, as he was not going to violate his marriage vows ("expect the apocalypse"...remember? Say what you will, this guy road that pony to the end of the trail.).

But he wrote a nice poem and put it aside...

flash forward two and a half years later...he still hasn't broken his vows (what is this lunatic made of, anyway? I've seen him with women...)...and he writes a lovely, almost bluegrass, track to it and records it. I'll see if I can get him to use it in tonight's podcast, but here is the text of the poem, anyway. His dear friend Mari Laureano went nuts over this piece, comparing it to John Donne (not the first time he has been invoked in a discussion of the Amomancer, mind you).

A Passion, Unrelenting

If time was to my bending
and hearts were to my mending
then I would be with you this night
reweaving intimacies now frayed.

For love and passion do not end
but sometimes lose their way, my friend,
and in us there is so much right
to earn our truth in hearts displayed.

So let the fool and critic roar
and let the clouds of cold rain pour
while we are lost forevermore
and find ourselves here, unafraid.

To find ourselves in token kiss
that pulls us into ardent bliss
when skin becomes the currency
of bartered, battered hearts we bring.

Take me in and share the touch
that, once surrendered, means so much
in fires thrust where we cannot see
but feel an honest kindling.

We shall seek and slake the thirst
that by our sins we have been cursed,
but offer actions unrehearsed
to prove a passion unrelenting.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.

I hate overachievers. Especially when they make it look effortless.

An American Father, Redux

I see that E.J. has posted my anti-war poem "An American Father" at the Amomancer blog ( http://amomancer,blogspot.com). In this politically-charged season, I welcome the revival of that work.

What a long, strange road it has been from Southern Baptist pro-Reagan, pro-Viet Nam War kid to the pacifist, Quaker poet I now am. People who approved of me then take little pleasure in me now. And those who despised and disputed my beliefs then now treat me with an odd paranoia, as if I am a narc (I am still extremely anti-drug. Don't let the ponytail fool you, it is a religious and stylistic choice, not a signal that I am tolerant of those who use, distribute and endorse irresponsible behaviour.)

Several of my friends and associates with backgrounds as writers and musicians have volunteered to help me stay sane by reviewing the tracks for "Nemicorn"...the project should complete tomorrow evening. If you want to be part of it, dear reader, drop me a line and I'll see about giving you access to the soundfiles...18 tracks, and one or two, at least, are not going to make it to this CD.

I will be posting a podcast tonight, so keep your eyes and ears open. Take care, God bless. Peace.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

scoring the Nemicorn

Without complex comments, just wanted to reflect on the 18 tracks under consideration for "Nemicorn". A simple 1 to 10 scale (10 being the highest) which is a combination of the technical merits of the piece, the artistry and creativity and my own opinion of my performance (weighted, as I generally do not like my own voice):

Damascus, Movement 3 (01:09) I give this one a 7.
The Nosferatu's Quandry (02:37) An 8.
Right Set of Lips (02:12) Hmmm...another 7.
Fallen and Falling Angels (02:59) Let's give this one an 8.
Brisant Revelations (03:10) Tough, but a 7.
Joining the Machine (02:42) I have to give it a 6.
Texture of Your Tongue (02:40) Another 6.
The Faerie (Strange but Beautiful) (03:15) A nine...edging towards a ten.
Theocricide (05:02) A seven.
Thunder Out of Valhalla (03:28) An eight, almost a nine.
Pink Jade - Soft as Dawn (02:16) An eight.
Love Gods (Multivox) (03:58) An eight.
Thetis (03:06) A six.
Wild and Defiled, Along the Way (04:04) A nine...but just barely.
Darfur (Jesus Wept) (03:55) A nine...almost a ten.
Brigit (03:35) I'm giving this one six.
Amomancy (19:04) Tough, it is so long and changes flavours so much...but an eight.
Again, the Nemicorn (04:08) An eight.

Remember, these are not judgements on one aspect, but my overall take.

of fallen and falling angels

"of fallen and falling angels". Just a poem I wrote in 2005. Just a song on my upcoming "Nemicorn" CD.

That's crap.

I just listened to it. Listened to it. It's a message from my preconscious, an emotional series of jabs designed to dance me into the corner for my own uppercut. Staggering, once I pierced the imagery, which should have been far more obvious to me.

"the shattered glass leaves fractured face
as witness to this crack'd sphere."

She was and is beautiful, last I saw of her, even with the scar from the auto accident on her cheek. The crack'd sphere is a reference to my conceit, the faceted sphere, in which all possibilities are met.

"we place our bets on cold disgrace
and shed the patronizing tear."

Cowardice never won a heart.

"so we are pierced or cut or bent,
to make a sport for others' glee."

There are those who root for you to fail. They need you to fail, otherwise the nothing of their lives becomes even more apparent.

"their sin, for which - we - then repent
with broken heart on bended knee. "

How often have I worked penance for friends and lovers for the evils of others? Cleaning up the damage of childhood abuse, rape, various traumas, as I seek to find peace for my own failings?

"the healing hands cannot connect
and words cannot pass through the shell
of withered joy and crushed respect
that bricks us up inside this hell."

In the end, you can't help those who are so damaged that your words, even your actions, are viewed with ignorance, even suspicion. I really like my tone of voice during those last few lines. Malevolent, angry. Channeling something testosteronal.

"we pass along the bitter gall
that tastes of shadows in the night.
and bound are we to rise and fall
in seeking out the morning's light. "

We all want to make it until the dawn. We will have out successes and failures on this road. We will regret some of our decisions, made in the darkness. It is inevitable.

"with time and luck and patience, yet,
we may arise in moult of flame
to spread our wings and shed regret
and dare, again, to seek our name. "

Nothing is certain. Love and hope often comes from an unexpected quarter, giving us the strength to rise from our own ashes. We are diverted from our best destinies by distractions that exist both to that purpose and happenstance to the nature of the chaos of the universe.

Don't give up.

Looks like the Actor actually said something profound for once. I believe it was both to me and to the Leopard, and to a friend undergoing some doubt in her life regarding whether or not she would never find love. There are no simple answers to questions of inspiration.

Keep up on the news from Darfur...people dying daily

Oh, and a huge round of applause to David Letterman for calling Bill O'Reilly on his BS. I don't know what's scarier, that a man that full of hatred and deceit can draw an audience, or that he actually thinks he's one of the good guys.

Boycotting NBC

The public airwaves are the public airwaves. A simple enough conclusion. But, just as we in the United States have a major portion of our daily pablum of media filtered through an Australian billionaire who made his money with softcore tabloids in England, buys a financially troubled studio and hires every Right wing nutcase with an axe to grind against the major outlets that didn't give them the airtime or promotions they thought they deserved, and call it "fair and balanced"...I now have a moral dilemma.

I see where NBC has rejected advertisements for the new documentary about the Dixie Chicks because "They are disparaging to President Bush" (A man who once had his attack dogs claim that Senator John McCain (a real war hero, not given to parading around in the flightsuit his father bought for him to keep him out of war) had fathered an illegitimate child of "mixed race", to carry the white vote in a Southern state)...so, I am going to have to step away from my two favourite TV shows, both on NBC, "Heroes" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", and ask others to do so, just for one week, to protest this ridiculous censorship of the public airwaves.

It is not up there with a fast or setting myself on fire or running for office (with my marital history? the press would have a field day...). It is depriving myself of two hours of TV. A citizens of a nation that prides itself on its ability to engage in self-sacrifice when called upon in times of turmoil certainly can do that...no? Watch CBS or ABC for two hours, they'll appreciate the ratings bump.

But I am asking all persons of conscience to express their displeasure by, this Monday at 9 pm, Eastern Time, switching off NBC (and CW, who also rejected the ad, but I have no idea what that network plays during that timeslot). A corporation should not be making political exposure decisions for a nation that claims to be a free and democratic society.

I work at a business where for Halloween we are encouraged to dress up, but they are asking we do not wear anything that might upset anyone. First on that list? Witches. Both because some Christians find them irredeemably evil, and we also have people who work there who are members of various witchcraft or wiccan denominations. Funny, these people have no problem working alongside each other (it means a paycheck)...but when it comes to a Halloween costume, it is offensive. We, as a nation, are so afraid of the image and so unwilling to address real issues

Sorry, NBC, I know that "Studio 60..." is probably the best written show on television, and your ratings have been weak because it is over the heads of the average viewer, and it seems a shame to throw another spanner in the works, but I bet Danny and Matt would do the same. As for "Heroes"...sigh, someone else is going to have to "Save the cheerleader...save the world".

For one week.

Friday, October 27, 2006

A quote is but...

Well, the mystery thins...according to latest and greatest information, the mysterious quotation of me was made on a show on HGTV, in a show about creating artistic trash cans by spray painting one's own graffiti on them.

