I just read that his administration cut New Orleans flood control by 44% to help pay for the Iraq war.
his approval rating is now 40% which means more Americans are finally waking up to his incompetence.
his "compassion" on tv is so phony I can't believe even the blindest Republican believes him.
01 September 2005
31 August 2005
more disgust
some believe global warming is causd by man's greed & that global warming causd Katrina. so when this administration finally actd today what's the first thing they do: relax environmental protection standards. will Shrub never stop playing to his base?
speaking of his base some whacko Christian group in Philadelphia is blaming Katrina on gays saying it's God's way to punish New Orleans for Southern Decadence.
my depression is getting worse by the hour.
speaking of his base some whacko Christian group in Philadelphia is blaming Katrina on gays saying it's God's way to punish New Orleans for Southern Decadence.
my depression is getting worse by the hour.
blues for a nation without a leader
so where is he?
at least Clinton wd've pulld up his pants & gone on tv immediately. he wd've been out there leading the mobilization of relief. but our current chief executive is AWOL yet again. surely he has no soul.
the nation's first business is to deal with the tragedy in Louisiana & Mississippi. then let's impeach this son fo abitch for dereliction of duty.
at least Clinton wd've pulld up his pants & gone on tv immediately. he wd've been out there leading the mobilization of relief. but our current chief executive is AWOL yet again. surely he has no soul.
the nation's first business is to deal with the tragedy in Louisiana & Mississippi. then let's impeach this son fo abitch for dereliction of duty.
blues for the Big Easy
there are now estimations that before dark arrives tonite
the entire city will be underwater.
the entire city will be underwater.
30 August 2005
shame on you Mr. President
yesterday things didn't look so bad. but now we're seeing the severity of Katrina. it's times like these when the nation needs a strong & compassionate chief executive.
so what did our leader do today? he performd "business as usual" giving another "this war is good speech" before a hand-pickd audience & comparing himself to FDR.
perhaps his wheelchair wd've kept that president from surveying the damage but I cd just see Eleanor inspecting firsthand on a flyover. this president continues to diminish his already shaky place in history to embarrass the nation before the world to insult those very people who electd him.
what a pity that Karl Rove is making him cut his vacation 2 days short because of some hurricane. already in his presidency he's spent an entire year on vacation on the farm. he shames the office.
so what did our leader do today? he performd "business as usual" giving another "this war is good speech" before a hand-pickd audience & comparing himself to FDR.
perhaps his wheelchair wd've kept that president from surveying the damage but I cd just see Eleanor inspecting firsthand on a flyover. this president continues to diminish his already shaky place in history to embarrass the nation before the world to insult those very people who electd him.
what a pity that Karl Rove is making him cut his vacation 2 days short because of some hurricane. already in his presidency he's spent an entire year on vacation on the farm. he shames the office.
hang on New Orleans
what seemd not so bad at this hour yesterday has turnd scary. apparently more levees are overflowing & the great French Quarter of literature & jazz & food & play is being flood'd.
29 August 2005
laissez les bons temps rouler
I need to stop watching tv news. last nite there were predictions of the demise of New Orleans of "a disaster of biblical proportions." one "expert" even suggestd the death toll will exceed that of the Asian tsunami.
the very thought of no NO preventd sleep. & I got up at 5 to watch the hurricane approach the city. when it lookd like looters will do more damage than Mother Nature I took off for the gym.
the very thought of no NO preventd sleep. & I got up at 5 to watch the hurricane approach the city. when it lookd like looters will do more damage than Mother Nature I took off for the gym.
28 August 2005
so many stories
yesterday I took in part of Santa Fe's inaugural short story festival. an all-day outdoor reading was too much for steady concentration. however 2 writers caught my ear: Demetria Martinez who makes irreverence an art & Cyrus Samii who turns the history of Iran into "a sad fairy tale."
in the evening actors took to the Lensic stage to read. best were the Brits: elegant Rosemary Harris reading Katharine Mansfield energetic Henry Goodman tackling D. H. Lawrence sexy Simon Templeman making merry with P. G. Wodehouse. & sitting near me were a couple of writers who have had luck with the short story . Edna O'Brien & Joyce Carol Oates.
after such a spoken fiction glut I'm willing to wander my high desert storyless for a while.
