Ellen Stewart (1919-2011)

one of the great ladies of American theater

Park Cemetery (Fairmount)

Alex Gildzen



Rufus Wainwright

Elyria

poetry capitol of the world

a gun

again

Aron Kincaid (1940-2011)

my first visit to the Sunset Strip was in the fall of 1972. I went to a restaurant no longer there calld Cyrano's. one of the other diners was the blond Kincaid looking as if he'd just come from the set of one of his surfer moives.

Butterfly McQueen (1911-1995)

this is an old clip but brings back some of the wonderful moments in the career of this actress who died so tragically. this wd be her 100th birthday.

personal asides:

1) I first saw her on stage in "Curley McDimple"

2) we spoke at a 1989 screening of "GWTW" in West Virginia

3) in Gildzen at 50 Jonathan Williams wrote:
"It goes without saying that Alex will have sent Butterfly McQueen a birthday card on her 82nd anniversary (just the day before Elvis's)."

"Reading with Eyes Closed"

white deer in snow

words that sear lids

do my lips move?

Brookdale Cemetery (Elyria)

"Lila Lee walks by
the history of film on her fragile shoulders"

          Ely Park

Lila Lee cover

borrowd from Allure

KIMONOKIMONO

I'm delightd to receive a copy of Bill Berger's limitd ed book of his kimono prints. I'm a long-time admirer of this work he's been doing for the last several years.

& it's a special thrill that he's included the one of my father that appeard here as well as another with the same photographic source.

thx Billy.

Anne Francis (1930-2011)

one of my favorite photos

I believe Donna Walker took this at Kent State University Museum in early 1994.



Dimitri Karageorgiou
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Walker
me
Alfred Cavaretta

I was in bed

shortly after 10. so when someone startd blasting fireworks at midnite it woke me from a sound sleep. & I was rather pissd. I turnd a hundred times before finally getting back to sleep. & in that sleep a hideous nitemare abt a grisly multiple murder.

so when I woke again I was on the grumpy side. I began a load of laundry. & then I washd down my vitamins with coffee Bob Barnes sent me for Xmas. now I'll start to search the house to see where I put my smile.

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.

I like

when
my barista
calls me dear

tension

while the Koreas glower at each other someone in Seoul did a Google search for Farley Granger & came to an old post of mine.

my own private white party

      after reading Facebook
      status report of Matt Skallerud

Mom sent me 2 teabags
(oriental white tea)

Sal Mineo liked blond twinks
in white jockey shorts

white dots on dark chocolate
(non-pareils from Rita Wood)

Tom Ford's white shirt
unbuttond on the plane

Pearl White had dark hair
but wore a blonde wig

Colin Coonsis didn't wear
the white suit to his opening

bah humbug

so cold walking to the gym I thot my nose wd fall off. got there at 7:30. lockd tight. on holiday schedule. shit. I must've been asleep when someone made Bleak Friday another fricking holiday.

today's menu

leftover pizza

since I was left out of the last 2 bios of writer friends that I've read I'm pleasd to be quoted in this bestseller. I didn't know Mineo. but I saw him in a stunning summer stock production of "End as a Man" which he also directd.

early Thxgiving

for the past several years I've spent this holiday with either Billy in Culver City or with Garold in Rockaway. but I'm getting older & crankier & wasn't sure I cd deal with the nuttiness that is flying on the busiest travel weekend of the year. so I told Billy I'd arrive the weekend before & we'd celebrate.

here we are at a favorite place. Miceli's -- the oldest Italian restaurant in Hollywood -- has been host to celebs from John F. Kennedy to the Beatles.

I have returnd

from a super weekend with my dear friend Billy in Culver City. we had a full agenda. among our activities was a visit to the new Resnick Pavilion at LACMA. all 3 inaugural exhibitions are skillfully mountd & worth seeing. here I am with some Olmec masks:

how malagrugrous that those jolluxes can't freck

words

The Pink

I think I first heard abt the Pink Adobe from Jonathan Williams who knew a thing or two abt fine dining.

over the years I didn't go to this famous restaurant all that frequently. but I did love their green chili stew -- & of course that apple pie.

in the morning paper I read that the late Rosalea Murphy's restaurant -- a Santa Fe institution since the year after I was born -- closed a week or so ago.

hot shower

felt good. in the (hopefully) final stages of a cold I suspect I got while incarcerated in that germ canister following my pat-down.

been a sort of down day. anniversary of the finding of William Holden's body. one of the saddest celebritity deaths & something that hit hard in my last years of drinking. also birthday of Barbara Payton who led a tragic life.

but I'm abt to join the guys for our weekly dinner & that often lifts my spirits.

it's snowing

did Charles Delaney
make movie history
when he gave the finger
at the end
of a 1933 quickie?

let's say he did.

if Todd Moore
were still around
I'd call him
to announce
this historic find.

wd Todd remember
that Delaney's last film
was "The Beatniks"?
wd he even remember
who Delaney was?

can't say
I remember much
abt his career.

but we're saying
he had a moment
of movie history.

