last snail mail of 2010

in today's cold mailbox a pair of manilla envelopes:

novelist Henry Van Dyke sent an unmarkd CD which is spinning now. turns out to be him at the piano playing Albeniz & Poulenc & Granados.

poet Steve Tills sent his chapbook -- Mr. Magoo. it'll be my 1st read of next year which happens shortly after Rita & Phil & I return from the recently reopend Pink Adobe tonite.

how wonderful to end the year with friends remembering me. all day I've been visitd with memories of so many people with whom I've crossd paths. they are my fire on this chilling day.

quite a discovery

thx to Bill Fogle
for his Facebook post
on Vivian Maier

got

a snow shovel for xmas. broke it in last nite. but the predictd blizzard was a bust.

Gamboling in Las Vegas

         .   for Jean Vengua

the edge
of misery
can be
just off
the Strip
so we
create joy
in grotto
delirium in
steam room

Xmas now past

despite the ill bookends of flight delays the time I spent in Las Vegas was good. Garold Gardner pickd me up at the airport & whiskd me off to Ellis Island for super b-b-q. then I checkd into my favorite room at Blue Moon.

on Xmas Gary Sielaff gatherd me up & we went to the Strip to enjoy a sublime meal at Morels. then we were brave. we walkd thru mobs to LV's newest hotel -- the Cosmopolitan. I was disappointd   writing in my travel journal that it looks "like the aftermath of a cyclone having gone thru Cher's closet." here I am with a shoe:



from there we walkd to the Bellagio to see their holiday display:



I was so worn down by fighting the crowds that the next day I never left the resort.

my long dismal day

the storm in the east wasn't the only cause of today's air travel meltdown.

I spent Xmas in Las Vegas & wasn't expecting my short flight back to be delayd. before checking out I went online & saw my flight was "on time." major joke. when I got to the airport I discoverd I was in for a 6-hour wait because my plane was coming in from San Francisco where weather screwd up that schedule. every hour my flight status changd while I breathd in more germs. when I finally got to Albuquerque my delay messd up my shuttle connection. so I endured another hour & 45 minute wait before the hour drive back. I just got home with my grumpy quotient in overdrive.

Congress

finally

The Morning I Woke with Geof Huth

mother worries
preventd observation
of eclipse

my dreamless nite
sped by
till I woke
with his breath
on my shoulder
his song
in my ear

this man
I've never met
poked me
with the fullness
of his poet life

& I was able
to grind
my Tanzanian beans
with a grin

centennials

yesterday was Jean Genet's 100th birthday. so I had another look at "Un Chant d'Amore" in his memory.

next year is the centennial of America's greatest playwright -- Tennessee Williams. I'm not yet sure how I'll mark it but I just read this morning of an inventive celebration:

Beginning March 24, 2011, will be a tour of Hotel Williams, a collection of the playwright's hotel-set short plays, which will be performed in actual hotel rooms across the country. The tour will make stops in cities that figured into Williams' life, including New Orleans, LA; Columbus, MS; Sewanee, TN; and Provincetown, MA.

when I was a boy

we had twice-a-day mail delivery. & I seem to remember that the US Postal Service also had delivery on the sunday nearest Xmas.

yoyo

so many highs & lows in the past 24 hours my whole body is a mess.

amazing

Blake Edwards (1922-2010)

woke

to the heavenly sounds of rain.

we don't get all that much in this high dessert. & lately we've had such glorious weather. yesterday hit 60. but we pay for that when it remains dry.

"The list is the origin of culture."

Umberto Eco

where "was" is

front page of today's NY Times:

snow scene in Kent (maybe in front of Ray's?)

thx to Margaret Garmon for this tip & to Mike Busam for informing me that not only is Kent State closed but will postpone finals for a week.

centennial of modernism

according to Virginia Woolf

as

James Joyce programs Paul Panzer

Ginsberg returns to Santa Fe

I was surprisd that the matinee audience for "Howl" was so elderly & straight. but then this is the City Different.



(I cdn't find online the photo of Ginsberg sitting in the plaza. so here's a 1972 Nancy Fisher picture of him in Santa Fe with Corso.)

crimson pie

I'd never heard of this before. but when Rita & I stoppd at Dulce yesterday I saw one. liking both blueberries & cranberries I thot this wd be good. & indeed it was.

here's the recipe.

all right

we're facing the most depressing holiday of the year. our government is a mess. Wikithugs are trying to disrupt the internet. North Korea is attempting to out-bully China. & don't get me startd abt the whole of the Middle East. so what do I do? yup. watch a movie.

& for a true cinephile what better than to see Frankie Darro & Elisha Cook Jr together. in a Judy Garland movie. with smart sass from Sophie Tucker. & even a cameo by Francis X. Bushman. yup. for a short time I cd forget all that shit.

more disgusting politix

DADT repeal dead.

Congress is useless.

more Doris Day

I'm delightd that she's allowing herself a public persona again. she sounds wonderful.

angry

at ALL politicians

theater

last nite I saw "From Broadway with Love" featuring Kaye Ballard     Donna McKechnie     Liliane Montevecchi. the trio opend the show singing "Broadway Baby" together. ever since I heard Ethel Shutta introduce the song at the Winter Garden it's been one of my Sondheim faves. but this is the first time I've heard 3 performers sing it together. it was a fun evening. & in the audience was Hilary Knight who did the poster for the show but always has a place in my heart for the illustrations for "Eloise."

this afternoon something quite different -- a college production of Sam Shepard's "Tooth of Crime." it's been some years since I saw this off-Broadway. this production was surprisingly good with an accomplishd portrayal of Hoss by Aaron Lopez.

Jim Cory tells me that James Franco is playing another poet on screen -- Hart Crane.

here's my last encounter:



& for the record here's a photo I took of the statue's dedication in front of the library.

flannel shirts

I don't care if they're in style or out. I don't care if they're supposd to mean something. for me they're all abt comfort. I feel good wearing them.

DADT hearings

bravo to Admiral Mullen

shame on John McCain

another from "Ohio Triangle"

"Last Address"

Last Address from Ira Sachs on Vimeo.