"Travel Kit"

the leather label on this little bag says "First Class." as I recall it was given to me by Regina Yando. I suspect it is a reminder of the halcyon days of air travel. for many years I put my toiletries in it for various trips. then came the post-911 security blitz. now we must put such items in a plastic baggie. so this little bag hasn't been used for almost a decade.

I now fill it with touchstones of travels past:

soap
Quarter House
New Orleans

hand & body lotion
Timberfell Lodge
Greeneville

conditioner
Luxor
Las Vegas

collapsible toothbrush
Southwest Chief
Amtrak

lip balm
Phoenician
Scottsdale

moist towelette
El Dorado
Vienna

condom
Inn Exile
Palm Springs

sewing kit
Chateau Marmont
Hollywood

mints
Restaurant Luisiana
Monterrey

notepad
Grande Bretagne
Athens

pen
Hilton
Budapest

lucky penny
Alcazar
Fort Lauderdale

___________________________________

this piece may become part of Making Circles

Obama is

taking much guff for failing to provide comfort to a nation depressd by the oil spill. I too have been critical but I have to come to the guy's defense on one front. Concerned Women For America are attacking him for using the word "ass" in public.

now no sane person wd care what this basket of ringwing loons thinks. they regularly rail against folks who are different. I suspect they are emboldend by this week's election in which a crop of silly ladies won.

in solidarity with the president I proclaim CWFA an assembly of assholes.

another find

Charles Ludlam was one of many theater artists lost to AIDS in the '80s. I saw his Camille which was a joy. he didn't do much film work. I recall small roles in the legendary "Pink Narcissus" & a supporting part in "The Big Easy." there were a few other films I haven't seen.

now what remains of his unfinishd project "Museum of Wax" is being shown at gay film festivals. it's a b&w silent film. a sort of homage to Lon Chaney. & happily it includes footage of him with his partner in life & art Everett Quinton.

dreamt

I was at a Black Dahlia conference

another day another disgrace

our local Native American population is quick to pose as spiritual people with a respect for history & the environment.

those who run the Santa Fe Indian School mite try cleaning their mirrors. without warning they brought down historic buildings on campus. then they cut down trees that were a century old. for what seemd forever they did nothing to clean up the campus   leaving piles of detritus.

now the administration of the Indian School will tear down the Paolo Soleri Amphitheater.

first Soleri is an important architect & this is a work of art which deserves respect.

but it's also an historic venue in the history of popular music. over the years I've heard Carlos Santana & k.d. lang & Jamie Cullum & Rufus Wainwright on that stage.

it's always sad to see unnecessary destruction. I guess I was expecting more from Native Americans.

a Chaplin discovery

a cameo as a Keystone Kop

Helen Krich Chinoy (1922-2010)

winner of 1994 Robert Lewis Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Theater Research

a date with Jack

depressd. probably biggest known ecological disaster of my lifetime. falling apart of Obama presidency. bad citizenship of North Korea & Israel. hateful anti-gay policies in Africa. economy still not out of the toilet. all that teabag nonsense. & more murders.

what can one do? instead of returning to Zoloft I had a date nite. it was with a dead man.

let's go back to april. at the TCM festival I saw Jack LaRue in 2 films on the big screen. he wasn't the greatest actor but he was intense. that greasd back hair & those eyes. with a certain swagger. so last nite I watchd him some more. "Yellow Cargo" is a minor movie. but any film whose cast includes someone I care abt is no longer minor to me.

I followd that up with an episode of Reed Hadley's '50s series "Racket Squad" which I used to watch as a boy. in this one LaRue had the good fortume of appearing opposite a pair of big screen faves -- Adele Jergens as his wife & silent star Betty Blythe as the person he's trying to con.

so for 2 hours I forgot the world & how fast my life is speeding by. it was the best date I've had in ages.

early summer

our first heatwave

"Breakfast Around Town"

Mark Bloch postd these pictures on Facebook. he took them in july 1978. in this performance piece he & William Hermann literally had breakfast at various spots in Kent. this was at Robert Smithson's "Partially Buried Woodshed." in addition to Mark & Bill & me the other person is Deena Manis.

Rue McClanahan (1934-2010)

"Knight of the Guitar"

my excuse to go to Las Vegas for the weekend (does one need an excuse to go?) was to catch New Mexico's great young guitarist Ryan McGarvey play at the Las Vegas Hilton. his mentor Robert Knight -- the famous documentarian of rock 'n roll -- was opening a gallery & as part of the evening put together a show featuring the future of rock guitar. Ryan joind even younger musicians for an enthralling show.