Not a bad idea, actually.

The way it was recounted to me, the quote:

"A quote is just a tattoo on the tongue"

was paraphrased, but attributed, as

"A quote is just graffiti on the tongue"

which is fine with me, especially since it was attributed.

To my best knowledge, this is the first recorded incident of my being a type-2 meme source (type-1 is a direct quote, type-2 is an attributed paraphrase, type-3 is iconization or institutionalization, as I understand it).

I went to the website for HGTV ( www.hgtv.com) and found reference to a program that was broadcast yesterday morning, the 26th, from a series entitled "B. Original" featuring host Michele Beschen, entitled "B. Original with Graffiti Art" that seems to fit the time and topic my mother's friends mentioned...

I've dropped them an email to see if I can get a clip, or a link, or something, to share...in the meantime, if you happen to see if show, drop me a line and let me know.

from an unknown quote to Darfur activism

My Mom told me this morning that a friend of hers heard me being quoted "on television" yesterday. I asked her what the quote was. She didn't recall. I asked her what the topic was. She didn't recall. She's going to check with her friend and see if she can remember what it was and the context of it (it must not have been too big of a deal, I haven't received an uptick in website hits or book orders).

I suggested it might have been "A quote is just a tattoo on the tongue" or "The existence of a single atheist does not disprove the existence of God".

There is always a danger, living in a small community with strong family ties, of being called upon to compromise principle for the comfort of others, to wear a muzzle. I hate being in that position, when I have been there. "A running man cuts many sleeping throats in the dark". Someone who is worried about his personal baggage is hobbled and loud and clumsy and ineffective. Most effective public figures have lousy personal lives, because you can't serve two masters.

I don't think I've ever done or said anything that anyone should worry about. I've never called for a bloody revolution, advocated manslaughter or done a beer advertisement. My political causes are, in keeping with my Christian faith and mission, almost entirely humanitarian, and my political views, while generally liberal, are still within the spectrum of sanity as even the most ardent of Rupert Murdoch (Fox TV) fans can deal with.

No, I do not limit myself to "Let's go, Mountaineers". Yes, I have been involved in some high profile relationships and I have some friends who do make the news. I do believe Christian activism is a daily thing and that my calling, as a poet, involves saying things in a loud enough voice that those who are not listening with a clear head and an open heart will find some context to criticize.

Anyone who wishes to take issue with my recent stand on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur really needs to be criticizing themselves, looking long and hard at what is in their heart and what they are doing to make this world a better place. By the way, if you have not yet stopped by the blog Darfur, dying for heroes I would ask you do, at this time. An activist blog, they are trying to bring greater focus on this crisis.

There are many issues, causes and problems in the world. Hunger, war, child pornography, spousal abuse, drug addiction, religious intolerance, animal rights, racism, gender conflicts, terrorism, political unrest, genocide, and Steven Segal films. You do not have to agree with my agenda to do something. Pick a cause (ideally something a little more extroverted than "Me for me") and get involved. I may not agree with the path you choose, but I will respect you for making a difficult choice and walking the walk.

Considering the nakedity of it all

I have received a few notes from people, requesting specific poems for inclusion in "The Naked Reads", my forthcoming CD of unvarnished poetry readings, and there are a few surprises along the way.

First, let me start by granting or denying a few wishes:

"The Unicorns" - In. How can I refuse? This poem may be older than most of my hard-core readers, but it is durable and I sometimes even myself marvel at the elegance of it. I don't know if I have exceeded it since.

"Damascus, Movement 3" - Out. Sorry, it is already opening the CD "Nemicorn", coming out at the same time. I just couldn't. Yes, I love the piece and yes, I read it well and yes it has resonance...but I am sick to death of the ruins of that marriage. Move on, people, move on. I did.

"The Arms of the Dragon" - In, and with gladness. I want to nail this sucker.

Actually, nothing from "Damascus", "The Panther Cycles", "The Selke Cycles", "The Leopard Cycles" or "The Goldenheart Cycles".

"Radiant Tigers" - In, with a bullet.

"night of a thousand colours" - In.

There will be pieces from "The Morgantown Suite Poems" and "Pink Jade".

And several classics and surprises. I will release this CD concurrent with "Nemicorn". They will be available for purchase, along with my first CD "The Last Romantic Verb" through lulu.com and the City of Legends bookstore, individually, and I will arrange a set for a discount.

If you have an internet radio station, a college or local radio show that likes something literate and/or offbeat, drop me a line and I will be happy to grant permission to use the pieces. I just want to be asked. In part so I can give you some free publicity.

Pieces of me. That's what there is when you're the patchwork man.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

filling out your scorecards

By popular demand, a quick catchup on local issues:

Jasmine seems to have played the pocket veto. Such is life. I hope that whatever she wants in this life, she gets. There are billions of people in this world, if I was angry or hateful over any of them not wanting me to be a key factor in their lives, I'd be wasting an awful lot of emotional energy on being stupid. I'd still recue her cat from a tree at 3 in the morning if she asked for help.

E.J. let me know that, owing to some technical issues today, he won't be posting on Amomancer blog this morning. I'll actually miss that, I usually read it, as I sometimes forget many of the pieces I've written.

Not a big fan of people who have an issue with you, and rather than address it to you, take it down another path. I consider that cowardice, and gossip, two things I don't really respect. Moral superiority is not found in whispering campaigns, but in forthrightness and earnest debate.

An observation derived from a few decades of success as a corporate stormtrooper: If your target is process rather than results, you are addicted to stagnation and mediocrity. Inputs, external factors and targets change faster than bureaucracy. Ingrained ignorance and habituation is stronger than knowledge.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Quote for today

I would rather face an army of hungry devils than a single coward armed with innuendo, rumours and lies.

Cowardice is not a virtue. Neither is slander.

The Naked approach

I am now working on the framework for my CD "THE NAKED READS".

Conceived after an old friend, Pam, commented that she preferred my naked
readings to the ones with music, filtering and special effects on "THE LAST
ROMANTIC VERB", it will be nothing but me, a microphone and my words.

I am currently selecting the poems to be on it...so if you have a piece of mine
you'd like to hear me read...drop me a line or leave me a comment or send
me a telegram. I will, within reason, try to oblige.

Noblesse oblige, you know.

[In a sudden Crazy Ivan move, I found an interesting quote about the topic of
"noblesse oblige" at Wikipedia:

"Indeed you can usually tell when the concepts of democracy and citizenship
are weakening. There is an increase in the role of charity and in the worship
of volunteerism. These represent the élite citizen's imitation of noblesse
oblige; that is, of pretending to be aristocrats or oligarchs, as opposed to
being citizens." — John Ralston Saul

Gee, someone should clue in the current administration on this point. Oh,
they already know? Back to our main theme.]

There are several pieces I will make sure to include, favourites of
mine...pieces I like reading as they are well-worn, well-honored or fun to
wrap my tongue around.

Note to my private life followers: The Jasmine issue should achieve a
reasonable semblance of a wrap up later today. Then again, maybe not. Who
can predict the whims and wishes of a woman? I gave up a long time ago.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Identity Issues

A recent note from someone let me know that there had been, once again, an identity issue surrounding me.

Let me clarify who I am (best Christopher Lambert impression, from "Highlander"):

I am William Francis DeVault. I am a poet. I have many sobriquets, but since I gave up on pseudonyms in the 1970's, just one name. My monogram is "WFDV" and my family motto translates to "Humble only before God".

I am regarded by many as the "Romantic Poet of the Internet", a title originally given to me by Yahoo, in the mid-1990's. Some consider me one of the fathers of the "Digital Renaissance". I have even been regarded as a possible reincarnation of a Holy Man, a notion I disregard and reject. I am me.

I have written thousands of poems, published several books, been in many publications, toured and presented my works from coast to coast in the United States, and known the love of some truly remarkable friends and lovers along this strange road.

I currently hang my ponytail in Morgantown, West Virginia, where I work as a trainer and coach for TeleTech and also moonlight as a teacher with Monongalia County's Technical Education Center.

I used to write a comedy column for AOL's Writers Club and used to write film reviews for AOL's Roadside, USA hub. My favourite movie, all time, remains Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz".

I am also called "The Amomancer", as one who "casts spells with words of love". It comes from the word "Amote", which I coined as both a contraction of the Latin for "I love you" and as meaning "To speak of love".

I have three wonderful children, all by my first wife: Perelandra (Peri), Elric and Dante. I have married and divorced, twice.

I host the podcast show "From Out of the City".

I graduated from Morgantown High School, in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1973...a school that has never invited me to speak before even a single English class. I briefly enrolled at West Virginia University. I suppose attending classes would have helped, but I was off, in my own sphere, writing all the time.

