Fleur D'Amour

The Center of the Universe

2009-04-23T09:43:00.001-07:00

I found out this morning that Depeche Mode is playing a free outdoor concert tonight at 8 pm at...Hollywood and Vine! (See my last post below for reference.) I don't have one of the fabled free passes but there are outdoor cafes near there and I plan to just go hang out and listen, and maybe see if I can see anything.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/04/depeche-mode-to-shut-down-hollywood-boulevard.html

There is a surprisingly spiritual aspect to this event. Anyone who reads my Parsifal's Horse blog or my Twitter posts knows I talk all the time about the axis mundi archetype. This concert is part of my stream with that. I will describe a little of this current thread here - the overarching flow is very Tao, a synchronous pattern based in the fractal unfolding of events along the golden mean.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine_of_the_Golden_Mean

My usual work commute passes the Hollywood and Vine intersection most of the time, and I often use that Metro train station. There is a lot of artwork in the station and all of it is stream-of-consciousness archetypal material related to ascent mysticism - stars, Egyptian references, the celestial throne, etc. The celestial ascent involves climbing the heavenly ladder of the chakras, represented by the seven stars of the Big Dipper, to come before the Throne of God, the North Star, which in the internal chakra system is also the Bindu, the hidden eighth chakra. This ascent is why the pyramids of Egypt were built - their entire religion revolves around it and the pyramids were manmade sacred mountains constructed to be used by the pharoah as a ladder to come before the throne of Osiris, the lord of the afterlife - hence the Egyptian motif in the public artwork in the station. The Pole Star is the axis mundi, the center of the world, because it appears to be stationary while the sky revolves around it.

The Derek Jarman film I saw on Tuesday (again, see my last post) was at the Montalban Theater on Vine, just south of this intersection. There is a Pre-Columbian sacred site in Mexico called Monte Alban, White Mountain. The mountain is a symbol of the axis mundi and the ascent to the pole, and the site includes several holy ball courts, which were representations of the structure of the universe with the ball as the sun and the scoring rings as the equinoxes.

http://www.elmuseo.org/taino/ballgame.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_ballgame

This intersection is right in the middle of the Hollywood Walk of Stars, a representation of the path of cosmic attainment, and there are pillars at each corner which delineate the four cardinal directions, also important to the axis mundi, the archetype of the central pillar of the world. The location used to be a lemon grove before it was developed, and the prophet Enoch from the Old Testament ascended to Heaven from a citron grove, the citron (called etrog in Hebrew and used in the holy ritual of the Sukkot holiday) being the Old World equivalent of the lemon. He is an archetype of the human practitioner of this kind of ascent. Once in heaven, Enoch became Metatron, the Angel of the Throne.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_and_Vine

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=enoch&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

In Islam, Enoch is called Idris, and I saw that name on a billboard this morning. Re: his ascent, the Koran says "We raised him high in heaven" and in Muslim lore, Enoch invented astronomy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_view_of_Enoch

He is also said to have lived 365 years while on earth, the same number as days in the year, which definitely associates him with the cycles of the heavens. He is sometimes identified with Hermes Trismegistus or Mercurius. In some traditions, he is the builder of Zion, the City on a Hill that is the New Jerusalem or the new Paradise. Zion is central to the action in the medieval poem Pearl, and the Bindu chakra is also called the pearl. The human who activates this chakra through the ascent becomes perfected, as are the residents of Zion (remember the old spiritual, "Let me fly up to Zion?").

The streets themselves have mystic meaning to the names - the celestial ladder is called the Vine in some cultures, and Holly is a shamanic tree with profoundly spiritual meaning (trees are always axis symbols).

http://www.unfading.net/holly.html

The concert event is co-sponsored by the W Hotel, mentioned in the press release as returning “Golden Age excitement and lifestyle” to Hollywood. The rune for the letter W is Wunjo, which I’ve drawn a lot lately, and it signifies the shamanic journey of astral ascent. The runes themselves are a synchronous and intuitive natural language and were won by Odin through a shamanic trial on the world tree, the cosmic axis.

http://www.geocities.com/cheryl_rune/wunjo.html

Gold is the alchemical symbol of the perfected human soul, and alchemy is itself a depiction of the celestial ascent in symbolic language. The Tao itself is the foundation of Chinese alchemy and the archetypal road map of the ascent. (Incidentally, the Taoist equivalent to the runes is the I Ching, a profoundly synchronous symbolic language originally expressed through yarrow sticks, as the runes were originally carved on twigs to represent their origin in the Tree.) The Wunjo rune refers to the “Golden Age” and corresponds to Valhalla or Paradise (Zion), and the Sumerian version of the ascent literature refers to Pardes, the site of Eden located in the Fertile Crescent, describing it as an archetypal garden by a sacred river. Wunjo represents the sacred dual mountain of the axis mundi where heaven touches earth and the two are united. Runemaster Jordsvin says that Wunjo refers to Vinland (Vine Land), the original name for the United States, and this event is occurring on Vine Street.

http://realmagick.com/articles/78/2178.html

Wunjo is shaped like a pennant or flag, and someone gave me a pennant yesterday, from Universal Studios.

Another nearby business, The Gap, is referenced in the LA Times article as being endorsed by Depeche Mode. "Gap" is a name for Da’ath, the Abyss on the Kabbalistic tree of life, which is the last stop after the seven lower sephirot before one comes into the celestial realms. Da'ath is referred to as a state of unification - a "united state," as it were, and it is associated with the Bindu chakra as well.

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkig2AvFJ3cAAdOZXNyoA?p=da%27ath&fr=yfp-t-501&fr2=sb-top

DM's new album is called Sounds of the Universe, and some of the promotional imagery for the record includes the band standing in front of the Unisphere, the huge outdoor globe in Queens, NY, a clear axis mundi symbol. It also happens to be Earth Week right now.

http://queens.about.com/cs/attractions/p/Unisphere.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15434282@N00/2064351847/in/photostream/

http://queens.about.com/od/photogalleries/ig/Photos-of-Landmarks-in-Queens/Unisphere-and-Rocket-Thrower.htm

Re: the Rocket Thrower status near the Unisphere, rockets are also axis mundi symbols and the theme of the entire Unisphere complex is space exploration, the modern equivalent of the ascent. The statue depicts archetypal man launching a rocket into space with one hand and reaching for the stars with the other.

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=10758

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0oGkmgiyfBJOo0A_G5XNyoA?ei=UTF-8&p=the%20rocket%20thrower%20queens&fr2=tab-web&fr=yfp-t-501

Much of the other art in the park depicts a celestial ascent, including spaceships and a male-female pair lifted skyward by birds:

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/vt_flushing_meadows/vt_flushing_meadows_park.html

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/vt_flushing_meadows/art_culture.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foolsparadise/3178899873/

This is also the park featured in Men In Black, where the UFO was parked. The UFO is a symbol of the chariot used in the celestial ascent (it's called the vimana in ancient India and the merkabah in Judaism, more on this below).

