Billy

I met William E. A. Berger 40 years ago this month.

we're both flying to Reno today for a celebratory week in the Lake Tahoe region.

ubiquitous Betty

"Her pictures collect in the shadows. They are everywhere."

thus begins RJ Smith's "Living with the Black Dahlia: the murder that changed Los Angeles" in the LA Magazine which arrivd yesterday.

then last nite I went to the Lensic to see Fiona Shaw in a program of Yeats & Eliot & Beckett. her newest movie is "The Black Dahlia" based on the novel by James Ellroy. one of my coups while special collections curator at Kent State was to purchase the ms of that famous novel.

Shimmerplanet

the last time I saw Soren Anders was at my reading at Bowery Poetry Club. he hadn't become a blond yet & was still using his real name John Fischer. but he already was exhibiting great talent as singer & songwriter. & while reading I cdn't look at him too long for fear of flubbing every line because he's so damnd adorable.

he just sent news that Shimmerplanet's new CD For the One Who Kills Tomorrow will have a release party at emPower Fitness at 7th Ave S & Christopher on 12 sept. so if you live in NYC & care abt music &/or goodlooking men pop on over.

enuf of the freaks

I can live a perfectly grand life without ever again hearing or seeing the pedaphile or the Scientologist. why the networks continue to lead off their news broadcasts with those two is beyond me. why aren't they digging into President Worst Ever's continual lawbreaking? or global warming? or anything else that matters.

preview of coming attractions

while I was busy with my cousin Richard Lopez sent me the draft of his chapbook Super8. this morning is the first chance I've had to read it.

at first the poems seemd raw. but then I understood that he's attempting to give them the look & feel of those long-ago porn loops that were a staple of stag & frat parties.

his artfulness is making the poems look artless. but of course they're anything but. there are hidden rimes & tight images. & then there's the tantalizing issue of narrator: is this Lopez remembering? is this Klaw directing Bettie Page? is this frat boy sliding beer can over crotch?

I'm not sure when this chap will hit the stands but look out for it. & hold tightly.

EHS Class of '61

I've never been to a class reunion. the 45th was 10 days ago. I just receivd the program booklet which gives bios of class members.

amazingly 51 of my high school classmates are dead. of those of us still breathing   one has had a heart transplant & many are cancer survivors.

Iraq

President Worst Ever's war there has now lastd longer than US involvement in WW2.

2 weeks with Regina

11 restaurant meals
6 concerts
5 operas
2 visits to flea market
2 visits to Indian Market
1 pueblo feast day
1 movie

my bolo

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it's Regina's last nite. so we got dressd up & went to town for a concert & dinner. but first we did one last stroll thru Indian Market. we stoppd again at the booth of Kenneth Johnson because (a) he's a fine artist (b) he's a gorgeous man (c) he's outgoing & humorous.

I was wearing the bolo I commissiond Diane Tintor to make some years ago. she usually uses garnets but I had a fine piece of jade. it was supposd to be for a ring but I never found the appropriate jewelry maker. however I liked Diane's work & askd her to try. the result is stunning.

Kenneth immediately saw it & admird its craftsmanship & askd who creatd it. that made me feel good.

Indian Market

jewelry maker Kenneth Johnson 

sputtering

been averaging abt 6 hours of sleep per nite. & my daytime sked is that of a teen. my cousin's energy level amazes me.

a zing & a kick

Regina & I went to Madrid -- birthplace of Mae Marsh -- so she cd look at jewelry & rugs. while there we had a savory treat: red chili chocolate cake. I wd never have thot to put pepper in a cake but what a blast.

noon concert

I went to hear Gary Graffman who does more with one hand than some pianists do with both. & it was a good experience.

he shared the program with one of his students. I was enchantd with Yuja Wang as soon as the 19 y/o came on stage. she's tiny & gorgeous. she wore a drop-dead black gown with subtle rose piping. Wang began with a Haydn sonata which immediately reveald we were in the presence of a superb musician. she then playd Stravinsky's "3 Movements from Petrouchka" & I thot I'd swoon. mastery & passion combind. this is an artist whose career must be followd. look for her.

"Carmen"

I've heard it more than any opera. but then it's the most producd opera ever.

the current SFO production has been controversial because it lacks the usual bombast. reset in Franco's Spain this version features Anne Sofie von Otter in a reinterpretation of the role. she looks as much like our notion of Carmen as Lillian Gish. when she comes out in pink rather than the traditional red we get a hint that this won't be the outwardly incendiary vixen we usually see. von Otter gives a complex & psychological performance.

at first I was bored with this mounting of the Bizet. & there are directorial missteps. but by the time the stark ending comes it's most compeling.

downpour

we go months sans rain. then there is last nite.

we were at the opera when the rain began. & it was hard. people scurried from the seats nearest the open sides of the auditorium. & it was hard. driving home was a chore.

today is overcast & there's a chance for more rain all week.

at Embudo Station

between the flea market & feast day at Santa Clara Pueblo   Regina & I had lunch on the banks of the Rio Grande:


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abuntu

because of a sick cat & bad dreams abt Dad I had a sleepless nite.

so it was lovely to turn on the computer & receive this African word from Bob Barnes. I met Bob in a chat room some 7 years ago. altho we've yet to meet face-to-face   we're fervent penpals exchanging numerous e's per day. today he wrote abt encountering this word which means I am because we are.

apparently Mr. Rogers discoverd the word & wrote to his penpal "My identity is such that it includes you and that I would be a very different person without you".

