Exploring the ephemeral past of Chinese entertainment from Hong Kong, the U.S.A., and around the world: vaudeville pioneers, flappers, aviatrices, burlesque dancers, hula hoopers, movie queens, sex bombs, jade girls, tomboys, pin-ups, sour beauties, girl jocks, swordswomen, and go-go girls.
Here's a lengthy article about Pearl that I was lucky to discover: "Chang Ling: A Woman Unyielding and Eager to Win"〈張玲是個好勝倔強的女子〉from the April 1975 issue of the magazine The Woman《婦女雜誌》published in Taiwan. I'm not going to post the entire article, only some excerpts that I'd like to throw into the datasphere.
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I have heard people say about [Chang] that she doesn't put on an air of importance because she's an actress. When I talked to her, I felt like she was like the smart, competent sister of a friend, willing to talk to you sincerely. I didn't feel like she was a famous movie star. When we chatted in the cafeteria, two middle-age men came forward and politely gave her their business cards. They were both doctors. One said he watched [The Protectors] every night. If he was eating out with friends, he would rush home without finishing his food to watch that night's episode. Before the men left, they said, "See you on TV at 8 p.m." — as if they had known Chang for years....
[Chang] used to host a TV variety show called The TV Nightclub 電視夜總會. She has stopped hosting lately because she's been too busy. Hosting a show doesn't require acting skills, so her performance is more casual. She said, "Hosting a show is simple. You pick a dress, comb your hair, and then you're ready. You don't need to talk too much. As long as you know the content of the show in advance, you can do the introduction. I don't need to spend time getting prepared. It's actually more trouble changing clothes for each show." [Pearl] is conservative. She doesn't want her clothing and make-up too fancy. She is much plainer and simpler than the hosts of other shows.
Pearl studied dance as a child.
Chang has acted in many kung fu TV series. In the shows she always fights. It seems that she's had some training in kung fu. I asked where she learned this. She said, "My health was not that good when I was young, so my dad had me learn ballet and folk dance. I enrolled in dance classes given by Hsu Hui-mei 許惠美 and Lee Shu-fen 李淑芬. I did quite well. Later I wanted to learn the sword dance, so I became the apprentice of masters Kao Tao-sheng 高道生 and Su Kun-ming 蘇昆明 and learned kung fu." She practiced hard. Later she learned Tae Kwan Do. Now whenever a director needs an actress who knows martial arts, he will think of her. Sometimes she creates a her own fighting style during rehearsal, which helps those actors who have no martial arts background.
The theme song of The Protectors was sung by Chang Ling too. Her loud and clear voice has a very "chivalrous and tender" feeling. Many cabarets have invited her to sing at their place. She said, "I love singing, but I don't feel like singing at cabarets. I think singing for the sake of money is meaningless. My family doesn't need me to earn that much. I would rather do acting on TV."
[Chang] is only 19 years old, with a bright acting career ahead of her. But she doesn't want to make acting her lifelong vocation. "I'm interested in a lot of things. Acting is only one of them. It's fun to act and I work hard at it. But after a while, I'll move on and work on another goal. I'm not very ambitious and only hope someday to recall the many interesting things I've done. That's good enough for me."
"I've always wanted to go abroad and study TV directing. Academically I'm still not qualified. I have to wait until I finish my five-year program before I can apply." That was what she told me last December [1974]. Three months later she has become even more famous. Now people are competing to get her into movies....
Pearl started acting when she was 16 years old.
Many young girls who get into acting have a competent mother behind them. Chang is an exception. Her mom hasn't lived with the family since she was very young. She lives with her father and brother. When CTS [Chinese Television System] started operations, she was just sixteen years old. She and her classmates applied for acting roles. She did it on a whim because it was summer and she didn't have anything else to do. She never expected that she'd be hired. At first she was busy with school and just acted occasionally. It was only in the last two years that she has started to spend most of her time acting. She made her debut early and has now been in the industry for three years. Her way of answering people's questions and her self-dependence is more mature than her age. When she first entered the acting field she experienced many misunderstandings. Her father would always comfort her and tell her not to be bothered, but he didn't argue with others on her behalf. She said, "We are Henanese, and my father has the upright character of a Northerner. He is broad-minded and has taught me to treat people with honesty. After a while, people get to know my character and there's no more misunderstanding."
