Beauty in Ruin

I've only got an hour but I wanted to share a couple things.

This is what happens when I am left to my own devices for periods of time. I've been house-sitting for a friend who had a family emergency. In the midst of my quiet time in the canyon, all hell broke loose. Fires raging from all sides, no sleep, high alert, ash raining down like snowflakes, the skies turning dark at midday -- it was all quite biblical. I couldn't leave, so I hunkered down with the animals and tested new electronic things to amuse myself. First, I taught myself to record and edit audio -- the digital way -- the 21st century way. I've needed to do this for quite some time. The last time I learned to record and edit audio was in the early nineties at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I have hazy memories of being deep within the under recesses of the school, plugging cables into sockets and unwrapping and rewrapping miles of wires (last year an old friend told me he was the one who set up the miasma of audio equipment down there and we laughed while reminiscing how one could get stuck in those endless, winding, corridors editing for days, like troglodytes never seeing the sun, passing out in the hallways, and watching the cockroaches climb out of the vending machine one just bought coffee from. Chicago has its own brand of humor). Anyhow, I put together my first spoken work piece for Sisters of the Wasteland. This will not be the project's final form, nor am I about to start writing poetry, or doing spoken word for that matter, but it's a test. I will be doing a lot more audio like I used to do, but I suspect it will end up more as lyrics and songs. Also, I love to mix found sounds. Always have. I tend to listen to the world in an odd way. Ask anyone's who's ever been in the car with me as we go under a freeway underpass and motorcycles race overhead, and I'm transfixed by the distorted echo, wishing out loud they would do it again. Beauty in ruin. Generally, that's about the time someone asks me if I'm tripping balls with a worried expression on their face, but I digress.

Here's the link if you want to give it a listen:

https://soundcloud.com/scarlett-amaris/sisters-of-the-wasteland-audio

I also did some test shots for the upcoming series, Lux in Tenenbris, on the seriously mysterious goings on in fin de siecle Paris, which will make it's debut in the middle of August on Patreon (yes, it was originally scheduled for the beginning of August, but I missed the first window of filming thanks to the unscheduled arrival of the hellacious Sand Fire). These are actually the wrong contacts. I could have sent them back, but once I opened them -- I had to give them a go. I know they're a little much -- but still..............

Before I run, I wanted to share this as well as the 'so-called real world' is swimming in the zeitgeist and we step closer toward the black iron prison every day (of course, one could argue we're already there. I might agree.) It's a short film by my friend, director and writer, Eric Shapiro, called HOAX, which you can watch for free on Amazon - just press HERE

The hour has struck. Time for me to go.

Much love from where the worlds touch,

S - xx

p.s. Here's the link to the Patreon page where the new series will be happening - Lux in Tenebris