Azrael

Azrael Project Online
The Azrael Project™ Online
176 Helen Garland Drive,
Opelousas, LA. 70570 USA
(337) 942-2240

westgate@westgatenecromantic.com

 

Azrael

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"The rapture to which we succumb, is Death"

In the shadow voice
I speak your name,
Azrael..
through the darkness of the humid night,
it resonates
in cathedral carillions,
tolling, like some great, deep bell
heard for miles afar,
lulled on the swell of the wind,
this symphony,
mighty in sorrow
carried on huge, dark and silent wings,
obliterating all light,
extinguishing every flame
that strives to survive your immense unfurling.

Your name, an attribute, a mortal gift,
a blessing passed through many lips
and given meaning in their prayers.
A word
becomes an invocation
simply by the emotion
imbued in its speaking.
Azrael....
The sirens sing your name
in ways that bring the angels
and the demons to their knees.
They cannot help that they have fallen.
Your name stills the heart,
silences their breath,
culls the flame of longing from their loins.
Azrael.....
the name is Love
and ever fleeting in that kiss,
that eternity could be so quick,
so demonstrative in but a moment
where time does not exist
and forever
becomes the blink of an eye,
yet so much longer
than these days.
We speak your name,
and like them, fall,
weak-kneed into your cold, cold arms
just waiting for that kiss,
however fleeting it may seem,
it is longer than our days
and fuller than our nights
and so much stronger than our dreams profess,
and so much sweeter when Life is willing
to surrender to this song.

Copyright by Leilah Wendell

If you want to read more of my poetry,
please read "Eros in Exile" online
.

News

Updated 2/02/09

Open Letter

2009 is the 30th Anniversary of Westgate.

It's been a long, strange trip, my friends. From our humble beginnings born out of reclusivity in New York as Threshold Press in the late 70's, to Undinal Songs, a paste up zine in the 80's. Eventually Westgate Press was born, along with "The Little Black Box", our first studio/gallery in 1984. Then, of course, everything grew at a rapid pace once we relocated to New Orleans in 1990 and opened that big ol' black and purple place. We had a very successful 15 year run in the Crescent City. We broke down so many cultural barriers, met so many diverse souls and left a mark that will not be forgotten (we hope!)

Then Katrina came for an unexpected visit. Here's where it gets murky. A lot of folks THINK we left New Orleans BECAUSE of Katrina. Let me set the record straight here and now. In fact, two years prior to Katrina, Dan and I were looking into relocating somewhere else. We felt, at that time, that it was time to move on. New Orleans was changing. When we first came there, it was a very Bohemian place. Cost of living was low. People were friendly. It was a wonderfully scented decaying metropolis. Then, things started to change. The yuppies came pouring in, realized how far their money could go in a city trying to reinvent itself. Everything was becoming "gentrified". Now, there's nothing wrong with rehabilitating a crumbling city, but attitudes began to change. They wanted to make it a "family friendly" place. When you think of "family friendly", Bourbon Street is NOT something that comes immediately to mind. Then 9/11 happened and people no longer traveled like they once did. A LOT of our business use to come from people who visited from overseas, or from out of state. No one wanted to travel in the post 9/11 airport security chaos that ensued. We heard horror stories from the few that did manage to make it through. You've got to remember, tourism IS the basis of New Orleans economy, and that was shrinking drastically!

I wanted to move to California, but Dan won't step foot in California (long story). We couldn't afford it anyway. Back then, a cardboard box would have cost more than our house in NOLA. I wanted to move to England, because I love the UK. The logistics and financial concerns were just too much to even consider. We looked into Galveston Island, TX, which looks a LOT like New Orleans architecturally, but it didn't "feel" like home. Good thing we didn't, as Ike was a Katrina Redux. So we came back, did some renovations on our home and decided to stick it out in NOLA until we found whatever it was we were looking for. It was THEN that Katrina came and more or less made the decision for us. The proverbial "nail in the coffin" had hit and we realized that the New Orleans we had fallen so in love with, was no more.

We now had no choice, we HAD to leave. Financially, we were drowning. As a business, we had done all that we could with that venue. It was past time for us to move on. The question still was WHERE???? And to do WHAT ELSE?? (I think we' re still asking that one!)

Sometimes I think the whole ordeal with Katrina made us stark, raving mad! We were looking at 90 acre Christmas tree farms in rural Mississippi! We wanted something so different than what we had, and we didn't have much time. We had to get out, and NOW, so we flipped a coin to decide between two locations we were looking at on Realtor.com, Leesville LA, or Buttfuck, MI. It was the former......Nice place on 15 wild acres, middle of nowhere, 25 miles from the nearest town. Well, as most of you know, that only lasted 10 months. The country is a scary place, filled with one toothed Pentcostals who have nothing better to do than kill things and ride their tractors. Jerry Springer is REAL, people!

To make a long story short, we had to auction the place off because no one in their right mind wanted to live in Leesville. To this day, when we tell people that we once lived in Leesville, they look at us like I just handed them a pile of poop! We took a hefty loss, but learned a very good lesson about where we DIDN'T want to be. So here we are in Opelousas, smack in the middle of the area we had evacuated to for two weeks after Katrina.We have both the country AND the city, and is probably the ONLY place in the USA that now that has a booming economy due to the fact that so many post-Katrina people are flocking here.

