my own private Idaho

off to Boise for a few days

Otolith 2

still basking in receipt of print copy of premiere issue of Otolith when Mark Young sends glad news that issue 2 is up.

must leave in a bit for airport so no time to read it. but what joy to see visual work by my old buddy Ira Joel Haber.

"Body Parts"

it all startd here.

a year ago I saw the film "Troy" & was so dazzld by Brad Pitt's physique that I wrote a poem. I mentiond that in my blog entry "thigh candy."
if you return to that entry you'll see that Richard Lopez suggestd I write "Johnny Depp's Eyes." soon I had a small chapbook Body Parts.

the fabulous Andrew Lundwall has just put up the first issue of his new e-zine Melancholia's Tremulous Dreadlocks. & in it is Body Parts. so my thx to Richard for his suggestion & to Moi for his constant encouragement & to Andrew for his guts.

music men in town

Thomas Ades (whose opera of "The Tempest" opens tonite) 


McCoy Tyner (who plays the Lensic tonite) 

a sad tale

when I moved to Santa Fe a tv series calld "Earth 2" was being shot here. that first fall the cast participatd in a basketball game as a fundraiser. I went to see Antonio Sabato Jr. & chattd with the fabulous Virginia Madsen with whom he lived at the time.

one of the cast members there was a girl by the name of J. Madison Wright who playd Clancy Brown's daughter on the series. over the years I'd forgotten abt her. but in today's LA Times I learnd that she had a heart transplant at Cleveland Clinic when she was 15. last month she was married. the day after returning from her honeymoon she had a heart attack & died. next month she was going to begin a new career as a high school English teacher.

here she is boys...

I met Jill Sobule 6 years ago when she performd here with Warren Zevon. I like her voice.

last nite I saw another dimension of her. in the film "Mind the Gap" she not only sings but acts. & she's terrific enough to want to see her tackle more movies.

we all need friends

what a sweet surprise to receive in the mail today a handmade book from Ira Joel. it's calld Cheering Up Alex & is in "a very limited edition of 1." the contents are xeroxes of Haber drawings from the '70s including his cloud studies.

a coiffure for the ages

Jean Vengua postd a painting by Otto Dix. for decades I've had a late lithograph of his on my walls.

back in the '70s Ferdinand Roten Galleries came to the university & set up tables of prints for sale. I don't recall how much I paid for the Dix but I was immediately attractd to it & have never lost my love of his masterful making of the model's hair.


"Portrait of a Girl" (1966) 

"the ranger who told all about Anais Nin's wild life"

that's the headline on Elaine Woo's lively obit of Rupert Pole in today's LA Times.

wonder how many screenplays that generates.

La Meringue

some of you have askd why I haven't mentiond Cuppa in a while. I was hoping no one wd notice. you see the poor thing is recovering from corrective ----- errrr------- elective surgery. & her poor face is still bruisd. so she won't be seen in public. but she promises a festive unveiling as soon as possible.

in the movies

in "The Mandarin Mystery" (1936) dear Franklin Pangborn faints 3 times.

of Phil Andros & other matters

today is the birthday of Samuel M. Steward (1909-1993) who I was lucky enough to meet in 1982. when I turnd 50 he wishd me "a future without doctors or lawyers intruding."

he was on my mind when I read the blog of another sexual adventurer from the Bay area who writes under a psuedonym. altho I didn't meet Jared Christopher I "observd" him completely naked & scandalous in Palm Springs last month. his current post addresses getting old as a gay man.

watching Dad falter naturally makes me think of what will happen to me if I have the misfortune of living into my 80s.

Jared -- if you're frightend now just wait several more decades. don't believe the AARP propaganda. getting old may be the scariest thing that happens to us.

R.I.P. Mike Carver

my cousin Sal pickd me up yesterday morning & drove me to the airport. he'd been up late caring for his ailing roommate Mike.

I learnd last nite that when he returnd home from the airport he found Mike dead.

heartbreaking time

Dad's decline continues to dispirit me. but the family soldiers on.


finding a new way to tend eggplant 

off to Elyria

for an early celebration of Dad's 88th

President Worst Ever

the most e-maild article currently at the LA Times:

"Is Bush Still Too Dumb to be President?"

homes of the stars

Jim Parish sent me a link to a silent screen site which includes a feature on stars' homes. one is of the manse of Lila Lee & James Kirkwood. the background photo is a charming family portrait of the pair with their young son Jimmy. he's the lad who grew up to write such bestsellers as There Must Be a Pony & Good Times/Bad Times.

also on the site are the onetime homes of my friends Lois Wilson & May McAvoy. seeing them brought back memories of the time I had lunch at the Beverly Hills Brown Derby with the actresses. May drove me back to the Chateau Marmont via the side streets of BH where she pointd out all the oldtime stars homes.

