And lastly,

Candle wax, smoke, aloe wood, incense, myrrh... if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around to hear it fall, does it make a sound?

Addendum 2:

I just wrote a lengthy addendum to my first addendum but something happened with blogger and it was lost. Or maybe it's a conspiracy?

Anyway, from the start I never saw the connection or the relevance to an ARG and Theresa or Jeremy's death. I've seen it as a tragic, classic, beautiful love story of two people who truly could not live without each other.

The roots of paranoia can be traced back here or there or the depression and frustration of an artist trying to "make it" reborn as a small fish in a giant pond as they were.

Theresa and Jeremy's suicide notes spoke of each other, their families and being at peace. They didn't speak about paranoia, threats or the CoS. They didn't leave a Dear John accusing certain people of leading them to their final decisions. And therefore, to me, its all bullshit. It's a few brilliant people who got really bored and decided to play a game with an already hazy story. It's not hard to muddle an already very gray area.

The last few months of their lives living back in New York they were living in a converted rectory, they were attending mass every Sunday for the first time in their lives, they were becoming active in the church. Could this have bolstered their paranoia of the CoS? Could this have perpetuated their disdain for the CoS? Who knows.

I do know that there is no such thing as bad press and from what I've read about Theresa I wouldn't put it past her to invent these illusions to perhaps bring attention to herself. That's what artists do. Lets not get all holier-than-thou after the fact and make it like Theresa was the only artist who ever plagiarised or manipulated the media or tried to attract attention to herself. Did we not just canonize Banksy? I mean, c'mon!

Maybe Theresa cooked up the entire CoS scheme to get some press, stir some shit up and get people interested and talking. It definitely worked. Unfortunately she didn't stick around to see the fruits of her labour.

It was a fool proof plan, really. There would never be any way to verify if the CoS was in fact "after" the couple and the CoS isn't the most well-liked group amongst creative people; its a common enemy; like punk bands had Reagan in the 80's.

Her writing was poetic and stylish and carefree and whimsical and random and beautiful. His art was liquid and odd and moving. Conspiracy seems like such a boring thing for these 2; such a stiff and ugly scenario. Go read her blog, she was a 40-year-old kid, she played make believe, she quoted things she found beautiful and strange. This wasn't a game.

Maybe I'm a hopeless romantic but its a shame that people find it hard to believe that something as pure as this could truly be what it is. They loved each other and they couldn't live without each other and now they're both gone.

Theresa was obviously depressed about something, or confused, or listless, or restless or just impulsive and decided to seize fate on a bad day. I guess, it happens. It isn't hard to imagine. There's no turning back once you swallow all those pills and drink all that Maker's.

Theresa just went to sleep. And that was that. And now people know who they are and who they were. And sadly, that's how most artists become legends.

Being misunderstood is crucial. Well-adjusted people make shitty art. Happy people shouldn't paint or write music. Art is for restless souls and sometimes they get too restless to stick around.

We should never, ever underestimated the impulses of the haunted.

I think their friend Glenn O'Brien said it best in Theresa's eulogy:

"All I do know, the hard way, is that the artists and writers who come up with extraordinary answers are often deeply and terribly haunted by the questions that prompt them, and you can never second guess what it is to be haunted by ideas, by angels or demons or history or visions, by reality or imagination... Right now the only thing I can think of is to thank Theresa and Jeremy for their work, their friendship and goodwill and to hope that somehow, somewhere the answers come to them and the pattern is complete and that for such beautiful dreamers it isn’t too late. Their dreams are still in this world."

Glenn O'Brien is a key observer on the New York pop scene, Glenn was the music writer on Andy Warhol’s INTERVIEW and has written for SPIN, ARTFORUM and countless other publications. His books include the anthology Soapbox, the poetry book Human Nature (dub version.) He is "The Style Guy" at GQ magazine and editor-at-large of ARENA HOMME +. He wrote and produced Downtown 81, the film starring Jean-Michel Basquiat. His literary and arts magazine THE BALD EGO, debuted in summer of '02.


Sleep well. We'll keep the fires lit.