I've survived gangrene and pneumonia, both in my younger days. At one of my last physicals, the doctor told me it would take kryptonite to kill me, but that I'd look better if I lost some weight. I have dropped almost 50 pounds since then.

Thanks in part to my relationships with psychologists and psychology students, I have taken just about every psychological test there is, and I know the results. Neurotic, bright and mercurial. I achieve emotional satisfaction from gratification of my very strong sex drive. In the absence of sex, I eat. I am conquering this as we speak, and to that I attribute this incredible run of productivity over the last three years. I have learned to sublimate to editing and writing and recording and painting and engineering and composing.

I am shy with women, my poetry being where the romantic can express himself.

But I am not psychotic and not pathological. Most lies I have told in this life (a bad habit for any cause) were told at the behest of others to cover their sins, not my own. I know my demons, I converse with them, and I keep them under an iron fist, but I keep them. I have sworn to fulfill the "Nosferatu's Dream"...that if I ever see myself turn evil, I will destroy myself. I don't hide from those who seek me, I don't charge for good acts, I believe that any person who gets rich off of spiritually by making others pay to find their paths is a charlatan and a fraud. All truths are to be freely given, as is all love. Love = truth.

My favourite person is my father.

Perhaps the most famour quotations from me are: "A quote is just a tattoo on the tongue" and "The existence of a single atheist does not disprove the existence of God".

I am overly generous, sometimes taken advantage of for that. I have been an ennabler. I do recall the middle name of every woman I have ever been with. I am a natural flirt, something my daughter pointed out to me years ago, and I like bright, articulate, beautiful women. Despite my failings in my first marriage and some rather aggressive temptations, I did not cheat in my second marriage. I still haven't taken a lover since then.

I was once given a tryout at Marvel Comics at the behest of Stan Lee. I didn't make it.

I hosted the Mississippi Gathering of Poets in Bay St. Louis, three years ago. I headlined with the Southern Poets Reading Tour, twice, in 1997. I am featured in the Appalachian Education Initiative's "Art & Soul" volume, celebrating arts education by honoring 50 "outstanding creative artists" from West Virginia. I was a featured in the Edinburgh International Internet Festival of the Arts. I have read in schools, churches, bars, coffee houses clubs and colleges across the United States.

I hosted the Writers Club Party at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City in September of 1995.

I have lived in South Carolina, Alaska, Washington, Colorado, Michigan, West Virginia, North Dakota, California, Maryland, Mississippi and Virginia. I have been homeless.

I have a tattoo. It is of a lion, on my right shoulder, mtching the lioness on my second ex-wife's shoulder, as she requested. Duh.

I used to teach "Youth Alternatives to Violence" for Monterey County Probation in California and was the county coordinator for Monterey County for the California Friday Night LIve Partnership's FNL program for young people. I was the Alcohol and Drug Resource Specialist for Harden Middle School in Salinas, California.

I have never eaten a live hamster. I love chicken livers. I do not like broccoli.

That is a picture, from 1974, of me on the cover of my book "The Morgantown Suite Poems". Those are pictures of my second wife on the cover of "from an unexpected corner" and "Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion".

A mystic once predicted that I would die a violent death. If so, I hope it is for a purpose and not just as a random target of random violence. I do not attend funerals, as I find them barbaric. Celebrate life, not death. Jesus said "Let the dead bury the dead".

I designed the cover of Daniel S. McTaggart's book "Midnight Muse in a Convenience Store". I sometimes, in my spare time, edit books and design covers for other authors.

I don't drink or do drugs, never have, never will. I believe sleeping with a person under the influence is rape.

I have made, in the past, a healthy salary as a manager of software development teams, a proposal writer and manager, and as a consultancy director.

I am an ordained minister. I have been admitted into both the Southern Baptist church and the Episcopal Church, but I count myself a Quaker (Society of Friends).

I prefer Macs to Windows platforms. My drink of choice is Diet Dr. Pepper, which is unfortunate as I do believe Splenda to be a much safer choice for artificial sweetener. I tend to wear black because it simplifies my life, I have bad taste in colour coordination. I love jasmine tea, as to me it tastes like a woman.

And, until proven otherwise, I am immortal.

At least spiritually and literally. Check in with me in 500 years to see how the physical side goes.

the box of surface pretensions

the box of surface pretensions

I am only allowed, one flavour
to be.
One standard to design, to define
to be me.

I can play just one instrument and just
one note,
at a rhythm preset by a
popular vote.

Inside this box, this interminable
shell
I am often told, scolded, that all know me not
too well.

Far better than me or all that
I know
I am supposed to sit on the shelf, and never
dare grow.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.

Hey, it is new, what more do you want, world?

Monday, October 23, 2006

I'm not that easy

A shame I don't track things that far back...just got my weekly FreeFind report (showing what words and phrases people have used to search my website www.cityoflegends.com).

Seems someone is trying to unlock the more evocatively-titled poems in my collection 101 GREAT EROTIC POEMS. Most notably "Twitch Like a Bitch".

You don't think I am that easy, do you?

I didn't think so.

I can be naive, even a bit thick, but with an IQ substantially out of the "normal" range, life experience enough for two of my average readers and an animal cunning that has kep me alive through two marriages and many disasters of the non-marital sort...

I'm not that easy.

I've dodged various attempts to entangle me in new romantic disasters, been in car wrecks that totalled the vehicle I am in, survived some personal scandals, had someone take a shot at me (Churchill was right) and tap danced my way out of many attempts to corner me on political, theological, philosophical and sociological debates by friends, acquaintances and family, and still have most of my brain cells. I still don't drink, still couldn't tell you what it feels like to get high, and my main bad habit is taking on other people's burdens or the blame for same in order to protect them from the consequences of their own stupidity.

I'm not that easy.

With a sex drive that has three gears, all of them that would put a Jaquar XKE to shame, I've stayed a monk for almost three years (although there have been a few close calls) and have written enough works that, if I die tonight, you could put out a book of all new material the size of "The Morgantown Suite Poems" authored by me once a year for the next 200 years. I've dropped 46 pounds in the last 4 months, finished two (2) soon to be published novels and have a screenplay on slow boil.

Sounds like I'm breast beating, hm? Yeah. I guess feeling shot down by my football date made me want to roar defiance at the heavens. I'll shut up now. But...

I'm still not that easy.

(thump) (thump) snarl

Surreal day

Surrealism. Not just a movement in the arts. A way of life.

My life.

This morning I spoke to the woman I work with whom was to be my escort to the WVU vs. Cincinnati football game on November 11.

"Still up for the game."

"Oh no."

"What?"

"That's on a Saturday, isn't it? I just got a schedule change, I'm working on Saturdays."

Urk. Ouch. Smells like a faint whiff of ozone as the lightning strikes. I am going to presume that's a subtle dump. Being a larger than life personality sometimes I am accused of insinuating myself into people's lives by force of will and I am sick to death of that, so, no thanks. If she calls and wants a rain check, fine. I'll just let the topic drop.

I got home this evening, and my protege known as "Titania" called. She was stranded and in need of a rescue. Not that unusual in and of itself. Turns out she got a ticket on Friday for trying to walk to work. The West Virginia State Police informed her that walking along the only road that connects her apartment building to the local shopping center where her job is was a violation of the law.

After I picked her up and was on my way driving her to her job, my cellphone rang. Unfamiliar number.

It was Karla, she who is known as "The Mad Gypsy". Old friend. Old lover. Damn good poet. She was just calling to say "Hello".

I just now got off the phone with her.

Surreal day, to be sure.

I'm waiting for the next oddity in space and time to strike, today.

Waking up and getting rolling

I've been getting a lot of flirtatious email and blog comments of late...nice to know there is life out there.

Yes, I know I'm a day behind on the podcast. Relax, all will be made up in time.

Got my list from Poetry Super Highway of the contest winners who get prizes from me...one, to be named later (but who is associated with the Texas A&M English Department), won the right to be interviewed and do a reading on the podcast show! Yay!

Much to do today. And tonight: "Heroes" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"...so, life, if not good, is at least diverting.

Feeling strong today. Will see what the day brings with grim determination and an ironic smile.

Later, children.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

weltschmerz. and distribution woes.

A lot of comments and emails today.

Yes, I do, on occasion, suffer from weltschmerz...but that's okay, if you only see the lit side of a sphere, you may be missing important details around the dark side. I am able to control my moods well enough to keep from falling into that velocity trap.

Distribution woes for POD authors. Absolutely. And, I understand this. Which means someone needs to step up and provide a better means for quality POD books to make it into libraries, schools and bookstores...let me think on this for a few minutes.

I've never quit a fight in my life that was worth fighting.

