magic spillith over...
ok, one of you must be responsible for the things that are suddenly coming together and i want to know who it is NOW! no, i'm kidding. i don't believe that any individual is any more responsible for the synchronicity of events than saying that a divine force could be responsible... but still, something has shifted significant, symbolic and timely events into focus and i'm getting a little blown away by it.
one thing that sort of started this whole ball rolling was meeting this guy in town named "Phil". he is a painter and there is an amazing portrait that another painter in town painted of him.; it's on the wall at this Starbutz on Love Lane in Danville and "Phil" likes to sit beneath it. i'm beginning to think of him as an unofficial mayor of this town as he knows everyone it seems and you can always seem to find him when you need to with little effort.
anyway, the first day i met him we got onto the subject of "my novel" about Eugene O'Neill's ghost. funny thing is that the words "screenplay" and "screenwriter" kept coming out of his mouth. that didn't really register with me until, well, yesterday. -="oh, you are a writer... i could tell you were a writer, the first time i looked at you."=-
my last quarters at UCSC were full of excitement about ideas that i had of becoming a playwright, and part of what i spent a lot of time doing to become familiar with the craft of playwriting was to read a lot of plays and screenplays. i started to read a lot about the art and business of screenwriting and started to think that it was something that i too could do. i actually wrote a complete, three act play while in attendance at UCSC and came up with one idea for a comic-scifi screenplay.
back to Phil though. he knows this guy in town named "Rock" who is a sort of leftover, burned out rock star wannabe that plays saxophone on Tuesday nights at one of Danville's chic restaurants. -="you need to meet Rock because he has stories of seeing the actual ghost of Eugene O'Neill."=- i went to FAZ last night to meet him but was so overwhelmed by the ingenuous spirit and mood of the clientelle that it gave me a bad headache and i had to leave before i could introduce myself to him. our eyes did meet though and i'm sure he recognized me at least in spirit. who knows, we may have even lived here in this town for the same length of time and may have many other stories to share.
ok, well there must be more to what he's going on about, you're wondering. some of you may remember that about a year or so ago i wrote some blog entries about wanting to create a "writer's talisman" that contained some dirt taken from the grave of Eugene O'Neill. remember that i had even written a letter to the Boston community at large through Craigslist asking if someone would be willing to go to his cemetery and take a handful of dirt and send it to me? well, you are not going to believe this but i found someone that will do it! her name is Meg and she is someone i know of through Flickr. i've been a fan of her photography for a long time now and was inspired by some of her early work to experiment with Photoshop cloning. her recent works have included self portraits in cemeteries. imagine that.
somehow i determined that she was in Massachusetts, and well, got to thinking. i sent her the following letter:
Hey Meg,
Somehow I figured out that you are in Massachusetts, must have been
from a tag on one of your photos or something, I don't remember.
Anyway, you wouldn't happen to live near Jamaica Plain (and know where
Forest Hills Cemetery is)?
I AM weird, but I hope this idea/request doesn't freak you out. See,
I'm also a writer and I am working on writing a novel about the
playwright Eugene O'Neill (and his ghost). As part of my research and
the development of one of my characters I got this idea that it would
be neat to make a "writer's talisman". A needed ingredient for the
talisman is a handful of "grave dirt" taken from O'Neill's grave.
And well, he is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery. My problem is that I
live in California (next to the very town where O'Neill wrote his last
plays) and I can't get to Jamaica Plain to get the soil myself. I've
posted requests on Craigslist Boston to see if anybody would do this
for me, but no takers.
From the look of photos I've seen of his grave, no digging would be
required - maybe just a few pokes with a knife or screwdriver to loosen
the top soil (it is bare, no grass growing on it) take a handful and
put it in a baggie. The folklorish tradition is leave a dime at the
grave site when people do this.
Ok, I'm sure I've totally freaked you out now. I'm sorry. This is a
sincere and legitimate request though. If you were able to do this, I
would definitely write you as a character into the book.
Friends?
daryl
and she wrote the following response;
Hi Daryl!
First let me begin by saying that this must be the oddest request I've ever received in all my years of being.
That said, I would love to help you get the dirt :) I go to school in
Boston, and I'm in northern Massachusetts for the summer. When do you
need it by? I could definitely head there in September no problem, but
if you need it sooner I could go on an adventure with a friend and head
in the city for the day. Let me know!
Meg
then i replied;
Oh Meg, you are such a young thing... You'll get many more odd (or
odder) requests in your lifetime I am sure. I'm proud to be the person
that gave you the oddest yet though!
Anyway, I'm kind of in a funk about writing my novel right now (i.e.
"writer's block") so I am a little anxious to get going with making
this talisman. See, it is not only part of the story line but it is
something I actually need for myself as well...!