DM also has a song called "World In My Eyes" about containing the entire world in one's soul, and in their video for "Enjoy the Silence," Dave Gahan is shown crowned and seated on a mountain, a clear expression of the throne and world axis archetype. The axis mundi is the symbol of cosmic man (in Kabbalah it's the Tree of Life, the body of Adam Kadmon, the archetypal man), and the ascent is the concept that man is divine and can become like God by going up to meet Him before His throne in His house in the seventh heaven. I went to a Jewish wedding this past weekend where the bride and groom circled each other a total of seven times before stepping up into the chuppah, the representation of a house in which the rites of the wedding were enacted. The rabbi explained to the congregants that the circling and ascent of the stairs lifted everyone present to the throne of God. He also talked about how Jewish mysticism posits man and woman as two halves of the same being, separated in the Fall into discrete beings. Where I left the wedding to attend the reception, I walked past a motel called 7 Stars and a restaurant called Casablanca (White House). In Islamic tradition, the house of God is white, and stands esoterically above their version of the axis mundi, the Ka'aba in Mecca. I also attended an Apple software training class last night at The Grove (per the Pardes reference above, what could better symbolize the apple from the garden?), and noticed that their shopping center's sign has seven levels of neon with the North Star at the very top.

http://www.globalgraphica.com/022305_grove_cinema_w498.html

It's also shaped like the architectural detail on the old Pan Pacific Auditorium which was located near there. It's now torn down but Xanadu, whose story concerns a human man who travels to the sacred mount of Olympus in pursuit of a goddess, was filmed there. That detail is also shaped like the tet of Osiris, the pillar sacred to the Egyptian god mentioned above and which is of course a representation of the axis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Pacific_Auditorium

http://www.touregypt.net/afterlife3.htm

And there is a statue on top of a tall pillar in the very center of The Grove called The Spirit of Los Angeles, with a male angel supporting a female angel as both fly. The message of the ascent is that men are like angels in their true nature.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/snuffy/451637521/

The Bindu chakra mentioned above is supposed to be able to make its own sacred food for the ascent initiant once he has awakened his Kundalini and traversed the channel of the chakras to the highest attainment. The food is cibus, the sacred sustenance made of light that is referenced in traditions ranging from esoteric Christianity to tantra to Taoism. The lead singer of Throbbing Gristle, the band who performed the soundtrack to In the Shadow of the Sun on Tuesday night at the Montalban is Genesis P-Orridge – whose stage name means something on the order of “Primal Food” (and the lady who deeded the land for Hollywood and Vine from her lemon grove was named "Beveridge" - beverage - the cibus is also often likened to nectar). And Genesis and his deceased wife, Lady Jaye Breyer, undertook an esoteric experiment to reunite their two separate beings into the original syzygy of male-female union, as referenced by the rabbi at the wedding this past weekend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_P._Orridge

That is what the axis mundi is about - the union of opposites: heaven and earth, male and female, light and dark, all restored to their original primal Oneness. My personal view is that the entire cosmos was, is and always will be a sacrament - the Fall refers to our woundedness that makes us unable to see that, but it's just an illusion of separation, not a reality. The cosmos is still held together by the pillar of the World Tree, which is also the human body, the physical reflection of the divine order. I feel that all of these related references are different cultural expressions of a common archetypal thread which describes a process rooted in the human body and points the way to divinizing one's perception of that body. The chakras are physical and metaphysical intersection points that when activated make a form called the merkabah, or the chariot of human consciousness. It is symbolized by the flaming chariot holding the enthroned figure of God or Metatron which appeared to Ezekiel and to John in the Revelation. My housemates have been working on their own axis mundi, the Lightning Temple, based on the Jewish merkabah and detailed here:

http://parsifalshorse.blogspot.com/2009/04/lighting-temple.html

And I have been writing about the axis mundi, ascent mysticism and the seven heavens in my Holy Grail book (re: the Grail, the Unisphere is near Silvercup Studios in Queens) and many of my poems and songs, for some time now, and before I knew that they were working on something also involved with it. This is all what in Jungian terms is called constellating, when energy around an archetype builds and builds with the accretion of symbols until it reaches some kind of critical mass and comes into conscious form. Archetypes are sacred, because God is conciousness and the archetypes are His primordial thought forms.

Lastly, I had a deeply spiritual experience once with Depeche Mode's Violator album, and that energy has carried through for me ever since. "Enjoy The Silence" is one of my favorite songs, and I've heard it several times when the universe was reassuring me that I was on the right path (the path of ascent, apparently). Tonight's show should be very interesting. I'll be sure to give a report.

For anyone interested in further reading on the ascent, I highly recommend this book - it explains it perfectly.

http://www.amazon.com/Stairway-Heaven-Alchemists-Kabbalists-Transformation/dp/0826428509

And Mircea Eliade wrote extensively on the axis mundi in his studies of shamanism - here is a wiki entry about it, and below is a link to further reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_mundi

http://www.bytrent.demon.co.uk/eliadesp01.html

http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Profane-Mircea-Eliade/dp/B000NSSZA6 (the review on this page by Oakshaman is especially awesome)

In the Shadow of Hollywood and Vine

2009-04-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

I attended the Throbbing Gristle event last night at the Montalban Theater on Vine Street as promised, and it was actually pretty fascinating. They appeared live and played the score to Derek Jarman’s 1972 arthouse film In the Shadow of the Sun. It’s funny how times have changed – Apple laptops have taken the place of synthesizers but you could tell some of the audience had been TG devotees since their inception in 1976; there was a lot of silver hair in the crowd, and a lot of black clothing. This score was actually added to the film in 1980 as a collaboration between TG and Jarman, and its ambient grind fits the images perfectly. The style of the film is painterly and surreal, with scenes that reminded me of Bunuel and Dali, and some that I think were in direct homage to Maya Deren’s experimental Meshes of the Afternoon. Jarman holds some shots for so long that even with slight movement they take on the character of pictures in a gallery rather than film, a device he used later to great effect in Caravaggio. The alchemical content was subtle, an occult undercurrent told in symbols rather than words (there is no dialogue and no linear plot): a young man lies in a flaming square, a large key is pulled from a drawer, pyramids loom behind archaic statuary and men in animal masks silently impart a shamanic presence. Soundless interactions are staged like live theater, such as the pairing of a seated young man and a figure dressed in a Seurat top hat who simply stands and stares at him from the opposite side of the frame. The film clocks in at just under an hour, and the band closed their appearance with the live performance of one song, Persuasion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Shadow_of_the_Sun_(Throbbing_Gristle_album)

http://www.elizabethdeegallery.com/files/press/DJ_2009-02-10_Artforum.com.pdf

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080920/

http://greg.org/archive/2008/03/04/derek_jarmans_in_the_shadow_of_the_sun.html

Re: Caravaggio, mentioned above and filmed in 1986, it’s a beautiful film and stars Tilda Swinton (in her first film role).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090798/

Swinton also appeared in Jarman's segment “Depuis Le Jour” in Aria in 1987, and it’s stunning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqEImF2SfL8

I’ve always meant to see Jarman’s punk-era film Jubilee, but have never gotten around to it. I’ll have to look it up – it sounds fascinating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_(1977_film)

And apparently there is a new documentary about Jarman. I really do find him compelling. There is nothing like a real artist.

http://www.derekthemovie.com/

Give Me Some of That Old-Time Industrial Music

2009-04-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

I got a notice that Throbbing Gristle have reunited, and are going to play a show at the Montalban Theater in Hollywood. I just bought a ticket. This should be interesting, especially to see the kind of crowd that shows up for it. They are planning to play the soundtrack to filmmaker Derek Jarman’s 1974 alchemical opus In the Shadow of the Sun.

