19 March 2012

Steve Tills writes

abt Percy & Bess for Good Reads:


Well, I'm biased, of course, as ONE, Alex Gildzen is one of my very best and dearest friends in the world, and TWO, _Percy & Bess_ is a Hank's Original (http://www.hanksoriginal.com/Loose_Grave...) chapper.

But let's consider 2 key criteria: Can you read it again and again, rather than exhausting its meaning on a first read (as is the case with so much ridiculously transparent "easy reading" useless poetry)? And is there anything else like it, or is it so properly "unique" that it cannot be "reproduced" by simple paraphrasing?

_Percy & Bess_ makes it new on both counts. You can read it again and again. As Crag Hill has written (http://willtoexchange.blogspot.com/2005/...), "it invites multiple reads." And it's unique, one of a kind. Gildzen's the only one who's done it.

Others will in time, though. It'll catch on. :) 


17 March 2012

James Thornton (1944-2012)

at a party I had for Ira Joel Haber on Morris rd

performing with the Tracey Twins in 1984

14 March 2012

Cris Alexander (1920-2012)

growing up in Elyria eons before the internet a boy found his culture as best he cd. it was my pal Tom who introduced me to the books of Patrick Dennis which Cris Alexander illustratd with his witty photographs. we howld over the prose & pictures in Little Me & First Lady.  we felt a bit sophisticatd when we "got" many of the in jokes. but of course there were so many more for which we had no clue.  neither of us were aware that Alexander put his partner in drag & photographd him as Sarah Bernhart.


learning of Alexander's death so quickly after that of his partner is sad. remembering their work together however brings a little smile.

13 March 2012

2 Jakes

I just watchd the Adele video set to "Brokeback Mountain."  I wonder how I wd've felt abt it if yersterday I hadn't seen Jake Gyllenhaal's other new video.  in that disturbing work he murders people.


I know he's just an actor but what an actor does on film can color how one feels abt that person. it'll take a while to love Jake again in that Brokeback kind of way after the blood & violence of his other video.

12 March 2012

"waiting for the X to fall"

making me
ale
which I don't
drink
but I won't
dehydrate
among the palms
my fate
is wet
I bet

11 March 2012

up at 4:30

stumbled around house trying to remember what I'd done to the clocks.  back to bed. fell back asleep.  dreamt I was underwater with Anthony Perkins. suddenly awake again. cursing the asshats who inventd the time change & those who perpetuate this disaster. asleep yet again.  dreaming of the divine Julianne Moore still in character as that political witch. finally out of bed for good at 7:30 feeling cranky.

10 March 2012

Leonardo Cimino (1917-2012)





I first saw him on stage decades ago. his was a face never forgotten. & his was a talent that no matter the size of the role he was memorable.

09 March 2012

dreams

I don't understand them but they intrigue me.


the other nite I woke at 3:30 in the middle of a nitemare featuring my father.  then last nite I was at a theater watching long-dead character actor Howard Wendell.  I waitd for him backstage.  I reminded him of our actual only meeting (which is discussd in my chapbook Elyria).
as only in dreams we segue from chatting while walking the streets of NYC to being in the livingroom of Geof Huth.  focus changes to a discussion I have with Geof abt a chapbook of his.  but he soon tires of me because there's a young female groupie in attendance. Wendell too ignores me to join in with Geof & the girl.  soon the 3 of them begin kissing & I take out my camera to record the activity.  I awake in mid-click.

08 March 2012

Provincetown





going thru files for my next film I discoverd this photo David Meredith took of me years ago.

05 March 2012

30 years ago today

"I was swimming in the pool with British actress Jacqueline Pearce," remembered Alex Gildzen, "when a policeman came down the steps from the upper bunglalows toward the pool area.  Jacqueline asked him if anything was the matter.  He said not to worry, but that someone had died.  Not much later, I was off to Schwab's for a paper, when I noticed a television news van pulling up Marmont Lane.  I didn't connect it with the report of the death.  By the time I had returned from Schwab's, however, the Marmont was surrounded. An officer stopped me at the front door. It was the first time in all the years I've stayed there that I had to show my room key to get back into the hotel.  I asked the young woman at the desk what was wrong.  She said only that there had been a slight disturbance.  The Marmont is famous for observing the privacy of its guests, but I found her remark a bit much, since the local stations were broadcasting live. I went immediately to my room, turned on the tube, and learrned that John Belushi had died.  Then I went out to the tower that overlooks the bungalows, where I would often go alone at night to observe the Hollywood lights, and watched the circus that was beginning."


Basten & Sarlot
Life at the Marmont (1987)

01 March 2012

"Mother Gin Sling's Casino Never Closes"

"anything cd happen here"
intones Gene Tierney
pretending to be Sylvia Sidney


of course
anything can happen
in the movies


even Ona Munson
under make-up & wig
passing for Asian


2 years after Belle Watling
we see Ona
raw for revenge


one wonders
what her husbands
& lady loves thot


Ona on screen
with brows like bridges
operatic with scheming


one wonders
how she felt
emptying that pill bottle


in the movies
her casino never closes
& Ona Munson never dies