Welcome to Watermarks, a discussion of Fatima Castro Silva's website.

In addition to her work on the website, Fatima wrote a book called, "Urgent Whispers," a "300-page bilingual book dedicated to the work of Suzanne Vega. It was published and released in Portugal, in 1994."

Fatima describes her website:

"watermarks is meant to work as a place where ideas, impressions, dialogue and images, conjured up by suzanne vega's music, can hopefully interact and help open up new paths and visions in her musical universe.

every word, thought or image presented here is just my watermark, my small imprint on an endlessly moving and fascinating body of work."

You can visit Fatima's website here:
watermarks.vega.net

Fatima will be moderating this discussion.

Welcome!

welcome everyone. this website really is just my watermark, but at heart hopes to invite you to share its journey through my vision of suzanne's music. so please feel free to express yourselves. hope you like it. i'll be around.

fatima

Hi, Fatima!
This is the place of peace and rest.
there is no such a sound,as a silence.
Like the far sound of the rain,
the place where I can forget my pain...
This is the place of Water,
deep, and clean.
nenad

hi nenad,

i'm very happy you feel like this. silence is so important in suzanne's music. the way she carves it into her songs gives each one of them wings to fly into another dimension, an inner one, to me.

the imagery of water is also omnipresent in her songs. it can be a metaphor for the self and its expression: the surface and the deep/the public and the private, the undertows/the currents within the self, the endless movement/the desire for freedom, the fluidity/the wish of searching for something similar through language.

and water is such a great reflector of light. and, to me, light is what is at the very core of each of suzanne's songs, warming you and
helping you find your way in the dark.

so these were some of the thoughts behind the design and content of the site. once again, i'm so glad you feel like you do.

with affection,
fatima

Hi!

I only now visited your website and I must say I liked it a lot! I liked the pictures you took so much (the Suzanne ones and the others too!). I also liked to hear about your first "exposure" to Suzanne's music. I'm so glad Suzanne Vega's portuguese fans are so dedicated to her and her music, makes me so proud I'm portuguese and a Suzanne fan!!
Keep up the amazing work!!

Ana,

hi ana,

thank you dearly for your words. i really appreciate them. i remember you from other discussions and know that you're one of the youngest towies here, so, just in case you're not aware of it, let me tell you this: there's a portuguese book dedicated to suzanne's work, it's called "murmúrios urgentes/urgent whispers" and it was published in 1994 - this is why i am mentioning it to you, because you and the book are almost of the same age.

and if you go to the "urgent whispers" section of this site you can read how the conversation with suzanne, which appears in the book only in our native language, was actually spoken.

anyway, this is just a reminder. you probably already know about all this. thank you again very much.

love,
fátima

Thank you Fátima! I knew about the book from your website. Do you still trade for it?

no, ana, i don't trade for it anymore, and the reason behind it is essentially because i have no time now to actually go through the process of exchanging emails with whoever wants a copy until we figure out what to trade (and i know i have to update that info on the site). i still can get copies for people who wish for them, but basically from now on they will have to pay its cover price and postage.

you being portuguese it should be really easy for you to find it. i don't know from which part of portugal you're from, but any fnac or good bookshop should have it or, if they don't, you can always order it from them.

anyway, if you want, i can get a copy and send it to you. the only thing extra you'll have is a personal inscription from me to you.

it's up to you now, ana. thanks again, whichever way you choose to go.

love,
fátima

just a clarification to you, ana, and to anyone reading this: when i say "i can get a copy" it literally means i'll have to buy it myself, since, as you can imagine, my free copies of this book have long since gone. just wanted to make that clear.

love,
fátima

Thank you for the information Fátima! I often go to FNAC, although I never looked for it before. I will try to see if they have a copy. Thanks again!

Ana, .

no need to thank me, ana. it would be really great, once you get a copy of "urgent whispers", if you could share your thoughts about it here with me and everyone else interested, primarily because the book was the source for this site, although they've grown, i believe, to live a life of their own, to some degree.

that is, of course, if you feel like it and really want to do it.

thank *you*, ana. love,
fátima

If I can get I copy, after I read it, I'll try to share some thoughts about it.
I hope I do get a copy, it seems like a very interesting book.

Ana, .