Access to the Poet

I have been asked "How do I lay hands on your books and CDs?"

Fair question, and one I should answer.

You can order most of my books through any bookstore, even online at Amazon and bn.com.

I also have my own bookstore at The City of Legends Store where you can get many of my books, as well as Dan McTaggart's brilliant "Midnight Muse in a Covenience Store" and my CD "The Last Romantic Verb". My prices tend to be lower than bookstores, and you get custom autographs.

Lastly, on the topic of books, you can go to my publishers, most recently lulu.com and purchase many of my books, as well as "The Last Romantic Verb". They don't come pre-autographed, as when you get them from the City Store, but their prices tend to be lower than chain stores.

If you just want to listen to me, you can go to www.archive.org and find many of my recordings, some of them old and badly done, but there's fun in that, too.

You can also go to the MySpace site for my band William F. Devault and the Gods of Love. I think all the tracks I am right now sharing off of there are from the new CD, "Nemicorn", which should be out in another week or two.

You can also just go to my "City of Legends Radio" Page ( www.cityoflegends.com/radio.html) and listen to many of my works.

Enough? Not nearly enough. But, I am working on it.

pleated skirts, a lioness and a woman with a rakish hat

No, E.J., I won't kill you. To quote my charming ex-wife, if I killed you it would eliminate my opportunity to make the rest of your life a living Hell.

Also, despite the fact that my new poem "Catholic Schoolgirl Fantasy" is not what I care to be known for, so much, it is charming and I didn't tell you not to post it. Taking it down now would only aggravate the situation.

I did spend much of the night writing. Some of it heavy, some of it light, some about a woman I encountered at the bookstore yesterday. Being the coward I am, I never got her name or gave mine, but I observed her for a few minutes, in the Starbuck's at Barnes & Noble in Granville, then had a brief conversation with her at the information desk. She was tall, mid-thirties (she gave her age, I would have guessed her mid to late twenties) with a mane of dark-blonde hair and a smile that invoked the notion of biting into a tart apple. I don't know why. But when my preconscious sets off a metaphor or simile that quickly or pleasantly, I listen. Very lovely. And I will probably never encounter her again in this life.

Sigh.

Actually my main conundrum right now, female-wise, is Jasmine. I am very drawn to her, and she is pleasant enough to me, but I can't seem to penetrate the shell she keeps up. I am trying to be surgical, even delicate, as I have no desire to startle her (invoking more defenses) or upset her (alienating her). I am exasperated. She is bright, lovely, gentle and very unusual in my experience. My first instinct is to get on my amour armour, find a white horse and carry her off to a castle someplace.

I actually like it when that part of my awakens. Innately, I am the champion. I should just ask her what I am to her, but that seems so...so...dangerous. Am I ready to be crushed? Is my ego strong enough to survive reality?

E.J. critiques the new CD

While to poet sleeps in, I'm going over the tracks, again, from NEMICORN, and giving new impressions, bases on my re-listening, new angles, and the opinions of several writer and musician friends I have spoken with.

1. Damascus 3: Interesting, and a good intro. It's a little word-centric, but it is a good reading of a solid work.

2. The Nosferatu's Quandry: When I close my eyes I can see the lights in a dance club. I can imagine this making it mainstream. He smooth tones, sliding occasionally into that signature growl, are perfect. You can tell he has been listening to Prince forever (he lists his four fave musicians as Sting, Prince, David Bowie and Ani DiFranco).

3. Right Set of Lips: The opening guitar reminds me of Clapton's "Change the World", there's a curious accent to his voice here. Even he noticed it, but he has no explanation for it. I sense a master's thesis in analyzing it.

4. Falling and Fallen Angels: Yeow! The Poet-Rockstar makes his arrival. A piece of his, too new for this CD, code-named "Brutality" picks up, musically, where this one left off, he is exploring every nook and cranny, God bless him. There's a goth sensibility here, in his voice and the lyrics, but the music is more upbeat...he's playing with the conflict (as he does in his works). The vocal shift on "bricks us up..." is a little melodramatic for some.

5. Brisant Revelations: It may not make it on "Top 40" radio. But, who cares? The band comes together perfectly in this piece. The tribal drums, the howling guitars, the strange, chirping delivery by a poet who has obviously dropped his inhibitions. I'd accuse him of being drunk when he recorded it, if I thought he ever drank. That he does this clean is all the more miraculous. I had to look up "glatisant". And "brisant". And "rhodium".

6. Joining the Machine: Haunting, daunting and taunting, one friend said. I always feel like its going to give me nightmares.

7. Texture of Your Tongue: A little too beatnik-cafe for me. But, as the lone truly erotic piece on this album, give it a listen. You may find it strangely compelling and inspirational.

8. The Faerie (Strange but Beautiful): Another competitor for major attention in the mainstream. I get chills. I heard a female friend gasp as she listened to this. It is excruciating, unremittingly romantic. I think he should consider this as a title for a future book. I understand the young woman he wrote this about turned out to be a real jerk. Such is life.

9. Theocricide: Who let Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass plus the Tower of Power horn section in here? Then the acoustic, stand-up bass? I really need to check his jasmine tea for mescaline. It's great, just...odd. An intensely moving musing. I hope Psyche hears it.

10. Thunder Out of Valhalla (We Owe Debt to Memory): Again with the drums and the guitars. One friend of mine "acid danced" to this piece. She worked up quite a sweat, so did I just watching her. Maybe that's his idea. I wish he had more faith in his voice, so the switches between the instruments and his voice at front and center were not so jarring. Listen when he says "declared to cure disease" and tell me that wasn't on the verge of a singing voice.

11. Pink Jade - Soft as Dawn: Entirely apropos, as I understand that "Pink Jade" was Latina, that this work has a Latin flavour to it. The poem has always been a difficult one for readings, as it is often misinterpreted by audiences. The music helps punctuate it better.

12. Love Gods (Multivox): Experimental, but genius is not in doing the same thing, it is in the experiments. As an interpretive piece, I love the milieu, the tapestry of voices. The cithara sounds of the lone guitar tie it together without compromising it.

13. Thetis: As a poem, great. As a reading, dazzling. But I don't think it belongs on this CD. Of course, owing to the background special effects, it doesn't belong on THE NAKED READS, either.

14. Wild and Defiled, Along the Way: Joyful guitars. If any one piece would have been a good place for the poet to unleash his singing voice (he hates it, we've heard, over and over and over again), this would be the right one. Fun, nonetheless. Love the SoCal sound.

15. Darfur (Jesus Wept): Poets have souls, too. This is an intensely moving statement of the conflict and scale of the genocide in that region. "Wake up and see why Jesus wept" indeed.

16. Brigit: An instrumental track? I'd like to see him ditch this one. It's beautiful, but it is not what people came to this party for.

17. Amomancy: I am of two minds on this nineteen minute piece, containing more than a dozen poems. It is nice, very nice, with even moments of brilliance...but it is a bit overlong to my tastes. I accuse him of being too attached to Emerson, Lake and Palmer, who seemed to always have a long production piece on their albums.

19. Once Again, the Nemicorn: It's "Brigit", from above, with lyrics. Okay, we get that. In and of itself, not bad at all...but why not ditch the instrumental piece? "You dance across my bed, you dance inside my heard, and where my heart has bled, these flowers blossom, red." Clever. I like the outro funked up guitar, too.

All in all, a notch above "The Last Romantic Verb" as a CD, which isn't an insult at all, LRV was a remarkable opening salvo of literary laser cannon fire. I would make some changes, and while he may listen to me, it is not my call.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Autism and mirror neurons, et cetera

I read a fascinating pair of articles in the latest Scientific American, about "mirror neurons" and their probable link to autism (having a son who suffers from an autistic spectrum disorder, albeit one of the milder ones, it is a topic of interest to me).

It occurs to me that much of the symptomology they ascribe to autistic children could, in very, very light shading, be applied to me as a child. Perhaps this is where we find the genetic component that makes the ailment more likely. Currently the thinking is that there is a genetic predisposition, that is then triggered by an environmental force. The scientists are debating the actual nature of this trigger, from mercury in vaccines (generally disproven) to too much television to excessive use of ultrasounds to, I think, hearing the voice of Nancy Grace.

I will be following this with interest. My son, Dante, is very dear to me, and although I believe him to be happy and healthy, I also know his life would be easier without the social disability that comes with his condition. I do not pity him, and I am certainly not ashamed of him, I just want him to have the greatest capacity for a full and happy life that is possible.

Besides, all my life I have been fascinated with the workings of the human mind, which explains why I have dated so many psychologists and counselors, I suppose (or they are studying me...). The whole aspect of mirror neurons I find of particular interest, as this may actually explain to me some of the odder points of the "magic gloves" phenomenon I have found in my own life and that has been described by so many creative artist friends of mine, as well as labeled so well by author John Irving in his book "The World According to Garp".

