City of Legends

Yes, but the nightmare keeps changing. Had a dream last night that I was booked for a reading in a club and when I got there they were expecting a musical act, based on my CDs. I think it evolved from my noticing the number of people who come to my sites looking for information on my protest poem/song/whatever "Darfur (Jesus Wept)". It is kinda cool to have listeners, but also I am aware of the dangers of being pigeon-holed (was trapped in that aeons ago when I first started writing).

We shall see.

I am getting both praise and raspberries over the announcement regarding Mariya Andriychuk (Note I keep messing with the spelling of her last name, oh the joys of alphabet shifting) as my primary model and photographer for the williamfdevault.com site. I have to make clear that she was chosen for many reasons, the most prominent are that her works speak to me, she has a large portfolio to pull from and she lives in the same chaos zone between the spiritual and the carnal that I seem to wander. If I was a young, beautiful Ukrainian photographer and model instead of a decaying old American poet, I’d be her. As it is, would I, on a moment’s notice, run away and live in a cave with her? Thank goodness the US Constitution has the 5th Amendment for just these occasions. You will start seeing her presence manifest in the next day or two.

Don’t think this means I will be jettisoning the other contributors like Jazz and Liza. Au contraire. I just now have a canvas to work upon, a frame to build into, an attitude to help focus the vision.

Internet videographer SevenLamps, whose adaptation of my Darfur (Jesus Wept) was what first planted the seed for the TVC2008, has thrown their hat into the ring for this year’s contest.

If you have a chance, check out their entry (it is embedding disabled) at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSsmppqEgNw

And welcome!

Kitabu is done.  Not as epic as the original piece I was working on, but more to the point.  Maybe one day (broad hint) I can finish it the way it deserves to be finished.  But, I listen to it, and hear that it is good.  So, we’re down to just two more tracks to tweak for Evangelist to be done.  Damn, this baby has been a slow train coming.  I note at least one blog that used to have the video for Darfur up has deleted their post about it,

I went and caught the early morning showing of Hancock.  Not at all as bad as some critics had lead me to believe.  A bit uneven here and there (a good writer (hint) could have fixed it).  Will Smith is solid.  Charlize Theron.  Sigh.  What is it about South African women?

I am batching it this weekend, just me and the dog and hellspawn that claims to be a cat when the rogue demon hunters show up for it.  Anyone coming to whack me, please make sure the dog gets walked until the body is found.  I would hate for her to suffer for my sins.

The lead singer for the band johnnydirtyshoes had asked permission to read my poem Darfur (Jesus Wept) at a concert and rally over the holocaust in the Sudan…I have since become aware that not only did he do the reading, but it was videotaped and now appears on YouTube!

I am going to shock a lot of people.  Really.

I am sitting here with my microphone just switched off, having completed my first new podcast in over 6 months.

It will be up and available tomorrow night (edt, early morning Johannesburg time, Wednesday).

Told you it would be shocking.

In the less shocking but interesting news, Chad Halliday of the band johnnydirtyshoes will be reading my poem "Darfur (Jesus Wept)" as part of a fundraising concert for Doctors Without Borders at the Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh, NC, on April 18th.

For more info, check out www.chordsforacause.org

Oh, and Candy?  I love you.

The video is done and on YouTube: DARFUR (Jesus Wept) is my political, theological and sociological statement regarding the richest, most powerful society in the history of the world that is too busy diverting itself with wargames against imagined enemies, justified in the blood and suffering of citizens here and abroad, while real crimes against humanity take place in the Darfur region of the Sudan. You can click here to view it, go to YouTube to see it, or I will be posting it as a MySpace video later.

The images are all, I have been lead to believe, public domain images. If anyone discovers otherwise, please drop me a line so I can sort any problems out. I think this is a bigger issue than someone’s toes being stepped on, and I certainly am not doing this for money.

The song itself is on my CD NEMICORN, available at the City of Legends Bookstore or at Lulu.com.

Okay, people. Now I have a dilemma.

I really want to swap in some of the new stuff, including “Bright and Deadly” at the MySpace page for William F. DeVault and the Gods of Love…but I am perplexed as to which songs to take down.

Currently there are four (what they allow) and those are

DARFUR (Jesus Wept): This one has immunity. Too well respected and it is meaningful.

The Faerie (Strange but Beautiful): Lovely, a favourite of mine. It will be tough to see it go, if it goes.

Centaur: The newest addition to the stable. I love this piece. Very sweet.

Right Set of Lips: The acoustic jazz effect is on full in this piece and it is gloriously romantic.

So, which two are to go? I don’t effing know. So, let’s take a poll…follow the link, listen to all four, then leave a comment here (I can check the IP log to make sure no one is stuffing the ballot box). I need guidance, here’s your change to be heard. Pick one or two you feel we can live without, then I can at least know I have an external opinion on it.

By the way, this is the 1,502 post made to this blog by myself or E.J. This means the “Spanish Lessons” post was 1,500. Wow.

For those of you wondering when the band and I will be shuffling some of the cuts we are featuring on MySpace under our page William F. DeVault and the Gods of Love, the answer is as soon as Jaz makes up her mind on which, if any, of the tracks from last week’s podcast she’d like to see enshrined in the wonderfully easy to get to space.

My old friend Michael Burch has a marvelous site for poetry called The Hypertexts…if you go there and click on the link “For Darfur”, you will find a selection of excellent works by various contemporary authors on the subject of that human rights (and human life) kill zone, including mine own “DARFUR (Jesus Wept)” and a link to I and the band’s recording of same.