Cyrus Samii reads as well as he looks.
in the evening actors took to the Lensic stage to read. best were the Brits: elegant Rosemary Harris reading Katharine Mansfield energetic Henry Goodman tackling D. H. Lawrence sexy Simon Templeman making merry with P. G. Wodehouse. & sitting near me were a couple of writers who have had luck with the short story . Edna O'Brien & Joyce Carol Oates.
after such a spoken fiction glut I'm willing to wander my high desert storyless for a while.
Cyrus Samii reads as well as he looks.
27 August 2005
today
I'm a movie star
moving toward my key light
maybe not a star
maybe just a character actor
just?
is Percy Helton less
a universe
than Cary Grant?
some days
I'm only Bess Flowers
you see
the back of my head
in a party scene
but others
I'm a porn star
zoom on caribou
gliding to globe
today
I'm a movie star
you can't
tell me I'm not
I'm a movie star
moving toward my key light
maybe not a star
maybe just a character actor
just?
is Percy Helton less
a universe
than Cary Grant?
some days
I'm only Bess Flowers
you see
the back of my head
in a party scene
but others
I'm a porn star
zoom on caribou
gliding to globe
today
I'm a movie star
you can't
tell me I'm not
26 August 2005
his beauty shall be seen
.
lives intersect
coasts collide
at raincoat today
San Francisco friend Jeff Wietor
finds inspiration from
NYC friend John Fischer
& I cdn't be happier
25 August 2005
a couple of painters
altho my name appears in the acknowledgments I bet I'm the last one on the block to read Ron Padgett's Joe. I'm only a third of the way thru this sparkling memoir but I don't want to do anything else but read it.
& did you see that Levi Straus is coming out with a Warhol Factory X line of clothes? Andy's jeans will cost $250. that's more than I paid for his "Marilyn" back in 1969.
& did you see that Levi Straus is coming out with a Warhol Factory X line of clothes? Andy's jeans will cost $250. that's more than I paid for his "Marilyn" back in 1969.
24 August 2005
discovering Cory
blogging has benefits. some time ago I wrote that after reading a few Karl Tierney poems I wantd more. a reader put me in touch with his literary executor Jim Cory who sent me more. it was a lovely & shocking discovery of work.
but that wasn't the end of my good luck. in writing to Jim I began to appreciate his talent as a poet. individual lines of his stick around long after first reading. for instance: "some jungles just have more jaguars than hummingbirds."
& then there are tasty poems one needs to return to again & again. "Feet" is an erotic marvel which concludes powerfully:
Think of the lifetime of steps
these walked
to get here
so my experiment in blogging already has paid off. what a lucky guy I am.
but that wasn't the end of my good luck. in writing to Jim I began to appreciate his talent as a poet. individual lines of his stick around long after first reading. for instance: "some jungles just have more jaguars than hummingbirds."
& then there are tasty poems one needs to return to again & again. "Feet" is an erotic marvel which concludes powerfully:
Think of the lifetime of steps
these walked
to get here
so my experiment in blogging already has paid off. what a lucky guy I am.
23 August 2005
looking at pictures
Edward Field is putting together a website. altho it's still in progress do drop in to gaze at his galleries. they're refreshingly casual. sort of like looking at a friend's scrapbooks.
22 August 2005
reading awaits
in 2 days I rec'd 3 snail mail parcels containing 8 books of poetry.
the smallest (in size) was toothless shuffling in slippers through the French Quarter. it's part of a series of collaborative texts from members of the Rock Paper Scissors collective. the cover is an original collage. it has the feel of the work coming out of Cleveland in the late '60s.
the smallest (in size) was toothless shuffling in slippers through the French Quarter. it's part of a series of collaborative texts from members of the Rock Paper Scissors collective. the cover is an original collage. it has the feel of the work coming out of Cleveland in the late '60s.
