Connecting the Dots

PANAMA CITY — I try to notice when the universe starts speaking. Unfortunately, I seldom understand what it’s trying to say, but I’m learning to live with the mystery.

Regular readers of these columns may recall that I have admitted before how reason and faith are comfortable companions in my brain. This mystifies both my spiritual and atheist friends, which of course amuses me.

Look, I know we live in a random universe, but I continue to believe in signs, seeing meaning behind events that have no obvious connections — what others might call “coincidence.” Maybe it’s just magical thinking, but I can’t help opening myself to any deeper meaning when synchronicity smacks me upside the head.

It happened earlier this week, but all I know for sure in retrospect is that I was where I was supposed to be at that time. Abiding, one might say.

I came to the coffee shop to conduct an interview. The coffee of the day was “approved by The Dude,” according to a drawing of a bearded man wearing sunglasses that had been scrawled on brown paper behind the counter.

(You might recall The Dude in the film “The Big Lebowski” being accosted by the Nihilists, who tell him, “We believe in nothing.” I was thinking, right then, I believe I forgot my sunglasses today, and then recalled The Dude exclaiming, “Careful man, there’s a beverage here,” as I picked up my order.)

A few minutes later, I was talking to young singer/songwriter Kristen Barkuloo about songs that speak to us. She said she wanted her music to remind people of meaningful times in their lives. I mentioned that there are a few songs that do so for me, and one artist in particular.

Seconds later, David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” began playing over the sound system and goosebumps rose on my arms. (Bowie released his latest music video, "Valentine's Day," on Tuesday, the day following this interview.)

Barkuloo talked about a song she was inspired to write after a young friend died in a car wreck, and I thought of my own history with similar tragedy. She talked of getting into theater productions and studying under Bruce Taws, and I further connected that to my son, a songwriter and singer who did theater with Bruce years ago, and whose best friend died in a car wreck.

So now we talked about linkages, connections.

She mentioned that she also wrote fiction, and I encouraged her to visit Writers Gallery, a monthly open mic for writers hosted at Chez Amavida that will reconvene in September after a summer hiatus. I told her it was organized a couple of years ago by local author Nick May, and then I looked to my left and saw Nick opening the café door.

Greetings all around followed, and more talk of strange connections. As The Stranger said, “I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in that.”

Peace.
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(This is my Undercurrents column for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald for this week.) 

What's What Lately

It has been a busy time in the life of the Simmons family. A new home still being moved into/fixed up/maintained, a new job for Debra, school for Jess and work/band responsibilities for Nathan, trying to fit a new church home into that, and still trying to make room for creative endeavors and friends and maybe meeting my obligations with a group of local writers (i.e., reading and commenting on their work as conscientiously as they are on mine).

I've taken to having lunch at least once a week at St. Andrews Coffee House, often with friends like Lou Columbus, Mark Boss, and/or Jayson Kretzer. Yesterday, shared a table and sandwiches with Lou and Michael Lister, and we talked about Michael's new novel, "The Big Beyond," which has one of the best first sentences I've seen; I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it.

Meanwhile, I also have several books, magazines, and/or comics I'm reading at the same time. Right now, besides trying to make my subscription to WIRED worthwhile by actually reading some of it, I'm partway through these: "The Long Man" by Steve Englehart (sequel to his excellent "The Point Man"), "Bicycle Diaries" by David Byrne (essays on the personality of cities observed from bike seats), "Warp" (a comic series from the 80s that I found all the issues to in a discount bin), and "Cthulu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors" by Robert E. Howard.

Also, writing proceeds on my long-gestating "Caliban" series, with a focus on a rewrite of Book 1, now titled "Giants in the Earth." I have written my way to the end with a leap over the "muddle" chapters in the middle. Now, I'm back in the difficult part of making the beginning line up with the ending.

And in my free time (hyuk-yuk) I've begun serious writing alongside that of a memoir that explores the impact and weird parallels with my life of 1970s TV scifi. Yep, chew on that one a while. You would not believe the craziness my brain gets up to when I'm not paying attention (which seems to happen a lot), and then it demands that I do something about it.

Listening to: "The Next Day" by David Bowie.

Peace.

Christmas Song of the Day: Fairytale of New York

On Twitter, I've been posting a "Christmas Song of the Day" for the past few days. Today, I put up the Pogues' "Fairytale of the New York." Tells you what kind of end-of-week mood I'm in.



Yesterday, the 31st anniversary of the death of John Lennon, the song was, of course, "Happy Xmas (War is Over)." I'm morally obligated to warn you that the video at that link has some gruesome imagery.

The day before, I chose the 21-minute long Francis Ford Coppola filmed "Junky's Christmas" written and narrated by William S. Burroughs. (So, the mood has been off all week, looks like.)


The day I started all this, I began with Bing Crosby and David Bowie's "Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth)." (Along with a bonus song, the scarily accurate Funny or Die recreation of the performance starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly.)

I'll bring you some more songs as the month progresses.
Peace.

Video Brainstorming

I met with Lou Columbus at Layla's Gelato yesterday for a coffee and brainstorming session. He offered long ago to shoot a promotional video for my novel, "The Book of Gabriel." And when I say "long ago," I mean back when the storyline was still a serial appearing randomly at PCityLive.com as part of my "366 Days" project.

Lou is a professional videographer, so having his enthusiasm for the project is gratifying and inspirational. (He's also a fellow fan of Bill Nelson and David Bowie, he has old Vampirella novels in his collections, and he once gave me — I repeat, gave me — something like a thousand comicbooks he had kept for decades. I'm still working my way through them.) In short, Lou is a giving fellow with my weird taste in music and entertainment. I'm lucky to know him.

Anyway. Gabriel:

Lou sees certain images from the story as essential to the video, and I agree. Many of them are probably unobtainable on a $0 budget, even taking advantage of public domain video and images. Some things we hope to work out include the opening image of the woman rising out of the sea; a shot of an armored form grasping a flaming sword; men walking on water; the other-worldly visage of Lady Grinning Soul; the Watchers twirling in the night sky; Satan in his nice cotton suit; portions of a chase sequence; and the photo of Joy in Gabriel's jacket pocket.

I'll let you know as we proceed.

Meanwhile, go here to see samples of Lou's videos; the sixth item down is a spooky trailer Lou shot for my friend Michael Lister's novel, "Double Exposure."
T

Drive-In Saturday: 'Changes'

Once again my titles reveal the Bowie connection.

'CHANGES' is an animation experiment created using a VHS Panasonic camera in 1990; the camera had a function that allowed it to shoot one second of tape every minute, so I changed out the pages of typewriter paper in between activations.



NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH:



(No extra charge for tonight's double feature. You're welcome.)