I composed some very interesting fragments on my way back from Virginia today, after a very enjoyable visit with my sons, so keep your eyes (and ears) open. Some of the fragments are a bit edgy, I think the testosterone is trying to make a point. I had a friend the other day who told me that he doesn't think I will really get my full mojo back until I take a lover...he said it is my personality and pattern to only acheive at a high level when it is for someone I am sworn to. Interesting notion. Perhaps we shall see. If my recent productivity is only at a lower gear, I would be interested to see what happens when I pop the clutch and get traction on the scrith of life.

I realize today is a high water mark in the public campaign to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, with the concerts all over the place, but don't let yourself slide into the thinking that now that the concerts are over, the work is done. The battle is just beginning. Our neighbors are counting on us. It is time to show that America is not great because we are the only nation in recorded history to use atomic weapons on another people, or because of our broken treaties with the indigenous peoples of our land, or because we don't think the Geneva Conventions apply to us, but because we are charitable and brave and steadfast.

Be nice to be known for something other than the ignorance, greed and arrogance of our officials for once.

have a great day

I'm off, in just a few minutes, to spend the day (or what is left of it after a four hour drive) with my boys.

Stay out of trouble whie I'm incommunicado (that's just North of incognito). If I don't post again, something disastrous happened (yes, even worse than the 2000 US Presidential Coup). But what are the odds on that?

If you get bored go to my site and read poetry or go to MySpace and listen to the band (especially "DARFUR (Jesus Wept)") and reflect on what you've done lately to make this world a better place. Then, take it up a notch.

Congratulations to the WVU Mountaineers for their manhandling of UConn last night.

"love: an addiction and a venom I use and sell"
- "Bragi, awakening in his tomb", William F. DeVault (I always liked that line)

Friday, October 20, 2006

Nemicorns and causes

I went over the proposed tracks in the new CD "Nemicorn" with Kevin "Bear" Bond, a musician friend of mine who may or may not be one of the contributors to the Gods of Love. He agreed with most reviewers that "Wild and Defiled, Along the Way", "Strange but Beautiful", "Brisant Revelations" and particulerly "DARFUR (Jesus Wept)" are the tentpole numbers.

I have to admit a certain fondness for the Multivox of "Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion". But, I have noted that musicians seem less impressed with that track, writers and spoken word artists seem more delighted. That's good for me.

I am considering the possibility of taking my Campaign for Darfur up a notch, but that will have to wait until I get back from visiting my boys this weekend. I have many political, personal and social causes and beliefs, and this is the one of the moment, where I have written and performed something impactive.

Many causes? Yeah.

I'm opposed to the silence of the West on the topic of the holocaust in Darfur.

I have a serious attitude about spousal, actually any, abuse where a man strikes a woman (which is why I think Mike Tyson's recent announcement about wanting to fight women is so sick) or anyone strikes a child.

I believe in better education on drugs and alcohol for young people, and warning labels for alcohol beverage containers, consistent with their dangers. Yes, cigarette smoke kills more poeple, but usually its the user themselves. Very few people kill others, destroy property, get into fights and commit rape under the influence of a pack of Marlboros.

I believe, as a Christian, in the abolition of the death penalty.

I am pro-choice.

I believe the financial reform is the key to political reform and that the power of corporations and congomerates to control the electoral process is why we have been getting and retaining so many mediocre "leaders".

I believe that there is a difference between the pragmatism of life and the pleasure of God.

I believe in love.

Yes, these are purposes I am fixed to, and for, and with.

dwelling in a darkness

I still don't know who posted the note about my "dense"-ness a few days ago. I have my suspicions, but such is life.

Yes, I can be slow to pick up on signals from a woman, comically so. Historically I have tended to end up with women who signal their vague interest by showing up naked and demanding that I earn my reputation as a lover. It's a huge risk they take, because being rejected at a moment like that would be devastating to a woman's self-esteem.

E.J. has encouraged me to answer questions about what appeals to me, in women, but I would hate to do that and leave out the notion of chemistry. I have been involved, quite joyfully, with women who did not fit "my type". In fact, if you analyze what is typically considered "my type" you find the leggy, anorexic, liberal-arts majors with substantial life trauma and a prickly shell of sarcasm are not always the type I get involved with, just the predominant.

Yes, I have been quoted, accurately, as saying "No woman under five foot nine can be perfect, as shorter women do not have the legs that attract me"...but that was aeons ago, before the significantly shorter Mad Gypsy made a strafing run through my life.

Yes, I have stated my avoidance of people with drug and alcohol problems, but my romantic history has several notable ones. I still will not sleep with a woman, even a wife, when she is under the influence, as I still consider that rape.

I may have preferences as to style, make, shape, colour and mileage, but in the end, the notion of the "unexpected quarter" reigns supreme. I have been attracted to misfit mesalliances only to find great happiness for a season, and writing well from that sanctuary within a worthy heart that has accepted me.

I think of the women I am currently attracted to, in one case even so much as to actually (gasp!) make a move. Definitely outside of the lines, as history paints my tastes, but explicable. Perhaps having found that while I have dusted off more than one tarnished soul and given her back hope, I have lost mine, somewhere on the road to redemption from my own personal demons and crave a new elixir. A new formula. A new beginning.

Wanna bet on what will be the profile of my next great muse, perhaps my final great muse?

Don't place any bets. I wouldn't try to predict that for all the world. And I am glad for it.

As the bard wrote:

"Gonna dwell in darkness til the sun comes back. And it always comes back from an unexpected quarter."

The darkness is uncomfortable, but having lived here for a few years, it is home...for now.

This and that and everything else

Decent turn out last night at Barnes & Noble. Tamara from Tha.Speakeasy, a local open microphone gig at 123 Pleasant Street, showed and brought many of her crew, so it was a great opportunity for synergy. We also had myself, Dan McTaggart, and a brief visit from local author Daleen Berry, who braved the traffic the rain and her own cold to put in some face time.

I think the event on Election Day has a real shot of being a major moment. We'll work towards that.

Mundane life. I checked my online banking with my credit union this morning, and I could not access my account, due to their database having problems. So I zipped over to the local Sheetz to check my balance and pull some cash. Sorry, their ATM was down and out, so I went all the way over to Star City to the Sheetz there to find a working ATM. In the rain. In morning traffic. Bleah.

Fantastic response to "Darfur" still pouring in, and some previews by some musicians and writers I have leaked the CD, "Nemicorn", to are praising highly the "tribal aspect" of "Brisant Revelations". If you want to hear it, you can link to it on MySpace at the band's site and give a listen. I admit that while my vocals on the piece are odd, they are strangely compelling.

William F. DeVault and the Gods of Love at MySpace

Thursday, October 19, 2006

jibber jabber

I received a lot of positive reaction to my mockery of Wal-Mart yesterday, I guess there are a few people who note the hypocritical pandering that so many multi-billion dollar multi-national corporations embrace to woo the middle class.

I see that E.J. went with "sex cookies" for the poem of the day at his blog Amomancer. Nice choice.

Tonight's the open microphone at Barnes & Noble. I would love to see representative from Morgantown High School, University High School, Albert Gallatin High School, Clay-Batelle High School, St Francis High School and West Virginia University pay a visit. I won't hold my breath and will show up armed for bear to eat the time personally if we get skunked. I'd like to not have to read at all, we get so many people to show.

Nice episode of "Lost" last night. Glad to see them picking up the pace. There are only three shows I watch with regularity right now: "Lost", "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Heroes". I peek at a few others, but haven't quite committed to them. I am impressed with the storytelling in all three. "Studio 60" is a bit over the head sof the average viewer, and that may ultimately doom it, but here's hoping the American viewing public pleasantly surprises me.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

The Super Wal-Mart Opening Prayer

They just today opened a new Super Wal-Mart in my area, and someone I know went to the opening and, in addition to "America the Beautiful" and other pomp and ceremony, they said a prayer. I didn't ask about the content of the prayer, but I decided I would help them out and write a prayer apropos to a corporation, asking for divine intervention in their efforts.


Dear Lord, Our Father, Almighty Ruler of All Creation,

Bless us in our endeavors.

Give us Your power as we smite local Mom and Pop stores that have stood for decades, driving their aging owners into bankruptcy while our shareholders and Directors become rich.

Be with us as we circumvent the law to violate workers' rights and deny insurance benefits to single mothers and aging retirees we have lured with promises of a better tomorrow. Help us overcome pesky lawsuits when we fire people for daring to have family emergencies, or for falling ill without insurance.