Dan has found his new niche, making quite a prominent name for himself as a "Sound Designer". Me? I'm back to being a recluse taking time to enjoy some much needed time to decompress. People still ask us if we will ever reopen the physical gallery ever again. I don't know. "Ever" is a long time. If I look back on all of the 30 years, one thing I DO know for sure, and have known for years, is that a moment truly does change all things, so it's best NOT to plan, but rather to let things unfold naturally.

Westgate still exists, thanks partly to the internet, something I once railed at, but have come to embrace. But mostly, Westgate still exists because of all the souls that have walked through not only our once physical doors, but also our virtual halls, and continue their stay with us over these many years. So, thank all of you for the last 30 years. Who knows what the future has in store for any of us, just remember to enjoy the journey! Something we had forgotten how to do for a while.

The older you get, the more you realize how short life really is. Sometimes it takes being foist into a whirl-wind to realize where home truly lies, and to appreciate it once you've found it. And, to realize, that things like hurricanes pale in the face of the things we lose everyday. People, pets, dreams...hope lies bleeding, and if I can teach anything to anyone, it is to cherish and love that which cherishes and loves you back. Life is fleeting, but love is eternal....Even if the flame is distant, it still burns.

Here's to the next 30 years of this ordered chaos called life!

Amorte!


 

A Necromancer's Prayer

Ad tu, deditio meus cor, meus amina, meus credo.
ea id cum fides ille cado in tuus potens ala
ea id cum amor ille offero calix de meus cor-
bibo profundis de meus vita ille licet cognosco altitudos
de flumen de oblivio et memoria.
ea id sine timor et cum desiderium verus
ille osculum tuus tranquillus, frigus oris
prudens ille hic memoria volo esse meus ultimas.


(English Translation)

To thee, I surrender, my heart, my soul, my trust.
It is with Faith that I fall into your mighty wings.
It is with love that I offer up the chalice of my heart,
Drink deep of my life that I might know the depths
of the river of Forgetfulness and Memory.
It is without fear and with true desire
that I kiss your still, cold lips
knowing that this memory shall be my last

Copyright by Leilah Wendell

 

Favorites

Leilah's Short List of Relevant Films

Recommended Films Dealing with the Personification of Death

*Death Takes a Holiday 1930's (Fredrick March)
The Seventh Seal 1940's (Ingmar Bergman)

Films That Portray a Personified Death, Although Not Necessarily Relevant to the Overall Theme

The Adventues of Baron Munchhausen 1980's
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life 1980's
Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey 1990's
Love and Death 1970's
*Metropolis 1920's
The Soultaker 1980's

Other Recommended Films that May be of Interest to the Readers of The Azrael Material

*Lady Hawk 1980's (Rutger Hauer)
Poltergeist #1 1978
Wings of Desire 1980's (Wim Wenders)
The Loved One 1950's
Phantasm #1 1970's
Fear No Evil 1980's
The Lifeforce Experiment 1990's (Donald Sutherland)
Lifeforce 1990's
Flatliners 1990's (Keifer Sutherland)
The Mummy 1930's (Boris Karloff)
Army of Darkness 1990's
Portrait of Jenny 1940's
The Oval Portrait 1968
Dellamore, Delamorte (aka- Cemetery Man) 1990's
Bullet-Proof Heart 1990's

Other Extraneous Films that May be of Interest
(Not Necessarily Recommended, but several glasses of wine might help!)

Nekromantik 1980's
Nekromantik 2, 1990's
*Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things 1970's
Return of the Living Dead (parts 1 & 2) 1980's
Ed & His Dead Mother 1990's (black humour)
My Boyfriend's Back 1990's
Final Destination 2000
The Prophecy Series 2000

Films We Do Not recommend

Meet Joe Black 1990's (Brad Pitt-iful)
Love Me Deadly 1970's (Lyle Waggoner..yup, Carol Burnett's old sidekick)
Kissed 1990's (Puh-lease! Don't insult my intelligence)
Dogma (I never knew angels cursed so fucking much!)

*Leilah's personal Favourites
(Sorry, only one per catagory!)

Leilah's Short List of Songs about 
The Angel of Death

"The Angel of Death"- Hank Williams
"Black Angel"- The Cult
"Don't Fear the Reaper"- B.O.C.
"Song For Azrael"- Trio Nocturna
"Heavy Halos"- Trio Nocturna (lyrics by Leilah Wendell)
"The Shaking of the Sheets"- Steeleye Span
"Azrael"- Crimson Glory
"Angel of Death"- The Nice
"Azrael"- Alucarda
"The Darkest Shadow"- Dark Arts
"Nekronyte"- Alucarda (lyrics by Leilah Wendell)
"The Killing Moon"- Echo & The Bunnymen
"The Kiss of Death"- Lords of the New Church
"Coal Black Smith"- Current 93
"The Reaper"- Rick Wakeman
"Charon"- King Diamond
"The Blue Gates of Death"- Current 93
"The House of No Return"- Mighty Sphincter
"Monologue"- Coil
"Stretched on Your Grave" - Dead Can Dance
"Angel of Death"- Count Raven

more to come!!

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