new, beautiful features coming to the new site
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Journal
Later this week I will be activating yet more poetry/art integrated pages at my new site. www.williamfdevault.com, bringing dozens more of my classic and recent works to life and light with art and photography by talented creative artists from around the world.
One feature I am adding is special areas where I will be featuring clusters of my works interpreted with the help of a single artist or photographer, in many cases individuals who are already familiar to my readers.
The first two that will be activated are two amazing photographers who come at you from very different aspects:
Ukrainian graphic artist, photographer and model Mariya Andriychuk will have a featured gallery where a dozen of her photographs are used to interpret various works of mine. Mariya is one of my friends who has helped to inspire the Fields of Arbol features on Amomancer. Her photographs will adorn such works of mine as In the Arms of the Dragon.
Brazilian photographer, model and artist LiZa Lorraine will have a similar gallery, also with dozen of her works. LiZa has been a creative and inspiration contributor to several of my recent works, including the aforementioned Fields of Arbol. Her talents will enhance such works of mine as Cithara Song, strummed lightly as the sun leaps the horizon.
Two more disparate artists would be hard to find. LiZa’s work reflects an everyday elegance, the beauty of a smile, of well-turned ankles in ballet slippers. Mariya’s is edgier, swinging from the blatantly erotic to the intensely, desperately spiritual.
I am very grateful to have these the first of several interpretive and creative artists featured on the new site.
a measure of primacy
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Journal, music
It’s Sunday evening (here in the suburbs of Washington, DC). I have friends and loved ones spread across, at last count, 11 time zones. So, in a way, time is irrelevant. I keep telling my clients that, but they believe in deadlines. They should believe in live things, not dead things.
Sometimes people are just so slow to pick up on the good ideas.
Note: Yes, I am weeks behind on the upgrades to almost anything. Give the man a break, he is still outperforming just about any other thing in his age class. I just take on ten times as much as anyone else, so when I only get as much done as five people I look like a slacker. Back off and go accomplish something with your life. Make your mark somewhere besides on a fire hydrant.
Uh oh, Pointer Sisters on my iTunes with "Jump". Great energy tune. Cats are heading for the weapons bunker and slipping on the kevlar. Cowards.
I am still rather recovering from the way in which Hillary Clinton seems to have been marginalized by Barack "Messiah" Obama’s people. We’ll see if he is as smooth snake oil salesman as he thinks he is. I wouldn’t bet against John McCain right now in the election. And I am sorry, people, I put country, world, ethics and my feminist convictions well ahead of loyalty to any political party. When you start answering to party above world, country or conscience, you don’t deserve my consideration. Party Unity usually is only a good rallying cry in a fascist or communist state. I don’t think we’re there…yet.
Prince (and the Revolution) are feeding me the notion of "Let’s Go Crazy". Not a bad notion in a world gone completely insane. The cats are now on the phone, advising me they have "the bomb" and are not afraid to use it. I laugh, as I know they don’t have the missile technology to deliver it accurately.
I am glad, seeing my slow recovery from the early summer, that I canceled the tour. I don’t mind the notion of being a martyr to my work, but that would have been asking for it. I do watch with a slightly raised eyebrow the procession of people who seem to regularly visit my sites (thank you StatCounter). Move along, nothing to see here for some of you. Barring direct questions from Barb (ahem) Holmes when she gets to the interview, there are certain tags that are retired.
I am writing some amazing stuff lately, it is only the tip of the iceberg you are seeing on Amomancer. I wish I could slow down, really, but it is like being electrocuted. Your mind tells you to let go of the cable, but your body is locked into the current.
Many thanks to the new generation of muses who have so graciously blessed me with their presence. I am grateful to God and good fortune for the richness of this life and the opportunity to live it, to share it with others, and to have them share with me.
I’m tired of talking about me. You talk about me, for a while.
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Journal, Memoir
Aeons ago, during the 1st exile (right after my first divorce, when I was in Los Angeles), I was fixed up with a former opera singer on a date. It was just lunch. We had met socially at an event featuring my good friend David Demeter, who is a very successful drummer in the LA music scene, and a friend of a friend passed word that she wanted to see me socially.
We had a pleasant enough lunch, no major awkwardness, and even agreed to see each other the next weekend. Knowing she had a 10 year old child from a previous marriage, I even did the gallant thing to reassure her that I was not kid-phobic and told her that after the recital we were going to attend, we could all three go out to lunch. She seemed pleased.
A few days before the date I got word from one of the mutual friends that she (the opera singer) did have a criticism of me from our first date. She felt my "dating skills" were "primitive".
I was taken aback, having usually been accused of being too charming in conversation, and having been raised appropriately by my mother to be a gentleman. I asked for further clarification and was told they’d try and find out in what area I was failing the civilization test.
Word came back the next day that the issue was that I did not talk about myself enough on the first date. That I asked a lot of questions about her, but did not follow them up by offering up information about myself. I always had thought that people liked it when you didn’t start every sentence with "I" (of course, this being LA, that might be a little alien). I was truly flabbergasted and, although I went through with the date and even took her and her daughter to lunch afterwards, I let the potential relationship drop there.
The truth is, I am not aversive to telling people about myself, it just usually doesn’t occur to me unless asked (yes, just wait until Barb Holmes and I do the interview thing, you’ll get plenty). Maintaining a blog is a bit of a stretch for me, as most of what I am expected to write about is me; my day, my feelings, my poetry, my books and CDs and appearances. I find me…boring.