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If you're interested in reading the entire piece, you can download a PDF of the translation here. Thanks again to Kai for his help!
Portrait of Pearl Chang (as Snow Lotus in Wolf Devil Woman) by Amber Skowronski
你有冰雪寒霜之性, 空谷幽春之靈, 淨月芙蓉之貌 Your nature is like snow and frost,
Your spirit is like springtime in a hidden valley, Your beauty is like a lotus bathed in moonlight.*
I don't remember when the idea came to me, but at some point I decided I wanted to commission portraits of Pearl Chang from a few artists I really admired and whose style and sensibility seemed a good match for Pearl.
The first artist I contacted was Amber Skowronski, a fellow blogger and martial-arts fan. Besides writing for her blog The Ninja Squid and rolling with the Heroic Sisterhood on Facebook, Amber is also an amazing illustrator. I first fell in love with her work when I saw her piece "Come Drink With Me", a delightful portrait of Shaw Brothers wuxia queen Cheng Pei-pei. The way it plays with the title of her signature film and her iconic swordswoman image is absolutely brilliant. A similarly cheerful subversiveness shows up in Amber's "Tentacle Girl" (this one is safe for work, folks). And if you are a diehard Hong Kong movie fan, you will surely love her group portraits for such films as Buddha's Palm and Johnnie To's Exiled. Every year her work keeps getting better and better. My new favorite is "Fantastic, Baby", which draws you in with the eyes (like most of Amber's portraits). Who is this girl with the black-and-white paisley lipstick? I wanna know.
When I asked Amber to make a portrait of Pearl, I gave her no guidelines besides that of following her inspiration. A month later I received a package in the mail and opened it up with a mixture of nervousness and excitement. Wow... what can I say? I was quietly blown away by how Amber had captured Pearl's beauty, strength, and dignity. That last quality is important to me, because it's something that I feel is sorely lacking in the most of the portrayals of Pearl found in the Western regions of the Web.
A heartfelt thank you to Amber Skowronski for manifesting my muse and giving me a much needed jolt of energy as I forge ahead in my project of reimagining Pearl Chang.
* These lines come from the scene in Wolf Devil Woman in which Pearl is given her name, a scene excised from the English-dubbed export version known as Wolfen Ninja. Special thanks to Ying and Mei for help with the translation!
There is a dearth of information in English about Pearl Chang's early career. As a first step towards filling this gap, here's an article that appeared in the February 1974 issue of Golden Movie News (No. 23). A big thanks to Kai for providing the translation. Any errors are probably a result of excessive polishing on my part. Note that there are four films mentioned in the article. With the possible exception of Impetuous Fire, I haven't been able to match them with anything in the various movie databases available on the web. The Chinese titles are as they appear in the original article; the English titles are translations and not official release titles. If anyone has information about any of these films, please let me know.
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Chang Ling: From Singing to Stardom
Many movie stars in Hong Kong and Taiwan were originally singers who turned movie stars after they became accomplished singers. In this new column we will introduce two movie stars each time and tell the story of how they moved from the singing world to the movie world.
Chang Ling was not a professional singer. But her becoming a movie star has a lot to do with singing. When she entered the entertainment world, she first tried Peking opera and then the film industry, but she didn't get any film roles. Then she made many detours — as hostess of a TV program, actress of a TV drama series, and singer. And finally she returned to the movie world and began to act there.
Movie, TV, Singing, and Theater — She Plays Multiple Roles at the Same Time
There are not many people like Chang, who moved from the singing world to the film world to become a "martial arts" actress. In such action movies as Impetuous Fire 怒火, Revenge 鋤仇 and The Awakening Dragon 大地驚龍 she had to fight — she was selling her martial skills.
Now this new star is taking multiple "roles" at the same time — she is a student at the Shi Hsin School of Journalism 世界新聞專科學校, a TV actress at CTS 中華電, as well as a film actress. In addition, when she's not taping TV programs or filming movies, she takes Tae Kwon Do lessons on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and ballet lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Her father is an open minded person who is very concerned with the education of his children. Favored by her father since she was young, Chang has had the opportunity to learn many things outside of her regular schooling. It is not surprising that she can sing, but among the stars there are very few as strong as Chang in such areas as calligraphy and writing.
