Illume Question

[sarahw]

what do these smell like?

[bookie29]

I have a friend that works in the "Old Timers" ward in a nursing home. What he means is Altzheimers! It cracks me up because he keeps saying it even though it is posted on the wall right outside the ward.

Another one is that a lady I work with was talking about people with very pale skin, reddish hair, and pinkish eyes. She called them "Al Bunions". She meant Albino.

Maybe Nag Champa/Ra is Stevie's Old Timers?

Sean

[tamaraluvsFM]

I have never heard of Nag Champra candles. Can someone explain what they are like?


Tamara

[DrummerDeanna]

Nag Champa/Champra is incense...though I have seen Nag candles as well...I'm only familiar with the incense...and I really cannot describe its scent....I find it unique to Nag...and I love it....this was probably not helpful at all....sorry..

[gypsysara]

Ive never heard of Nag Champa candles, but that sound great! Id love to get one. I burn candles all the time too.

[sarahw]

Nag Champa/Champra is incense...though I have seen Nag candles as well...I'm only familiar with the incense...and I really cannot describe its scent....I find it unique to Nag...and I love it....this was probably not helpful at all....sorry..

thanks for trying to describe the scent....I love candles, but some set off my allergies!

[strandinthewind]

Now -

If we could just know the definitions of "point dume" (sp.?) and what she means when she says "I am a cliff dweller from the old school."

I am clueless as to "point dume." But, I think "I am a cliff dweller from the old school" refers somehow to her age and the fact that she remembers Vietnam. In fact she referred to Vietnam in her first letter to the troops in the "first" Gulf War. Note: this is pure speculation.

Also, which coastal city is she talking about. The possibilities I see are L.A., where she's got a "movie star view" and perhaps can see the lights of the city blend into the ocean. Or, perhaps she is referring to NYC. However, I have never been able to see either river from the Waldorf Astoria and I have stayed on some of the highest of the floors. My bet is she is talking about L.A. because that was where she was alone with her thoughts after the TISL tour.

[FiercestCalmSea]

"I am a cliff dweller from the old school"

I agree..she is "old school" age wise...and cliff dweller...well,isn't her house on a cliff or mountain or something in L.A.?? As for Point Dume..i dunno..lol...

[nae]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
Now -

If we could just know the definitions of "point dume" (sp.?) and what she means when she says "I am a cliff dweller from the old school."

I am clueless as to "point dume." But, I think "I am a cliff dweller from the old school" refers somehow to her age and the fact that she remembers Vietnam. In fact she referred to Vietnam in her first letter to the troops in the "first" Gulf War. Note: this is pure speculation.

Also, which coastal city is she talking about. The possibilities I see are L.A., where she's got a "movie star view" and perhaps can see the lights of the city blend into the ocean. Or, perhaps she is referring to NYC. However, I have never been able to see either river from the Waldorf Astoria and I have stayed on some of the highest of the floors. My bet is she is talking about L.A. because that was where she was alone with her thoughts after the TISL tour.

Stevie is writing from her house in Malibu, Ca.~the coastal cities refer to the beach cities that line the coast to the South and Point Dume is an area of Malibu to the North.

Hope that helps.

Nae

[strandinthewind]

Ah Ha!!!!!!!!

Light has been shed on this Point Dume issue!!!!!!

Dare we say it has been "illuminated"

Also, I love the way "Point Dume" suggests a foreboding sense even though it is a real place. In other words, I think that because it is a homonym (sp?) with Doom, it adds to the darkness of the song as well as adds a dark (doom, black sky, image of a snake) and light (illume, lights, diamond snake) theme to the song.

I love her when she does things like this!!!!

[sulamith]

I think "I am a cliff dweller from the old school" is a really beautiful line. Some poeple have made fun of it, but I think they just don't understand it.

To me, she seems to be referring to the ancient races of people who were more in touch with the Earth and it's cycles than modern culture. It speaks of being connected and tapped into the life force of our ancestors, those cliff dwellers who watched the night skies and plotted the course of the heavenly lights.

Stevie has said before that she thinks she was a monk in a former life, someone who spent alot of time in montasteries, and that she is comfortable in those places. I think this is a reference to an old philosophy; a very old, wise way of looking at the world.

Stevie is an old soul. She has been here before.


I just love that line!

