City of Legends / William F. DeVault

Okay, after what seems like almost a constant 24 hours in the studio (I promised mania, didn’t I?) I am relaxing by listening to music, right now Rod Stewart’s "Every Picture Tells a Story" (Damn you, Huerta/Jazz/Nightblooming, whatever your name is…).

I can confirm two completed tracks for the CD "blister"…"The Goad" and "into the grey".  We are working on others, including a rather rambunctious gospel-flavoured throwdown, but that’s all I will say right now.  I will say no more.

Ah, you know me better than that?  True.

Unlike the rather overwrought "Evangelist" and earnest "Truth", we’re going for something with a little more sense of fun with "blister".  And I think we are achieving it.

Hey, fellow poets, don’t forget Guerrilla Poetry Day on July 5th.

Subject to my imperial whim (and we all know how mercurial that can be) I am making the following changes over the next 10 days:

• The dissolution of peacat.com
• Completion of the first 100 elements of williamfdevault.com
• The gutting, then dissolution of my Random Drafts and Chapters blog
• There are a few cosmetic changes to be done, as well, as well as some behind the scenes changes that no one likely to be reading this note will ever need to be privy to.
• I will make available the entirety of all my CDs, including Evangelist, as free downloads via williamfdevault.com
• Plus, for those who attend my readings on the 17th of this month, there will be some dramatic news about my books, past and future.

That’s all I have to say for now. Thanks to the people from StumbledUpon who notched my new presentation of Soubrette at williamfdevault.com. Mucho attention, mucho gracias.

Evangelist is out.

We have made a decision, to encourage a better supply line, for the time being, not to offer the CD through the City store, but to allow ordering directly from the publisher

http://www.lulu.com/content/3401986

I am being quiet, here, I know. My apologies.

I am stretched so thin right now, from Brazil to Russia to England to California…and I have a lot on my plate. So, aside from those moments when I have to fire something off, I am off, running through the underbrush. It’s not complicated, just a different frame of reference than most work with on a daily basis. The amazing, amazing thing is that I am encountering an entire community of artists, writers and their ilk who make the old WC on AOL look like an afternoon tea party in a shed.

I’ll try to be at least more concise, okay?

Hey, I got the CD done and I have a six-hour reading in two weeks.

Just put up several more new pages at williamfdevault.com.  I’ll let you look for them, but I will sweeten the pot are some great art and photography, including the uber-sultry Christina Banderas and some photo manipulation by my omni-present (of recent) wingman…er…woman, Cody Gibson.  No shame to the others, but those two come to mind, first, take a look at their offerings and I think you will understand.

Busy day ahead of me.  I will be giving out the full squeeze on EVANGELIST this evening, everything except the dedication.  You’ll have to buy one to find that one out.

What a day.  Got to spend a lot of time talking to my Dad on the occasion of his 85th birthday.  Had a nice dinner with my boys.  Wrote a lot.  A lot.

Oh, and added three more works, with works by some tremendously talented individuals, at williamfdevault.com.

Special kudos and thanks to those, and to the cooperative artists, models and photograpers who have contributed to the Fields of Arbol on amomancer.blogspot.com.  Spontaneous works inspired by paintings, photographs and sketches by tremendously talented individuals from around the world, representing 5 continents and everything from classic romanticism to the macabre to blatant eroticism.

I am having a blast.  Special thanks to Cody, Annette, Elena, Karla, LiZa (twice), Jenny, Taylor, Arphiel, Katya, Lisa, Celia, Rina, Christina, Katarina, Anni, Mosh, WinterWolf and Kalea.  An extra special thanks to the remarkable Kalea for her assist in nailing love is an howling beast at the new site.

I’ll be making some more upgrades to the new site, as well as expanding the Fields of Arbol AND filling you in on the Evangelist CD.  I’m tired and emotionally sated.

Gnight.

Today my father turns 85 years old.  He is in decent health and good attitude.  I am blessed.

Today I release the CD Evangelist.  Finally.

Today I will write an obscene number of poems, I will meet new friends, some of whom will play major roles in my life.

Today someone will confess a truth that took great couer rage to bring to me, and I will tell them it is okay and they need to forget about it and get on with their life.

Today I will allow myself to dream.

I managed to complete only a fraction of the additions to williamfdevault.com over the weekend. My apologies. It’s tough. Not the actual html, which takes about 5 minutes per poem, plus about the same time to PhotoShop the art to the right size (Most of the artists and photographers I am working with have a strict no-cropping rule. Bastards.) The real time is wading through the mountain of options for the graphics, trying to make sure I am not being incongruous. I take my work seriously, I want people to have a clue as to what I am trying to say. Thanks to the website deviantart.com for the assist.