21 August 2005
20 August 2005
Craig Eadie
he arr'd yesterday bringing the sweetest house gift: the new DVD of "The High and the Mighty." we did a quick tour of town & Canyon Rd openings before an evening of Lorca.
this morning we were off early to farmers market. how lovely to see novelist Stanley Crawford back -- selling garlic again.
this morning we were off early to farmers market. how lovely to see novelist Stanley Crawford back -- selling garlic again.
19 August 2005
Michael Chikiris (1941-2003)
40 years ago my roommate in the garret at 334 South Willow St in Kent was Michael Chikiris. altho I followd his career over the years we weren't personally in touch. I only learnd of his too-early death yesterday.
Mike was an intense young man. already a fine photographer. shortly after he mov'd in I went to a long exhilirating lecture by Buckminster Fuller. when I returnd I was completely engrossd in writing a poem in an attempt to capture the experience. Mike pickd up his omnipresent camera & shot a series of me writing. I believe one appeard in the university yearbook Chestnut Burr.
the only Chikiris photograph in my art collection is this portrait of our friend Cynthia Mayer:
,
after graduation Mike became a staff photographer on the Pittsburgh Press. in the early '70s he shot 3D images of the Pittsburgh Steelers (inc Kent State's Jack Lambert) for View Master. at the same time he became a friend of & driver for Stan Brakhage while the filmmaker shot his Pittsburgh trilogy. Mike appears in some late Brakhage films & fatefully died the day after the filmmaker.
Mike remains well-known for his portraits of writers as various as Ginsberg & Updike & of experimental filmmakers such as Hollis Frampton & Jonas Mekas. however his nudes & other work have been increasingly collectable & are available online via several galleries.
Mike was an intense young man. already a fine photographer. shortly after he mov'd in I went to a long exhilirating lecture by Buckminster Fuller. when I returnd I was completely engrossd in writing a poem in an attempt to capture the experience. Mike pickd up his omnipresent camera & shot a series of me writing. I believe one appeard in the university yearbook Chestnut Burr.
the only Chikiris photograph in my art collection is this portrait of our friend Cynthia Mayer:
,
after graduation Mike became a staff photographer on the Pittsburgh Press. in the early '70s he shot 3D images of the Pittsburgh Steelers (inc Kent State's Jack Lambert) for View Master. at the same time he became a friend of & driver for Stan Brakhage while the filmmaker shot his Pittsburgh trilogy. Mike appears in some late Brakhage films & fatefully died the day after the filmmaker.
Mike remains well-known for his portraits of writers as various as Ginsberg & Updike & of experimental filmmakers such as Hollis Frampton & Jonas Mekas. however his nudes & other work have been increasingly collectable & are available online via several galleries.
18 August 2005
Marilyn forever
I knew the film reference books of James Robert Parish long before I accidentally met him in NYC in the fall of 1976.
Jim is generous to his friends. he sends me packets of clippings from time to time. the one that arrivd last week includ'd a chapter of the fascinating new bio of gay agent Henry Willson.
he also e's me online articles every morning. & 2 of today's center on Marilyn Monroe. one was the obit of her first husband James Dougherty. the other was abt the current exhibition of Marilyn-inspird photographs of Mary Ann Lynch.
like her '50s male counterpart James Dean Marilyn seems to be ubiquitous. hardly a week goes by without their images appearing or their names being utterd.
Jim is generous to his friends. he sends me packets of clippings from time to time. the one that arrivd last week includ'd a chapter of the fascinating new bio of gay agent Henry Willson.
he also e's me online articles every morning. & 2 of today's center on Marilyn Monroe. one was the obit of her first husband James Dougherty. the other was abt the current exhibition of Marilyn-inspird photographs of Mary Ann Lynch.
like her '50s male counterpart James Dean Marilyn seems to be ubiquitous. hardly a week goes by without their images appearing or their names being utterd.
17 August 2005
16 August 2005
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