Ryan McGarvey


Graham Whitford


Whitford   McGarvey   Tony Franklin   Josh Gooch


Chris Frazier   Whitford   McGarvey   Franklin   Gooch   Knight   Yayo Sanchez

opening of Knight Gallery in Las Vegas Hilton

with Robert Knight


Josh Gooch


Knight   Janie Hendrix   Tony Franklin

back

from
holiday weekend
in Las Vegas

b b q

with friends

Top Kill Fails

& the nitemare
continues

Dennis Hopper (1936-2010)

a picture I took

# # #

& remembering the last time I saw him: at Santa Fe Rodeo Grounds when neighbor Rita & I were (unseen) extras in "Swing Vote."

what if
the poems
stop
before
i do

from the archives

one of the poems
in AFTER (1978)

o Mr. O

don't know what to make of this mess. the president's wonky press conference was hardly reassuring. still don't understand why he isn't mobilizing troops to the beaches for clean-up. sometimes it sounds as if he thinks he is but then where are they?

happy 75th birthday

I was 13
when I discoverd
Richard Harrison
in physique magazines
I bought at the cigar store


(from "In the 50s")

sigh

on Silliman's blog today I heard of a new magazine -- Sal Mimeo. what a great title.

& it makes me think of Niall O'Sullivan's video tribute to Todd Moore in which he sez: "there was something calld the mimeograph..." now I know he had his tongue in his cheek. or did he? there's a whole generation out there who probably has no idea what a mimeograph machine was. certainly they never got inky fingers from trying to work one. altho O'Sullivan made me smile with his line he also made me feel old.

government has faild us

"Blossoms, Blossoms, oh lovely Blossoms"

oddly that line poppd in my head when I photographd this cactus next to my back portal just now. it's the opening line from the earliest poem of mine that I have (written at age 12).

remembering Todd Moore

Tony Moffeit & Kyle Laws drove 4 & a half hours from Puebla. Lawrence Welsh drove 4 & a half hours from El Paso. others came from Dallas & a small town in Utah. they joind friends & family & fans of Todd for a celebration of his life & writing at Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque yesterday.

it was a testament to a life lived well. speaker after speaker commentd on Todd's humor & creativity & deep knowledge of literature & history & film. we read his poems & our poems. & we laughd.


Lawrence Welsh & Richard Vargas


with Mark Weber


with Tony Moffeit & Barbara Moore

& Todd's daughter-in-law has postd a wonderful album of her photos.

I've withheld comment

on the oil spill out of frustration. everyone hates BP. but isn't our government as much at fault? past administrations allowd offshore drilling & the current one is sitting on its ass while wildlife is dying. the whole thing worsens by the hour & nothing is being done. is no one in charge here?

transplanting

felt good getting my hands dirty. using Dad's trowel I made space outdoors for some plants I nursd thru winter indoors. then in those large containers I moved plants from smaller ones.

& in the mix items brought back from Elyria & Hollywood & Fort Lauderdale & Palm Springs. I love having my past growing beside me.

Mrs. O

I may be having some problems with her husband on certain issues but wowzer... when was the last time we saw such a stunning woman in the WH?

Arakawa (1936-2010)

I met him on my 42nd birthday after having corresponded with his wife & partner.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

like everything in Tinseltown this gimmick began as a way to make money. yes   a construction company came up with the idea hoping to get more jobs.

the initial 1500-plus names were chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. from the gitgo politics playd a part in the process. Charles Chaplin Jr. sued because his father wasn't in the original group.

nowadays a star can be bought.

but even knowing that the gimmick works. & the walk is as much a part of Hollywood history as the prints in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

now there's a website where you can find those on the walk. for instance   my friend Lois Wilson (who was on TCM overnite).

on my birthday I walkd from the Roosevelt to Grauman's   echoing a line in my Victor Kilian poem. when I got to Lois' star I knelt down & touchd it. I was in Hollywood when she died & stoppd by her star then. there were flowers on it.

"Satie's Umbrellas"

after the burial
his friends finally
saw the apartment

compositions were stuffd
in pockets of
his velvet suits

84 identical handkerchieves
were lined up
in a drawer

& here there
eveywhere the umbrellas
stopping the rain

only Erik heard

on the cutting room floor

reading abt the new documentary by Ron Pajak got me to thinking.