Here is more info in case anyone is interested:

http://www.throbbing-gristle.com/

Avant Garde Memory Lane

2009-04-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

I just remembered something, and wanted to mention it briefly. The first time I recall seeing anyone representing the vibe that would later evolve into what would later be called Emo was in the late ‘90’s in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. I went to a show, I don’t remember what band was playing, it was just some weeknight local band at the kind of (probably illegally operated) urban industrial space club where water runs down the walls, but there were two kids in the audience that caught my attention. One was a tall skinny blonde girl who looked a lot like Pris from Blade Runner. Her hair was really short and choppy, and she was wearing weird skinny pants and a striped t-shirt with detachable sleeves (I pay way too much attention to clothes). Her companion was a young guy, probably gay, and he was dressed about the same, only with dark hair and his clothes were kind of floppy and asymmetical. At the time, I had never seen anyone dressed exactly like that, not yet. They just looked really, really different. A few years later, every kid in NYC looked identical to them, but they were just WAY ahead of the curve. Now Emo seems to have fully matured and is even receding in the cultural rear-view mirror, but it’s interesting to look back and think about that evening, like it was a singular anthropological spotting. Another girl who really caught my attention in a similar manner was also very young, maybe twenty and possibly much younger, whom I saw on the subway in lower Manhattan in 2005, right before I moved away from New York. I noticed her on the train at the City Hall stop. She also had asymmetrical short hair, in a modified mullet like the style that was popular in the early ‘80’s. Her hair was light brown, and she had put some lighter streaks in it that were eye-catching, and was wearing really funky eyeliner and black clothes. I really admired the way she was put together. It was a highly individual interpretation of the growing trend, but she had a strong element of original New Wave in there, too. She looked modern, but also would not have looked out of place if it really had still been 1980 or ’82. I love clothes from that era and collect them, but she wore them very differently than I do, and I was impressed with her sense of style. And the first time I ever saw a faux-hawk was in about 2003, on a girl in a Starbucks’ in Union Square in Manhattan. That trend played out fast once it hit big, but, again, she was months ahead of the curve. She was petite, and wearing an enormous black military coat and Doc Martens and she looked fantastic. Her hair was also light brown, and she was very pretty, the kind of model-pretty that needs no makeup, so the overall effect of this beautiful face with the severe hair and clothes was amazing.

Gonna Get Schooled

2009-04-15T14:48:00.000-07:00

I have been looking into some educational opportunities to further my career, and have figured out what to do to get the skills I need to move forward with my music. UCLA offers a music production certificate program now, and while I don’t think I need the entire set of classes in order to accomplish what I want to do, I need most of them. I did a run-down of all of them, and picked eight classes I think are essential and two more that are optional but would be good if I am so inclined to take them after I finish the others. I just invested in my Mac Book Pro, and I plan to invest more in a MIDI set-up this summer, and then after that’s bought and paid for, I plan for to enroll in the first of the UCLA classes, a comprehensive introductory course in LogicPro. Except for that one, which is condensed into several long sessions over the course of a month, each class is spread out over twelve weeks. They are also held at night on the UCLA campus, which works out really well for me.

I tried two years ago to enroll in music technology classes, but when I looked into Musician’s Institute and the Los Angeles School of Recording, they were, respectively, $24,000 and $27,000, each for a two-year program. I don’t need an entire course of study in recording technology, because I don’t plan to become a commercial producer. I just want to record my own music. I can’t invest that much money into a program most of which I don’t need, and those schools don’t offer individual classes – it’s all or nothing. And they only have day classes, which doesn’t work so well for grownups who are also concurrently responsible for earning their own living. As I said above, I don’t even think I need all of the UCLA program, which is much cheaper (a total of about $7,000 if you do go for the whole certificate course). I’ve taken some classes at Sunburst Recording Studio through a local community college, but it’s more of an analog set-up and they only teach studio recording and mike technique, not computer-based applications. There is also a local independent Apple certified Logic Pro school, but, honestly, I’d rather learn through UCLA. They have some of the best people in the media business as instructors and the classes are good networking opportunities. I got some freelance music writing assignments through a class I took there last year and met a lot of people whose paths I never would have crossed otherwise.

Part of the reason I don’t want to go for the whole certificate program is simply to save money. There are several classes in it that I feel are either above my head technologically or that I will never use and by not taking them, I can bring the total cost down by more than two thousand dollars, which more than covers the MIDI equipment. Another reason is that I want to be able to learn with no outside pressure. To earn a certificate, you must achieve a certain grade in each class, and I would rather just audit the classes. That is what I did with the industry class last year, and it worked really well for me. I’ll have a record of completion of every class I take, which is good enough for my purposes. I might be able to parlay the knowledge into music industry employment at some point in the future outside of my own personal goals, but I feel I can do that by demonstrating mastery of it. It should also help with my music writing – the more you learn the better your articles become. The Sunburst classes came in handy for an interview I did with a producer.

I also found out you can take free one hour tutorials at the Apple store, and I booked the Mac general intro class in case it can teach me something I don’t know, and also an intro to iWork and one to LogicPro. They’ve got more, for iWeb, Final Cut Pro, Aperture, etc., and I’m going to take them all. After that, if I still feel I need more help, I also may book some one-on-one time there with an instructor.

Sleepwalking Through the Mekong

2009-04-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

I got busy and let a couple of weeks lapse, but I still wanted to post a review of the Dengue Fever documentary I attended in Hollywood because it turned out to be very worthwhile. The screening was sponsored by Amoeba Music and was held at Space 15 Twenty, a new outdoor shopping area just off of Sunset Blvd. It was a bit chilly to sit outside for almost two hours to view a film but I am still glad I went. Dengue Fever was formed in Los Angeles in 2001 by brothers Zac and Ethan Holtzman. They both got serendipitously inspired around the same time by Cambodian pop music of the 1960’s and ‘70’s and went on a search for a singer, finding an established one in Chhom Nimol, a Cambodian immigrant to Long Beach, CA. The documentary, Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, chronicles the band’s tour of her home country. Dengue Fever is the first American rock band to tour Cambodia, and the film includes their performances in Phnom Penh, their appearance on Cambodian television, and their trip to the rural countryside to perform both in a children’s music education program and on a makeshift stage set up in a slum. The band made no money on this tour because Cambodia is a poor nation with persistent third-world conditions, and they had to turn to their record label to provide part of the financing for the trip. In interview segments interspersed through the film, the musicians said they had wanted to make the journey in order to explore the source of the music they found so compelling and to give something back to those who had inspired them. The film is eye-opening in chronicling the lasting effects of the Khmer Rouge dictatorship on the Cambodian populace and their culture. Many of the original artists that Dengue Fever references in their own music were killed in a cultural purge ordered by Pol Pot, the architect of the Khmer. He installed a state radio station which played only his own propaganda songs, and folk and pop songs were outlawed as they could be used to undermine his authority. It’s clear that, despite his efforts at control, they lived on in the underground - when Dengue Fever played some of the older tunes, entire audiences sang along with every word. The children at the school the band visited also were well-acquainted with the music thanks to the determined efforts of their teacher, an admirable woman who spoke of her own childhood sadly interrupted by war. The Cambodian artists of that era had originally been inspired by rock and rock from the U.S., so it was very interesting to watch the cross-pollination come full-circle over the course of events highlighted in this documentary. Some of my favorite parts of the film showcased the interaction between the Western members of the band and people they encountered in Cambodia. In one scene in an open-air market, the band good-naturedly socializes with vendors, and a dinner with the lead singer’s family is also entertaining. But I was most taken with the scenes that documented the band setting up and performing in a shantytown. The local children hung on the stage and watched them as though they were gods descended to earth and an enormous crowd massed to view the spectacle. It made a lasting impression on me to be reminded how impoverished much of the world remains, and it made me more consciously grateful to live as I do in such a culturally rich and diverse environment as Los Angeles.