I did get permissions from a handful of more creative types, which was nice and not so nice. Nice because now I have access to more options and not so nice because now I have access to more options. I have looked at so many photo-manipulated, naked, costumed and semi-clad bodies and intensely emotional and expressive faces in the last few weeks that I am going barking mad. Ooops! Too late! Was already there.

My email at cityoflegends is down temporarily due to a server problem at my hosting company. Ah well, no one truly important writes me anymore anyway. My presence at FaceBook has diminished to the point that people are messaging me to ask if I am okay. I am okay…sort of…

I am tired, stressed, sick, aching, raging and running on an adrenaline burn that should have killed me six weeks ago. My doctor thinks I am biofeedbacking my way into an unprovable suicide by not allowing myself to be medicated. Sorry, I have seen all the good that modern psychoreactive medicine has done to people around me. I feel like my blood has been replaced with boiling acid. Every joint aches, even walking a flight of stairs is like being beaten. Using a keyboard I can feel the lactic acid buildup in my wrists and elbows and finger joints. But I am my own person, with no excuse for the damage I do to the world around me or myself. I prefer it that way. You should see the shit I have been writing, though.

So this is what unmedicated stress does to you? Good. I deserve it. I’ll recover, just wasn’t anticipating it so violently and virulently, it caught me off guard (probably the food poisoning had its way with some of my bodily defenses) and like the water at the levees after Katrina, it washed over my normal defenses. I am fighting it through with writing, working and distractions that normally I would not allow myself to this degree, but I am doing the best I can with the wiring I have. Give me a break.

You need to be checking Amomancer for some new works being inspired by new friends. It is amazing what meeting so many gifted and/or photogenic people will do to your cathartic pathways. At least I know my testosterone is intact. I walked today until my legs buckled, trying to fight through it all. I have decided to just accept night sweats as normal.

I will be officially releasing Evangelist on Friday, my father’s birthday, just because I do stuff like that. And I was reminded about the reading I am giving at Barnes & Noble on August 17th. It is a six hour reading, so we’ll see if my stress has been bled off enough by then. Anyone have some leeches?

The day between two events I often refer to as being in the horse latitudes, an old sailing phrase for being in the area of the oceans near the equator where the winds are not as dependable as most places and you can find yourself becalmed.

Not for me.  This morning I got up at 4 am and picked up my daughter at the airport for a week’s visit.  I finished (I swear) the final engineering on Evangelist (a re-envisioning of Eros V which I am calling Eros V2, making a little joke).  I cleaned up my vocals and added percussion.  I did not touch Selke’s backing vocals, as they are flawless.  And that strange instrument you hear that sounds like a piano and a guitar mixed together?  That’s exactly what that is, piano music shoved through filters to make it sound more like guitar music.  It is rather unusual, but it works.

In a few hours I have to go spend several hours prepping a proposal…tomorrow is the boys’ birthday (they turn 15) and we are going to a late showing of The Dark Knight.

I also picked up a few more models today!  Yay!  Next week I get to figure out who is doing what duty, but I can assure you that you will be blown away.  I even found a few who may end up replacing the original faces I used on the old version of williamfdevault.com.

Hey, that’s my option.  I have decided I need to do what’s best for those who are engaged in my life.

Alive, well, bouncing off the walls. The old track injury on the left ankle is being persistent, but I’m pretty much determined to win against it. So, there.

Got a strange call yesterday from a friend who wanted to know if finding a roast pig’s head in ones side yard was a sign that someone was casting a spell on them. I said no, that’s it’s a sign someone didn’t like the doggie bag from the luau. Think, people.

I am going to include Erotic V in the Evangelist CD, but I am tweaking it a bit, to make it fresher.

Sunday is the boys’ birthday. Between now and then I am insanely busy with 10,000 distractions. After Monday, I will have a great deal of freedom to resolve some nagging issues. Like getting the first layer of the new website completed (I started last night during Project Runway).

The Roman and I had a brief exchange yesterday…he brought up the name of she who must not be named. I was frank with him. I have not moved one iota in my feelings for her, but am compartmentalizing (a last-ditch strategy I despise) to deal with her peculiar way of be uncommunicative. I have enough fun adapting to my own brand of insanity, other people sometimes confound me.

New poetry! Will be sharing soon. Including some of the most outwardly and openly erotic works I have ever done.

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.