may the pumpkin be with you

years ago Dad bought me some Halloween decorations at a garage sale. I used the mint Hallmark items at the house one year & then hid them in a nook in the hall closet. but I rememberd them & brought them to Las Vegas & decoratd my room with them.

John Kenley (1906-2009)

don't have access here to my programs & other Kenley Players memorabilia. but that summer stock venue meant so much to me as a kid. so many stars -- from Gloria Swanson to Margaret Hamilton. so many memories. & Kenley himself was quite the character.

Jodi

I first saw her in "Calamity Jane." altho it was performd in a Broadway house with an audience this Carol Burnett version of the Doris Day film was a tv special. years later Jodi moved to Las Vegas. along the way she became a friend of collage artist T. R. Queen   my best bud in high school.

in the years since Tom's too-early death Jodi has become a touchstone. we met for lunch today at Cuban Cafe. a good meal & lovely chat.

arr'd safely in Las Vegas

but it's cold here.

travel

has become trying. in a bit I must go thru this light snow to the airport & ascend into a wind advisory to fly west.

naked coffee guy

perhaps all the facts aren't in yet.... but if the nosey parker was on his property looking in his window why hasn't she been arrestd for trepassing.

down home

Steve Martin lived here in the '70s. he came back last nite with his banjo tour playing the Lensic with Steep Canyon Rangers. it was a fun evening. the band has got to be among the best bluegrass ensembles around. & Martin plays well. of course he did schtick in between. stuff like suggesting the audience sing along to a tune that had no lyrics. & the final encore was none other than "King Tut." but over all it was a good blend of music & humor.

another beautiful Santa Fe day

bus to town

Joel Fan eating a cookie in front of the art museum before his rehearsal

Ali MacGraw plunking coin in a parking meter

fruit smoothie at Aztec Cafe

matinee of a Cole Porter musical

long walk home before sun sets

things #4

in 2000 I did a rubbing of this plastic token for a piece which appears in Making Circles.



I got the token back in my drinking days. it was from a favorite West Village bar calld the Ninth Circle.

the building at 139 West 10th has quite a history. constructd in 1845 it opend as a townhouse. by 1898 it was a popular Italian restaurant. but its primary claim to fame came in the 20th century. Mickey Ruskin opend it under the name Ninth Circle as a steakhouse & bar in 1962 (3 years before he gave the world Max's Kansas City). at first it was a watering hole for artists (John Chamerlain) & poets (Joel Oppenheimer who claimd to name Max's Kansas City for Ruskin). but the place steppd into history when Edward Albee went to the bathroom there. on the mirror someone had written in soap "who's afraid of Virginia Wolf?"

I'm not certain exactly when it became a popular gay dance spot but that's how I knew it. by the '80s it was a hustler bar & then went thru a couple of incarnations before turning into its present self DeSantos   an Italian restaurant co-ownd by a Mexican rock drummer.

for the record

IMDB lists "Broadway Nights" as the 1st film of Sylvia Sidney.

at lunch at Kent's Stag Bar many years ago I mentiond to SS that I'd read she made her movie debut in this 1927 silent movie whose star was my friend Lois Wilson. Miss Sidney told me that she'd actually first appeard the year before as an extra in Lothar Mendes' "Prince of Tempters" with Lois Moran (best rememberd today as the starlet behind F. Scott Fitzgerald making a screen test).

altho I haven't read everything ever written abt Sylvia Sidney I don't recall this information being publishd. so it occurrd to me to set it in print.

____________________________________________

next day addition (esp for Stephen):



she came to the university for a performance. in addition to lunch I treatd her to a post-perf party at my house. she was a witty lady but sharp of tongue which didn't endear her to everyone. (& yes.... I once had hair.)

I try

to live in the moment. but I've been around so long that my past is vast & likes to intrude.

much of today was spent in a back & forth online with someone once close with whom I've had no contact for at least 15 years. all manner of memories came to the surface. then I saw the Hockney doc "A Bigger Splash" for the 1st time in decades. it was finishd just months before I met David. so it's a true time capsule for me.

my favorite part is mid-film. you see him enter a quite fabulous shower at his place in Powis Terrace. then we cut to naked boys in an LA pool. finally back to the shower. using that shower is a special memory for me. & then one of those LA boys is Mark Lipscomb who I met at Mr. Henry's in Georgetown a few months before meeting David in London.

so a swirl of past faces & bodies. but all in context of now so that the past becomes present as I process. I avoid analysis because it's such a jumble. those words I wrote at the beginning of this are already past. not as past as the smell of David's cigar at breakfast but still a past.

so I'll finish this & press "publish post." I'll get back to my green tea & make a list of things to do manana.

