THE SILVER THREAD

We all have a story to tell.

An interpretation of Two Blue Wolves by graphic designer Colin McNamara.

“Stranger In the Strangest Land” was the first track that was produced based on the short story Two Blue Wolves. The song was conceived by author Wythe Marschall and producer Sam Tyndall. The music video is currently in post production. Look for a preview coming soon on www.sparrowhall.com. In the meantime, here are the lyrics.

“Stranger In the Strangest Land”
lyrics by Wythe Marschall
© 2007

The ninety-nine suns rimming the ant’s eye
abjure the real sun killing the ant.
The magnifying glass in the child’s hand
puts off the real gaze into the heart
the child leaves behind when he leaves
not to go not really but not to stay,
because things spin from things into things
and from spins spin to stops that can’t wait to get going again.
Oh, sorry, pretty girl but I just do not know
what friendship is for anymore
nor anymore know what I am
truth be told save a thing spinning far from your door—
open to me if you please, open please, come on—
I know no magic word.
Open sesame, says me—says that kid—trapped in flight—
says that goddamn magic bird.
I don’t remember what I don’t remember any more.
I say a lot of things about Time, the truth is she’s a whore,
or worse than that a bore, how a flat becomes humdrum,
even in Paris in the Disco Age, ho hum…
And every ho hums, and everyone’s a star
for fifteen long falling morning minutes, tell me if you are
aware that your hairs stayed curled on my pillow
for fifteen years until I wrecked that blue car…
by the seaside listening to Shades Of… I don’t recall.
The stereo don’t know no more, don’t work at all.
You work yourself blind, work your love to the bone,
but skeleton’s don’t kiss, don’t make it through the long haul.
…And I miss you–no–don’t miss you at all.
The way your–what colour was it?–scarf falls
in the theater, bomb drop, I turn around,
notice another gaunt grinning woman with a MoTown
T-shirt and jeans skirt who looks hurt but’s fakin it.
No, wrists too skinny but–oh shit–too late, I’m going down
to the little bar to ask her to buy me a drink.
…She don’t remember meetin me, how odd, don’t you think?

Stranger in the strangest land,
I unhand the moon and leave my prints in the sand…

My favourite colour is the spectrum.
I eat teeth. The morning sun is my plectrum.
I breathe peace, so when you’re dismissed, I’ll blow a kiss,
and while I dream at night, I piss secrets until the moon is mist;
the window, fire; the lighter, an old song;
and, turns out, my wine was heavy liquid all along…
…Damn, Shostakovich coulda wrote it,
this minuet I’m humming from my lonely parapet:
Whereat do you keep your smiles for me?
…And wherefore do you keep them locked?
And wherefrom comes the bony claw of melancholy?
And does magma know how much it really rocks?
See, I don’t—you don’t—no one knows what love is…
And I don’t—you don’t—no one knows what God is…
But God is love, and God is dead,
so since there’s no hope, let’s do some made-up drugs instead…

Stranger in the strangest land,
I unhand the moon and leave my prints in the sand…

Graphic designer Colin McNamara has signed on to produce a poster and desktop wallpaper for the upcoming publication of Two Blue Wolves. I’ll post a preview as soon as I have it.

The Two Blue Wolves experience is built on collaboration. Artists from all over the world have connected with the story and have reinterpreted it through their own mediums. The list of collaborators continues to grow, and with it, the richness of the experience. I’m honored to be engaged in a dialogue with so many gifted people.

All of the content listed below will be packaged together with the story and made available online this fall. A percentage of the profits will go towards finding a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease.

THE SOUNDTRACK

Shawn Christensen (stellastarr*) & Kevin McAdams (Elefant)
Shawn Christensen, lead singer of stellastarr*, teamed up with Kevin McAdams from Elefant to produce a song that Shawn says “will sound nothing like anything we’ve done before in either of our bands.” I’m a huge fan of stellastarr* and Elefant, and just like any other fan, I’m dying to know what they have in store for us.

Wythe Marschall & Sam Tyndall (The Kiss-Off)
An unlikely pair? Wythe Marschall, published author and underground hip hop MC meet Sam Tyndall, lead singer of The Kiss-Off and wunderkind of all things electro-punk. I knew if I put these two in a room together something incredible would turn out. And it did. The track is called “Stranger In the Strangest Land.” Think MF Doom meets Massive Attack. The music video is in production as I write and sure to be as killer as the track.

Alex Parker
Best known for his film scoring, most recently for his father’s The Life of David Gale, Alex has produced a song for Two Blue Wolves that is without a doubt, a hit single waiting to happen. Haunting and anthemic, it continues to knock me out every time I hear it. I posted an early version here to give an idea of what’s to come.