When she was at elementary school, the homework was not that heavy. She enrolled in the Ming Tuo Chinese Opera Company 明駝國劇隊. Supervised by a stern master, she learned the skills of an actress versed in swordplay, which built her foundation in martial arts.
Not Famous But Lucky
When she was in secondary school, she didn't have time to study at the Ming Tu Peking Opera Academy. But she changed her name to Chang Feng 張鳳 and enrolled in the first actor training class sponsored by the Taiwan Film Association 台灣省電影製片協會. Actor Chiang Lung 江龍 was her classmate then. There were six female trainees; she ranked first when she graduated.
When CTS was first founded, Chang was already a student at the Shi Hsin School of Journalism. She got admitted into the TV station. When China Film Studio 中國電影製片 came to screentest actors at CTS, she got picked again. But she didn't have the chance to act in any movie, she was only a nominal movie star.
But she did well at CTS. Although she did not act in many TV series, she hosted many programs. As a hostess, knowing how to sing is important. When she appeared in programs hosted by others, she would often be asked to sing too. Due to this pressure, she had to practice singing hard.
The core singers of CTS were Luo Ming Tao 駱明道, Wang Shi Chuan 汪石泉, Sun Yi 孫儀, and Teng Chen Hsiang 鄧鎭湘. They thought that little Chang Ling had potential and were all eager to teach her. By practicing hard and learning hard, Chang became a singer herself. Compared to professional singers, she was not well known. But singing brought her luck, giving her the opportunity to enter the movie world.
Yu Ping Chang 余炳章, former executive director of the Taiwan Film Association, founded his own company half a year ago. He thought the girl who sang on TV looked like his student Chang Feng. He asked around and confirmed it was her. He decided that he would have this Chang Feng act in his movie. And that is how Chang became the leading actress of the movie The Awakening Dragon 大地驚龍.
Filming Drama and Martial Arts Movies at the Same Time
The woman boss of the movie The Guangdong Dragon 廣東一條龍 also contacted her after she saw her sing. But she did not know that Chang had a martial arts background, so in this action movie produced by her, Chang plays a gentle role with no fight scenes. But that was the only movie in which she didn't have to fight. In the other four movies, the characters she played all have to kick their legs high above others' heads and roar deafeningly.
Chang Ling has held a red belt in Tae Kwon Do for quite a while, and she is going to get her black belt soon. If action movies don't go out of style, as some people say, her career in the movie world should survive.
Although I'd first read about Pearl Chang's films during the mid-90s in Thomas Weisser's infamous Asian Cult Cinema, it wasn't until last year that I became a devoted fan.
My first taste of Pearl came in 2001. At the time, I was enrolled in UC Berkeley's undergraduate film studies program and trying to finish an honors thesis about the figure of the swordswoman in Chinese cinema. I was having problems reconciling my fannish enthusiasm with the critical judgment expected of me.
The first blow to my enthusiasm occurred when I was flatly told by a respected scholar of Chinese cinema then teaching at the school: "Of course, you realize the Chinese woman warrior is a patriarchal figure." Um... actually, I think she's kind of an inspirational figure. After a few more comments like these from my advisors, my creative juices quickly dried and I came down with an acute case of writer's block.
It was with this constipated state of mind that I first encountered Wolf Devil Woman — considered by some as Pearl's greatest work and by others as absolute rubbish. I'm embarrassed to admit it now, but I fell in with the latter camp. Maybe I was channeling some of that academic judgment I was struggling with. I wish I'd understood then that Pearl's wild and uncompromising style was exactly what I needed to free my mind. Instead, I stopped the film after 10 minutes and didn't pick it up again until 10 years later. (I also ended up taking an incomplete on my honors thesis, but that's another story that quickly devolves into rants against the Ivory Tower.)
Second Bite: Yum!
Fast forward to 2011: Over lunch my friend Todd at Die, Danger, Die, Die, Kill! told me about the hard time he was having finding basic background information about Pearl for his revised review of Wolf Devil Woman at Teleport City. Since there's nothing I love more than looking for something, I offered to find out what I could.
