"This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go."
-Theodore Roethke
"I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love."
-Frank O'Hara
ST JOAN
Sweet St Joan had it right
I wanna go out in a blaze of light
And when I signal through the flames
I'll be spelling out your name
I love your moth-eaten smile
I love your cinnamon smell
The flesh is willing but the spirit is wild
Throw my heart to the dogs of hell
I will burn for you
I will lift my eyes to the clear white skies and stay true
If you are going down then I will go down too
I'll burn for you
-MP
This song was written for Falconetti, and for Artaud, who playes the Mad Monk in the Dreyer film and who I used to have a big crush on. He wrote once that all artists should be like victims at the stake, signalling through the flames. That's so sexy.
And for those who like to know everything, THE (DREADED THIRD PERSON) BIO:
Myshel is a writer, musican, poet, painter, and occasional actor.
She studied acting at North Carolina School of the Arts and then with Uta Hagen at HB studios in NYC (and graduated from NYU) before moving to Boulder to attend The Naropa University's Jack Keruoac School of Disembodied Poetics MFA program, where she studied with poets Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldeman, Amiri Baraka, Ed Sanders, and Peter Lamborn Wilson/Hakim Bey, among many others, and sang the title role in Sanders' opera "Cassandra," performed by torchlight on Flagstaff Mountain.
After graduating from Naropa, Myshel became the singer/songwriter/guitarist for the rock band Space Team Electra. She co-produced two full-length analogue albums, "The Vortex Flower" with Chicago producer Keith Cleversely (Flaming Lips, Spiritualized, Hum) and "The Intergalactic Torch Song" with producer Sandy Pearlman (Blue Oyster Cult, The Clash) in San Rafael, CA. The Denver-based band played the SXSW and NXNE festivals and toured throughout the US (see www.spaceteamelectra.com for more info).
As a poet and spoken word artist, Myshel won the slam at the greatly missed Nuyorican in NYC and performed on the main stage at the Lollapalooza festival, and at various events in Los Angeles, Boulder, Denver, London (BBC Electric Proms), Montreal, and Prague.
Myshel plays the tenor 2 part in the Glenn Branca's guitorchestra piece, "Hallucination City, " and has performed with the ensemble at Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Sculpture Park in Seattle, and The Roundhouse Theatre in London. As a solo artist she has played the Montreal Pop Festival and three London gigs with Jont Whittington's traveling Unlit party. She is a back up vocalist with Xu Xu Fang (www.myspace.com/xuxufang) and an intermittent contributing member/policy analyst for LA's new and most mysterious press-conference-only project "Night People: Music for Old People by Old People," featuring singer/songwriter (and film director) Matthew Buzzell, former Luna guitarist Sean Eden, and formidable percussion, composition and production talent, the very patient Lee Wall.