So, here’s a break. For you and me. I’m going to drop the topic of me for a bit and write about politics, religion, society, television, film, how to make grilled cheese sandwiches that don’t stick to the griddle, the theology of love, and all those other ten gazillion things that are not about me, per se.
We’ll see how long this lasts…and if you get bored and want to find out what I am up to, go over to Amomancer and read the poetry for the bread crumb clues to my heart and soul.
moving beyond memory
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Affirmation, Journal, Poetry, Psyche
Not possible.
To move beyond memory, one must forget who they are, where they have been and what they have experienced. A persistent vegetative state might make it so, but that’s not a status I have devoutly wished for in this life.
Today is August 14th. It is a crossroads date (someone with my sense of time and history has man) as it is the anniversary of one or more events, that cross paths in my understanding of the world I live in. My birthday is August 16th, Psyche’s is August 12th. For the five years we were together, we tended to celebrate on the 14th as a compromise date.
There are other things that have occurred on Thursdays, on the 14th of a month, even on August 14th, and in my morning contemplations it is remarkable to remember some of them and close circles and utter words to keep promises (I may be slow, often, as I forget or am distracted or given rationale to forget, but I generally get around to those oaths I have made) that I have made, in good faith, altered only by the external forces I have no control over.
In that context, you may want to check out a new poem I posted this morning on Amomancer entitled the mantra of severing, which is about keeping promises, even ancient ones, when they are recalled. There will be those who believe they know of what I speak, but to imagine that, in my entire life, I have only walked one road with one companion to one end and made one promise…that would be a very blissful life, and chaos still calls.
I once wrote that "memory is the curse of those who care". It leads us to a terrible and an arrogant place, where we think the world sees with our eyes and feels with our hearts, and knows us. When I was a child I used to blow my mind by trying to contemplate infinity, but one day I hit upon something more incredible to contemplate: There are billions of people on this planet, most (if not all) of them leading lives as experientially, intellectually and emotionally complex as our own. That many thoughts, that many emotions, that many dreams, and God knows them all, and I can never even know for sure my own heart.
We never move beyond memory. At best, we acknowledge the sprained ankle of life and adjust to the limping.
the nature of the fields
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Journal, News, People, Video contest
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
a little urban renewal every now and then
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Blogosphere, Journal, Links
If you pay much attention to this site or the Amomancer blog, you may notice something went away. Well, two things.
Just moments ago I took BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog out of the layouts of both blogs.
Why? Well, for me, these were never to be social networking sites, designed to see how many people I could get to do quid pro quo hits to pump up the illusion of my readership. I saw a few people come by every day to either site from those sources. But most of those were either curious onlookers who weren’t likely to stay, or people looking to create a sense of reciprocity so I’d go visit their site about how to turn catfish whiskers into nuclear energy and become a millionaire by 30. Oops! Late!
I gave them their chance, but they weren’t my thing. I’m not the kind to seek reciprocity as an illusion for readership. Ask some editors I have worked with. After they are through cringing at the mention of my name and have a few drinks, they’ll tell you, I am a prick when it comes to my readership and my audience. I have been known to yell at audiences I thought were patronizing me. I don’t like being played out of courtesy. Let’s avoid the next logic swerve, shall we?
The notion that a get-rich-quick artist operating out of Samoa hits my site a few times a day, staying for an average time of 1.5 seconds seems a bit more like hit racking and less like anything of any real integrity. Just my attitude. I don’t condemn it, just not for me.
EntreCard will be next. I get a fair number of visitors from that service, but the vast majority are quid pro quo bloggers looking for traffic. I don’t need to win a game of pickup sticks to feel good about myself. Sure, a few have stuck around and I have made a few friends. But from the beginning, I never meant this site to become blogosphere-centric. So I am throwing out the irrelevancies to my vision, speeding up load time, reducing screen freezes and giving me three less headaches to worry about in terms of maintaining social networks.
I got enough on my plate and seem to be accelerating going into the second half of 2008. Who knew?
So, farewell BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. I wish you and your devotees the best.
The Fields of Arbol, revisited
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Journal, Links
What do C.S. Lewis, a Brazilian photographer and model, a Ukraine graphics artist and a fear of speaking have in common? Me!
A long time ago, in the original City of Legends, there was a section named The Fields of Arbol. Anyone? Anyone?
Well, in C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra Trilogy, the fields of Arbol were the space between planets, the sun’s name in "Old Solar" being "Arbol" (and, in an aside note, the phrase in Old Solar for gold was "Arbol Hru", meaning literally "Sun’s blood").
I digress.
In that section I placed a great many recent and inspired works that I couldn’t figure out what else to do with. Now let’s shoot forward a decade or more.
Today I started a project where, on the Amomancer blog, I am dropping fresh poems, inspired by my browsing of art sites associated with people who may have agreed to help with the williamfdevault.com website revision. Still with me?
So, with the name from C.S. Lewis, pieces inspired by the works of such as Brazilian model and photographer Christina Banderas and graphics goddess Katarina Sokolova, a lovely piece inspired by a beautiful photo representing laliophobia (the fear of speaking) and the results of near-brushes with everything from blindness to body-painted fetish models, I began posting the works (almost all with links, a few with pictures) and say, come wander in the Fields of Arbol with me.
You may actually enjoy yourselves.
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