City of Legends

Launch tour immediately after release of Apokalypsis.  Compile massive list of venues…coffee shops, bookstore, whatever.  Head out.  Don’t come back.

It is…a thought.

Thank you to everyone who took part in yesterday’s Guerrilla Poetry Day…do not think I am ungrateful.  I am personally disappointed in my failure to hit all of my marks, but next time…next time.

I will be posting by midweek, some news regarding the new book, loveaddict.  I think you will find it interesting.

blister, the new CD, is going well.  We’re actually a bit ahead of schedule on that, but we’ve been down for a few days since the cats got hold of my headphones and ate them.  I have witnesses.  This is their idea of revenge for all the time I’ve been playing Joan Osborne’s "Let’s Just Get Naked" at full volume.

Have word from a few friends overseas (and a few hardy souls who stayed up late enough last night to make it into this morning) of their exploits for Guerrilla Poetry Day.  Bravo and Brava, all around.

I headed out this morning, having made some last minute changes to my itinerary and splitting it into two "waves".

Read "couplet/passion" to the order-taker at the McDonalds in Sterling, Virginia.  I think she was confused.

Did "goblins in my attic" and "My Electric Lady" in front of the American Psychological Association building in Washington, DC.  A street person yelled at me, something about Jesus.

Then, made a ride up to Embassy Row to do "Queen Protea" in front of the South African Embassy.

Later today, more madness.  Madness?  This is Poetry!

Still pulling together the itinerary for Guerrilla Poetry Day, this Sunday…have added a puckish moment.  Won’t tell where I will pop up to read, but the poem is "Goblins in My Attic".

If you can figure out where in Washington, DC, I might read that…you have a chance to catch me on the move.  By the way, I plan to be carrying a backpack full of books.  If you catch me at a read and are the first to mention this blog entry, you get the pile…over $100.00 worth of my books.

I am working on so many things this weekend…I can tell you that I am nearing the final poetry breakdown for loveaddict.

By the way, was very gratified by some site visitors earlier today.  Very gratified.

I just announced the kick off date for the tour on my Twitter:  http://twitter.com/williamfdevault

Specific dates and venues are uncertain.  I’d like to kick in Morgantown, WV, but that will be dependent on many things.  Still looking to New York, Boston, Tampa, Baltimore, DC, New Orleans, Tucson, Los Angeles, Monterey and San Diego.   Strong impetus for Houston, Mobile, Dallas, Louisville, Birmingham, Albuquerque, SLC and San Francisco. 

I am going to try and book some unusual venues, but some of my past performance spots might be hard to top. We shall see.  Unless I get grotesquely ambitious, there will probably be no live accompaniment until the West Coast, but I am open tot he madness.

If you miss this tour you may be waiting awhile for the next one.  No name yet for the tour, although since the "Evangelist" tour got scrapped, maybe we’ll call this one the "Resurrection" tour.  Catchy.  But a little over the top, no?

The Southern Route it is.  Nordette (Frillie the Dragon) tricked me into promising New Orleans would be on the tour…

Not that I am complaining.  That area holds many strange and bittersweet memories for me.  A few more wouldn’t hurt.

And, in a somewhat related item, Barb Holmes asked about my next CD…which for reason or other flipped a switch and I sat down at the console and finished recording my vocals for "The Goad".  Hard charging, angry guitars, synthesizers and drums.  I like it.  Maybe I’ll post it here if someone asks nicely enough.

Bribes are welcome.

Survived the reading.  Both Tag (Daniel S. McTaggart) and I cut out earlier, a bit disappointed by the turnout…but as I did no local media and the store did little (they had a big fish in Senator Robert C. Byrd coming in just a few days ahead of us and we were sort of pushed aside, which is understandable, but regrettable.

I did make my announcement at the reading:  I am stepping back from doing more public appearances for the next year.  I need some time to concentrate on writing, editing and healing up.  I could tell my stamina (and patience) was diminished and I don’t like putting anything less than everything out there.

Busy week, but I will be doing updates all over the place as time and sanity allows.  One of my favourite muses is back from holiday and so that will be a boost to my productivity.  I had a pleasant birthday weekend…a few surprises, but that is part of life, you know?

Some ideas for my next book are starting to take shape…but I am putting those off and promising myself to focus on my current catalog for now.  I have a tendency to start new project while the old ones aren’t even done twitching in their afterbirth.

There is a rumour that I would like to address.  Well, several, but this is the one I am addressing today.  There is talk that with the rise of williamfdevault.com I may be selling off cityoflegends.com.  Fair point.  I can say I have no immediate plans to do this.  For more than a decade people have been coming to the City to read my works and you’d be surprised, perhaps, to see how many come back again and again, off their favourites or bookmarks.

I don’t like leaving people stranded.