Pajak filmd me in Las Vegas 7 years ago for a doc he was doing on photographer Bryan Ockert. that project was never finishd. likewise the last time Richard Myers filmd me -- alongside James Broughton no less -- he didn't use that footage. (altho I do appear in 2 of Dick's earlier films.)

in 1973 David Hockney drew me in Paris. he didn't particularly like the drawings. so if they still exist they've never been publishd. in 1976 Lainard Bush videotaped me in a performance of "Crossing" which I've never seen. in 1977 Timothy Greenfield-Sanders photographd me with Lois Wilson in Beverly Hills. I've never seen whatever he did & have no idea if it survives. in 2006 Kimberly Nichols taped part of my reading at Palm Springs Art Museum but didn't know how to use the camera & got nothing.

it feels odd to know that these little shards of my life disappeard before they ever appeard.

the gayest exhibition

I've ever seen at our local art musuem opend yesterday. this is the first thing you see on entering "Sole Mates: Cowboy Boots & Art" :



& it keeps getting gayer. alongside boots are ads for vintage cowboy duds as well as homoerotic art by Delmas Howe. there's a large Bill Schenck painting that appears to have an Audrey Totter movie still as its source. also an early John Fincher painting of a saddle. & this old postcard:




"Sole Mates" is a hoot.

for musical theater junkies

absent from this montage are the Roses of Mitzi Green (Las Vegas) & Angela Lansbury (London). & the last episode of "Glee" featurd what may be the first ever male rendering of "Rose's Turn" but obviously without this intro.

I love that

"Hellboy II" begins with a tribute to Howdy Doody.

Carl Dixson

was one of my favorite models of the '60s. we met in Akron in spring of 1968 when he was in the chorus of "Hello Dolly" starring Dorothy Lamour.

in fall of 1971 he invitd me to the opening of a small movie he'd made. calld "School Play"   it was the work of Charles Rydell   who had appeard in a couple of off-Broadway musicals & may or may not have been a boyfriend of Andy Warhol. the film featurd underground stars Brigid Berlin & Wini Bryan. Carl's name in the credits is Oliver Kronen. I believe he told me he had to use another name for union reasons.

the film opend at Bleecker Street Cinema with Warhol in attendance along with everybody from Kenneth Koch to J. J. Mitchell. it was on a double bill with another short film   Larry Rivers' "Tits." I don't remember much of either film. I do recall that Carl had a scene running thru a field & another in which we get a glimpse of him naked.

to my surprise I just found the movie online. at just over an hour long   it's a chore to sit thru. but what a joy to see Carl again. & at the height of his beauty. over the years we lost touch. I have no idea what happend to him.

"and the rice grows by itself"

Joel Singer has returnd to filmmaking.

his collaborations with James Broughton were some 25 years ago. in those he was usually behind the camera -- altho he famously appeard in "Hermes Bird."

it's wonderful to see him making films again.

sweets

for Valentines Day Bill Berger sent my mother personalizd M&Ms. there are 4 different "messages": her name   mine   "Bill & Emma"   Emma's face.

Mom saved a bag for me.

back from Elyria

where I had a lovely time with Mom

happy Mothers Day

r.j.s. sent me

this link to Ed Sanders' piece on d.a. levy

celebrating his third

the 3 musketeers of Brother Abdon
(Phil & Rita & I)
pose with Cinco on his birthday

timing

is
the great determinant
in biography

50 years ago today

"The Fantasticks" opend at Sullivan Street Theater for its record-breaking run.

I first heard the Jones-Schmidt musical on the original cast recording. I no longer recall who brought it to the office of the Daily Kent Stater in Merrill Hall. but we playd it over & over.

then in early may of 1963 David Freeman -- who wd become a celebratd playwright & screenwriter -- did a campus production. my friend Duane Hartzell was David's assistant. Ron Policy was a dashing El Gallo & Jamie L. Brown was the old actor. my fellow DKS journalists joind me to see it several times during its short run in University Auditorium. altho memory fades   I recall this as one of my happiest times sitting in a theater.

it's been some time since I've seen a production so I don't know how it holds up. it was the simplest of shows. & I suspect having been so young was a factor in my liking it so. but I'm happy that it was in my life when it was.

yesterday's event

Rick Lupert reports that Percy & Bess was downloaded 54 times.

thx to all of you who visitd Poetry Superhighway yesterday.

I'm esp grateful for Kevin Killian's comment:

"Your accounts of Percy Helton's great movies and about the mysterious Bess Flowers are lovely.

Now alerted, I will be watching for them till I die!"

