Men of Letters

I placed a piece of tracing paper over the acrylic porthole and traced a shape the light had made in highlight. It resembled the profile of a goat's head, or so I thought. I underlined some extra passages in one of Sylvia's journals and slipped the tracing paper inside before handing it off to my Good Friend and Comrade Benjamin. He wrote me an email which contained thusly:

"Michel,

I found an object of much curiosity within the journal of our late friend Sylvia. It is a drawing on rice paper which first appeared to be little more than an abstract shape. After I read the words highlighted on the page next to it, "the crucified Virgin of Tokyo" I realised the shape was the profile of a goat's head. I did not know why. On Page 317 (not numbered) I found a sketch by Sylvia's hand of a goat's head at the base of the aforementioned Virgin. It appears that we have played a game together here."


The phrase in Sylvia's book was chosen at random, I had thought, perhaps subconsciously...

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Sylvia's favourite singer, Elliott Smith, has a double-LP out today of unreleased material from his indie days. He was stabbed through the heart in 2003. In those indie releases, the lyrics in his liner notes were done by hand. He commonly would record two vocal takes, nearly identical, giving his songs an eery, subliminal quality.

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I've complied a mix of music I have created down here, along with favourites I have listened to of Sylvia's, mainly defunct indie bands. I will post the lyrics and all songs in some form. My "Oedipus Rex" will kick off the mix... the rest is secret, for now.