Author’s Statement


AUTHOR’S STATEMENT

Professionally, my whole life has been as a musician; a writer of lyrics and composer of melody, an arranger and producer of audio. In May of 2008, It occurred to me that the characters in two of my songs, which are centered in New Orleans and written twenty-eight years apart, could have been the same people. I had the thought;

……….”Their story would make a terrific film!”……….

After two weeks of obsessed typing ’til dawn, I had compiled roughly ninety pages of a plot line spanning from 1961 through 2017, describing in detail all of the primary and most of the supporting characters. After reading some of this to a few literate and imaginative associates, they mostly agreed; that the nature of this story was “more like a book” (or three!) from which, a film (or episodic cable TV) could be crafted. The last few years have been spent developing these characters and their stories, which are woven into the fabric of historical events, intermingling with very real people, here along our lovely Mississippi River.

This is not a simple story to tell, and not your typical “boy meets girl.” We have a story of vast interconnectedness, among five families. Like the sinking in “Titanic”, we already know about what’s going to inevitably happen; as in the song lyric “New Orleans”, widowed young Billy will meet Liza, on Canal St. in 1999. Six years later, during Hurricane Katrina they will be separated, neither knowing for weeks whether the others survived. These details we learn from the ballad “Waiting”, where Nola’s universally beloved, Global popstar Kid Waveland’s playing was heard mysteriously for miles, during the first four horrid nights, post Hurricane.

If you’ve spent any time living along the Water-Spirited Force of the Mighty Mississippi, particularly in Southeast Louisiana, you believe in, or likely have had the experience of unexplainable effects from unseen phenomena, that perhaps can only be interpreted as “other” worldly. “Elegy’s” landscape is littered with such mystic hooey, and as such there is plenty of speculation as to the cause of these matters.

The majority Global populace follow Spiritual Traditions embracing reincarnation, so therefore most of you will already be open to this major tributary of “Elegy”…and if not!!? Well, even the staunchest Fundamentalist or Atheist accepts the laws of physics, as regards Cause and Effect, and the conservatory aspects exchanging matter and energy; so it’s just a small hop, skip and a leap of faith in logic to extrapolate that this also applies to conscious- ness, the “spark” of life; “Our Immortal Souls.” Even the most cynical agnostic at least “hopes” that there is some “reason” that we have been born to this Earth; and if it’s not God, or a “G*d” (tsk, such a mishigoss!) running things, then there is a “Natural Logic” fueling it’s direction.

Though Greeted from New Orleans in 2018, the plot unfolds in flashbacks, during a reunion of friends at Jackson Square, after The Flood. There are flash-forwards from there, occasionally during the course of these “earlier” scenes. Thus, the concept of linear time is abandoned to enable the slow revelation of plot’s several cloaked and closeted, mysterious agendae.

The sum of my “existence” inspires creation of this tale, while the rhythm of my lyrics fuels my prose. Life is short; so the story you have here, is written in the manner of it’s conception; with “cinematic” notation, i.e: cross-fades, blackouts, dissolves, crane shots and aerials, with certain recommendations made for an imagined sound track. Hope you enjoy the ride, while listening to, and experiencing the “read!” We’re all just making it up as we go along, right?


“Public Debut” Myspace, 2010

MySpace

© 2020 An Elegy for the Lost City