According to various sources, including myself, my web hosting company (web.com), my publisher, my friend Dan McTaggart, the remaining judges for the TVC2008 who have not yet gotten their votes in to me (harrumph), Barnes & Noble, my parents, my sibs, the media, my sons, one of my ex wives and two or three inspirationally-gifted friends, the next three days of my life should unfold with some of the following milestones.

Tomorrow we will announce the winner of the TVC2008. Mass hysteria will abound as we announce the TVC2009.

peacat.com will vanish, by midnight tonight. If no one with greater claim to the name asks for it before the registration runs out next year, it will go back on the open market.

I will give three two-hour readings at Barnes & Noble in Morgantown, WV, Sunday (10-12, 1-3, 4-6) with the assistance of the amazing Dan McTaggart, who co-authored Psalms of the Monster River Cult with me. I don’t think they could handle the intensity of the Long Beach reads, so I am trying to strike a balance.

Michael Phelps will win two more Olympic Gold Medals.

I will add ten more pieces to williamfdevault.com. Someone will blast me for the lovely nudity that is interspersed with the other artwork on the site. I will feel bad that I am being criticized, but will soldier on.

I will hear from someone out of an unexpected quarter.

I will write something inexplicably charming.

I will announce sometime today…oops, already did, that some of the Fields of Arbol pieces appearing on Amomancer will find their way onto williamfdevault.com.

Some doucebag will leave a stupid (definition: willfully ignorant), presumptive and irrelevant comment on one of my blogs.

I will drive over 500 miles in the next three days. I will still be alive Monday morning.

I will have dinner with my family on Saturday, and visit with my Grandmother, who is 96…bearing down on 97 next month.

I will discover a fantastic new muse.

I am getting responses from more photographers and models I approached for the website redesign and the response is humbling and overwhelming, in addition I have been solicited by a few who heard about the plan and want in on it.

I spent a little time today selecting the first poems for the experiment.  I have a job cut out for me, but I am going to love it.

By the way, someone pointed out that the playlist for Evangelist is a little light compared to most of my CDs and suggested another earlier hit make the cut.  I am considering the request to add either the original or an enhanced version of Eros V to the mix.  If I do it will mean Selke gets another moment in the sun, as that is her sultry voice in the background.  Nothing like good support.  Still considering it.  It is the most downloaded single I have ever produced.  I wonder if anyone has named any of the children that have been conceived out of its influence after me?

Oh, I am going to get email on that comment.

Woke up this morning humming the theme from Evangelist.  This is  good thing. 

I admit I have been emotionally dolphining over the past few months.  Am keeping my chin up for the most part, trying variations on various headwiring to recover the mojo.  It is only a matter of time.  I am nothing if not a survivor.  I have to admit that the medical advice, in the aftermath of the food poisoning, to cancel or delay substantially the tour is beating hard on me.  Keeping my drive alive is tough. 

Nothing more dangerous than me, two pawns down.  I’ve lost a queen.  I’ve come back from worse.

 The drive to see my parents (I am in to actually see my 95 year old Grandmother, who is in failing health) is always an interesting time, as it allows me buffered time to think out loud.  Usually I get a lot of thinking and writing and sonic experimentation on the 3-1/2 hour trip.

This morning was no exception.  It started as a ramble, dealing with lyrical issues on the new Evangelist CD, but then segued into an examination of my life over the last year.  A lot has happened, many events and elements I could not have foreseen.  Some gentle, some brutal.

All in all, I have come to a conclusion.  This is one of the best years of my life.  

I have reconnected with old friends I had no expectation of ever hearing from again.  I have taken public stands on the issues of the day, been recognized for these stands, and made connections with people who have the power to affect things.  I have loved openly and with abandon a woman who loved me in the same manner.  I have broken some bad habits, written some great poetry, recorded some interesting material to posterity, helped a few friends get elements of their lives in order, saved at least two lives (according to the individuals) and published a remarkable book.  I’ve learned new words and concepts, examined my own failings and picked splinters from my metaphorical ass.

There have been some downer days and strange pains, but when the scales are weighed, I have to say that if every year was as remarkable as this one, I would be the luckiest man alive.  Most people do not live as much and as well in an entire lifetime as I have lived this past year.

I thank all of you who have shared this voyage with me, from the most vocal of friends to the saddest stalkers.  From the constant to the mercurial, from the inspiring to the oppressive.  From those who will still be a part of my life next year and for years and decades to come, to those who have now passed back into the grey.  

I thank you all with profound and spiritual gratitude and wish only to say that, while I compiled a massive list of names to include here, I shall not.  Some secrets are best kept.  While I won’t lie to you, I will withhold that which would force others harm or pain.

I have some great ideas now to finish up those damn final tracks on Evangelist, and am looking forward to tomorrow with great hope, joy and peace.

I have no quarrel with any of you.  If you have with me, that is a measure of you, not me.  Being loved and respected is not a measure of a person, loving and respecting others is.

Namaste.

Louisville, KY, August 29th. Details to follow.

(Note: Evangelist is now the most used tag on this site)