Chuck Bianchi & Jerry Preston
I’ve known Chuck and Jerry for years. I fell in love with their incredibly resonant, soulful guitar playing the moment I heard it. I’ve been writing to their music ever since. You can imagine how thrilled I was when they agreed to write a song for the soundtrack. Chuck and Jerry’s music has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Songs Considered and continues to influence musicians around the world. You can buy their album on iTunes here, or at CDBaby here.

Kago
Kago is the first of two artists from Estonia being featured on the Two Blue Wolves Soundtrack. I first heard his music on a compilation I picked up at this little thrift store in Tallinn. Lauri Sommer is the musical mastermind behind the band’s gorgeous ethereal melodies. The song he wrote for the soundtrack, “Almost a Memory,” was recorded in his grandfather’s country house outside Estonia’s second largest city, Tartu. There’s something brilliantly analog about the track, rich, as if it were captured live on some archaic recording device.

Ed Laurie
After reading Two Blue Wolves, Ed shared a story with me about somone close to him who had been struck with Alzheimer’s disease, and a rather magical conversation he had with this person during a “moment of clarity.” We talked about him writing a song for the soundtrack and he said he was already working on something that felt like it fit the story. That track is “Now Then.” A heartbreakingly pure and honest testament to the shifting shape of love.

Galaktlan
I like to go for a long run to clear my head before I sit down to write. I guess you could call it meditation. That’s when I like to listen to Galaktlan, especially the track he produced for the TBW Soundtrack, entitled “Wolfenlied.” What it means, I don’t know. I really need to ask him – or brush up on my Estonian. Whatever it is, it sets a mood. Part soundscape, part heatbeat.

The Well Enough Folk Band
This is one of my favorite new bands – sublime songwriting, deft musicianship, and songs that make you wish you were driving down a country road on a summer night. “A Rainer” was a track I heard last year when I was finishing Two Blue Wolves. I’d play it while I worked, and it just naturally became a part of the piece. Although all of the songs on the soundtrack were written based on the story, the influence “A Rainer” had on the text made it obvious that it should be included with the rest. And lucky for me, the band agreed.

THE VIDEOS

Christopher Tilden
Chris has worked with me as a video director in the past. I had him listen to “Stranger In the Strangest Land” and we started talking about shooting a video. We’re both huge fans of the 80’s, so we started by taking a look at some of our favorite videos from that time. We had a loose idea of what we wanted to go for, so we grabbed a camera, made some calls, and started shooting. I swear Chris nearly caught frostbite shooting the scenes in Vermont, but he’d never let on to it. I honestly don’t know how we would have produced the video without him.

Garin Marschall
If there’s an Off-Broadway show being produced somewhere in the Tri-State area you can pretty much assume that this guy is lighting it. I’ve been blown away by Garin’s work since we first met at Bennington, and I’ve been following his career ever since. When he agreed to take time out to light “Stranger In the Strangest Land,” I was thrilled. You can see his handywork in the scenes featuring Sam Tyndall, shot at the Culture Project in SoHo. An earlier post shows a still from the video we captured that day.

Ryan Aynes
Ryan was most recently accredited with an Official Selection at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival for Innocents Lost: Child Soldiers at War. He recently joined the Two Blue Wolves collaborative as the music video editor for “Stranger In the Strangest Land.” I’ve been looking at some of the initial cuts, and I love what’s taking shape. I hope to post a preview soon.

THE VISUAL ART

Jim DeLucia
I first spotted Jim’s work at an artist’s loft space in Rochester NY when I was home for one of my father’s shows. I just stopped and gazed up at these enormous paintings. His work tells you things without telling. The painting he created based on Two Blue Wolves, entitled “Ferris Wheel,” is currently hanging in my writing studio, above my desk, and will be featured as a digital poster coming out with the story this fall.

THE POETRY

Michael Evashevski
The first time Michael showed me his poetry, we were sitting at a table and he scribbled something down on a piece of scrap paper. He turned it to me, and I looked down at it. “I love this,” I said. He took the paper back and wrote another. Again. Same thing. Magic. Just these simple verses loaded with imagery. One or two lines – they created an entire scene, a relationship, a universe. He sent me an email after reading Two Blue Wolves, and there was a poem attached. That poem is the one featured at the beginning of the story. You can witness Michael’s other creative side as the graphic designer behind Two Blue Wolves and the Sparrow Hall website set to launch this fall.

