City of Legends

I am putting together a list of the ten most important sites, to my use of the web.

My #10 pick is Real Clear World (www.realclearworld.com), a site that collects news and features from around the world. A sister site to RealClearPolitics, which I became hooked on during the recent Presidential Campaign, this is a superb resource for anyone as into foreign affairs (stop snickering) as I am.

Just an announcement. I am beginning the revisions to williamfdevault.com to pull it into a fuller configuration, with more graphics, more recordings and downloadable texts.

I have just "closed escrow" with my gifted and lovely friend, Ukrainian photographer Mariya Andryichuk, to provide the primary photos for the flavour of the site, you’ll understand more clearly once it is up and flying. Many, many thanks to her. You can check out some of her portfolio at deviantart.com, just be aware that some of her work on that site is comprised of nudes and will be blacked out if you are not a member (membership is free).

Mariya has contributed previously to all my sites and works as a freelance photographer and graphics designer. No, there is no "personal connection" involved. Nyah! That is her work and her, in the flesh, in the enclosed picture.

I am looking forward to pulling focus on this move and am grateful to Mariya for her enthusiasm and inspiration.

Starting in a few days, barring any unforeseen problems (like my attempt to upgrade my blog over the weekend results in the end of life as we know it in the Universe) I will be adding a feature to City of Legends…

the comic strip "Cyanide and Happiness" by the marvelously deranged Kris Wilson. The gentleman has granted me permission to, on a semi-regular basis, present his strips here. Which, I think you will find, add a certain off-kilter sense of humour to my sometimes too-full-of-myself meanderings.

Thanks, Kris. Take a bow.

The amazing Miriam Makeba, the South African singer who was banned for more than 3 decades from her home country under apatheid, has passed away at the age of 76. An incredible voice has left us, but left us with a rich legacy.

She collapsed on stage in Italy over the weekend. We should all be allowed to do what we love until the end. I am glad she lived long enough to see the breaking of apartheid and the beginning of real progress in her native land.

Free music and poetry all around.

I put up the first stage of the free CD page at williamfdevault.com.

Still far from complete, it presents a full discography of my CD-available recordings, as well as links to download (or at least listen) to many of them, for free.

So, if you want to hear my interpretations of my works (sometimes with music, sometime "naked"), you should follow the link above to its logical conclusion.

I will be updating it regularly over the next few days and weeks until nearly all, if not all, of my CD-available works are listed for download.

Namaste!

Levi Stubbs, the gifted voice of The Four Tops, behind such songs as Bernadette and Sugar Pie (Honey Bunch) and the voice of Audrey, the carnivorous alien plant-monster in the film "Little Shop of Horrors", has passed away at age 72.

He will be missed. My thoughts and prayers are with his friends, family and admirers. The world spins colder for his loss.

Actor Guillaume Depardieu, son of French actor Gerard Depardieu, died Monday, October 13, at the age of 37.

He is survived by his father; his mother, Elisabeth; sister Julie; half-sister, Roxane; and daughter, Louise.

My thoughts are with his family at this time.

Not occult as in mystical, but occult as in hidden from sight. I have taken the "Random Drafts and Chapters" blog offline until I am finished mining it. All part of the urban renewal around here.

We will be a lean, mean poetry machine by next week.

First, a quick catch-up bit: TVC2008, the winner will still be announced on August 16. I will still be doing a six hour reading and book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Morgantown, WV, on August 17th. Dan McTaggart is scheduled to be there for part of the day. The new CD, Evangelist, is out, we’re just slow with the distribution channels, give us a day or two. williamfdevault.com is coming along slowly, but beautifully. I am feeling better…knowing is always better than the dread of ignorance.

Now to the show.

I have been having a lot of fun, and it has been great therapy for me, catching sparks from some of the art and photographs on deviantart.com (it’s not what you think, zhlub). A special part of that has been the revival of my Fields of Arbol, over on the Amomancer blog and the willingness, even the palpable excitement of some photographers, artists and models to have their works displayed alongside the poems presented and inspired by them.

Some have portfolios so extensive and expressive that I am considering adding a section to the new site that will feature galleries of just specific creatives, (hear that, Cody? Mariya? Kalea? Johanna?). We shall see if I am still alive after the 17th, shall we?

Thanks to my lovely children for the mad sanity they inject into my life, thank you to LiZa for the kindness and Annette, Elena and Karla for the emotional support.

Let’s go make some changes to the world

There’s a subtle cultural reference for you.

I realize I have been running in thousands of different directions at once, but I want you to know I have promised myself to keep it in the future to no more than ten or twelve new major projects a month. Unless I feel like it. We shall see. I probably won’t listen to myself, I rarely do.

The re-envisioning of williamfdevault.com moves forward and it is slowly getting prettier and filling out. I have a backlog of over 150 pieces still to add and I haven’t gotten around to the majority of the photographers and artists who have contributed. Hey, I’m a busy guy.

It has been suggested by a few of the photographers and artists that maybe I should have a new logo or three for my sites. I am considering throwing the doors open on that. Need time to think.

The Roman tells me if I upgrade WordPress to 2.6 it will automatically launch a nuke towards spammers. It is worth considering, but I don’t 100% believe him. Or really anybody at the moment. The crunchy sugar-frosted jade coating is wearing pretty thick of late. My tolerance for deception is as low as I have marked it.

Evangelist, out Friday. Lots of new poems on Amomancer. I am farming out the cover to my next book. Won’t reveal the title here, but I can tell you the colour of the cover. Deep purple (there’s another name for it, you figure it out).

Androne, sensing his brief season is drawing to a close, is getting ready to go back in his bottle, unfulfilled. A handful of people will understand that.

Thanks to Elena, Alan, Cody, Saint Thomas, Annette, C, Kevin, Sarah, Barb, Izzy, Susan, Shye and Karla. You guys have been great. Free books and CDs for all.

Tried the new search engine, Cuil, out yesterday. Not impressed. They claim to have so many more pages than Google, but of the ten topics I entered, they had nothing on three (all of which have thousands on Google) and a strange layout where picture did not match to text on several more. Try making it work right before trying to get rich, people.

Johanna agreed to be part of the reboot. This means I have the exact person I envisioned for a couple of works, most notably those associated with my second wife, the Leopard.

Welcome to the team, she is now the second Swedish contributor on a team that spans the US (4 states), Canada, Turkey, Singapore, Romania, the Ukraine, Great Britain, South Africa, Denmark, Germany and Bulgaria. I wish I had the time to seek out good representatives from Australia, Iceland, India and France, but I am already pretty overstocked (I can see myself having to cut someone now…there wouldn’t be a body left to be found).

Nevertheless, despite a stress level the highest it has been in 2 months or so, I am delighted. Like Sisyphus, I am the happiest of men only when I have purpose and direction…nothing pisses me off more than meandering.