I recommend Sleepwalking Through the Mekong for music fans, devotees of Asian pop culture and anyone interested in cultural history in general. There is a very nice website for the film at the following address for anyone who would like more info:

http://www.sleepwalkingthroughthemekong.com/

Amoeba Music Film Night

2009-03-30T16:22:00.000-07:00

I am going to this indie music film tonight with a colleague:

http://www.amoeba.com/content/amoeba-music-space15twenty-present-monday-movie-nights.html

It's about a local L.A. band, and it sounds pretty awesome. I'll give a review shortly.

The Big Apple

2009-03-27T17:01:00.001-07:00

At last, I have a music-related topic to post about. I finally found a good enough deal on the MacBook Pro I need to record my songs, and I bought it recently. I found it online, at MacMall, an authorized reseller you can link through to from the Apple website. They had last year’s model at a discount with additional rebates that totaled $180.00 for the notebook and software, all of which brought the price down nearly $500.00 from retail. I paid for it on a Friday and it was delivered the next Monday before noon. I set it up that night with antivirus software, iWork and iLife. I also installed my digital camera upload software, transferred all of my photos into the new machine and started posting more photos to my Flickr account. I also have huge amounts of poetry, lyrics, research and other written material that I need to dump into the machine and organize. I ordered a black plastic cover for it, too, and my friend is going to refer me to a design shop that can etch the case with my FLEUR D’AMOUR logo, sweet. I still need MIDI equipment, more memory, an external drive, renter’s insurance, and a better waterproof laptop bag, but this is real progress. I plan to take classes at the Apple Store and UCLA this summer to maximize my Logic Pro investment.

Benign Neglect

2009-01-26T15:37:00.000-08:00

I've been absolutely horrible about updating this blog lately. The only real reason is that I have been tired. I also haven't done as much music stuff lately as I was doing for a while - this economy is so wretched I am just working on my own books and not writing for any magazines. I did go to one show recently, and it fizzled out early - I tried to see modwheelmood once more at Spaceland, and once again, it did not work out. I give up. mwm was billed with the headliner, Sara Lov, who was doing a residency, so you would think that she would be the final act of the evening, am I right? Well, I was wrong, and I had to give up at 11 pm, because I had to get up really early the next day. At least the food at Leela Thai was good. I am cursed with mwm, and I really do give up trying to make a live show. Some things are not meant to be in this lifetime. Three strikes and it's over.

I have been making progress in the realm of moving forward with my own music. I have finally narrowed down exactly the kind of Apple laptop I need. I plan to get a MacBook pro, the 15 inch model, 2.4 GHz and soup it up with 4GB memory and the 320 GB hard drive. I talked to three different Apple reps, two via the chat function on the website, and one via phone, and they all recommended the same schematic. Awesome. Now all I've gotta do is save the money. I have some put back, hopefully I can get it in a month or so. I bought a little Acer netbook for my writing projects, but there is no way it will work for memory. It's basically like an electronic spiral notebook. It's good for email and book edits, which is what I wanted it for, but I need vast amounts of memory for music.

I am getting ready to rev up again on my Etsy craft and vintage site, too - I took lots of photos last night for new merchandise that I need to list on it. I sort of gave up on it lately; the economy is so bad that I've hardly sold anything, even over Christmas, so it did not feel worth the effort when I had plenty of other things to do, but now I am getting back into it. I set up a corner of our artspace in the warehouse attached to where I live as an interesting backdrop and took pictures last night. My housemate, viedo artist Robb Pope, was hanging out in his office up there, too, and had a constant stream of great electronic music going the whole time. It felt more like play than work, always a good sign. Check the Etsy link soon if you want to see what I will be adding - some nice vintage stuff will be going up soon.

Divisadero/Marvelous Toy/One Trick Pony

2008-09-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

I went out as promised last Friday night and attended a dual CD release party for two local bands, Marvelous Toy and Divisadero, with special guests One Trick Pony. The show was at Pehrspace, a non-profit venue and art space in Historic Filipinotown (just south of Echo Park). It’s BYOB with friendly habitués, the kind of place where the bands sell their music out of suitcases after the show, and it has an awesome artist-friendly policy: with $5 cover, 60% of their proceeds go directly to the musicians that play and the rest goes to pay rent, utilities, etc. The crowd was near capacity all night and the music-loving audience was truly appreciative of all of the performers. The first act One Trick Pony performed as a three-piece, with guitar, violin, percussion and textured vocal harmonies. Randolph Williams III formed the band in 2003 and his former manager Jenny Teixeira joined later as drummer. Williams' voice is soulful and his lead vocal meshes well with Teixeira's soprano backing; violinist Charlene Huang provided haunting strings to the core duo for this show. There is poetry in One Trick Pony's lyrics and a quality of longing that's very touching. They played a short set, intended to end with the one-two gut-punch of "Children I" and "II", but their audience wheedled more, and the band gladly obliged with an encore song (with Huang in an aside to Williams, "I really like this place!).

The second band Marvelous Toy was on board to celebrate the release of their second collection, All Is Quiet. Founder Jordan Hudock fronts the band on vocals, guitar and keys and also writes the songs, flanked by his brother Cody Hudock on keys and sleigh bells, Franck Fiser on drums and percussion and Ny Lee on backing vocals, piano and glockenspiel. Bassist Justin Fields pitched in for the Pehrspace show, with Hudock saying, "He makes us sound like a good band!" They played a mix of music from the new CD and older songs - one highlight was "You Were Brighter," a song from The Disappearing Heart (the group’s first CD) that has a memorable video, viewable on their MySpace page. One Trick Pony played only a handful of songs due to time constraints, but Marvelous Toy delivered a longer set of nine tunes, closing with two great numbers from the new EP: "The City is a Washing Machine," a love-hate song to Los Angeles, and what may be their strongest track to date, "Waiting for the Fire." This song has settled into me for a long run since the show, and I told Jordan that he needs to get it into a movie - it's very dramatic and melodic and would lend itself really well to film. Marvelous Toy manages to combine modern indie pop with a Western sound to make something that is truly unique.