AUDEN AFRAID TO NAME GARBO

in 1972 I creatd that headline in The Year Book. I recall having read that W.H. felt topical references cdn't last. at the time I wonderd if perhaps the Swedish star mite be rememberd longer than the poet.

in yesterday's mail I rec'd the 3rd issue of Court Green. it's dossier section is a grouping of bouts-rime poems. that form inventd in the 17th century by forgotten French poet Dulot is a game in which people are given specific end words. one of the 14 given words is Garbo. so we have this splendid collection of poems from the likes of Shanna Compton & Brad Gooch.

I haven't read thru the entire section yet. but if you're thinking that such a game is frivolous then read Dorianne Laux's "For Matthew Shepard."

"pennies from heaven"

. 

another project:

I'm not a big celebrator of Xmas but in 2000 a friend suggestd dinner. but she didn't offer to pick me up. so I walkd in the cold the 50 minutes to town. I guess I was feeling a bit dejectd so I was looking down instead of out & around. as I was crossing Sandoval St I spottd a penny. it's been sd picking up a penny is good luck so I did. but this one was the start of a new piece.

I found a coin collector's album & keep found pennies from my trips with notation of where & when. so far I have 84 pennies.

"the book of java"

/ 

I began this project in the last month of 2000. they are coffee stains from my travels. so far there are 76 entries.

fan flesh

Ken Ericson once ran a leather bar in Silverlake calld The Gauntlet. now he lives in South Dakota. on the last nite of my stay at Camp Michael there was a birthday party to which he came. it's impossible to miss his tattoos. I askd him if I cd photograph the most intriguing.

in 1935 Carol Borland playd Bela Lugosi's daughter in Tod Browning's "Mark of the Vampire." altho the scream queen did a few other pictures this is her claim to fame. Ericson got to know her in her final decade & had this tatt done. he sd that she approvd.


, 

Black Hills

it was a quick trip but I packd in the miles. so I feel I have a good overview of that part of the state. for me the highlight was Mt Rushmore. we all know what it looks like but until you've seen it   walkd under it   you can't realize the power of the work. monumental sculpture indeed.

my host   Michael Fish   kindly took me across the Wyoming border. another state crossd off the list. I know   I know. I didn't even spend the nite. I plan on doing the parks of Wyoming one day. promise. but technically I have been in the state. so that leaves but 3: Idaho   which I'll visit next month   then Montana & North Dakota   perhaps next year.


at Spearfish Falls 

getting head

/ 

crossing off states

when I returnd from Hawaii 2 years ago I lookd at a map & discoverd I'd been to 45 states. so I made a vow to travel to the remaining five.

before Dad's hospitalization I made reservations to go to South Dakota & Idaho. since I'm returning to Ohio in a week & a half I decid'd to go ahead with the other weekend trips. so today I'm flying to Rapid City.

hay(news)ku

Ken
was not
a good Lay

Independence Day

, 

2 of my favorite American experiences involve standing in line: voting & Pancakes on the Plaza on the 4th of july.

many people like to vote absentee but I love the sense of community of standing in line with my neighbors to vote. & the pancake breakfast on the 4th is also a wonderful example of Americana.

today neighbor Phil & I went to town. we encounterd several of his cousins as well as our New Orleans friends Ray Ruiz & Kim Pedersen.


actor Dan Gerrity 

/ 

"Carnival of Souls"

in the past month 2 bloggers I follow -- Richard Lopez & Bill Reed -- independently wrote abt Herk Harvey's 1962 film. so last nite I gave it a look-see.

it's obvious that it was made quickly & cheaply. but it deserves its cult reputation because of its visual quality. we know that Harvey was an admirer of Fellini but he must have studied Hitchcock & Welles too.

I kept having thots of Smithson while watching it. & reading abt the history of the film afterward I learnd that Saltair -- the Utah carnival location -- apparently sunk into the water.

Haber paintings

if you've always wantd an Ira Joel Haber original in yr collection   here's yr chance. a group of choice paintings -- mostly from the '70s & '80s -- are now available online.