I don't want to interrupt your lovely summer vacation by urging you to
traipse back to the city if you really don't want to, but if it is not
too inconvenient and you have other things you can do down there... it
would be great to get Eugene's grave dirt as soon as conveniently
possible.
However this works out is fine for me. I am just so delighted to have
found someone willing to do this! You really rock, you know that?
Let me know what you decide to do.
Sincerely,
daryl
to which she responded;
I guess I can make the sacrifice for a day of shopping on Newbury Street ;)
Actually, I've been missing the city terribly, so an excuse to head in
would be fun. I'm in Sacramento next week, but I'll try to plan a trip
the week after that. Does that work okay?
Meg
then the last thing i said was;
Oh, you're an angel Meg!
Whoa, I'm having a thought... You know, I live about 2 hours from
Sacramento. Too bad you wouldn't have time to make the trip to Boston
before coming out here because then we could meet in person and you
could "hand" the soil directly to me. Be a fun way for a couple of
Flickr-ites to meet up for a photo-stroll, and then have quite a story
to share about it!
But you know what your time constraints are so please, don't worry
about doing that. It was just a thought. When you get home will be
fine. I'm already getting some new, inspirational writing ideas just
from the excitement that this is happening.
Thanks again so much!
daryl
i'll let you know what she says when i hear back. then this afternoon when i got home from meeting someone that was giving away a free Treo i had an email from the lady in charge of the Eugene O'Neill Letter Transcription project. i was meaning to write to her this very week, or at least since these feelings about picking my project back up started to occur. ok, here is the gist of all this. in the library yesterday i found this book on the new book shelf called, "The Devil's Guide to Hollywood - The Screenwriter as God", and in reading it, it started to occur to me that if i want to make any really decent money from writing this ghost story about Eugene O'Neill it would have to be in a format translatable to the making of a Hollywood movie.
what is encouraging about this book is that it stabs at demystifying the ways in which so many people get caught up writing mediocre scripts that no one will ever be interested in turning into a movie. i'm not going to take any classes by mediocre and unsuccessful screenwriters on how to write a best seller. i'm going to ask my spirit, and the spirit of Eugene to guide me in the process of creating this story. i'll write a personal letter to Edward Norton and ask him personally to take the starring role in the film (he is an adopted son of Eugene O'Neill and always comes to the annual events that occur here in honor of O'Neill). and now i will have my writer's talisman through which i can directly conjure the divine spirit of the passed playwright himself to embolden my tongue in the creation of this piece.
crazy? sure i am. looks like i'll be shooting another concert in the city tomorrow night too.
one thing that sort of started this whole ball rolling was meeting this guy in town named "Phil". he is a painter and there is an amazing portrait that another painter in town painted of him.; it's on the wall at this Starbutz on Love Lane in Danville and "Phil" likes to sit beneath it. i'm beginning to think of him as an unofficial mayor of this town as he knows everyone it seems and you can always seem to find him when you need to with little effort.
anyway, the first day i met him we got onto the subject of "my novel" about Eugene O'Neill's ghost. funny thing is that the words "screenplay" and "screenwriter" kept coming out of his mouth. that didn't really register with me until, well, yesterday. -="oh, you are a writer... i could tell you were a writer, the first time i looked at you."=-
my last quarters at UCSC were full of excitement about ideas that i had of becoming a playwright, and part of what i spent a lot of time doing to become familiar with the craft of playwriting was to read a lot of plays and screenplays. i started to read a lot about the art and business of screenwriting and started to think that it was something that i too could do. i actually wrote a complete, three act play while in attendance at UCSC and came up with one idea for a comic-scifi screenplay.
back to Phil though. he knows this guy in town named "Rock" who is a sort of leftover, burned out rock star wannabe that plays saxophone on Tuesday nights at one of Danville's chic restaurants. -="you need to meet Rock because he has stories of seeing the actual ghost of Eugene O'Neill."=- i went to FAZ last night to meet him but was so overwhelmed by the ingenuous spirit and mood of the clientelle that it gave me a bad headache and i had to leave before i could introduce myself to him. our eyes did meet though and i'm sure he recognized me at least in spirit. who knows, we may have even lived here in this town for the same length of time and may have many other stories to share.
ok, well there must be more to what he's going on about, you're wondering. some of you may remember that about a year or so ago i wrote some blog entries about wanting to create a "writer's talisman" that contained some dirt taken from the grave of Eugene O'Neill. remember that i had even written a letter to the Boston community at large through Craigslist asking if someone would be willing to go to his cemetery and take a handful of dirt and send it to me? well, you are not going to believe this but i found someone that will do it! her name is Meg and she is someone i know of through Flickr. i've been a fan of her photography for a long time now and was inspired by some of her early work to experiment with Photoshop cloning. her recent works have included self portraits in cemeteries. imagine that.
somehow i determined that she was in Massachusetts, and well, got to thinking. i sent her the following letter:
Hey Meg,
Somehow I figured out that you are in Massachusetts, must have been
from a tag on one of your photos or something, I don't remember.