The final band Divisadero opted for a full-on orchestral effect, bringing nine people to the stage for an epic set. They were debuting their new release Lefty, a concept album about the life of a boxer during the Dust Bowl era. With influences ranging from Woody Guthrie to Sonic Youth, the lineup included everything from saw and spoons to churning bass, heavy guitar, a cello and another guest appearance by Charlene Huang on violin. A loop of atmospheric black and white film imagery was projected onto the wall behind them throughout, elevating the show to the level of performance art. I have to say, I was absolutely entranced. The combination of the moving images and the wall of sound created an effect like a cascading waterfall of energy. I sat on the floor right in front and absorbed the spectacle for over an hour, and when I left I still felt tingly from all of the sensory input.

It's easy to see the motivation for each of these groups - these performers threw themselves into their music heart and soul like mad, passionate lovers. It was beautiful to see, and I found it all very inspiring. I also love Pehrspace and plan to go back as soon as possible - it's exactly the kind of place I want to support.

Check out the following MySpace profiles for more info on these bands:

One Trick Pony: http://www.myspace.com/onetrickpony

Marvelous Toy: http://www.myspace.com/marveloustoy

Divisadero: http://www.myspace.com/soundsofdivisadero

And last but not least, Pehrspace: http://www.myspace.com/pehrspace

Marvelous Toy at Pehrspace - New Music Release Party

2008-09-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

I am going to Pehrspace tonight in Echo Park for the CD release party for this band:

http://www.myspace.com/marveloustoy

I reviewed their first CD for Performer Magazine (quoted on their website, here: http://www.marveloustoy.net/press.html) but have never made it to a live show. There's a bar-b-q in the parking lot beforehand - this should be fun. I'll do a followup review of the show.

All I See Is Darkness

2008-09-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

This is so funny.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/fashion/18GOTH.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

I may be grown up, but I am still Goth-identified.

Music Industry Self-Destruct Mode Continues

2008-09-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting music-related article:

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=130766

I especially like the description of the business as "delusional." That's just spot-on.

More Etsy News

2008-08-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

I posted about fifteen more vintage clothing items for sale on Etsy, and I sold one within an hour of logging off. Must be a record. I noticed my shop has more fans, now, for a total of fourteen. I spent some time this weekend making jewelry and trinkets from fabric which I will post soon in the crafts sections. I also convinced my designer/artist friend Oz to start an Etsy shop last week to sell his paintings and drawings. As soon as he gets some items listed, I am going to form an Etsy team with him to have cross-promotional events for both of our stores. His shop is named Forestgod, and mine is Fleur D'Amour, the flower goddess - an unbeatable team.

My latest shop updates are here (also in the sidebar to the right):

http://fleurdamour.etsy.com/

New Fleur D'Amour Photostream at Flickr

2008-08-18T13:13:00.000-07:00

As I noted on my writing blog, Parsifal's Horse, I have posted a number of photos from my recent trip to France to my Fleur D'Amour account on Flickr. They can be viewed here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fleurdamour/

I took hundreds of pictures and will be adding more in the weeks to come, so please check back. I am also adding the link to the sidebar at the right for future reference.

Words and Music

2008-07-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting both this blog and my music activities because I've been very focused the last few weeks on editing my first book, The Flower of Knighthood, and self-publishing it online. I took it to a conference in France and the preparation for that has been consuming me as well, but I got back home this past week and have been working on updating all of my sites and social networking to set the stage to move forward on all of my projects. I'm going to start focusing again soon on upgrading my computer system so it will be enabled for more comprehensive work on my music, and I've been doing some research on more music magazines to approach with my writing. I did attend an amazing music event in Rennes, the town I stayed in in Brittany, the most northwest region of France. The group was Diabolus in Musica, and they set the poetry of the trouvere Chretien de Troyes to music and performed it live with traditional Breton instruments and visual effects reminiscent of the illustrations in illuminated manuscripts. The show was about an hour long and free to attendees of the conference. It was part of a whole series of events sponsored by Rennes in association with an exhibit of King Arthur material at the Champs Libres, their local arts center, library and museum. Rennes is a college town and the capital of Brittany, and while it's relatively small, it's extremely cultured for a town its size. Brittany has a long Arthurian history, and the conference has been held in Rennes twice before, so they were happy to have the organization (the International Arthurian Society) back for another cycle.

http://www.diabolus-in-musica.net/english/indexframeen.html

http://www.leschampslibres.com/36392593/1/fiche___pagelibre/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennes

http://www.uhb.fr/alc/ias/version_ang/ang_historic.htm

On a musical note a little closer to home, but also fairly definable as diabolus in musica, I've been listening a lot lately to the two newest Nine Inch Nails albums, the instrumental Ghosts I-IV and the unorthodoxly released The Slip. Both are awesome, though some of the lyrics on The Slip are even more disturbing than the usual NIN. I'm going to a couple of the upcoming shows on the Lights in the Sky Over North America tour, and I'm looking forward to them. All of the NIN shows I've been to over the years were among the best live shows I've ever seen.

Etsy Update

2008-06-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

I've had my shop active on Etsy since June 1, and I already have made nine fans and three sales, two of them international, and I got my first criticism today, from someone who disagreed with how I worded an item listing. Welcome to the public sphere, Fleur D'Amour. I also posted a lot of vintage items over the weekend and have more to put up this week.

Making Bank

2008-06-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

I made my first two sales in my Etsy.com shop! I am very happy. I set it up to finance my art projects, and I'm glad to see it generating some interest. I was pleased the other day to see that five people have already listed me as a favorite shop, and now I've sold two small items. The store has only been up a short time and I've listed about twenty items so far. I have a whole rack of vintage dresses I still need to post, and some cool 1980's shoes, and a lot of little things that I made. I've got my work cut out for me the next few evenings, but it's already paying off.

Part of Ladytron/All of Datarock/Sorry, But I Missed Modwheelmood

2008-06-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

I promised a review of the Ladytron show I went to, but I can only provide a partial one. The evening did not go very well. It got off to a rough start early on because of a low-speed car chase that happened right in front of me in Hollywood (see the details here: http://cbs2.com/local/Chase.Crash.Suspect.2.737325.html) and caused delays all evening. I was late getting home because of it, and late getting back out, and missed the first band, Modwheelmood, entirely, which is a big bummer. I also did not realize I had missed them until Ladytron came on, because I thought they played second, not in the opening slot. I was stoked because I found a decent parking space on Sunset, but I was missing MWM all the while I was walking up to the Music Box. Datarock was the second band, and I did see all of their set, I sat down just in time for it. I had heard of them but wasn't really familiar with anything beyond their name. They're a four-piece from Norway, and while not really a classic for the ages, they were really funny. They all wear matching red tracksuits and dark wraparound shades, and when I first saw them in a magazine a while back, I remember that I thought, ok, what is THIS all about? The look kind of turned me off at first, but then I realized they were European, and it became ok, which I can't really explain, except that it works better for slightly geeky but sweet Scandinavians than it would for middle American smart-asses, which is what I thought they were at first glance. (The tracksuits also remind me of a time when I was working at an office in lower Manhattan that fronted onto Chase Plaza, just above Wall Street, and I came down the escalator to the ground floor to be confronted with the sight of the Beastie Boys dressed in tracksuits made of fun fur in primary colors, hopping around under a giant outdoor metal sculpture and being filmed for a video.) Datarock spent most of their set jumping up and down and did a coordinated Oompaloompa-like dance at one point that was hysterical. Their opening song was an ode to Molly Ringwald and the crowd was happy with interactive numbers they knew well, including I Used to Dance with My Daddy and Fa Fa Fa.

