Veil & Subdue Blog

As Veil & Subdue is an opera inspired very much by the night terror phenomenon, I wanted to create a greater all-round awareness of the condition. I myself have only ever had one night terror event, and it was more like a sleep paralysis than anything else – during a nap, when I suddenly was aware, though still sleeping, and I tried to wake up and to move and couldn’t. It was a feeling of suffocating and being held down, and left me feeling very not awake even after I’d awoken.

Anna K. Meade, who helped conceive and co-write V&S, has suffered from night terrors all her life, and in a future posting on this blog she’ll hopefully share some of them with us. In the meantime, I welcome all who suffer from the condition to share your experiences here. The ongoing assumption seems to be that only children have night terrors; I’ve seen enough to know that many more adults have them than is commonly thought, and scant little medical study or focus is given to this segment of the population. So please share! Let’s raise the awareness and get these stories out into the open.

“Action. Action…”

Memories, once fleeting moments and whispers, begin to dig deep grooves. Thoughts and wonders, mysteries and unknowing, through repetition find their way into foundations, building upon themselves into states of aching stronghold.

We are the seeds planted, the voices repeated, the scoldings embedded and the praises rewarded. Innocence is the absence of memory, the whisper of newness, the void of repetition. Age is a sentence of echoes, fermenting into judgement and beliefs. We know, we know. “Action…”

This word keeps repeating, keeps dancing along my halls, like so many others, echoing like stars in the heavens. These are my parameters. These are my angels. We only know limitations and structures. Beliefs – but only brittle, contextual ones. What have we not been told? What have we not heard ad infinitum? “Action…Action…”

What is not old? Even newness is old. The same material, which has existed for billions upon billions of years, only takes new forms, but echoes with oldness. We are the seeds, but from pages upon pages of natures fornication, her recreation, her reinvention. We are told to be, and we are.

Or so we believe.

The time change has thrown me. I’m not ready to be creative yet, and yet it’s almost time for bed already. Usually there’s some creativity before the night winds down, but it’s not going to happen tonight – I can tell.

So anyway, an update! I have approved the online proofs of the V&S packaging that were sent to me this evening. Next will come hard copy proofs, which should be to me by the 20th of March. And – I have been told – after approval of those proofs, the final Veil & Subdue project should be finished and on my doorstep on or around April 1st!

Also, this website continues to be built – the “About” page has been updated now to include pix of the packaging, and some background story. And in “The Sultan’s Chamber” you can now find a t-shirt design, ready to buy! Thanks to Zazzle.com for that.

I had a bizarre dream last night that a baby and a mama bear were hit by some automobiles on a road, causing this horrendous wreck of many, many cars. Ironically, both bears were still up and moving around and seemed to be okay, but there was all this human carnage on the road. It was very depressing, and a strange dream for me to have. That was this morning, after I woke up and went to sleep again.

…are now approved!!! They should start manufacturing on the discs ASAP, and I’ll be sending all the packaging artwork to them tomorrow.

A simple “wow” before I go to bed. This thing is almost real…

Spent this evening with Tina, watching the newest episode of Battlestar Galactica and, a bit later, some episodes of The Tick (the live action one). The Tick was a brilliant show! Only one season, but so well done, and freaking clever. Goes especially well with a bit of wine and some Red Hot Blues chips! ;^)  We also did some yoga.

Unbelievable…it’s Florida, and we’re freezing in this house, which was never designed for cold weather. So cold tonight…even with heat I can’t feel my toes.

Talked to the CD mastering guy at Disc Makers yesterday about the small changes needing to be done to the project…they’ve now been done and shipped off to me; I should get them tomorrow for the final proofing! Then it will be time to send off the packaging artwork. Cool! I’m getting lots of commitments to buy already, which is awesome.