Initial googling turned up little beyond the typical reviews of her most notorious films (the so-called Wolf Devil Woman trilogy). But digging a little deeper, I discovered a few Chinese-language articles about Pearl and the TV show that shot her to stardom during the mid-70s. The Protectors (保鑣) was originally launched in September 1974 as a three-month series with half-hour episodes airing five days a week, but it proved so popular that it was expanded to hour-and-a-half episodes airing seven days a week. The show ended up lasting nearly 10 months and 256 episodes. One article said (half-jokingly and half-reverently, I'm sure) that The Protectors might have gone on forever had it not been for the death of Taiwan President Chiang Kai-shek (who allegedly was a big fan of the show). Chiang passed away on April 5, 1975, and during the 30-day period of public mourning that followed, movie theaters, nightclubs, and bars were shut down and TV and radio stations were only allowed to play tributes and documentaries about the President.
In my mind there began to form a curiously bipolar portrait of Pearl: one part Chinese, in which she was the iconic star of a fondly remembered TV show; and one part Western, in which she was both despised and worshiped as the queen of Asian trash cinema. To be honest, much of the English-language writing about her films had done little to dispel my bad impression of Pearl, but the possibility of alternative ways of looking at her piqued my interest.
After Todd's review was published, I convinced myself I should give Pearl another chance. So, half with curiosity and half with obligation, I renewed my acquaintance with Pearl the way it started: by watching Wolf Devil Woman. Also known in the West by the ludicrous title Wolfen Ninja, this film has been alternately described (on IMDB) as an "utterly incomprehensible and ineptly directed martial arts fantasy" and "an experience not likely to be forgotten". This kind of polarized reaction to Pearl's films is typical. In fact, reviews of her movies practically constitute a genre unto themselves. (Note, for example, the inevitable drug reference: "Take two tabs of mescaline and let me know how this movie worked out for you.")
In a strange way all the hype and smack talk about Wolf Devil Woman had immunized me against its legendary excesses. As I sat through the first half I took it all in stride — neither rolling around on the floor in hysterics nor wildly spewing OMGs and WTFs from my gape-jawed mouth.
But in the second half, during a comedic scene in which Pearl stuffs her face with food and gets hammered with wine, I found myself slowly succumbing to Pearl's delightful histrionics and compulsively watchable face. And then — bam! — I was sucker-punched by one of those excessive images that is so characteristic of her films. As her drunkenness triggers her transformation into a white-haired, raging hulk, Pearl falls to the floor, claws frantically at her head, and yanks out a bloody clump of hair. In that shocking moment, Pearl won both my admiration and my love. The sudden switch from comedy to horror and Pearl's total disregard for vanity and glamor were truly awe-inspiring. You might not agree with me (one reviewer found the comedy in this scene "appalling"), but check it out for yourself.
The end result of this epiphany of mine was a three-month bender of watching (and rewatching) every Pearl Chang film I could get my hands on and obsessively searching for any information I could find about her. Before I knew it, I was on a mission to give Pearl a little respect and vindicate her importance as a maverick auteur of wuxia cinema.
Some will undoubtedly question my estimation of Pearl and her films, just like those who find the smell of durian foul and offensive. But just as lovers of the funky fruit find its scent intoxicating and irresistible, so too will others join me in sincere and heartfelt praise of the incomparable Pearl Chang.
Filmmaker Robin Lung just posted a new work-in-progress trailer for Finding Kukan, her documentary about the fascinating Li Ling-Ai and the forgotten film she produced to raise awareness about the plight of China during the Sino-Japanase War.
After watching the new trailer, I'm more eager than ever to see the finished film. As I mentioned before, Robin will be launching a fundraising campaign in the fall. If this project intrigues and excites you as much as it does me, then please consider making a donation, no matter how small. Visit Robin's website for more information and give her a big thumbs up on the project's Facebook page.
Just like durian, there's something about Taiwan actress and cult movie queen Pearl Chang Ling (張玲) that elicits extreme devotion or extreme disgust. Perhaps I'm forcing the metaphor by using the word disgust. Actually, what Pearl suffers from most is a lack of recognition. But isn't that a kind of aversion? It's pretty remarkable that a woman who produced, wrote, directed, and starred in her own martial-arts movies has been so ignored outside her small coven of fanatical followers.