Forgive us our trespasses as we publicly humiliate anyone even remotely suspected of shoplifting in front of their friends and neighbors. Jesus would have done that if He had million dollar lawyers to protect Him from lawsuits from people too poor to even afford attorneys.

Allow us our zoning variances, so that we might create traffic patterns and skyrocket local land costs to force even more potential competitiors to give up on their version of the American Dream, which we know You grant us sole rights to, by Your mercy.

Enrich us as we wrap ourselves in the American Flag and wave our Bibles as we uphold none of the principles of either Constitution or Scripture in acquiring even more wealth to spend on even more luxuries as the poorest becoming poorer, because, no matter what those silly King James Translation people may have said, we know you favor the rich and the powerful.

Amen.


Yep, sounds about right.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

the assembly line of mania

I've been busy engineering the new CD. I have had to slowly get used to the sound of my own voice...and deal with those moments when I hear my voice inexorably slide over towards a singing voice. Inevitable? Perhaps. Only time will tell.

After this poetry and music CD, Nemicorn, gets put to bed, I have to finish up the companion CD, The Naked Reads, which at least won't be dealing with music and the possibility of singing.

Ack. I work way too hard, but that is how a prince in exile spends his time (to paraphrase).

I will be honsting the open mic at Barnes & Noble this Thursday. I have been discouraged by the promotion results...we need a new tack. I am just not able to bring my focus to bear on it, and it really isn't my job anyway.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Once Again, the Nemicorn

The new podcast 'Once Again, the Nemicorn' is now up at the Radio Page for City of Legends, as well as on Apple's iTunes Music Store and archive.org.

I display the finished product, 'Once Again, the Nemicorn' which takes a piece of music I composed last spring in homage to Brigit, my former lover, and add the lyrics, likening her to the original Nemicorn. I also list the likely tracks for my forthcoming CD, NEMICORN.

So, what the heck are you waiting for?

A Vampire's Etiquette

I recently was talking with a friend the notion of personal etiquette, the notion that everyone has specific rules of conduct they use in their dealings with others, sometimes with odd results.

I described my etiquette rules as "A Vampire's Etiquette", off the top of my head. Why? Let me explain.

A vampire cannot enter a building unless invited. I do not presume people want me in their lives unless the ask me in. I honor requests for me to stay out of things (having been a well meaning meddler most of my life). This extends even to my "rule of two". This rule is that, if I make contact with a person twice, by email or voice mail and hear nothing back after two messages, I presume they are either too busy to respond or wish to end the conversation. Passive? Yes. But not wishing to be the bully or the bore, it takes the control out of the hands of the passive-aggressive sorts who use the "pocket veto".

A vampire does not drink "polluted" blood. They avoid those who have been drugged. I have made it a rule to not wittingly sleep with a woman who is drugged or drinking (I am transposing sex with the drinking of blood, as that is what sustains me, as it was with Marie, played by the always delightful Anne Parillaud in "Innocent Blood" when she seduced Anthony LaPaglia by shedding her clothes and announcing "I need this more than blood, right now"). To me, intimacy with a person impaired chemically, this is rape. To others it is foreplay. I am right, they are wrong.

A vampire, in keeping with Eastern European tradition, does not volunteer detailed answers to indirect questions, but will answer a direct question completely and accurately. I have actually found myself, on more than one occasion, compromised because the right question was asked, or another party was telling an untruth and hoped I would back their story.

There are other elements I am evolving, but this seems to be the gist. I don't invite myself into people's lives, I don't sleep with impaired women, I answer direct questions honestly and completely.

And they call me a monster? No, but some do. It is the curse of having any power, any impact, there are those who agendae are different from your own, who perceive you the bad guy, sometimes on hearsay evidence, sometimes without asking you if the rumour they heard was true.

Remember, not all vampires are evil. They are just trapped in their curse.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Peri - the other fruit

And here is a picture of my incredible daughter, Peri, along with my Dad...taken...oh, about 22 years ago...

Dad is still in robust health, Mom is alive and well, Peri is married (to a great guy) and living in Los Angeles...and I'm sitting here, getting ready to go to bed...

...alone.

Damn. God does have a sense of humour.

The fruit of my loins

Here's one of the old photos we dug up the other day...from your left to right, I'd like to introduce you to the twins, the legendary Dante Christian Arthur DeVault and Elric Ransom Arthur DeVault, when they were but little bitty babies in their proper car seats.

Dante is the one looking at the camera with the superior air of an alien grandmaster bemused by your impertinence at trying to take his picture with a primitive device. Judging from his IQ scores, that probably isn't far from the truth.

The boys are now 13. The Nissan Quest that they were in when this shot was taken was totalled with only me on-board when an elderly gentleman on his way to work ran a stoplight at 70 miles per hour and t-boned me. It was the accident to be referred to later as "God's Alarm Clock". The car seats you see were shattered by the force of the impact, letting us know that had I not been the only one in the car, there would have been fatalities. The front passenger's seat did not exist after the hit.

The other driver received a $25.00 fine. I had three months of physical therapy and a new outlook on life.

"Are you mad, woman? I haven't got fruit in my loins! Lice, yes, and proud of 'em!" - Yellowbeard

memories...

Earlier I was writing a long blog on political causes, when the power went off...and I am too tired right now to re-iterate, so that wil have to wait until later.

I do, however, have the first scan off of the bonanza of old pictures I uncovered. Maybe I should use it on my website to get more dates?

Yes, that's me, William F. DeVault, the poet, circa age 22. Wow, was I ever that young? Wait until later, when you get the photos of my kids and an ex-wife (but not two...the second one likes to pretend we never met)...

Maybe I'll get my hair cut back to that length...it still has that density (and, God knows, I've never lost my hairline...)

This just in...

Phonecasting.com has just asked and received permission to include the poet's podcasts on their site.

He shared with me a new song, entitled "Oyarsa". He is doing a redesign of his website this weekend.

The momentum builds. And not a moment too soon. I know the sense of isolation, of alienation, that he is feeling is ripping him apart. It's fueling some great work...but it is like saying a forest fire is good for the forest...it isn't.

I worry about the man. Everyday he grapples with his demons of self-doubt, lost love and his own mortality. He is living his poem "The Last Crusade" with a brutal verve.

I doubt his physical immortality, his indestructibility, which he jokingly invokes when encouraged to slow down, to relax, to recenter himself. He is in a constant state of desperate self-doubt. He is waiting to see his path, alone in a darkness and a silence that may yet consume him. He has saved so many hearts and minds and lives, and yet, in the end, he will not be able to save himself...unless he is more than even I believe him to be.

LA undid him. There is a despair in him now, a despair he seeks to fill with the remnants of lost passions, terrified of finding new ones.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

footnote to the last post

There are times I feel like Ethan Hawke's character, Vincent, in "Gattaca". The scene I most relate to is when he tells his brother how he beat him in a swimming race. That is my mantra. Leave nothing for the return trip.

In the end, life is a suicide mission. The only value is what you accomplish along the way.

This and that

Several years ago, my mother went through the boxes and boxes she had of pictures of family and friends, and gave to each of us 5 kids a bag containing a sizable portion of our pictures, as well as a photo album. Mine vanished a few years ago, one of several sentimental items that disappeared in the course of my second marriage nomadic lifestyle.

Today I was give a bag of photos by my mother, several dozen pictures. Pictures from my first wedding, of my children when they were little. My 1st grade report card (A's in English, C's in handwriting), my daughter's compcard from when she was attending modeling school. I was so delighted to recover these pieces of my past. Even pictures of individuals who have fallen from faith with me, it was still nice to see them in happier times.

I will share some later, after a scanning party...you will be amazed and amused.

WVU plays in a bit over an hour, here in Morgantown, against the Syracuse Orangemen. I hope they do well...despite the generally stupid conduct of the fans, the team has been a long time getting to where they are, and it would be nice to see them go undefeated. Best of luck, particularly, to Steve Slaton, who is the team's first legitimate shot at a Heisman in some time.

A relatively quiet weekend planned, externally, so I will be writing, editing and composing. The public acceptance and praise for "DARFUR (Jesus Wept)" has been an inspiration to me and I am grateful and humbled by the response to it.

It is an effort, but I am doing my best not to start any new book projects at this time. Four poetry books and two novels on the board, plus three CD projects. Can I resist the impulse to develop in parallel the screenplays to go with the novels? And what about the three screenplays I have started otherwise?

Friday, October 13, 2006

My brother, Mark, on Mountaineer Magazine

As part of Mountaineer Magazine this weekend, there is an interview with my brother, Mark, who is a whiz-bang sports statistician for the West Virginia University Mountaineers.

