Sweethearts, Rediscovered

For those of you still following this sporadically-updated blog of mine, I wanted to let you know that the project which has been taking so much of my energy and focus has just launched part 1.

I may have mentioned before that my great-grandaunts were radio pioneers in the 1920s, and that they recorded for Edison.  Not just the Edison Recording Company, but for Thomas Friggin' Edison himself.  Seems the old guy had a soft spot for Hawaiian music, and insisted on engineering a couple of their songs when they were recording at the New York studio.

In any case, the MacDowell Sisters (we're not sure where the Mac came from, since they'd gone from Mac to Mc during the previous generation and were McDowell on all official records) were known by the nickname "Sweethearts of the Air" and at their zenith were the #2 radio variety act in America.  And in 1930, they finally put their memoirs on paper - the history of everything they'd done to get to be the #2 radio variety act in America.  Including: their early lives as the middle sisters of seven children, the sons and daughters of literal pioneers in the backwoods of Ohio and the sandy dirt farms of Kansas; putting themselves through business college to be able to provide for themselves and help the family finances; going into business for themselves as public stenographers; traveling the country by rail and making their living in each new city by setting up shop and providing steno services for local businesses; working as secretaries to Congressmen and war correspondents for the Daily Oklahoman during WWI; traveling to Hawaii and falling in love with native music - then learning to play said native music and help bring it to the mainland at the beginning of its heyday as the dominant popular music in the States.

Yep, these gals were wicked cool.  There was no such thing as too great a setback, too large a challenge.  Though their reign was short, their history is fascinating.  And now it's here.  In their own words.  Only 80+ years in the making.

Overload Update

Now that Seattle's annual two-week heatwave is over and the temps are now in the "reasonable" zone (with lots of lovely sunshine left to go around), I can take a break from the maelstrom of projects that is my life and update y'all on what's been going down in Toddwannaland.

Mystic East: A World Resource for Arrowflight is available.  It has gone live on DriveThru RPG and RPGNow.com, and is going up on other stores soon.  We're currently scrutinizing print proofs as well.

Cover draft

Editing is proceeding on All Aboard!, the MacDowell Sisters' memoir.  I'm simultaneously adapting it to screenplay, which means I'm studying the historical record as well.  It's very interesting what Edie and Grace left out - but the memoir is, after all, a PR device, so mentions of their marriages and children who died are given little mention.

Did another pass on Green Light and passed it along to three trusted film associates.  We'll see what they think about the revised third act.

Boo!

Shriek X is almost done with layout.  It will go live just in time for fall/Halloween roleplaying sessions.  Mark Bruno wrote an outstanding skeleton several years ago, and Gavin and I stitched an unholy monster together over his framework. 

Meanwhile, discussion has begun on the subject of The Collectibles season two.

And that's the scoop.

Happy Birthday to Mucha

I just wanted to post a quick message to observe the 150th birthday of the man who is certainly my favorite Art Nouveau painter and possibly one of my favorite artists in any movement.  Alphonse Mucha.  Wikipedia has a pretty thorough biography, so I won't go into historical detail.  What I will say is that Mucha was arguably at the center of a movement which successfully combined commercial art and fine art for the first time in history.  Some art historians criticize the movement as a "youth" trend or for "lowering" fine art to mere advertising design. I prefer to think the Nouveau movement elevated advertising design to the realm of fine art (and don't think fine art lost anything in the bargain).

Like Mike Myers, I tend to think art is art, either good or bad.  But to draw an artificial line between "high art" and "low art" is both disingenuous and counterproductive.

Here's to you, Mr. Mucha.  Your art continues to inspire many, and will always hang on my wall in some capacity.

Nerdgasm Alert

I don't care if you're a film geek, a sci-fi geek, or just a fan of history.  This is very, very cool.

Apparently, in 2008, a film curator in Buenos Aires discovered a negative of Fritz Lang's Metropolis.  Not one of the edited-for-general-release dupe negs, but what looks to be the most complete version of Lang's dystopian masterpiece since its 1927 Berlin premiere.  This version of a film I dearly love looks to be the definitive one, and I'm drooling in anticipation of its theatrical release this year.  Metropolis remains one of the most influential films in all of science fiction, whose presence can be felt in every frame of Blade Runner, Star Wars and The Matrix (among others).  I'm so glad we can benefit from the discovery of this previously lost footage.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I know, I know. I'm not Catholic, and only part Irish. But you gotta hand it to a Welsh kid captured into slavery in Ireland, who escaped only to go back to Ireland and convert thousands to Christianity by nonviolent means. Pretty impressive feat - although I've always thought the Irish were predisposed to latch onto concepts like the Holy Trinity, as their old religion held the number 3 (and multiples of three) as sacred and magic.

Anyway, we're not doing the usual corned beef and cabbage tonight, as we got our beef on with homemade burgers last night. So it'll be a veggie Mediterranean dinner of pasta & marinara sauce. I'll still go grab a single Guinness or Harp from the store. You just can't let some traditions go.

I usually use St. Patrick's Day to reflect on my culture and its fragmented past. A fiercely proud people, progressive for the time of Antiquity, whose art, religion and system of government influenced much of the ancient world. I think of a people whose strength in their individualistic nature was their downfall in facing the Roman war machine (and later, the British Empire). And I say a wee prayer for Celtic unity. We're a vanishing culture with dying languages, and yet we've brought beauty and innovation to the world. I'd like to see us remember our past accomplishments with pride and look to a united future. We've certainly changed, adapted to the times, but we need not fade into history like the Tuatha Dé Danann.

So here's to ye, St. Paddy. And to my fellow Corkers, O'Duinnins and all.

Celtic Unity graphic, top-to-bottom, left-to-right:
Scotland, Ireland, Wales
Brittany, Isle of Man, Basque Country