Look at the Chinese Taipei Film Archive's list of Taiwan actresses. Among those who made a name for themselves as martial-arts stars, only three are deemed worthy of inclusion: Polly Kuan (上官靈鳳), Hsu Feng (徐楓), and Cheng Pei-pei (鄭佩佩). I've got nothing but respect for all three ladies, but I gotta say that putting Cheng Pei-pei on the list is quite a stretch, given that she spent most of her career working in Hong Kong. Wouldn't it have been better to include Pearl? Besides her noteworthy achievement as a female director, she was also the star of the fondly remembered TV drama Bodyguard (1974–75), one of the most popular shows in Taiwan at the time and an overseas hit in Hong Kong and Singapore as well. It used to be said in Taiwan, "If you're a sixth-grader and don’t know [Pearl] Chang Ling, then you haven't lived". Heck, even President Chiang Kai-shek was a big fan of the show. That Cheng Pei-pei was included and not homegirl Pearl makes me suspect that these three particular actresses were at least partly chosen because of their association with King Hu, the much hallowed auteur responsible for making martial-arts movies internationally respectable (long before Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou).
If you've seen any of Pearl's films, then you know that they are anything but "respectable". And yet her body of work is just as singular and unique as that of King Hu. Not surprisingly, there have been no monographs about Pearl or retrospectives of her films. Perhaps it's a matter of class. Whereas King Hu sought to elevate the martial-arts genre by infusing it with the qualities of Beijing opera and Chinese landscape painting, Pearl remained firmly rooted in the genre's populist traditions, particularly the colorful, effects-laden Taiwan school of Golden Light puppetry (which in the early 1970s had migrated from outdoor stages to indoor television screens with great success). King Hu is also lauded for his supposed feminist refashioning of the female knight errant (女俠), but for me his silent and icy heroines—as cool as they are—are mere ciphers compared to the eccentric, flesh-and-blood heroines created by Pearl Chang.
Other Chinese martial-arts directors nowadays considered worthy of auteur status include Chang Cheh, Chor Yuen, and Tsui Hark. In Stephen Teo's book Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition, he devotes space to all of them, most especially King Hu, but what about Pearl Chang? It seems that she doesn't even warrant a mention. Is it a glass ceiling that prevents Pearl from receiving her due props or is it simply, as Teo writes, that there is no "critical impetus" to study films (and filmmakers) considered "too minor"? When it comes to Pearl, I always get the feeling that she is a little misunderstood (sometimes even by the fans who love her most). Maybe it's because she's such a misfit. Just take a look at the following photo of the 10 most popular Taiwan films stars of 1977.
That's Pearl on the far right, wearing a flashy suit and standing very unladylike with arms akimbo. The rest of the line-up includes (from left to right): Chin Han (秦漢), Joan Lin (林鳳嬌), Chen Chen (甄珍), Hsia Ling-ling (夏玲玲), former Shaw Brothers star Li Ching (李菁), Shaw star Fanny (芬妮), Tien Niu (恬妞), Lin Chen-chi (林珍奇), and a young Brigitte Lin (林青霞). If you had to choose the odd man out, it would definitely be Pearl. It's somewhat ironic seeing Pearl stand next to Brigitte Lin. Brigitte—who was making mostly soapy love stories at the time—would end up moving to Hong Kong, where she was refashioned—in such films as Swordsman II (1992), The Bride with White Hair (1993), and Ashes of Time (1994)—as a more elegant version of the kind of strange heroine that Pearl had made her specialty a decade before. As much as I love Brigitte and her iconic characters, I must confess that she now strikes me as a little vanilla when compared to Pearl and her personas.
All of this is a very roundabout way of me announcing that I'm preparing for another podcast with the Infernal Brains, this time on a subject very dear to my heart: yes, Pearl Chang. In preparation, I've started Fuck yeah, Pearl Chang!, a Tumblr blog that I'll be using to brainstorm about Pearl and her films. Do check it out if I've managed to hook you even slightly. I strongly believe Pearl that has been unfairly marginalized and instead deserves an honored place among the innovators of Chinese martial-arts movies. Of course, the last thing I want to do to Pearl is embalm her wild spirit and seal it up in the ivory tower of respectability, but I would like to lift her from the dumpster of trash cinema and seat her in a more fitting throne.
Top photo from Matching Escort (1982). Bottom photo courtesy of 热血古龙.
