my Palm Springs

from Facebook:

 upon returning from sunday breakfast with the guys at Billy Reed's I opend social media & found the press conference abt yesterday's bombing. our wonderful police chief Andy Mills askd us to support our community by posting something positive abt it.

it's difficult for me to post "something" when there are so many "somethings." I came here 9 years years ago after visiting for some 20 years. I wantd a place that wd nurture my creativity as well as to be comfortable for my last chapter. I've found community here people who respect me as poet/artist. I've also found a sort of liberation which allows the goofy side of me to come out & play. sure I've taken some guff from stuffy sorts who don't like my poses. but I keep doing them. I enjoy walking the city. I try to support those institutions that enrich my life -- museums theaters art galleries performance centers. I indulge in our restaurants & bakeries. & then I have my quiet time on my patio sipping coffee & writing & talking to my animal pals.

the chief suggestd we post a photo of our favorite place. another tough choice to make. but I want to share the public art piece I did with Emeline Tate. it's calld the Poets Bench. it means a great deal to me. it puts my words out there to be read by people who may not read much poetry. it's "public art." I embrace that. just like I embrace Palm Springs.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10161697866497686&set=a.35826132685

day trip

 on the yellow brick road at Salvation Mountain 

yesterday

 was my birthday & I gave a reading at a local gallery.  can't recall exactly when I gave my first reading but I suspect it was some 60 years go. this reading was poems abt art & artists done in chronological order beginning with a poem from 1962.

photo by Tammy Taylor

reflection

 last nite I saw a documentary abt Peter Bogdanovich. it brought back a pleasant memory. some years ago I was in the lobby of the Hollywood Roosevelt & saw the director standing alone. it hadn't been long after seeing the restoration of "The Last Picture Show." so I went up to him & told him I'd seen it & that the crisp print was beautiful & that I really enjoyd it.

he seemd pleasd. he smiled & askd "it holds up?"  & I was happy to report it certainly did.

thinking abt that lovely moment produced a rush of encounters with film directors. I've seen Hitchcock & Wilder    Welles & Fellini   Altman & Godard.  I've chattd with Truffant   been driven thru the Hollywood hills by Sam Fuller   been a movie date of James Bridges.

I recount all this not to boast but to fill with joy at my good luck. I've had one hell of a life. I've loved the movies since I was little. so I've not only gone out to attend screenings but have shared time/space with the people who made the films I love.

Speedo Cross Series

some swimsuits die. their elastic can limpen. or fabric stretch to the point where one's equipment  no longer snuggles. when this happens I usually toss the garments. however I found in 2 separate places I'd saved a pair of former favorites I suspect to eventually use for art. & today was that day.

I think I wore the purple pair when I was flirting with Rick Wilson at Jerome Lawrence's Malibu residence ("The House That Mame Built") in 1984. the pinkish pair (which wd redden when wet) appears in a photo taken in Aruba in 1992.

I decided to cut strips from them which I then pin'd together to form crosses. I made 15.

more Desert X

at a glorious work by Kimsooja

(photo by Gary Francis)

Desert X

 every 2 years the valley gets a major showing of outdoor art.

here is Ronald Rael's "Adobe Oasis" from this year's offering.

"Studio Visit"

 

not long ago Lynda Keeler invited me to her studio to see her new suite of oil paintings "Between the Sun & the Moon." before I left I wrote a poem. I guess she liked it because when I got to her opening tonite at Janssen Art Space I saw that she wrote it out by hand on a wall between her work.

now that's a thrill.

Alice Ripley

 

when Alice Ripley was a student at Kent State I was a special collections librarian. I saw her in many shows on campus. & since I've always been a collector I had all those programs. so after her Cabaret 88 performance last nite I got to visit her in her dressing room where I gave her those programs.

bat shit crazy

 

the RFK Jr. hearings have put this term into constant replay. it had me wondering what it's origin is.

we have bats on property & they usually delight. abt 6 years ago I startd a poem calld "Nite Swim" like this:

            little draculas

            swoop down

            toward pool

            but

            I feel

            no menace

I simply don't know what abt bat excrement is crazy. I began searching. there is much speculation abt the term's origin. it seems to derive from "bats in the belfry" which traces to circa 1900. however that doesn't answer the shit element of the expression. there is "anecdotal evidence" that is dates to the 1950s where it appears in the US military. the OED has a confusing entry putting it at 1950 but as another term for "bullshit." others give credit to various writers & a cartoonist.

whatever its birth & precise meaning the term has a certain power & current daily usage concerning what's happening in Washington.

        

Cabaret 88

 we have this fabulous series at the theater at our art museum. talent from Broadway comes to town to perform. & instead of that large theater space the stage is convertd into the kind of boîte I remember from years ago in NYC.

the other nite I heard Noah J. Ricketts (currently in "The Great Gatsby"). you may remember him from "Fellow Travelers." he's as good at storytelling as singing. & he was in a drop-dead suit. 

& then yesterday I encounterd him in town & got a photo together.

 woke at 4 a.m. as soon as I realizd what day it is I became sick to my stomach.

"Braid of Ribbons"

 

Palm Springs International Film Festival

 the first big event of the year locally is our festival's award gala.

here's a photo I took of Nicole Kidman -- who gave the best speech of the evening.

18 meets 81

 with Elio Ambrosino

(photo by Kate Winslow)

happy holidays

 

(photo by David R. Larson)

Hockney

 

a major exhibition of his work opend at Palm Springs Art Museum last nite

election day

 woke at 3:30. room was cold. furnace man not coming til next week. I turnd over. then it hit me. what day it is.  my stomach did a somersault. I had that almost giddy feeling that precedes an anxiety attack.

then my mind began what minds do. a cascade of unrelated images. & my body felt off. a precursor of fear.

for reasons I don't know I began to focus on a single image. the antique ice tongs Mom bought me at a garage sale. they hang above the door in the guest room. a piece of perfect sculpture. I wasn't awake enuf to make sense of that image but something abt it was calming & I fell back asleep.

I woke again a few minutes after 5. my usual time. I got up & did my exercises. now I'll dress & go on my walk.

my take on Warhol

official Halloween 2024 portrait

by Randall Whitehead

Modernism Week

 

outfit:

Aneka Brown

sunglasses & sandals:

Mr. Turk

location:

The Shag House