Friday, February 13, 2009

I am thinking of killing off Marc Aurel and starting a new blog in my own name. Maybe this is not such a good idea. Much as I love and admire my fellow bloggers, it is convenient that I know that no one knows me well enough to turn up on our doorstep, or inundate me with letters of dubious solicitation.

I was an actor for years and it is particularly pleasing for me to change from time to time. Usually the fashion of my facial hair, although I almost always have some hair on my face. So it is with blogs. Since I have, as it were, invented Marc Aurel, I get bored of him, even though in blogland I really am him.

I've started a new blog, but I will not show it for a while, but what I will do is tell you how the name came about.

I have always assumed that some observant film buff would some day write me, "Ah yes, of course, the name of the cafe where Holly Martin is set up to trap Harry Lime in "The Third man". It is not my favourite scene in that favourite of all the films I have seen, but it is the climax when the four main characters are all present...."Sir, sir, he's out the back."

My favourite scene starts in Anna's bedroom. As he talks, Holly tries to engage the cat's attention. Zither music haunts the whole scene and soon we see that same cat outside warming to the legs of an un-identified man standing in a doorway outside. In the eighties, I recorded all the scenes which are scored onto a cassette. On the other side was the authentically unfinished recording of Mozart's famous requiem on reproductions of original instruments. I was a car courier and got to know both recordings really well.

7 comments:

JPDeni said...

My blog name is a nickname I had in high school. I hated my given name and I didn't want to associate my surname with my new nickname, so I was just plain Deni, rather like Cher. But then I thought of the just plain part and decided it would be a fun pun to put the JP with it, rather like "J. P. Morgan," although not so rich.

Now I go by my given name just fine, but some folks are used to calling me Deni. Also, when I first started on the 'net, I used Deni because it's more gender-neutral and a lot of people didn't accept that a "girl" could actually write computer programs. I bought the domain "jpdeni.com" to use for all of my personal web stuff.

(There's a point to this, really.) In those days, there was no such thing as a private domain registration. Anybody could look up the contact info for a domain and they said it was illegal to put in incorrect or incomplete contact info in a domain registration. Now you can pay an extra $10 to get a private registration, but I've had my domain so long that if anybody wanted to know who was behind it, they already know. My home address, email address and phone number is available to anyone who want to go through the very small hassle of doing a domain lookup for any one of the three domain names I now own.

The point of this novel is to say that I have never had anyone come to my door, send me snail-mail junk or call me on the phone, based on my domain registration. I think you're safe. :-)

BTW, I didn't pick up on the name from The Third Man, although I've seen the movie several times.

marc aurel said...

He's not so easy to kill off. My new blog is still in his name although I registered my own. There must be a way to do this, but I can't work it out.

Tess Kincaid said...

The Third Man is one of my favorite films. I can't believe I didn't make the connection with your blog name and the cafe until now. That must be why I immediately felt comfortable with the name Marc Aurel!

Rosaria Williams said...

What's it for, the new blog? Is it to play with a different personality for a while? At some point, your prominent self will want to assert himself/or herself somehow. What gave you the idea that your fellow bloggers might show up at your doorsteps?

Natalie said...

Don't look at me for techie advice. ARGH, I am hopeless.

I have a new face too, and not so happy with her yet either.....Hmmm.

I got a new email account and just created her from scratch.Email in new name.

marc aurel said...

Well, I thought I would come out and use my real name, but actually my blogs are registered under my real name@gmail.com anyway, so I can't seem to kill off Marc Aurel without closing my real name. Long before bogs, I was cautious about my real name because my parents gave me a very exceptional name, which would be very easy to trace. I think I'll ride two horses for a while and then see. Actually it all stated because I sort of dreamed a new blog title as I woke...."As if c'est what".

French Fancy... said...

I never realised the name was from that film either. I've only seen it once though - a long time ago.

I think of you as that name now. Isn't it strange how we get fixed in our thoughts about our blogging friends.