& how many
of us
made history?

scatter me

over the decades I've written many wills. in one I askd that my cremated remains be divided in half. one portion was to be dumpd into the Atlantic from Provincetown which gave me so many glorious memories. the other half wd go into the Pacific from Monterey where I was born.

I've since realizd this is a hugh favor to ask. also I haven't been to P'town in ages & have no real resonance with Monterey except as place of birth. so my current notion is to have my ashes scatterd in the arroyo that gives name to this blog. maybe even thrown from the pedestrian bridge I cross daily & which was the place for my piece "Bridge over Arroyo."

then this morning our local paper headlined that the archbishop -- with so little else to do -- has condemnd the scattering of ashes. I'm delightd. my passionate disdain for all religions goes into overdrive when they continually overrearch like this. I cdn't have askd for a better last chapter.

pat down

morning news had a story abt pilots objecting to the pat-downs they're receiving after going thru the new airport scanning machines.

last week I went thru one for the 1st time & as an exhibitionist was initially tittilatd by imagining a stranger observing my genitals in public. well.... I was stoppd for a search. that surprisd me. I was askd to stand on a pad which had markings for feet. the TSA man clearly was uncomfortable with his job. he told me he'd have to pat me down & did I object. I sd no. then he askd me if I wantd to go to a private area. as much fun as that mite be under other circumstances I told him to get on with it. he began putting his hands on me but you cd tell by the paind look on his face that he wasn't enjoying his job.

he askd me if I was wearing any kind of medical device around my middle. "only fat" I replied with a smile. this nervous gentleman wasn't smiling back. he told me the scan showd something around my middle. "I'll have to pat you there." it turnd out to be my shirt which naturally was tuckd in my pants.

now if we've paid all this money for a machine that can't determine if yr shirt's tuckd in I think we've made another mistake. traveling is unpleasant enuf. detaining someone for something as silly as this is simply irritating. the next time I get stoppd I think I'll demand having someone who at least enjoys patting me down.

for all the vets out there

Busam's "A Walk" #4

on sun 24 oct Mike Busam went on a birdwatching expedition which turnd into something different. instead he pickd plants.

"I've sent these plants and cards to people who have an appreciation for the 'small' or less obvious things in the world and who would find the humor in setting out on a walk with the intention of observing birds but instead spending an hour looking at plants -- mostly non-native and invasive plants, but plants with interesting histories and lives nonetheless."

I feel lucky to have been chosen to receive part of this piece. thx Mike.

& festival

Felice Picano & Armistead Maupin

Palm Springs Pride Parade

t h u d

I'm not happy Texans bought my state. perhaps it's time to move to California.

Day of the Dead

pundits predict a Republican sweep at the polls. how appropriate that such a giant step backward happens on this particular day.

seeing myself

tonite TCM presentd the David H. Shepard compilation of Edison films. this is one that hit me:



from the moment it began I saw the boy in the white shirt carrying the packages & immediately identified with him. everything is happening around him but he's transfixd by the camera. as the film went on I felt that that boy was me in "Alex in Movieland." it was a powerful feeling.

wonderful interview with Doris Day

overheard at Love Field

"the devil is the author of confusion"

_____________________________________________

part of the curse of the cell phone is that in public places we have no choice but to enter into private lives of strangers. much of what one hears in passing on the street or at the grocery store or in an airport is boring in scope & banal in delivery. so I was surprisd yesterday when a woman passing my gate sd this. since that was all I heard as she went by I have no idea of context. is it original or a quotation?

critters

since Melina died I haven't shared my house with an animal. I feed neighborhood cats on the back portal. I can go a few houses down to Rita's to greet her dog Cinco & cat Marcos. & I've become an uncle to Emma to Culver City.

an hour ago I returnd from a quick trip to visit my penpal Bob in Texas. for the 1st time I met his two wonderful pets. Cali is a sweet dog.

