The Tale Of Fredo Viola, The Sad Song And Faith In Humanity.


First of all, listen to Fredo Viola's 'Sad Song.'

Isn't it absolutely beautiful?

Then read the following email exchange between my brother-in-law and Fred Viola, my brother-in-law's being the first email.


Subject: Your wonderful music

Hi,

I just watched/listened to 'The Sad Song' (I got it on a link from this irreverent and brilliantly silly newsletter: http://www.b3ta.com/newsletter/issue157/ ) I was completely blown away, absolutely beautiful. I listened to some of your other MP3's and I'm hooked.

If it is not too much trouble, could you let me know how much you would need to post a copy of your CD to London England (on top of the $15 for the CD)?



Subject: Re: Your wonderful music

Hello there,

Thank you very much for the kind note! Yes, I've gotten a solid amount of traffic from that newsletter! :) If you add five dollars I will send you a cd. :) Thank you very much, again, for the encouragement. It really means a lot to me.

Sincerely,
Fredo Viola


Subject: Re: Your wonderful music

Thanks very much,

I am just waiting on a late payment from a client (freelance design - great when you are working from home in your underwear - sucks when your invoices are ignored by companies who's daily coffee bill is double what you're owed...) So I will get on the case and order your CD as soon as possible.

Thanks again


Subject: Re: Your wonderful music

Send me your address. I will send you a cd, and you can pay me if and when you are able. :)

- Fredo


Subject: RE: Your wonderful music

So, I wake up with a bit of a hangover, and I have to cycle into central London to get a new PC mouse as my last one packed up yesterday. Its Armistice day, so at 11am the world is supposed to stop, just for a minute, to quietly remember all those who gave their lives so we could live, and to remind ourselves why we shouldn't have any more wars, and I'm in the Virgin Megastore (huge loud record shop) at 11, and they didn't even turn the music off. I left and had my quite minute on the street outside, no one else stopped.

So this, coupled with my hangover pisses me off.

The PC Shop didn't have the mouse they said they did on the phone.

On the ride out to my studio in the East End, a taxi cuts me up and nearly knocks me off.

I decide to get a salt beef and mustard bagel to take the edge off, and the guy in front of me in the bagel shop orders 40, FORTY! salt beef and mustard bagels.

So by the time I get to my studio, my day is going very badly, I'm tired, hungover, pissed off, and hungry.

I open my emails and your random act of trust and kindness re-affirms my faith in humanity and makes me smile for the first time today.
So thank you Mr. Fredo Viola, you just made my whole day.

Footnote: whilst I was writing this, my lovely wife emails me just to tell me how much she loves me, and a client emails to tell me money has cleared my account - so I'm off to paypal right now. Some turnaround eh?


All the best


How lovely is that?

Oh, and to top it all the words at the end of the beautiful sad song are baby Harry be good.

Days Like These

You know those days when you just feel really, really glad to be alive? Well I'm having one of those and it isn't even eleven o'clock yet!

Today is a beautiful Autumn day, brightest sunshine yet cold and crisp and breathakingly colourful and as I drove to work (to do a job I love and which inspires me) through the gorgeous Wiltshire countryside I listened to the beautiful man's birthday CD of Ben Folds Five. Played it loudly. And sung all the way.

I love my life.

And those of you who are in it, you help to make it that way. You make me feel joyous.

Be Careful With Words

On 'Lith, 'Sleazenation' started a thread entitled Good News which has the summary: "Describe to me in single words only the good things that come into your head..."

And then Autodidactic on Live Journal wrote Tell Me Something Good About Your World.

I love both of these.

It makes you think. You have to choose carefully. If you have only a single word for each 'good thing' then it makes you sparing about a/what to include, b/how to include it and c/how to make it make sense.

I like the idea of this. I like the idea of telling a story in limited, individual, single words. It's a similar principle to the Haiku poem; sparing and minimal.

Ha. You see, limits are good, because we writers tend to delight in the sound of our own typing. We can be so garrulous. (N.B. I am assuming here for the purposes of this entry that I also count as a writer. No pretence of talent or intelligence or glamour or grandeur should be assumed by this, I am merely referring to the fact that I put fingertip to keyboard on a fairly regular basis.)

So anyway. This is what I wrote:

Mist
Autumn
Trees
Golden
Driving
Home

then

Hearth
Wood
Warmth
Love
Him
Son

then

Laugh
Family
Kiss
Desire
Coat
Fireworks!


What would you write?