To our friends on their day . . .

Jason & Jordaan,

May your wedding day, and your lives together from this day forth, be everything that you had hoped and planned them to be.

Congratulations!

Love,

The DE/VLs

Therapist Joe Says Italians Are From Italy.

My humble contribution to Team Italy. If you know, you know. You know?

-DE

"I find housework profoundly calming. The very act of focusing on something so small . . . so seemingly mundane -- allows the mind to penetrate the Veil Of Illusion . . . and find The Infinite Itself within our very hands. As the Ancient One often observed: 'There is no big or small, important or unimportant. Every act, when undertaken with love, becomes sacred.'"

-Wong

The Quest for the Dark Tower Pt. 13: The World Trade Center

***Spoiler warning! Though I've made every attempt to avoid giving away key plot points during this quest, it's still very possible that information discussed herein may spoil a new reader's experience, so consider yourself warned! ***

When Jake and Pere Callahan arrive in Midtown New York of 1999, they quickly track Susannah to The New York Plaza-Park Hyatt.

Finding a key left for Jake at the front desk by the most unlikeliest of sources, they eventually discover that although Susannah has left, Black Thirteen is still stowed away in the room's security safe. Taking the powerful talisman, they soon decide to store it in a more secure location.

After grabbing a cab south, Jake and Pere decide Black Thirteen should be kept in what Pere was once told were the safest storage lockers in all of Manhattan: The World Trade Center. Once there, they lock the evil talisman in a long term storage locker and feed enough tokens into it to keep it tucked away until June of 2002 . . .


Long days, pleasant nights!

-DE

The Quest for the Dark Tower Pt. 12: The New York Plaza-Park Hyatt

***Spoiler warning! Though I've made every attempt to avoid giving away key plot points during this quest, it's still very possible that information discussed herein may spoil a new reader's experience, so consider yourself warned! ***

In book six of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, Susannah travels to Midtown New York in the spring of 1999 using the Unfound Door, a magic portal that can only be opened with the crystal ball or Bend O' the Rainbow known as Black Thirteen. Once there, she finds a scrimshaw carving of a turtle in a hidden pocket of the drawstring bowling bag being used to carry Black Thirteen.

Holding the scrimshaw turtle, Susannah inadvertently mesmerizes an unsuspecting passerby. Needing a place to clean up and regain her bearings, she uses the turtle's suggestive power to convince a UN ambassador's aide to book her a room at the the New York Plaza-Park Hyatt, located on 46th Street and First Avenue.

As Susannah enters the lobby of the the hotel she thinks that, aside from St. Patrick's Cathedral, she had never seen such a beautiful room.

Walking up to the front desk, Susannah notices a sign stating:

AS OF JULY 1ST, 1999, THE NEW YORK PLAZA-PARK HYATT
WILL BECOME THE REGAL U.N. PLAZA HOTEL
ANOTHER GREAT SOMBRA/NORTH CENTRAL PROJECT!!

In fact, in our own where and when, the New York Plaza-Park Hyatt has since been renamed the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel and isn't located on 46th street, but on 44th.

At the front desk Susannah once again relies on the hypnotic power of the turtle - or sköldpadda - to convince the clerk on duty of her identity. Holding up one of her Oriza throwing plates, she convinces the woman behind the counter that it is her driver's license. Once she's checked in and has her room key, Susannah quickly takes the elevator up to her room.

In the book, Susannah's room is said to be on the nineteenth floor, but in reality the hotel's rooms don't even begin until the thirtieth floor. So the view we had out our hotel room window was a bit higher up than what Susannah would have seen, but it still offered a fantastic view of all the buildings in and around the Turtle Bay area.

That includes the Trump World Tower, which while not part of the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, is right next to it and may have been Sai King's inspiration for the 99-storey tower that 2 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza is described as in Book VII.

Aside from the spectacular view, the room itself was also very nice. I highly recommend the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel to anyone who would be staying in New York, whether they are Dark Tower fans looking to experience a little bit of the quest or just New York bound and looking for that perfect place to stay in Manhattan.


Long days, pleasant nights!