Bob wrote "I really liked the concept of abuntu and thought of
you when I read that." such kindness from Bob eases my difficult morning & makes me want to walk thru the day.

the timelessness of art

within an hour we heard Cuarteto Casals play a Boccherini piece from 1798 followd by Real Quiet do Gosfield's "Wild Pitch" (2004). & it workd...

yesterday

Regina & I were at the factory outlets & I had to stop in the Jockey store to celebrate the "holiday" by buying a pair of gray poco briefs.

at nite we went to out first opera of the season -- a shimmering "Cinderella" with Joyce DiDonato who is radiant of voice & visage.

national underwear day

holidays seem to have startd as religious observances. but then commerce took over. one industry after another found it lucrative to have a holiday which pushd its product.

today's "holiday" is blatant. but I'm an old underwear aficionado so I'm observing it. rather than post the picture taken of me at Skivies Cafe on my last visit to Palm Springs   I'm offering a peak at a work-in-progress. "Underwear in a Box" -- like "2 jars"-- comes with documentation but for now I'm presenting simply the visual.


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scrubathon

frantic last minute housecleaning.

my cousin Regina arrives from Boston this afternoon for her annual summer opera visit. this is SFO's 50th anniversary. so we're seeing all 5 productions in the next 2 weeks.

lots of pep in those peplums

Garbo is staring off the envelope that just arrivd from Culver City where she made most of her movies. my friend Billy lives there now & in the envelope was an article from the LA Times abt a new exhibition "Beefcake Babylon."



if you've been reading this for a while you know of my fondness for Richard Harrison. I'm not sure if he's representd in the show but of course Steve Reeves is. he's by far the king of the sword & sandal genre.

documenting perfpo

Russell Salamon sent me this & I'm passing it on:

I am a writer and performer and am pursuing my PhD in theatre at the University of Minnesota. My dissertation is going to be on spoken word, politics and the literary avant garde and I'm beginning to do preliminary research. I've joined quite a few spoken word lists to keep up with what's going on around the country. I'm writing to the list to ask for two forms of participation.

1. Thus far, the history of spoken word and performed poetry is very lopsided toward New York and Chicago. My own "official" history for my dissertation may also lean on those two cities, but as part of my research I would like to build an archive that includes histories from around the country and want to acknowledge that there have been active communities in other places for quite some time. I would like to invite you, singularly or as a group, to send me a history of spoken word in your community as far back as you can go. This means venues, years, who did what when, and some kind of flavor of the performances. When did slams start? Did that change the nature of the reading/performing community? Did it create one where there was not much before or something dormant? What kinds of performance, experimentations, collaborations, etc. where going on? What other influences were there (theatre, rock and roll, punk, dance, Dada, roller derby, skeet shooting, etc.)? I'm looking for communal histories rather than anyone's personal stories, except insofar as those stories are woven into the community.

2. I'm looking for people interested in doing an online interview with me, possibly through IM conversations or a Yahoogroups chatroom. This is your chance to tell YOUR individual story, aesthetic,
etc.

Please write me at fluffysingler@earthlink.net for either. There's no huge hurry with the histories--take your time and tell it completely. But I would appreciate hearing from people that are intending to embark on this. And credit will be given to the writers of the histories--both in the archive, and in anything that I cite.

Thanks!

Laura Winton

on the streets of

some time ago I wrote abt the joy of seeing old movies shot in Manhattan. then I concentratd on landmarks & how they change.

another great aspect of such location shooting is a chance to watch esteemd members of the theater community in small parts. to see Sudie Bond or Judith Lowry or Margo Martindale suddenly appear is as exciting to me as spotting Percy Helton or Bess Flowers in Hollywood products.

tonite I saw "Extreme Measures." now this one cheats. it's supposd to take place in NYC. & some of it was filmd there. but parts (I presume interiors) were done in Toronto. however there are some wonderful theater folk in the cast. Peter Maloney has a striking bit. so does John Heffernan. neither of these actors are huge stars but both have had long & distinguishd careers on the boards. so it was a thrill to see them.

T. R. Queen

today is the birthday of my friend Tom who died in 2002.



this picture was taken in Elyria the summer before he flunkd out of Kent State. I'd won the Freshman Writing Award. Tom then honord me with his own Wanderlush Award. it was named after Gloria Wanderlush   the heroine of one of his novels. this particular one was a spoof of Butterfield 8.

Tom & I were friends for an astounding 50 years. we met at Garford Elementary School & last saw each other at the Las Vegas airport weeks before his unexpectd death.

he was the funniest person I ever knew. we wd laugh till there were tears.

he gave up writing early on   painting too   & concentratd on collage & montage. he won numerous awards & if memory serves had work appear in an early issue of The Advocate. in 1981 I threw a party to mark James Dean's 50th birthday. unable to make the long flight from Nevada to Ohio   Tom sent me this tondo:


"Alex Gildzen, James Dean and the Vanilla Angel" 

butts

Bill Reed is auctioning a Bette Davis cigaret butt on ebay.

reminds me of the time I saved Sam Fuller's cigar butt & sent it to Ira Joel Haber.

a Basque blast

savoring coffee this ayem that I bought at the Basque Market   I want to thank my Boise hosts Jeff & Sam.

& a couple of suggestions for those going in that direction. the Boise Art Museum has a splendid ceramics collection. some former Santa Feans produce delectables at The Chocolate Bar. & the lobby of the Capitol will make marble fans dizzy.

o boise

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too short a visit to identify the Idahoness of Idaho. esp since I was only in Boise. but I did fall in love.

the former Union Pacific depot is a gem. designd by Carrere & Hastings   it opend in 1925. Amtrak no longer stops there so I hope the city continues to care for it. the depot's location yields the best view of downtown. unfortunately the city allowd skyscrapers to be built which compromise the scale of the Capitol. but I don't want to carp. the depot itself is a wonder. & the gardens in front make the space as oasis.


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