Will Dudley: Home

Katabasis... a hero's descent into hell. Sunday we wrapped a shoot on a video production of a short western film. It was filmed at the 7-11 ranch outside of Gunnison, home to the filming of fourteen Marlboro commercials back in the day. The story is of a man named John who is facing a few demons. The director of the film is also the head of the video department at Western State College, where I'm finishing up a degree this December. He asked me to do this in September, and I agreed. For four days we worked from sunup to sundown and past, filming in an old cabin and barn 20 miles or so east of town. The weather cooperated for the most part, and the film will be aired on Dec. 15th. They did a great job. I hope my acting skills are up to par, and that I represent the school in a manner that will make them proud.

It was grand. I thought maybe I could just kind of quietly cruise through it, but I forgot about the Facebook thing... they ask you for your birthday, and I was bombarded with "Happy Birthday, Will!!!" by all of the girls in my classes at Western State, and a large number of the guys also. It was great, it was embarrassing, it was funny and it made me feel good all day long. Guys don't take nearly as many upper level English classes as girls do, especially courses like "Women's Literature" and "Faulkner" and "The Theory of Literature." In fact, there's just not many guys majoring in English... ?? OK by me... I started out being one of about 4 guys in the "Women's Lit." class, but it seems the other fellas left... I gotta say, though, that discussing Virginia Woolf and Willa Cather and Eve Sedgwick and Ruth Ozeki and Toni Morrison in a room full of young, beautiful women takes daily resolve and a certain amount of courage.
Haaaa.... So... thanks, Ashley, thanks, Chelsea, and Sarah and Kateland; thanks, Krista and Melissa and Cassie, thanks Amanda and Amanda, thanks Tiffany and Tiara and Katie and Cat and Lacey and Erica; and a special thanks to the lovely and talented Dr. Cristi, whose class discussion made my birthday one I'll never forget. (We discussed womanhood) : )

Is not something I've done since 1969. I'll wear one on December 20th, a Saturday. My brother died in Iraq in 2006, and I knew that one year of grieving wouldn't be enough. I'm a singer; how could I sing with my jaw hanging open in awe at the craziness of losing my younger brother, my only brother? I had to make sense of the senseless, so I quit singing in Arizona between October and May and went back to school to learn how to live with this. It's been two and a half years, the war's still going on in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it depresses me. I'm finishing my B.A. this semester, probably about thirty years too late, and only because something too traumatic to handle hit me in the face and I thought "what would Jon really like?". I knew he'd want me to finish something longer than a song for once in my life.