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When twenty-five-year-old Mary Stuart learns she inherited a farm from her recently murdered grandparents — grand-parents her father claimed had died before she was born — she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead.
The constant media coverage of this event has a kind of “violence-porn” quality to it (as in the movie “Pulp Fiction”).Ultimately, I think a person’s life is their own individual art-work, And each person possesses a vast store of energy that demands expression. If it is blocked from creative expression (in the most general sense), it will erupt into violence. I think of the passage in the Gospel according to Thomas:
“If you bring out what is within you, what you bring out will save you. If you do not bring out what is within you, what you do not bring out will destroy you.”
or from the Aeneid
“flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo”
(”If I am barred from the light, I’ll move in infernal regions”)
The murderer at Virginia Tech was barred from the light by his own inhibitions, his inability to express emotions. It is interesting that, on the day he decided to commit murder, he both grimaced and smiled… (for the first time?)
I finally got to see Vienna live! It was a wonderful performance and several songs sounded much better than on her albums — somehow sounding more nuanced (I normally like albums better than live performances because they’re mixed better): Whatever you want, Harbor, and I don’t feel so well. She also did 1 bedroom, 1 bath and embedded Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 in the middle of it!
For encores, she did a John Denver song (sounding much better than he ever did) and her Taiwanese lullaby.
It’s interesting that she has moved to Brooklyn, New York. I grew up in one of the more crapulent areas of Manhattan (the Lower East Side) and spend half my life running away from New York. Several of my favorite writers live in Brooklyn so there seems to be a kind of growing artists’ colony there.
Sellersville is a nice, small theater with a wonderful restaurant next door, but harder to find than Brigadoon…
I did a book-signing at the Valley Forge Barnes and Noble, a difficult place to reach (much like Brigadoon). It’s official name is what I stated above, but it’s also called the Devon Barnes and Noble and it’s in the Valley Fair shopping center. It is legally located in the town of Berwyn…. Oh, well.
It was a pleasant experience although I only sold five books. It was originally planned for St. Patrick’s Day and numerous friends planned to come by to the discussion and ask outrageous questions. Since none of them could make it yesterday, the gracious and accommodating Maureen Montecchio (the Community Relations Manager) eliminated the discussion portion of the event and moved me downstairs to a place beside the front door.
My screen adaptation of The Mills of God is a semifinalist in the American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest!
I’ve revised it extensively since then and will submit it to the Nicholls competition.
I just got out of the hospital (asthma, heart conditions). The worst of it is that I missed the Vienna Teng concert on the 21st! My wife said it was awesome and we’ll buy the DVD.
I’ve begun a major redesign of my web site as someone criticized it as not being very “artistic”. The first change was to the Mills of God page. I’ll update all my web pages eventually.
I’ve added a page for my novel Eye of a Fly and will try to get it out the door. It’s a bit of a change from the Constance Fairchild novels: an adolescent boy tries to survive in a New York City slum and in an extraordinarily dysfunctional family.
My wife and I discovered the music of Vienna Teng one evening. She has the voice of an angel and her lyrics are pure poetry.
We can’t wait to attend her concert at the World Cafe in Philadelphia on January 21, 2007.