Dear D-Mod: Just read through the latest and wanted to thank you for sharing all the wonderful thoughts and insights into your personal journey over the last year or so. I can relate to much of it. The little surprise at the end was also a great treat. I was there and remember it like it was yesterday; indeed I think I heard myself letting out a couple of choice screams. I love getting my own feelings about how WB felt about us validated by your revelations. It's very rewarding to me, maybe in a somewhat selfish way, but I'm forever grateful that those feelings were heard and felt by Walter back in the mid-90s. It also makes me wonder how different his life might have been if that kind of highly personal feedback was available to him in the 70s. Sigh. Anyway thanks again and best wishes for 2019!
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Well put, Matthew. Couldn't agree more!!!
Thank you D-Mod and all the wonderful human beings who take the time to share their personal grief with us. It is an amazing outpouring, a fitting tribute to a wonderful person.
BTW, I was busting a gut laughing at the latest newsletter photo. Priceless! More photos, please!
There was an episode of Doctor Who where the team goes back and meets Vincent Van Gogh, and the Doctor's companion Amy very much wants to somehow save Vincent from himself, to try to make him understand how valuable he is as an artist. She convinced the Doctor to bring Van Gogh to modern day London, and to take him to the museum and its Van Gogh display, to show him how revered...how beloved...he would become. As an overwhelmed Vincent stares at the crowds absorbed in the beauty of his creation, the Doctor asks the museum's curator, within earshot of Vincent, to summarize, in a hundred words, where he thinks Van Gogh rates in the history of art. The curator responds:
Well, big question, but to me, Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all. Certainly, the most popular great painter of all time. The most beloved. His command of color, the most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world. No one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again. To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world's greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived.
So much of great art is turning inner demons or personal trauma into beauty, and I think that Walter was capable of that in a very real way. But more to my point here, the fact that the grief that you, D-Mod, have for your favorite musician, your best friend, your love, your husband, your boy...that you have transformed it into this outpouring of beautiful music, of such a poignant reminder of the amazing talent that he had and shared, and of the creative giant that we've all lost...it's pretty fucking amazing. It really is. I don't suppose you'll ever get enough credit for giving us all of this, and of focusing on and pursuing that goal so singularly even with forces arrayed against and even though I'm sure that there must be times where it would be easier personally to forego meeting another deadline, readying another email, preparing another release instead of being alone and still and silent with yourself and your memories of this remarkable man. I guess I'm just saying that you are appreciated, and I hope that you understand that while we share a portion of your grief, we also appreciate how much greater this loss is for you than anyone else. Thank you for turning your pain into such a beautiful tribute. It means a lot.
It's hard for me to really say anything about the newsletter other than I'd just like to give you a virtual hug, D. Hope you have a happy new year!