Here's the link to the schedule, if you're interested in seeing his bit: http://www.msnsportsnet.com/page.cfm?section=1101

Thursday, October 12, 2006

This Just In: "Darfur" on the radio

Mary Angela Nangini, who works with the Holy Mother World Networks Radio Maria, a Catholic Radio Station, in Canada, has requested and been granted permission by myself to play "DARFUR (Jesus Wept) on her programs "Hungry For The Spirit" on Mondays (6pm) and "Poet's Corner", on Fridays at (6pm).

For more information on Holy Mother World Networks Radio Maria, please check with their website www.hmwn.net. You can even listen to their programming via the Internet (I am, as I write this, listening to "Precious Blood and Life Program" with host Brian Moccia. Nicely done people.

I am humbled and honored to be invited to take part in this and to be able to share in the cause.

E.J. analyzes "Nemicorn"

E.J. here...wading in on the tracks proposed for "Nemicorn".

I'm not as detailed as the poet, or as self-critical (you should hear him bitch bitch bitch at every little flaw he perceives in his works and his performances...I know of only two readings he has ever given that he was pleased with). But here is my take:

I love the layering, the build, in "Damascus (3)". First rate, and a nice, short, but not too abrupt, step into the Amomancer's sphere.

"NQ" also referred to as "The Nosferatu's Quandry" is remakably funky and fun. I'd love to see him add this to his appearances. And, if you really listen, his voices crosses the line from reading to singing at several points.

I don't think there are many women alive who could listen to "Right Set of Lips" without going into hormonal overdrive. It's a surprisingly sophisticated (musically) presentation. And the words are letter perfect.

"Falling and Fallen Angels"...now there's something unexpected. A bit dischordant here and there, but that's to keep the listener, I think, from falling asleep. Izzy lays down some electric licks that are designed to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The vocals are malevolent, gothic, arcane.

There's a part of me that does not like "Brisant Revelations". Part of it is his abrupt, hiccuping affectation in his read. It works with the music, but it is so odd for him. Part of me wants it off the CD. Part of me wants it to open the disc. The drums are genius.

"Joining in the Machine" creeps me out, but in a nice way. Not sure it needs to eat a slice of this release, but it is amusing and riveting.

As the most nakedly erotic of this collection "Texture of Your Tongue" needs to stay, and I am pleased with the multi-layered musical work that underpins this discussion of a woman's "pink gate to heaven".

"The Faerie (Strange but Beautiful)" slays me everytime I hear it. The pain in the voice of the poet, the words of eternal affection and passion. A hundred years from now, mere mortals will compete by seeing who can give the most emotionally pure reading of this work. And they will all pale, like shadows of a supernova, now long gone. I would like to see this played at his funeral. "To dance, for the fates, my amomancies". Damn.

"Theocricide". Brilliant orchestration. But. I don't think it fits with this piece of his self-flagellation over his failed engagement to Psyche.

I remember him telling me about "Thunder Out of Valhalla". I didn't believe he was going to truly rock out, to the poem "We Owe Debt to Memory". I was wrong. Dude!

"Pink jade - Soft as Dawn" - a Latin flavoured seduction. Curious but very yummy.

"Love Gods (Multivox)". A sonic experiment that worked on so many levels. The voices, every time I listen, I hear something different. I don't know how much time he spent tuning this, or, like with his poetry, he just spread his arms, called to the heavens and pulled a miracle out of his soul, by way of his ass. Regardless.

"Thetis" is practically a naked read. But, as with "The Faerie", he brings that remarkably expressive voice and how can mortals resist being pulled along. He has honed a silver tongue into something more platinum and adamantine.

When I first heard the opening guitar of "Wild and Defiled, along the way" I thought I was hearing something from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. What we get is more pop than that seminal SoCal band, but with the trademark vocal readings. And yes, if you listen close, you can hear Izzy in the background, counting off a cue, at one point.

Finally, the monumental "DARFUR (Jesus Wept)". I think there should be an award in this somewhere for him. He says the truth, and he makes us wake up and see. I won't be the same.

That's my take, and I'm sticking ot it.

A Thank You to PRWEB

I am grateful for the burst of media attention my release of "DARFUR (Jesus Wept)" has generated, and thank everyone for their kind and encouraging words. Now, let's not lose the moment, there are so many important things to get done and life is, at best, a temporary state.

If you did not see the press release for the poetic-musical fusion on PRWEB, here's the link. You can listen to the "song", download the PDF of the release, or even download a large, pretty pretty picture of my face, suitable for awe and hanging on your dart board.

Again my thanks to the guys at PRWEB for empowering the distribution that got the word out to thousands of media outlets. If we get one more person in synch with the problem, we've done a good thing.

Someone asked me the other day if I had backed out of my plans to return to California next year. Emphatically, no. That I don't say it six times a day is merely a nod to those who are stressing over the notion. There are people in my life who are not happy at my plans to jump. Others are very supportive. In a world with so many real things to get wound up about, I'm choosing to work publicly on things that I want people to be engaging in.

More on these causes later.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Empowering the Nemicorn

I know, I'm mixing my metaphors. But they are my metaphors, dammit.

I just got through burning the rough cut of my CD, NEMICORN, to give to my friend and musical advisor, Alan MacDonald, to see what he thinks. Without his guidance and insights I would not have made the treacherous leap from page to sound, I trust his experience (not always abandoning my own gut feelings, but a wise man asks counsel).

The fifteen tracks I am giving him to evaluate are, in order of how they appear on the draft CD, are:

1. Damascus (3). Lyrical, beautiful, delicate, earnest. You know it's a trap, but what can you do to resist?
2. The Nosferatu's Quandry. Now there's a bit of an edge there. This funk-laced, pelvic piece of self-examination.
3. Right Set of Lips. A dance of words and music, acoustic and charming. And oh so true.
4. Fallen and Falling Angels. I loved rocking out on this one. Pretentious? Yes. But tasty.
5. Brisant Revelations. Little did I know when I scribbled these words on a napkin in the Moondog Cafe in Pasadena, waiting to read at one of Larry Jaffe's legendary open microphoen events, that this would become an art rock spasmodic expression of a vow I believed in, beyond the faithlessness of others. (And, I might add, the source of the line "Empowering the Juggernaut).
6. Joining the Machine. A macabre industrial malevolence. Bloodless and organic. And, if I may ask my own preconscious, what the fwarck is "the Great God Gear"?
7. Texture of Your Tongue. Bongos? Who let the bongos in here? I did. They lend the pelvis to this electronic seduction.
8. The Faerie (Strange but Beautiful). Sigh. Just sigh. Wistful, romantic, pained. I could not have foreseen anything this lovely from an unrequited passion.
9. Theocricide. Since I don't do drugs, I have no idea where the idea to have multi-layered synthesized horns frame this agonized ode to my failed love affair with Psyche.
10. Thunder Out of Valhalla. Actually "We Owe Debt to Memory". But after I listened to the pop-Wagnerian staging of the music, I had no choice but to bend to the heavy metal crowd in the naming of this production.
11. Pink Jade - Soft as Dawn. Love the bass. Love the piano. Loved the woman. "Soft as dawn" as an urgent, ardent plea for passion.
12. Love Gods (Multivox). Who needs absinthe, when you have a brain thrice cooked by disease to fevers over 105 degrees? "Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion" as a recitation of a pantheon of personalities.
13. Thetis. My paean to the Pacific Coast, my true, spiritual home. A recent work, only since I tasted again the fire of the Santa Ana Winds on my face. That I gave up my home for a false goddess still confounds me.
14. Wild and Defiled, Along the Way. Multilayered guitars with a slight RHCP feel, but a bit more upbeat...even, dare I say? Pop, in sensibility.
15. Darfur (Jesus Wept). Not sure if I wish to include this powerful statement in this CD, or hold it for the next, but it will be heard by ever ear I can open to give hope for a region torn by more tragedy than imaginable to most people.

So that's the rough list (and you can see the cover, above)...so, I'll let you know what he has to say...

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Late night addendum

Tag and I are getting together later this week to go over the contents of PSALMS OF THE MONSTER RIVER CULT, so we can get that volume further down the road. Let's roll.

The attention that "Darfur (Jesus Wept)" is getting is very gratifying. I am hoping to do anything I can to bring this issue as far forward in the world's consciousness as possible. We fight too many wars for no real purpose other than to expend ordnance to the profit of the businesses who build them. If we spent a fraction of the money we spent on invading Iraq to build schools, research new medicines and fight hunger, we would be a better planet and Americans would be more respected and loved in te world.

We have made the world a more dangerous place through our arrogance.

A press release is coming out on the 11th, promoting the single of "Darfur"...I struggled with the decision to take this step, but what is one man if he does not step forward when his voice is needed. I am not sure that I can change many minds, advance the agenda much, but if everyone stepped this far...perhaps we could save some lives, end some of the suffering.