Ladytron came on after a protracted period of downtime - it must have taken a lot to set up their synth bank. Unfortunately, the stress of the earlier cop drama I witnessed and the resulting difficult time I had getting home, all as the coda to a busy week, had taken a toll on me: by the time the headline act came on, I was exhausted and had a bad headache and a worse attitude. The earsplitting volume and epilepsy-inducing strobe lighting effects didn't help. I lasted three songs before I felt so physically sick that I had to bail. I went home and got in bed and slept for thirteen hours. I'm not sure if it was just that I was overstimulated and overtired or if I just don't like this particular band live, but I felt a real aversion and had to get out of there. So, sorry, y'all. If I get a chance to see the band under better circumstances, I will, and will write a more comprehensive review. I like seeing shows, and I like writing about them. I've been doing this for so long that I write the review in my head while I am watching the band, whether I've got an assignment or not. This was just a bad night, and I used up all my good cheer on Datarock.

Crafts Shop Progress

2008-06-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

I bought a new digital camera last week and have been busily taking photos of merchandise I want to put up for sale on my Etsy.com vintage and crafts shop, the one that I hope will provide some additional funding for my art projects. Check out the sample photos on this post to see what kind of stuff I plan to have in the store. I'm working on writing item listings this afternoon.

Music Box

2008-05-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

I am going tonight to the Datarock/Modwheelmood/Ladytron show at the Music Box in Hollywood. I'll come back with a review in the next few days.

She's Crafty

2008-05-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

In order to speed things up a little in my aims to get a brand-new Apple laptop for my music projects, take some more classes, and pay for some recording studio time, I have opened up a little vintage and crafts shop on Etsy.com. I like to make things, and I like to do vintage resale, and this way I can make some extra money by doing something that I really enjoy. I'll also add the info to the sidebar on this and my other blog, but here it is, too, in case anyone wants to stop by and check it out. I haven't listed any items because I've been busy figuring out how to set up the shop, but I should get some things up for sale by later this week.

http://fleurdamour.etsy.com/

Spin

2008-04-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

I thought of a really good idea for a music article, and I just pitched it to Spin. I hope they go for it. If not, I have some backup ideas for other places to shop it, but it would be really cool in that magazine.

Love and Rockets = Emotional Fireworks

2008-04-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

A little more about the Bauhaus final project and break up for freaks like me who are interested. I have not heard Go Away White yet, but it makes sense that this level of volatility exists in that band. You can definitely hear it in their early music.

http://mog.com/Sturgell/blog_post/141197

Coachella

2008-04-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

I have to miss Coachella this year because it's on the same weekend as the LA Times book fair that I feel I need to go to, but three of my housemates are there this week doing set up on different projects. I am trying to pitch a magazine article interviewing all of them about what they are doing. One is on crew, one is a VJ and visual designer who is working on an installation and the third is on an event team with an outside organization. I think this article could be amazing. If it does not get picked up, I am still going to interview all of them for my blog.

More Microphone

2008-04-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

I emailed Bob Wayne from Sunburst Recording Studios today and asked him about coming back into the studio over the summer to use the Neumann microphone I discovered in the mike technique class I took there. I loved the way my voice sounded on it, and I'd like to build some tracks around a vocal line recorded on it. Bob called me right back, and is going to have his Pro Tools guy contact me to figure out the best way to approach this, since I want to incorporate the vocals into electronic compositions.

Gothic Lolitas, Forest Spirits, Love and Rockets, and Galapagos Tortoises

2008-04-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

I wanted to chronicle my weekend because it was very enjoyable. I did a lot of different things than I have been doing lately, and it felt really good.

On Friday night, I got home and my housemate Brent asked me if I wanted to join him to watch a movie. That sounded like a really good idea, so we headed upstairs. He had not picked anything out yet, so after some fits and starts we both decided we wanted something not too taxing on the brain, and fun. He recommended a Japanese animated movie called My Neighbor Totoro, and from the opening credits it was obvious that we had made the right choice. It was made by the same guy who did Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki. Totoro is about two little girls whose mother is sick with tuberculosis in a hospital and who move to the country with their college professor father. In their new home, they encounter soot sprites and bunny-rabbit spirits and they find the shamanic world tree. Deep in its trunk, the littlest girl Mei meets Totoro, a huge and benevolent, if inarticulate, nature guardian. The world of the movie is very like a Shinto folktale with animated dustballs and an overlapping of imagination and reality. I really enjoyed watching it and went to bed happy.