-Sharon

[miriamswell]

Weighing in with an "Illume" theory:

"Illume" is from the Latin "light" or "to light" depending on whether it is used as a noun or a verb. So in Spanish or French -- both Romance Languages, i.e. derived from Latin -- "illume" is "the light"or "to light" or a variation thereof.

I am going to comfort myself with the notion that Madam Stevie is multilingual. As for the frightening grammer in "Smile at You," could it be LB? If you look through his lyrics he tends to play fast and loose with language which he then disguises with his guitar.

~mim, dashing back to the shadows

[sulamith]

Hey mim!
Great to hear from you!

Come out of the shadows and play once in while, OK?

Stevie multilingual?
I'm not so sure about that! haha!
Not that I don't think she is smart, I just think she has her own brand of Stevie-speak!

I guess in that sense she is multilingual in her own little Stevieland. lol!

I think she just read the word off her candle.

-Sharon

[Bella Figura]

These are my speculations on Illume. Stevie probably wrote some of the poem for this song in her hotel room in Atlantic City a few days after 9/11, that's where she went after being at the Waldorf. In her hotel room, looking out on the Atlantic north towards the city. Here are my thoughts on how the song came to be:

"Illume says the candle that I burn
A reflection in the window" she may have beeno burning this incense candle in her new hotel room in Atlantic City, looking out the window and seeing also the candle reflection.

"The smell of Nag Champra" She's mentioned in some interview how at the Waldorf they had to put towels around the door to stop the burning smell. The sense of smell is one of our strongest memory triggers so she was probably thinking of both smells

"point dune" ...a point looking out towards the ocean, plus on clear nights you can see the city lights north of Atlantic City, she's gotten out but she's still very close to NYC

"cliff dweller from the old school" here she is watching history go down, being on a "comeback" TISL tour, Don and Tom talking her into staying on tour, being on the east coast, being away from her family. She was out of her California element.

"I like the coastal cities
I like the lights...
I like the way the ocean blends
Into the city at night
This coastline is glittering
Like a diamond snake
In a black sky" the lights of LA and the lights of NJ both being flat pieces of land are probably very similar but north from Atlantic City, on very clear nights you can see the lights of NY and it does look like a diamond bracelet. She was probably feeling very homesick...

"like living on a working river" I've mentioned this in another thread but here's where Stevie has a bit of magic because I doubt she knows the history of the Hudson but I do. the poem refers to the Atlantic ocean but also to a river, and the river which surrounds Manhatten is the Hudson River...the East River is really a branch of the Hudson. And the Hudson really is a working river. It is the waterpart of the largest port in the US, flowing into the Atlantic ocean at the bottom of Manhattan where the Twin Towers were. And up where I grew up, there was a major brick industry (during the 20's and 30's) which has built most of NY including the Empire State, they floated these bricks down the Hudson river to build NYC. Plus even further North and further back in time, timber was floated down that river to build the older NYC...so if she was able to see a river or any water from the Waldorf, she was seeing the Hudson River...so once more, Stevie is a seer.

"I'm alone now
With my thoughts
Of how we could make it
Of how we could get out"...even when she finally got out of Manhattan, the trauma did not leave her. even in her reflection, she was having post-traumatic stress. Plus she had an entourage from her tour that she must of felt responsible for, how was she going to make sure her people were safe. The hotel room in Atlantic City was probably the first time she had a chance to reflect by herself, alone.

"What I saw on this journey
I saw history go down
I cannot pretend
That the heartache falls away"...anyway, those are my reflections on this poem/song and the whole song was so tastefully done which is what makes it so beautiful and haunting. I hope my speculations help you enjoy the song even more...for me as a New Yorker myself, I, too, saw history go down and even to this day, I cannot pretend that the heartache falls away. Stevie and her premontions..."I need you to be there,Just remember when I am haunted,That I was just so scared" to me all of Stevie's music has always been a comfort to me...both now and in the past

[paleshadow]

i]Originally posted by Bella Figura [/i]
These are my speculations on Illume. Stevie probably wrote the poem for this song in her hotel room in Atlantic City a few days after 9/11, that's where she went after being at the Waldorf. In her hotel room, looking out on the Atlantic north towards the city.

Bella,

Actually, Illume was written on Oct. 11, 2001 when Stevie had returned to LA. If you read her journal entries about September 11th, it pretty much describes her thoughts and all the imagery in the poem. Check it out if you haven't already, it's really very touching.

http://www.nicksfix.com/stevies_journal.htm