-DE

The Quest for the Dark Tower Pt. 11: The Doors of Fifth Avenue

***Spoiler warning! Though I've made every attempt to avoid giving away key plot points during this quest, it's still very possible that information discussed herein may spoil a new reader's experience, so consider yourself warned! ***

Before I begin this week's leg of the quest, I thought I'd just mention that these chapters of mine are based on personal photos, memorabilia and experiences while researching many of the different aspects of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, so there are times when I skip over large portions of the story. For those looking for a more linear experience detailing Roland's quest without needing to read the books themselves, I highly recommend Suzanne Johnson's A Read of the Dark Tower on Tor.com.

The weekly feature is a chapter by chapter breakdown of the entire DT series . . . but be warned, it is an extremely long journey. After ten months, Ms. Johnson's weekly coverage has only brought her to about three quarters of the way through The Waste Lands, meaning that it will likely be another two to three years before the entire read-through is complete, especially once the new book, The Wind Through The Keyhole is added into the mix. Nevertheless, it's very insightful and any reader of the series would benefit greatly by following along.

And with that said, now back to my own quest for the Dark Tower:

At the beginning of Book VI: Song of Susannah, Jake is called upon to use his unique ability, known among gunslingers as "the touch," to open yet another mystical door between worlds. As Jake tries to open the Unfound Door with nothing other than his mind and the help of the mystic folk known as the Manni and their Branni Bob, he tries visualizing doors of all kinds. All the doors he was obsessed with when he was trying to get back to Mid-World, bedroom doors, bathroom doors, kitchen doors, closet doors, cloakroom doors . . . even the Robert Heinlein book The Door Into Summer.

As Jake concentrates harder he envisions all the doors on both sides of Fifth Avenue between Forty-eighth and Sixtieth opening all at once . . .

Fendi!

Tiffany!

Bergdorf Goodman!

Cartier!

The Sherry Netherland Hotel!

Jake sees thousands of doors along an endless hallway which he instantly knows to be in the Pentagon and imagines them all swinging open, creating a hurricane draft. Then suddenly the Unfound Door opens to New York in 1999 and sweeps both Jake, Oy and the fallen priest, Pere Callahan into it before closing quickly, reopening on another time and place and yanking Eddie and Roland in . . .

Long days, pleasant nights!

-DE

Tombstone Tuesday!

Headstone monument from Victoria Lawn Cemetery in St. Catharines.

Stay Tombed!

-DE

The Quest for the Dark Tower - Reshuffle: The Songs of Roland - Part 2

***Spoiler warning! Though I've made every attempt to avoid giving away key plot points during this quest, it's still very possible that information discussed herein may spoil a new reader's experience, so consider yourself warned! ***

This entry covers Books V-VII, Part I (covering books I-IV) was posted in a previous entry.

There are a lot of songs on this list, and I'm sure I've missed a few, so if there's anything missing, or if any of the links turn out to be broken, please feel free to mention it. This list wouldn't be nearly as complete as it is if not for several playlists that had been posted on the now defunct web community, www.TheDarkTower.net, so I'd like to take moment to say thanks to those good folks for sharing and helping to enrich so many readers' listening experience.

I've included links to Youtube (or other sources, on those rare occasions when Youtube came up dry) and page numbers to the hardcover trade editions for easy reference. In several cases, I've included some commentary notes (for example, where a band or singer is mentioned, I've tried to include the song that best suits the situation, or vice versa). Some song references have been mentioned repeatedly, so for simplicity's sake, I've only included the first page where a song is made reference to.

Dark Tower V: The Wolves of the Calla

- New York Groove – Hello (pg. 48)

- Kansas City Blues – Jim Jackson (pg. 49)

- 19th Nervous Breakdown - The Rolling Stones (pg. 179)

- Maid of Constant Sorrow - Joan Baez (pg. 228)

- Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed (pg. 276)

- Someone Saved My Life Tonight - Elton John (pg. 277)

- M-O-T-H-E-R (A Word That Means the World to Me) - Howard Johnson/Theodore Morse (pg. 428) - "Put them all together . . ."

