Indian Market

the intersection of past & present has always had a strong pull on my imagination. so it was a thrill to observe Victoria Price introduce a master   Mike Bird-Romero   to an exciting young jewelrymaker   Pat Pruitt.

pierogies

channel-chasing before the noon news I happend on the show of ex-con Martha Stewart. her geuest   chef Bill Telepan   was making pierogies.

flashback to my childhood: Grandma Gildzen & my aunts making hundreds of them in the kitchen on Camden Ave in Lorain prior to Xmas dinner. those were stuffd with potato. sometimes with saurkraut. & Mom's favorite -- prune.

over the years I've had them in many places. Ukrainian Restaurant in NYC may have been closest to the family recipe. the spot with the most varities was easily Parma Piergoies -- a favorite of Bill Clinton.

Telepan used beet greens & cheese. & he servd them with harvest beets. lovely looking.

from the archives

at the Bridge of Sighs with the rose mentiond in "Capodanno 1984   Venezia"

surprise visitor from Kent

Henry Walker is in town for a few days

the Chinese do some things right

that CEO who disgracd his country committd suicide.

here Karl Rove simply resignd.

the wild west

during the nite a mountain lion roamd the plaza. eventually it jumpd thru the window of a jewelry shop. a state wildlife officer was able to stun it. the animal was then transportd to a distant region for release.

oldtimers have told me that in the years before development mountain lions lived in Arroyo Chamisa.

the boy who sd no

I didn't sleep with Tony Perkins because at that time I was with my first partner. the same thing happend with Allen Ginsberg. I was still in my 20s & totally vanilla. I'd never heard the word "polyamory" & even if I had cdn't wrap my emotions around it.

there was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who spent a weekend with us in Twin Lakes. I had no idea he was hitting on me so it came as a major surprise when I heard that he went back to NYC & told everybody that I was a cock tease.

I suspect my memoirs wd be more salable had I tumbld with more celebrities. of course there were bed adventures with stars. maybe some day I'll write abt some of those. but in the faraway nites of my youth it was all abt romance. & if the spark wasn't there there simply was no fire.

leafy circles

one weekend in mar 1971 I met Tony Perkins at a regional theater in Cincinnati. he wantd to sleep with me. I went on to a regional theater in Louisville where I saw Katharine Houghton in a Shaw play. at the time I was doing a series of prose poems which eventually became the book The Origin of Oregano. in one of the pieces   "Weekend"   there's this line: "...I grinned my Tony Perkins grin and you pouted your Katharine Houghton pout."

shortly after that Richard Grossinger wrote "Sex, Outer Space, Ziggy Stardust, and the Revolution." in his essay is the line: "Ziggy has all the mannerisms of the Kinks ("Everbody's a Star"), or the New York poets putting on Hollywood, Warhol's Marilyn, Alex Gildzen's Katharine Houghton."

that all came back to me last nite as I was watching "The Seeds of Evil." this modest horror film from 1975 was one of Katharine Houghton's few starring vehicles. her film career was hit or miss. unfortunately for her the main attraction of the film is her leading man. Joe Dallesandro was never accusd of acting but he had a powerful screen presence. director James H. Kay understood that when he gave Joe few lines of dialog & kept him shirtless thruout. he even has some nude scenes. the camera simply eats him up.

& as these things happen I saw the movie a week after the opera "Daphne." that work ends with the leading lady becoming a tree. at the end of the movie Dallesandro becomes a tree. & in between the dual tree transformations I wrote abt my personal arbophilia.

my governor

what can I say abt Bill Richardson?

he was the only New Mexico politician I'd heard of when I lived in Ohio. I told him so the first time I went to one of his constituents meetings when he was my Congressman. & I was happy to vote for him as governor. sure he's overweight & a bit oily but he seemd to know how to get things done. & he's one of the few candidates running for president who has international problem-solving credentials.

but his campaign has turnd into a disaster. he was so bad on "Meet the Press" I had to turn if off. & on last nite's gay forum he was clearly uncomfortable. when he sd being gay is a choice he was lucky not to be boo'd off the stage.

everyone says Richardson's ego is immense. maybe that's why he's running. I always presumd he was really in the race for the second spot. now I think that may be beyond his grasp. but despite his gaffes I still think he'd make a great Secretary of State.

a confession

it startd when I was a boy. I'm not sure I was a weird child. all children seem weird. but somewhere along the way I became an arbophile. we had some willows that divid'd our property from the neighbor's. I loved climbing those trees. & yes I really did write some of my first poems -- awful wannabe pastoral paeans -- in those trees.

my current love is an apricot tree in the front yard. my architect   Richard Martinez   gave me as a housewarming gift 5 or 6 striplings in pots which he'd grown from pits. the ones I plantd in the back yard all died. but both of those I plantd in front remain 13 years later. Nature did one of its numbers on these trees. they are near each other & have been given the same amount of care but one is much smaller than the other. the larger one now has my affection. I delight in standing beside it while shooting water from the hose up into its branches. it's a simply glorious feeling of being alive.

lunch chez gildzen

the centerpiece was fresh wild caught king salmon filet toppd with Prairie Thyme peach habanero ambrosia bought at Tesuque Pueblo Flea Market.

the vegetable was harvest beets Greek-style. beets & garlic were grown by Stanley Crawford from whom I purchasd them at our farmers market. the 1998 aceto balsamic di Monticello is nearly the last of a prizd bottle purchasd a few years ago in Truth or Consequences.

finally California multiseed flatbread smeard with St. Andre cheese.

nickel & dime

when Regina & I did Canyon Rd we happend into a gallery which had scrumptious work by Johnny Swing. the piece I covedtd was his "Nickel Couch." it's unbelievably comfortable as well as elegant-looking. of course I had to place the Century Dimes on its inviting surface.

more layers

Rufus is such a fan of "Grey Gardens" he wrote a song abt it which includes a clip of Little Edie from the soundtrack.

last nite the maker of that important documentary -- Albert Maysles -- sat not far from me to film the concert. here's a photo I took ( with bad lighting) of the entertainer in his fancy suit & the 81 year-old filmmaker.



Richard Myers introducd me to Maysles the year after "Grey Gardens" was releasd. in those days Dick often brought filmmakers to campus & I'd sneak into those classes to listen.

deja vu

it was august of 1967. the place was the Palace   once the nation's premiere vaudeville house. she came from the back of the theater & walkd down the aisle to the stage. the audience   full of more gay men than must've been on Fire Island that nite   went wild.

it was the only time I saw Judy Garland. she was electrifying.

40 years later. last nite Rufus Wainwright brought his tour to Santa Fe. he only did 3 numbers from his Judy tribute. but his channeling of her was amazing. if you haven't seen this tour I won't spoil his surprise. but if he comes to yr town   get a ticket.

Rufus & Sean

after taking the waters at Ojo Caliente

"Tea"

water
paper
stone

each act of the Tan Dun opera has a different theme with its accompanying sound. in addition to the musicians in the pit there are some on stage who become part of the action. & they perform with clear basins of water   with various kinds of paper   with stones. it's a magical experience.

at the opera

"Platee"

Laurent Pelly makes an enchantd romp of the Rameau. & in the title role -- one of the classic drag parts -- Jean-Paul Fouchecourt is memorable.

how splendid that an opera that premierd in 1745 is still eliciting cheers.

Regina's

here.

so the marathon is
on.

one opera down
("Cosi Fan Tutte" done as a 1950s sitcom)
3 to go.

5 hours sleep last nite.

off to Madrid for the morning...