Anyway, you wouldn't happen to live near Jamaica Plain (and know where
Forest Hills Cemetery is)?
I AM weird, but I hope this idea/request doesn't freak you out. See,
I'm also a writer and I am working on writing a novel about the
playwright Eugene O'Neill (and his ghost). As part of my research and
the development of one of my characters I got this idea that it would
be neat to make a "writer's talisman". A needed ingredient for the
talisman is a handful of "grave dirt" taken from O'Neill's grave.
And well, he is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery. My problem is that I
live in California (next to the very town where O'Neill wrote his last
plays) and I can't get to Jamaica Plain to get the soil myself. I've
posted requests on Craigslist Boston to see if anybody would do this
for me, but no takers.
From the look of photos I've seen of his grave, no digging would be
required - maybe just a few pokes with a knife or screwdriver to loosen
the top soil (it is bare, no grass growing on it) take a handful and
put it in a baggie. The folklorish tradition is leave a dime at the
grave site when people do this.
Ok, I'm sure I've totally freaked you out now. I'm sorry. This is a
sincere and legitimate request though. If you were able to do this, I
would definitely write you as a character into the book.
Friends?
daryl
and she wrote the following response;
Hi Daryl!
First let me begin by saying that this must be the oddest request I've ever received in all my years of being.
That said, I would love to help you get the dirt :) I go to school in
Boston, and I'm in northern Massachusetts for the summer. When do you
need it by? I could definitely head there in September no problem, but
if you need it sooner I could go on an adventure with a friend and head
in the city for the day. Let me know!
Meg
then i replied;
Oh Meg, you are such a young thing... You'll get many more odd (or
odder) requests in your lifetime I am sure. I'm proud to be the person
that gave you the oddest yet though!
Anyway, I'm kind of in a funk about writing my novel right now (i.e.
"writer's block") so I am a little anxious to get going with making
this talisman. See, it is not only part of the story line but it is
something I actually need for myself as well...!
I don't want to interrupt your lovely summer vacation by urging you to
traipse back to the city if you really don't want to, but if it is not
too inconvenient and you have other things you can do down there... it
would be great to get Eugene's grave dirt as soon as conveniently
possible.
However this works out is fine for me. I am just so delighted to have
found someone willing to do this! You really rock, you know that?
Let me know what you decide to do.
Sincerely,
daryl
to which she responded;
I guess I can make the sacrifice for a day of shopping on Newbury Street ;)
Actually, I've been missing the city terribly, so an excuse to head in
would be fun. I'm in Sacramento next week, but I'll try to plan a trip
the week after that. Does that work okay?
Meg
then the last thing i said was;
Oh, you're an angel Meg!
Whoa, I'm having a thought... You know, I live about 2 hours from
Sacramento. Too bad you wouldn't have time to make the trip to Boston
before coming out here because then we could meet in person and you
could "hand" the soil directly to me. Be a fun way for a couple of
Flickr-ites to meet up for a photo-stroll, and then have quite a story
to share about it!
But you know what your time constraints are so please, don't worry
about doing that. It was just a thought. When you get home will be
fine. I'm already getting some new, inspirational writing ideas just
from the excitement that this is happening.
Thanks again so much!
daryl
i'll let you know what she says when i hear back. then this afternoon when i got home from meeting someone that was giving away a free Treo i had an email from the lady in charge of the Eugene O'Neill Letter Transcription project. i was meaning to write to her this very week, or at least since these feelings about picking my project back up started to occur. ok, here is the gist of all this. in the library yesterday i found this book on the new book shelf called, "The Devil's Guide to Hollywood - The Screenwriter as God", and in reading it, it started to occur to me that if i want to make any really decent money from writing this ghost story about Eugene O'Neill it would have to be in a format translatable to the making of a Hollywood movie.
what is encouraging about this book is that it stabs at demystifying the ways in which so many people get caught up writing mediocre scripts that no one will ever be interested in turning into a movie. i'm not going to take any classes by mediocre and unsuccessful screenwriters on how to write a best seller. i'm going to ask my spirit, and the spirit of Eugene to guide me in the process of creating this story. i'll write a personal letter to Edward Norton and ask him personally to take the starring role in the film (he is an adopted son of Eugene O'Neill and always comes to the annual events that occur here in honor of O'Neill). and now i will have my writer's talisman through which i can directly conjure the divine spirit of the passed playwright himself to embolden my tongue in the creation of this piece.
crazy? sure i am. looks like i'll be shooting another concert in the city tomorrow night too.
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