A Von Trapp Family of Arthur's Kids (Part 1 of 2)

The following is an excerpt from a 14 September 2014 email exchange between Art and Will.

Art: 

As for Arthur's legitimate children, I just see them wandering around together en masse following Agnieszka as she tackles and beats Arthur up at a concert. This, of course, would have to be an earlier concert, but I think it could be a humorous, regular feature at some point. But we'll have to hurry up with that one, since that would be a fairly young Arthur. They could still wander around that way as adults, without any sort of differentiation, almost an appendage of Agnieszka's, backing her up in confrontations with Arthur and Will. I'm not sure I can come up with individual personalities for all of them...maybe that's a spin off, like A Different World. 

But we could develop the oldest legitimate son or daughter as a foil for Augustine. Of course, Augustine would already be a natural enemy of Will's, who would never give the green light to "An Evening with A. White." I see Augustine getting the rights to perform his father's songs in some shrewd, possibly fraudulent way. 

Maybe he comes into the room after his father has been zapped and gets him to sign away the rights.

Will:

I was thinking about the rights to perform. Really, that would have to come through the cult. An illegitimate son from a Japanese cult member would have an in with the cult. So it could be that we've got a parallel between the fake Farthington and the fake Arthur. But it could also be possible that Will somehow wins back the rights for the songs written by A. White (maybe Arthur just has terrible handwriting) and Augustine claims the ownership and successfully copyrights his father's work himself. Arthur and even Will would not be in any sort of shape for a long, drawn-out legal battle, and the cult could easily fund one. 

If we have a legitmate son fighting for the rights, he could be Aquinas White or something like that. Sean and Julian. 

I also just see a mob of kids and an angry Agnieszka. I never thought about the angry mob led by Agnieszka, but I have thought of the idea that Agnieszka just cuts Arthur off from the kids completely. You have a song about that. What the details are behind that story, I don't know. One idea is that Arthur joins the cult and cuts ties and she never forgives him and the kids are too young to really bond too much with him before he leaves anyway. Another is that she doesn't want to deal with "crazy" Arthur...maybe she doesn't see him as good for the kids. 

Incidentally, I don't think this is a real saintly power, but the idea that Arthur has the power of getting women pregnant through his music has struck me once or twice before. That would also explain how he could have so many kids and no connection to them.

There could be a Von Trapp family of Arthur's children.

Roll Over, Beefoven

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 10 September 2014.

"Chuck Berry 1971" by Universal Attractions (management) - eBay item photo front photo back. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Bystanders playing roles, cover songs, digital auditions to join the group, possibly secretly authorized by Steffi Humboldt as Dr. Farthington...that could be pretty funny.

It actually might be a way to have a contemporary Concert for Iceland. Maybe it all appears to be arranged by the Arthur White camp. Maybe we could bring back the idea of Augustine White. Maybe he, some web winners, and the angry remnants of the original Sweet World use a new Concert for Iceland as revenge against Arthur.

I've also been thinking about the lost storyline of the original Sweet World trapped in Japan, Arthur's kids, and Rystyy Kryyztyylz (sic).

We have some generational juxtaposition going on with Carlton vs. Steffi (the 70's cult becomes the Internet) and the two generations of Joe Lazari.

But it would be fun since we have the Witkowskis as the problematic American nuclear family to deal with the Whites as the deconstructed postmodern family. (There might also be an opportunity to contrast musicians "back when music meant something" to the technicians of today).

Anyway, I'm into this notion that the original Sweet World lives to spite Arthur but isn't quite bright enough or resourceful enough to do so, and that Augustine is basically bent on revenge, too, which leads to Concert for Iceland II featuring A. White and the Original Sweet World. I also like the idea that two members of The Sweet World form Beefoven with Rystyy Kryyztyylz and later change their appearances to join the cult and the band Apotheosis, not out of love for Farthington but to plot revenge against Arthur. Perhaps Arthur never even knew their names in The Sweet World.

Also, I'd be really happy if Beefoven's album were called Roll Over.