& here Hilton decides to lick my chin.

"The Book of Java"

marrying this clock

no quick courtship
it's
been ticking
along for years
waiting
just for

the RIGHT time

from "Ohio Triangle"

thx John

Sylvia Sleigh (1916-2010)

one of her portraits of Paul Rosano from the '70s

& on his blog Ira Joel Haber posts some wonderful photos

here the artist speaks

& here are other portraits of Rosano as well as "The Turkish Bath"

winds

Weather Channel sez they're 40 mph. but it feels much gustier out. & the cooldown these winds are bringing looks to give us our first frost tonite.

the word "focus" becomes a movie star

        for Tom Beckett

what was hearth
gave heat to Kepler

its rays spread

words in a row
like Busby's chorines
till one
steps out of line

focus on the figure
fake coins sewn
on bodysuit

third girl from left
becomes Kim Novak

I pluck "focus"
from Tom's sentence

a star is born

not since that
dirty joke
from junior high
has "focus"
scored like this

it clutches
its breast
walks into
the spotlight
to shimmer
forever

smells of fall

roasting peppers
farmers market
this morning

as I age

dance becomes an ever more poignant art.

I'm just back from seeing Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. this extraordinary company of beautiful young people delights on so many levels. but there was a moment in "Uneven" when Sam Chittenden was alone on stage that was a sort of personal time warp. his movements -- of hands & legs then whole body -- suddenly propeld me into a space in which I was my current self as well as a long ago self. it didn't last long but I was suddenly living several moments of my life. I was young & flexible & moving as if time didn't matter. & I was old & lumpy & aware of my ending. all the while physically confined to my seat but with my spirit soaring freely toward the ceiling of the theater.

it made me think that as much as I've loved dance all my life it matters more now. what happend to me tonite cdn't have happend to me 30 years ago or 20 or probably even 10.

remembering the Blind Owl

I've been working on a collection of poems calld Ohio Triangle for quite a while. each section of the book focuses on an important city in my life. opening section is "Elyria" & was publishd as a chapbook last year by Crisis Chronicles Press. middle section is "Cleveland" which is ready for publication as a chapbook. & I'm still working on the final section "Kent."

one of the poems in that last grouping is "Blind Owl (1964-65)." & now I've discoverd a wonderful little history of the folk music venue by Roger Thurman (who stage-managed a high school musical for which I wrote publicity many years ago).

altho I saw several of the famous performers listd in Thurman's piece there are so many more I didn't but now wish I had. after all these years I can still bring back the feeling of sitting in that little black space drinking hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick & waiting for the music to begin.

I love

the kind of project Ernesto Priego is doing now. & in addition to the blog he's keeping there's now a map which gives a different dimension to the work. wish I'd have thot of that for some of my pieces.

levy online

Joanne Cornelius announces that Cleveland Memory Project updated its d. a. levy website. among the new material is rare 1967 footage of the Fugs performing at the levy/Lowell defense benefit.

also available are page-by-page scans of many publications levy edited     including Marrahwannah Quarterly. here is a poem of mine which appeard in that legendary publication in 1966:

just when I thot snail mail was dead

this happens:

a box from Brent Kubasta in Florida containing a book     a t-shirt     CDs of his program "The Magic Transistor Radio Show"

an envelope from Gary Brower in nearby Placitas with the newest issue of Malpais Review with 2 of my poems

a box from cousin Paula in Georgia full of Halloween goodies

all in the same day

Egyptian Theater

I just read on Facebook that this famous Hollywood movie palace is 88 years old today. Bill Berger took this of me there a couple of years ago.

whole lotta hate goin' on

Frank Rich seems spot on here.

not sure where all this is leading
but it scares me.

happy Sweetest Day

my mother celebrates every holiday & when there isn't one makes the day into one. this year she sent me money to get my neighbors Sweetest Day gifts from her.

since there is already a Valentines Day which I always presumd was begun by candymakers as a way to boost profits I never understood exactly what this Sweetest Day is. then this morning I discoverd via a Facebook post that the holiday was begun in Cleveland. I checkd Wikipedia & found that indeed it was begun in Cleveland. & yes its guise was to cheer the less fortunate but was actually another means to peddle sweets since it was creatd by candy manufacturers.

besides the Cleveland connection I like that Theda Bara was slightly involvd in pushing the holiday. I'm sure Cleveland's candy merchants learnd a great deal abt promotion from Hollywood & this cross-pollination tickles me.

