He is late. We were supposed to meet here an hour ago this early Wednesday afternoon but still no sign of Mr. Harrelson. I gaze out from this elevated terrace and the stunning view takes me back in time.

In front I see La Bernie, the former palace of the archbishop, and behind the majestic ship and tower of Saint-Cécile, Albi’s unique cathedral built in red brick, a mixture of gothic splendor and medieval architecture.

This town has preserved its majestic importance, and in my absent mind I drift back to those centuries when the Catholic Church ruled this gorgeously preserved historical town.

A waiter brought me a glass of local red wine from the Gaillac region and after the last swig I see a mint, bronze Citroën DS park right in front, the driver gets out and opens the rear passenger door.

Woody, RayBans, all tanned and wearing a casual outfit gets out, looks up and gestures in different directions, pointing at his watch and raising his shoulders. A few minutes later we shake hands and he laughs over an excuse, points at a reserved table even closer to the impressive street view across and below, so we install ourselves there.

“The food is excellent here”, he says, “let’s ask the chef what he recommends today,” but when I look around I notice it is not busy. Not that this bothers me.

I had met Woody a few years back on the big island of Hawaii where he was the neighbor of my good friend Ron, and I remember an unforgettable evening together where he made us crack up non-stop with his stories from different chaotic situations on the film set.

Two months back he had heard from Ron that I had bought and renovated this precious villa on the western Peloponense peninsula overlooking the Ionian Sea and called me one evening. He said that under his moniker Franklin Sagespark he wrote articles for a monthly online magazine interviewing people that captured his attention for a variety of reasons.

These stories inspired him as source material for his screenwriting, and he enjoyed taking on a different identity, hiding from the public eye. He asked if I would object to being interviewed, which no I wasn’t, just taken by surprise.

Because Woody has a country house at an hour’s drive from Albi, he suggested we meet in this exclusive restaurant for an interview. I felt honored, a bit nervous and also proud that he had picked me to tell my story.

Myst story is how, while being homeless, recently divorced and flat broke in southeastern Spain, I had started doing a course through being offered a free scholarship of the Master Key Experience.

This course is an intensive 6-month study on self-realization, the power of the mind and by learning practical applications, gaining skills to increase awareness about my creative mental activity in the subconscious, responding to fundamental laws of nature, and to better control my thoughts with focus on making my most desired future vision a reality. 

I started off describing how I had found refuge in an abandoned roofless pump house on a fenced terrain where an almond roasting mill had been demolished.

I told him how I tried to organize my life and keep my head screwed on under those circumstances of lack, need and uncertainty by focusing on the lessons of Charles F. Haanel, Og Mandino, Napoleon Hill, James Allen, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Buddha, Jesus, Deepak Chopra and other great minds.

This course, developed by the incredible Mark and Davene Januszewski, can only be attended through the Pay-It-Forward scholarship system, where all participants finance the student’s participation for the following school year. I was exempted from payments for which I was deeply grateful, being the only option to participate. 

After we both had finished our desserts and ordered two espressos and Calvados, Harrelson produced a hard disk recorder and a green baseball cap with the name Sagespark stitched on it in bright-yellow curly letters. He grinned at me and mumbled “let’s do this the classic way”, and pressed the record button.

“What triggered you to settle down on a location this sparsely inhabited and remote?”

“And why the Peloponnesos, Greece? Spain has some stunning coastlines. What made you go and look elsewhere?”

“You live there with a precious woman, Ron told me. Where did you folks meet and how difficult was it for her to follow you in your footsteps?”

“You prefer to lounge under a beach umbrella or are you curious to discover the different landscapes of the area?”

“So how did you find this place? 

Did you search on your own or did you engage with the service of a real estate agency?”

“Immediately after purchase you started renovating the place. Was this a necessity because of arrears of maintenance, or did you already have a fully specified plan in mind to which your ideal home had to comply with? Did you envision your dream house before starting to search for it?”

“The place looks very balanced, minimal, not posh, with attention for an interplay of rectangular shapes and forms and light, spaces that communicate seamlessly from the inside to the outside.

“You want to show natural untreated materials like smooth bare grey concrete, hardwood, oxidaties door and window frames, very smooth poured cement floors that extend towards the outside terrace, cemented pebbles as pathways, glass panels…

“Is this your our own design, or the results of an architectural firm’s project, or the result of you working with an architect?”

“So you built both a music studio and an art studio, as well as your own office and storage facility in the rear wing?  

“I suppose that you wanted a place with a high standard of living, lots of comfort, quietly set in a natural and very private environment. But also you wanted to work there, with all the necessary facilities to keep your independence, skip the commute, thus eliminating the need for a standard, socially professional setting.

“How do you maintain a healthy separation between your private life, family life and your work schedule? I see that the house consists of two dedicated wings that are connected, but in a way also separated by a centrical patio…” 

“You have been involved with sound recording and music production since the 1980’s. 

“You recorded with the individual members of Tuxedomoon in your Brussels project studio l’Echo des Montagnes. You released numerous albums and individual tracks while working from your Spanish project studio Prickly Pear Sound Lab under the moniker Blind°°Coyote.

“Can you fill me out on which direction you plan to take? Is composing and producing on this privileged location introducing a new chapter, a different approach, or the evolving continuation of your musical identity as Blind°°Coyote?”

“Your art, especially your paintings from the time you studied at the Art Student’s League in New York look very organic, and very color-driven. What was, or is, your main source of inspiration?”

“You use different techniques and technology for your projects: graphic artwork, photography and photo-manipulation, stop-motion animation, land-art or landscaping, sound layering, looping and manipulation. Have you decided which direction you want to go in and do you plan to integrate your current location in your work, or is it just an inspiring setting to work in?”

“I saw a whole bunch of pictures that you had sent to Ron. Can I use your home for the movie I am currently producing? Gorgeous location, with that little bay to the right, how that river that runs through the gorge and into the bay, those private beaches, the subtropical forest sloping down to the shoreline!

“Perfect setting for my two main characters and their plot! So what do you say, do we have a deal here? My modest request in exchange for a free cover story written by the great Franklin Sagespark on my world famous online magazine, 3 million daily readers on average?

“Haaaahahaa! Gotcha there! Seriously, it’s a location hunter’s wet dream!”

“And mine, hahaha!”