"Percy & Bess"

the opening nite of the TCM Film Festival brought the latest restoration of George Cukor's "A Star is Born" to the giant screen of Grauman's Chinese Theater. & there were a pair of my favorites: character actor Percy Helton with several lines & "queen of the dress extras" Bess Flowers in one of her hundreds of quick appearances. it wasn't the only movie featuring both performers but I've never seen them bigger.

now the two are back together again. my chapbook featuring works abt them is available for a free download for 24 hours only as part of the annual Poetry Super Highway project. go here for the book.

my thx to Rick Lupert for doing this project & to Bill Berger for his cover & to Tom Beckett for originally publishing the Helton poems.

I need to offer one disclaimer. for some reason when I make a pdf of a manuscript the spacing gets changd & I don't seem to be able to return it to the original. it happend again with this book. I think you'll be able to tell where each poem begins & ends. but it is frustrating to see it less than perfect.

"The Eyes of Jack LaRue"

did any man
menace with
a look like his

Jack had
no need
for a gun

that look
& you knew
you were gone

Bradbury Bldg

just discoverd this loving tribute to LA architecture & film..... & their intersection.

"reading the lines of a young poet"

I am the old man
you fear becoming

but inside
we are the same age

we both have put on
clothes of another

both bled for love
wept at deaths

reading yr lines
I live my life over

outside the festival but on the boulevard

Lin Yu Chun


Guillermo

on my birthday

with Tab Hunter


reading "Tony Curtis" while Tony Curtis (in white hat) signs autographs

festival guests

David Kamp & Peter Bogdanovich introduce "The Magnificent Ambersons"


Illeana Douglas introduces her grandfather's film "A Woman's Face"

more festival

Cheryl Crane & I discussd Frank O'Hara's "Lana Turner has collapsed!" in the historic Blossom Room


Jean-Paul Belmondo got one of the first planes out of France following the volcano mess so he cd introduce the new 50th anniversary print of "Breathless" at Grauman's Chinese Theater

on Hollywood Blvd

Cher & Robert Osborne at festival's opening nite party at Kress


Carl Reiner at unveiling of Mel Brooks' star on Walk of Fame

TCM film festival

chatting with Juanita Moore for the first time in 51 years




Tony Curtis & friend

at a certain age

one must ignore birthdays or make them stunning. I vacilate between the two positions. but when I learnd Turner Classic Movies was throwing a film festival during the time of my natal day I made the decision to celebrate this time around.

headquarters for the festival was the Hollywood Roosevelt. altho I've visitd many times over the decades I hadn't been in residence there in 35 years. so that was a treat.



& the festival itself was one of the best. its host was the channel's gentlemanly interlocutor Robert Osborne.

"Ghosts of the Roosevelt"

woke on my 67th birthday
at Hollywood Roosevelt
where the mirror Marilyn haunts
is in storage

the day I checkd in
I passd Montgomery Clift's room
but didn't hear his bugle

later I peekd into the bar
where Victor Killian had too many
the nite he was murderd

the ghosts here are many
Johnny Grant lived & died here
& Todd Moore was a guest
Elizabeth Short walkd thru the lobby
where elderly Mack Sennett
sat alone for hours
John Carlyle workd the front desk
& Eleanor Powell told tales
to a dinner of cinephiles
in the Blossom Room

I sit in the lobby
listening to water bubble up
in the fountain
wondering how soon
I too will be a ghost

offline

for a while.

420

sometimes I'm so out of it...

I cdn't understand why some folks on Facebook were celebrating today. I had to look up 420 & learn abt the Waldos in the early '70s & the time of their meetings at the Pasteur statue.

o sure I smoked pot back in the day but as a non-smoker I found it unpleasant. I never really got high because it was just too difficult to hold that smoke down in my lungs. I did try hash brownies a couple of times & found that experience quite blissful.

Allen Swift (1924-2010)

altho I saw him in an O'Neill play   Swift was best known as a voice actor. he gave voice to everyone from Eisenhower to Popeye -- even Santa Claus.

but he had a special moment in tv history. he was the voice of Mr. Bluster & other characters on "The Howdy Doody Show." & for abt a year he actually was Howdy's voice.