I find myself more enchanted with Jasmine every time I see her. Perhaps for naught, but I am still at great peace with my affection for her. I have been writing. Writing. Writing. Like I need more material?

Still looking forward to see what sort of turnout we get at the open microphone reading at Barnes & Noble in Morgantown on the 19th. I have been very disappointed by the lackluster showing by local high school and college students, perhaps we can lure them out into the light.

Enough. I need some rest.

Alan is right

To some degree I am blessed by the absence of a personal (love) life, as it means I am producing written and recorded material at an absurd level. Inhuman.

Certainly inhumane, even.

That doesn't mean I don't want to slow down, or even stop for a season...I can feel the fuel within me burning up and burning out, as I consume the emotions I have stored, like some hypergolic melding of my blood and my intellect.

Interesting, from an intellectual aspect. But, ultimately, disturbing. Would I trade the writing of a poem for a kiss? Yes. Would I barter my talents for the love of a woman (or at least the illusion of love that I have so often accepted as love)? Most likely.

The next few months and weeks shall tell the tale and pop the sail and rend the veil.

I am unrepentent of my talents. But sorrowful at my isolation. The wounds of betrayal are healed, but the hesitancy remains to step into the light again.

I am ill-equipped to fight my own nature. Having lived my life as champion, I find myself in need of rescue.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Arthur Peabody Goodpasture and my coffin

Odds and ends and so on...

I completed the musical piece built around my poem "The Wild and Defiled, along the way..." which was originally written to be used as a song lyric. And when I sat down to listen to the result...

My God, I've written a pop song! Actually, it sounds pretty mainstream and every day, I hear my voice edging closer...and closer...closer and closer...to singing. Ack! Not bad, a little strange, probably too pop for my poetry fans and too poetic for the pop crowd. It will probably get me burned at the stake as a witch.

Got a note from my daughter yesterday...asking, among other things, what the novel was I used to read to her when she was little about a guy (named Arthur Peabody Goodpasture) getting caught up in a South American revolution. She wanted to re-read it now that she was older. I told her that it was the Readers Digest Condensed Book version of Richard Powell's "Don Quixote, U.S.A." which for years was my favourite book. It's out of print in original form, but I should be able to wrangle her a copy of the RD Condensed volume...my original, I suspect, is at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, along with all the other sentimental victims of my second marriage.

Including my coffin. No, I won't forget that. My dear friend Thom worked hard to build that sucker and I toted it cross-country half a dozen times. I had actually planned to be buried in it. I would've perhaps preferred to lose a limb. Or at least a piece of my left ear.

Designed a cover for Tag's and my collaboration, a book of poems about the Morgantown, West Virginia, area and subculture that is the logical follow up to both my "The Morgantown Suite Poems" and his "Midnight Muse in a Convenience Store"...entitled "Psalms of the Monster River Cult". The cover is a photo of the Monongahela River, taken by the esteemed Mr. McTaggart himself (he's getting back at me for designing the cover of "Midnight Muse...")

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Invitation to blurb

I am a firm believer in the sweet science of blurbology, the writing, selection and inclusion of testimonials by fellow authors, writer, editors, publishers, celebrities and various niche-dwellers to both enhance the sales of a book, and to reciprocate with attention to the author of the blurb.

To this end, I am opening my process to anyone who feels they can contribute. I am looking for individuals who, because of their standing, talents, or need to plug their upcoming projects, might be interested in "blurbing" any of my forthcoming book or CD projects, specifically:

November 2006:
PSALMS OF THE MONSTER RIVER CULT
(book, co-authored with Daniel S. McTaggart)
This selection of poems about West Virginia would benefit by not only author and editor comments, but by anyone intimately attached to the Mountain State, from local celebrities to individuals who have come from the realm of the Monster River (the Monongahela River).

December 2006:
RONIN IN THE TEMPLE OF APHRODITE
(book)
Brutally frank look at the emotions of loss, alienation and disillusionment as poison in the veins of the romantic, through poetry.

THE NAKED READS
(CD)
A selection of my best known works, read without music or additional voices. A truly naked read of some well-loved and respected works.

NEMICORN
(CD)
I and the Gods of Love are at it again, with this CD of musical-poetry fusions. Many of the pieces featured on this CD have appeared on my podcast show, FROM OUT OF THE CITY. Some have not.

So whether you are a writer, and editor, a publisher, a musician, or think you bring to the mix a barter of niche for niche, if you are interested in receiving advance copies of these works to make broad, generalized statements that show me you really didn't read them or listen to them but want to suck up and help you promote your material anyway (how cynical the last few years have made me!), drop me a line at blurbology@cityoflegends.com and thanks!

We'll get the previews out a few weeks before the deadlines and trust you to say something worth repeating! Remember, back cover space is limited, so really shine!

Another Straw

The work begins today, concurrent and parallel with at least seven others audio or publishing projects, on another book.

Sorry, to those of you who want me to slow down...I don't believe in it (in fact, I plan to title my CD I release next Spring, just before I return to Los Angeles, "I Can Rest In The Afterlife"). But this additional project caught my whimsy when E.J. pitched it to me, I can't resist. More details later...for now we'll refer to it by its developmental code name "PD01".

So, next Spring, no less than two novels, two books of poetry and a CD in a six-month span. Bronze me now.

reflecting on a graceless age of hypocrisy

Eerie dream last night...one of those so real you have to lay there for a few minutes, letting reality reassert itself, to make certain of what is or isn't real (and, alas, it had nothing to do with a nubile poetry groupie...I think I am forgetting what they're like, which would be a terrible loss for the literary world as a whole...I must get out of Morgantown).

I dreamt a lawyer called and was making extortive threats involving a former lover, demanding a certain percentage (35% as I recall) of my revenues from any and all public appearances and book sales in which any of the works she inspired were referenced. I laughed her off, figuring she was an agent not for the titian-haired goddess I presumed to have sent her, but her cuckolded husband. I bantered and blocked. I danced and mocked. My lawyer has said I should have been a litigator, sometimes I agree with him.

Then I realized we were not talking about Brigit but the Leopard. Silly me. Brigit has never asked for a penny, she has only asked I keep her real identity quiet (and I have) to avoid upheaval in her personal life.

The Leopard? eh. I have enough legal armour and ammunition on against her she'd need to hire a hit man. Once that point of the dream passed I was no longer empathetically bemused, but a little torqued. That is not to say that this is something she or her agents would do, but indulge me - owing to the framework of the dream.

I am tired of people making their bones on other people's work, talent and money. I give to whom I please what I please (ask my sons, ask the Faerie, ask the Leopard even) and never ask for anything in return. That is what quitessential love is about, a generosity, a charity of spirit. If you want a barter, it isn't real.

If I won the lottery tomorrow, or one of my books took off like a rocket in sales, I'd make sure everyone got their slice, with relish. But killing the goose that will undoubtably one day lay the golden egg is stupid. Not only is my estate wrapped well to defend against tampering but sixty days after I quit seeing to it, my memoirs go global. With names, dates, events, even receipts I took the liberty of scanning that prove me to be not quite the monster some would paint me to be. That I have protected many undeserving of my sanctuary is undeniable. That there are those who either do not know what I have done and see in me a monster, or are angry that the gravy train ended or slowed its progress is no statement of my character, but of theirs.

Incompetent sometimes? Absolutely.

Slave to my own passion and passions? Yes.

Willing to confess those sins that I can as long as they do not do harm to the innocent? Totally.

A fool? No. I have continued my charity towards some long after they had burned their purpose in my heart, knowing they were undeserving, but still concerned for them. Would my darkest assassins come to me for a kidney transplant, they know they'd get it. Somehow I think that infuriates them even more.

An evil man? No. Evil has a requisite of pride. I take no pride in the mistakes I have made through the years.

I am glad, in the end, that it was a dream. But also sorrowful to be reminded, if only by my own preconscious, as to what a graceless age we live in.

Truths are spun and considered "relative". We mock those who really try to follow their faiths. The leadership of many of our governmental and religious organizations have no regard for the principles on which they are, were and should be based. And these very leaders point fingers and scream their Jeremiads. It is both ironic and a metaphor that Representative Mark Foley, a man assigned to the leadership of a key committee overseeing the safety of our young people has truend out to be a sexual predator.

When Time magazine declares as the "next Billy Graham" a man who brags on his fleet of expensive cars. When a "devoutly Christian man" orders us to war. When the only nation in the world to ever use nuclear weapons against another one claims a position of moral imperative in blocking another nation from gaining that technology and even threatens to use force to make it so, we have an issue of hypocrisy.

And it is an artist's duty to make straight the ways.

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