For my first stop on Saturday, I participated in an Earth Day sale event at Buffalo Exchange on LaBrea. The store has vintage and resale stuff, and they were putting a bunch of items out for $1 each with all of the proceeds to benefit a Galapagos tortoise habitat rehabilitation foundation. I thought there would be a big crowd, but it was a really weird scene. I parked around the corner and walked up and there were about twenty people milling around on the sidewalk. At first I thought they were at the restaurant a few doors down for a brunch waitlist, but as I got closer I realized they were indeed at the store. The way the sale was being handled was that one bin at a time of the cheap goods were being brought out from the back, and the people were hovering in wait for that. As soon as a new bin was carted out and set down, they were on it like piranhas. I’ve literally never seen anything like it. I’ve done my share of thrift-moshing, and I’ve seen grown women scream at each other at the Barney’s sale in Manhattan, but this was something else. There was even a sign on the wall saying “Cash Only” and “No Fighting!” Apparently there was a physical altercation the year before; way to get into the charitable spirit of the event, guys. There was some stuff that no one wanted, a few picked-over bins that I rooted through, and I found one faux tortoiseshell (how ironic) belt that I liked, with a sort of rune pattern on it. I paid my dollar and left so I could go eat something and find parking for my next stop, which was the highlight of the weekend. Amoeba Music in Hollywood participated in Record Store Day, the event designed by indie music retailers to ask for support from fans and to give back to the music community. Amoeba had bands coming in all day for guest DJ spots, and the 2 pm slot was occupied by Daniel Ash and David J from Bauhaus and Love Rockets. I LOVE those bands and I got gothed out in a long black dress and arrived early to stake out a good place near the stage. It turns out there was not much of a crowd specifically there for them (besides the usual weekend frenzy at Amoeba) because the set wasn’t promoted very widely, but there were a handful of other black-clad fans there who must have responded to the email blast like I did. I was looking at CD’s around 1:45 pm near the front of the store, and turned to head to the back of the store for the set. There was a dude walking right in front of me in black knee-high boots, leather pants and a wool military coat, with long black hair. I thought for a second, the way he's dressed, he must be here for Bauhaus. Then I realized, no, he IS Bauhaus – it was Daniel Ash. Yaay! He was walking in with a box of vinyl to spin, and vanished into the backstage area with an Amoeba employee, a lady whom he seemed to know well. David J showed up a few minutes later, wearing a really nice black suit. I hung out by the small but expertly-curated media book section until Brently Heilbron came out to announce raffle winners and Bauhaus. David J spun for the whole hour, starting with the famous whistling song from A Fistful of Dollars and segueing into dub reggae and electronica. He’s very proper and professorly, and seemed a little rattled by the rapt attention he was getting from fans grouped around the stage, including me by that point; I had picked up an armful of books and was camped out by the country music bin. He stepped up to the microphone and gave a “nothing to see here” announcement to reiterate that he was spinning and not performing, but only a few people trickled away. He then announced that he had a stack of stencils designed by an artist friend of his free for the taking, and put them and a bunch of stickers on the stage. I went up to get some, and a friendly audience member handed me a stencil, which depicts the angel from the Go Away White album cover along with the Bauhaus face logo. Daniel Ash came out a few minutes later and started a surprise autograph signing. He was very sweet and personable, talking to everyone and signing as many stickers and stencils as anyone wanted. I got in line and when it was my turn I told him I was very glad they have a new record out. I stepped back toward the book section and kept reading the stuff I had pulled out while absorbing the music and general vibe. One book I looked at was Gothic Lolita, a collection of hundreds of photos of Japanese kids, most of whom dress like china dolls or Marilyn Manson. One girl was my Japanese soul sister: her apartment looked exactly like mine except her books were in Japanese, otherwise it could have been decorated by me. She is a clothing designer and I loved the self-made velvet suit she was wearing. I also read an astrology book called Rock Your Stars! which was sort of enjoyable in a dumb way. The last book I looked at was a photography book by David Byrne of Talking Heads. I saw some of his work in a Soho art gallery in New York City a few years ago, and this book was really cool. A lot of the photos were from Mexico City and featured things like a booth full of cherubs and Baby Jesuses for sale in an outdoor market. The last pieces were a series of photos of books on topics of spirituality whose titles when strung together seemed to point out a pathway to paradise. I could feel all of the images working on my subconscious and combining with the music, and it was all very creatively stimulating. I was done with all the books I wanted to look at, so I put them back and then I went over to the Goth/Industrial section and wandered around there for a few more minutes. The set finally wrapped up and Daniel Ash disappeared, but then I noticed that David J had stepped downstage and was also signing things and talking to people, so I hurried back over. Mine was the last autograph he signed, and I had to duck under obnoxious people with a digital camera to get to him, but he was very gracious and waited for me. I wanted to get him to sign the stencil, too, as well as Daniel Ash so I’d have a complete record of the event, and so I could hang it up on the inspiration board of images I keep hanging over my desk at home. (It's in good company there, because the idea board already has a lot of angel imagery alongside other music stuff. It's like superconcentrated creative energy that I use to help me write.)

As an aside, this was my third close encounter with Daniel Ash. I saw Love and Rockets back when I was just a teenager, and I stood right in front of him in a small club in Austin, TX. We sort of stared at each other because I was only about four feet away from him on the front row. I clearly remember I was wearing cool black leather lace-up boots that were new and that I was very proud of, a black t-shirt and red tartan pants, and my mother's old black cashmere cardigan sweater that she bought in Scotland. My second brush with him was when Bauhaus opened for Nine Inch Nails on the With Teeth tour. Daniel Ash ran into the audience playing guitar, and came and stood right in front of me. I also reviewed his solo album a few years ago for a music newspaper on Long Island. As for the rest of Bauhaus, I met Peter Murphy once long ago in New York City and he seemed very, very strange. I think he is a brilliant performer, but I also think from my brief observation of him that he is the kind of artist who has a very challenging demeanor, not a mean person, but not approachable in any sort of normal way. It's very difficult to interview someone like that; I did not interview him, I was just sort of around after one of his solo shows, and watched him interacting with fans. I'm not sure I would want to interview him, although I love his music. I could be completely wrong about him, there is also the issue that after a show, the artist is often emotionally tapped out, or supercharged and ready to hit the town, yet that is when everyone wants to talk to them, and it's not fair to judge them solely on how they present themselves in that moment. They've already given it all up on stage and just want to get away, and who can blame them? But also factoring in the difficulties Bauhaus had that caused them to break up in 1983, and the interpersonal issues that apparently arose during the making of this new record (this is absolutely fascinating, see the last paragraph under "Reformation": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus_%28band%29), I think that there is something about Mr. Murphy that is indeed complicated.

After Amoeba, I decided to go back to Buffalo Exchange to see if the crowd had dispersed. It was on my way home, and I still wanted to contribute more money to the turtles, and as I had been leaving before, I had heard the guy working the sale say that the bin they had just brought out was the last one. I swung back by, and the pandemonium was gone. It was just me and one girl who worked there in some awesome shades and an ‘80’s sweater. I found four things to try, and gave her a five and told her to keep the change for the charity. I ended up giving one of the t-shirts I got, for an L.A. skate and surf store, to my housemate Dave because he moved out here from Florida a few months ago with a light load and he needs clothes. I also got a cool polyester ‘70’s shirt that I may resell somewhere else, not sure yet. I like it but am not sure it’s me.

I love thrifting because I love clothes and I always notice them, and one girl at the Bauhaus event stood out to me because I was so impressed with her personal style. She was wearing all white except for a black waist-length cape decorated with a vintage brooch, and she was small and very pretty with long dark hair sleekly pulled back into a ponytail. She was subtly goth and very elegant in an understated way. I was also happy with what I was wearing, a long black handkerchief-hem cotton skirt with a lacy Mexican dress layered over it, with sheer ankle socks, an unstructured jacket, also black, and a gold purse and flat shoes I bought at Target that are made from richly patterned and multicolored ribbons (http://www.target.com/Xhilaration-Sable-Ballet-Flats-Tapestry/dp/B000PW502G/sr=1-2/qid=1208823777/ref=sr_1_2/602-3825320-7192648?ie=UTF8&index=target&rh=k%3Aribbon%20shoes&page=1). I’ve been trying lately to update my style while keeping true to my roots, and I really liked that outfit because I felt it looked both classically goth and modern. I’ll have to remember it.

On Sunday, I just did chores around the house and worked on my manuscript rewrite for The Flower of Knighthood, and that was all good, too, because I was a little tired from the rest of the weekend. I said in my last post that I wanted to get out more, and this was all awesome. I really have been holed up in a cave writing my Parsifal book and it feels good to introduce some more energy flow. Stay tuned for further adventures.

