“Just being in a body, is a state of rapture. You know? Just being here is cause for celebration. It’s also a cause for grief too. But grief is also a form of joy. The rose celebrates by falling apart. Foil by foil falling to the ground. And the cloud celebrates by weeping.” (Coleman Barks, ‘I am’ directed by Tom Shadyac)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bardo-Retreat-Rose-Lois-Presley-ebook/dp/B00O4LJQ4C
I was introduced to the Dresden Dolls by an old University friend that was working at MTV Studios, in Camden London, circa 2004. Amazing music; this Cabaret punk struck a whitty chord during a period in my life when self-harming was as habitual as brushing my teeth before bed-time. I lived on Camden Road, in a cockroach infested flat that had a coffin in the lounge and disgustingly pornographic collected&found artwork delicately tacked onto these black velvet lined walls. I worked on Camden High Street. The sink from ‘Withnail & I’ lived in our kitchen. I had moved to Camden after my boyfriend had signed a five/six album deal with Parlophone; I was not a part of the deal. I had a brief fling with a guy that looked and talked like Eddie Redmayne who was heavily involved with the Ordo Templis Orientis and a novice practitioner of sex magic. The Dresden Dolls were a perfect fit. Me and my misguided youth embraced the words, the sentiment and the music of Amanda Palmer. Now, a decade later, her words and story reach deep into my chest, striking a chord that will reverberate, hours, days, weeks on after.
Meditations about being the change that people wish to see in your world; Spending time on Herm Island, Belvoir Bay, Channel Island with three generations of kindred women; Eternal gratitude for the magical cosmos that we ride like porcelain painted ponies on a grand, cosmic carousel, round and round, all out of kilter, time; Peace and pearly wisdom that you can taste on the tabula rasa road ahead.
“Give me release
Witness me
I am outside
Give me peace
Heaven holds a sense of wonder
And I wanted to believe that I’d get caught up
When the rage in me subsides”
(‘Silence’ – Delerium)