- A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Bob Dylan (pg. 435)

- I Can’t Go For That - Hall & Oates (pg. 463)

- I Need A Hero - Bonnie Tyler (pg. 503) - "Holding out for a hero . . ."

- Summer in the City - Lovin' Spoonful (pg. 514)

- In the Summertime - Mungo Jerry (pg. 515)

- Follow the Pied Piper - Crispian St. Peters (pg. 593)

Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah

- The Court Of The Crimson King – King Crimson (pg. 13)

- Night and Day - Fred Astaire (pg.91)

- Stormy Weather – Ethel Waters (pg.95)

- Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again - Bob Dylan (pg. 139) - "And here I sit so patiently waiting to find out what price you have to pay to get out of going through all these things twice"

- Visions of Johanna - Bob Dylan (pg. 153)

- Pinhead - The Ramones (pg. 274) - "Gabba-Gabba-Hey!"

- Bad Man’s Blunder – The Kingston Trio - "Ninety-nine years on the hard rockpile." (pg. 289)

- The Wreck of the Old '97 - Johnny Cash (pg. 289) - Sai King mistakes this song as

- The Wreck of the Hesperus – Procol Harum (pg. 289)

- 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall - Trad. (pg. 289)

- That'll Be The Day - Buddy Holly (pg. 290)

- Walking Through My Dreams - Big Bopper (pg. 290)

- Come On, Let's Go - Ritchie Valens (pg. 290)

- Hang on Sloopy - The McCoys (pg. 302)

- This Time - Troy Shondell (pg. 303)

- Pop Goes the Weasel - Trad. (pg. 328) - "Round and round the mulberry bush . . ."

- Man of Constant Sorrow - Ralph Stanley (pg. 339)

- I Shall Be Released - Traditional (pg. 353)

- Blowin in the Wind - Joan Baez & Bob Dylan (pg. 353)

- Hesitation Blues - Reverend Gary Davis (pg. 353)

- I Ain’t Marching Anymore – Phil Ochs (pg. 353)

- Alfie – Burt Bacharach & Nancy Wilson (pg. 404)

Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

- Bad Company – Bad Company (pg. i)

- Hurt - Johnny Cash (pg. i)

- Moonlight Becomes You - Frank Sinatra (pg. 7)

- I left My Heart in San Francisco - Tony Bennett (pg. 7)

- The Lion Sleeps Tonight - The Tokens (pg. 81) "Wimeweh . . ."

- Good Golly Miss Molly - Little Richard (pg.77)

- Harrigan - George M. Cohan (pg. 90) - "H-A-double R-I; Harrigan, that's me!"

- Roll Tide - University of Alabama Fight Song (pg. 95) - "Go wide, go wide, roll you Tide, we don't run and we don't hide, we're the 'Bama Crimson Tide!"

- Walk Like A Man - Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons (pg. 96)

- Funny How Time Slips Away - Wanda Jackson (pg. 96)

- Ya Ya - Lee Dorsey (pg. 96)

- Yankee Doodle Boy - James Cagney (pg. 97)

- Who Threw The Overalls In Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder? – Edward M. Favor (pg. 167)

- Nowhere to Run - Martha and the Vandellas (pg. 227)

- Drive My Car - The Beatles (pg. 317)

- That’s Amore - Dean Martin (pg. 351)

- Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen (pg. 404)

- I’m Late - Bill Thompson (pg. 432)

- Hey Nineteen - Steely Dan (pg. 434)

- Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne (pg. 444)

- Amazing Grace - Trad. (pg. 478)

- Rockin’ in the Free World - Neil Young (pg. 600)

- Wild Blue Yonder - Air Force Anthem (pg. 603)

- What Child Is This? - Trad. (pg. 645)

- California Sun - The Rivieras (pg. 707)

- Sugar Shack - Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs (pg. 716)

- Heat Wave - Martha and the Vandellas (pg. 716)

- She Loves You - The Beatles (pg. 716)

- Silent Night - Trad. (pg. 724)

- Come Go With Me - The Del-Vikings (pg. 728)

Long days, pleasant nights!

-DE