City of Legends

Over the next few weeks I have several major and side projects due to come to fruition, and I just added another.

Many visitors here also come to my "official" site at williamfdevault.com largely for the illustrative works there, where selected poems of mine have been married to art and photography by some very talented people from around the world.

I plan to make some changes there.  Some works coming down, some going up and some illustrations changing as I have found stronger and better works.

If you haven’t yet been there, go, so that you will know what changed and can gripe about the changes more earnestly.  If you have been there, and want some things to stay the same, let me know.  I am not a total iconoclast, especially when the icon in question is me.

In the next week or so, you may note some changes in my corner of the universe, just wanted to warn y’all.

First off, I’m shutting down City of Legends Radio at Live365.  No mysterious reason, it gets enough hits and listens, and I am gratified by my listener base, but just as so many businesses are going under in these trying times, I am doing it as a budget move.  Since they raised their monthly charge by around 100% a few months back I have been leaning alternately towards and against making this move, but with the steady and solid level of people who go to the Listening Room at williamfdevault.com, I decided it was redundant and just one more thing to sap my flagging energies (don’t worry, once I get into a relationship again, my energy levels will again be worthy of a successful test of a Maglich migma generator on overload).

Secondly, it’s time I added more pieces to the aforementioned williamfdevault.com’s Reading Room.  I apologize for the time lapsed since I last expanded the selection.  I been busy…

And, to the power of three (a television or rock music rip, depending on your cultural education) I will be doing some graphic swap outs at williamfdevault.com, as design adjustments.  Don’t be surprised, it’s harmless, mostly.

So keep your eyes open, okay?  And don;t panic.  That’s my job.

Dropped my darling daughter, Peri, and her husband (future Academy Award winning actor/director Brian Harris, you heard it here first) at Dulles Airport at 6 this morning.  So tired I feel like I have been tied to the ground.

Good, that gets me going.

We (my ex and I) gave them airfare in to see the Inaugural, for Christmas.  They are tired but pleased to have tasted a part of history, to have been "in the moment" as it unfurled.

This weekend face me like a firing squad, although largely sanctioned by myself through my various commitments.  I have to finish working on Elric’s door (bought him a new bedroom door for Christmas), get the damn tracks out to the web from TRUTH, finish prep for my trip and get some work done a couple of other creative projects.

I plan to sleep the sleep of the dead tonight, to shake off the weariness, then attack it all at once tomorrow morning.  Anticipate either Armageddon or the full set of tracks from TRUTH to be available at the Listening Room at www.williamfdevault.com sometime tomorrow.

I am, as I write this, listening to the final MP3 mixdown of TRUTH, the titular piece from the new CD.

Not bad. The voice is a little strident. The music is evocative of a late-60’s hashish parlour (don’t ask me how I know what that should sound like). I like the presence of the piece.

Here’s the lyric:

It’s swell here in Hell
while we waterboard Jesus because
he doesn’t think a rich man can make it to Heaven
by killing everyone who is just looking for some truth.

We know better, don’t we?
The envelope under the door says so
and we put on our spray-tan glow and go
tripping down the yellow brick road of priests’ skulls.

Manson was also sincere. I fear
we are using a bent yardstick for good
when we polish the brass for a gallon of gas
so we can look for truth on that road of priests’ skulls.

It’s a bloodbath and we just laugh
and debate celebutante taunts for tired old men
who don’t have to put it on the line for the divine
right to be wrong with other people’s blood on the pavement.

Just looking for the truth
that we don’t want to face. We’re in disgrace
for everything we claim as anecdotal proof
of God favouring us in our endeavors.

Sonic boom doom and the groom won’t make it back
from the black-tarred fields that concealed
desperate men who see no sin in sacrificing truth.
And your sons and daughters, fathers and mothers and brothers.

If our leaders really believed in the God
they invoke in mad mantras as a smokescreen
they would quake in fear as their end draws near,
not shed crocodile tears over their three-martini lunch.

The road to Hell is paved with the lies
of people who cannot even face themselves in the mirror
without a wall of self-deception to shield their fates,
sealed with kisses that are not worthy of s streetwalker.

Speak truth. Live it. And give it as legacy to our children.

William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll post the piece at the listening room at williamfdevault.com

Maybe. I’m going to go work on the cover…

(right now cleansing my musical palette by listening to…wait for it…wait for it…"Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed" by David Bowie. Admit it, you would have NEVER guessed that selection.)

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.

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.

An old fan asked why I had chosen the twenty seven tracks I currently have posted to the Listening Room at williamfdevault.com.

The simple truth is, they’re the ones I have gotten to so far. But, not wanting to let me squirm out of the corner, she asked what my opinion was of the pieces I have placed. That’s tougher, but it is a good deconstructive and self-critical exercise, so I will make a brief comment on each of the tracks, and that will be the end of it.

from out of the city: Nice, brief, to the point. Engineered to have an alien, distant radio engineered sound quality. I find it interesting.

Eros V: Romantic, erotic, tender. I always listen for The Selke’s vocalized backgrounds. It’s decent, pretty solid.

Kisses for Karma: Maybe I went too far with this piece, over-producing it (okay, the horns and harmonicas…). But it has a nice energy to it.

Bragi to Freya, on his deathbed: I like this. Yes, you can challenge the tribal drums on a piece about Norse deities. So?

