I have a confession to make: the past few years, I've been trying to get myself writing novels. The truth is I have no use for novels (except as written by others). What I want, more than anything else, is to go to opening-nights of plays I've written. The cast parties have my name on them.
_____
*Lord's-Jester*
The site is at Lord's Jester.
I'm planning to send into the Natural Perfumers Guild maybe five more perfumes: Phoebe eau de parfum, Daphne eau de toilette, Chronos eau de cologne, Dionysus eau de toilette, and a solid version of Selene (the one I passed Level One of Mandy Aftel's course with). Phoebe is my osmanthus perfume, Daphne is my tonka-bean brew, Chronos is my immortelle cologne, Dionysus is what I made for the Mystery of Musk, and the solid version of Selene smells just like the liquid one (and that's quite a feat; the liquid version has 16 notes, the solid 18).
Solid perfumes entail the use of an entirely different extracts; I've found CO2 extracts work quite nicely. I have a few more recipes to turn into the Natural Perfumers Guild. One is my ode to rose, one is my mushroom exercise, one is a cognac-vetiver-sandalwood affair, etc. There is no end to the combinations I want to try, and permutations of those combinations, and permutations of those. It's an endless endeavor, this familiarizing oneself with the way natural ingredients combine. I'm looking forward to it.
*MS*
A periodic posting of my current symptoms:
1. Can't walk further than about half a block, and even that's with difficulty.
2. Can't sleep. If it weren't for the Remeron, I'd never get to sleep.
3. Can't do anything with my right hand--and I'm right-handed. Can't write by hand (a problem in places like doctors' offices), can't type (one handed, with my left hand, is only okay), can't do bills at all, etc.
4. Can't make perfume--and this, in addition to the bills above, is just about the only reason I have an assistant. I get groceries delivered, so that's not a problem (lord knows I could never go shopping). In truth, my assistants are about the only people I see. Stuck at home, unable to go very far.
5. Still riddled with anxiety, a form of depression.
ETC.
*Hong-Kong*
One of the other people I got into big trouble with was a fellow named Andy Wyng (I'm friends with him on Facebook...we're talking 20-25 years later). Andy is a decent dude, and I'd like to say I corrupted him. Course I wouldn't be caught dead without some hash or otherwise. I was in Hong Kong and I'd be damned if I was going to leave any stone unturned. It shocks me to think of what I would do now, stuck without a wheelchair. So it was: I did it while I still could.
We went to Indian a lot. Andy had a lot of English friends. Part of what I did was getting to know them. There was a Scottish fellow who was the first guy I met who had a gig playing at a restaurant. He was _the worst_ person to have a gig like that; he didn't know any songs! He was just going along, hoping the owner didn't catch wind of his inability to play. Unfortunately for him, it didn't take long for him to be found out.
Andy and I barely escaped police in Chung King Mansion. We were in our little guest house, which was targeted by police. All we knew was the cops were there, and so we went into Andy's room to hide my hash. As far as I can recall, they found nothing on me. I remember it clearly: I stuck the bag into my shirt pocket, having experienced cops in America who failed at that. We were off scott free. It was a heavy experience though; what if we'd ended up in Hong-Kong prison?
Andy and I went to Japan a couple of times. The first time it was for some smuggling. No one had given us heads-up and we went through customs together; we didn't stop to think that would appear foolish to customs agents. We were told they wanted to look in our bags, and we were under specific instructions to bond anything they wanted to look at (bonding is a thing at international airports that allows you to enter the country without having your bags checked).
The second time we went, we came prepared. I didn't yet know what I would do. Good thing too: Jerry, my Australian friend, made sure that I knew, playing and singing as well as I did, I'd be a fool not to make music on the street. A call to Andy was all it took: I'd have a guitar delivered to me. What a blessing! We didn't share with others our take; needless to say, others would have been shamed by our income. "You play on the street like beggars! How can you earn so much?" Play we did; whether or not anyone knew how much we made was up to us.
*Quotations*
I think it's very true when you're a writer, you sometimes you have to spend time poking at part of yourself that normal, sane people leave alone.
--Vikram Chandra
In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities.
--Janos Arnay
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
--WB Yeats
All great truths begin as blasphemies.
--GB Shaw
There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army.
--John Ashbery
When I write, I try to tell a good (and accurate) story, both for its own sake and as a means of drawing out the underlying meaning, the themes that explain to us how we became what we now are.
--TJ Stiles
I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.
--Emily Brontë
Teach us to give and not to count the cost.
--Saint Ignatius of Loyola
I'd sooner be called a successful crook than a destitute monarch.
--Charlie Chaplin
The worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere friendship.
--Francis Bacon Sr
*Music*
August Rocks 2010
1. Before I Knew, Basia Bulat
2. Closer, Corrine Bailey Rae
3. Babyfather, Sade
4. Times Come Again, The J Band
5. Mailman, Peter Mulvey
6. Hey Hey Hey (My Little Beauties), Hawksley Workman
7. True Believer, Matthew Barber
8. Cole Durhew, Jeffrey Foucault
9. Beg Steal or Borrow, Ray LaMontagne
10. walk on the Wild Side (Velvet Underground), Tok Tok Tok
11. Windshield, Peter Mulvey
12. Philadelphia Lawyer, Jeffrey Foucault
13. I'd Do It All Again, Corrine Bailey Rae
14. Soldier of Love, Sade
15. Insanity or Death, Matthew Barber
16. Rattling Locks, Josh Ritter
17. You and the Candles, Hawksley Workman
18. Some People, Peter Mulvey
19. Winterwonderland, Tok Tok Tok
Peace love and ATOM jazz
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