bad boy karma

I have a friend who is divorced and sharing custody of her child with his father. She is a lovely, creative independent pisces. She has been divorced long enough to have had her heart broken once or twice and has broken a few on her own. She's lonely. Aren't we all, in a universal sort of way?

Nothing confounds me more than needy sagitarian men who choose to hook up with women like my friend. She has been through half a dozen and knows better than to fall for their charms...

At present a known 57 year old bachelor who is attempting to court her - someone who has had a reputation of being a dog for close to 20 years... the freelancing handyman. What can I say? He's attractive. He wants something. He's trailing her and paying a great deal of attention. She has accepted his favors even though she knows the score. She says one thing to me and does another. I am worried about her. I have begged her not to go out with him and she promised to call me after she did go out with him... and today I had a realization...

I sound just like one of the bar staff at Merlotte's warning Sookie to stay away from the Vampire! Alright, already....the warnings may make him seem more desirable so I am zipping it from this point... but I don't think I'll have an ear for anymore heartbreak of the sagitarian/pisces variety.... so - all I can do pray she'll see the light before any harm is done.

I already know the score with Bill and Sookie - I've read the books and every word of the writing on the wall... Unlikely romances are lovely encounters until they are difficult... and, well, Vampire Bill comes with over 100 years of extra heavy baggage.

Just a little bit closer..... Happy Halloween

and we'll be voting one of Liberty's spikes right through this old Vamp's heart... although before I saw this depiction of George Bush as a vampire I assumed he was just plain old heartless. We'll know soon enough... in a week, but likely more. A clean, trouble free election would be a bizarre antidote after 8 years of septic shock.

Evcry time we visit Fangtasia I look for this image hanging behind the bar. If anyone knows its origins please share. I had to have it to commemorate the end of a tragic period in democracy that will follow a glorious Halloween. Even if they steal the election again ANYTHING would be better than the past eight years and everyone suspects that things could get much worse before they get better. I hope we're all wrong for those people who've already seen the worst... those in New Orleans and all along the gulf coast...

in the meantime below you'll find a preview to all the Fangtasia parties happening on Friday night....



True Blood plays with this notion in subtle ways. The poster in the bar... lady luck is a sad, tragic neighbor to one of the murdered fangbangers... its all campy commentary on world that has become as Gothic as Charlaine Harris' storyline.

In the meantime wear silver, don't let strangers into your home and remember that even though we love True Blood we can't afford to be sympathetic to Vampires who vote Republican.
I wonder how Eddie would vote if he weren't the victim of that bohemian drainer and her accomplice Jason?

More true bloody confessions

I must confess the grim romance Bill and Sookie have initiated in the televised version of their world has become a bit tiring. Where is the fun? With Halloween so close at hand a RHPS clip seems timely and an ideal counter to Sookie's inexperience. Malcolm and his gang seem to echo the sentiments here on occassion though the True Blood soundtrack is always - oh, so noir compared to R.H!

I love it, don't get me wrong, but this time of year I am reminded of how much I love and needed this film and its soundtrack back when I was a bit younger than Sookie.

It is easy to imagine that Bill could be a Rocky Horror fan since he is into science fiction/alien films in the book. I guess I'll just have to imagine Sookie singing Janet's parts between now and Sunday night at 9pm. Fast forward and perhaps Eric could play the roll of Rocky! Now that would be a hilarious reenactment to counter the vampire civil war reenactors that were humorously referred to in another blog.

Rocky Horror made its way all over the world... like I am sure True Blood will do. It even made its way to my living room in 1982... before it was on VHS, much less DVD or Netflix! I was introduced to the LP by a young Australian who hung out at the University pool where I worked as a lifeguard. He was very cute and straight, very aussie and independent in this thinking... as well as a pilot at a very young age. The film was shown on campus one weekend and I managed to borrow it and the projector (!!!) for a party at my house. I knew the right people at the right time in those days.

It was the last big party of my undergrad years since it took me the rest of the semester to recover. We danced until dawn and every single thing that could be thrown or sprinkled from my kitchen pantry was on the hardwood floors of that house... flour, noodles, rice, galore. The landlord was a sweet guy, too. I feel bad about it now. Never rent to students... between the demands of my 21 credit hours, three jobs, grad school applications and the social life of a 21 year old, well domesticity wasn't even on the burner.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show gives me just as much joy now as it did then. I guess True Blood is the perfect post millennial escapism. I just need an antidote... and of course there is no antidote for V!



The clip above is one of the most controversial scenes of late. It always surprises me when an audience doesn't know the difference between Gothic and Science Fiction, Fantasy and reality. Its a genre-bending series... with passion, humor, history, tragedy and comedy...

Its all in the timing

I've just returned home from the Delta. I can't stress how important it is for an artist to return home to their native land once in awhile... it isn't easy - but the payoff is always there if one is open to it.

Sources are so primordial. It all goes back to wandering in the cotton fields when I was so little they towered like trees above my head... and cicadas... and even mosquitoes! I spent a great deal of time dreaming about Bill and Sookie while heading up and down back roads that haven't changed much in close to 100 years.... certainly not in 50... and I wondered WHY am I so obsessed with these Charlaine Harris characters? I am not convinced in the power of pop culture, Dark Shadows and all that.... but still... when I read TODAY that Charlaine was born in 1951 in Tunica, MS, well - now I KNOW. She went to college at Rhodes in Memphis and it is one of the creepiest, surreal cities anywhere - that's not to say I don't love it, in a strange, comforting way... but it isn't American in many ways, anymore than Louisiana.

So, Charlaine, your characters feel like family to me... and now I know why. I thought I might be going through some close to mid-life obession but its just homesickness... and the strange life that an outsider lives amongst the natives. My mom reminded me of how horrible the mosquitoes were - (I had a recurring nightmare as a child that I was being crucified on a cross in that box of mosquites that was featured in the OFF commercials of the day...) so maybe my obsession with Bill the Vampire somehow relates to THAT??? An art historian or shrink could have a field day with that one.

The drawing above is a portrait of Mr dd. No, he doesn't look like Bill the Vampire but I realized recently that one of the first, most compelling things he professed to me during our passionate courting days: "I am Yours, You are Mine." That was a first.

I never waited tables but I always knew the score. I was never seriously interested in those Delta Boys because I think I feared they would take my life away, tie me down and I'd never see the world. Mr. dd and I met each other at the right time and the right place, otherwise, well, there is no telling what part of the world I'd be hanging my art in.

Now I go back and I cherish those Delta Haunts for their resonance... I wound up at Po-Monkey's last Saturday night... a place I visited with a bunch of girlfriends and nere-do-wells (sp?) afterhours way back in the mid 70's. I was maybe 16. I had no idea where we were or if I'd made a mistake hanging out with these night owls who only wanted to drink MORE beer with hopes of getting into our pants. Instead our car broke down and we sat in the dark on a gravel road singing pop songs all night.

I spent last Saturday with a view an the Indian Mound Bayou from my window and wishing Mr. dd was there to experience the wonder that is the Delta. A friend from my youth and I walked through the soybean fields and picked up pottery shards and I realized today they are likely made from the same clay that Lee McCarty has used for 50 years.