Wordslinger: Almost twenty minutes of building energy. One of my favourite projects.

Beasts of Legend: If you stick it through, you’ll find I included "glass roses" on the end. A very articulate endeavor, employing many of my more soulfully romantic works.

glass roses: The simple, direct faith in romance.

The Gods of Love, Live at Kyrienar: Stan Freberg would be proud. And the music and performance are solid.

Damascus 3: Quick, direct, to the point and accelerating. I would have liked to do more with my voice, but I played it safe.

NQ: Also known as "the Nosferatu’s Quandry". A little bit of the dance devil got in there and we have some funk. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it came out.

Right Set of Lips: Very well received. Sweetly romantic, to the point and the music does not drown out the vocals. I like the earnest appeal.

Falling and Fallen Angels: Ambitious, maybe too ambitious, musically. I give it points for stretching, though.

Brisant Revelations: A nice bit of chaotic rock there. Too rough to be a complete success, but it has a swagger and my vocals are something I’d not imagined. I blame the drums.

Joining the Machine: Grim but perhaps a bit over-produced. Apocalyptically over the top?

Texture of Your Tongue: Not sure how I feel about this one. It has some nice experimentation to it, though.

Strange but Beautiful: I like the simplicity of the partnership between my voice and the piano in this romantic ode with a twist.

Thunder Out of Valhalla: The poem "We Owe Debt to Memory" was put in the music grinder and came out as a bit of jazz-tempered rock strutting. I am ambivalent…in the accurate use of the word.

Love Gods (Multivox): My favourite sonic experiment to date. Yes, all six voices are me I still have the original tracks.

Darfur (Jesus Wept): I have been very humbled by the response to this piece about the humanitarian crisis in the Sudan. We even got some pick up overseas for radio airplay. Booyah!

A Passion, Unrelenting: Banjos? Did someone call for banjos? Actually, I started out with mandolins, but this evolved into a bluegrass-flavoured melange that owes a lot to the West Virginia band The Weedhawks.

The Taste: This poem and recording probably wraps closer around my soul than anything else I have ever done. I love it, unabashedly. Special, special thanks to the great Alan MacDonald for his tutelage in music theory.

Centaur: The glide of this well-oiled synthesizer romp, a romantic flirt of a wisp of a thought on the way down the road.

32fps2: Can you tell we had fun laying this one down? We did. A little raw, but everything comes together. Just stick around,t he vocals don’t cut in until the 2 and a half minute mark.

Evangelist: The vocals are off-key and strained as I struggled to find myself and my soul. I literally bled during the sessions for this CD. Perhaps too intimate for some. There is art and beauty in the truth.

Love is an Howling Beast: We played a bit to keep this from turning into self-mocking parody of the integrity of the words. Painful for me to listen to, as it chronicles the failure of my second marriage. Startlingly archival instrumentation

They’re Shooting Monks in Burma: Another protest song poem, this one about Myanmar massacres. A bit naked and folksy for me, but it gets the job done.

The Panther on the Beach: An early reading, very well articulated. I am proud of the villanelle and glad I could express it so well.

So there you have it, there it is. I’d suggest you haul it over to the Listening Room at williamfdevault.com and at least check out a few tracks.

Out of the goodness of my heart.  And to silence the people griping.  I have modified the free CD track page at www.williamfdevault.com to include a player.

(sound of crickets)

Hey. 

Maybe I need to explain more fully.  When you go to the page (linked above, for the truly lazy amongst you) with the free tracks, you will find the old, gold table for downloads, with the tracks delineated by CD.

But you will also find, at the top of the page (just below and to the left of banner model Christina Banderas, had to get in a plug for her again) a javascript player, pre-loaded with 27 tracks totaling well over two hours of readings and interpretations, most with music, ranging in genre from folk to rock, electric synthesizers to pastoral cithara.  I like to play, what can I say?

So you can click the play button and sit back and not have to click new tracks (unless you want to replay or skip a track or just keep listening to The Gods of Love, Live at Kyrienar until your head explodes.

Those of you who frequent my Amomancer poetry blog have already noted the change to a flesh and red colour scheme in the last 24 hours. My idea, my design. Mine alone.

I am going for a conspiracy of one.

I have found that letting others do certain tasks for me is, in the long run, a zero-win proposition, as everyone stumbles and since it is unlikely that both shall stumble at the exact same moment, a partnership with anyone doubles the opportunity for issues.

I am going for a conspiracy of one.

This weekend I am going to try and fix some longstanding issues with this blog and a few of my social networking outlets, doing what I have to do to resolve, absolve and just plain solve the issues in the tissues.

I am going for a conspiracy of one.

By weekend’s end, I hope to have doubled the level, if not complete, the placement of all the soundfiles from my CDs on the williamfdevault.com site, expanded the art gallery there (including creating some specialized galleries of some special artists and models) and posted a new podcast.

I am going for a conspiracy of one.

That’s not to say that I am not going to work with key friends, lovers, peers and powers in the future, just that I have rediscovered the need to control a larger defined zone of interpretation of my work and person.

I am a conspiracy of one.

I just promoted the tracks

Right Set of Lips

I rained poetry

(Love is an) Howling Beast

and the re-engineered (Evangelist) version of

Kisses for Karma

to the free listening room/download area on williamfdevault.com

Enjoi!

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!