The Perfect Song Blog

Poul returns to New York to find Beasely alive but a deeply changed man.  After relaxing, Poul returns to find Mendel.  He finds instead an empty house and knows that something tragic has happened.  The riots and deaths over Mendel’s music continue to mount.  Mendel wanders, alone, trying to survive without the love of his life.  Back in New York, Poul reports the news to Beasely, then leaves to continue his search for Mendel, knowing something doesn’t feel right.

Length: 31:25
Size: 28.7

After dinner at MacDonald’s and exchanging geek news (actually info exchange between a super geek and a would-be geek) Jedi Jared and headed back to the office to begin tweaking my Perfect Song site (www.perfectsong.net) to make it easier for browsers to find it.  He quickly concluded that it would be faster for him to do it than to show me and have me plod along in my wanna-be geek pace.

It was a great offer and I took it.  So be looking for some subtle changes in the Perfect Song site, including a direct link to this blog so you can read  the news on my News site, then hop over to my blog and the audio version of TPS.  Don’t forget I’m also uploaded a chapter a week of the printed version so you can read the book, listen to it, or both.

If you want to donate money for the above, please send donations to The Perfect Song Scholarship Fund, Mansfield Foundation, Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA  16933. Contributions are tax deductible.

Thanks, Jared! May the song be with you.

I was in the ice cream aisle of the local supermarket today when two employees stopped their supervisor who was visibly in a hurry.  They asked him to do something for them.  “Not now, ” he said.  “Sorry.  I’ve got to get home and take care of my family.”  And off he went.

Ten minutes later I was in the parking lot loading my groceries into my trunk.  The supervisor walked by with two 12-packs of Molson beer.

I thought, “wow, this guy really knows how to take care of his family.”  No bed time stories here.  Just pass around the beers.  Drink yourself into sweet dreams, kids.

Traumatized by Beasely’s death, Poul wanders aimlessly until he stops in a southern town in the hills and takes a job as a bartender. He meets a gypsy who invites him to their camp. There, Poul encounters Nadeen, a fortune teller, and has a mystical experience.

Mendel and Mara continue their relationship. Mendel trades in his pencil for carpentry and garden tools.

After his encounter with Nadeen, Poul leaves to return to New York. In Philadelphia he’s caught in the middle of a riot between the A.Ms. and P.Ms where he’s beaten and arrested.

Length: 31:06
Size: 28.4 MB

Poul realizes that Mendel is not dead and that another man was mistakenly murdered. Beasely announces that Mendel is alive, sending Mendel to new heights of popularity. Poul returns to find Mendel and is attacked by a man threatening to kill him because he’s found that Poul is the key to Mendel. Poul gives the man some information and only later realizes he has put Beasely in danger. He rushes back to New York only to find the young man has stabbed Beasely to death.
Length: 29:7
Size: 24.3 MB

Okay, I want to try something and I need your help. Right now I’m getting around 1,000 page views a week, mostly from the U.S. but a few from Canada and other countries.

I really want to spread the word about the website, blogsite and, of course, The Perfect Song.  So I’m asking you, each of you who come to the site and enjoy it, to copy the url, the site address in the box at the top of the screen, and send it to a friend, or even two or three.  Tell them to check it out.

Let’s see if we can double or even triple the number of regulars coming to the site.  I enjoy writing (as you can tell) and sharing my musings and the book with people.  So help me spread the word.  Send the url to some friends tonight.

I’ll let you know what effect it had.

Thanks!

On an isolated Appalachain dirt road, Mendel meets Mara. She offers him water and food. They talk. Mendel stays and she becomes the love of his life. He tells himself he’s reached the end of his search, that he’s found happiness forever.

Mara wishes it were true.

Length: 16:30
Size: 15.1 MB

Somebody asked me what my favorite TV shows are.  First, Leigh and I only watch five shows a week, so I guess those are my favorites.

The top show on my list is Lost. It’s one of the most creative shows in the history of TV, along with The Twilight Zone, Star Trek and The X Files.  A weak X Files show was still better than anything else on TV.

There are no weak Lost episodes.  By zooming in on one character a weak and showing scenes of their history, leading to their defining moment, and how they made it to the ill-fated plane, we get a whole new dimension that adds to the current drama of their lives on the island.

I could go on with the computer that, if left unchecked, could destroy the world, the obligatory romance, the betrayals, etc, but that would be gratuitous ego dabbling.

I will mention one young person who has a website devoted to Lost and all the clues that he finds in each show. This kid spends hours doing detective work that would shame Sherlock.  I’m always amazed at how some people spend their time.  But then again, I know some people wonder why I spend my time the way I do.

Next on my list is Numbers.  It mixes geeky intelligence with action, all revolving around a dad and two sons, family history, family values and bickering. I could watch each episode two or three times trying to understand the math calculations and what they mean in the physical world.

I watch the show with probably some silly subconscious hope that the math theories will teach me something, though I’m a mathematic-impaired moron. I never understood math.  I was not helped in college when I took a calculus course from a Chinese prof who barely spoke English.  I am not stereotyping when I say that he actually called it “carcurus”.

We watch CSI because my wife loves it.  We actually started watching it when I was doing research for a marketing campaign on our forensics major.  We got hooked and watch CSI Miami and CSI Crime Scene Investigation.

The original show, Las Vegas, is my top pick, mainly because of the Grissom character.  He’s also a pure, aging geek who loves language, literature and bugs.  I was glad to see that he and the young lady detective Sara who’s been after him for years, finally jumped in the sack, though I cannot imagine Grissom having sex.  I can’t see him taking it seriously.  I can’t see him passionate.

Horatio’s character is what keeps my interest on CSI Miami.  David Caruso has perfected the lone wolf crime fighter whose seriousness is humanized by a permanently sad-eyed expression.  Lean, hunched and man of few words, he fights crime and the establishment (often one-and-the-same) with stereotype one-liners that he always seems to pull off.  The greatest moment was the final episode this year, when, on a revenge spree (yes!  He fell in love with a woman dying of cancer and the bad guys shot her in the back on their wedding day!  What kind of luck is that?  And how bad is that?  Kill them any way you can, Horatio).

Horatio wounds a bad guy.  As he starts off for another bad guy, the wounded one weakly reaches for his gun.  Horatio, without breaking stride or looking down, simply shoots the guy as he passes by him.  Straight out of a Clint Eastwood western.

There’s probably other good TV.  My computer Jedi Jared talks a lot about 24 which I’ve been meaning to watch because I’ve heard so many good things about it.

Coming soon:  Pumping Gas and Explosive Death by Cell Phone.  I kid you not, it could happen!