For more on the Galapagos tortoise charity drive: http://www.buffaloexchange.com/bulletins_det.php?Bulletin_ID=787
For more on David J: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J
For more on Daniel Ash: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ash
For more on Amoeba Music: http://www.amoeba.com/
For more on My Neighbor Totoro: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totoro

Silver Lake

2008-04-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

I plan to start going out more often in Los Angeles, because the music scene is so amazing here right now. I've met a lot of musicians with my freelance writing, especially for Performer Magazine, which covers the indie scene. Local bands I have covered include Earlimart, Twilight Sleep, Great Northern, Everest, West Indian Girl, The Deadly Syndrome and Marvelous Toy. I've also covered West Coast regional bands like Minus the Bear from Seattle and San Francisco goth group Veil Veil Vanish. I go to The Echo and Spaceland a lot for shows, and I want to start branching out more. There is so much going on here on any given night you have to pick and choose well, but I get so creatively stimulated when I do go out that I am trying to avail myself of the resources and get out there. I have been kind of out of the loop the last few months, because I was writing my second book all of last year, a project which completely took over my life, and then I was taking music industry classes during the first quarter of this year, but we're coming into spring and summer, and I want to get out and circulate and see some bands. Rock on.

Mike Technique

2008-04-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

I took the second part of my mike technique class on Saturday, and it was awesome. It was held at Sunburst Recording Studios like the first session, and we finally got past theory and to actually working with the microphones. I learned that for recording, my voice sounds best by far on a condenser microphone. The best effect we got was on a $3,000 Neumann condenser mike, but a decent second choice was an AKG model, because not all studios are going to have the premium one. We also tried me on ribbon and dynamic microphones, but the condenser mike really brought something out that the others did not. I have an alto voice that's slightly breathy but is strong on the lower notes, and the Neumann really captured all of its qualities. I sang an original song, This Is My Gift For You, that I wrote a while back in NYC, and everyone liked it, and liked my singing voice, which was nice to hear.

To hear a demo soundfile of This Is My Gift For You, please go to: http://www.fleurdamour.us/SOUND.html

Music Magazine Editorial Project

2008-04-10T13:34:00.001-07:00

I may be getting some project-based editorial work soon at a music magazine here in Los Angeles. The assignment would involve helping editorial staff pull together old materials from their archive for an anniversary issue coming up. I would be able to do the work on my own time, which is great. I'll post more about it once something is concrete. This is from contacts I made in the UCLA music industry class that I just took.

Fleur D'Amour

2008-04-08T18:07:00.001-07:00

Fleur D'Amour is a lovely princess,
Heiress of the queen, the goddess,
Sweet reflection of her mother,
The divine incarnated as the daughter.

Fleur grows in a lonely forest.
Love is lost 'midst rainstreaked tempests,
Tossed into a tower very high,
Held against her will in captivity.

Who amongst the kingly princes
Would step forth as fate evinces
A destiny of thus twice-doubled good?
Whoso would venture into that wood

To thus claim the hand of virtue?
Whoso would grant this girl her rightful due
Whence he sees how fiercely she has strove?
Whoso would claim the heart of love?

- Fleur D'Amour - Lyrics Copyright by Susan Brooks - All Rights Reserved.

To hear a demo soundfile of this song, please go to: http://www.fleurdamour.us/SOUND.html

Fleur is Germinating

2008-04-08T17:51:00.000-07:00

I've been somewhat remiss lately in both working on my music and updating this blog, because I have been really focused on my writing projects. I've been working on my books and journalism, but I am hoping to get more of a balance going with my music by summertime. One music project I have been working on lately is making reference recordings of all the songs that I have written and that I want to actualize. I have about sixty that have complete melodies and lyrics, and about twenty more that are lyrics only and need melodic development. I am saving up to buy a MacBook Pro, because the laptop I have is inadequate to my needs for making music the way that I want it to sound. For now, I am making hard copies of the songs for my own reference, like a sound library. I'm also working on updating my songbook. Some of my lyrics have evolved a little since I set them down, and I need to bring them up to date. Administrative stuff like this is kind of boring, but it helps me develop and refine the songs, so I feel like I am laying groundwork for the future. I plan to have the computer by August after I return from a conference related to my book-writing, and hope to spend a lot of late summer and fall working on composing instrumental parts to accompany my vocals.

Music Industry Classes

2008-04-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

I need more exposure to sound equipment, so I've been taking some classes lately in studio recording at Sunburst Studios in Culver City. The courses are offered through Los Angeles Westside Extension and Los Angeles City College, for anyone in L.A. who might be interested in taking them in the future. I've taken an all-day recording seminar and one three-hour mike technique class, and I have part two of the mike class coming up. Last fall, I also took a class in Cubase at Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley. I just finished a class through UCLA Extension called The Music Industry Now: Where Is It Headed? which covered music marketing in the new digital media era. That class was amazing. We broke into teams and each group presented a marketing plan to break an artist. I have very little marketing experience, but it was really a good learning opportunity. I had a fantastic team, and we got the highest grade in the class, not to brag - I lucked out and got matched up with great people. I am trying to take a lot of classes in this kind of thing right now because L.A. has so much to offer in media and music that I don't want to miss anything that might help me.

My Latest Music Journalism - Twilight Sleep

2008-04-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

There will be some overlap on this blog between my music and my music journalism. Here is my latest music article, a profile of Los Angeles/Silver Lake band Twilight Sleep published in Performer Magazine.

http://www.performermag.com/wcp.spot02.0804.php

The Importance of Artist Support

2008-03-04T15:26:00.000-08:00

I live in an artist's community in Los Angeles, and we recently had houseguests. One lady wants to make a career of singing, and plans a move to Austin, TX to pursue that dream. I used to live in Austin, and I think she will do well there. She is interested in bluegrass music and Austin is a great place to develop traditional forms of music like country, bluegrass, folk, etc. I went to the University of Texas and the music scene was always thriving in Austin, and more so now with the SXSW festival every year attracting more attention to the town. (As an aside, I attended some of the very first SXSW - it was held in a hotel downtown, and consisted of only a few panels and no performances that I know of. How things have changed.) I bring this up because we started talking and she told me that she has written a handful of songs. I pulled out my songbook later and looked at it, and I remember the very first song I ever wrote, and how excited I was about it. It's a few years later and I have now filled a notebook with songs, some finished and some in progress. I showed her that songbook to encourage her, and to demonstrate how if you keep after something, you can cultivate it to fruition. More support needs to be given to young artists, and I want to help as much as I can to support all kinds of creativity. I did not get as much support as I needed when I was younger, and I have had to work very hard to make up for that. If I can help someone else blossom into their creativity, too, that makes me very happy. That's one reason I chose the name Fleur D'Amour for my musical activities. More love could help the whole world flower into its full potential.

Another World to Conquer

2008-03-04T13:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Fleur D'Amour, a blog whose purpose will be to chronicle my activities as a singer and songwriter. Fleur D'Amour is my performing name, and is French for "Flower of Love." This weblog will be a place for me to talk about recording the songs I have written and about the process of developing ideas I have regarding my music and its presentation.

For anyone who is interested, I am also a writer of books and an arts journalist, and I have a separate blog for those areas at http://www.parsifalshorse.blogspot.com. I recently began that blog as an umbrella for all of my creative activities, but it quickly became apparent that it will work much better going forward to break the music and the writing into two separate blogs. There will be some overlap between the two, most especially between the journalism and music, but I work deeply in both fields, and it seems better to provide a forum for each in order to do it justice.

I hope to use this space to detail some of my progress, both creatively as I work on my music and more materially as I make efforts to release and distribute it. I am excited about the wide-open new world afforded by the internet, and I look forward to direct interaction with an audience.

-Susan Brooks