From Ralph

05/28/08

Now or never.…

'I speak to the world and to you. I don't want anything for myself (I have everything I need), but I do want to see PLAGUE and the MOONflower performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on 112th Street in New York in the Spring of 2009. Somewhere else too- who knows?- the Vatican? and why not?? I’m not proud! I cry in the wilderness to those whom I consider to be soul brothers — those I have met over the years from wilder times when it seemed that we shared a common cause and we pursued the same dreams, but expected different results, claiming different private aspirations and shutting out the possibility that we could ever be wrong. Hunter S. Thompson, who cursed us all, would have wanted that even though he thought we were all wrong anyway. When I showed him the pictures, he nodded and uttered some grunting, reluctant approval, but when I showed him the Libretto, the very blood and guts of my efforts, his response was- ‘I told you before. Don’t write Ralph! You’ll bring shame on your family. It’s gibberish’. ‘Your problem, Hunter’, I replied, ‘is that you just cant stand beauty, particularly if I created it. You are jealous. That’s your dark secret!’

‘You’re right, Ralph, as always’.

 He stopped harassing the perfectly good plate of eggs and bacon on the worktop command module in his Owl Farm kitchen, looked up and snarled. ‘OK! I’m sorry. It’s beautiful gibberish then!!’  I beamed. ‘There you are!’ I cried out in triumph. ‘I knew you liked it all along!! Now my family must learn to live with the shame’.
‘But we are never wrong’, I persisted. ‘Art isn't like that, and certainly not MY Art. Art seamlessly grafts itself onto the unconscious desires of the best of possible hopes we can imagine. That is why I cry out in the darkness. That is why I persist and wait for an answer — like an animal waiting for a mating call in the Rainforest’.

‘You’re Art, Ralph, is a filthy habit!’ he snapped and slipped his plate of eggs and bacon into the kitchen sink uneaten- and took another beer out of the fridge.

Recently, Anna and I were in New York, on my birthday, as it happens, to meet with the good folk who have also kept the flame of hope alive, to be at a reception in the Cathedral, along with other kind folks who have already pledged their support- their invaluable support. Yes, there is movement, imperceptible at first, but gathering momentum and growing. That is how it happens….and there was Richard HARVEY, my friend, collaborator and musical genius behind PLAGUE and the MOONflower. Then he played the most beautiful and complex piece of musical counterpoint on a Recorder- in all its mellifluous variations, then wished me a Happy Birthday.

Thank you Richard.

Now, all we need is a star- some honey- and plenty of money, of course, wrapped up in a five pound note……

We are not asking for much, comparatively speaking. But we need a voice that unites us and speaks this truth to our blighted world. to speak the words that are on the tips of every tongue. What would we most like to utter- to speak to the world? Broadcast the simplest of moving messages and touch the deepest, darkest place we attempt to protect, sometimes reject, castigate, persecute- crave and need. Cradled inside some of the most beautiful music it has ever been my privilege to be a part of. We really are, all on the same side- and we hope that there is really nothing wrong. We possess ART, in all its forms, lest we perish from the truth…..’

The next day, we were off to Miami where I was asked to deliver the Saatchi and Saatchi CLIO Creative Hero Award lecture for 2008, for which I am extremely proud. And they did me proud for which I thank them most heartily…..

Now that is worth mentioning. I am determined that my family shall not live in shame simply because I write.

OK. But it’s going to need a lot of faith, hope and charity.

Bless your hearts…….and in the words of one of the first bums ever to grip my arm on New York’s Skid Row, when the world was just a tad less devious and complicated, “Give us a dime, buddy. ‘Dis is a tough city to get started in!”

And while you are contemplating that request why not consider investing in one of the 50 signed Silk-Screen Art Prints inked onto heavyweight pure Spanish compacted linen fibre of the PLAGUE Demon itself. It will ward off evil spirits too…and help to fund the production.