"Songstress at the End of the World"《天涯歌女》by Swing Shine
I just found out about Shanghai jazz duo Swing Shine last week and have been joyously listening to their album Marguerite every day since. Imagine Zhou Xuan and Django Reinhardt time traveling to the present and dishing up some of the sweetest songs you've ever heard. That's the sound of Swing Shine. Founded in 2010 by Lin Di (from progressive rock band Cold Fairyland) and Jeremy Lasry (from gypsy jazz band Swing Dynasty), the duo reinterpret classic Chinese and French oldies like "Four Seasons Song" and "C'est si bon", as well as play their own compositions. Unlike previous attempts to reboot the Shanghai pop of yesteryear, Swing Shine gets it just right. Instead of pandering to the club crowd and bombarding the music with beats, they lovingly dust off these vintage songs and make them shine with virtuosity and passion. I really can't recommend their album highly enough. It's available for download at cdbaby, Amazon, and iTunes, so give it a listen. You'll be glad you did!
I'm very excited to announce the launch of "Soft Pearls", a new feature in which I highlight some of the most beloved pieces from my collection of Chinese movie memorabilia. Kicking it off in grand style is Grace Chang, the "Mambo Girl" herself, shaking her maracas on behalf of Raleigh Bicycles. I almost didn't bid on this 25 x 38 cm advertising poster because I was afraid it would be damaged in the long journey from Penang, Malaysia. I'm happy to report that it arrived safe and sound. As for its less than pristine condition, I actually have a fondness for ephemera that exhibit the scars of endurance. And one of my absolute favorite fetishes is worm-eaten paper. Must be the book worm in me! In any event, nothing can stop Grace's radiant smile from shining through life's inevitable decay.
My writing chops have gotten a little rusty during my retirement, so let me ease back into blogging by just talking about a few of the things I'm really excited about lately.
Last fall I received an email from filmmaker Robin Lung, who is making a film about Li Ling-Ai, a Chinese American playwright who produced Kukan (1941), the first American feature-length documentary to win an Academy Award. As it turns out, I had previously chanced upon Li Ling-Ai while researching — oddly enough — burlesque dancers (more on that and the connection with Li Ling-Ai later). Needless to say, I was pretty jazzed about Robin's project, and after I became aware of her dedication and formidable detective skills, I immediately plunked down a donation. All of which is to say that Finding Kukan has the Soft Film stamp of approval. Robin is going to launch a Kickstarter campaign later this year to raise the money she needs to complete the film. I'll let you know when that happens, but in the meantime do watch the trailer below and take a look at Robin's website — where you can check out some of Li Ling-Ai's stylish hats!
Speaking of stylish, I recently had the good fortune to become acquainted with Shien Lee, NYC fashionista and event planner. By night she masterminds retro-inspired shows and parties like the weekly cabaret dinner Nuit Blanche and the upcoming Deco Japan & the Heart of the Modern Girl at the Japan Society. By day she writes about fashion, Stoicism, Chinese rockabilly, and all manner of things between at her newly launched blog Not Your China Girl. Shien is the kind of writer I like — passionate, articulate, and not above using an exclamation point when she is excited about something. And she also gets bonus points in my book for translating one of my favorite Bai Guang songs, "Tonight or Never", which also happens to be among her repertoire as the co-host and songstress of Les Fleurs de Shanghai.
Last but not least is the lovingly handcrafted Goodie Magazine. Issue 30 is devoted entirely to the oral history of Madame Wong Sui Fong, a Cantonese opera diva who left home at the age of 13 to join an opera troupe and made her way to San Francisco (via Hong Kong and Honolulu), where she performed at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition (which also counted among its denizens burlesquers Noel Toy and Chun Siu-lei). Madame Wong ended up in NY Chinatown, where she performed at the Sun Sing Theater and hung out with pioneering Chinese American filmmaker Esther Eng. Want to know the rest of her story? Then buy yourself a copy from the good folks at Goodie. It's the best five bucks you'll ever spend!
I'm a little hesitant to make an announcement like this, which is both a promise to my readers and also a commitment to myself, but I think that I'm going to start up Soft Film again, albeit with much less frequent posting than before. After playing around with Tumblr (the crack cocaine of blogging), I'm feeling the need for a more grounded mode of expression. And for me, there is nothing more sobering than the process of putting words to paper. Not only am I a procrastinator, I'm also a compulsive perfectionist (not that it shows). Needless to say then that writing is not easy for me. But the urge to produce something of enduring interest from my particular obsessions brings me back to this project of mine. May the universe grant me the juggling skills I'll need to make it happen!
