early cinema

in 1975 I was keeping some notes on movies I was seeing at that time. for Edwin S. Porter's "The Great Train Robbery" (1903) I wrote:

Porter used 14 shots in a film lasting about 9 minutes. some half century later   Hitchcock constructed 70 camera setups for the 45 seconds of the shower scene in "Psycho."

Sandow (1894)

Library of Congress has postd many of its early film holdings on You Tube. altho I've seen Fred Ott sneeze & Sandow flex what seems hundreds of times I never cease to marvel at these images.

thx

to Richard Lopez

(& for the record this is my 2000th post. can't believe it but I've been at this since 2004.)

a 1977 collaboration

going thru files I uncoverd this poem. I was askd by Akron Art Institute (its pre-museum name) to be part of "Concept"   a day's activities which included a performance by a local band by the name of DEVO.

investigating collaborations of poets I wrote a line & sent it to Paul Metcalf asking him to write the next line & send it on till there were 10 lines by 10 poets.

here's the result:

she pulled from her packsack
a sixpack of mead, a wineskin of sack
the bricabrac of her life and a used valentine
"I donno," she said, "this perfect
ly sibilant tree that shades me
drinks up the moon with many a mouth
cries back at me" her numbers, lights
alarmed, spawn dark fires chewing
darkness, "your heat makes pink tongues brittle, voices
bald like an old brunette's heart."

contributors:
Alex Gildzen
Paul Metcalf
Harry Lewis
Toby Olson
Janet Rodney
Nathaniel Tarn
Jerome Rothenberg
David Meltzer
Barbara Einzig
Alice Notley

on the edge
of
feeling unwell

images from Haiti

devastating

bad neighbors

on a morning walk I became so pissd off at the mess nearby apartment dwellers left in the arroyo that I returnd home. I got a large garbage bag & filld it with beer cans   cigaret packets & other refuse thrown into the arroyo by disgusting people.

people with whom I've shared an elevator

Ginger Rogers
Robert DeNiro
Thelma Schoonmaker
Eudora Welty
Keanu Reeves
James Ellroy
Dan Rather
Betty Buckley
Peter Paige

Gildzen in Worldcat

69 works in 76 publications in 1 language and 1,087 library holdings



12 libraries have copies of my 1st chapbook

my new bracelet

Colin brought his beautiful piece over & took this...

a bird picture (for Mike Busam)

our unusual cold has brought many kinds of birds to my back portal this ayem. this has been the most exciting. not the best photo (taken thru glass) but when the bird flies it exhibits maddening patches of red.

Colin Coonsis stoppd by to measure me.

"Making Circles"

Rinaldo Rasa has postd my e-book on Beats Supernova.

the spacing between pieces is off but I'm happy to have this work get more attention. it's important to me.

Gary Brockette (1947-2010)

his film career was almost 40 years but he never became a household name. altho his credits coverd many positions he mostly workd as an assistant director. however to me his shining moment in film was as an actor. he was the rich kid who had the naked swimming party in "The Last Picture Show."



I searchd the net & was unable to uncover a photo of that scene which in its day was quite bold. so I went to my personal film reference library. this is the only photo I found. it wasn't of the best quality & by the time I made a scan it got even worse. but here is a hint of Gary Brockette & his quick moment in film history.

Tom & I at Garford

we're side by side in the middle of the 2nd row:



in an e-mail Tom wrote
It is hard to believe we used to step into those recessed windows while playing hide and seek. If I go back to writing the architecture column for the paper I will give a mention to Garford School. It was designed by Silsbee who came to the area to supervise the construction of buildings at Oberlin College (the Arch on the Square and Men's Building I believe.) for his father back in Chicago. His father was the first man to hire Frank Lloyd Wright. Silsbee supervised the building of Garford School in two phases. The basement and the first floor were built several years before the top floor. I have walked over to look at it several times but cannot see the seam.

baseball

is a topic you seldom see in my writing because the game doesn't figure much in my life. living so close to Cleveland I grew up with the Indians & had a period in my boyhood when I actually followd the game. looking back I realize part of that was a crush on Al Rosen.

the photo below shows me playing the game at Eastern Heights during that short window of Indians fanhood. (the formidable woman was my teacher Mrs. Beck.)



the reason I mention the game is a book I'm reading. The Spitball Knuckleball Book is a well-researchd well-designd volume which will enthrall true fans of the sport. & its author is someone I've known for over 61 years. Tom Mahl & I were students at Garford Elementary School before we became neighbors. where my backyard end'd his began.



in my last chapbook is a poem calld "Tom Mahl Reminds Me." this video -- shot in front of what was Garford school -- lacks quality but here it is anyway.

tom mahl reminds me @ Yahoo! Video

Jack Mulhall (1887-1979)

it's been sd he was one of J. C. Leyendecker's models for the Arrow Collar Man.



I met him once. it was 2 years before he died. I was at an event at the former Warner Brothers studio with a pair of his onetime leading ladies May McAvoy & Lois Wilson. May was especially thrilld to see him & gave him a big hug.

Mulhall made his film debut for D. W. Griffith in 1910. after a trio of Griffith pictures he did two for James Kirkwood (father of the novelist/playwright) before becoming a popular leading man of the silent era. he workd for Cecil B. DeMille   Frank Borzage   King Vidor. he did the first dual role in talkies & despite his charm startd sliding in the credits. today he's probably best rememberd for supporting roles in Flash Gordon & Buck Rogers features. but there's something admirable abt any movie career that lasts a half century.

last nite I saw Mulhall in a forgotten Poverty Row feature from 1932 calld "Love Bound." minor stuff. but he was the star. his fall to bit parts must've been difficult. but like so many silent era stars he did it with dignity.

the mind...

              it's
not a Herod's oath that cannot change.

    Marianne Moore

more laundry

cleaning house is a New Years Day tradition. so when I returnd from the gym I got into it. by nightfall I was tired & watchd a Lawrence Tierney DVD.

this morning I've been out of the loop. it's the second day of the year. no holiday. but because of yesterday it doesn't feel like a routine day either. some of my sadness is gone. beginning another year with more dead friends & family is always tough. but there's still an edge of anxiety abt what the year will bring.

so I kept my bathrobe on too long as I did some cleansering here   some organizing there. clearly no direction. not like me. I prefer pointing to where I want to go then going there.

I finally got dressd. I have some wee tasks to accomplish. maybe wee is plenty for a day that isn't a holiday.

usually

on NYE I'm in bed by 10. but neighbor Phil invitd me to a party at the former Magtag mansion. playing for the guests was Guitar Shorty.



it was a loud & lively evening.