I am
my own ghost
in that photo
Billy took
at Musso & Frank's

skin then
since scrubbd off
nails
cut & flushd

even bones
not quite the same

the stranger
in bed
when I wake
is me

bringing back Bruz

I remember driving back from Malibu, with Bruz Fletcher and finding his house, in Laurel Canyon burned to the ground
-- James Broughton



Bruz Fletcher was on his way to being forgotten when Tyler Alpern found him. he dedicatd a website to the performer & now has producd a book. Bruz Fletcher: Camped, Tramped & A Riotous Vamp is for the moment "a private, collector's only edition." it includes my poem "Bruz Fletcher Entertains at Club Bali." there are wonderful photos & loving research into Hollywood's gay scene in the 1930s. it's my hope that the book will find its way to a wider audience.

the actor who likes gay poets

James Franco made a student film based on a Frank Bidart poem. he playd Ginsberg in the upcoming feature "Howl." & now comes news that he bought film rights to Hart Crane's "The Broken Tower."

my busy day

yesterday I was up at 6. an hour later Rita & I were off to St. John's College with Cinco hanging his head out the window. we hiked to the top of Atalaya Mountain.



a quick shave & shower & I was off to the state capitol building for an Equality New Mexico rally. the group was attempting to enter Guinness Book of World Records by making the largest engagement ring.

here we see local tv personality Gadi Schwartz filming the end of the process of unrolling the gold band. the unroller was James Herrera.



back home I expectd to spend the rest of the day filling requests for Making Circles. so much for high expectations. only one person wrote me asking for the pdf.

the day peterd out with "Slumdog Millionaire." what an unlikeable film.

"Making Circles"

for some years now I've been trying to get this book out into the world. no need to chronicle publishers or delays. the other day I was talking to Todd Moore abt my frustration & my feeling to self-publish it as an e-book. he encouragd me. so here goes.

I've turnd it into a PDF file. it takes a bit to download (5.2 MB) but if you want it send me yr e-mail address & I'll forward it. it's not perfect: original spacing got alterd for reasons I don't understand & I'm still not savvy enuf to know how to correct.

for some years I've been working outside traditional forms -- sometimes outside words. I'm not much for schools of poetry or labels for art. so is this vispo or conceptual art or something else? I don't care what it is. but I do care abt it & want it out in the world. & if this is the only way it is a way.

Thank Gauguin It's Friday

o to be in Cleveland
celebrating the zincographer

Railrunner

earlier this year train service began between Santa Fe & Albuquerque. there's a station a block from my house. but local politics has kept the station from opening. so I've resistd taking the train.

finally I felt I had to do the Railrunner at least once in its inaugural year. so I walkd the half hour to the next nearest station -- all the while cursing those keeping the Zia station from opening.

Todd Moore met me in Abq. we had a Middle Eastern lunch & went booking. then I took the train back. it was all good -- except when we sped past Zia station & I knew I faced another half hour walk back home.

Allen Memorial Art Museum

this video was postd over a year ago but I just found it:



Oberlin is near Elyria. the Allen was my first art museum. in my will my art collection will go to the Allen. besides being a splendid small museum it runs this super program for students.

my guv

Bill Richardson has been calld many things but I think this is the 1st time I've seen him labeld obese.

humbling

my newest publisher John Burroughs is blogging abt our new chapbook.

among the touchstones John didn't mention which is particularly poignant to me is that he lives across the street from the funeral home where Dad was.

Freddie Herko
(1936-1964)

Herko

a few quick moments of his beauty appear on tv

I still like Obama but

the Nobel committee awarding him the peace prize now is like the American Film Institute giving its lifetime achievement award to Dakota Fanning.

shooting the moon

NASA crashes a rocket into the moon in the morning.

this makes me chuckle because it brings back one of Dad's favorite beefs. he'd go on & on abt climate change happening because of our fiddling with the moon. I can't remember how many times I had to to listen to him excoriate the government for leaving "junk" on the moon's surface. I know if he were around now he's be beside himself with this new developement.

introducing

coming this weekend from Crisis Chronicles Press which just happens to be an Elyria imprint (love child of John Burroughs).

Prince Felipe of Spain

is in town to help kick off Santa Fe's s 400th birthdday celebration.

Guy shows Judy his gun

why (#2)

am I getting more spam trying to sell me watches than attempting to enlarge my penis?

why

have I been getting friend requests on Facebook from Republicans I don't even know?

"Ohio is a piano"

turning the state into a song is possible at this site.

one of my books-in-progress is Ohio Triangle. the points of the triangle are Elyria-Cleveland-Kent. not all are listd here so I'm unable to compose a background tune for the collection. but it's fun to fool around.

the only member of Congress with spine?