In the horror of the hour the clock tower chimes a note of dread as stars and moon and sweet desire are swept away into the fire of the living and the dead for those of us who watch and see ghost flowers piled high, in palest snow with frozen breath, we tend the pyre for endings come and go The fragile pane of memory the dangling button at your sleeve soon to be lost forever the careless echoes the sad goodbye the moment missed the day you cried Shadows flee and clouds conspire to break us from the life we knew your hand was curled around a leaf with sorrow waiting underneath the blackest of taboos drift silently in opium haze Is that really all that’s left of you? There was a moment when I knew The sirens cleaved the world in two time dissolved —a public wake questions that will have to wait answers you can never make no second chance, or tethered hour nowhere to run or place to cower This is the end the goodbye we fear the black tide rising the broken year the winter seed on hardened ground the moment when we’re lost, not found the … [Read more...] about Endings
Archives for 2012
Brave New World of e-books
1. Write book on typewriter 2. Send to typesetter 3. Receive galley proof 4. Mark up galley proof 5. Create layout 6. Corrected proof arrives 7. Paste type to boards (including page numbers) 8. Send boards to printer 9. Correct blueline proof 10. Print 11. Distribute Sound crazy? Back in the day, publishing had a slow, relentless tempo, like a sacred choral work. Individual voices rose in gestalt to make a whole. Books were planned a year in advance. The minute there was a cover, the sales force courted bookstores and distributors. Editors and proofreaders checked every dangling participle and questionable fact. Copywriters wrote sales pitches and back covers. The art department assembled the physical object. Finally, the book was printed, boxed and sent out into the world. Licenses were handed out to foreign publishers and the process repeated. The Heirarchy of publishing grew around this process; writers, publishers, editors, copy writers, art directors, proof-readers, traffic controllers, marketers, publicists, salespeople, etc. … [Read more...] about Brave New World of e-books
Day of the Dead: A Walk in the Graveyard
Every Autumn, Dia De Los Muertos or Day of the Dead blossoms from the very earth of Los Angeles, a potent integration of ancient Aztec rituals and the Catholic All Saint's Day. Flower shrines or ofrendas appear honoring the dead. Votive candles flicker beside yellowing photographs of the departed and graves are piled high with bright chrysanthemums, baby's breath and cockscombs, symbolizing the blood of Christ. By night fall, groups of friends and families stroll casually through neighborhoods, their faces painted like sugar skulls, wearing black hats tipped at a jaunty angle or flowing veils attached to garlands of fragrant gladiolus and roses. LA has always been intrigued by Dia De Los Muertos, it's in our bones. My writing partner Alix Sloan when she lived in LA, was a curator with the La luz De Jesus Gallery whose owner Billy Shire was one of the first people to bring the curious Day of the Dead artifacts from Mexico; elaborately painted plaster skulls and tableus of skeletons dressed in their Sunday best, enjoying the pleasures of life. My friend Erin, an … [Read more...] about Day of the Dead: A Walk in the Graveyard