THE PERFORMANCES

Eva Schmidt
Eva is an award-winning dancer and choreographer who has performed in the US and abroad. I first saw her work in New York a few years ago, while she was between semesters at Bennington. Since that time, we kept in touch, and became close friends. I gave her Two Blue Wolves, because I knew she’d be a good source of critical feedback. What she came back with was an opportunity to take the Two Blue Wolves experience to a level I’d never imagined. She talked about creating a movement piece based on the story, which we’ve now decided to film. The piece will premiere at Bennington College’s 75th Anniversary Celebration this fall. If we can film something before then, I’ll post a video to show what’s transpiring.

Ryan Aynes has joined the Two Blue Wolves collaborative as the music video editor for “Stranger In the Strangest Land.” The song will be featured on the upcoming Two Blue Wolves Soundtrack.

Ryan has won a number of awards for his work, including an Official Selection at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival for Innocents Lost: Child Soldiers at War.

Ryan is excited to be a part of the collaborative, and we’re thrilled to have him on board. I’ll be posting a preview of the video as soon as we have a cut. Stay tuned.

I was blown away when Lawrence sent me this. I’m a fan of his work. He’s published two novels, Need and Family Values as well as the beloved Horrace Splatty children’s book series. Lawrence is a master storyteller, and it’s always fascinated me how he can move so fluidly between writing incredibly bleak fiction and these fun-loving children’s stories. A true case of yin and yang. He should get Bret Ellis to write a children’s book. I think he may be on to something.

Here’s some of what Lawrence had to say about Two Blue Wolves.

“Really beautiful. In both imagery and feeling. In many ways like a poem… there really are so many wonderful, beautiful moments in it. And it holds together in a delicate, mysterious way I haven’t put my finger on yet.”

Lawrence David
author of Need and Family Values

This weekend, I witnessed Eva Schmidt performing in Pupulous at the church on Washington Square Park. The audience watched from the center of the space as the “scenes” unfolded around us. The overlapping of activity, narratives, and improv was a bit maddening at times, but made for a compelling performance.

Eva is currently developing a dance piece based on Two Blue Wolves, set to debut later this fall.

This is a photo of Eva, pictured right, taken at the performance that night.

It’s hot. Roll them windows down. And give me something to bump to.

Drop It Like It’s Hot (Remix ft. Lil Jon & Pharrell) / Snoop Dogg
Fatty Acid (Kruder Dorfmeister Session) / Lamb
Revolution Solution (feat. Perry Farrell) / Theivery Corporation
Hand To Mouth / George Michael
King For A Day / Thompson Twins
No Hay Igual / Nelly Furtado
Live To Tell / Madonna
AA XXX / Peaches
Grillz / Nelly
Troublesome ‘96 / 2Pac

Lee Johnson, writer and editor of Bennington College’s literary magazine, Silo, recently shared his thoughts on Two Blue Wolves and how the story’s themes of multiplicity have translated themselves into the artistic collaborative.

“Two Blue Wolves. The title itself is duplicate. We imagine a pair of animals that share an aura of mysterious melancholy. There is not a singular or dominant wolf, and in turn no immediate symbolism is attached to these animals. Instead, their plurality works as a metaphor for the story, resonating in the characters’ many personalities and ambivalences, conflicted love interests and all their fractured attempts at affection, the multiple carts of the Ferris Wheel, the fiction’s form. The title first points inward to all of these things, each self-contained, but it doesn’t stop there. We find these points of connection and see that they extend further, past this particular medium. Like the cart of a Ferris Wheel, simultaneously suspended in mid-air yet connected to a rotating and circular structure, Two Blue Wolves is one part of a larger piece of architecture. Artistic collaboration. Dialogue through a multiplicity of artistic mediums. We hear the story’s narrative in the melancholy notes of the music, we see the music’s emotion in the expressive colors of the paint, we understand more clearly the painting’s ambiance as it’s mystery points back to the story. Sparrow Hall facilitated this body of works. He made the connections and established a network of many artists, all enriching each other’s art through unified collaboration.”

Lee Johnson, Editor
Silo Magazine
Bennington College

Photo by Marcel Marchon

I just finished reading Nathan Parker’s screen adaptation of Blitz, based on the bestseller by author Ken Bruen. Couldn’t put it down. It’s about a cop killer running wild on the streets of London. The script was handed off to Russell Crowe who’s being considered for the leading role of Brant, a rogue cop who goes head to head with the killer. I think Russell would be great in the part. It’d be nice to see him get back to his bad ass roots.

Nathan received an email recently from Ken, commending him on the adaptation and what a “wondrous” retelling he’d created. A nice gesture, I thought, from writer to writer.

Nathan is currently working with Duncan Jones (aka Zowie Bowie, son of David Bowie) on a sci-fi script entitled Moon.

I took this photo of Nathan on the tennis court outside his home in Richmond, Surrey UK.