filling the holes of history with the poetry of music

[louismaistros]

The following is cross-posted from the very cool music and literary blog, LargeheartedBoy.com. It was an honor for me to be invited to contribute there. Since most of my friends and readers have an interest in all-things-New Orleans, I thought it might be of interest here. I hope that’s right. Either way, here it is….

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Filling the Holes of History

Comments

[bettebrown]

Thank you, this is one of the most interesting pieces I've read in a while.

[louismaistros]

Thank you for your kind words, I'm really glad you liked the piece :)

BTW, that is an interesting userpic. What is it from?

[bettebrown]

It's a film still from 1929 of actress Claudette Colbert.

[louismaistros]

I love that old stuff. Here's something also from 1929:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB__Xo8ukQM

[bettebrown]

It's Dixie, I remember reading an article on her.
Now there's a human story with tragedy written all over it. She died young from cancer and a couple of her children committed suicide... I can't remember all the details so I'm going to go google Bing Crosby now and find out more...

Back to 1929 and here's one of my favourite singers in an amazing piece of footage. Incredible!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlLM34LrPvk

[louismaistros]

Dixie Lee was such a great singer -- but so rare to see video footage of her. Yes, she had a very sad story. For some reason, a lot of my favorites led tragic lives.

I love Bessie Smith! Thanks for that clip, I hadn't seen it before. I think you would like Edna Hicks, who I mentioned in the article. Lizzie Miles, her half-sister, is also pretty great. You would probably also dig Lil Green and Victoria Spivey.

[bettebrown]

Thanks for the recommendations, I will most certainly check out those Ladies.

A little side note: It was my birthday recently and one of my presents was supposed to be your book (after hearing so many wonderful things about it!). So we went to several bookstores here in London but no-one stocked it. I ended up buying it on Amazon and am waiting for it to be delivered. Hopefully it will arrive any day now and I can finally read it.

[louismaistros]

Hi -- I'm sorry to hear the book is not easily available in the UK. Neither is it in all major stores in the US, though it is being picked up little by little. This is how it goes when you are a new author with an independant literary press.

But thanks for picking it up online, and I do hope you like it!

[bettebrown]

A little update....

I thought you might be interested to know that I finally read your book. I loved it and found it very inspiring on a creative level.
I actually read it whilst taking a break from a piece of art I'd been working on as I thought it might give me the extra inspiration I needed. I finished reading and thanks to your book I finished my artwork.
Incase you are curious, this is the end result: http://www.digitaldatacorruption.com/2009/08/new-artwork-dreaming-of-melodys-joint.html