Two Muses
January 14th, 2010
About two and a half years ago my girlfriend hopped on a jet skiing kangaroo and relocated herself from down under, sweetly planting herself into our lovely one-bedroom apartment. At the time I was in the final post-production stages of my latest film, Lo. She was hot off the Melbourne gallery scene where she showcased and sold her photography. It seemed we had both eaten a lot of dirt and were preparing to shit out pearls…but we didn’t. Instead we found that we really enjoyed living together and because it was the beginning of our new life, we took some unintentional time off our art forms. In a way, the excitement of living together for the fist time replaced that gnawing need to create. It was a very full experience and one that not only required a lot of time but was at its best when fully immersed. So art would have to wait. And it did.
Present day. A knock at the chest. “Hello? Who’s there?”
A couple years went by and the two lovers formally known as artists decided it was time to get back to doing what it is they did. Create. Easy-as-pie…Commando war-zone pie. We tried (oh, we tried) to get back on our game. Shannon longed to figure out a new series to photograph, while I sat down at my computer a number of times only to hack up some of the worst drek I’ve ever written. Â What the fuck happened to us? It was as if our muses had long packed their bags and hopped aboard a moving train. She was gone. Dried up. Never to return? Sweet Jesus!
Lo was, at the time, doing the film festival circuit. Shannon and I traveled to a few cities and I showed off the movie I was inspired to make three years prior. While the acceptance we received was very positive, I still couldn’t figure out how to get re-inspired. Where the hell did that Muse go and who was she fucking?!? I’ll kill um both!
Boston Underground Film Festival. We eat, we drink, we screen Lo. When it’s all over we head up to New York City for a few days of adventure. There we were in Shannon’s favorite city when she is smacked in the face with a terrible cold. She spent most of our time in NYC in bed. On the last night of our trip, we were both sleeping soundly when I was awaken by one of the creepiest sounds I have ever heard. A moaning. NOT the “Oh yes, right there. That’s the spot you animal!” type of moaning. This was the, “Hello, travis. My name is the Devil” type of moaning. And it was coming right out of my sleeping girlfriends mouth. Inhale. Moan. Inhale. Moan….
At first I dismissed it as her having trouble breathing due to the cold. We arrived back home in California and I forgot all about it…until that night. I was awaken once more buy the moaning from the night before. Only this time a little louder. Only this time a little creepier. For almost a week I endured this. Some nights I would watch her sleep and moan and the thought (the serious thought) went through my mind that she might be possessed. There were nights it spooked me so bad I had to sleep on the couch.
Finally it stopped. Both of us were relieved. Then…a knock at the chest. Can you believe who it was? Both of them. Standing there! As if they had never left. Shannon took hold of her muse and I hugged mine. Together, in beautiful harmony they whispered, “ghost possession musical”. I sat down in front of the glowy screen that had been giving me such pains. I sat down and attacked the keyboard that had forgotten how to string a sentence. I sat down with my inspiration intact. I sat down and wrote, The Dead Inside.
Cheers to the final day of pre-production. Tomorrow Shannon and I step behind the camera and begin, what I am confident is, a very long and inspired lifetime of creating.
Much love
Travis