from the files

going thru old stuff I found these notes from my only meeting with Sam Steward in the spring of 1982.

time strikes on entering Sam Steward's. it's the clocks all over the house. ticking their unsynchronized concertos. it's the mementoes: Gertrude Stein's stamp box     Valentino's public hair in a reliquary. enough police patches to make a quilt. then it's Sam himself     the man whose lovers aren't just legion but legend. Sam     nearing his 80s   nbsp; & still averaging four fucks a month (large pink slashes in his engagement calendar).

he's just out of hospital wth a pneumonia seige. besides the clocks & the phone which registers a few honks rather than the traditional ring     there's another interlude of bells to remind him to take a pill.

we talk abt his late fame     which still surprises him     & his writing. a roman a clef abt Sir Francis Rose     written in the '50s     is being revised. & he's correcting proof on an old Gay Sunshine interview which was never printd but will appear at last in the 2nd book of GS interviews (which Winston Leyland told me abt last nite). & finally the most recent Phil Andros novel will appear from Gray Fox. (Sam had phoned me in Ohio to see if Craig Russell might undertake a cover     only to discover Don Allen had already askd Tom of Finland whose drawing Sam showed me.)

Sam told me he hoped Mark Thompson wd cease sending him books to review for The Advocate. the last was the Brendan Behan memoir which he found dreary.

next time

I forget
where
I put my keys
I am
gonna
take a walk

weepy

between release of the miners in Chile & proliferation of "it gets better" videos I've been rather emotional of late.

thx Ernesto

The Hay(na)ku Postcard Project

queen for a day

I was starstruck as a child. & many of the personalities upon whom I gave star status have stayd with me over the decades. for reasons I don't understand I've continued to think on & off abt many of them.

this morning I read the obit of one of those long-ago fascinations -- Leona Gage. clippings of her short reign as a beauty queen are in the scrapbooks I kept so many years ago. the obit fails to mention the 5 movies she made or her descent into working strip clubs.

if I'd become a journalist -- as one early career path suggestd -- I think I wd've concentratd on finding out what happend to people who are thrown into the spotlight for a short time & the results of that on the rest of their lives.

woke

in middle of a dream in which I was writing an entry here. as I stumbld toward the kitchen I had growing ideas on how to amplify the post. but by the time I'd finishd cereal I came to the realization that I'd already written this entry some years ago.

a tent of tens

Stanley Crawford's radishes

Homecoming at Kent State

not there today. but remembering Homecoming back in 1986 when rock legend Joe Walsh returnd to town to grand marshall the parade.



sharing the Cadillac were Gary Jackett & Bill Zorn.

Roy Ward Baker (1916-2010)

when I think of this British director 2 of his films come to mind.

in "Don't Bother to Knock" he guided Marilyn Monroe to one of her first important performances. & altho I haven't seen "Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde" in years it's one of those films for which I had an unexplicable fondness.

Steepletop

haven't read Millay in a hundred years. & never had a connection with her. but I'm a fan of Bill Fogle & I'm happy when he's making his little films. & his love of Millay turns this into a small joy.

a favorite poster

I pickd this up at a screening of this film in 1972. it was a period in which I was reading Mishima. haven't seen the film since. don't know if it's available.

& the theater is one of those which were torn down to build an ugly tourist hotel.

crossd the arroyo to go to my neighborhood office supply store to purchase a new desk lamp. they had a DVD sale. it's impossible for me not to peruse any DVD sale. I pickd one -- the 1949 "Batman & Robin" serial featuring durable Lyle Talbot as Commissioner Gordon.

as I was checking out the saleslady told me that was a very popular item. "you must have a little guy at home" she sd. "yup" I replied "the little guy is me."

a beautiful photograph

waiting

for other people to do things.

a bunch of people. lots of stuff.

not to worry. I'm still producing

but sometimes one has to wait for others.

Buddy Morrow (1919-2010)

4 years after the release of this -- his biggest hit -- I saw Morrow & his big band at the Lorain County Fair.

free meals

I was in shock when I got a free lunch on my Continental flight to Cleveland & then breakfast on my return.

in the latest batch of clippings from Mom I read in the Plain Dealer that Continental was the final airline to provide meals in economy class for nothing & that the service will end in 2 weeks.

& I remember when people got dressd up to fly & were servd a complete dinner on china with silverware & cloth napkins even in coach.