Swift's son is actor Lewis J. Stadlen.

here's a famous cartoon for which Swift did all the voices:

weeding

is an activity which bores me so I don't do it with frequency.

but thinking is an activity which often riles me so that I need a replacement.

so for a short time today I crouchd in gravel to pick weeds from the drive. I tried to empty my mind while dirt collectd under my nails. it didn't last long.

old flannel shirts

are like comfort food
or a healer's touch

Joan Woodbury (1915-1989)

she was one of those minor actresses who always grabbd me. I think it was something abt her nose. tonite I saw her in one of her many forgotten pictures. she was as good as the script. but when she was on screen I cdn't keep my eyes off of her.

garlicphilia

to make up for yesterday

I adore garlic & when home eat at least a raw clove daily.

cilantrophobia

how wonderful to learn that Julia Child had an aversion to cilantro too.

I love to eat & dislike few edibles. but cilantro has such an awful taste to me that it can destroy an entire meal. so I'm careful to ask if it's in certain ethnic dishes. & when I do encounter it -- like Julia -- I pick it out.

spring

plus = blossoms

minus = winds

Phil & Rita & I

Kevin O'Malley took this in front of Eliza Thompson House as we were waiting for a cab to the airport yesterday

the other Mercer

Mercer House became famous because of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. long before the Jim Williams tenure however it was the residence of General Hugh Mercer. but it was his great-grandson Johnny Mercer who is ubiquitous in Savannah today. this statute was erectd in Ellis Square last year for his centennial.

you knew I had to go here

the murder took place in the room you see behind me

azalea time in Savannah

away

for a few days.

let's hear it for the flops

with the loss of Ted Hook's Backstage & Barrymore's I guess the only theater restaurant from my past that's still around is Joe Allen.

the wall on the restaurant side is a sort of Hall of Fame for Broadway flops. here is a display of the posters of those shows.

what in the hell

is wrong with airlines?

on the heels of this carry-on fee comes news that an Irish airline is considering a fee to use the restrooms.

maybe we shd all pee in the aisles.

I've never

flown on Spirit Airlines & I hope I never will. they are going to charge for CARRY-ON luggage.

according to BlogPulse

every day there are some 40000 new blogs.

mugs

"Morning Cantata"

train whistling past General Industries
wakes me in my boyhood bedroom

Dad’s snore is base line
clock’s metronome numbers my pulse

cars drone down Broad St
while I await twack of Plain Dealer on porch

I flail under sheets
hearing a morning long ago:

Mom hiding Disney figurines
around living room

& later telling her little boy
they were left by the Easter bunny

musics past & present
collide in my ears

till tears blotch wrinkles
under my eyes

time to get up   gas the gridle
for Dad to flip flapjacks


(reprintd from Elyria: Point A in "Ohio Triangle"
publishd by Crisis Chronicles Press in 2009)

Easter cheese

I don't have the family recipe. but it's a favorite boyhood memory of that holiday.

Mom & Dad broke many eggs into a large pot to which they'd add milk & cinnamon. that's all the ingredients I remember. after it came to curdle the contains were pourd into a cheesecloth which was hung from a door handle overnite.

I no longer recall if it was the taste of the cheese or the experience of its making which was more important.

art openings

Steve Bogdanoff


Lance Letscher

national poetry month

& many folk out there writing a poem a day all month. I first did that 40 years ago & feel no need to try again.

but I do feel a need to write something abt poetry. I rarely do because it always sounds so presumptious. there are poets who proclaim & pontificate until I get a headache.

I suspose my avoidance of manifestos can be interpretd as shallowness. abt the only glorious thing abt aging is that I don't care much abt what people think. I've been at this poetry thing for such a long time I trust that what I'm doing is authentic.

I think I wantd to write something abt poetry because last week in Las Vegas I experiencd one of those rare rushes -- 3 poems in one nite. I felt so giddy I cdn't sleep.

what spring produces a poem? I honestly don't know. there are times when I've ploppd down before a pad & made myself write. some of those results were instant meals for the wastebasket. other times I'm walking to the gym & a poem begins. I allow it to go where it needs to go. that means that sometimes it's raw autobiography & sometimes fanciful fiction   pieces of rainbow or shards of beer bottles.

an early criticism of my work was that it hemorrhagd language. when young we tend to imitate those we admire -- whether wearing the jeans & red jacket of James Dean or pilfering the dictionary of Hart Crane. altho some of those word-heavy pieces from my beginnings make me wince I can't deny they're mine. today I tend to write a starker verse altho I admit that a word can still make me hard.

I've been writing poems for at least a half century & it's still a mystery to me. I appreciate the kind of rush I had last week & respect the occasional lull. I like some poems better than others. I don't have the hubris to believe I'm writing for a society or even a generation. I'm just me doing what I have to do.